Quick mockup for F2008

On its wheels for temporary quick mockup. Still need to add more winglets and rear view mirrors. After that wheel covers, steering wheel, cameras and other small items will be left to complete it.

Front suspension and bargeboards competed

Re-painted brake parts and completed front suspension. Completed bargeboards and underside winglets. Had some alignment issues with both. While not perfect, end result overall is not that bad. Started rear wing assembly as well. Spent about an hour thinking what kind of jig I can make up. Could not come up with anything and just went with gluing main horizontal plane plus end plates in one shot. End plated came out not fully parallel. But I could not do any test fitting and alignment check beforehand. Still need to fit upper horizontal plane. Because end plates go wider on the top, it's going to be a challenge. Looks like main horizontal plane is a bit too wide, which I did not know.

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.