WIP MP4/6 - First time builder - of this subject anyway

[Alex_Kung]

I decided to redo the brackets for accuracy and was not too worried about it sitting right as I was going to support the car with spacers under the car. The spacers would give the correct ride height and also take all the weight of the model instead of the tires.

[kimi4623]

Welcome to the forum!

I finished this kit some months ago, after nearly 8 months of work, and it is nice to see that some outstanding works are still going on. I will follow closely your work, it will be a fantastic model.

Congratulations!

[Lazbun]

They should have a U shaped cross section as you can see on the picture and be bolted to the side of the gearbox as opposed to being flat and going through the gearbox as the kit parts

Exactly what I was thinking when I look at the kit.
So, I will be watching you how to modify this part.
Welcome to F1M.

[Dede]

I too will be watching this very closely considering the perfect start so far, it will be something special when finished for sure, Its another kit I am looking forward to building some day... so your WIP will give plenty of tips,
Keep up the excellent work and please keep the reports coming.
Thanks,

Dede.

[Si90]

So, I will be watching you how to modify this part.

After a couple of failed attempts because the part just wasn't strong enough I decided just to leave the kit parts hence thats why Its been put together but now you have got me thinking about it again. I tried to do the whole arm but i think now I may just scratch make the top rail. After all this is the only piece you will see. It just means I will have to be really careful cutting off the tops not to damage the rest of the engine, then do some masking to re-paint it. Will have to think about that one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[garymc]

First off welcome to the forum.Great work so far and really looking forward to the rest of your build.

Regards,Gary

[Si90]

Just a quick update but first a big thank you to all of you that have looked at my efforts and for such a warm and encouraging welcome.

Had some unexpected time in the couple of days so after the points raised regarding the suspension arms and the inaccuracies of the kit parts I decided to have another go at modifying them. What it did mean though is that I had to carry out the modifications in situ because I had already put the parts together. Below is the finished results - I was very nervous doing it but all in all it turned out quite well considering.

I first cut off the top rail from the back mount just behind the flat section with the hole in. The flat piece with the hole was then thinned as much as I dare which gave me something to attach the new piece too. The replacement section was made from 2.4mm U shaped styrene section. I filed the end round and then attached a tiny piece of 2.5mmx0.2mm thick styrene strip to the end of this to form the rounded end. However 2.4mm wasn't quite wide enough so I wrapped another length of the 2.5mm strip around the whole thing and then thinnned it all down to the correct width. I had to make the new piece out of 2 pieces to get the dog leg and the slight bend upwards. The front mount had a section thinned out to accept a piece of the U section. It was all held together by plastic weld as It is the strongest thing I can find to bond plastic. I really whish I had done it before construction but now it is done I am really quite happy with it

[Alex_Kung]

That is looking much better

[PanAmNut]

Nicely done !

Cheers,

-elh-

[Si90]

Just a quick update on progress so far after my short break away. I have finally started to use the Perfect Parts Kit after putting it off for as long as I could. I still have quite a few parts prepared that I haven't put on the engine as I wanted to do the valve covers first. So this weekend I got stuck into those and to show for it I have 1 side done and after working with such small and delicate parts I have a renewed respect for people who work in 1/24 - it was a right pain doing this in 1/12. I have never worked with photoetch before and it's 20 years since I built a plastic kit, my thing is resin and vinyl.

So far I haven't used many bolts from the Perfect Parts kit prefering instead to use ones I bought from Hiroboy. If you look closely at the valve covers you can see the Knurled head allen bolts I used which are superb and spot on to the actual car. - expensive but worth it.

The bracket holding the 2 brass connectors is scratch made from the metal slider off a floppy disk. The one in the Perfect Parts Kit is too stiff to bend accurately as its stainless steel and quite thick and secondly too small as it doesn't allow space for a bolt to be fitted holding it to the valve cover. The small clips holding the cables which are 0.19mm detailing wire from Detail Master were a nightmare to get to stick and bend but in the end it's turned out OK.

The lettering is done with Bare Metal Foil applied before painting and then gently sanding off the paint using a piece of worn out wet and dry stuck to the back of a small metal ruler to keep it nice and flat and not sand it too much. One side came out slightly better than the other but both look OK. The picture shows the less good side. The valley has bare metal foil applied on top of the paint.

Sice my last update I have also made the line from the oil tank to the valve cover which is just test fitted in the picture below. I think I will re-make the black section as it's a little short. Hopefully by the next update I will have the other valve cover done, shocks installed, velocity stacks on and the exhaust flanges done and the ancillary items that fasten on the lower engine sides which are already complete put on.