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Mclaren MP4/4 1988 (CS-007) 1:24 MENG via Creative Models Ltd McLaren are named after their founder, Bruce McLaren, who began the team in 1963 competing in Formula One, with their first Grand Prix win in 1968 during a four year period where they dominated F1. Bruce McLaren was killed during testing in 1970, but the team continued to do well under new management, merging with Ron Dennis’s team in 1981, under whose management they have gone from strength-to-strength, expanding their range into production cars in more recent years. During the 1988 season drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost dominated almost every race of the season, achieving a 1-2 in the Detroit Grand Prix, Prost coming in 38 seconds behind Senna, powered by turbocharged Honda engines that were outputting immense levels of power, part of the reason for the change to normally aspirated engines by the governing body the FIA for the 1989 season. The MP4/4 was arguably one of the most successful overall designs in Formula 1, using a V6 Honda engine that displaced only 1.5 litres, but output 675hp at 12,000rpm thanks to a substantial boost from the turbocharger while they still had access to its benefits, deleting the turbo intakes briefly due to aerodynamic concerns, which proved to be a mistake that was rapidly corrected. The car ran almost unchanged for much of the season, with a reclined driver position keeping the centre of gravity low, allowing it to corner at high speeds, and with the reliability of its engine, its retirement was limited to only four races of the season, and it achieved a great deal of success and many podium positions. Their worst placing other than retirement was 6th at Portugal, although both Senna and Prost had Nigel Mansell in his Judd snapping at their heels, which perhaps spurred them on to greater things. Senna placed 10th in Italy after retiring from pole in a collision with another driver he was lapping, who unexpectedly regained control after locking his wheels in a corner. In preparation for the 1989 season, an altered MP4/4 chassis was fitted with a 3.5L V10 normally aspirated engine for testing to ensure they were ready for the following season in conjunction with the new chassis that was under development. The Kit This is a new tooling from MENG in my preferred vehicle scale, and it’s also from an era when I regularly watched F1 before I took on an old house that needed total renovation, and my free time evaporated. The kit arrives in one of MENG’s typical satin-finished top-opening boxes, with a painting of the car on the front, against a stylised backdrop. Inside the box are four sprues and a bodyshell part in light grey styrene, a clear sprue, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE), four flexible black tyres, two sheets of self-adhesive chrome stickers, a sheet of pre-cut woven material in black, three sheets of decals, and the instruction booklet, which has a painting guide in colour, sprue diagrams and a paint chart with MENG AK and Acrysion codes, plus the names of the colours in four languages including English. Detail is excellent as expected, and the inclusion of the afore mentioned extras creates a model that can be built by most of us without the need for aftermarket. The PE is trapped between two sheets of adhesive film, as it has been etched with no equivalent to sprue-gates, so once the sheets are removed the parts will be loose, as I found out when I forgot about their way of doing things. Construction begins with the Honda V6 engine, the block of which is made from seven parts, with a Honda logo decal applied in the centre of each bank of piston heads. The air intake trunks in between the banks and the fuel injectors are installed on pegs in the centre of the block, fitting additional pipework to the ends, the first-motion shaft on the rear, and a pair of exhaust manifolds on the sides. The transmission is built from two long halves that project from the rear of the engine, adding a pair of braces for the bodywork panels, and inserting two driveshafts on the sides, then applying decals to the backs of the body panels before plugging them into the sides of the transmission. Two pairs of wishbones are fixed to the top and bottom of the transmission assembly, adding more linkages and a turbo intercooler radiator over the top, then creating the rear wheel hubs from a two-part brake disc and callipers that give it the prototypical venting between the two layers of braking surface. The discs are attached to the front of their bearings with a poly-cap allowing easy removal of the wheels at any point, gluing each one to the wishbones on pegs, and mating the engine and transmission together into one. The monocoque chassis of the vehicle was laid-up from carbon fibre, which was still relatively new at the time, here depicted by the main shell with two lower sections and a front bulkhead that are spot painted, using white for a small section that is seen through the outer bodywork panels, fitting bulkheads at the rear of the side pods, then attacking it with carbon-fibre decals that are found on the large sheet. A similar process is carried out in the cockpit, which starts as a single curved tub that has decals applied all around the seat, fitting some small ancillary controls into position after decaling, moving on to create the lap belts from the black fabric sheet, threading the PE buckles through according to the diagrams, and adding a circular quick-release to one of them. The shoulder belts are each two fabric parts that wrap around a U-shaped assembly at the top, with PE adjustment buckles linking the two sections of each belt together, finishing them with more PE buckles. The completed assembly is fitted in the cockpit on the rear lip, and a pair of Boss advertisements are applied from the decal sheet in a prominent part of the upper belt where it went over Ayrton or Alain’s shoulders. A logo decal is applied to the belt holder on the lip, subtly letting everyone know which chassis and variant it is. The cockpit is mated with the shell from below, applying another small decal to the shell behind one of the cut-outs in the nose, fitting the dash into position at the front of the cockpit, using decals for the instruments, and painting the many buttons appropriate colours according to the key nearby. The relatively simple steering wheel with two red and green buttons is attached to the dash via a short column, showing just how much steering wheel technology has come on, the modern wheels costing hundreds of thousands to make, as they contain complex computers, and are covered in buttons and often have a screen built-in. A control box is decaled with another Honda logo and fixed onto each side pod, making up two radiator assemblies per side with their own feeder hoses and supports, installing them on the angled rear sides of the pods after detail painting them. Air-intakes are made from two handed parts each, fitting a cylindrical assembly to the rear, and installing them across the face of the rearmost radiator, making sure that anything needing painting is done before you start applying glue. The undertray, or lower surface of the body is almost flat at the front, with splitters near the rear that guide the airflow out from under the car, creating downforce that sucks the car onto the track, with a lot of help