DocRob

I like the old school F1 cigars as well, Phil. I have an 1/20 Ferrari 312 from MFH and still contemplate about buying their 1/12 Eagle T1G, the most beautiful of the F1 racers of this period . Cheers Rob

Absolutely Hubert, I forgot to mention the buggers are absolutely brittle and break sometimes when you drop them on the workbench. Unfortunately it seems hard to find good HSS drills with small diameters in larger quantities. I once bought a box from China with drill bits from 0,3 mm up to 2,5 mm. Not expecting much, I was disappointed even more, as the smaller ones were only cut from a blank, seemingly with a wire cutter. They had no tip at all. Cheers Rob

Not my most liked F1 car, but it´s a classic and I couldn´t let it pass for a good price. Most of Tamiya´s 1/12 re-releases are sold out now and I didn´t want to feel sorry, when it happens with the Lotus. Other than the Brabham BT44 and Porsche 935 the decals are not printed by Cartograph, but are looking good. Despite this, I ordered a complete set of decals from TB Decals of Italy, which include tobacco sponsors and markings for other drivers and races. There are also cheaper, partial decal sets out there, but I didn´t want to mix the gold tones with the Tamiya ones. The kit looks a bit simpler than the F1 Renault RE20 Turbo which I built, but it´s an old kit and I guess, building it will need extensive clean up work. I plan to include MFH Aluminum funnels (also not included, other than with the BT44 with the same engine) and of course wires and tubing along with connectors. Cheers Rob

Hopefully these are the last preparations before entering the painting stage, but as often, there was one step back, before advancing. I had to remove the already installed internal framework and internal rear view mirror, because they would have interfered with masking the inside of the body later. I finalized cutting the transparent air scoop vac parts with a pair of fine scissors, sanded them to fit and dry fitted them for drilling holes for the rivets. The first side, I drilled with a 0,6 mm DSPIAE drill bit, which tended to lift up the clear part, when drilling through. I changed to a Tamiya 0,6 mm drill bit for side two and got much better results. No lifting and dramatically less burr, which is a pain to remove with these clear vac parts. When you compare the drill bits, the Tamiya is of the classic HSS style and angles, where the DSPIAE bit is like all the other PCB board drill bits and not good for drilling thin materials, as it "eats" into the material and leaves a lot of burr. Cheers Rob

Bummer with the dust, Carl. The color looks like what I had in mind of your car. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, I hope, I will not overdo it with my unrealistic even gap approach . I know, the originals were build up in a hurry and I guess, perfect fit was not the utmost goal. Finally there will be enough potential for errors and I will eliminate as many as possible before entering the painting stage. Cheers Rob

I went back to my slide rule, as my veneer Texas Instruments calculator (with the sexy red colored display) eats 9 volt batteries like Garfield Lasagne . Seriously, I only have a non digital set of calipers. No batteries and always reminding me of my days as a young engineer. Cheers Rob

Wow Mike, the liquid masked camo came out fantastic. I wanted to buy this kit as well and thought about, how to do the scheme, but had no final idea, how to tackle it. Luckily the kit was sold out and I only got the Eastern Front version . The kit engine seems to have a much smaller diameter than the resin one. Does it fit under the cowlings or do they have thinner ones? Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, I hope, I don´t need to chop of more parts, to get the bonnet fit. With a few more steps, I think the painting stage is on the horizon. Cheers Rob

Today, I prepared all the parts, which will be added to the firewall. Again lots of cleanup work and naturally drilling holes for mounting the parts and adding tubes and hoses later. Besides, I added tiny magnets to the rear hatch and the doors. The magnets have a diameter of 2 mm and are 1 mm thick. The doors were pre-drilled with a 2 mm drill bit and cautiously finished with a 2 mm milling cutter, to not drill through the door with the drill bits front cone. You can see the magnet shine through in the doors side view, it was close. The magnets will definitely help, to keep the doors in aligned in good position when closed. Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, but I already milled and sanded away as much as possible from that area of the bonnet. It is now paper thin. Cheers Rob

Thank you Martin, if it would be the real engine, I would be rich . MFH engines are the best you can get and great fun to build. They have separate engine kits in their portfolio, but that is too much special interest for me. Cheers Rob

Poco a poco (little by little, like they say here where I live. I forgot to include the engine firewall into my final? assembly check. Getting everything together with the firewall, is extremely delicate, like a 3D puzzle, but after a lot of shuffling and breaking some pats off, it fits. Next, I reworked the areas of the bonnet, which connect with the chassis hinges for a better fit. Some modifications of the existing parts were needed. I also tested, how I could fit my first vac formed window in place with double sided transparent adhesive tape, which didn´t look promising at all. I need some better tape and luckily my wife flies to Berlin next week, where it is easier to get hold of better stuff. Finally, I found another method to lower the obstructing first cylinder funnels a tiny bit for a better bonnet fit. I removed the PE seal? under the aluminum funnel with a sharp blade and deepened the holes, which accept the funnels first with a 2 mm drill bit, then the outer diameter with a 3 mm drill bit (left side without PE and drilled out). As you can see, the front left funnel sits a bit less than a millimeter deeper, than the others. Not a lot, but it sure helps. I reglued the funnels and the rivets besides and like the result. You have to know, that something is missing to find it. Cheers Rob

