DocRob

Next was the suspension, which is directly attached to the engine. The damper rods were painted with AK´s chrome marker and look really chromish, not like the to my experience really bad Molotow marker. This was followed by prep work and drilling for the gearbox section, where a lot of bolts and screws are to be added. For painting the gearbox, I used Zero Paints Hewland Gearbox Texture paint for the first time, because it is a Hewland gearbox and have to say, I like the result, at least for a 1/12 kit. I followed the recommendation of using a larger nozzle on my airbrush (0,4 mm) and raised the air pressure to almost 3 bar or 40 psi, to prevent clogging. The brake disks were sprayed with Extreme Color stainless steel, therefore the slight bluish tint and the calipers were sprayed with duralumin. Cheers Rob

Wow, what a fantastic looking Ferrari, Craig. The blood red paint job is gorgeous and the white trimming on the seats is the cherry on the cake, like Dan said. The USCP wheels are clearly better than the supplied ones. BTW: I checked the wire spoke wheels with my Fujimi 1/24 Ferrari GTO and decided against the USVP wheels, because mine have aluminum rims and layered etched spokes, which look extremely fine. Cheers Rob

Today, I finished the engine so far. There will be some more wires and tubes added later, but this will happen after installing the gearbox and body. In comparison with the transparent fuel lines, the addition of the wiring was relatively simple. Electronics and some other parts got added on top of the engine. For the first time, I used markers for detail painting, like screwheads and bolts, in this case a silver Playmarker from AK, which covered well, even over black paint. I may add cable binders to the fuel lines and ignition wiring, but the ones, I tried failed miserably. They were 3D printed flexible decals from MFH and I managed to break four and got one installed and then gave up, so definitely no recommendation here. I think, I will use etched ones. Another thing, I don´t like about the MFH manual is that there are no wiring length given and far worse, some wires or tubes lead to nowhere in the picture of the manual, which leaves you browsing through the pages and looking for the right connection, which probably isn´t there and the wire ends hidden somewhere in the body. A bit more clearness would be appreciated. Cheers Rob

After checking all my MFH 1/12 kits about completeness, which was an exhausting task, I managed to continue with the Brabham. The clear yellow air funnels got installed, along with the clear fuel lines and accessories. This was a fiddly task, because it was difficult to determine the correct length of the fuel tubing. I also installed the belts on the frontend, which were replicated by black self adhesive tape. The white painted bracket parts on top of the funnels have angular PE parts glued on, to accept the fairings later. It was definitely a mistake to install them now, as figured in the manual, as I managed to break some. Cheers Rob

That sounds interesting Craig, I never heard of the method and would be interested to see some results. Cheers Rob

Thank you Craig, I recently mailed my three critique points to MFH, but got no response until today. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention, that searchable PDF´s are preferable, which makes it easier to identify parts in the manual. The last days, I paused the Brabham build, because a fellow modeler PM-ed me and told me about missing and wrong parts in two MFH kits he owns. I had two eye straining days, to browse through my remaining four 1/12 kits but found no parts missing, luckily. It was no fun, but it had to be done anyway, sooner or later. With my two finished builds, there are seven now, without a single part missing, except for one rivet in the actual BT45 build. This is an error by design, because the manual shows thirteen of these rivets, where only twelve are supplied and are listed on the parts list. With my Brabham BT 52b kit, I found many of the white metal parts bent. Not a big problem, but it stands out, as it only happened to occur with this kit. BTW: Have you seen the new DB4 GTZ pics on the MFH homepage. What a mouthwatering kit and I guess, as the prototype is readily built, the shipping may start soon, which would be a great self present to my 60th birthday in the beginning of June. Cheers Rob

Thank you Ken, building the engine is pure joy, the fit is very good and with each added detail it looks more busy and realistic. Cheers Rob

That would have been the right Porsche for the man who called himself "Purple Joda from Minnesota", Gary . I like it as it is so un-Porsche. I guess a bit of polishing will help to let the paintjob sparkle. I use a very highly thinned mix for the last coat of clear, to achieve the perfect surface and some fellow modelers even claim, to hit the last coat with only leveling thinner when still wet, but I haven´t tried that. Cheers Rob

Simply stunning Cheers Rob

Cylinder bank number two is ready, again lots of riveting, always hoping that no rivets ping out of the tweezers. The rubber spark plug connectors got glued in and were drilled to accept the wiring. This time, I used Tamiya metal primer for the first time, brushed onto the parts and it seems, that the metallic paint adheres well on the white metal. BTW: Tamiya should use the MFH method for replicating belts. There are single cast belt wheels, the belt itself is made from self adhesive black tape. One thing, I learned with MFH kits is the addition of springs. It´s always better to add the spring to the unmounted parts and glue these into place then. I will bore you with more pictures, showing my progress with the engine, but you know, it´s easy to scroll . Cheers Rob

One bank of cylinders is prepared, still six to go on the other side. You have to love to apply tiny white metal rivets with this kit, as there are hundreds. The engine was sprayed with AK Extreme Metals dark aluminum, the covers, front and rear, were a bit more complicated. The manual calls for a mix of copper and gold and my first try was with AK´s jet exhaust, which felt to dark and to bronze, followed by pale jet exhaust, which lacked the slightly reddish tone. Finally, I choose Ak´s pale brass, which looks good to my, compared with photos. Afterwards, I painted all the casted nuts and boltheads silver and applied all the necessary rivets with fine tweezers into their pre drilled holes, always expecting the "ping" sound of a flying rivet. Finally, I accentuated white metal with black panel liner and brass colored parts with brown panel liner. Cheers Rob

I would use Alclad chrome on Tamiya LP-1 gloss black, my go to chrome team, when no further masking or weathering is in play, because Alclad chrome is very fragile. The difficulty is a consistent coverage without applying too much chrome, which reduces the shine. BTW: I don´t know the Revell chrome spray. Cheers Rob

The wire wheels from USCP look great Craig. I really like to see them under some Alclad or in your case sprayed in Revell. I will evaluate the supplied PE and turned aluminum rims for my Fujimi Ferrari 250 GTO and possibly buy these too. Cheers Rob

Somehow your Iron Duke build skipped my attention, Alan. I have no idea, how you made it at that super tiny scale, but the finished ship looks fantastic. I guess, you need an eyeball massage now. I would never go beyond 1/350 and even that is very tiny, detail wise. Cheers Rob

Thank you Craig, the kit falls together virtually, so you can enjoy the painting and finishing. Stencils can be a pain, but are luckily of very high Cartograph quality. The biggest problem was to match the blue metallic of the external fuel tanks to the decals. I even thought about building a second Kai Phantom with the yellow livery and that´s rare by me, because I hate repetitious work. If you are interested to dig a bit deeper into the build, there is a link to my WIP over on LSM. Done - F-4EJ Kai Phantom - The Last of it's Kind ZM 1/48 - LSM 1/48 Work in Progress - Large Scale Modeller Cheers Rob

I paused a little with modelling, using the time for long hard swimming sessions in the Atlantic, to regain some power and stamina, but now, back to the Brabham. After about 150 or more holes drilled, most of the Alfa flat twelve engine is prepared for painting. Shown parts are only dry fitted, nothing is glued as of yet. There will be a ton of rivets been inserted into their holes after airbrushing. Cheers Rob

Nice loot Craig, you need a trailer, when visiting a show . The Salvino´s Monte Carlo is in my stash as well and I can tell yo, that the ZM F-4 kits are absolutely fantastic. How do I know? I built one . Cheers Rob

All looks fantastic in black and red Craig, I love the piping and have to store that idea for later. Cheers Rob