from the upper aerodynamic fixtures. The inside is decaled with carbon-fibre and reflective stickers, applying paint to the other areas, then doing the same to the underside, painting crucial parts of the undersides a wood colour, which are the FIA’s guide to whether the vehicle is obeying the regulations regarding its height from the ground. Additional decals are applied to the sides of the splitters at the rear, and a set of wishbones are glued into the nose, adding three pedals and a small tank in the driver’s foot well. Another set of wishbones are attached to the top of the monocoque’s nose, bracing them with additional damping rods before bringing the two assemblies together, and applying another two decals to the sides of the nose once the glue is set. The front discs and hubs are made in the same manner as the rears, and are glued to the wishbones in the same way as at the rear, with a steering linkage applied to the front bulkhead, wrapped in a protective shroud, which has three small reservoirs applied beneath it. The sloped rear behind the driver has two assemblies fitted on pegs, followed by the roll-over hoop, building up the remaining hoses and ‘conch’ shaped turbo housings to link them and the engine to their outlets in the underside between the splitter plates, which allows the engine assembly to be fitted, assuming everything is painted and decaled at this stage. Two engine mounting brackets link the monocoque to the motor, and a large cylindrical reservoir with filler cap is fixed to a peg at the front of the transmission. The plenum chamber that is sited over the air intake trunks between the piston banks is made from three sections, with an FIA logo decal applied to the cylindrical assembly at the front, locating it on four pegs at the top of the trunks after painting, then adding waste-gate cooling hoses between the intakes at the rear of the side pods. The nose cone and rear wing supports are both covered in carbon-fibre decals and installed in their respective places at either end of the vehicle, painting the four parts of the wing red and white before applying decals over their inner and undersides and assembling it so it can be installed on the supports at the rear. A brief interlude to make the wheels is next, using the flexible black tyres, which have a seam around the centre of their circumferences. These can be removed by ‘scrubbing’ the contact surface with a motor tool or other sanding material to replicate the scrubbed wheels that were usually fitted before the race so that the car got maximum traction for the start, providing the tyres were also warm. The hubs are single parts, and like their full-sized counterparts, they are attached to the car by a single stud, which in this case slips into a poly-cap rather than screwing in. Dymag decals are provided for each hub, two per rim, and if F1 isn’t your thing, you’ll need to fit the smaller, narrower wheels to the front axles for maximum traction at the rear, which will stop your more knowledgeable friends from laughing at your mistake. The completed wheels slide into position and are held there by the poly-caps, whilst giving you the flexibility to remove them whenever you need to. The front wing provides down-force to the wheels, and much of this assembly is moulded as a single part, adding a small section under the nose, and two end-caps, after painting it all white and applying carbon-fibre decals to the inner faces of the caps. Another carbon-fibre decal is applied to the full width of the wing on the underside, consisting of three separate sections to make it a little easier to wrangle. The main portion of the bodyshell is moulded as one, adding the small windscreen to the front of the cockpit, and a pair of intake inserts to the holes in the side pods, marked L and R to ensure you fit them in the correct position. The wing mirrors are each single parts, using two small chromed stickers to depict the mirrors, and mounting them either side of the driver on their short supports. The bodyshell and nose cone can then be lowered over the car to complete the build, or you can make up two A-frame trestles from four-parts each to keep the body off the floor using a similar method used by the mechanics during maintenance, showing off the details of the chassis. Markings Mclaren Honda were sponsored by the Marlboro brand of cigarettes in 1988, while such advertising was starting to be banned in many countries, and MENG have used the name McLaren on the rear wing, which IIRC was the case in some countries that had already moved to ban advertising of cigarettes and tobacco-based products. You shouldn’t smoke, vape, or drink too much, but you know that already, so I won’t go on. Two decal options are supplied as you’d expect, with just a small decal on the roll-over differentiating between Senna and Prost, the drivers for that year, plus their numbers on the nose and sides of the rear wing. Shell and Honda also get a look-in, with their logos also found on the sheet. The stickers are chrome, but look blue due to the reflections in the photobooth. You can see your face in them, although there's a little distortion. Decals are printed in China to a high standard, and have good register, sharpness and colour density. There are no decals included for the Marlboro red stripes that make the car stand out, but instead you are given a slight step in the surface of the bodyshell to mask against, and I’m unsure if that will work. The step is infinitesimal, but is the additional layer or layers of red enough to make up the difference in height? Will subsequent layers of clear gloss after decaling encourage the steps (and the carrier film on the decals) to disappear? I’m not sure. You can of course sand away the step, which shouldn’t be too onerous, as there are only short lengths on the body. Conclusion The old McLaren MP4 was an impressive machine, and this new kit does it justice. The hardest part will be choosing the correct shade of red, although Zero paints have probably got a shade in their range already, followed by a little patience applying the many carbon-fibre decals, and deciding what to do about the step mentioned above. Overall, it’s a cracking kit though. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the Honda NSR 500 racer... truth is, all I know is what was written on the Tamiya instructions. Spent about nine weeks on it and for a majority of that time it's had my undivided attention, just doing a little here and a little there. Because it's a racer, the only 'shiny' on it are the satin chrome exhaust tips, and for that I used Mr. Hobby lacquer 'SM206 - Chrome Silver'. I also home mixed the dark aluminium / light gunmetal tone for the frame rather than the flat aluminium that Tamiya call-out. Fairing & mud-guard are Tamiya rattle cans and match the decals perfectly. Talking of which, there are a number of imperfections - all user error - in the decals especially around the intakes ahead of the No.3 decals, so there's some touching-up there. Again decals were applied over about six sessions, I spent a lot of time with the Micro Sol, cotton swabs and the hair-dryer, rolling and conforming them to the complex shapes of the fairings. Not 100%, but close-enough-for-government-work ! So that's all to say, have a brilliant Christmas & New Year. Please comment, criticise and ask any questions. Cheers from a VERY humid NZ. Ian.

