Tamiya 1:20 Ferrari F2001 'Full View'

[Jasonb13]

Hi all,

 

Only my third car build, and I actually started it about a year ago, after buying it in Telford in 2017 I think. I've been dipping in and out of it ever since, occasionally working on it and then putting it to one side to build something more normal for me (i.e. aircraft).

 

When I started it I wasn't planning to do a build log at all, but it occurred to me recently that I've put so much work in that it would be a shame not to keep track of it, and having a log might help me get this finished (after all, I was going to have it ready for a show last October, and then a show coming up in May, and now I'm aiming for this October!).

 

So, I'm going to start the WIP thread now, but the first few posts will be just putting up some pics I've taken in the last few months (as I was posting them on a Whatsapp group so I still have them). I have no pics of earlier in the build, but as you'll see not a lot was done before the first picture here! 

 

The build itself has been very slow for several reasons. Firstly, I just don't get a lot of time at the bench these days, so a basic enough aircraft build could easily take 3/4 months. Secondly, this is very far out of my comfort zone, especially with the clear plastic, so I've struggled figuring out a plan of how to build it, and what steps to do when. I've also decided to add some wiring/tubing here and there, and carbon fibre decals as well, so that's made it more complicated. I'll get there slowly, but I'll also put it to one side to build other stuff (like a F-117a I'm building for a GB that starts here next month).

 

Anyhow, all that said, here's the box:

 

 

 

 

Like I said, my plan when I bought it was to build it OOB. But then I got other ideas. I've bought some Carbon Fibre decals for basically anywhere I think needs it. I also bought the Sponsor Decals (Marlboro/Vodafone etc.). And I realised that if I'm doing it clear, I need to sand and polish a lot, as there are a lot of sink marks on the clear plastic. I've been avoiding that particular job like the plague.

 

I also thought it would be 'cool' to do a half and half build. I got the idea from a guy in my club who built an AFV with one half in WWII and one half in a Museum on display. So, I'm planning to do the left hand side of the car (when looking from the front) fully painted with decals etc., and the right hand side will be either clear plastic or 'unpainted' carbon fibre decals. Of course, it all sounds cool, but figuring out how to do it is a different story, decals will have to be cut in half, pieces masked to have paint on one half and be clear on the other etc.

 

All of this has turned this build into a long term one, especially as I'm normally an OOB builder, so deviating from the instructions etc. isn't my thing! But I'm trying my best to add little details that might improve the build.

 

Anyhow, that's it for now, I'll post up all the existing pictures I have with some explanations where needed, and then do my best to keep the log going. 

 

Thanks!

[JeroenS]

Interesting plan you have there, with the half/half. I'm curious. 

[Spiny]

You're braver than me going for a clear kit - for some reason I look at them and just see hard work rather than fun. It sounds from you're write up though that you have the skills to make a good job of it,

[Jasonb13]

If only interesting = easy Jeroen, I fear I've bitten off more than I can chew! And my writing skills must be better than my modelling skills Spiny if I've made it sound like I know what I'm doing! The following pictures should give a much more accurate view of how lost I am!

 

Anyhow, I started the build with the seat and steering wheel, and I've just taken a picture of them for this thread now. So here's how they look (and how they've looked for about a year now!):

 

 

 

 

Nothing too fancy there, just some carbon fibre decals, which thankfully are going on and confirming well. I'm using copious amounts of Micro Sol!

 

Next up was the bottom of the chassis. I glued on a few pieces and also put some Aluminium foil down on one side, attempting to do the 'heat shield' under the engine. It's hard to see from the pics, but I also used some Albion Alloy Aluminium slide tubing to make some 'pins' on the side pods that I plan to stick some rubber tubing onto to represent wire bundles, just to busy the place up a bit (from now on these Pics might be a bit blurry as they're low Res WhatsApp pics...):

 

 

 

 

Next up in the engine, just OOB at the start:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There has been a lot of dry-fitting during this build, more to give me a sense of how it's looking and to kick start my mojo than worrying about fit to be honest!

 

 

 

 

I don't know how many pics I can put in one post, so I'll start a new one now!

 

Thanks...

[Jasonb13]

Next up I started on the exhausts, just a basic colour first and then dry-fitting them...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then added some more colours in an attempt to weather them. To be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised with how they've turned out, but I reckon I'll do more work on them as well:

 

 

 

 

More dry-fitting to show how it comes together:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I got the wheels/tyres done, nothing fancy here, though I did mess up one of the red decals on the wheel rims and still have to source a replacement:

 

 

 

 

With the wheels put to one side, I started work on a more complicated section, the rear suspension. Painting was first, with masking...

 

 

 

 

and then the fun part, the Carbon Fibre decals. Found a tip online to use Tamiya tape to form around the parts to create a template, and then put that template on the Carbon Fibre sheet to cut it out. It's worked well enough so far.

