Renault RE20 Turbo - Tamiya - 1/12

[DocRob]

...and now to something completely different. While choosing my actual summer build, I opened a lot of stashed boxes lately and got stuck with the large colorful ones. I have three of the old Tamiya 1/12 car kits and the Renault was picked over the Porsche 935 and the Brabham BT44, because I liked it less than the others. Large scale car modeling is new to me, so if I disappoint myself, the damage is easier to cope with.
I wanted to have this kit, even if I disliked these turbo testosteroned mini engines, as the Renault looks like a gentle Frankenstein in formula one standards. The yellow and white paintjob does enough of a job, to conceal that a bit, 

The kit dates back to 1981 and this is clearly visible, while inspecting the parts. There is flash, parting lines, burr and crude looking parts. This kit for sure is not up to standards of modern Tamiya kits and needs some extra attention. 
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look like a bad kit, but I guess, there will be some unwanted surprises hidden on the sprues. The ancient kit received PE for grills and brake disks and decals printed by Cartograph.

First, I cleaned the main body parts and this was not done in a blast. It took some hours with the blade, chisel and sanding sticks to get rid off the multiple burrs all around. I want to paint the body parts early, that in case of failure, the expense in time and effort wouldn't be too great.

The rear wing base construction is a four part U-shaped affair, which I guess should be flush all over. To reach that goal, there will be needed a lot of filler, as you can see on the picture. Another decision to make son, is about the chromed parts for the wings and rims. The provided chrome doesn't look too bad, but I will compare it with photos of the real thing and decide then, if I strip and repaint these parts.

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

 Cool project Rob. I’ve never seen one of these 40 year old kits built. Cars is another genre I haven’t yet tried so will be following with interest……..

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Cool project Rob. I’ve never seen one of these 40 year old kits built. Cars is another genre I haven’t yet tried so will be following with interest……..

It's newish for me too, Phil, but I have a the 1/24 Ford GT II and a 1/12 Ducati Panigale under my belt. Building and painting sequence is quite different from planes and armor and I have to study the manual closely to find my own approach. The Ducati was a bit similar with building it from the inside to the outside and the inside is not a mere cockpit.
I choose the Renault out of my brief 1/12 stash, because I never liked the Turbo philosophy a lot. Tiny engines superblown, but somehow this weird machine appeals to me.

Cheers Rob 

[mark31]

Nice just take your time and you will have a great model

Looking forward to see more.

 

Mark

[Peterpools]

Rob

I've been waiting for your car build to hto the forum and now it's here. I'm signed on for the journey and will be following so very close. Nice start and welcome to the 'oldie kits' specializing in long cleanups before the actual construction can start.

I'm still weeks into cleaning parts on my simple T Bird build and the worst part wasn't removing all the mold lines and injection pin marks on every part; dechroming all the chrome parts in Easy Off and I just finished sanding off the remaining chrome that would give up the ghost and then polishing the parts back to where they need to be.

 

 

[GusMac]

Looking forward to seeing how this goes. Never built a car kit but some of these older F1 cars do seem appealing.

My favourite era of F1 as there was actually some racing rather than the processional snooze-fests you get now. Remember Rene Arnoux, Jacques Lafitte, Didier Pironi, etc driving these. Did get silly though when they stuck engines like this in the infamous Group B rally cars - cost poor Henri Toivonen his life. 

[DocRob]

15 hours ago, mark31 said:

Nice just take your time and you will have a great model

Looking forward to see more.

Thank you Mark, I will take my time with this one, it's a summer build and has to share my attention with other activities. These old Tamiya kits are a solid base for a bright spot to delight the showcase.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, Peterpools said:

I've been waiting for your car build to hto the forum and now it's here. I'm signed on for the journey and will be following so very close. Nice start and welcome to the 'oldie kits' specializing in long cleanups before the actual construction can start.