If you are of a squeamish nature, look away now... I bang on a great deal about being true to the subject and history with regard to all the details on my models. This model must be the most botched, inaccurate depiction I have produced since I first started modelling, many years ago. The car number is incorrect to the body/mechanics etc; wrong stripe, wrong windscreen, wrong air inlet trumpets, wrong mirrors etc etc. In my defence Tamiya's description and painting/decal instructions are woefully incorrect and/or misleading. However I will support my tentative 'showing' here, by my builds redeeming feature... When I first started this model my immediate reaction was what on earth was Tamiya thinking when they modelled the exhaust system. I spent untold hours bending solder and puppet wire to try and improve the 'look' of Tamiya's 'dangling' pipes. A chance conversation with Malc2 on this forum and an introduction to Nick of 'Unobtainium', led to the development and production of a most fabulous 3D printed solution (available from Nick's online shop). Anyway, enough waffle - just look at the photos: Tamiya's system for holding the front cowl consists of some pretty big obtrusive screws. I experimented for the first time with some micro magnets superglued to the inside and the corresponding superstructure of the chassis - they seem to be holding. The seat is covered in a lovely thin real leather that I seem to have acquired. I've no idea now, from where, but together with some PVA glue and a dressmakers pin marker to represent the stitching, it has given a reasonable representation. Not sure of the accuracy of the shape of the seat however, absolutely no reference available. The brake calipers, front and back, are 'borrowed' from 1/12 Italeri Alfa Romeo 179 and a little scratch work; they are not terribly accurate. Nick's 3D exhaust pipes are completely hollow, all the way through. Bodywork: Tamiya TS7 Racing White from the can, no clearcote, and polished with micromesh cloths and Tamiya polishing creams. The crimson stripe and circle are Tamiya TS86 Pure Red with masked outlines, Tamiya TS14 Black. The engine is a variety metallic paints - Alclad, AK interactive Xtreme metals, Tamiya X range. I also used some Bare-Metal foil in places. Tyres had a variety of AK interactive 'dust effects' enamels and even some grains of sand pushed in to the treads. Any number of rivets and bolt heads were used, both metal from Top Studio, and resin from Plus Models (Czech). Compression fittings from Detail Master. Jewellery wire, fuse wire, Model Factory Hiro fuel line, hand coloured optical fibre, Zsus fasteners from replicas of Maryland, self adhesive mirrored sheet - and probably more that I cannot now recall. Nothing fancy with the photography - iPhoneX, daylight ring light on an anglepoise arm, black card, white card disc.