 

 

 

 

I also put on all the metal foil that comes with the kit:

 

 

 

 

and continued doing the different suspension pieces with both carbon fibre and foil:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along with even more dry-fitting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to follow, thanks!

[Jasonb13]

I finally felt confident (or impatient) enough to use some glue to get the engine/suspension looking like this, no more dry-fitting here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And to show the first half and half part, a little section that goes above the suspension...

 

 

 

 

Next up was some scratch building. Tamiya, in their wisdom, make a little mess of the 'front' radiators, and they have pipes on them that go nowhere and stop after a couple of mm of plastic, and then other pipes that weren't there at all. I wasn't going to attempt to make it totally accurate, but I thought I'd at least have the pipes going somewhere, so here's what I came up with using some styrene and Tamiya tape:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two short sections of pipe at the top of the radiators join up to a 'painted' pipe on the top of the side pods.

 

 

Finally for now, my plan to have some black tubes/wires running around from the side pods to make the place look busy hit a little snag. I got the idea from another build online, but I realised late in the day that the other build not being see through gave me a problem! While he could just hide the ends of the wires behind the seat or something, I had no such option. I did (more) dry-fitting and came up with a place to put some plastic, that's also actually accurate enough to where some of the wires go on the real thing (they're the white bits on the back of the clear part):

 

 

 

 

And then using the same method as before with the Albion tubing, I make some sockets that my rubber tubing will attach to. They're very rough here, but once they're painted and the tubes are attached they'll do the job (obviously those bits of plastic are just stuck on with white tack at the moment):

 

 

 

 

And that's pretty much where I am right now! It's mad, only took maybe half an hour to put up so many months of work!

 

Next steps are to paint those electrical sockets. I've also seen pics of the real car which shows some of the sockets on the side pods covered with little red protectors when they're not in use, so I'm going to scratch build a couple of them too, they'll add a little colour AND reduce the number of tubes I have to run/hide on the build!

 

Eventually I will run out of things to do on the engine/wiring/suspension/wheel and brake discs and I'll have to tackle the clear parts. From the pic above you can see several injection marks on the sides of the top of the piece, and it's like that on ALL the pieces. I think I'll be able to get rid of them with careful sanding/polishing, but it's going to be a nightmare, especially in some tighter sections. I think I might have to admit defeat and leave some of them as is unfortunately. Thankfully, while the half and half idea generates a lot more work (lots of masking, both inside and out, different spraying, all the decals cut in half etc.) it does mean I don't have to worry too much about half of the injection marks, as they'll be painted over. But the other half will have to be polished as well as possible to keep the clear parts clear. I also still have to decide where and where not to put carbon fibre decals. For example, do I decal the entire inside half of the monocoque (the inside of the painted half) as the inside of those pieces will be visible from the clear half? Or do I just make do with painting it black?

 

That's all the pics/posts for now, I'll try to update this when I can. Please please please give me any advice/feedback/criticism you want, I need all the help I can get!

 

Thanks...

[Ian T]

A great narrative to go with your pictures makes this very interesting for me, I’m looking forward to more progress, excellent work Jason.

[JeroenS]

8 hours ago, Jasonb13 said:

Or do I just make do with painting it black?

I think the answer is already in the question. "just make do" sounds like you should put in the extra effort instead doesn't it 🙂 

 

Very good progress so far, I like your idea of the pipes, it looks good. 

[Jasonb13]

Thanks Ian!

 

And Jeroen, I think I chose those words sub-consciously! When it comes down to it, I’m not sure how visible carbon fiber decals on the inside of the plastic parts will be once everything else is done. I also don’t even know how accurate it would be, maybe the inside surface of the monocoque isn’t carbon fiber, or maybe it is and it’s painted over with primer or something, I’ve never seen a pic of in there. And finally, on a more practical level, I don’t know how possible it will be to get decals into some of those places, they’re very tight! So decisions will have to be made. It’s like the injection marks, do I leave them or not, once again some of them will be very difficult to deal with. 

 

The clear parts really raise a lot of questions/difficulties for the build. As someone from my club pointed out, there’s no fuel tank at all, and that’s obvious because of the clear parts, but trust me I’m not scratch-building one of those!  😀 I reckon the practicalities of the clear parts, and me trying to do a half and half build, will drive decisions on what I will change/fix and what I will leave (along with my skill level of course!).

[Jasonb13]

As it's a Bank Holiday over here, I got a few mins on the bench and decided to check to see how the .6mm tubing will look. So I test-fitted one piece. It gives the idea at least, though I can tell the tubing will need to be painted or varnished as its too shiny! Obviously when I'm putting the tubing on properly I'll tidy it away at bit more. Anyhow, zoom in on the Radiator in these pics to see what I'm doing with the tubing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I'm off to scratch build some caps for some of the electrical sockets. They'll be made of 1mm brass tubing for the cylinder, and I'm still figuring out how to make the disc for the top of the cylinder.

