Jump to content

Honda RA272 Tamiya 1/20


monsjmse

Recommended Posts

Awesome.  Look forward to seeing this.  Actually had one pop up at the LHS...it wasn't there long.  It's currently residing in my closet.  :whistle:

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome along and Ooooo that's very nice!!!

 

Great to see or first racing car in the build and a nice looking one at that. I know a few people who would love to build that one.

 

Good luck with your build, look forward to following the one.

 

2 hours ago, helios16v said:

Awesome.  Look forward to seeing this.  Actually had one pop up at the LHS...it wasn't there long.  It's currently residing in my closet.  :whistle:

 

..... and why doesn't that surprise me!  :D

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is one of my favourite Grand Prix cars, so I'm looking forward to seeing your build.  I have a Hasgawa 1:24 scale RA272 which was nearly my entry to the group build (maybe I'll do it as a second build).

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had my eye on this kit for sometime. When I saw this GB I thought it provided the perfect opportunity to build it. The RA272 is a beauty - Honda's second F1 entry from 1965 having first broken into the sport in 1964 with the RA271. In a season of 10 official championship races dominated by British cars and drivers, the RA272 won the final round in Mexico with American Richie Ginther at the wheel - his first and only F1 win. Team-mate Ronnie Bucknam finished 5th.

 

I was away for the weekend visiting family, so early progress has not been quite as rapid as I had hoped. I usually build the engine first and this time is no exception, so I've made a start on the somewhat unusual transversely mounted V12. For once, the instructions would also have me start on the engine, so stage 1 here we go. As with most Tamiya F1 kits, the majority of the engine parts are from the same silvery grey sprue, this one designated 'D'.

 

G5hK6hAl.jpgfIbtAZdl.jpg

 

All went together nicely. Quick coat of black Mr Surfacer, then sprayed with Alclad aluminium and titanium gold. I still need to add some more gold to the areas indicated on the plans. Not 100% sure on the colour matching here. I think that it should perhaps be a richer gold tone with the instructions calling out a 5:1 gold leaf - silver ratio.

 

t9cnSArl.jpgroIj9r9l.jpg

 

I'll seek out some source photos and see if it needs changing. I need pictures anyway as I'm hoping to add a bit of additional plumbing later on and it would be nice to get all the pipes and tubes going to the right places.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice start, I didn't realize that it had a traverse mounted V12.... and a 1.5L one that rev'd to 14,000rpm as well!  Those pistons must have been the size of thimbles, and i can imagine the noise it made!!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, trickyrich said:

Nice start, I didn't realize that it had a traverse mounted V12.... and a 1.5L one that rev'd to 14,000rpm as well!  Those pistons must have been the size of thimbles, and i can imagine the noise it made!!

 

If you think that's impressive Honda's racing motorcycle engines included the 1966 RC166 with a 250cc six-cylinder engine and the five cylinder 125cc RC149 with 30bhp at 18,000rpm.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, johnlambert said:

 

If you think that's impressive Honda's racing motorcycle engines included the 1966 RC166 with a 250cc six-cylinder engine and the five cylinder 125cc RC149 with 30bhp at 18,000rpm.

 I've read about them and did have an old Protar model of one of these (or something very similar from the same era) may years ago. have no idea where it went!

 

They were mechanical marvels of their time......and probably mechanical nightmares as well! 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 21/04/2022 at 07:18, johnlambert said:

Honda's racing motorcycle engines included the 1966 RC166 with a 250cc six-cylinder engine

I saw (and heard...) that bad boy on the Island with Mike Hailwood aboard. Even had a look at it being worked on in the paddocks by a couple of Japanese  mechanics. 

I've got a couple of magazine pictures of a Honda f1 car in action, but to be honest I don't know which type is featured. Pretty sure it is John Surtees driving - he had a fairly unique style of steering. 

I expect you have plenty of ref online for the details. This is going to be good.... 👍

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

High time for an update I think. Not a massive amount of progress. The lack of rain has meant that outdoor jobs have been prioritised most weekends. Hopefully this weekend will be washout and I can get my head down with this :fingerscrossed:.

 

Next up was the engine frame, oil tank, air funnels and some pipes. Drive shafts are on here too but not needed til later. I've drilled some holes to put the fuel lines in later. Hopefully I'll get round to it as it always makes a nice touch. 

 

bWdWsxYl.jpgKHWK1dml.jpg

 

I decided to re-spray the top of the engine block with a richer gold colour after looking at a few photos of the real thing. The titanium gold looked a bit anaemic. The engine block also got a pinwash with some black panel liner. I got hold of some Molotow liquid chrome for the funnels. I've seen it airbrushes nicely, but I wasn't quite sure how it would go on with a brush. Not too bad actually, though they don't look quite as shiny as some of the examples I've seen. Maybe I should have re-based the funnels with black before putting the chrome on. It looks more shiny than it appears in the photo below - not enough light!

