Ayrton's Mclaren

Hi all

I'm traditionally an aircraft modeller but I thought I'd have a bash at a car in our motorsports group build over at Britmodeller.com.

So far so good, lots of expensive aftermarket stuff purchased, lots from Hiroboy , Zero paints, some wobbly moments but nothing that looks that bad up close ...yet...... :uhoh:

This is very much inspired by Steve Noble's wonderful build up, so any similarities are entirely intended lol !!! (if it ends up half as good i'll be a happy chappy!)

http://www.britmodeler.com/Skii/Mclaren/seat.jpg

http://www.britmodeler.com/Skii/Mclaren/wired.jpg

http://www.britmodeler.com/Skii/Mclaren/finishedengine1.jpg

http://www.britmodeler.com/Skii/Mclaren/polished3.jpg

http://www.britmodeler.com/Skii/Mclaren/nosecone.jpg

Looks great! I'm tuned.

Looks great, nice job on the chassis

Excellent start! Looking forward to more updates :)

Fantastic start. Where did you get the machined carburetor stacks?

Thanks guys :)

Fantastic start. Where did you get the machined carburetor stacks?

Thanks mate - they are the kit ones painted in allclad chrome and a small strip of chrome tape wrapped around the side of each horn to give them each a smooth edge - thankfully the experiment worked!

cheers again

John

Nice, clean start. Just to clarify, this is the Tamiya 1/20th MP4/5B?

Nice, clean start. Just to clarify, this is the Tamiya 1/20th MP4/5B?

Hi - yes it is the 1/20 Tamiya 5B :)

Hi - yes it is the 1/20 Tamiya 5B :)

Did you cut the nose?

Thanks for the compliments about mine,really appreciate that.Excellent start you have made.Nice carbon,nice engine and the body colours look spot on.Are they the Zero paints,which ones did you use exactly???

The carbon decaling on the monocoque is wonderful, as well as the flawless paintjob on the body. The "trumpets" looks excellent as well.

Just curious, what kind of carbon decals did you use for the monocoque? It looks just like the brownish carbon/kevlar pattern on the box art. Looks great!

Hey
Very nice!
Which Red did u use for marlboro red?

Great start, nice job on the wiring!

Thanks guys

To answer a few questions I cut the nose by simply running a stanley blade along the panel line with even pressure until it separated - admittedly a long and tedious job but the end result was the finest cut possible!

The carbon fibre is crazy modeller silver-grey stuff which I darkened with very diluted Tamiya semi-gloss black

The red is the Zero Mclaren red, sprays beautifully and looks amazing in natural daylight which really brings the flourescence out!

thanks again !


john

A little more progress, engine mated to chassis and mostly wired in, coolant pipe and exhausts added although the ccolant pipe is oversized , but after ordering that part from the States I decided to keep it and make do.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/Skii_album/enginein3.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/Skii_album/enginein1.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/Skii_album/enginein2.jpg

Looks sensational John.
No one would have guessed that you were an a/c modeller.

I have seen you post on ARC. Welcome!

:cheers:
Nenad

Looks sensational John.
No one would have guessed that you were an a/c modeller.

I have seen you post on ARC. Welcome!

:cheers:
Nenad

Hi Nenad

After seeing some of the builds here, I nearly didn't bother!! Nice to see you around chap - I remember you too :bigthumb:

Really great job, John :thumbsup:

I'm looking forward to seeing your first aircraft with c/f and a racing harness ;)

Stevenski

Really great job, John :thumbsup:

I'm looking forward to seeing your first aircraft with c/f and a racing harness ;)

Stevenski

haha thats very tempting Stevenski ! I reckon after building one of these cars a resin seatbest harness will never be an option again ! :icon16:

Looking fantastic.All the work you are putting in to this is paying off.What method/paints etc did you use on the exhaust pipes?? You created the exact look that I wanted to achieve when I built mine but sadly I never got the 'colour' quite right.Can you explain a little how you painted them or what method you used?? and if painted what brand/colour of paint exactly.