[Jasonb13]

Last update for the moment. So, for the electrical caps, here's what I'm trying to represent, the two red caps in the pic...

 

 

 

 

Like I say, they add a little colour to my build, and mean I don't have to have black wires/tubes (which can also be seen between the two caps) to every socket I've made. I got some 1mm Brass Tube, and finally settled on a slice of the stick from a Tamiya Cotton bud, to give me this...

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with that, I've made four of them and will put them on random sockets that I've made. Will get them painted, along with the two white 'electrical boxes' I made, hopefully this evening.

 

Thanks...

[Codger]

Jason, a very laudable project here, one I always admired when done right. But so difficult to do right. I find cut-aways fascinating.

 

Some random thoughts here and I'm by no means expert in any of this. I see two main problems - not of your doing.

I think much of the inner detail in this small scale will be difficult to see through the clear sections when model is on display. This because of the very un-scale thickness of the clear. A little like 'coke-bottle' eyeglasses. You may do much work that will not 'pay-off' by clear parts. It's just too thick to easily see the fine inner detail, plus what you'll have to do to eliminate sinks and re-polish very small difficult shapes.

I might consider cutting away the right side vertically and painting the left side. Rather like an illustration. Then any work you do building inner details will be easily on display.

A 1/12 subject would improve your chances of a good result with less difficulty. All this just my opinion which I know you didn't ask for.

But carry on here your work is very skilled and a pleasure to see. Cheering for a successful build.

C

[Jasonb13]

On 3/18/2019 at 2:35 PM, Codger said:

Jason, a very laudable project here, one I always admired when done right. But so difficult to do right. I find cut-aways fascinating.

 

Some random thoughts here and I'm by no means expert in any of this. I see two main problems - not of your doing.

I think much of the inner detail in this small scale will be difficult to see through the clear sections when model is on display. This because of the very un-scale thickness of the clear. A little like 'coke-bottle' eyeglasses. You may do much work that will not 'pay-off' by clear parts. It's just too thick to easily see the fine inner detail, plus what you'll have to do to eliminate sinks and re-polish very small difficult shapes.

I might consider cutting away the right side vertically and painting the left side. Rather like an illustration. Then any work you do building inner details will be easily on display.

A 1/12 subject would improve your chances of a good result with less difficulty. All this just my opinion which I know you didn't ask for.

But carry on here your work is very skilled and a pleasure to see. Cheering for a successful build.

C

 

Hey there...

 

Thanks for your reply and suggestions! You say I didn't ask for opinions, but I refer you to this quote from my post...

 

'Please please please give me any advice/feedback/criticism you want, I need all the help I can get!'

 

So I'm very happy to get all the opinions I can get, keep them coming!

 

To answer your points, I know exactly what you mean about the 'Coke Bottle' effect. In fact, it's one of the reasons why I'm wondering if I should do the internal carbon fibre decals, as I don't know how well they would be seen. I love the idea of doing a cut-away, but would be very worried about getting a clean cut, and then I'd definitely have to do the internal carbon fibre!  Also, and I realise I didn't explain this, my plan is to leave the engine compartment exposed. There's a clear part that covers that whole section, but it's designed to be removable (which as we all know in modelling speak means it doesn't fit great!) so while I will do that clear part half in half, like the rest of the build, it will be left off the model, so all the work in the Engine will be seen. The rest of the kit will be half and half but there isn't half as much detail in the internals (bar the seat/steering wheel and some pedals, brake fluid bottles etc.) and I don't really plan to add anything. The pictures after the exhaust pictures above give an idea of what it will be like, you can see the steering column go down through the monocoque. I did put carbon fibre on the steering column, not even sure if I should have or not! In some ways I'm depending on the Coke Bottle effect here, as I don't want my lack of skills to be too obvious!

 

So I hope that explains some of the logic. That said I do love the idea of a cut away and may have to try that on a different build sometime!

 

 

[Codger]

6 minutes ago, Jasonb13 said:

 

So I hope that explains some of the logic. That said I do love the idea of a cut away and may have to try that on a different build sometime!

 

 

Just consider working bigger to better show off your skills...

[Jasonb13]

26 minutes ago, Codger said:

Just consider working bigger to better show off your skills...

Ah, but if you work bigger you need better skills!

[Jasonb13]

Last update for the day, can't remember the last time I got so much done in one day! Back in work tomorrow though, so might not get near this for a few days.

 

Anyhow, got the two 'electrical boxes' painted, got the red caps painted as well, and did a final bit of scratch building, two things that go on top of the exhausts with a wire running out of them. I'm gonna guess they measure the exhaust temps. Anyhow, here's how they all look:

 

 

 

 

I put a wire into one of them just to give a sense of how it will work.