Manufacturer: Nagano Aftermarket: None used Paints: Mr Hobby 1500 black primer, AK Gloss Varnish, Mr Color super metallic 2 super iron 2, Zero paints Titanium silver, Tamiya clears, 2K clear coat, Molotow liquid chrome Weathering: Mig Ammo 1203 Streaking Grime wash Link to build: Hi all, here is the finished Honda Goldwing 70's bike build. I had painted a Honda CB750KO full size bike for a client last year and I had enough paint left over to easily paint the model as it was the same colour used. I did a bit of scratch building to fill in some details that were missing from the kit, mainly the carburettor linkages and coolant expansion tank drain pipes. I used fibre optic strand to make the clear plastic tubing. Also I added the manual choke cable knob that's fixed to the handle bar bracket, and added the black plate that sits between the back of the radiator and carburettors. Lots of hand painting was applied to the switch gear to give the impression of lettering, I think at this scale those details are required. It's a long out of production kit that was showing its age, lots of flash in places and some crude engineering on some parts, but on others they looked very good indeed. Finally, I added some photos of my real bike as comparison. Real bike comparison photos:

A truly fun build, Tamiya at their best!

Hi all, well it's been a while since I built a bike kit, so I thought I would drag this beauty out of the stash. 6 Cylinder, 24 valves double overhead cam, 6 carburettors, need I say anymore! I had been after a 1/8 kit of this bike for a couple of years, then about 6 months ago I managed to snag this very little started kit from a nice gentleman who had it for sale on eBay. All the parts were there, so I was happy to win the bid. First off, I have owned and worked on a few of these bikes, so looking over the kit it looked pretty accurate for its age. Plan is to get the hard part out of the way first, the paintwork. I am going for the Candy Glory red option. Apart from the box art, I have included some pictures of a later, A model that I painted for a client a few years back. As this is a US model, I might try to convert it to European lower Handlebars as they look nicer to my eyes. So, let's get started! I started looking at the front mudguard, maybe it's a limitation of the mould process in its day but the mudguard had a thick seam running around the outer edge, it was not like that on the full-size bike, so I had to sand that down and reprofile the front and rear of the guard to get a more accurate shape. The fuel tank is in 3 parts, but went together pretty well with minimum sanding and putty work. I gave all of the body work a few coats of black primer, followed up the next day with a light metallic silvery red basecoat and the 4 coats of Citroen Ruby red basecoat, which looked a close match to the original factory candy paint. A few coats of 2k clear were then sprayed on to seal in the colour. Decal stripes will go on next, but I have just noticed that stripes 1/2/4 and 5 on the decal sheet are for the silver coloured bike! So, it looks like some masking and airbrushing of the correct colours will be required. Bye for now guys.

