1/20 March Engineering

Models in progress... including non-F1 models.
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Steffen_T
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1/20 March Engineering

Post by Steffen_T »

Hi all,

I would like to start a new WIP thread as I hadn't shown a lot in the past couple of month.

A few month ago I asked how to avoid 2k hardener getting solid within the bottle. Amongst the replies I got the most popular was: "Try to build several cars at once to use as much hardener and clear as you can."
Well, I did so and started four kits from the same Team:

March / Leyton House


March 881:
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Using this car March impressed in 1988 with 21 points. The car was also used in 1989 in the first races. Gugelmin scored the teams only points of the season with a third place in Brazil. The CG891 introduced at Monaco never got into the points.
The kit is by studio27 and represents the 1989 version of the 881. It will be build as it raced in Rio.

Leyton House CG901A
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This car was a complete disaster. The team struggled in the first half of the 1990 season and even missed a few qualifications. It was modified to the B-spec before the French Grand Prix. I will try to restore an old model of the CG901B which I had build 20 years ago to CG901A specifications. The version should be the car driven by Gugelmin in Imola (picture above). Modifications are:

- longer frontwing
- different sidepods
- higher mirrors
- onboard camera
- Autoglass advertising

There should be more modifications under the enginecover, but I won't care as it will be a curbside model.


Leyton House CG901B
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The car in which Ivan Capelli led the French Grand Prix two weeks after he and Gugelmin failed to qualify their cars for the Mexican Grand Prix. He finished the race in second place.
This car will be build according to the specifications of the Tamiya kit.


March CG911B
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The last car used by March in 1992. Karl Wendlinger was bought in the team by Mercedes to give Karl the chance to get some F1 expirience. He scored three points in Canada.
The kit is by AMC and will be build in an early season version with just very few advertising.



Here is the progress:

I mainly did the CG901A modifications in the last few weeks:

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Adding the onboard-camera wasn't difficult. The other stuff was!
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The airoutlets were closed, and the frontend of the sidepods removed. The undertray, which had to get an extension at the front got two small brasswires on each side to give the extension a bit more stability:
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I temporarily fixed two square pieces of plastic covered with lubricant on the inside of the undertray and placed putty arround it. Once it got hard, I removed the plastic again and already got the inside of the airintake ready. The other sides had to be sanded in shape.


On the topside of the undertray two holes were drilled for a brasswire. Fixed to this brasswire was the slightly bended polystyrene I used for the side:
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On top of the sidepods I went forward step by step:
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In comparisson to the new sidepods the frontwing was rather easy.
For stability reasons I once again added brasswires to the frontend:
To the left and the right I temporarly fitted polystyrene for the sanding to avoid rounded edges.
Putty was added and sanded to shape. The endingplates were prepared in a similar way:
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Gugelmins car had a nosetip similar to that of most recent F1 cars:
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To get this one done I drilled a 1mm hole through the frontwing inside the nose and placed a 1mm brassrod inside. A slightly bigger brassrod with an inner diameter of 1mm was placed above:
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It was shortend to a fitting length. The wing was covered with lubricant, putty was added around the brass and sanded to shape:
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All the modifications except the higher mirrors are roughly done. I will give the car a coat of primer to make the scratches and holes visible:
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By now the bodyparts of the other cars are also ready for primer!
881:
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911B:
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Another March will be joining the others when I get to the stage of clearcoating:
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A little observation:
Having dry-fitted both the studio27 881 and the AMC 911B at almost the same time I would like to mention, that the AMC kit made a better impression on me so far.
In terms of proportions there seems to be a serious problem with the studio27 car. I got the impression the chassis is way too long, and the nose a bit too short.
The proportions of the AMC car seem to be fine.
The studio27 resin somehow feels like a brick. It's hard and a little rough. The AMC resin feels a bit softer and soapy. So far, I am not sure which resin is better. Once I primed both I will let you know...
The fitment of the AMC kit is by far better. After cleaning the whitemetal parts and drilling the required holes in the resin gearbox I didn't had to adjust anything. Everything fitted together nicely. The studio27 kit required a bit more work and I fear I might get some problems with the frontsuspension.
It might have to do with the fact the studio27 kit is a few years older.

My further progress is now slowed down by the birth of our twins who of course also demand some of their fathers time. :-)
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daveyman
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by daveyman »

This is my kind of subject matter. Following this WIP.
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petrov27
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by petrov27 »

very cool subject and WIP thread - love the 881 and the Leyton House schemes!
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by Corpsegrinder »

Many congratulations on the birth of your twins! I know exactly what happens to modeling when the family grows bigger....anyway after the birth of my kid exactly one year ago, the only model I managed to start and complete, was the Tamiya CG901B!! Should be a good sign! :D
"In my days, the drivers used to go out after a race and chase girls. These days, they thank Vodafone" - Sir Stirling Moss
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by Eagle50 »

Very nice custom work. Such dedication! I'm sure these will be blue gems when done.

