Coming closer to completion

Made a lot of progress on this build. Cockpit, front and rear wings completed. All the plumbing and wiring is completed as well. Added PE skirts, mirrors and windscreen last night. There is still number of small things to add, like PE items for the body, paint on tire walls, cover on front wheels, etc. But it is not too far from completion. Here is how it looks at the moment.

More wiring for MP4/6

Worked on adding wires and making wire loom for MP4/6 during past two weekends. User shrinking tube, super glue and thin wires to make something that looks like what TopStudio instructions for 1/12 kit present. Not going to replicated all wiring that they call out. And it's going to be way short of real car. But at least model will look a little "busier" in the end, hopefully. I've also decided to make brake fluid line on this model. That required from me to make a hole in front bulkhead, so I could route lines from fluid cylinders to brake calipers and into cockpit, from where one line goes to rear splitter and rear calipers as well. Wiring and plumbing on the engine is in progress.

Here are some quick photos made with my phone.

Tamiya TS050 test assembly

Received my copy of TS050 kit this week. Not going to really start building it any time soon. But I was curious how is fit of parts, how complicated assembly would be and how would I like overall shape of this car. So, I've decided to do test assembly only for now to satisfy my curiosity. Below are some photos of "Frankenstein" model. Here are some conclusions. Fit of parts is good, as expected from any recent Tamiya kit. Assembly it going to be a bit tricky in few places. Shape of this car overall it not that beautiful to my eye. However it's great to have a kit of modern prototype. Painting and masking are going to be most challenging and in parts annoying for this model.

And I think this model would definitely benefit from detailing of interior. Will have to find proper reference photos and do a bit of detail scratch building and detail painting to make it look better.

Here are some quick photos made with my phone. Body is just seating on wheels. Did not bother assembling suspension and rear wing.

Plumbing and wiring progress

After some hiatus MP4/6 returned to my work bench. I've had a change of heart and decided to add more details, instead of doing it OOB, as was originally planned. It will be mostly based on instructions from TopStudio's 1/12 super detail set and a bit of inspiration from Tamiya 1/12 kit. Also plan to add brake fluid lines. There is a lot of wires and hoses on real car. Most of those I could not figure out. So, I will add few items I could understand the routing for. Started with oil and water hoses. Here are couple of quick shots of current state.

Assembly progress on BT46

Returned to my BT46 build last weekend. Made good progress on adding hoses and A/N fittings. Done all required assembly steps before I could marry engine and monocoque. Finally got them together last night. I progressed as far as I could before I need to do more detail work on seat and dashboard. Few quick shots below.

Masking, masking and more masking

Spent over 8 hours on masking parts for SF70H and BT46 builds. Most on SF70H. Never have done so much and so complex masking before. Prior to that clear coat was applied over livery decals for BT46 and over main colours for SF70H and MP4/6. At least builds will be unblocked for decal application after that.

Main colors painted

Got white and red base paint coats on over last few weeks. I’ve used masks provided in the kit for the fin on engine cover. Zero matched red went on reasonably well. It might not be 100% even, but close enough. Clear coat is going to be next, before I could mask again and spray some semi-gloss black. After SG black is applied, I should be able to switch focus to applying decals for the main livery and CF decals as well.

I’ve also painted floor, gearbox and number of suspension pats in new Zero carbon paint. It’s not a direct replacement for CF decals and does not provide CF patterns out of the jar. But I will use it as base for CF decals and probably even leave it exposed as is on some parts, that I won’t apply CF decals to. The likes of brake ducts, underside of the floor and probably most of the gearbox casing.