[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

Today, I joined the engine with the monocoque. Test fitting was done before, but a last aggregate with three tubes attached needed to be fittet in between. That proved very difficult, but after some attempts, I got it done. If you ever build the kit, don´t glue the metal end plates (M142, M143) to the monocoque, like shown in step 13. Luckily I didn´t, because other ways I would have had to remove them to fit the engine in step 17.











And finally, I tried the fit of the center body parts.



Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

19 hours ago, FullArmor said:

Impressive amount of details

 

9 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Those rads look absolutely fragile on the front there. I'd be afraid to handle it after attaching the pair of them.

Thanks FA and Carl, the radiators are indeed protruding far out, but they are relatively robust. The process of getting the complete front section glued to the monocoque needed some hefty handling and they hold up.

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

The front section was really difficult to build together due to many intersecting parts. Finally, I got the coolers glued to the framework and let dry for a while. The next difficulty was to add the front section to the monocoque. You had to plan ahead and follow the instructions to the number, to get it done. Finally, I got the four connection points glued in, while fiddling all the other ducts, hoses and wires. I´m lucky that this part of the build is behind me now and I can look forward to marry the monocoque to the engine section soon. 









Cheers Rob

[Trumpeter Abrams 1/16 M1A2 SEP]

Great result, FA. Detailing, painting and weathering are spot on. Most modern tanks have little interest to me, but yours looks fantastic.

Cheers Rob

[Kotare 1/32 Spitfire Mk Ia mid]

Nice work overall, and also well photographed. I like your cockpit with all the details. PE flaps can be fiddly at times, but they improve the look a lot.

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

14 hours ago, Count0 said:

Those belt look great in this scale. I was looking at their (MFH) belts in 1/43rd that they just released, but it looks like they use the same ribbon, which is just massively overscale for 43 rd cars. Too bad, cause the actual hardware looks amazing. Too expensive if I have to replace the belts to be worth it sadly.

Here the belts are 4 mm wide with applications being 3 mm wide. I have some 1/20 sets as well and they are less wide, but I didn´t measure them.

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

Today, I finished the front office. Before installation, I glued all the tubing and wiring to the backside with CA and let dry. Then I fiddled the steering column with the instrument panel in place and laid the wires in their correct places, a delicate affair.
After adding the x-bar to the instrument panel, I made the final installments to the front side, namely the fire extinguisher pull ring and the steering wheel.













Cheers Rob

[1:32nd scale Caudron G.3 (Anzani engine)]

Nice job on the rigging Mike. I thought about a simplified method of rigging, when I start mine, but I don´t know, if it will satisfy me. If not, I have a tutorial now .

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

Today I finished the steering wheel, which was first airbrushed gloss black for decaling, then received the rivets, followed by a coat of semi matte clear. After drying, I masked the inner part and applied a coat of Tamiya LP flat black and dabbed in some black StreetBlister textile flocks for texture with a brush.
I was not satisfied with the matte look and added a coat of Tamiya LP flat clear, again not flat enough. Finally, I used good old Tamiya XF-1 flat black.
The fibers were finger dabbed into the fresh point and there are still some of them waiting for a shave. It looks a bit coarse in the pic, but this is heavy macroed.

  

The instrument front panel, made from PE was also sprayed gloss black, followed by decaling the switches and dials, followed by a semi matte clear coat as a finish. I then added some brackets to the instruments, before gluing and riveting everything to the front roll bar, which was polished beforehand.
The bezels are supplied as clear acetate circles, which I glued using Future. Last were the white metal switches, with only the fire extinguisher pull ring missing, because it´s to fragile



Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

2 hours ago, KevinM said:

Nice Rob every now and then you show us your not abbeynormal

Who´s normal here, we nuts try to reproduce the reality in scale and I often wonder why .

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

3 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Some fantastic progress Rob. Great solution for the exhaust springs. 

I might have to look into the MFH belts as well for some of my other kits. 

Thanks Carl, I first used the MFH seat belts with my Tamiya 1/12 Renault Turbo build and liked them better than the ones Tamiya supplied and bought them for all my F1 1/12 kits and even some 1/20 kits.

Cheers Rob

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

Sorry, no hit, I checked my pix from a P47-D from Chino, but non showed it clearly. Problem is, the wheel well cover sits so tight around the axle and brake line, that it is barely visible at all. You should check, if it would be visible with your kit LG. Have you checked technical drawings?

Cheers Rob

[Trumpeter Titanic 1/200]

Looking very good. I don´t know, if you are aware of ION Models 1/200 figures and deck furniture sets.

IONION MODEL Titanic furniture set 1/200

ION20th CENT. CIVIL SHIP PASSENGERS & CREW 1/350

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

1 hour ago, Count0 said:

That copper tubing on the front brakes looks great. Is that infact copper line or is it paint?

The copper of the braking lines was supplied with the kit and actually is a tube with a very tiny bore. The copper from the exhaust coil springs was wire from the leftover box.

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

One subject out of an earlier phase of the build was still aggravating me, the coil springs, which hold the exhausts in place. There are eight and I couldn´t add a single one, despite trying really hard.
Then I had an idea. What if I insert a copper wire into the coil spring, to bend it easily into the needed curve. I tried and it worked.



Half an hour later, this issue was fixed and I have an open issue less on my schedule.







