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Tamiya 1/12 scale Renault RE20 Turbo


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Hi there.

Back in 1981 or so my brother bought this kit and started to build it. Work and family life interrupted and it sat in a box, part built, until early this year when I decided to tackle it. In order to do that I had to deconstruct it and start again. Many of the glue joints had perished, the painting wasn't much good and some parts were broken. It was a bit daunting, but it was all there so I knuckled down and finished it off.

 

I'd like to share some of the build here, starting with the completed kit as it looks now and then going through how I got there. It's going back to my brother next time I see him, but for now has pride of place in my home.

 

Hope someone likes it!

 

 

 

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I decided to paint the bodywork first since that was the job my brother was most worried about and halted progress. I opted for Tamiya aerosols, which I'd never used properly before since spraying white and yellow with an airbrush is awful. For me at least. Plenty of masking was required and multiple layers of paint, but I was ultimately pleased with the results which were, from the off, nicely glossy.

 

To be honest I was expecting it to be an utter nightmare, but I took my time and kept repeating my mantra which is "I want this to be the best it can possibly be."

 

There was a line between the yellow and white, but I used a very fine blade when it was dry and in any case it would be hidden by decals.

 

Actually my first attempt at the white was with a car paint aerosol. It was acrylic apparently and the right shade so I thought 'why not?' Sadly it was much runnier that I was expecting, went everywhere, ran like Mo Farrah and had to be sanded off. 

 

 

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Edited by Martin1962
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I moved on to painting some of the parts i had dismantled with more modern acrylic paints then started work on the drivers seat and eat belts. This was great fun and came out rather nicely I think.

 

By this time I had already repainted the cockpit and rear inner bodywork sections, added a few extra bits of cable from the speedometer and re-did the throttle cable. The interiors of the wheels were hand painted orange and I'd fixed the broken upper suspension arm with plastic card laminated together and glued to the remaining piece.

 

Here's a mishmash of some of the bits repainted. Drive belts, oil cooler pipes, some gearbox casing, and the sump together with a few other pieces.

 

 

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The seatbelts were an adhesive-backed fabric part and required some folding and feeding through the buckles. 

 

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A bit of artistic licence on the front here, but the repaired upper suspension part worked well.

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Some of the additional wiring in red is just visible

 

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While I was waiting for the other bits to dry I did some of the decals for front nose cone and wing, and also for the side pontoons. Bearing in mind these are close to 40 years old they went on very well indeed.

 

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 And lastly for this update an overhead of the tub minus the roll bar and steering wheel assembly

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Thanks guys. It was a very satisfying rebuild for me, partly for nostalgic reasons, but also because despite its age it remains a great kit. Such a shame that Tamiya have chosen not to market them any more.

 

Here's a few more photos.

 

Big Brother had built the engine, gearbox and suspension - which I dismantled and re-did. All of the HT leads and other hoses were attached and I chose to remove them because they were too long. Although they had been correctly cut to length according to instructions at the time, the limitations of vinyl tubing meant that they just looked a bit....wrong. I replaced the HT leads with some thin yellow-coated wire. I drilled out the spark plug cap holes and inserted the ends in with a bit of superglue then bent them a little before tying them together with some more wire. I bought some scale cable ties, but couldn't get these to work at all.

 

The clear lines were a similar story, except when I detached them every one of them took the tiny projection they slot into with them! I extracted each one and super glued them back in place then when dry, simply attached the now shortened hoses. Took hours!

 

 

 

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This rear bulkhead was left alone as it was fully built together with the turbo cooling ducts. The only think I did was add a few new lines to the cylinder (no idea what it is although it looks like an oil tank. When I came to instal the engine and gearbox these lines got in the way. That's probably why Tamiya hadn't included them in the kit. Doh! They had to be cut a little to fit in the end and you can't see them at all on the finished model!! More hours spent!

 

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This one shows the engine and gearbox in place. I added some extra lines such as the braided hose at the rear. On the bottom right of the photo the throttle cable and spring can just be seen.

