M23 Yardley Mclaren

[adamg1987]

Hi all, this was my first kit I started when joining the hobby again some 15 years ago, I never got round to finishing it nor did I ever seem to document the build on this forum. As I'm trying to be more active of late and since I want to attempt to finish the kit... Yes its still not finished... I thought I would migrate my efforts over so far... 

The Kit is a 1973 M23 as driven by E.fittipaldi after some research and looking at the different M23's i decided i wanted to go for a different livery and chose the Yardley Livery. the build itself will be fairly oob with the obvious change of livery and some braided lines to liven up the Engine bay. of course i might get carried away as i have found most people do so this may change during the build. anyway progress to this date.

First part i managed to start, still not finished need to add the tops to the reservoirs will add them once they're painted will add the front subframe and battery once this part is glued into the chassis 

Chassis complete with the drivers cockpit and front suspension to test fit, also added the radiators and rear firewall at this time. Orange is Tamiya TS-56 which i believe is to be a close match to the Mclaren orange

Rest of bodypanels need cleaning up prior to primer and paint, i am also going to try to modify the opening on the airbox to that of a 1973 Yardley

The Yardley decals from Indycals, excellent turnaround from these guys and superquick delivery considering they had to cross the pond

Front discs just need to touch up the calipers with some flat black

Start of the engine assembly, cant help but thinking it looks a bit plain. Would it look better with a wash never done one before?

Exhaust manifolds from the reference pictures i have been using the manifold was held together with exhaust springs so i've started to add these. also manual calls for a matt black colour but the reference pictures look like a dirty stainless. so i'm thinking alclad stainless and again attempting a go at a wash to make them look used, any tips? 

[adamg1987]

Also forgot to add my first attempt at making my own a/n fittings the large Top Studio ones didnt seem to be big enough and i couldnt drill them out to a size that i could use 1.5mm or 1.6mm braided hose so i purchased some 2.5mm hex and some 1mm copper pipe (i think will need check the size) you can bend the pipe to what ever angle you need and then drill through the hex rod and glue them onto the copper pipe, the hex rod can be shaped lightly with some sanding sticks or diamond files as i have used and them painted silver, with the clear blue & clear red to finish. mine look a little rough as a first attempt and i've rubbed the paint off  where i got crap on them but you get the idea

Supplies

Possible outcome

[adamg1987]

Today has been semi productive, mostly cleaning up parts so don't feel like i'm getting anywhere. ive been trying to work out the routing for the braided hose's and the manual seems to contradict my reference pictures. i also had another stab at using the top studio fittings for the smaller braided hoses and managed to drill them out to the required size without breaking them, thanks to a member on here for suggesting on working my way up with drill bit sizes. 

the part in question that i cant work out is this one on top of the fuel tank 

according to my reference pictures i downloaded from the net its the wrong way round, unless they changed it on the 74 car 

can anyone tell me where the two braided hoses on his picture to the left lead too?

also had to modify this piece here to accept a 1.5mm braided hose i had to make my own fittings and attach them too it, 

the top piece required trimming then a 1.5mm hole drilled down into it to accept my custom a/n fitting. i was very worried as i've had plastic split on me before trying to do this. I took my time and it seemed to work out. i then just made a sleeve fitting for the lower piece to accept the other hose.

Engine was treated to a black wash to make things look a little more realistic

loads more parts awaiting primer and then paint so this is next stage before i can assemble any further

[adamg1987]

Just a small update, I have finished off most of the engine. I just need to add springs back onto the exhaust system and finish off the oil cooling plumbing to the rear of the gearbox.

the Top half of the monocoque has been a complete mess. my third and hopefully final replacement has arrived from Japan and I will attempt to have this painted within the coming weeks, providing all goes well I should have a top half I can finally glue down and make some headway with this project, this really is the only part holding me up at the moment.

Hopefully have a better update some time soon.

 

Here are pics only a few months after I said I would upload some, progress has come to a halt I have no where to paint anymore so the few bits I need to finish will have to wait! 

Pictures of the engine attached to body with the top half of body attached.

I have made a start on making up the rest of the a/n fittings as seen towards rear of car.

I can't find any reference pictures of how the seat belts attached but I wasn't happy with the tamiya way so I installed some buckles and rivets to look more realistic I understand this may not be accurate but the whole car isn't a 100% replica so I'm ok with that.

 

I wasn't happy with the way the fuel injection system came out or the finish on the funnels. I could of been a bit cleaner in my methods. after much deliberation i decided to pull it all apart and start over. This time with the MFH DFV funnel & distributor set. The parts are white metal mostly with aluminum funnels. 