I'm still weeks into cleaning parts on my simple T Bird build and the worst part wasn't removing all the mold lines and injection pin marks on every part; dechroming all the chrome parts in Easy Off and I just finished sanding off the remaining chrome that would give up the ghost and then polishing the parts back to where they need to

It's hard to believe, these kits are about 40 years old and may are ahead of modern Italeri kits, Peter. Preparation is the key, like you mentioned, as the finish of car models is the goal to accomplish. 
I'm still not decided about de-chroming or not. I've never done it before and the plating doesn't look to bad. On the rear wing, there are lots of rivets all over, which I don't want to loose or replicate. Luckily, I have some time left to make the decision.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, GusMac said:

Looking forward to seeing how this goes. Never built a car kit but some of these older F1 cars do seem appealing.

My favourite era of F1 as there was actually some racing rather than the processional snooze-fests you get now. Remember Rene Arnoux, Jacques Lafitte, Didier Pironi, etc driving these. Did get silly though when they stuck engines like this in the infamous Group B rally cars - cost poor Henri Toivonen his life. 

I was never a devoted fan of car racing in general but the formula one attracted me a bit in the 80's, but the actual F1 scene is downright boring to me as well. Supporting systems for everything, why not sparing the drivers and put in artificial intelligence, at least that would be a technical challenge.
Many of the past drivers wer icons, like you mentioned and it was fun to follow them a bit. 
The Renault RE20 to me in the time was the first nail in the coffin of F1 with it's tiny 1,5 liter engine, turbo blasted to nirvana, but it was effective. It lacked the esthetics of other cars like many MCLaren's, some Ferraris and Lotus cars.
Speaking about icons. I would welcome a decent 1/12 kit from a Lancia Stratos, one of my favorite cars, beside the Ciroen DS and my Jeep.

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

41 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Speaking about icons. I would welcome a decent 1/12 kit from a Lancia Stratos, one of my favorite cars, beside the Ciroen DS and my Jeep.

Oh yes, love the Stratos. I remember having a Polistil diecast one as a kid and I was so proud of it.

[DocRob]

We had a heat wave here, combined with a heavy storm and a humidity under 15%, definitely no weather for airbrushing, but as my cave is relatively cool, I managed to prepare a zillion parts for the engine and suspension, which is a really time consuming task with this dinosaur. Lots of flash and burr, every part had to be inspected closely.
I filled all the gaps and ejection marks on the wing with Perfect Putty, as best as I could, which is hopefully sufficient. I really suck at filling.

The engine parts, of which there are many, got a coat of Tamiya LP flat aluminum as a base color. The next step, I pondered in my small brain. The cylinder covers as well as some other parts of the engine block, where in a blue paint, originally. I tried to mask the demarcation line with tape, but was unable to get a perfect masking with the difficult shape of the part. Tamiy coul have parted the cylinder covers for easier painting. 
During my siesta, I had an idea. I once bought a big bottle of semi viscous masking fluid from Moiotow for a special paintjob, which never worked out. Here it came to rescue. I spilled an amount of masking fluid onto some plastic and moved the part in the fluid, et voila, it worked. Siestas are no wasted time it seems.

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

Neat!!

[KevinM]

Ahh hell I thought you were trying to simulate a valve cover gasket

[DocRob]

Continuing with the engine, all parts were sprayed with Tamiya LP matte aluminum per manual. After masking, I applied Tamiya X-3 Royal blue, which I left a bit translucent, to have a nice anodized appearance. 
Next, I picked of the ribs and branding with a soft lead pencil. The AK weathering pencil silver was not found suitable after testing. After some detail painting, I assembled the engine so far and decided to give it a coat of Tamiya LP semi matte clear, as the matte aluminum was too matte for my liking. I plan to use a very thin oil wash next, where the clear coat will be a good base for.

Another test of patience were the numerous belts, which were sprayed in matte aluminum entirely and then the belts were painted with Tamiya LP Nato black. Various parts, which will be added to the engine block soon, were painted with AK's Extreme Metals dark aluminum, polished aluminum and duraluminum.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

There was a lot of work involved for it replicating only a 1,5 liter engine. The turbo chargers which will push the engine to about 500 PS are not even included. 
Cables and wires are not finally attached, as I may add some resin connectors later, if my parcel ever arrives.
I added a thin black oil color/white spirit wash, to enhance the details a bit. Before, I tried Tamiya and AK panel liner, but didn't like, how difficult they were to remove and found the oil color mix much mor controllable and noted for the future, to mix my own washes preferably.
Fit of the parts was not brilliant, but in most cases sufficient. I had to cut some connector lugs for the belts and few other smaller parts, but no major complaints.

