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Hi everyone, After 3 months here is my first F1 build finished. It's Tamiya's 1/20 McLaren MP4/8 as driven by Mika Hakkinen at the end of 1993. I added the carbon decal set from Studio 27 and it turned out to be an absolute pain. I wired and plumbed the engine. I scratch built the front bulkhead and brake master cylinder assembly as well. Tamiya TS-26 and TS-36 were shot through a Grex airbrush to finish the classic paint scheme. I decided not to go fro tobacco decals as this build had already gone well over budget and it didn't some with Shell Oil decals either. A loosely compiled WIP can be found here. As always, comments and critiques are welcome! Thanks for looking, Jake

Hello all, This will be my first car model since I was a kid. I'll be building McLaren's 1993 Formula 1 challenger, the MP4/8 as driven by Ayrton Senna, Michael Andretti, and Mika Hakkinen. I'll be building Hakkinen's car, as he is my all-time favorite F1 driver. Hakkinen only drove the final three races of the season - Portugal, Japan, and Australian and they were the first races for Hakkinen at McLaren. However, this will mean correcting some aspects of the car. The car had 5 different rear wing configurations and ran with or without bargeboards. The kit version of the car has bargeboards and a high downforce wing that was used at Donington Park and Monaco. I'm also planning on sprucing up the engine bay with wiring and hoses, and I also want to scratch build the front bulkhead with the brake master cylinders. I plan on finishing the car with the engine cover and nose/front wing off. The kit is supposed to be built with bargeboards, but Hakkinen never drove the car in this configuration. I cut off the mounts from the floor (original floor shape shown in the instructions) and sanded it smooth. I will also have to fill in a pair of mounting holes each side of the monocoque. The monocoque is very nice. I'll be closing off the front of the monocoque and scratchbuilding the bulkhead and master cylinders, plus adding hosing and detailing the suspension mounts. The radiator ducting is a bit underwhelming and somewhat inaccurate. I'll be adding to the electrical boxes already molded and a load of wiring. This is what I'm most dreading/worried about. This rear wing is a high downforce specification with 5 elements and deep endplates. The Hakkinen car for all 3 races used a lower downforce spec. The wing elements are the same (Thank heavens!) but the endplates were much smaller. I'll have to take a saw to them, which is shame because it's a beautifully molded wing. Here's Senna driving with the same wing as the spec Hakkinen drove. Note how much closer the forward edge of the endplate is to the main element of the rear wing assembly. Some good news here! Senna and Andretti's steering wheels were round, while Hakkinen used a unique wheel with a flat top. Tamiya has supplied both wheels - a nice touch. Not a whole lot done so far, but it's a build I'm very excited about. I've 2 requests for anyone watching this: I'd love any reference pictures, especially of the car without bodywork. Also, how do y'all (my Texan language showing there) paint carbon fiber effect? Thanks a million. That's all for now - Jake