DocRob

After checking all my MFH 1/12 kits about completeness, which is an exhausting task, I managed to continue with the Brabham. The clear yellow air funnels got installed, along with the clear fuel lines and accessories. This was a fiddly task, because it was difficult to determine the correct length of the fuel tubing. I also installed the belts on the frontend, which were replicated by black self adhesive tape. The white painted bracket parts on top of the funnels have angular PE parts glued on, to accept the fairings later. It was definitely a mistake to install them now, as figured in the manual, as I managed to break some. Cheers Rob

Nice work on the Spitfire, Carl. She will be a beauty in white and blue. Thanks about mentioning how the AK markers work. I have some on the way right now, including GB interior green for my Kotare Spitfire. Cheers Rob

I absolutely don´t like the cast Tamiya belts, they look clunky and wrong. I wish, they would supply the wheels at least, that you can add the tape yourself. Cutting the plastic belts away destroys too much of the wheels. Cheers Rob

Cylinder bank number two is ready, again lots of riveting, always hoping that no rivets ping out of the tweezers. The rubber spark plug connectors got glued in and were drilled to accept the wiring. This time, I used Tamiya metal primer for the first time, brushed onto the parts and it seems, that the metallic paint adheres well on the white metal. BTW: Tamiya should use the MFH method for replicating belts. There are single cast belt wheels, the belt itself is made from self adhesive black tape. One thing, I learned with MFH kits is the addition of springs. It´s always better to add the spring to the unmounted parts and glue these into place then. I will bore you with more pictures, showing my progress with the engine, but you know, it´s easy to scroll . Cheers Rob

One bank of cylinders is prepared, still six to go on the other side. You have to love to apply tiny white metal rivets with this kit, as there are hundreds. The engine was sprayed with AK Extreme Metals dark aluminum, the covers, front and rear, were a bit more complicated. The manual calls for a mix of copper and gold and my first try was with AK´s jet exhaust, which felt to dark and to bronze, followed by pale jet exhaust, which lacked the slightly reddish tone. Finally, I choose Ak´s pale brass, which looks good to my, compared with photos. Afterwards, I painted all the casted nuts and boltheads silver and applied all the necessary rivets with fine tweezers into their pre drilled holes, always expecting the "ping" sound of a flying rivet. Finally, I accentuated white metal with black panel liner and brass colored parts with brown panel liner. Cheers Rob

When you start to venture into MFH kits, you will find, that building the engines is one of the most relaxing and rewarding parts of the experience, visible or not, it´s just fun to build them up. Cheer Rob

Thank you Mike, congratulations to your purchase of the Ferrari, I think, I have the same in 1/20. I have the may release on pre order, an Aston Martin DB4 GTZ from 1961, a beauty in 1/12 and I couldn´t resist. I built some plastic bike and car kits over the last years and with some, I detailed the engine, like with the McLaren MP 4/6, but I think, I may never remove the body again, to show the engine. Most cars look best with closed bonnet and it only pays to show the interior or engine, when they are especially attractive. The MFH kits are extremely detailed under the hood and building the engines is always great fun. With you Ferrari, you have no option, as the engine is always visible . Cheers Rob

Don´t you feel bad, Carl, using your son as an alibi? What do you mean by mixing colors? The LP colors are mostly great, but some have a bad color coverage. Cheers Rob

Good to have you on board, Paul. The polishing method is very similar, but the tiny steel needles reach every little crevice, which is a must fot the delicate white metal parts. Cheers Rob

I like the finish as well, Hubert. I think pre shading under NMF is not going to work very good, but you could post shade a bit, beside the panel accentuation you already did. I once used stretched metal sponge and sprayed very finely through it panel for panel to have a worn surface effect. I liked the look on my Mig-31 build some years ago. On the lower parts of page three, I described the method. Cheers Rob

I paused a little with modelling, using the time for long swimming session in the Atlantic, to regain some power and stamina, but now, back to the Brabham. After about 150 or more holes drilled, most of the Alfa flat twelve engine is prepared for painting. Shown parts are only dry fitted, nothing is glued as of yet. There will be a ton of rivets been inserted into their holes after airbrushing. Cheers Rob

Looking good, Gus, but does the IP sitting straight? It looks off on the pic, not that it later obstructs, when closing the fuselage. Cheers Rob

Some new old Tamiya F1 kits from Plaza Japan. From time to time there appear some old stock Tamiya kits on their site for a higher price, than the normal Tamiya kits, but less than with scalpers on other places. The boxes were a tiny bit yellowed, as were the protective papers on the decals. Decal sheets look absolutely fresh, though. There must have been heavy smokers in a Japanese warehouse, but this will be gone, when sprayed with the accordingly bought Number Five colors. For the Ferrari, I bought an extra decal sheet, because the booboo brand decals are missing with Tamiya. I also added a Studio 27 set of carbon fiber decals. The Ferrari was sold out very fast, but the Wolf WR1 is still available. Cheers Rob

In the 70´s it looked very futuristic and cool to me. Cheers Rob

Very nice result Kevin. I like your chipping and the blended matte look. Cheers Rob