Congratulations to your awards and raffle wins, Craig. The Maserati is a piece of art. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gary, I hope it´s a bit less demanding than the Cobra Coupe, where I put a bit too much onto my inexperienced shoulders. I got it done, but I hope the BT45 will be easier to build, without doors, bonnets and tons of clear parts. I had the same preoccupations like you, when I started my first MFH kit, the Crocker motorcycle, but dearly loved the build experience, except for the chain. It´s a learning curve and good tools are needed, especially pin wises and tons of drill bits. Thorough preparation and understanding, how everything builds up are also important. I like a challenge with my projects and another option would have been to start the Tamiya 1/12 Brabham BT44b, the predecessor of the BT45, but when I saw the parting lines of the old kit, I thought no, lets build the real deal. Cheers Rob

My next project after the sweet Honda RC166 build will be a bit more demanding and time consuming. I picked the red Brabham BT45 "Press Version 1975" out of the stash and started to get a bit familiar with it´s content. Press Version meant, it was the car, how it was presented to the press before the 1975 season started, the car in this configuration actually never raced. The press version has a white paintjob with Martini branding, where the BT45´s used during the 1976 season was painted red and had some alterations, mostly around the nose section. The #7 car was piloted by Carlos Reutemann, the #8 car by Carlos Pace. Bothe Carlos´s didn´t had any success with the car, but I found the design absolutely cool. In the seasons before, Brabham had their very successful BT44 (b) on the track, but decided to switch from the 8 cylinder Cosworth DFV engines to the Alfa Romeo flat 12 cylinder engine for economical reasons. The design from the BT44 to the BT45 changed a lot and the latter was ultra flat with the Alfa engine. Unfortunately the engines were not very reliable. Some pictures to show the car a bit better were borrowed from the net. MFH kits are not easy to build and you need to be organized. Starting a build requires some preparations, the first being cleaning the white metal parts in a magnetic tumbler filled with soapy water and 0,3 mm stainless steel needles. Drying time This is followed by a very eye straining task, checking if every part is there with printouts from the part list and then, all whit metal parts are sorted into boxes, according to the steps in the manual. I generally like MFH kits for design, engineering, lots of labor and love, which went into issuing their kits, but there are some points of critique as well and I think, I will communicate them to MFH, because, these issues are easy to solve. - The parts list are only shown on the MFH web page as pictures, you have to print out, in my case in relatively bad quality. These part lists are immensely important throughout the whole build. I would appreciate, MFH including these into the manuals. - As we speak about manuals. You get a printed version, but it helps to have a second set for notes. For some of the MFH kits, there are PDF versions available, but not for all. I would like MFH to issue the manuals on their web site in PDF, which is not the case. - Tamiya always shows the wire or tube length, which needed to be cut in their manuals. MFH only mentions in which step of the manual the other end of the tube / wire leads. This causes endless page turning. Cheers Rob

What a beautiful and elegant boat Mike. She came out great. I love the contrast between the off white and very rich wood colors. Cheers Rob

I have some rolls of lead wire in different diameters. It is very good to work with, soft but keeps as bent and is good to paint. I think it is made by PlusModel. Your coppery look fits great to the engine. Cheers Rob

A very interesting thread, Phil and a fine build as well. I built one of these Vanguard cutters as a boat for my Duchess of Kingston, which was my first serious wooden ship build. It was delicate for a beginner like me, time consuming, but somehow entertaining and a nice challenge. I haven´t dug that deep into realistic planking and was very happy, how my little bugger came out. For my Sphinx build, I ordered PE replacements, as there are three boats to build and that would be too repetitive for me. Cheers Rob

Bummer about the printed engine, Craig, but the kit engine doesn´t look too bad either. The wiring is a nice touch, is that copper wire? Your red finish came out great and I´m as well thinking, red is the color to go with Ferrari´s. On my Honda RC166, I used pink primer as a base for a red topcoat for the first time and it came out great. Cheers Rob