Hi everyone,
Back again for the final update of the car build. I wanted to keep this until I had the display done, hence why it's been so long between updates (I've actually had the car done since xmas), but due to lockdowns and stuff where I am I haven't been able to get to any hobby shops to get the materials I need, and I need to see what I'm buying so I don't want to buy online. Anyway I'll do that as an update as and when I can.
Just as a recap, the last car update I posted was the assembly of the body shell and electrics. This update will cover the final assembly of the model as well as the decals.
So, stage 70 - Completion of the model. Parts supplied with this issue were: windscreen (1), sprue containing silver air valves and black aerials (2), sprue containing top body washers (3), fuel filter cover panel (4), right and left lower rollhoop (5), tail light lens (6) & top body decal sheet (bottom). I've also included photos below in greater detail for the smaller parts.
Tail light:
Top body washers:
Windscreen, valves and fuel filter cover:
Parts required from previous stages:
- All of them (lol).
Firstly, stage 70.1 - Labels, decals & minor bodywork. The labels and decals presented several problems throughout which I'll try and highlight as I go.
First, the plate labels were applied to the turbocharger.
Before:
After:
Next the chassis plate label was stuck to the monocoque. On a side note, just to refresh all of the labels were attached using only water. The process is that you soak them until the label self removes and then you lay that on the surface and wait for it to dry. I pushed them all in place with cotton buds (Q-tips I think for any American readers?) and tissue roll. The chassis plate label shown below (MP4-4-2) was the chassis number used by Senna at the 1988 Japanese GP.
Next the rollhoop assembly was glued onto the lower left and right rollhoop components, there was a left and right on these and they could arguably of been fitted both ways so care was taken to get these in the correct orientation. Shown below next to their respective sides:
Right side glued on:
And left side:
And then this assembly was glued onto the monocoque. Before:
After:
The eagle eyed above you will notice that the chassis plate label is different to the one posted at the start of 70.1 I initially misplaced the label with the chassis number on (the one supplied with the magazine itself,) however the set of decals I bought way back when that included all of the Marlboro sponsors (more on this soon as well,) also had a chassis plate label on so I initially used this one and swapped them when the original turned up as I wanted the chassis number on the car.
Next up, the start of the bodywork decals. In hindsight it would've been prudent to ignore the magazine and do all of these last as it proved very difficult to handle to model without occasionally damaging the decals, where this happened I repaired them as noted below.
The labels supplied with the magazine had a lightly dotted border as an alignment guide so this is visible on some of the photos below, but you'll notice they disappear at stages. This is just because I trimmed them after they had dried. First up was the Honda logo on the engine cover. Before:
After:
Both sides done. I tried very hard to get them symmetrical:
And next the SHELL logo on the sidepods, these were slightly trickier as the seam in the body work meant it was difficult to get the decal to lie completely flat. Visible also is the dotted line I mentioned, with the trimmed stage below:
Next the windscreen was glued to the cockpit cover. Before:
After:
Tail light lens was glued onto the tail light. Care was taken to use a very small amount of glue to avoid excess making it look messy:
And then the top body washers were removed from their sprue and threaded onto the correct screws. Fiddly doesn't even cover it. Shown below for scale. The washers were plastic, so as you can imagine they were very delicate. A few did get damaged later on in the assembly, but I don't think it's noticeable.
At this stage I also decided to do the monocoque decals:
Nose cone before:
After:
Survival cell before:
After:
Both sides (you'll notice slight damage to the right hand side):
After this aerials were glued onto the fuel filter cover panel:
And this was glued onto the monocoque. Before:
After:
Next up the valves (1st image below) were removed from the sprue and glued to the wheels. (2nd image before, 3rd image after).
Believe it or not that was all 70.1. I took this chance to do the bodywork decals, now a pleasant surprise the model actually came with a second sheet of decals which funnily enough has all of the letters and logos one would need to put Marlboro sponsorship on the car. Obviously their way of letting customers do so, without actually selling them Marlboro decals:
First up, the cockpit logos: As you can see below I accidently damaged right right hand side one, this was repaired later which I'll mention:
Engine cover logos (I loved these ones, really set the car off):
After this the side panels were glued onto the bodywork. Before:
After:
Repair job to the right hand side monocoque decal:
Right, that's quite a lot for today as I don't want to bore you all more than necessary haha. I'll continue with the rest of this update this week or next.
Thanks for reading.
Alex.