The original GL1000 Goldwing was the world's biggest and heaviest bike when it was introduced in 1975. Most notable for its unique water-cooled flat-four engine, the GL also featured shaft drive, twin front disc brakes and an under-seat fuel tank. The Wing produced 80bhp, had a top speed of 120 mph (193 kph), and accelerated hard despite 571lb (260kg) weight. Its smoothness and comfort rapidly won a large following, especially among the middle-aged Americans. Along with the kit photos that have not been started yet, I have included pictures of one of my own 1975 bikes that I restored in 2018.

hi,every one!!😄 this is 1/12 Aoshima Honda dream 50 my first motorcycle model. I did some modification on this little bike.. not perfect, but I am happy with the result hope you like it 😀 here is the video build if you are interested😀

Hi all, here are the final photos of the mighty Honda 6, a fairly straight forward build apart from the exhaust system which needed lots of test fitting and even then, I had to cut 3mm off each side of the lower collectors to get the foot peg hangers to line up correctly. I had run out of Molotow chrome on Wednesday, placed an order that afternoon and it arrived on Thursday morning. So, I could add the final coat of liquid chrome to the down pipes and collectors. I also added some silver solder to the seat to replicate the chrome trims and made up a few brake pipe brackets. I decided to leave the kit high handle bars and not try to lower them, as it wouldn't have been a straight forward job due to the fact that they are a cast alloy item on the original bike and the casting would be tricky to replicate. I think the throttles cables are a smidge too large diameter, but I had nothing smaller that looked any better, so I will leave them for now. Finally I've added some photos of the real bike that I restored last year for your comparison. I hope you enjoy looking at this 70's muscle bike, another one to add to my growing collection.

Hi All, I found this one on the same shelf as the RGB500. I have been making steady progress on this as well. So, pictures: First, the inevitable box top: The model has a clear cowl, so that you can see all the beautiful mechanicals underneath. However, I will be painting it white as I want it to look like a bike not a toy... The engine. A proper little gem: The instructions suggest that you mix aluminium and Red Brown (XF9) to paint the engine. That came out as a rather odd looking metallic medium pink. Whether it's right or not, I don't know, but to my eye it didn't. So, I painted it semi-gloss black. The engine in the frame. This fitted rather well. The frame at the back looks a bit delicate, easily broken and hard to repair. So I cust a piece of styrene tube and popped between the lugs on the back of the frame. So far, no problem. Add the wheels: The rear shock: I painted the spring gloss red with Humbrol Hu19 acrylic over a grey acrylic primer coat. It seems to have come out ok. I'm hoping that the grey may help the red to adhere better. Who knows. It'll be hidden in the guts of the model when complete, so no one will be able to tell anyway! The exhaust and chain guard: The exhaust has given me the most trouble, as I wanted the silencer to be chrome (Molotow), but whatever I did, It wouldn't work well. It looked rather lumpy on the silencer. So, in the end I painted it silver (X11). I did consider spraying it with Molotow, but I don't have enough to spray. It's mounted on the bike now, so no going back. Chain and swing arm attached: Starting took like something. The exhaust assembled and installed. I thought that this would be a real problem, especially the rear pipes, but I took a deep breath, read and re-read the instructions many times, and followed them. After a brief tussle, they popped into place. After that, fitting the front piped was a breeze. Ther was a small join to make good with filler where the front and back systems met. That's all. Well, that's all for the moment. I'm working on the fuel induction system at the moment. More pictures when I have uploaded them... Thanks for looking, Alan.

Hi all Straight onto the next one! I used to own a MK4 Prelude. Loved that car. After seeing John's Prelude build it got me thinking was there a model of the MK4 and there was! Have to admit the first one I managed to win on eBay was this one which is exactly what my car looked like. Now I know the tyres were missing but unfortunately so were a couple more bits and the model itself was not in very good condition. So when I saw the Aoshima version come up I snapped it up! Good thing about that is that the model is in excellent condition and with tyres! 🙂. It also has the boot spoiler that my Prelude had but which isn't part of the revell kit so that was a welcome bonus. It also gives me a spare body ton practice on. Two reasons. One I could not find a spray can to match the Brittany blue green colour but I did find the following: Which hopefully can give me the right colour. Second reason is I bought these to replicate my number plate And if you look at the rear of the model And compare it with a UK car You can see that the number plate area is too tall and not wide enough so I need to do something like this Widen it to the red lines and lower it to the blue. Surgery is required! Thus the good thing about having a spare body to practice on! 😉 Question : what can I use to fill the gaps? I do have some putty but trying to sand it down and make it straight in such an awkward area is going to be tricky... So until I solve that problem I'll start on the colour testing. Sorry about the essay! Thanks for looking. Nick

