Monopost MP4/25 WIP

While working on body surfaces in numeric putty/sand/prime/sand iterations, I've unintentionally altered shape of exhaust outlet cover. I looked at my reference pictures and as I have to go through another iteration, I've decided to modify it again in attempt to get closer to original car. While I still couldn't get it to be a 100% correct shape, I think it's better then before.

As it happened many times before, I hope this putty/sand/prime/sand iteration will be the last before I could put layers of TS14 over it. As it happened with MP4/22 build, I will eventually get feed up with attempts to get perfect surface and just move on. After all it's just a model and real perfection basically requires eternity to obtain. Beside when I put models on the shelf and look at them from meter or so away, I don't see small defects and I forget about past issues with each kit quickly too.

Lotus 97T Belgium WIP

Started Fujimi kit. Plan is to build De Angelis car from Belgium GP. I'm building it OOB with addition of bits from Studio27 PE set. Looks like this time I will be able to use almost all parts from S27 PE set. I think it's a good value for the price.

For my experience so far Fujimi kits aren't as well designed as Tamiya's. Casting and plastic quality also not as good. Fit is mostly fine, but many tabs, pins and holes have to be adjusted to make parts fit properly. Mock up pre-assemblies and test fits are a must for Fujimi kits. A lot more so then for Tamiya.

Spent quite a few hours to get to this point, but at least body panels, wings and suspension arms fit good together now. Still have number of parts related to car's turbo system to clean and test fit. I will have to fix broken arm end on upper arm of front suspension. It's a first time I see such defect in Fujimi kit. I don't see a missing piece in the box, so I assume it came like that from manufacturing plant.

Fujimi 248F1

I've finished wheels of 248F1 and put MFH replacement tires on. I like MFH tires much more that tires from the kit itself. And as a bonus I don't have to worry about tire markings, they are pre-printed. Model is not 100% finished yet, but I just could not resist and made few pictures. The is something in the looks of this car. I like it. Model is not as tight and clear as F60, with number of big gaps between panels and bunch of glue marks. But from a distance it looks great to me.

MP4/22 rescue build

Sprayed Alclad PA onto the body yesterday night. Weird thing happened. I saw some lighter spots on the body and tried to remove them with cotton swab while paint wasn't fully dry. Overall surface was looking bad as if some paint over spay was applied to it. But as soon as I've started "polishing" it with cotton swab, it started to remove "over spray" and brighter shinier surface started to emerge from under it. I've "polished" entire surface of the body with number of cotton swabs. And it looks a lot better now. Is seems that swabs removed some of the paint and made something like polishing effect. I wonder if that result of different black base - TS14. People were saying that Alclad paint would rub off if Alclad's black enamel base isn't used. But in my case only some paint was removed by cotton swabs and plenty of paint remained to make a nice shinny reflective surface. I've made couple of pictures, but again it's hard to capture that shade with photos.

I'm satisfied with result and plan to protect it with Gunze H30 acrylic clear next. From all my experiments, that's the only clear which does not affect Alclad PA finish much. Then I plan to paint some black spots and decals will be next.

MP4/22 rescue build

I got tired of that putty/sand/prime cycle and decided MP4/22 body surface is good enough for me. I want to move on and finish it. I'll leave the goal of making it perfect for another project. On this attempt I've chosen to use Tamiya TS14 black as base for Alclad PA. From experiments I've done, I believe it provides as good a base as Alclad's enamel black base. It has couple of advantages though - it could be polished and it actually dries. Enamel paint don't seem to dry ever. While enamel base supposed to help Alclad paint to be more resilient to rubbing, I found Alclad holds on to TS14 pretty good too. And for MP4/22 I will be putting H30 clear and then Zero 2K clear over Alclad paint, so rubbing should not be and issue in the end.

Black reflective body probably requires different light setup for photography. My picture doesn't look that good, but it'll do for simple progress report.

MP4/5B re-build

Looks like f1m.com forum is closed for now. So, I'm going to put update on my MP4/5B re-build here. It's pretty close to completion. Just need to finish off rear wing, tires and windshied. Rear wing is attached only for mock up at present. I've modified brakes of this model. Separated and hollowed calipers, added bleed valves and connection pipes. I've used some brass bolts and nuts from my local hobby shop. First time I've tried "Blacken-it" product. It supposed to make metal parts look like anodized black. It did darken nuts somewhat, but not to the extent I wanted. Alternative would be to paint them. However painting of nuts is tricky and my attempt failed. Paint was simply too thick and affected nut threads, so they stopped working. When I tried to thread them, paint chipped. So, I guess I will live with current color this time.

Wheels are all out of alignment, most likely because of modifications I've done to brakes. I've used Tamiya acrylic paint for hubs and it shows. Will use TS paints via airbrush next time to get cleaner finish. I've had no luck so far with those acrylic paints.

Anyway, result is again isn't as clean as I would want, but will look OK from feet or two viewing distance. I love the look of this car and glad it is back on my shelf. Next time I plan to build this kit detailed and cleaner into model of Senna's car. Have 2 Perfect Parts detail sets to make it as detailed as I want.

Lotus 79 1979 WIP

Making good progress on Lotus build. Masked and painted all areas needed to be black. I have no reference pictures for inside of the body, so I used my own discretion and painted it all black. It seemed to go well until I started to remove masking tape. Tape lifted clear coat a bit in few places. Unfortunately one is on rear engine cover is quite visible. Don't know what to do with that now. I guess I will have to leave with it and make sure I clean parts better after decal application next time. I'm having more issues with this build compared to F60. It isn't that smooth at all.


Next I installed radiators. Then worked on seat belts and finally put seat in place. I just used kit PE parts and "plastic" like belt material. They look Ok, but for my detailed build of 1978 car I will most likely use different material, more realistic and closer to real car.


I then went on to install dashboard, gearbox and rear sway bar adjustment levers and both fire extinguishers. Basically put everything in place before I can close monococque with top panels.


Installed front body panels and closed monococque. I don't think it is like that on a real car, but probably the only way to design model kit, so internals could be installed easily. It's all practically finished. I plan to polish clear coat on the body panels and try to get rid of some contamination. Then only wheels and tires will be left to finish this model off. And steering wheel and refinished velocity stacks of course.


Enjoyable kit of great car, but not without issues. I'm a bit surprised by those issues after F60 went together easily and cleanly.