Looking fantastic.All the work you are putting in to this is paying off.What method/paints etc did you use on the exhaust pipes?? You created the exact look that I wanted to achieve when I built mine but sadly I never got the 'colour' quite right.Can you explain a little how you painted them or what method you used?? and if painted what brand/colour of paint exactly.

Cheers Steve !

Its basically Allclad 2 shaded with very thinned tamiya semi-gloss black.

I Firstly painted them all over with Allclad Magnesium, followed by picking out all the raised areas with pale jet exhaust and finally I sprayed the recessed areas such as between the pipes and the joins with a very thinned tamiya black, I'm very please with how they turned out but it was a bit of trial and error and I must have tried a good 3 or 4 different methods!

Thanks for the encouraging words, means a lot :bigthumb:

Added the cowling around the gearbox, and some photo-etch rivets

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/Skii_album/rivets1.jpg

Some very nicely executed detail you are putting into this model. Keep up the great work.

Nice looking work, impressive stuff so far.

More progress - wheels masked with the Crazy modeller templates and bolted on, which was a lot harder than I anticipated - firstly the holes for the wheel screws are too tight , resulting on only a few turns until you risk twisting the whole wheel assembly off or the plastic wrench supplied in the kit splits, they need to be drilled out carefully and I ended up screwing the last 2 in with long-nose pliers, not ideal!

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/Skii_album/chassis2.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/Skii_album/chassis1.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/Skii_album/chassis3.jpg

This is looking fantastic!! I really like all the wires you have added and all the other nice detail touches.You have a very clean style of building, which I like.Brings back fond memories of when I built mine, it's such a good kit of a nice car.Keep the progress reports coming, I'm enjoying watching this....:thumbsup:

Excellent work, John :thumbsup:

Very clean detailing!

Looks very nice John. I have yet to try the tyre stencils on my cars but I can see that is something that I need to learn as it looks so much more real.

BTW, in the interest of realism, resist the temptation to put so much lock on the front wheels when you come to the final photographs... they don't have that much lock (well, perhaps with the exception of the Monaco steering rack) :)

So clean and precise, I love your skill John, also the photos !!!

Robi :)

Nice Mclaren .. What Carbon Fiber do you use on the monocoque?

Nice Mclaren .. What Carbon Fiber do you use on the monocoque?

Is it same CF in MP4/4?

Thanks for the feedback guys, really glad you like it!


Is it same CF in MP4/4?

I'm not entirely sure as this is the first F1 car model I've built, the CF decal is the Crazy Modeler stuff, although too silvery to begin with I toned it down with thinned semi-gloss black.

Before
http://www.britmodeler.com/Skii/Mclaren/carbonfibre1.jpg


after
http://www.britmodeler.com/Skii/Mclaren/finalmonocoque.jpg

cheers all


john

Spectacular build, really great wip here. Very clean and precise skills you have. I can just imagine how great your aircraft models are.

Ouch!
Amazing!

This is fantastic! :smokin:

Makes me want to start a mp4/5b.
But I am doing a mp4/4 at the moment. I think the 4/5b would be easier to do 'cause you don't have to worry about turbochargers and intakes
(which i can't paint properly.... lol!):lol:
The painting techniques you use from the aircraft models you have built, make the mechanical parts,.. seem real. Also the rivets, I love the rivets!:grinyes:

Man, I wish I had your skills....:shakehead
Can't wait to see this finished:popcorn:

Now I have a ?
Got some Model Car Garage nuts and boltheads. How would you glue these on?, and make them darker. They are a silver.

Anyway Keep going. You should do some more F1's. How about a mp4/4:wink:

Bye
thenic123

P.S. Sorry everyone, I had an icon moment.....

Thankyou guys , I feel quite humble when I see some of the frankly incredible work on these forums, to get any compliment here means I'm obviously doing something right!

My aircraft models, well I'll tell you something - building a car is an absolute education to an aircraft modeller, most of whom would never consider the kind of surface prep that a car model requires, all those dull matt surfaces, now I'll never look at a fuselage again in the same way!

