The other day I was looking at the pictures (slides, actually) and the thought occurred to me that since I have a couple of the Tamiya 1/20 scale 1976 McLaren M23 kits on the shelf that it may not be that difficult to retro fit one of them back to a 1973 spec. car. I figured the hardest part would be the decals, since I was not certain they were available. After a quick look at the “Indycal” web site I found the set in 1/20 scale for the Peter Revson number 8 car. The 1/12 scale car I built originally was the 1974 Mike Hailwood number 33 car and it had a rather tall smooth air intake box. The 1/20 scale car here is the number 8 Peter Revson version which had a significantly different shaped air scoop.
I began doing some book and computer research and found many pictures of the car in its original and restored versions. I placed more “weight” on the original pictures, but because the shots were generally of the car at a distance these only served to get the “look” and decal placement as correct as possible. To figure out the smaller details I had to rely on the close-up detail shots of the restored vehicle, so therefore the model details are based more on the restored car pictures. Just a word of caution here……..I am not what you would call a “rivet counter” by any stretch of the imagination….so I am not looking to have every single wire, hose and rivet on this build. I want the model to look and feel right, but don’t expect every tiny detail to be in place……..my “patience” just will not allow that any more. Further, I get bored working on one build too long so I need to move the process along………and because of that, many details just get lost in the smoke….sorry, but that’s just the way it is.
I have to also state here that many of the modifications were “eyeballed” since I did not have the exact measurements for many components on this car…..actually; the wheelbase (101 inches) was the only real spec. along with track width that I could effectively use.
So, rather than bore you guys with all of the detail modifications I made, just know that every panel and facet of the car was modified, strictly by “Eye-ball” engineering. The air scoop was the most reworked piece on the car (and yes, in hindsight, it looks to be just a tiny, tinny bit too low in the area between the scoop body and the mailbox…..sorry) with about 95% of it scratch built. The oil coolers were remounted in the rear and the radiators were made from sheet styrene with photo-etch HO train walkways over the top. The rear wing was converted from a “Vee” design to a flat smooth front and the support was rebuilt to reflect the angled set up. Rather than spend a gazillion dollars on machined tube couplings, I got some cheap silver “crimp tube” kids’ jewelry pieces and painted them with clear red and blue paint. I had to vacuum-form a new shorter windscreen with the correct slope in the front.
The driver is a Tamiya guy with hand painted scallops in red and blue and a road way “R” in front to basically replicate Peter Revsons’ helmet. I wanted to as closely as possible build the winning car from the 1973 British GP but found no close-up shots to work from.
With all of the talk about the 1/12 scale Tamiya Yardley McLaren out there my timing is just right to have finished this one. Like I said before, I cut some corners with the details, but over all I am happy with the result………it looks and feels right to my eyes.
As a little side note…..the Indycal decals are very thin and delicate to work with, which is great, and you must be very careful. I did not clear coat the number 8 decals on the side pod right away, thinking that they would be ok…….wrong……..after a day I happened to look at the decal number 8’s and saw that they had self-destructed into a hundred little spec’s of black powder……..fortunately, my brother is a graphic sign maker and has the software and vinyl cutter so we rebuilt the number 8 and the two side pod 8’s on this car were cut out of vinyl and applied to the car directly…………..I just thought I would point that out since I was really upset with my stupidity.
Here is an overview of the car………..
Front view…….
Driver (Revson) with the cowling off……….
The engine area………
Driver….reverse side……..
Back side…...what everyone got to see at Silverstone in 1973……..
Great job 
. Is that Helmet the original Tamiya 70's?
I wish I had hands that steady today.