Unlike the Jordan 192 which has been put aside for a while, my purpose for this year is to start and actually finish a model, lol.
I've chosen the Renault RE30B for two main reasons.
1. My dad is a huge Renault Fan, this one is for him.
2. This is a perfect model for me because I want to try many different new techniques. Given the aluminium tub, turbo engine and ground effects floor it is far away from the recent all-carbon cars. Should be fun!
Before I begin with the pics, let me thank Sergey for providing me with an invaluable set of reference pictures. I will be building this one mostly out of ref pics, not the instruction sheet so his was a huge help. Also thanks to Wim from BBK where I got the S27 PE set for this car, it was a pleasure doing business with him. The set should arrive shortly.
I still haven't decided on which decals I'll be using, any input on that would be greatly appreciated.
So, here's the box:
This will be the third time I build this model, but it's a rebuild of the second build. It was better than the first, but not good enough.
Here's the first RE30B I built and 3rd model I ever built... some 25 years ago more or less. What's left of it anyway:
Brush painted, no sanding of mold lines/sink marks.. a real beauty! lol.
I'm really glad I kept it though. It's providing a really good visual reference for comparisson during the building process. Once this one is done, I plan to display them together with a little plaque in front of each one with the building years among other info.
I started focusing on the tub. When done, it won't be painted at all. I'll be using a very thin aluminium sheet to cover the hell out of it. IMO nothing beats real metal and also, I can't get Alcad paints here but even if I could, I think I'd be doing it this way anyway.
All parts have been swimming in brake fluid for a while now, but some paints still won't come off. Doesn't matter though, lamost everything will be sanded away.
Floor, cooling and exhaust system:
Marked with red, stuff that will be cut/sanded away. The cooling system will be replaced entirely, and only around 20% of the exhaust system will remain but will be modified as well.
TUB
Again, marked with red -> cut/sand away.
Blue -> Will be filled.
Anti-Roll front protection is a separate piece:
So it'll be gone along with other molded-in parts:
Upper and lower front suspension come in one piece each, that makes the floor and suspension itself inacurate so here's what I've done in an effort to make it more true to life:
And filled with plastic card:
Next up was dealing with the footwell area. in the Tamiya model it's non-existant. You're supposed to glue top and bottom pieces of the tub and that's it.
To begin with, I created new pieces where the front shocks will be housed and built the footwell around them. Unlike the new cars, this is all angled, hardly any cirved surfaces so I made multiple pieces to get the correct shape.
All these new pieces sit flush with the top part of the tub. Once coverd with the alu sheet, should look somewhat like this:
The overall shape of the footwell now seems to be close to real one, so I'm happy!
The top part of the tub has also been modified to better represent the real thing.
The kit has a sort of panel line crossing the lenght of the gas tank:
In reality this section is not flat with a line, but two pieces forming an angle and hold toghether with rivets. More plastic card and lots of sanding later:
I've opended the front part of the tub and will sand the molded pieces pieces marked with red once both top and bottom parts are glued toghether because this section is too thin and I don't want to break it while sanding. Also note how the section around the cockpit isn't flat anymore compared to the bottom piece. This was because of heavy sanding on the gas tank area. No problem though, will correct it with epoxy putty after gluing both parts together:
Finally, here's what the OOB parts looks like. (Poorly built of course):
And the new one:
Next up, the scratch built seat.
Cheers and Happy 2012!