Cheers Rob

   

[Peterpools]

Rob

OMG, the Turbo V6 looks spectacular and is sure a gem. 

 

[GazzaS]

Sweet job on that engine, Rob!

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, Peterpools said:

OMG, the Turbo V6 looks spectacular and is sure a gem. 

 

34 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

Sweet job on that engine, Rob!

Muchas gracias amigos, I like the looks of that engine too, but the clear fuel lines are oversized to my eye. I will substitute them with thinner clear brown tube from Hiro, but  need to snip off the plastic lugs first and add some tiny wire rods to accept the smaller tube. I hope next week a parcel with some car goodies will finally show up, with some resin connectors and braided lines and other stuff, to get the Renault done.

Cheers Rob

[KevinM]

4 hours ago, DocRob said:

but the clear fuel lines are oversized to my eye.

Have to agree with Craig over at MSW about that Rob not just the size but color looks wrong to "ME".I have worked 43 yrs in the Auto industry much of it retail but had 7 yrs in a machine shop throwing engines out on Friday seeing them on the track Saturday Night. That's why I do not comment real hard on the auto builds I'm burnt.

[mark31]

great work you are doing.

I love it

 

Mark

[DocRob]

On 7/22/2023 at 2:57 PM, KevinM said:

Have to agree with Craig over at MSW about that Rob not just the size but color looks wrong to "ME".I have worked 43 yrs in the Auto industry much of it retail but had 7 yrs in a machine shop throwing engines out on Friday seeing them on the track Saturday Night. That's why I do not comment real hard on the auto builds I'm burnt.

Glad you spare me the worst, Kevin . I know almost nothing about the innards of race cars, but like always, when I don't have the slightest idea and I'm to lazy to check references, I do what feels right to me. Totally freedom that way. I will substitute the clear tubes later, as I really don't like the look.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

7 hours ago, mark31 said:

great work you are doing.

Thank you Mark, definitely a different approach than armor or planes, as you always have to work on the inside and outside at the same time. With a plane, you close the hull and on you go, but here it's subassembly after subassembly, always checking the fit and what will be hidden and what shows,... There is definitely more planning involved.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

You may think, I was lazy, as I've posted no updates, but no. The nature of the build dictate, that there is a lot of painting and planning ahead involved with this build along with time consuming cleanup. The kit shows it's age, but all is manageable. I sprayed different metal and black shades to the monocoque and front suspension but nothing is assembled now, the pictures are only a mock up.
I decided to use Polished Aluminum from the Extreme Metal range, but it permanently clogged my airbrush, even after in thorough between cleaning. Strange, last week, it sprayed without problems. I opted for Chrome then, which looks bright and shiny and enough like polished aluminum. As a primer, I used Tamiya's gloss black LP color, which is fantastic for the purpose. The designated AK black primer proved horrible in earlier test and never thoroughly dried, with keeping it's tackiness, even after weeks. All other colors were from Tamiya's LP range, namely Sparkling Silver, Metallic Grey, Silver and Semi matte black. All these colors spray exceptionally well, thinned with Leveling Thinner and are very durable.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Awesome progress and completely agree about Tamiya Black Gloss Lacquer as the perfect base for the NM Metallics. Looking just perfect.

 

[DocRob]

Thank you Peter, nothing better to have trusty colors at hand. There are some of the LP colors, which are not up to the others, I found. I had a blue tone, forget which, which covered badly and the gloss white has a perfect finish, but coverage is a bit sparse. Flat Aluminum looks too flat for my liking, no real aluminum is that dull.

Today I primed the body parts and after looking for some white primer yesterday, a type, I never used before, a bottle of Alclad white primer showed up and got the nod after some test shooting. First impression is, it covers well and produces a perfect silky surface. After thoroughly drying, I will test the durability with some tape, but I'm positively surprised about the result.

Cheers Rob