Hi Mods Could you please remove this post. Manage to post it twice! Thanks Nick Hi all Straight onto the next one! I used to own a MK4 Prelude. Loved that car. After seeing John's Prelude build it got me thinking was there a model of the MK4 and there was! Have to admit the first one I managed to win on eBay was this one which is exactly what my car looked like. Now I know the tyres were missing but unfortunately so were a couple more bits and the model itself was not in very good condition. So when I saw the Aoshima version come up I snapped it up! Good thing about that is that the model is in excellent condition and with tyres! 🙂. It also has the boot spoiler that my Prelude had but which isn't part of the revell kit so that was a welcome bonus. It also gives me a spare body ton practice on. Two reasons. One I could not find a spray can to match the Brittany blue green colour but I did find the following: Which hopefully can give me the right colour. Second reason is I bought these to replicate my number plate And if you look at the rear of the model And compare it with a UK car You can see that the number plate area is too tall and not wide enough so I need to do something like this Widen it to the red lines and lower it to the blue. Surgery is required! Thus the good thing about having a spare body to practice on! 😉 Question : what can I use to fill the gaps? I do have some putty but trying to sand it down and make it straight in such an awkward area is going to be tricky... So until I solve that problem I'll start on the colour testing. Sorry about the essay! Thanks for looking. Nick

This has been complete for a while, but I wanted to take some decent photos and decided to build a backdrop for future photographs as well (appropriately enough the Fujimi 1:24 garage). As a kit it's OK, it's pretty basic, there is no engine and the underside is a complete work of fiction. It's a bit of a gimmick that you can steer the front and rear wheels to simulate the four-wheel steering of the real car, I'd trade that for some accurately modelled suspension, especially as I'm not sure the wheels sit quite right relative to the arches. There were a few little issues with the interior (seats needed backs fabricating and the dashboard isn't a great fit). Also I should have attached the front bumper to the body before painting. I've got two more of these kits in the stash to replicate the other two Preludes I owned, so expect more in this thread at some point in the future. WIP thread here if anyone is interested:

This is the last of my long-term builds; started over ten years ago and stalled due to house moves and other priorities. This is the WIP topic: As a Tamiya kit it goes together pretty well, except for the front bumper, which needed a lot of hacking about to make it fit and it's still not quite right. Although I started the build before I'd even heard of this forum, I picked up a few tips and ideas that encouraged me to add a few extra details as a result of reading the forum. The main thing was going find pictures of real Preludes and trying to replicate what I saw. Other issues were trying to get a decent finish on the paint, clear coat and the chrome and black trim. Anyway, I'm sure you want to see some "pretty" pictures. I'm glad I picked out the centre caps on the wheels (not called out in the instructions). The sunroof makes it easy to see the interior details, I added black pieces to represent the clips where you would fasten your seat belt. You can't tell that I changed the shape of the seat bolsters (which is probably good) but they looked a little under-nourished before (probably to make them easier to mould). Front end, it would take a lot of work to reposition the front grille. The pop-up lights are a nightmare too. I'm glad I added seat belts, it doesn't quite line up on this side but it's not too bad. Mirrors done with chrome pen and even give a bit of reflection. I think the rear 3/4 view might be my favourite. Profile isn't bad either. Underside, the white putty is supposed to be the windscreen washer bottle. Under the bonnet. I've added wires and vacuum lines, not necessarily all that's there but there wasn't any in the kit. I also added the windscreen washer filler on the left with the blue cap (a piece of plastic rod with a blob of filler on the end and painted blue). Radiator cap had a blob of yellow added to replicate the warning label. I also fabricated a power-steering pump out of a bit of sprue with a masking tape drive belt and another bit of sprue as the PAS fluid reservoir. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, as a fan of 1980s and '90s Hondas, in particular the Prelude, I had to have this in my collection.

