Tamiya Honda RA272 (1/20th Scale)

[Mumbly]

^Evening

^{Change of direction on the lower wishbone, and have fabricated two pairs from some brass tube. The hybrid idea was not man enough, and started to bend after a little handling. Masterclub flat spherical rivets came at last, but 0.5 mm instead of 0.4 as they are no longer making them that small, not that you would be able to tell the difference of 0.1 mm. It is no heart ache, as I am more than happy with them, they look far better than the Tamiya moulded ones, and where I have used them on the nose replaced/added on the interior they look far tidier.}

^{Still waiting on the Archers welds, and then the front suspension will be complete, ready for assembly. The interior has been painted with semi-gloss black from a Halfords can, and the front suspension brackets and baulk head are now waiting for a cote of Tamiya Racing White. Next step will be detail painting, and assembly, fill, prime and finish. Then onto the Interior and move backwards...}

^Cheers

^Tony

Edited February 9, 2016 by Mumbly

[Mumbly]

The joys of Tamiya Rattle cans!

Just when things were ticking along nicely it all falls off the rails. TS7 was applied onto the front sub-frame assembly and was a disaster on two counts.

Firstly, the colour was way too yellow, and secondly, it went on so thick that it looked like it had been dipped in a tin of interior gloss wood paint. Now I will admit a mistake when I make one, but the coat that I applied was a very light coat over flat white base. Possibly thinking it might be a reaction to Halfords primer, either way it was now back to a new drawing board.

How to remove TS7 when it has dried?

1. Try Mr Muscle Oven cleaner, that appears to be a popular suggestion. So liberally covered the whole assembly in the stuff and left it....minutes, hours and a day passed, and all that was removed was some black enamel that I had used to repair some overspray, and nothing else.

2. Brake Fluid - nasty but this works. Well it might of back in the day. Current brake fluid is silicon based, and all of the nasty stuff has been removed, pity as this was the stuff that would take paint off anything in a 20 yard radius once the lid is removed. If anyone knows where old DOT3 can be purchased then let us know.

3. Surgical Spirit, or Isopropyl. Bingo - all be it a very slow process. This actually softens the paint and does come away with some gentle persuasion, but it also removes the Halfords primer. It also removes the adhesive qualities of superglue and dissolves Squadron White, but not Isopon p38.

The next step was to try a Caustic Soda / Methylated Spirit concoction that I read about on a different site, so I will persevere with this as an experiment to use up the last of the can of TS7 later on. I also found out about Revell's Paint Stripper, some stuff by Phoenix Precision called Superstrip. I plan to add these to the list, and see what happens on the same paint on a test subject. I will write it up later on when I have found a suitable victim. Yes I know that oven cleaner and caustic soda is the same thing (sodium hydroxide) but it will be interesting to see how the concentration of everything effects the paint. I might have a go with Modelstrip as well, but as this is also sodium hydroxide in a paste, it might get overlooked.

Paint has now been replaced with some Zero Paints Racing White - and can see from the bottle that it is a more white than yellow cream colour, so will need to dust off the airbrush teach me for being lazy).

Now back to repairing the physical damage of the whole paint stripping process, then back to primer.

1 step forwards, 5 steps back!

Later

Tony

[Mumbly]

Well it has been a while since I last posted an update.  New job, travel, summer, World of Tanks etc. etc. but I have not been totally idle, and now the nights are drawing in and I am fed up with World of Tanks the Honda beckons.  Also, I have a Manx Norton and an AJS 7R on the shelf that are waiting in the wings.

 

After spending ages cleaning the TS7 debacle up, and also spending much time thinking about the next steps I finally have been making some progress.  Tamiya TS7 ditched in favour of a bottle of Zero Honda Racing White, much better and some Zero Clearcoat.  The front sub-frame has been covered in the white, and is waiting on a coat or 3 of the lacquer.  Much time has been spent on the tub, and this is now primed and waiting for assembly, but a bit of internal painting up the front will be done 1st. 

 

The body has been re-riveted using MasterClub 0.5mm resin flat spherical rivets, these are superb if prone to ping off your tweezers when holding them, still character building stuff.  The missing rivets from the kit on the body have been added too.  Also, I have removed and used the original suspension mounts from the front and rear wishbones, as well as drilling out the ones moulded into the body at the rear.  The panel lines have been mostly filled in on the RHS, I want them just about visible and I think I am happy with it so far.

 

Anyway, body pics time...

 

 

and the other side...

 

 

The gaps at the front and along the floor/body are to be filled once glued together, as well as some re-profiling.

 

Next up was the rear bulkhead.  Now the panel that sits beneath the roll-bar has bracing that should be in-dented, but for some reason Tamiya went the opposite. 

 

 

This has bugged me, but short of any ideas on what to do I did what all men do in similar situations, I ignored it and hoped it would go away....  Well that did not work, so after much thought and trawling the Interweb, I came across a gem of an idea.  Using some 0.12mm brass sheet I can make the panel, and the indented brace is embossed into the brass.  Using a ballpoint pen and straight edge! Yes Heath Robinson is often the best way forward.  Now I have had 3 goes at this, and there might be a forth, but I am pleased with it so far.  It now looks like thin alloy, it does not stick out and is suitably rippled.  Also, I can wrap it round the roll-bar and also make the metal work to hang the coils off too.

 

Original removed....

 

 

1st attempt....needs to be a bigger indent, so either more ball point work, or another tool is required.

 

 

final attempt (so far)...The light bounce off the brass does not help, but I will know if I like it once some satin black has been applied.

 

 

Next update will be quicker than this one, and will hopefully have the gaps filled, and all covered in HRC white, also detail painted and applied for the brakes, fuel and cooling systems.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

 

[Maximum warp]

Just cought up with this build; that's some awesome detailing work you've done! 

 

[tomkil]

Hey, whatever happened to this?

[Mumbly]

  It taunts me on a regular basis.

 

TBH -  a house move, a long spell in hospital and a preference for 1/12th and above (eyesight is a bugger!) all have got in the way.

 

It will get done, at some point.

 

Tony