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1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Sennas 2nd Championship

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:34 pm
by senninha
Hello Modelers,

new year new build. Long time ago I was dreaming of a 1:12 MP4/5B. For me its one of the most iconic Formula 1 cars. Maybe it was unfair from Senna with saving the title through kicking Prost out of the race, but on the other hand it was one of the most spectacular title wins of all time.

Today I will start my 2nd MFH building report. The start of the build itself was 8 weeks ago with sanding and dry fitting. My model has a lot of fitting issues. It was horrible to achieve a perfect fit of the windshield and the covers of the air outtakes on the side. The latter one was 5 weeks of hard work, with 2 tubes of revells putty and 2 spray cans of tamiyas primer. But now im feeling comfortable with. The wind shield was also very hard to install, because it was too slim and the cowling was too wide. Now it fits narrowly. But the most difficult thing was to reinstall the small gap between cowling and shield. It was a mess.. and i really hate to engrave the lines again.

The next update will be about the preparing of the engine.

I hope you enjoy this build.

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so far so good..

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Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Senna 2nd Championship

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:43 pm
by jaykay
I'll be following with interest! I have the early version of that kit. Lucky score on ebay :-)
Those fitment issues are not promising...

Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Senna 2nd Championship

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:49 pm
by senninha
Hello my friend, I forgot to mention the most annoying thing.. the front wing.. 6 parts, and it was a mess to glue the photo etch parts to the resin wing and nose cone.. filling with putty went into one of the most difficult issue I ever had. 3 weeks until I was satisfied with the result.

On the last picture you see the side. one part is metal the other is resin. The metal part is too thick, so no flushing with the rest of the lower part of the monocoque... that will be fun :)

PS: can you answer a question? what is your way for engraving the panel lines? Im unable to do this with an engraving tool

Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Sennas 2nd Championship

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:32 pm
by jaykay
Didn't notice the white metal bits on the monocoque before. I can imagine they won't be fun. I'd probably replace them with styrene or renshape copies.
Same goes with etched parts that have to be integrated into resin bodies like on the nosecone.
For line scribing i use a variety of tools. First stop are BMC chisels from Japan ( check HLJ or HobbySearch ). They are expensive but work well for me. Then i have some european style engraver's chisels and finally a number of differently shaped files, other modeling engraving tools and sand paper for cleaning up. I have some etched tools but haven't had much success using them.

Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Sennas 2nd Championship

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 11:25 pm
by senninha
Thanks for the explanation. Replacing the metal bits is too ambitious for me, because the whole monocoque construction based on four plates, both of the outer bits screwed to the inner metal bits. same with the front plate, the plate is made of metal.

Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Sennas 2nd Championship

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:57 am
by jaykay
Had a look at the kit parts now. I see that they are more complicated on the inside. That's some extra work.
You could still make resin copies of such parts to avoid the white metal issues. That's no rocket science.
I'm not happy about rhe bottom plate being screwed in either. I'll change that whenever i get to this build.
The etched parts on the front wing/nose element i don't understand. Hiro played it too cautious there. They've cast pieces like that on 1:20 kits with perfect thin walls before. The etched bits are an unnecessary hassle.

Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Sennas 2nd Championship

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:39 pm
by senninha
totally agree.. the fun continues with the end plates on the front wing.. i post my solution on the weekend. Do you plan to start the build this year?

Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Sennas 2nd Championship

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:20 pm
by jaykay
Good one :-)
I should finish something first for a change. It's been a long time...

Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Sennas 2nd Championship

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 11:58 am
by senninha
Good evening modelers,

a short update to the MP4/5b. I substituted some "OEM" parts from MFH, because they did not look very well. So just have a look to my own creation:

at 1st the original part

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here is mine

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now the suspension parts..

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and the raw engine

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hope you like it

Re: 1:12 MFH McLaren MP 4/5B - Sennas 2nd Championship

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 1:43 pm
by gp-models
Very nice detail work, the cross joint is looking nice :)