Tamiya 1:12 McLaren MP4/6 Rebuild/Upgrade

Tamiya 1:12 McLaren MP4/6 Rebuild/Upgrade

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dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Sunday 31st July 2016
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Thought I'd better start sorting all these tiny parts into some kind of storage system. Once you cut open those plastic bags, the chances of keeping everything separate and safe is pretty much nil.


dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 2nd August 2016
quotequote all
Had a trip to the Donington collection today. They didn't have an MP4/6, but did have a 4/5B and a 4/7, both of which had similar carbon types in the areas I'm interested in. Looks like the wing endplates are more textured than a visible weave:





I guess the texture could be represented by twill weave carbon decal, toned down a bit, but looking at the cars from a 'scale' distance, all you see in these areas is matt or satin black.

Vortex generators are more defined in terms of weave:



...and the front wing rubbing strips are wood:



They've gone to extreme lenghts to change the Marlboro cheverons to something different IIRC on all the McLarens - these are infil stickers:



Yet the old BRM is unchanged:



Presumably it's a McLaren thing.

EagleMoto4-2

669 posts

103 months

Wednesday 3rd August 2016
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Does this mean we will see some more progress soon?!
Did you take a piece of the model bodywork along to compare the Marlboro red?

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 3rd August 2016
quotequote all
EagleMoto4-2 said:
Does this mean we will see some more progress soon?!
Did you take a piece of the model bodywork along to compare the Marlboro red?
I nearly took some bodywork to compare, but then thought better of it. Firstly, the effects of fading would make any match irrelevant, and secondly I wouldn't re-paint it again anyway!

EagleMoto4-2

669 posts

103 months

Thursday 4th August 2016
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During your visit to Donnignton, you didn't happen to spy a Ferrari 312t5 there did you?

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 4th August 2016
quotequote all
EagleMoto4-2 said:
During your visit to Donnignton, you didn't happen to spy a Ferrari 312t5 there did you?
Yep:


dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 4th August 2016
quotequote all
Strange place the Donington collection. It's like a morgue for F1 cars, absolutely no imagination to the display, just rows of cars interspersed with loads of nondescript(and presumably defunct) Formula Classic cars.

Bizzarrely, the first couple of halls are dedicated to tanks and military vehicles. The owner, Kevin Wheatcroft apparently has the largest collection of Nazi memorabilia in the world:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/24/the-...




Rude-boy

22,227 posts

232 months

Friday 5th August 2016
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dr_gn said:
Strange place the Donington collection. It's like a morgue for F1 cars, absolutely no imagination to the display, just rows of cars interspersed with loads of nondescript(and presumably defunct) Formula Classic cars.

Bizzarrely, the first couple of halls are dedicated to tanks and military vehicles. The owner, Kevin Wheatcroft apparently has the largest collection of Nazi memorabilia in the world:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/24/the-...
It is a real shame. I don't think that Kevin has much interest in the old cars himself and is fully wrapped up in his tanks and so on. At least though he has been good enough to underwrite the reopening of the track and has not seemingly taken advantage of the increase in value of the collection to cash in and split (they may have sold the odd one or two, i don't know, but certainly have not dumped the lot).

SOmetimes though i find that these sorts of places are so much more interesting for the lack to glitz and razzamatazz.

6 or 7 years ago we went to Poznan on a long weekend and in a corner of one of the large subways need the train station we fell upon a car museum with about as much floor space as a tennis court. Crammed full of all sorts of oddities and so on with little or no attempt to explain what each was was actually quite liberating. You found that you were looking at the cars and the detail, not just glancing and then reading the board before on to the next.

EagleMoto4-2

669 posts

103 months

Friday 5th August 2016
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dr_gn said:
EagleMoto4-2 said:
During your visit to Donnignton, you didn't happen to spy a Ferrari 312t5 there did you?
Yep:

Thanks Doc, I feel a need to make a visit now! Recently bought one of those Haynes manuals on the 312T Ferrari cars. In it is the history of all the chassis produced. Its interesting to note that Ferrari didnt make that many during each years campaign, and with the T5 in early 1980 the first ones were actually modified T4's. That one in your picture was the one Villeneuve crashed at the entry to Tosa, on the bend that now bears his name at the Imola circuit. Even though it was ripped in two it was rebuilt.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Friday 5th August 2016
quotequote all
EagleMoto4-2 said:
dr_gn said:
EagleMoto4-2 said:
During your visit to Donnignton, you didn't happen to spy a Ferrari 312t5 there did you?
Yep:

Thanks Doc, I feel a need to make a visit now! Recently bought one of those Haynes manuals on the 312T Ferrari cars. In it is the history of all the chassis produced. Its interesting to note that Ferrari didnt make that many during each years campaign, and with the T5 in early 1980 the first ones were actually modified T4's. That one in your picture was the one Villeneuve crashed at the entry to Tosa, on the bend that now bears his name at the Imola circuit. Even though it was ripped in two it was rebuilt.
You can't really get close to it (at least not when we went this week) because it's in a corner, and there's a barrier in front of an adjacent (currently empty) display area meaning you can't stand in front of it.