Between 1998 and 2008 I owned a number of Honda Preludes; three third generation and one fifth generation model. I've not seen any models of either type although I understand there is a rare kit of the 3rd gen Prelude out there somewhere. This Tamiya kit of the 2nd generation Honda Prelude was picked up from a small model shop in Evesham when I saw it at a reasonable price. The appearance didn't change much between the 2nd and 3rd generation models, although few parts were carried over and an uncle of mine had one of these 2nd gen cars many years ago. The main parts of the body were sprayed dark blue - a similar colour to my first Prelude. It looks a little grainy, not sure if it's supposed to be like that (IIRC it's a pearl or metallic finish and needs lacquer). Engine bay needs another coat, body was united just to check fit. More grain on the boot lid. The instructions call for the underside to be painted mostly the same colour as the upper body. Inner wings will get a coat of satin black and I think there's a silver exhaust heat shield to paint and the petrol tank probably needs some colour too. Interior parts mostly painted, the instructions called for two-tone grey, which again is very similar to the car I owned. I think it was brushed with Tamiya acylics. Bumpers in metallic grey. Not sure how to do the indicators, it's a pity they're just moulded in. Suspension and dash top, pity about the broken tie rod, not quite sure how to fix. Cooling fan reasonably well picked out against the radiator matrix. Engine, I'm tempted to try adding plug leads to bring it to life. I think I experimented with dry brushing silver on the flat aluminium gearbox casing to give it a bit more life, I think it looks OK. Decals and glazing, still in the plastic bag. I think the digital dash (oh so '80s) was for the Japanese market only. Nice satin-finish for the wheels, but they need some black paint to pick out the surround to the "H" on the centre cap. Where now? Finish the body; light rub down, another colour coat, clear coat. details Paint the underside Assemble the interior Assemble the underside Final assembly.

The latest in my 'lockdown'-series. Actually it's part 1 of 2, but you'll have to wait a bit to see the full concept. This is the Heller 1/24 Honda NSR 500cc racer, but I build it as a custombike. First up is the original: And this is my version: It's not a big model!: Cheers for now Hans J

Hi Guys, Having finished a Revell BMW 507 last week I had the choice to start working on: - a diorama I have started (only thing is.. next step is photo etching, bit anxious to start that); or: - something I've been thinking of for more than a year, a Formula one car by Tamiya, scale 1/12. After quite a bit of thought I've chosen the latter, which choice was made easier knowing that a beautiful aftermarket-set was just released for a beautiful and almost legendary car. I'll build the McLaren MP4/6 powered by the 12-cilinder RA121-E. Honda managed to squeeze 720 horsepower out of this 3,5 liter V12 engine. This car type was driven by Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger. Typically I'll build Senna's car. In 1991 he scored his third and last F1 championship title. For more info on the MP4/6 see Wikipedia. (Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons) I hope you guys will help me with England-based knowledge on McLaren's F1 team and this car in particular. And I hope that you'll bear with me because it will be a very long build. I'll build this model as detailed as I reasonably can. These parts have already been ordered: - Tamiya's kit. - Top Studio's full aftermarket set, consisting of 8 subsets. - Marlboro decals. - 3 reference books. Future purchases: - Dry transfers for the tires. - Some Alclad paints. - McLaren transparent-orange-red paint. - Several screws, bolts, washers etc. - Carbon fibre decals. - Optionally: replacement wheels. To give an idea of the level of detail provided by Top Studio's masterful set, here a couple of pictures; the original vehicle and Top Studio's parts. All non-grey parts are Top Studio's. I'll try detailing a bit further, using added bolts et cetera. When the orders will have arrived I'll post pictures. In this topic all and any critique is welcome, do feel free to comment whenever you see something completely or detailedly wrong. I intend to push my limits in this build and I'll certainly need you guys to get the most out of it.