 

nGUZQTkl.jpghrEI1NJl.jpg

 

Just checked the forecast - looks like I'll be outside again this weekend!

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A small amount of progress over the weekend. It did rain a little :smile:.

 

Managed to get the oil tank fitted and the last couple of pipes on. I still need to paint some of the bolt heads silver on the engine frame, but I don't want to right now as I'm having to handle the engine block too much at the moment to fit the parts. The drive shafts are also ready to go on, but I might wait to fit them until later when the rear uprights are ready to go on so I can align them correctly.

 

W6Y1TS4l.jpgHjA6UCYl.jpg

 

Next up are the impressive looking quad exhausts, each one of which has three separate pipes. The clean-up on these parts took ages as the mould lines were right down the sides of each pipe and their positioning makes them tricky to get to. They are also of course solid pieces of plastic, so I made some pilot holes and drilled out the ends as much as I dare without them disintegrating. I could have replaced the lot with some metal tubing, but I don't have the right size to hand. The walls still look a bit thicker than they should, but they look a lot better than they did. These are the top two. There are another two that go either side of the engine block.

 

CaGddNel.jpgkC9RY2Jl.jpg

 

Cheers, Mark.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 30/04/2022 at 23:02, 45DegreesModelling said:

This is a great kit, I’ve just about finished mine. Had absolutely no problem with it. The seat in the monocoque is a tight fit but goes in nice and snug! 
 

Tom

 

Just watched your video Tom. Nicely done. Great looking finish on the paint work.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Thank you kindly Rich.

Progress has been quite slow over the last few weeks. I was hoping to get some serious time in over the Jubilee w/end but we ended up spending most of the time visiting people. Work also always seems to ramp up whenever I join a group build too. I have been able to keep chipping away at this though. The engine is pretty much done apart from the tubes & wires I want to add if I have time at the end.

 

I had a bit of a disaster last weekend when shaking my bottle of black Mr Surfacer. The glass gave way presumably to the steel ball bearing I'd added and so I ended up randomly decorating the place with black paint. My modelling time was spent clearing up the mess. Luckily no paint ended up on the model, just all over my desk and the carpet :doh:.

 

CZVjC5cl.jpgvAV9Et4l.jpg

 

Managed to move on now to the front part of the car which I'm hoping to get finished by the end of the week. I'll get a more detailed update done over the weekend.

Cheers, Mark.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/15/2022 at 12:32 AM, monsjmse said:

I had a bit of a disaster last weekend when shaking my bottle of black Mr Surfacer. The glass gave way presumably to the steel ball bearing I'd added and so I ended up randomly decorating the place with black paint. My modelling time was spent clearing up the mess. Luckily no paint ended up on the model, just all over my desk and the carpet :doh:.

Happened to me once - now it always gets a shake inside a ziplock, same with the old bottles of Alclad as well. The engine looks fab.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 16/06/2022 at 09:43, Jinxman said:

Happened to me once - now it always gets a shake inside a ziplock, same with the old bottles of Alclad as well. The engine looks fab.

That's a good idea which I think I will adopt! Would have saved a whole lot of pain.

 

With the engine just about done, we move onto the floor and the front wishbones. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed with these parts. They seem rather clunky and un-Tamiya like all being moulded essentially into just 2 pieces. It also makes the paint job rather complicated with everything amalgamated on the same piece of plastic. There are also some very awkward ejector pin marks.

TEOIUFal.jpg1NwStCpl.jpg

 

I found the painting instructions for the underside a tad ambiguous. I've ended up painting the main part all aluminium, but I think that the outer frame and those central brackets should be the same Racing White colour of the car. I'm not going to bother trying to do this as nobody will be looking at the car upside down anyway and it will take me a good while to do. I think I'll give the floor a dark wash to make it look dirty and give it some more depth, but that will be it. The front wishbones I did paint black and the front tip metallic grey. I cut off the end of the front lower wishbones where they attach to the main bodywork and stuck these onto the bodywork itself. I've drilled some holes and will pin them on later. The other job at this stage was the front brake assemblies. Again, some awkward ejector marks on all of these parts. I've done quite a rough filling job on these as they won't really be seen much as the wheels will be in the way.

 

ustRlFKl.jpgR9VCHYml.jpg

 

So here is the front section assembled. Up next the radiator, pedals and seat.

ieQD099l.jpgynowpgGl.jpg

 

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

only just managed to catch up with this build, great to see you had made a bit more progress, hopefully it will continue, would be great to have her in the gallery.

