Monocoque closed

Made decent progress on monocoque assembly and was able to close it last night. To get steering rod to sit at proper hight, I had to cut about 0.6mm from the middle of it. Otherwise toe out would be too much. I still have a bit of toe out, which I think is ok for F1 car. If one wants no toe out or in, about 1mm to 1.2mm would need to be cut out. Scratch made seat belts from material and spare PE sets I had. Installed pedals, brake and clutch fluid reservoirs, steering rod dashboard, gear shifter, seat and all other cockpit items as well. Will add steering wheel and seat belt labels later.

Also continued work on suspension and engine. By now all suspension items are done. Last night I've attached exhaust pipes. Another advise to future builder of this kit - assemble all items of exhaust together, if you don't want to have seams and gaps as I have between subassemblies of header and tail pipes. Event when all items are glued together it is still possible to carefully spread headers a little to push down over the front of gearbox and the tilt them to get into horizontal position.

Engine wiring

Worked on the "wiring" for engine last week. Fuel lines look a bit too big, but it was the smallest lines available in my parts box at present. I will likely need to tie up ignition wires to simulate look on real car. Also need to work on my dry brushing skills, as logos on valve covers do not look great.

For this model I've decided to route some houses between oil reservoirs, radiators, gearbox and fuel tank, according to instructions from 1/20 MFH kit of the same car. Not much I could figure out from reference photos I have in my possession. It will be pretty much first time I do that, so results will likely be far from perfect.

Couple of shots of the engine in current state.