Hi there guys, Beginning of this month I decided to start an out of box-build to allow myself to some modelling without thinking too much, setting the Delage 15-S-8 scratchbuild project on hold for a bit. I'll certainly resume that later, so no worries there. Introduction The Honda RA273 was a Formula 1 car from the '60s... not really successfull but it looked beautiful and sounded impressive. I chose Youtube vlogs as a medium to present the build to my colleague modellers. As my daughter participates and she doesn't speak English, the spoken language is Dutch but as long as there is interest I'll put into English subtitles featuring 1) a translation of the written tips and tricks throughout the videos; and 2) a summary of what's happening. These subtitles start from the ninth video! The first eight videos Note: there are no subtitles for the first eight videos but I'll describe them so you know what's in there. In the first vlog I describe the character of the build (out of box insofar a part won't turn out to be ugly... in those cases we'll try to improve on the kit). This first vlog also offers a look into the box and the instructions. In the second video I discuss given reactions, briefly explain how an injected moulded kit is produced and why the parts had best be cleaned before starting the build. The cleaning process is shown. My daughter Karmijn participates. The third vlog discusses viewers reactions as well as a big problem, occurring even before the build commences! The kit is not complete by far. But a solution is found. Karmijn tells a joke and shares her opinion on the kit model. In the fourth vlog I tell Karmijn she's going to get an important role in the build. Selected parts are cut from the sprues and cleaned (sanded). In the fifth vlog the engine block is glued using liquid poly. We see how it's important that the instructions are studied and understood before the glueing starts. Also, a dryfit is always a good idea. The sixt vlog treats, among other things, cleaning and glueing of the rims. In the seventh vlog the parts to be painted white are cut off and cleaned. Some building tips are given (but they are not written down yet). In the brief eighth vlog I explain that the next videos are going to be more brief and to the point. The vlogs thus far were 13-17 minutes each and I think that didn't provide an optimal viewer experience, although it is nice to see Karmijn work diligently. The ninth video In the ninth video all the parts that will need to be painted white are glued insofar possible. The video is much more compact than the previous ones. It's the first one I have subtitled. All conversations have been translated, leading to a lot of work... next videos I'll only add subtitles to summarise the build and to translate all on-screen tips provided throughout the video. What can you do? If you like this project, for example because you enjoy the father-daughter build progress, to see Karmijn improve her skills along the way, or perhaps you enjoy the tips given throughout the videos, then you can help by liking the video on Youtube, write a reaction on the forum or on Youtube, and/or subscribe to our Youtube channel (see text below). Karmijn and I would much appreciate all of this, especially if you choose to subscribe, and it would keep me motivated to keep adding translations to the videos. Plus, you'll get a non-disturbing notification whenever there's a new video. Hopefully you'll enjoy and we'll be able to build a nice almost-OOB racing car! In due time I'll get back to the Delage and/or Honda MP4/6 builds.

This was the legendary 2 strokes monster driven to victory by Mick Doohan. A pretty hard kit but a rewarding one.

Here's the 2003 Honda RC211V which Rossi led to victory. The kit is awesome with some additional details like the clutch, gas cables and some other minor things from top studio.

Hi guys, been hard at it this last week burning the midnight oil to get this glam rocker done. I left the front mudguard in the packaging until I needed it and was amazing to find that it was a real metal item that had been chromed, I think it was done to keep the front forks straight. I noticed that the front brake caliper was missing the metal pipe that ran from the caliper to the brake hose, I made this from a piece of silver solder which was easily bent into shape to go round the back of the fork leg and I added the brake bleed nipple as I felt at this scale these items needed to be added. Also I have included pictures of the building instructions to show how intricate Tamiya made this kit. I hope you enjoy this blast down the 70's bike era.

I bought this kit from a model shop in Beijing about 6 years ago, but never had the courage to build it. However after cutting my teeth on the last two Tamiya bike builds I thought I would crack on with it, I plan to paint it in the candy gold colour. I found the engine side covers were in a chrome finish, but they should be a polished alloy, so I have buffed them with a Flory polishing stick and I will give them an oil wash to dull them down a touch. I should crack on with the build with this 70's glam rocker over the weekend.

I normally build aircraft in all scales but I was recently asked by someone to build this. I loved the experience and I think I just might have to build one for myself. I think it was about 120 hrs in the building. Tamiya kit with the "Detail Up" accessory chain set (360+ pieces on its own). The gaps between the cowl / headlight are a result of the parts not being cemented in place. They come together OK but will "pop" open a little very easily. I will need to make a small adjustment to them. I guess I should have cleaned the fingerprints off the tank before taking the pics....

Just finished this vintage Airfix kit, and it wasn't without challenges! Happy with the end result though.

Well, things are rattling along and I was having a think about possible corners of the wide Airfix range which we haven't covered as yet - I know, Motorbikes. How about the Honda CB450 from 1968 in a 1978 boxing? - bought specially for this GB and a bit more cost effective that the one Ariel Arrow kit currently for sale on a well known auction website. Here are the sprues - the kit has been ever so slightly started with the engine cylinders glued to the block and one tyre assembled - thankfully comes in under the 25% rule. Paint will be re-done anyway. I've never built a motorbike kit or even owned a real one so this will be interesting. I can see that the chain drive is broken and there appears to be a 'mystery' seat included. All you bikers out there can give me a few hints on how to really decorate this machine!