 

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The repainted section here came out better than before. I had bought some carbon fibre decal sheet for the sloping sides but it wouldn't have been used back then so I left it black as per instructions.The right hand red pice is broken in this photo, so a dab of super glue on this 2mm long part sorted it out!

 

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This is the last one for now. Looking from the back of the engine forwards. The exhausts are gloss black as directed in the instructions. I'm not sure this is correct and didn't feel right, but there isn't much reference material available. I was quite pleased with the red band around the silver flask which was done by hand with my TINY brush. The band is not more than 1mm wide.

 

More later.

 

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Today's update with a few more photos. Sadly I didn't take any proper 'before' pictures which was a shame.

 

This is another view from the rear end.

 

 

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This just shows some of the additional wiring I put in (in red)and a very thin one at the bottom of the photo. I'm not sure what that part is called.

 

 

 

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The decals were challenging. Time had definitely made them a little fragile, so the main black section broke up into a few pieces. The thin black lines are separate decals and a nightmare to get in the right place. 

 

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The exhaust manifolds (well I think thats what they are!) should have been chrome silver. Unfortunately the mouldings had too much flash on them which when scraped off looked awful. I resprayed them with alclad chrome over alclad gloss black base, but they came out dull. Possibly due the chrome plating underneath I don't know. I attached a very thin wire to each side of each one (just visible).

At this point the fir of the parts became less good. These particular parts didn't sit right, possibly because I'd rebuilt the top of the engine and broken parts had to be re-secured, probably not in precisely the right place or angel.

 

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Not the sharpest photo but it's trying to show how the body looked attached to the chassis. Temp fix at this stage. I'll put the remainder of the photos showing the end result next time.

 

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Prior to seeing this post,  i just made a new post elsewhere that Italeri have just re-released this kit.

Love what you've done with the rescue - i started this model maybe 40 years ago, but it got the better of me and I never got it finished.

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14 minutes ago, sennapod said:

Prior to seeing this post,  i just made a new post elsewhere that Italeri have just re-released this kit.

Love what you've done with the rescue - i started this model maybe 40 years ago, but it got the better of me and I never got it finished.

Italeri have linked with Tamiya for aircraft, however their big cars are usually ex-Protar.  Which is what they've just re-released - See here 

ITALERI RE20

Not that this is a bad thing, Protar were well regarded in the day.

Regards 

Will

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2 hours ago, David Sandry said:

Nice build, how much was painted? How did you go about dismantling? 

 

Ive got a few old 1:12 models that I built as a teenager that I know I could do much better now (and would cost a bomb to replace). 

The whole thing was painted apart from the chromed parts. Puter body was with Tamiya aerosols - white and yellow - and the rest with Tamiya acrylics and Alclad. As for dismantling...very carefully! I pried open glued joints with a very sharp scalpel. Because the glue -which would have been polystyrene cement from a tube - was nearly 40 years old, it had become brittle and allowed parts to come apart easier than I thought. The glue had tended to weld parts together so there was an amount of fling and sanding rough endges to make a smooth re-fit. I didn't dismantle all of it. For example, the section containing the radiators and turbo coolers was mostly left alone as it was nicely done.

On 13/07/2019 at 10:36, malpaso said:

Italeri have linked with Tamiya for aircraft, however their big cars are usually ex-Protar.  Which is what they've just re-released - See here 

ITALERI RE20

Not that this is a bad thing, Protar were well regarded in the day.

Regards 

Will

I must have a look at these. Thanks for the link

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Last set of photos for this rebuild then......

 

Bearing in mind the fact that it had been part-finished, some parts had broken and the fact that the fit wasn't always up to 2019 standards I'm happy with it. I'm going to look at the Italieri re-release and consider getting one. Thanks for watching and commenting. Keep an eye on my 1/12 Porsche 935 build.

 

 

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I wasn't happy with the cylinder head. The bue should have been much neater, but unfortunately the filing and sanding was a tad too brutal and I couldn't get a smooth finish. I'll know for next time. I added the yellow cable which wasn't part of the kit.

 

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