Some progress on P34

I've returned to this build after a while. My worst fears came true. Exhaust headers were huge P.I.T.A. They just didn't want to align properly. Big contrast to the exhaust from their recent Lotus 79 kit, which were easy to assemble and attach. I've spent an hour on left side and 2 more hours on right side headers. I've initially planned to putty seams, prime and then paint them. But I've changed my mind. I don't think it is worth my time to make them any better. I'm going to just shoot TS29 onto them and put them in place.

Also worked on radiators, rear suspension and details of rear firewall. Studio27 PE set includes front and rear faces for main radiators and oil radiator at the rear of the car. I've decided to skip faces for all the internal radiator surfaces, as they don't add much to appearance, if anything at all. I've only attached 2 external faces, which are visible from outside, as well as faces on rear oil radiator. Last, I've installed rear shock absorbers, rear of gearbox and attached pedals to floor.

Preps continue for F1-GTR

Moving ahead with this one. Here are results from last night.

First I've competed preparations and test fit dry assembly for front section. Everything fits well.


Next, I've reshaped roll cage to fit correctly onto chassis and dashboard. This metal part was deformed while in packaging and shipping, but white metal is easy to re-shape.


Next was time to prepare and fit the roof. Re-drilled all holes for screws and did a little adjustments as needed. Fit is pretty good



At the end of this session I couldn't resist and worked on body parts' preparation and test fitting. Finished by dry assembly of all body panels. Fit is not perfect and would be probably not considered great for plastic kit. But for MM kit it is reasonable. In this form it really does look like F1-GTR.



I'm not 100% done with preparations and clean up for body panels. Rear window cover is the worst part. I was deformed in package and requires a lot of adjustment to fit right. More clean up and re-drilling also needed to front body section. Doors are also major concern. Top sections of doors are not curved enough to get proper fit. There are magnets which supposed to hold them in place when closed. I hope it'll be enough. Otherwise when doors are closed their bottom sections will stick out. I'll try magnets early while still in test assembly phase and if they don't work will have to come up with different solution.
Will continue on weekend, hopefully.

Started MFH F1-GTR build

I've finally started my first full detail MFH kit - F1-GTR short tail. I'm a big fan of McLaren F1 car and especially its racing version F1-GTR. So, I was hugely excited when MFH announced full detail kit of it. I've converted my excitement into motivation and was able to overcome my reservations towards full detail MFH kits. Spent about 10 hours over the weekend. It's hard to stop working on it, so I got to early morning hours Saturday, before I could take a break for sleep. Not much progress so far. Lots and lots of preparation work needed before I could put first layers of primer onto parts. Fit of parts is pretty good so far. But many metal parts require a bit of reshaping and most need little bit of clean up. Nothing major, there is just a lot of parts to go over. Also a lot of holes to drill out. It is typical multi-media kit, so past experience working with such is a big plus. I'm going to use similar approach to this build as I've used to curbside kits in the past. First go over all parts and do needed adjustments and preparations, while performing test assembly. Next get primer on all the parts to be painted and protect bare metal parts with transparent metal primer. Next group parts by colors and paint in batches. Next clear coat before decals, decal application and final clear coat. Next detail painting and then off to assembly. That's the plan anyway. I usually test assemble whole MM kit, or as least most of it, where it is critical to test fit of parts. I've started with chassis and front suspension. Cleaned up parts, drilled holes and did small adjustments needed. All assembly is just dry mock up so far. Here are couple of photos. I haven't decided with livery I will use for this model, but there is plenty of work to complete, before that choice becomes critical.

P34 is back on the workbench

I have worked a bit on P34. Assembled gearbox and most of the rear suspension parts. Attached gearbox to engine. Attached items to the rear of the gearbox. This way I can use this incomplete assembly as a jig to align parts of exhaust system. Next, I've installed PE faces to the rotors of front brakes. Decided to skip them for the rear. Attached cooling ducts to front uprights and processed with sub-assemblies of front suspension frames. They are ready to be installed onto chassis.