Mclaren MP4 build update
In this view you can see the pipe joints on the oil filter. A big omission on the kit. These came from ( Best balsa kits). I bought two sizes and these were easily fitted around stage 12 of the instructions. I also replaced the connecting tube between the two filter boxes with a piece of shrink tube and cable ties from the (Thunder valley) detail kit. An invaluable piece of kit. You can also see the modification to the throttle linkage again from BBK as above. The extra valves attached to the tub between the main radiator and the engine were scratch built from aluminium tube and electrical connectors, again from the Thunder valley box. Air intake stacks again TV parts. All extra cables were added from downloaded photographs of the actual car, easily found on Google. I downloaded about 15 images which were a great help to extra detailing. The radiator clamps again TV parts. Don't worry about them being a perfect fit as Bergers car images show they were a bit rough on the actual car.
I added some carbon fibre decals to the floor of the car but found the decals I bought too inflexible to get a good effect on curved surfaces. The thick cable which was supposed to be wrapped in the foil included in the kit was replaced with 2mm braided cable, easily available on the internet from UK suppliers. Mine came with a plastic core which I removed before fitting. Tubing C and D fitted at step 15 needed to be removed and replaced with approximately 7mm longer cable for ease of fitting and I needed to remove the rear wing to fit it easily, perhaps I am just clumsy. The engine ties between the engine and the chassis floor were also spare parts from the throttle linkage and imitation hex bolts again from BBK.
I used lots of the parts from the Thunder valley kit but not all of them as I could not identify where some of them were meant to be used. The engine kill switch which you can see in the photo was a problem as when I fitted the main body cowl it simply bent and I could not get it to fit through the corresponding aperture. I eventually cut it in half and fixed the outer part to the cowl. Never mind, a compromise I could not overcome.
The main omission in the construction is the covers F6 and F9 at stage 7. These were missed out to allow the detail to be added to the spark plugs and ignition leads again taken from actual photos and other kits such as the one shown on BBK .
One thing you have probably noticed is that I painted the top wing of the rear spoiler white when it should be orange, a stupid but honest mistake which I only noticed when looking at images for location of the sponsors logo's . I did a big double take and uttered one or two colourful expletives on my own stupidity.
Here you can see some of the extra cable detail to both sides of the cockpit and the front suspension. You can just see the replaced steering wheel shaft, another extra cockpit detail kit from (Hobby link Japan) This incorporates a universal joint which is only about 2mm square and made from a number of PE parts but is accurate to the real car.
A little blurred but the rectified rear spoiler paint job !
Again sorry for the blurred image but you can see the extra cbling added to the engine block . The sponsor logo sheet was another extra as no sponsor logos are included in the kit. The sheet I bought did not include a Marlboro logo of the correct size for the side of the roll bar so another trawl of the internet was called for and I found these from an Australian supplier , perfect but more cash to splash out.
Sorry for the picture quality again but this is my finished model with the Williams FW14. I cannot show any images of the cockpit detail but strongly suggest that you use it if you are building the kit. All switches are included as is the cable connection between the steering wheel and the drivers panel These greatly enhance the kit as does the seat belt harness buckles all PE parts, a little fiddly but worth the effort. I did not change all the hex bolts and screws for imitation metal parts as some were too small for me to do neatly. I did replace about 30 of these on the engine block particularly on the exhaust plates and the air intakes. I also added hex heads on the seat belt connection to the tub, front suspension and cockpit interior.
The model took me approximately 500 hours to complete and will probably be my last major project in this scale, mainly due to display space. If I can get my hands on my daughters 35mm camera I will post better photographs for anyone interested, let me know if this is of interest to anyone but for now I think That's all folks.