And yes, congratulations on the twins!

Cheers, Chris
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Paul_OFarrell
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by Paul_OFarrell »

Hi Steffan,

Wow, as if your life isn't busy enough with 5 kits on the go !!
Congrats on becoming a father to your twins.
I will look forward to your updates.

Cheers, Paul
Sydney, Oz
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by whatisdeletrazdoing »

Super cool! Those late 1980's Marches were such pretty cars. Congratulations on the twins!
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by tunyco »

Hi Steffen,
Congratulations for the twins. And wow such a great job on the March, of course, I'll be following with a big interest. Great work, for now, can't wait to see next step.

Cheers
Antonio
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by Shunter »

Congratulations on the new arrivals..you have no idea of the spare time you once had is going to be a memory for you....hahahah
Great subject and i so look forward to watching these come to life.
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Re: 1/20 March Engineering

Post by Steffen_T »

Hi all,

it has been a while, since I posted this thread. As expected the twins are slowing me down dramaticly, but I still find the time to do a bit of modeling occasionaly. But with the permanent switch between the different cars to keep them on a similar status, I am way slower then I would be with just a single car. So here is finally an update!

March 871:

Added to the project is the 1987 March 871 driven by Ivan Capelli:

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In comparison to the later designs (Adrian Newey was not involved yet) this car looks rather conventional and probably a bit ugly, but it has an exposed engine which is a nice variation to the well packaged cars from the top teams.
This kit is also by studio27, and replicates the car driven in the Japanese Grand Prix. I got myself a different set of decals to build the car according to the Monaco Grand Prix, where Capelli scored the only point in that year. I know studio27 also released a kit for the Monaco Grand Prix, but I could only get this version.

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I found an instruction of the Monaco version online and compared the kit contend with that of the Japanese version. It seems there are only four metalparts missing that were not required for Japan, and a different decalsheet.

First of all, I had to modify the sidepods.
The metalparts of the Monaco version had to be used for the hole in the sidepod to add three more small louvres, and to extend the final louvre. So I had to scratch them.
While looking for reference pictures I noticed March changed the configuration of the louvres occasionally during the season.
At Monaco only five louvres were used, while the kit has six.

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At first I filled up the lower half of the first louvre with putty and sanded it smoth:

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The other small louvres were done with small styrene strips and the hole in front of them was filled up with putty.

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Before expanding the final louvre with a construction that might be fragile, I decided to do the rollbar first.
At Monaco two different versions were used. An open and a closed version:

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The open version was the one used during the race.

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As the kit only includes the closed version, I decided to scratch a new rollbar.

I used brasstube with a diameter of 1.5mm on the outside and 0.8mm on the inside. The tube was bended arround a screwdriver to get the correct shape. A rod with a diameter of 0.8mm is used to pin the new rollbar to the chassis. The support was also made using the 1.5mm tube.

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The three parts were now soldered together and a small connection of styrene was added later.

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The rearwing turned out to be a nightmare:
Each wing element only has one connection pin on each side. Even if you somehow succeed to get all five elements between the endplates, you would still have trouble to fix them in the right angle.

I finally ended up doing new endplates made of styrene:

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Everything worked fine until I placed the wing on the undertray. It looked strange and comparing it with the Lotus 99T rearwing it turned out to be way too low! So I had to raise it a bit.

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Already this build has taken it's toll. My one-year-old son took notice of the old 99T and obviously liked it. He's now getting excited every time he see's a yellow car!

By now all Leyton House coloured parts of the 871 got their base coat:

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March 881B:

First of all, I have to apologice for my statement regarding the proportions of the 881. After I made a scan of the kit decals and printed them on maskingfoil to figure out how to place them I noticed it's gonna work without big problems. I suppose the proportions are not 100% accurate, but still accurate enough to give you a good replication of the car.

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By now all parts of the 881 that will get painted in Leyton House blue have got their base cote:

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Leyton House CG901A:

The CG901A brought me several problems.
As it is a rebuild of a car I had originally build in 1998 there was some clearcoat to remove. In some places I failed to remove it completly with the result that cracks appeared on the following coat of primer.

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By now I have sanded chassis and engine cover at least four times, but there are still cracks appearing even a whole month after applying the primer! I will now temporarily stop focusing on the body parts of this car. It would delay the whole project by a few month before I finally would get it right. :-(

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Leyton House CG901B:

The CG901B is progressing nicely. I did a scan of the kit decals, selected the nose-decal and the two white-stripe-decals and printed them on masking foil as a masking template. It worked quite good, except the print going of during the placement.

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Apart from Leyton House aquamarine blue the colors used are brilliant white and David Piper Green. All of them by Zero paints.


March CG911B:

The CG911B also got his color:

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That's the current state of my project.
I will now continue to do the CF-templates for the wings and undertrays.

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Thank you for watching!
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