Finished throttle bodies awaiting the funnels, the springs are a nice addition but the MFH springs are too long so i used some top studio exhaust springs i had laying around.

Started assembling the fuel injection system the MFH kit provides yellow tubing for the fuel pipes but its too large to fit over the ends on the fuel pump section. I'm going to sleeve the yellow piping inside some larger black piping hopefully this will work out. looking at reference pictures this is similar to the real thing anyway.

The turned trumpets awaiting to go on also the springs which were too long

Adam

 

finished the fuel lines and ht leads today and got everything in place not 100% happy with the results the fuel lines were too long so had to trim them in situe! could of been a lot cleaner but overall i think an improvement over the kit parts. also noticed a extra tube from the oil filler cap to the box mounted above the gearbox so added this in whilst it was apart.

before

after

[adamg1987]

This must be the slowest progressing thread on the forum, i haven't picked up my modelling tools for what seems like an eternity! 
It seems these days i'm destined to be a collector, not a builder! 

Anyway, i have made some small progress. I have had a lot of trouble with the Acu Stion vacuum formed screens from HLJ they are listed as 1974 M23 screens but when trimmed down they don't seem to be the same shape as the kit 1974 screen! I thought at first i may of trimmed too much so ordered a few more but they all appear to be the same. This has been a major bugbear for months and after ordering several screens i was getting no where. 

I managed to find a model shop in New Zealand called Model Crafts and Hobbies who produce and stock 1974 screens. well i had nothing to lose apart from maybe a small selection of my money but it paid off they're spot on! here's some pictures. i ordered two incase i messed the first one up (done that before).

Top to bottom - Model Crafts, Standard Tamiya & Acu Stion

Here is the Acu Stion screen over the top of the Model Crafts you can see there is quite a big difference.

and the reason i went for Vacuum formed screens, the thickness. .85mm on the standard Tamiya screen and 0.17 on the Model Crafts screen

Onto the next job which i hate, masking! i dont like masking one bit and i put this particular job of till last. 

Not as bad as i thought in the end. 

I think soon i will be ready to apply the decals but I've now decided i want to semi gloss clear coat over the decals but as the model stands i feel i would be in a difficult position to paint clear over the monocoque as it is.

any suggestions?

I will try to update soon and maybe finally finish a model!

Adam

 

I'm ashamed to say to say ive been building this for four years now and i still haven't finished a model despite starting a few others. I've finished the decals now and I've started to mask up sections for the clear coat. 

I've decided to go with a semi gloss clear coat from Zero paints rather than a gloss. I'm going to let the decals dry off for a few days now from advice from another modeler.

hopefully if the clear goes well i can start building it back up again soon. Few pics below.

Really struggling not to put this in the bin after coming so far! Since  lacquering the monocoque the decals reacted in a small area near the front I managed to sand down the imperfections  and repaint the front section only this left me with a completely different shade of white which led me to painting it again this time the whole top half. This left me with a paint reaction towards to rear which needed correcting 4th paint job correction in and everything looked fine until the morning where the front this time showed a reaction. I've sanded it right back and I'm going to attempt to paint it one last time. I'm not giving up just yet so wish me luck 5th times the charm.


Really struggling not to put this in the bin after coming so far! Since  lacquering the monocoque the decals reacted in a small area near the front I managed to sand down the imperfections  and repaint the front section only this left me with a completely different shade of white which led me to painting it again this time the whole top half. This left me with a paint reaction towards to rear which needed correcting 4th paint job correction in and everything looked fine until the morning where the front this time showed a reaction. I've sanded it right back and I'm going to attempt to paint it one last time. I'm not giving up just yet so wish me luck 5th times the charm.

[RossFMJ]

That's a massive shame about the paint reactions , but please don't bin it (okay it's yours, do what you need to). It's looking like a really nice and tidy build otherwise and the DIY pipe joins are great .  Thanks for sharing.

[adamg1987]

Hi Ross,that looked like my last update but I did manage to save it. Will get a update post up soon with a plan of moving forward.

[Malc2]

Good stuff, nice to see this being built.

Malc.

[Flintstone]

Great progress. The Yardley scheme is really good.

[JCH]

I love the car and the build.  Don't pitch it! The imperfections are, only visible to the builder, what give this build it's character.  Oh, and I'm pretty sure I can one-up you on the length of time taking to complete.  This is excellent work, well worth getting to the finish line.