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Hasegawa Honda RA272E 1:24 ++FINISHED++


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I wasn't sure whether to do another kit for this group build; but I had some left over paint that I mixed for my Honda RC-166 build, which would be perfect for the engine of this kit.

 

The RA272 was the first Honda Grand Prix car to win a race (the 1965 Mexican GP in the hands of Richie Ginther, I believe).  Hasegawa offered at least two boxings of the car, one for the Mexican GP and one for the USA GP, having an eye for a bargain I bought the US GP version as it was available at a discount.  I was pleased to discover one of my favourite GP cars in my preferred modelling scale because I didn't really want to have a car in an odd scale, despite the temptation of Tamiya's 1:20 scale kit.

 

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The box art is lovely.

 

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Obligatory sprue photo.

 

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Instructions seem fairly straightforward, the black and white reference photos don't really help.

 

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The first step is to assemble the cockpit interior.

 

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For the USA GP the side vents on the engine cowling need removing.  If I'd got any sense I'd have left these on and built the Mexico GP version as I'm sure that'd be easier.  There are also faint parting lines to deal with.

 

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Vents removed as best I could.  Hopefully the rear suspension will distract from any imperfections here.

 

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Test fitting to ensure the interior fits.

 

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Basic parts of the 1.5-litre DOHC V12, it is tiny compared with most 1:24 car engines.  This was also the first indication that we're not in Tamiya country anymore, location pins are something that happen to other kits (to be fair much of the kit isn't this bad).

 

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It goes together just about well enough.

 

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Mock-up of the body.

 

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Various parts primed, the floor to the body is only dry fitted for painting.

 

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Tyres are pretty clean but have no letters on the sidewalls and will need sanding to remove the centre seam.

 

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There are some rub-on transfers for the tyre letters.

 

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Another difficult part was the exhaust, especially the set that goes next to the cockpit.  The engine was used as a jig to help align the header pipes.

 

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Having initially elected to prime the exhausts on the sprue I changed my mind and decided that they would be better assembled, re-primed and sprayed as complete assemblies.  To aid with spraying and for added realism, the tail ends of the pipes have been drilled out.

 

That's it so far.  I hope this will be another quick build.

Edited by johnlambert
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Wow, you're really motoring through these kits. It will be interesting to see how this goes together compared to the Tamiya RA272 kit. I'm 100% sure you will have finished this one before I'm done.

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I've always been interested to see what these single seater kits look like in 1/24th, my main concern would be how flimsy the suspension arms are - do they seem up to the job?

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2 hours ago, Scargsy said:

I've always been interested to see what these single seater kits look like in 1/24th, my main concern would be how flimsy the suspension arms are - do they seem up to the job?

I've just assembled the suspension and for what it is, it feels quite robust for what it is.  The rear suspension is quite fiddly but once it's together seems to have a reasonable amount of integrity.  The front upper wishbones are solid and moulded into the crossmember which isn't the most accurate way to reproduce these parts, but the inner mounting is normally hidden by the bodywork and doing it this way makes stronger.  That said, the front hub uprights are a snap fit into the wishbones and pressing them together feels like it might break something.  I hope it will be sturdy enough when the wheels and tyres go on.

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OK, this is coming together very quickly considering how tricky some parts of the build have been.

 

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Everything is painted up for the engine, transmission and rear suspension.  The suspension links are quite fine and slightly difficult to get into place but once they are they feel reasonably sturdy.  The engine really needs better intake trumpets and some plumbing for the injection system, in all honesty I'm just going to glue the engine cover down, but maybe in the future I'll tackle this kit again.

 

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I lost count of the number of times I snapped off and re-glued the strut that supports the exhaust.  Also, getting the part with the springs over the transmission casing is quite a nerve-wracking business as it is a very tight fit and feels like something will break.

 

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The other side of the engine, I thought this part of the exhaust would be difficult but it actually went on quite easily.

 

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The interior tub was painted up with Tamiya NATO black for the seat and X18 Semi Gloss Black for the sides.  The cockpit edges were masked and sprayed the same satin black.  The nose cone has it's Honda badge and race number applied, these went on well but it's very hard to work out if the "H" badge is in the right place.

 

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The engine assembly glues to the cockpit floor, which then slides into the body assembly.  The advantage of this is that you can tweak the position to ensure the suspension radius rods fit properly.  Reference photos show that different pick-up points were used at different races, for the Mexico GP the upper link was mounted on the lower of the two mountings.

 

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An underside photo.

 

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Another mock-up.

 

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The front suspension has been added, the lower wishbones are a tight fit into their mountings, there are some sturdy pins that are very well hidden on the finished model.  As previously mentioned, snapping the suspension uprights into the wishbones is a bit uncomfortable as they are a very tight fit.

 

That's it for now, I've not forgotten the Toyota Celsior build and the final update should be ready soon.

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Nearly there with this one!  I got it into my head to add a few extra details but they didn't take long to bodge together.

 

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I wasn't happy with the mesh for the air intake/radiator in the nose cone, so I cut out some wire mesh to sit ahead of the kit part.

 

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The glazing has a little flash to clean up.

 

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On nearly every photo of the RA272 where you can see the suspension the brake lines are quite noticeable, so I decided to represent them.  I'd previously drilled holes in the brake callipers to hold them for painting.  There is space to run the wire across the car, which makes it a lot easier as it stays in place much more easily this way.

 

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A bit of bending with tweezers got the shape just about right.

 

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Another prominent detail is a couple of silver pipes that run along the top of the cockpit, a piece of silver wire was bent to roughly the right shape.

 

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The first part was used as a template to make the second.

 

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Pipes glued in place, I also checked reference photos to see if the RA272 had a harness but I couldn't see any evidence of one.

 

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Brake lines were added at the rear and there is also a small silver pipe that goes to the black box on top of the transaxle.

 

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The nose cone has been glued on and more decals were added.  You can also see that some fasteners have been picked out in aluminium paint.

 

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Another part that was visible on reference photos was a heat shield above the exhaust. I cut a thin piece of styrene to represent this, it will be painted and should help disguise the lack of injection system once the engine cover goes on.

 

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The wheels and tyres (complete with decals) are on, as is the rising sun decal which needs a lot of decal solution to help it sit over the contours of the body.  The engine cover and wing mirrors need a bit of paint but you can see how close it is to being done.  You need to be a bit careful how you hold the model when fitting the wheels but I managed not to break anything.

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Here we are, I think this has been one of my fastest builds.

 

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I was worried that the rising sun decal would not conform to the body, but brushing on MicroSol and leaving it overnight seems to have done the trick.  The wing mirrors were added and the heat shield was primed and painted.

 

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Engine cover in place.

 

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I thought I'd take some pictures of the Honda next to my Tamiya Toyota Celsior.  It shows how delicate these Grand Prix cars were.  A proper photo shoot will take place in the next couple of days.

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WOW!!!  :yikes:  I've pretty much missed this whole build, and what an awesome build it was too! :thumbsup:

 

I love your choice of model and what a lovely model it is...or was! 

 

Well by the looks of it you really enjoyed this build, it was great to see another early racing car in the GB.

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  • johnlambert changed the title to Hasegawa Honda RA272E 1:24 ++FINISHED++

This one is done and a bunch of photos added to the gallery.

 

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Here's a photo that's not in the gallery.  I'd say it's turned out pretty well.

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