Assembly progress on F2008

Some progress on this build - glued seat to the floor and then glued floor and rest of the body assembly together. Next finished rear winglets and added some rivets. Photo in day light this time for comparison and in attempt to show how that F2008 color changes with different lightning.

Final assembly started

Started with rear suspension and front wings as per instructions. Both are almost complete, with small PE parts still to attach. Learned my lesson and follow instructions more closely now.


Had a small setback. Eagerly assembled front brakes, drums and uprights and only after realized that you cannot attach uprights to suspension arms when drums are installed over them. So, I had to put those assembles into aceton. Fortunatelly that loosened epoxy glue and I was able to brake parts back apart. But it stripped paint as well of course. Now I need to re-prime and re-paint parts and do assembly in proper order. That exact mischamp made me come back to following assembly order from instructions more closely. Usually for plastic kits I apply my own logic to assembly order time to time. Not for this MFH kit.


Next started actually putting together body elements. Gearbox, rear body items, air box and main monocoque have been glued togther. As well as big side aero flaps. Before I can mate that body assembly and the floor, I needed to get seat ready, becasue I can only put seat in from bottom. Doing seat belts is not my favorite part of build, but I had to finish it. Turned out ok'ish. PE from MFH is nice and mostly accurate, but seat belt material is just ribbons and they are not easy to work with.

I love this car and kit is cool. But number of panel do not want to go together. Fit is not perfect and there are enoying gaps. I guess I have not done my test fitting properly at the start. Well, more lessons to learn. Wish there was 1/20 kit of MP4/23 available.

SD Model 3D printed engine detail set

I am considering adding more detail to the engine bay. Acquired number of 3D printed engine detail sets made by SD Model. They seem to provide nice level of detail. Resin is brittle, though. Also fit is not perfect for 962C floor. Not 100% certain yet. Main issue will be cross bars connecting rear firewall to gearbox mounts. Might need to re-make them. And oil tank which is molded together with them in Tamiya 956 kit will have to be reconnected somehow to new cross bars. May be too much for my skill level.

Last test fittings before final assembly starts

Over Canadian Holidays I've put clear coat over CF decals and painted other parts in Zero CF. Most of the parts are ready for assembly by now. Doing final test fittings before it will start to come together.

Brakes and suspension adaptations done

I’ve made a decision to adopt brakes from Fujimi kit to the Tamiya’s donor chassis. Needed to remove parking brakes and uprights which were moulded together with rear rotors. Also reduced ride height at the front.




Looking at the profile of the body I can see that front bonnet bulges too much. I start to understand issues with Fujimi body jaykay was referring to. But it’s too late to change plans now. Unless there is an accurate conversion body for Tamiya kit.


My scratch made from plastic diffuser keeps deforming on its own. I am now thinking about making one from metal. Have some thin brass sheets I can use for that.

Scratch building started

Started making some items from scratch using parts of MFH F40GTE kit as templates.

Current plan is to detach rear engine cover. Rear bumper is not going to be attached to it, but rather I plan to attach to the chassis and floor. So, first I needed to make racing diffuser, which is missing in Fujimi kit.

Next I made big front radiator and supporting structure around it.

I am facing issue of warped rear engine cover and at present I am not sure how I will be able to fix that. But I will continue modifications and scratch building for now until I am ready to paint.

Still undecided if I will make bigger intercoolers. And I need to start making roll change bars next.

Continued F40 chassis conversion work

Continued with modifications to chassis:
- removed most of the front structures not relevant to race car. made a compromise by removing most of the bridge over from suspension, but leaving some material on the sides to keep it's strength. not willing to fully re-create racing frame
- adjusted front of the floor to fit inside Fujimi's body
- re-made rear firewall from Fujimi and Tamiya parts. not 100% accurate, but most of this build will not be very accurate anyway
- made some rising side blocks on the floor, so it fits well inside Fujimi's middle body
Next will attempt to re-create bigger front radiator of the race car and structures holding it in place. Will also think about scratch making bigger turbo intercoolers and turbo air intake boxes used in race car