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The car raced with M@r!b*r* barcode markings at Silverstone in '91. The Mclaren branding appeared at the next race in Germany. If that paint you have is old I would advise having a test spray on some scrap plastic first, just to be safe. Finally, I have had brake fluid make plastic go soft and bendy, especially thin wing sections. Be careful. My preffered stripper is oven cleaner.

daveyman wrote:The car raced with M@r!b*r* barcode markings at Silverstone in '91. The Mclaren branding appeared at the next race in Germany. If that paint you have is old I would advise having a test spray on some scrap plastic first, just to be safe. Finally, I have had brake fluid make plastic go soft and bendy, especially thin wing sections. Be careful. My preffered stripper is oven cleaner.

That's strange, in 88 and 89 they definitely had the barcode livery. I wonder where I saw the McLaren livery on the '91 car? I'll have to find my testing pics, I might have got them mixed up.

ETA nope, it was M@r!b*r* livery in testing as I thought. My memory obviously isn't what it was!

I found this great amateur video of '91 tyre testing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTCmzQ4mh5c

My dad and I had some great days down there in the early '90's. 2014 F1 cars are a shadow of those cars - I think the MP4/6 in '91 was the last car to win a championship with a V12 engine and with a manual gearbox. 3.5 litres too...what an awesome sight and sound they were.

A ha I know now, just looked at YouTube of the 1992 BGP, it was the MP4/7 with the McLaren livery. The car looked very similar to the 4/6.

I did find some BGP '91 images of the MP4/6's with the barcode livery. Might have only been for practice?

I guess all this begs the question of wing configuration for Silverstone (M@r!b*r*) vs Hockenheim (McLaren), and of course the FIA cockpit sticker etc, assuming I wanted a Silversotne version.

Does anyone know of any other visible configuration differences?

Am I over-analysing this?

Yes there was a few minor configuration play arounds. Obviously till canada the windscreen was red with the tag heuer logo moved up there in white. Then it was made see through with the tag logo lower in black. The rear wing end plates were much bigger and more squared in shape for the lower downforce races. The front.wing elements changed also, compare the ones in the kit to pictures from adelaide. The rear wing mirrors were either red or white which changed whenever and the rear wing posts could also be white or black. Where the front wing elements meet the nose cone panel would eitjer be white or black, again this varied. Wheel nuts were either black or unpainted and the engine changed alot as it was feverishly developed to compete with the renault. The 1992 mp4/6b was the same car spec as raced in japan and adelaide 1991 but had the tag heuer logo removed, the spark plug cover now full time installed on the engine and instead of a honda logo on the steering wheel it had a shell logo.

When you see most peoples builds of this car, often it is stated the model is based on a particular race but often when you probe in depth somethings aren't consistent. And it doesn't really matter. building it in hyper detail will involve some compromise. It is a very challenging kit and no matter who builds it, it will always leave the impression that more could be done. And that is it's beauty. Remember there were 11 of those mp4/6 chassis made just to keep us modellers on our toes...

As I remeber the Tamiya kit represents, up to a point, the German GP car with trimmed out wings etc. The Mclaren logos would be correct for that race but barcodes were definitely in place for the Silverstone weekend. It wouldn't be that tricky to make some barcodes from decal sheet or even mask and spray them, I would certainly consider doing that on 1/12 but then I also love masking!

Thanks guys.

I'll go with the McLaren livery as per tyre testing. I'll look through my photos and see if I can see anything obviously different from the nominal OOB Hockenheim version.

As Scale_Engineering says, it's always a compromise. My favourite phrase is "modeller's license". At the end of the day if a model looks good, it's a good model IMO.

The Modelstrip worked on the front wing and about 95% of the body, but for some reason the front area of fluourescent red was pretty much untouched:



I've sprayed it with Mr.Muscle and will see what happens. If it's still there later, it'll be going in brake fluid:

Looks a sterling job so far keep us updated looking good.

Paul

Cheers Paul. I'm doing a bit every evening and thereofore one evening it will be done...

The Mr.Muscle didn't touch the last bits of red, so I dunked it in brake fluid. That softened them a bit, but for some reason they still needed more persuasion with the edge of a credit card. Anyway, the whole project is looking distinctly more do-able now:



One issue is that one of the teardrops on the engine cover must have got flatted away last time I painted it:



I'll have to somehow replace it. I'm thinking of sanding the other side down and making a new pair form old aircraft missiles cut obliquely at the nose. That should result in a teardrop-esque shape if my 3-D thinking isn't wrong.

The inside of the body is another story, and is currently in a bag with my old friend Mr.Muscle:



Those foil areas will be a bh to remove...

I got the MFH tyre valves today. I was a bit shocked to find they are cast white metal ratehr than turned, but a few seconds with a fibreglass pencil brightened them up so there's not much difference now. Much cheaper than turned ones too. I might give them a dark wash to bring out the various steps and contours:



Also got the Joe Honda book on the MP4/6. Full of good old film camera images from what I consider the greatest era of F1: