Tamiya (sort of) McLaren MP4/4

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:30 pm

So my plan is to build the Tamiya McLaren Mp4/4 and using the Model Factory Hiro transkit to make it the Japanese GP car that Senna drove to his first world championship title. This transkit replaces most of the Tamiya kit with new parts. Anyway some shots of the kit and extra parts.

The Tamiya new release black box

Body and floor plan will be used from the Tamiya kit.

And the rest of the Tamiya parts, wheels, tires, mirrors and rain light.

Resin monocoque, engine and gearbox from MFH

Some more small resin parts like hose ends, bolt heads and electronics boxes

Some metal parts, I will not be using the seat.

More metal parts like turbos, uprights, radiators and engine parts.

Last set of metal parts.

Some detail shots of some of the parts.

Clear resin parts, and rubber

A few pins, bolts, springs

Wires and new screen

A nice set of PE parts

Tamiya decals, will not use these

MFH decals, will probably only use one of these and seat belt material.

Really nice set of decals from Museum Collection including the smoke company markings

Carbon fiber template set

A few more carbon decals

More detail sets, this time from Top Studio, includes cockpit, drive shafts and antennas.

And the three page instruction

DC87 · Post by **DC87** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:36 pm

WOW that looks like an amazing parts list. Really nice subjectl, hope it builds up well.

SgtSaboo · Post by **SgtSaboo** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:37 pm

I'm scared and you're the one building it!

I'm watching this one for sure!

Matthew · Post by **Matthew** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:40 pm

That turbo looks ace m8

Daishi12 · Post by **Daishi12** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:44 pm

WOW....(steps quietly away from pc and whimpers in the corner

)

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:58 pm

Interesting build

Rodney · Post by **Rodney** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 11:07 pm

holy crap that's going to be a nice build.. going to watch this build

Piatchie · Post by **Piatchie** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 11:16 pm

Looks like a fantastic kit! Pulling up a chair for this one!

Dunhill2005 · Post by **Dunhill2005** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:38 am

For heaven's sake!

That THINK terrified me!!!
How can I compete with my car

?!?
A awesome Kit. How much you paid for it? A million €?

By the way, a very cool Boxart!

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:45 pm

Thanks. This will be one of my biggest project so far, so I really hope I can do it justice.

The price for the kit, transkit and all the extra decals and parts is around 200 euros, so not the cheapest of builds.

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 2:04 pm

The reason for this build is that on the 1st of May, 20 years ago one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time died in a crash at Imola. The driver, Ayrton Senna da Silva, was probably one of the most talented drivers to ever sit in a F1 car. He competed in F1 from 1984 to his death in 1994 and managed to win three championships with McLaren and an impressive 65 pole positions (Schumacher has the most ever with 68 but he drove for eight more years than Senna). This will be my tribute to The Greatest.

The McLaren team for the '88 season

McLaren MP4/4
The Steven Nichols and Gordon Murray designed MP4/4 (the name MP4 comes from when Ron Dennis owner of Project 4 took over McLaren and started naming the cars McLaren Project 4 or MP4) is the most successful F1 car with an impressive 15 out of 16 wins and poles in one season.Oneof the reasons for this was that McLaren was one of the few teams that went all in for the 1988 season, the last of the turbo era. Most of the other teams used the season to test out new things for the ’89 season and the new engines. This and that McLaren secured the excellent Honda V6 engine meant that McLaren had an almost perfect season. The car and drivers where so dominant that at the second race of the season Senna out qualified his team mate the great Alain Prost by 0.7 seconds who in term where 2.6 faster than the third place.

Senna leading Prost at the Monaco GP

Due to the dominance of the car not many updates where done during the year, only small aerodynamic changes, the biggest being the removal of the turbo snorkels used in the early half of the season. The car used Gordon Murray’s idea of a low slung chassis to reduce the frontal area and increase the aerodynamic efficiency, thus reducing the drag for the same down force. To accommodate for this a new more reclined seating position was developed, this is something that is now the standard in F1. The engine was also made specifically for the car using a 80 degree V6 with a small cross section area and low center of gravity. And with a boost of 2.5 bar the 1494cc Honda RA168-E engine made 651 bhp.

Technical specifications

Ayrtons nephew Bruno Senna in the Mp4/4

Chassis: Carbon fiber honeycomb monocoque
Front suspension: Double wishbone, pull-rod actuated vertical mounted coil springs and dampers
Rear suspension: Double wishbone, push-rod actuated vertical mounted coil springs and dampers
Engine: Honda RA168-E, 1494 cc, 80 defree V6, twin turbo, longitudinally mounted
Transmission: McLaren 6-speed manual
Differential: Weismann
Fuel capacity: 150 liters

The race

The start of the Japanese GP

I’m building Sennas car from the Japanese GP where he secured the championship, this is the chassis number 2 that Senna also drove in the USA GP and Prost drove in the Brazil GP. The Japanese GP where held at the Suzuka circuit on the 30th of October. Quite a few championships has been decided at Suzuka during the years and 1988 was one of the more exiting battles. Senna took pole position 0.3 seconds in front of Prost locking out the front row for the 11th time during the season. But as the lights went green for the race Prost got a good start wile Senna stalled. Thankfully the stat finish straight at Suzuka is downhill and Senna managed to bump start his car( there are no starter motors on the cars). Senna had lost out and got away in 14th place, but at the start of lap two he had managed to get up to place eight. Senna continued to advance and by lap four he was up to fourth place. By lap 14 it started to rain and Senna could really show why he was one of the best. If Senna was good in the dry he was unbelievable in the wet. He caught up with Prost who had gearbox problems and passed on lap 27 while lapping de Cesaris, Nakajima and Guglmin. Finally in the lead Senna put in a succession of fastest laps, even managing to break the lap record, even though the track was damp and getting wetter by the minute. After 51 laps Senna took the checkerd flag in front of Prost to win the race and the title.

Senna in the wet at Silverstone

[youtube]7kUNTtvMOtQ[/youtube]
Top Gears tribute to Senna

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 2:06 pm

You've got some work ahead of you but im sure you will do a top job on it

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 3:33 pm

This is gonna be an awesome build

LudvigN · Post by **LudvigN** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 4:12 pm

The ooob is a cracking build but that looks just awesome!

Tomtom12 · Post by **Tomtom12** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 5:38 pm

Great choice I have this model and the top studio transkit to make with it.when i get better at modling i will try and build it so hope to get some tips from your build hiroboy do color match paint for this car and a book by MfH MClaren mp4/4 in detail it shows the car striped down
Good luck with the build.

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 7:18 pm

Finally got started with this. Started with the engine, first thing is that I wanted to replace the drive shafts with the ones form Top Studio.

The MFH drive shafts

The engine and gearbox before modifying.

Started with drilling a 1.1 mm hole in the locating tab for the drive shaft.

Next cutting off the tab

And the new ones in place. I think these look better and they will be easier to paint.

Also started test fitting the rest of the engine. As usual with MFH kits there is a million holes to drill for all the locating pins. But not usual for MFH kits was that there was some fit problems and I had to do a bit of filing to get every ting to fit as it should.

T3hGuppy · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 7:32 pm

Wow that's one really nice engine dude.

the detail is fantastic.

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:23 pm

Small update, have gotten some paint on the engine. The block and heads are painted in Tamiya X18 and the gearbox in Alclad Gunmetal and the rest in Alclad alu.

Head, cylinders and valve cover painted.

Scraped off the paint in the Honda text and the mounting surface on the valve cover.

The Top Studio driveshafts added, looks a lot better then the MFH ones.

Next up is intake, top of gearbox and a-arms.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:32 pm

I think you need a few more after market parts...

eoinfinnegan · Post by **eoinfinnegan** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:40 pm

The detail on those metal parts look class, are the hard to work with?

T3hGuppy · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:17 pm

Looking good dude.

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 3:08 pm

Thanks for the comnents!

DBMiller: I defently need more after market parts, there is still ten parts left from the kit to replace.

eoinfinnegan: Usually the MFH parts are almost perfect in terms of fit. Some of the thinner parta can be bend but it's easy to fix. But in this kit for some reason the fit is a bit off on some of the parts and have needed a bit of sanding. But it's not that bad and still quite easy to fix.

kiwigav · Post by **kiwigav** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:47 am

Thats a interesting kit to build. Must be interesting working with metal parts

warpedcrisis · Post by **warpedcrisis** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:35 pm

looking nice so far

ManCupboardModels · Post by **ManCupboardModels** » Wed May 07, 2014 1:08 am

Simply WOW

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 9:41 am

Thanks!

Finally an update on this, really need to start working a bit more on it if I want to get it done in time.