Under a microscope, you might find loss of detail with the parts after cleaning them in a magnetic tumbler polisher, but what you gain in better surface appearance is worth the practically non existent loss of detail. You need the correct medium though. I experimented first with a simple tumble polisher, filled with steel balls and there was a great amount of detail missing afterwards and there was a unrefined ring around every protruding detail. With the magnetic polisher shown above, it depends on the stainless steel needle´s diameter. I tested 0,5 mm and 0,3 mm which gave the best results. The parts tumble only slowly through the water filled plastic jar, so the parts don´t tend to scratch each other. The needles move faster and hit the surfaces of the parts permanently. In metallurgy this equals hammering on a very low level, I guess, where the surfaces become more even and harder as well. You can also play with the time settings. I started with all the parts for one hour and then left only the larger parts with bigger surfaces for another half hour in the jar. Smaller parts polish easier and faster than the big ones. It´s my third MFH build and the tumble polisher is one of the most important and time saving tools. Of course, you can clean the parts with other methods, but that is very time consuming and leads to having black hands permanently. Cheers Rob Cheers Rob

Preparation is everything with MFH kits, Mike. I still study the manual and toy with the parts, to see where needs to be drilled with what diameter. The start isa always a bit slow, but then starts the fun. I wouldn´t like to miss the magnetic tumbler polisher, as it prepares the white metal parts very good. Cheers Rob

Hehe, just preordered the next one, the may release of the Aston Martin DB4 GTZ. I love their kits and they build up to a unmatched result, if everything goes well. They are demanding, complex and truly multi media, but also lots of fun to build. The big challenge with the Cobra Coupe was to fit the doors and foremost the bonnet, after all the previous steps, where even the slightest tolerances can add up. I think, there was a design error with the funnels, not fitting under the hood, something that not happened only during my build, but another one. Other than that, I cannot think of many flaws with the kits. The Crocker motorcycle was my first MFH build and it was completely doable, with the chain being the worst part of the build, but apart from that, it was pure joy. What are your observations on your kits, Count? I think older kits made by MFH were less refined, but I have the impression, the quality improved over time. The BT45 is definitely not the first Brabham coming to mind, when you think about the brand. What I like about it are the cool looks, especially in white and what was possible technically and design wise in that golden era of F1. There is a completely new designed car from one year to the next, impossible in todays boring times, where cars look like a piece of soap and F1 cars look like a piece of soap with wings. I thought about starting the Tamiya 1/12 Brabham BT44b, but saw all the parting lines, which needed cleanup and thought no. Cheers Rob

My next project after the sweet Honda RC166 build will be a bit more demanding and time consuming. I picked the red Brabham BT45 "Press Version 1975" out of the stash and started to get a bit familiar with it´s content. Press Version meant, it was the car, how it was presented to the press before the 1975 season started, the car in this configuration actually never raced. The press version has a white paintjob with Martini branding, where the BT45´s used during the 1976 season was painted red and had some alterations, mostly around the nose section. The #7 car was piloted by Carlos Reutemann, the #8 car by Carlos Pace. Bothe Carlos´s didn´t had any success with the car, but I found the design absolutely cool. I the seasons before, Brabham had their very successful BT44 (b) on the track, but decided to switch from the 8 cylinder Cosworth DFV engines to the Alfa Romeo flat 12 cylinder engine for economical reasons. The design from the BT44 to the BT45 changed a lot and the latter was ultra flat with the Alfa engine. Unfortunately the engines were not very reliable. Some pictures to show the car a bit better were borrowed from the net. MFH kits are not easy to build and you need to be organized. Starting a build requires some preparations, the first being cleaning the white metal parts in a magnetic tumbler filled with soapy water and 0,3 mm stainless steel needles. Drying time This is followed by a very eye straining task, checking if every part is there with printouts from the part list and then, all whit metal parts are sorted into boxes, according to the steps in the manual. I generally like MFH kits for design, engineering, lots of labor and love, which went into issuing their kits, but there are some points of critique as well and I think, I will communicate that to MFH, because, these issues are easy to solve. The parts list are only shown on the MFH web page as pictures, you have to print out, in my case in relatively bad quality. These part lists are immensely important throughout the whole build. I would appreciate, MFH including these into the manuals. As we speak about manuals. You get a printed version, but it helps to have a second set for notes. For some of the MFH kits, there are PDF versions available, but not for all. I would like MFH to issue the manuals on their web site, which is not the case. Tamiya always shows the wire or tube length, which needed to be cut in their manuals. MFH only mentions in which step of the manual the other end of the tube / wire leads. This causes endless page turning. Cheers Rob

Base and plane are looking very good and the livery is rarely seen on a Spitfire. Cheers Rob

Even if I repeat myself, FA, your weathering style looks extremely well to my eye. Cheers Rob

The rear is looking very smooth Carl, good job on sculpting and sanding. Cheers Rob

Very nice Kevin, like Martin said, the camo is awesome. First to finish the 410 buddy build or was it just a fire starter. Cheers Rob

Very fine detail, Gus, I can´t wait to see how all the interior parts sum up. Cheers Rob

The 410 is tempting, definitely. I even pulled out my box of Meng´s -A1 version with some Eduard PE and resin spinner and props, but if I join, I do it later. I just started another Model Factory Hiro project, which fits better to the ongoing bad weather stretch with lots of benchtime. In summer, it will be different and I want to be off of a good start with my Brabham. Cheers Rob