This is fantastic! :smokin:

Makes me want to start a mp4/5b.
But I am doing a mp4/4 at the moment. I think the 4/5b would be easier to do 'cause you don't have to worry about turbochargers and intakes
(which i can't paint properly.... lol!):lol:
The painting techniques you use from the aircraft models you have built, make the mechanical parts,.. seem real. Also the rivets, I love the rivets!:grinyes:

Man, I wish I had your skills....:shakehead
Can't wait to see this finished:popcorn:

Now I have a ?
Got some Model Car Garage nuts and boltheads. How would you glue these on?, and make them darker. They are a silver.

Anyway Keep going. You should do some more F1's. How about a mp4/4:wink:

Bye
thenic123

P.S. Sorry everyone, I had an icon moment.....

Hi thenic123, many thanks, glad you like it. The rivets are simply glued in place with a tiny dab of matt varnish ( I've used Vallejo matt varnish which is water based and cleans up easily) - I got this tip from these very fourms as I was also scratching my head as to how to glue them in place. It works very well indeed, ample time to maneuver the rivet in position and when dry it ain't going to budge !

I guess if you want to change the colour of the rivets I'd probably try darkening them with a metallic spray prior to removing them from the backing strip - possibly worth a try ?

thanks again peeps


john

Just a quick shot of the body shell in place, fits nicely. Still have mirrors, dashboard and a couple of other small details to add, rear wing mostly assembled, just clicked in place for now

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/Skii_album/nearlythere1.jpg

Looks stunning!!!! Glad your bodyshell fits, mine sadly didn't.

Looks stunning!!!! Glad your bodyshell fits, mine sadly didn't.

Thanks Steve

I think the problem with the body shell not fitting is down to the wiring to the electronics on the sidepods and the cable support spars that run down from the engine sides between the exhaust pipes, both of these prevent the bodyshell fitting correctly - I remedied this by actually moving the electronics on the sidepods down by 3 mil each side (and reducing their height) and putting a slight kink at the bottom of the engine wires each side, also it helps to carve and sand as much as you can away from the inside of the shell but there is always the risk of going too far !!

Looks spectacular. So are you gonna abandon the planes now that you've seen the light? Do any big differences stand out b/w the two for you (saw the comment about finish prep), like complexity, finished result, fun, time, etc? I just love the shiny perfection of the cars, but I also look at a good plane model in amazement at the realism they can achieve.

John,
Awesome work there mate. I love the bang up job you have done with the engine detailing. The rest is very clean and realistic too.

This just goes to show you, that quality in a modeller will always shine through no matter what genre they decide to model.

:cheers:
Nenad

Looks spectacular. So are you gonna abandon the planes now that you've seen the light? Do any big differences stand out b/w the two for you (saw the comment about finish prep), like complexity, finished result, fun, time, etc? I just love the shiny perfection of the cars, but I also look at a good plane model in amazement at the realism they can achieve.

Mark

No - I could never abandon my wingy-things, I have a 1/72 B-2 Stealth Bomber to tackle after this project, but that isn't to say the bug for cars hasn't bitten me hard, I can confidently say this isn't my last vehicle by any means!

The difference simply note between the two genres in terms of finish prep is huge, simply down to the fact that a matt coat hides a multitude of sins which you could simply not get away with on a smooth glossy bodyshell, aircraft modellers can disguise errors and blemishes with weathering, as more often than not to many modellers an F-14 looks much better covered in hydraulic leaks, grime, spot-primed panels and paint chips than fresh out of the factory, whilst in this genre the emphasis is on clean and perfect, no blemishes anywhere. Surface prepping a car to get a mirror like image is a lesson to any aircraft modeller, it certainly was to this one!

cheers


John

John,
Awesome work there mate. I love the bang up job you have done with the engine detailing. The rest is very clean and realistic too.

This just goes to show you, that quality in a modeller will always shine through no matter what genre they decide to model.

:cheers:
Nenad

Thanks Nenad :)