 

I also test-fitted one of the caps to show how it will look in place:

 

 

 

 

It's standing up a little too high, but that's ok, once I've picked exactly which sockets I'll be putting caps on, I'm going to cut the smaller wire in those sockets and the caps will then fully cover the socket.

 

Not sure what to do next, I won't be putting all of this stuff in until I'm happy to glue the engine and radiators in place, as I don't want to be running wires until everything is glued. But I've lots to choose from regarding what to do next. I need to cover the lower bodywork in Carbon Fibre, I need to do the wheels/brakes for all four wheels, I need to do the front suspension (and some brake fluid bottles etc.) and I also need to do the front and back wings! When all that is done I'll finally look at the body work. But as this is going on a shelf for a few months come the middle of April, I'll probably just focus on one or two of those jobs and see if I can get them done. Tempting to do one of the wings to see how the half and half will work in practice.

 

Thanks for reading!

[Jasonb13]

Quick update... As tempting as it is to start on a wing or something like that, common sense is kicking in and I really should get the rest of the lower bodywork/undertray etc. finished. If I get that done then I can glue in the engine/radiators etc.

 

So that basically means putting a lot more Carbon Fibre decals on. I managed to find a pic online that basically shows that under the car is completely carbon fibre apart from the skid block, so I'll look at getting under the car done, and then getting the upper half of the undertray done. So the next step is using tamiya tape to create the templates for the decals...

[silver911]

If I may offer this with regard to the 'shiny' tubing......neither paint or varnish are real solutions.....as neither will adhere to the tubing!

A far simpler solution is to pull the tubing through some folded....and very fine.....sanding sheet....1000 grit is usually about right....as you don't want to cut the surface.....just remove the shine.

Hope this helps.

 

A nice build though mate.

 

Regards

 

Ron

[Snowman]

That is looking amazing!!👍🤩

[Jasonb13]

Thanks Snowman!

 

And that's a good idea Ron. I have varnished one section of tube and also sprayed another section of tube with black primer. They seemed to adhere alright but I haven't handled them a lot. I'll sand one down as well, and then see how they all look.

 

A quick question. I won't be doing it for a while, but as I've said I have a large amount of injection marks on the clear plastic to try to polish out. I was wondering if using a dremel (with a polishing attachment) would be a good/bad idea? If it works it would make it a lot quicker! Anyone tried it before?

 

As for the build, I managed to get one half of the underside of the undertray done, got it done with one long decal and it worked pretty well. Hope to get the other half done in the next few days, and then a couple of other sections that will have to be done separately (and I'll try my best to hide the seam lines between the decals). Will put up a pic when the underside is done.

 

Thanks...

[Vicarage Vee]

Be VERY careful using a Dremel.  They are great for removing big lumps quickly, but even on the slowest settings the speed of the tool is often enough to melt the plastic.  Even with a polishing tool.  Try it on a bit of spare clear first if you can, it may be possible if you can be gentle enough, but if you go too far, and it happens quickly, you can end up with too-deep marks that are a pain to polish out.

[Jasonb13]

Yeah, I think I'll definitely try it on some spare parts first. I just know that I'm dreading all that polishing so anything I can do to make it easier would be appreciated!

[silver911]

With regard to polishing out injection marks on the clear.....I always use smokers toothpowder (Eucryl) from Boots or Poundland.....or jewellers rouge (ebay).

Always try anything on spare sprue first....and avoid the Dremell as others have said.

 

Ron

Edited March 24, 2019 by silver911
mistake

[Jasonb13]

Please tell me more about the Eucryl for polishing? At the moment, if I have to polish clear plastic (which tends to be quite rare really) I used sandpaper to get rid of the issue itself (like the injection mark) and then Micro Mesh cloths to slowly get it shiny again. How/when do you use Eucryl to do the same job?

 

Thanks...

[silver911]

10 minutes ago, Jasonb13 said:

Please tell me more about the Eucryl for polishing? At the moment, if I have to polish clear plastic (which tends to be quite rare really) I used sandpaper to get rid of the issue itself (like the injection mark) and then Micro Mesh cloths to slowly get it shiny again. How/when do you use Eucryl to do the same job?

 

Thanks...

 

Hi Jason,

Eucryl is a smokers tooth powder...and is used to return the 'clarity' to clear plastic after the initial sanding to remove the pin marks.

It can be applied by damp brush or fingers....simply rub it well into the surface...rinse...and repeat if needed.

Ordinary toothpaste can also be used for lighter scuff removal....but needs to be allowed to dry on the surface after application....then buff and rinse.

Jewellers Rouge does a similar thing if that is easier for you to source (Ebay).

Hope this helps.

 

Ron