You could call the museum and ask if you could get a bit closer, although when I called to ask re. the McLaren, the person I spoke to couldn't have been less helpful. Turned out they didn't have an MP4/6 anyway, but luckily the mp4/7 was at the end of a row, and unlike the Ferrari there was access along the side.

EagleMoto4-2

669 posts

103 months

Sunday 21st August 2016
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Fortunately when I went today the barrier wasnt there and was able to get close enough to touch the front wing. Therefore was able to get some good low down shots from the front of the car.



Like you say Doc, the McLaren end plates from a distance look untextured and smooth in a matt/semi-gloss black finish. So in scale it would probably look how you had them painted originally!

Disappointed they dont have the wrecked car that Purley crashed at Silverstone.

Murph7355

37,646 posts

255 months

Sunday 21st August 2016
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EagleMoto4-2 said:
...

Disappointed they dont have the wrecked car that Purley crashed at Silverstone.
LEC liveried? Think it was in Octane this month or last...

EagleMoto4-2

669 posts

103 months

Sunday 21st August 2016
quotequote all
Murph7355 said:
EagleMoto4-2 said:
...

Disappointed they dont have the wrecked car that Purley crashed at Silverstone.
LEC liveried? Think it was in Octane this month or last...
Thats the one. Guess that explains why there was an empty section next to the Roger Williamson display.

Murph7355

37,646 posts

255 months

Sunday 21st August 2016
quotequote all
EagleMoto4-2 said:
Thats the one. Guess that explains why there was an empty section next to the Roger Williamson display.
If you need anything specific I can see if the article included it...

72twink

963 posts

241 months

Sunday 21st August 2016
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EagleMoto4-2 said:
Disappointed they dont have the wrecked car that Purley crashed at Silverstone.
Wasn't it restored a couple of years back using the second chassis as reference, both cars were at Goodwood either last year or the year before.

Edit: Found a pic I took of them together.



Sorry for the hijack GN, back to the MP4/6!

Edited by 72twink on Monday 22 August 00:14

Mutley

3,178 posts

258 months

Monday 22nd August 2016
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72twink said:
Wasn't it restored a couple of years back using the second chassis as reference, both cars were at Goodwood either last year or the year before.

Edit: Found a pic I took of them together.



Sorry for the hijack GN, back to the MP4/6!

Edited by 72twink on Monday 22 August 00:14
Both were running at the Silverstone Classic last year

EagleMoto4-2

669 posts

103 months

Tuesday 23rd August 2016
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Mutley said:
72twink said:
Wasn't it restored a couple of years back using the second chassis as reference, both cars were at Goodwood either last year or the year before.

Edit: Found a pic I took of them together.



Sorry for the hijack GN, back to the MP4/6!

Edited by 72twink on Monday 22 August 00:14
Both were running at the Silverstone Classic last year
Fancy them doing that, thought the whole point of keeping the wrecked one was so that people could marvel that he survived the most violent crash in F1.

Composite Guru

2,205 posts

202 months

Tuesday 23rd August 2016
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
Had a trip to the Donington collection today. They didn't have an MP4/6, but did have a 4/5B and a 4/7, both of which had similar carbon types in the areas I'm interested in. Looks like the wing endplates are more textured than a visible weave:

That's the effect of a couple of plies of carbon vacuumed over Nomex core. F1 parts still suffer with that nowadays but only on internal parts that aren't aero wetted surfaces.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
Composite Guru said:
dr_gn said:
Had a trip to the Donington collection today. They didn't have an MP4/6, but did have a 4/5B and a 4/7, both of which had similar carbon types in the areas I'm interested in. Looks like the wing endplates are more textured than a visible weave:

That's the effect of a couple of plies of carbon vacuumed over Nomex core. F1 parts still suffer with that nowadays but only on internal parts that aren't aero wetted surfaces.
Guess that explains the thickness too. I reckon the p/e wing endplates for this era of McLaren are a waste of cash even at 1:20 scale. Plastic seems more realistic in this case.

Composite Guru

2,205 posts

202 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
Composite Guru said:
dr_gn said:
Had a trip to the Donington collection today. They didn't have an MP4/6, but did have a 4/5B and a 4/7, both of which had similar carbon types in the areas I'm interested in. Looks like the wing endplates are more textured than a visible weave:

That's the effect of a couple of plies of carbon vacuumed over Nomex core. F1 parts still suffer with that nowadays but only on internal parts that aren't aero wetted surfaces.
Guess that explains the thickness too. I reckon the p/e wing endplates for this era of McLaren are a waste of cash even at 1:20 scale. Plastic seems more realistic in this case.
I'm currently building the Tamiya Red Bull RB6 and I bought the Studio 27 PE and carbon kit for it. The PE set had replacement bargeboards in it but I didn't use them for the same reason, the plastic version were far more realistic in thickness. I know as I've seen them in the flesh. biggrin