Cheers Rob

[IBG PZL 11c Poland 1939 - ON HOLD]

Beautiful plane and a great kit, denders. I built it some years ago and absolutely loved the experience. I can´t remember any real issues with the kit, in fact engineering and fit were near perfect.
I wanted to try something new with the build and brush painted it with oil colors, which worked better than thought.
If you are interested, here is a link to my build, where we had some interesting discussions about the original and especially about the paint scheme
 

Cheers Rob

 

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

The cockpit tub starts to become busy. I added the seat belts to the seat and then this was glued into the tub. I really like MFH seat belts, as they look good and are relatively easy to assemble. There are white metal buckles and PE parts and two widths of blue ribbon. All got assembled using double sided tape, which has a strong bond and is supplied with the kit. I bought seat belt sets for other kits too, like for my 1/12 Tamiya kits.
The manual placed the headrest/rollbar before the seat, but I chose to do it after, because it was easier to fiddle in the seat belts behind the seat.





Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

On 7/5/2025 at 2:50 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

That looks incredible Rob!  That must have been a really satisfying step of screwing the tub into the floor plan.  

It's been interesting following you along on these MFH builds.  The amount of pre-assembly part work and test fitting seems to be a big difference over your standard plastic kit.  Looks like a lot of fun though!

Thank you Mike, test fitting, preparing and understanding how everything goes together is essential for MFH builds. You have to think and browse ahead often. Subassemblies like the engine are easier this way, but when everything has to fit into a body and being closed, it´s always a bit more complicated. The sequence in the manual is not always the best, but that might be personal biased, it´s not really wrong.

Cheers Rob

[Das Werk 1/16 Leopard 2 A7V]

13 minutes ago, Merad said:

On the topic of track painting, does anyone know what color the metal parts of the track would be from the factory?  The instructions say to paint them "rust", which definitely feels wrong.  This pic is the the best I've found where they aren't completely covered in dirt/mud.  I'm think that looks like NATO Green with a healthy amount of dust ground into it.

This pic is the best, I could find, it´s directly from the German Bundeswehr. If you click at the rear sprocket you get a close up.

Ausrüstung und Technik: Der Kampfpanzer Leopard 2

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

34 minutes ago, crazypoet said:

This is simply… gorgeous 🙏

and I love your approach to cleaning the metal parts - much *much* easier than my wire brush approach 😂

now I have to see if I can find one of those tumblers in Phnom Penh 🤣🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Thanks a lot. I got mine through AliExpress, because it was really hard to find a vendor shipping it to my island (a problem which I have very often), so Phnom Penh shouldn´t be too much of a problem. Don´t forget to get the needles with it.
The magnetic tumbler polishing is often only the first step. Many parts like the cockpit tub or roll bar, etc. are polished by hand. I tried different methods and wire brushes, manually or in a Dremel are too coarse mostly. I prefer hand polishing with very fine steel wool or coarse sponge pads first and then followed by Autosol polishing paste applied with a cotton rag.

 

34 minutes ago, crazypoet said:

It’s been probably 50 years since I did a car kit, but I have the ancient AMT 1/16 ‘57 Chevy Nomad kit waiting patiently in the stash

your build is giving me some great ideas about ways to spruce up my kit

i love watching over your shoulder!

 I´d love to see your Chevy build, there are not a lot of car builds here on LSM. The good thing with MFH kits, there is no need for AM. The only after marked item, I used on my Cobra Coupe was some square millimeters of wine cap foil ,if I remember right.
The most difficult part of car building is to achieve a perfect body finish and to keep it through the later phases of the build . I learned a lot through some car builds recently, but it´s still daunting, because you have to do so much prep work beforehand.

Cheers Rob

[Das Werk 1/16 Leopard 2 A7V]

Very nice looking huge Leo, but wouldn´t it have been a bit easier to paint the tracks and rubber pads before assembling them? 

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

Today I achieved some very important and daunting steps, but firs things first.
I finished the front section with all the parts added for the axle, brakes, steering and suspension. Some were a bit fiddly, but in all, the fit was great with that delicate section. It´s also quite robust. The axle screws are loose by design and therefore hanging on the pic.





Next was the daunting part, the closing of the main body. There are so many intersecting parts, that even test fitting is a time and nerve consuming affair. Finally I got it done and everything fitted with a tiny bit of tweaking here and there. The floor pan and body are hold together with eight screws.





Finally, I test fitted the engine section to the body and luckily everything fit as well.



Cheers Rob

[What is on your bench right now ? Share a picture :)]

28 minutes ago, blackbetty said:

just finished this one....

Wow, fantastic looking camo, congratulation

Cheers Rob

[Trumpeter Titanic 1/200]

15 minutes ago, Winnie said:

Your wooden ship is magnificent though...

Thank you, it is my first wooden ship and went rather quickly and fine, but I stalled with rigging until now. I will definitely finish the Duchess of Kingston soon.

Cheers Rob

[Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12]

After all the body work, now it´s all about subassemblies and not to damage the polished body with scratches or CA fingerprints.

The polished tub went finally onto the floor pan and got screwed there permanently. I further added some details like the pedals.



The rear of the tub received the gas tank with all the needed attachments.



Then I finished the front suspension sans the steering. Most delicate were some turned pins and the intersecting tubes, which hold the nose in place later. There was a need for absolute precision, to prevent gaps from the monocoque to the nose part.



Cheers Rob