 

I had the same thing happen with a bottle of Alclad, i add a wee steel ball and got a bit carried away with shaking it....... mine was a metallic black...which went everywhere in the garage!!! :doh:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Rich. Time flies. I have quite a few progress pics that I don't have time to go through right now, but I'll post them as an update in some sort of chronological order at some point. I realised that I am going to miss the final 2 weeks of the GB as I'm off on holiday to Cornwall, so I've been working on this most evenings over the past couple of weeks in a push to get it done. When I say it done, I mean them done as I've actually made two!

 

Xtj6ngsl.jpgzvxR5ybl.jpg

 

I'm going to be back for the final weekend, so hopefully I will be able to complete the final assembly. Everything is painted ready to go, it just needs putting together. Except the wing mirrors still need a bit of work. There may be a few wires and tubes missing here and there, but I'm hoping to get something into the gallery before it closes. I can add some more tubes later - they are extras anyway and not in the kit. It's adding the extra bits that takes the most time.

 

Cheers, Mark.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Well I managed to get some gallery photos in, but there are still a few details I want to add to finish them off. I've been wanting to finish them all week, but it has been so hot that my hands are just too sweaty to tough them without ruining the paint and I can't face wearing gloves. In the interest of completeness, I'll bring this build log up to date and will then update again once everything is in its final version. I'm sure that everyone will have packed up and gone home by then, but it must be done!

 

Next bit was the seat, radiator, interior walls of the monocoque and the bulkhead. I added some ignition wires at the back of the bulkhead to be plugged into the engine later on.

BbFqB6Zl.jpg4RPmIJTl.jpg

 

The seat was a bit of a tight fit, but got it in the right place eventually. Next up was the monocoque. I cut all the parts off all the wishbones that attached to the main bodywork as these all needed to be painted white. Stuck these on the monocoque and drilled some holes for small pieces of brass rod so I could pin the wishbones in place later. There are 2 attachment points at the front and 4 at the back.

LUpYAARl.jpgkfjVemml.jpg

 

The main body parts then got a white Mr Surfacer undercoat which was wet sanded with a 3000 grit sponge, then several coats of the Zero paints Racing White. The paint was really smooth so I decided to put the decals on without a gloss coat.

dQjxqq3l.jpgsO6oMejl.jpg

 

The red circle decals I didn't really fancy, so I cut some circle templates and sprayed them on instead. Only decided to do this after already putting the other decals on the monocoque, so I was a bit nervous that the masking would damage them. Thankfully it didn't. Pretty pleased with how these turned out.

 

XEfgNITl.jpgXKRSrNSl.jpg

 

Clear coat was Mr Color Super Clear III. Think I did 3 coats, 4 would have been better but I was in a rush at this point. Wet sanded everything with 3000 grit sponge to get rid of the raised decal edges, then polished with Tamiya polishing compound to get the shine back. I still hadn't done the top engine cover as I was waiting from some goodies to arrive from Spotmodel. Got 2 types of mesh - some to add to the inside of the nose cone to protect the radiator, the other to go onto the engine cover.

LE300cXl.jpgW39OzGEl.jpg

 

Drew and cut out a card template and used this to cut the mesh to shape. This was then superglued in place before painting in Racing White.

8pbig3tl.jpg

 

The bit of the monocoque where the fuel cap sits just in front of the dash was masked off and painted black. Those tanks took 200 litres, so the car was a like a fast bomb like all F1 cars of the day. The monocoque body wraps around the rest of the assembly, though it needs to be bent an alarming amount to get it on. I didn't take a picture at this point, unfortunately. The steering wheel and dash could then be fitted. I added a few wires coming out the back of the dash.

86AzxsIl.jpgFBNcKfZl.jpg

 

Suspension pieces in these kits can always be improved. Middle bits were cut out with a razor saw and replaced with some plastic rod. Added some pins so they all went back together ok. Then it is just a case of painting them, sticking them together and wrapping some black wire round for the spring.

cPm5RUNl.jpgoWk93o4l.jpg

 

Wheels up next and then the rear uprights. This pic must have been before I painted the bolts in the wheel rims chrome. Also the outer part of the wheel rims needed to be silver, so I added this with some Uschi metallic powder applied with a fine cotton bud.

rKt18xel.jpgsov32zvl.jpg

 

Engines were wired with fuel lines and ignition cables. Very fiddly and took ages. Then everything was stuck together, which just about brings us up to date... 

O5GPKnnl.jpglYLHVaVl.jpg

 

A few things left to do:

Add radiator mesh to inside of nose cones.

Add fuel line from fuel tank to engine (prominent in reference photos running inside the monocoque on driver's left).

Add another prominent cable from throttle link on the engine through to the front of the car (also prominent, but on the right side).

Add some bolts to the bottom of the windshield where it supposed to attach to the car.

Add some brake lines both front and back.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...