After searching a bit, it seems, Ebbro filed for bankruptcy last spring, which is really sad news. I haven´t build any of their kits, but have three in my stash ( My beloved Citroen 21 DS, a Lotus 49c and now the Lotus 88b). Good luck with the leveling thinner, Carl. It´s terrible if you can´t restock and supplies are going low. Cheers Rob

Some items has arrived on my doorstep lately. First, sheer madness, a 1/43 Williams FW 16 from MFH. I will need super magnification for that kit, but I was tempted by a fellow modeler over on MSW to try one of the little things. only to show the size, my thick thumb and the tiny, luckily pre printed tyres along. I pulled the trigger on another 1/20 F1 car. This time the Lotus type 88b from Ebbro. I got it for a good price and because the Ebbro kits are more and more hard to find, I´m quite lucky. The kit has also pre printed tires, which is very helpful and seems to be of very good quality. Last but not least some contraband . It becomes almost impossible to get greater jars than 30ml to my place. There are no hobby shops around and I have only one vendor left, who supplies me with thinner and primer in larger quantities. I´m very thankful for that Robotines.com. Cheers Rob

There is a comparison build on YT, showing the Yamato´s of Tamiya with Pontos basic, Border and Very Fire. I linked the third part (final analysis of the built models). It´s in Japanese, but you can deploy subtitles and you will get the message. Cheers Rob

The Blob ate my plane . Hope you don´t have any "flow" issues with the blob masks. Cheers Rob

Completely wow, Scott. I love how you solved the tiger head issue. What blends better than a decal, right, paint. I don´t know, if I had chosen this way or if I would have chickened out. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, with the Cobra, it´s the phase of the build, where everything has to come together and where all the tolerances and little errors show. I will find a way to get it done. Your Triumph must have been a nice one, but exact gaps were never one of the greatest virtues with British cars. Cheers Rob

It´s nearly the same with this one, except, I can handle it with one hand, luckily. For a kit it is no lightweight though. I´m not sure, if exact gaps where to be found on the real one, as they were build up in great haste. Cheers Rob

The only possibility lowering the engine would be shaving some material away, where the engine meets the chassis and I will not touch this area if there isn´t an urgent need to do so. The whole engine is like a block, not to be manipulated now. This is the time, where everything has to fit finally and I tike my time analyzing what to do. My hesitation buying my beloved Alfa Tip 33 Stradale was exactly, because the fit of doors and body is so critical with these kits, especially when it comes to swing doors and huge engine rear body parts. Thanks for your good wishes, Mike, I´m absolutely not in panic mode, as I expected this and if it doesn´t work out unforced, two little rivets would be a viable solution. Cheers Rob

I thinned that part of the bonnet before, Carl, but seeing, how it still provides tension, I decided, I will go a bit further. Luckily, I stopped at the right time. My first approach of thinning was about keeping the inside of the bonnet perfect, which I skipped now. With a tiny bit of force and two tiny rivets, the bonnet will sit good enough, I hope. Cheers Rob

I dreaded the day, but it has to be done. I speak about final test fitting of the main components, in this case the body to bonnet fit. This is quite delicate, as so many parts and sub assemblies are involved and the process is painful with some loosened parts, etc. and takes hours. First, I screwed the body to the chassis. All doors and internal parts are only fixed preliminary. Then I mounted the bonnet to it´s hinges on the chassis and got that: When I force the bonnet down, it will more or less fit, but without locking it somehow, it will open like shown. I tried to identify the protruding parts and attempted to look, where they interfere, not an easy business, with only two tiny openings to see through on the sides of the bonnet. As I identified the possible culprits, I dabbed some liquid mask onto them and closed the bonnet and bingo got the interfering locations. In an iterative process, I removed the material as much as I dared and now the bonnet is paper thin, where the front funnels sit. It closes a bit better now, but not near as perfect as it should. At some point, I have no more possibilities to enhance the fit, as I also thinned the part in front, where the hinges meet the bonnet, to raise the bonnet a tiny bit. I will make a final try and then, I will add two tiny bolts, which force the bonnet into place and can be removed to open the bonnet. Cheers Rob

Do you glue the controllers to the base unit, Carl? is there an assembly manual? Which scale is it? Cheers Rob

Very nice Mike. I´m a bit jealous at your Strutter tool. I couldn´t lay my hand on one, but helped me with wooden brackets for my vice, which worked well enough with brass tubes and inserted brass rods. Cheers Rob