I have started doing some carbon fiber decaling.

Using Scale Motorsport Hi-Def decals. These has a really nice uni-directional pattern, so not the usual twill pattern that most people think of when they here carbon fiber. The UD carbon has only fibers in one direction and are held together with thin fiber glass strands 90 degrees to the carbon fibers. It is mostly used for more strength as you can place the fibers exactly in the directions that is needed and when you don't need "nice" pure carbon finish like on the inside of a painted part.

Started by putting some Tamiya tape on the part to be covered.

Cut it to shape

Transferred it to the decal

Cut it out

And put it on the part using some Micro set and sol. This is a pretty easy part as it's just flat.

Both parts with a bit of black paint on the edge. Also put some carbon decals on the rear brake cooling ducts using the same method.

The engine as it stands at the moment, still need to add the top of the gearbox, upper a-arms and uprights. Then it's just all the plumbing and wires left.

Muzrik · Post by **Muzrik** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 11:01 am

This looks awesome mate

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:00 pm

About time for an update on this project. I haven't done much as I got a bit fed up with some fit issues with the rear suspension and my nightfighter sig entry took a bit more time then I expected. So to solve the problems with the rear suspension I took all of it apart again and striped the paint.

What I had to do is build the top of the gearbox and damper mounts into a sub assembly and then glue it to the gearbox, this is not how it's done in the instruction where you are supposed to add all the small parts to the gearbox first and lastly the top. I just couldn't get that to work.

Now it's just to add all the details and then start on the monocoque.

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 2:58 pm

Finally got all the engine parts and rear suspension on. Only parts missing are the upright, and body panels, I'm waiting with these until I have done the wiring and plumbing. The plan is to have it done by tomorrow so I can get started on the cockpit. Got a bit of a hurry up when I realized that there is less then a month left on the build, so I need to put some other builds on hold to get this done.

ncf · Post by **ncf** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 3:14 pm

Nice build mate! It's looking fantastic! Never knew F1 cars could be so complicated! :PP

modeller · Post by **modeller** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 10:53 pm

In the 64 years of F1 racing a handful of cars have become truly iconic and the combination of Team/Driver/Livery make this car one of the all time greats... so your attention to detail is most fitting... amazing build, I'll be watching this one

fr0sty · Post by **fr0sty** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 5:28 am

Wow!

This is my all time favourite F1 car. I have the Tamiya kit ready for when I feel I will be able to do it justice. Might have to start collecting the AM bit's and pieces in preparation for this.

Will definitely be following with interest as it look's amazing so far.

Well done!

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:22 pm

Thanks for the comments.

I had a lot to do at work this week and had to put in some overtime, that combined with the very warm weather means I haven't been able to get as much done this week as I hoped for. Most of the time have been spent decaling the monocoque using the Studio 27 carbon decals. First the monocoque was painted in Tamiya X18 then the decals where applied using Micro Set and Sol. The fit of the decals where really good and very little carrier film. They did need quite a bit of Micro Sol to get them to conform to some of the small details but not to bad. There are some panels that still needs decals that are not included from S27 so I have to do some masking tape templates and get use some SMS carbon decals.

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:20 pm

Small update. Started with building the radiators, two white metal parts and one PE. These where polished using a brass wire brush.

The left one is polished, hard to see in the picture but it gives a nice metal shine to the radiator.

The wire brush used, they are for a Dremel but I use them by hand.

Next up was the instrument panel.

The Tamiya part, nothing wrong with it, just missing some small details.

The MFH version with only paint and decals. Still a few things to add.

First thing was to make some switches using thin (0.35 mm) solder and a pair of smooth jawed pliers to flatten the solder.

The switches attached to the panel. I also added two resin connectors from Top Studio and the turned steering wheel shaft also from Top Studio.

So finally the steering wheel.

The Tamiya one, not too many details on the front and nothing on the back.

The MFH one, a bit more details, at least they added some detail for the quick release and the back of the buttons. The biggest problem with both of these is the shape of the plate. This is the type of steering wheel Prost used, Senna had a wheel with a flat top of the plate and as I 'm building Sennas car this needs to be fixed.

The best way of doing this is to use the Top Studio steering wheel, which is also really well detailed.

Resin rim, PE plate, resin buttons, PE quick release mounting plate and turned aluminium quick release. Not that fun to put together but it loos really nice when done. To this I also added some machined steel bolts and decals for the stiching and the logo on the steering wheel.

Steering wheel in place,only thing missing is the wire connecting the buttons to the panel.

UKguyInUSA · Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:38 pm

Wow....lots of details....looks great so far!

eoinfinnegan · Post by **eoinfinnegan** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:02 pm

Your doing some mind blowing work

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 7:55 pm

Thanks for the comments!

Just a small update.The build is going pretty well and I've been able to get further then I thought so more likely to get it done on time.

I've spend some time today to do the tires. First thing to do was remove the big seam line in the middle.

For this I used a M6 bolt, nut and two large washers.

Put the tire between the washers and tightened the nut by hand.

And used a drill and a sanding stick to sand the tire.

This gives a nice used looked to the tire but not to worn out.

For the markings I used some PE paint masks. The logos on the tires up to around 95 where pained on, after that they are printed. This means that they shouldn't be perfect and should have some over spray.

And the finished tires, will most likely add just a tiny bit of weathering to the side wall to tone down colors a bit.

warpedcrisis · Post by **warpedcrisis** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:21 am

very nice work so far
and the attention to detail is really nice

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 11:18 pm

Thanks!

Have started doing a bit of work on the body. The first task was to cover the holes for the turbo inlets that where used in the first half of the season. The MFH kit includes a pair of metal parts to fill the holes. As these are a little bit too thick it would be really hard to blend them into the body. The problem would be that the metal is so much harder than the plastic sanding on it would most likely only thin the plastic. So to solve this I made a template using Tamiya tape, transferred this to a thin sheet of styrene, this was then glued on a larger piece to make it easier to attache to the body.

After applying some putty and sanding to fill the gaps there where still a few small marks left. To fill these I mixed some Tamiya putty with cellulose thinner to make a really thin putty.

Really hard to see the small marks, but they are there.

The Tamiya putty and thinner in a tattoo ink cup.

Test fit of the body on the chassis. The new metal radiator outlets are a bit short and needs some work to look good.

The brake and clutch master cylinder reservoir was painted Tamiya X-24 transparent yellow, followed by flat clear and then attached to the car.

The monocoque, engine and floor where then glued together. Next up is getting some primer on the body and test fit the exhaust and turbos.

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 5:44 pm

The body has been painted. I used Zero Paints excellent Mp4 red and pure brilliant white. The color is really hard to photograph. Which is a bit odd as it's was made so it would show up better on tv and photos. When McLaren started running with the red and white livery they ran with a normal red the first two season (74 and 75) but the color didn't look right on tv. So to match the sponsors red color better they started using a florescent red.

Also got all the decals on, the Museum Collection High Tech decals are really nice to work with. The carrier film is thin and trimmed close to the edge. But the best part is that after the decals has dried for about 24h you can take a tweezers and remove the carrier film. So the risk of silvering is none and the decal gets even thinner so there is less risk of having to sand the clear to level it out.

UKguyInUSA · Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 10:02 pm

Ohh....that's looking pretty now with the McLaren colors and decals on her!

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 6:55 pm

Thanks!

Small update, not much time left and I think I will get it done in time. the body have received some clear. I used Zero Paints 2-pack clear which I think is the best clear you can get, goes on smooth becomes rock hard and has a really good shine to it.

Also got the exhaust and turbos on, still missing the intake snorkels that are still drying. The exhaust was painted in Alclad Stainless steel and then I used Tamiya weathering master set D to add some heat staining.

The only things left are some detail painting on the body, build the wings, do the wiring and a few small detail Pe parts.

robertw · Post by **robertw** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 3:43 pm

Looks excellent. Hope you get it done in time as there is to few completed builds and I doubt mine gets done in time.

JonMW · Post by **JonMW** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 7:43 pm

Thanks! It would be nice with a few more finished builds but I guess other things get in the way.

Final update, starting to look like a car, the chassis is done just got the last few PE details on the body left, need to redo the screen, do some small touch up pianting and the clear on the nose cone.

A lot of time have been spent doing the wiring. I started by making small parts of the harness from slightly too long pieces of wire and thin heat shrink tube. It was then glued one of the Top Studio resin connectors that was earlier glued to the electronics boxes. When everything was in place I could cut the other end of the wire and glue it in place.

rodrant · Post by **rodrant** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 7:50 pm

Great Kit ! Great Build , all those details look real !

Well done so far ! Really hope that you get this done in time , incredible build !