Brabham BT45 by DocRob - FINISHED - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12 - multimedia

[DocRob]

Clear coating went very well. I used Zero Paints lacquer clear, which did a fantastic job on my Cobra Coupe. My approach is similar to the application of the base coat and it works for me. 
First, I spray a thin un-thinned layer, which dries very quickly with the help of the airbrush blow, to hinder the aggressive lacquers to attack the decals.
The second layer after about 15 minutes consists of about 25%-30% leveling thinner and is applied "wet"
After again 15 minutes of drying and leveling time, I applied the third layer, this time with 50%-60% of levelling thinner, this time very "wet".
The brief drying time leads to later layers "melting into the layers applied before and give a better surface. I may could push my luck with the application of pure leveling thinner as a fourth coat, but I fear running paint.
The result looks far better to the real eye than on the pictures, but I learnt through other builds, that´s always the case with high shine finishes.
Anyway, today or tomorrow I will slightly sand and polish the surfaces.

Cheers Rob

[kgstakes]

On 4/26/2025 at 9:43 AM, DocRob said:







 

From the looks of the parts it’s going to be a lot of time at the spray booth as well.

 

 Looking forward to the progress as you build this one!!

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, kgstakes said:

From the looks of the parts it’s going to be a lot of time at the spray booth as well.

 

 Looking forward to the progress as you build this one!!

Airbrushing is already done and didn´t take up much time. There are three sessions, first primer, than three coats of body paint and finally three coats of clear. The prep and polishing time exceeds the spraying time by far.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

There are few steps more rewarding in modeling than to finish a car body to a high shine surface. All the work going into took a while, but I love doing the polishing as a last step. I used Tamiya´s polishing compounds starting with coarse, then fine, followed by finish. I didn´t apply wax now, because there are still many parts to add to the body, so this will be kept to the finish.
The coarse polishing is by far the most important and also time consuming one to my eye, as you remove all the tiny imperfections, check against the light and continue until all looks good, always taking care not to polish through the clear coat.
I couldn´t resist a little workbench mock up.











Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

After all the body work, now it´s all about subassemblies and not to damage the polished body with scratches or CA fingerprints.

The polished tub went finally onto the floor pan and got screwed there permanently. I further added some details like the pedals.



The rear of the tub received the gas tank with all the needed attachments.



Then I finished the front suspension sans the steering. Most delicate were some turned pins and the intersecting tubes, which hold the nose in place later. There was a need for absolute precision, to prevent gaps from the monocoque to the nose part.



Cheers Rob

[Canute]

Love the precision. Your build is exquisite.

[king derelict]

Coming together beautifully Rob. The details on the kit are amazing.

alan

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Canute said:

Love the precision. Your build is exquisite.

 

2 hours ago, king derelict said:

Coming together beautifully Rob. The details on the kit are amazing.

Thank you Ken and Alan, the build is time consuming, but a lot of fun. I like to do one or two steps in the manual at a time, preparing the needed parts and add them to the model. The detail is indeed fantastic, these kits are little marvels.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today I achieved some very important and daunting steps, but firs things first.
I finished the front section with all the parts added for the axle, brakes, steering and suspension. Some were a bit fiddly, but in all, the fit was great with that delicate section. It´s also quite robust. The axle screws are loose by design and therefore hanging on the pic.





Next was the daunting part, the closing of the main body. There are so many intersecting parts, that even test fitting is a time and nerve consuming affair. Finally I got it done and everything fitted with a tiny bit of tweaking here and there. The floor pan and body are hold together with eight screws.





Finally, I test fitted the engine section to the body and luckily everything fit as well.



Cheers Rob

[MAGIC's Craig]

Amazing work and fine photography, Rob.  Whew!!

[Old Collingwood]

It looks so real.

 

OC.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, MAGIC's Craig said:

Amazing work and fine photography, Rob.  Whew!!

 

 

15 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

It looks so real.

Thank you Craig and OC, besides modeling, photography is one of my hobbies. I used to work semi professional in analogue times, but stepped out with the digital age, because I didn´t like the results earlier digital cameras were able to achieve and my go to analogue material became next to impossible to find. 
Long story short, since some years, I own a decent digital camera with good lenses and try my luck. Photographing model kits is not so easy. You need good lighting, solid depth of field and macro capabilities. I´m still in a learning process and have a long way to go.

Photographed skillfully, the MFH kits nearly pass as real cars with all their brimming detail.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The cockpit tub starts to become busy. I added the seat belts to the seat and then this was glued into the tub. I really like MFH seat belts, as they look good and are relatively easy to assemble. There are white metal buckles and PE parts and two widths of blue ribbon. All got assembled using double sided tape, which has a strong bond and is supplied with the kit. I bought seat belt sets for other kits too, like for my 1/12 Tamiya kits.
The manual placed the headrest/rollbar before the seat, but I chose to do it after, because it was easier to fiddle in the seat belts behind the seat.





Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

One subject out of an earlier phase of the build was still aggravating me, the coil springs, which hold the exhausts in place. There are eight and I couldn´t add a single one, despite trying really hard.
Then I had an idea. What if I insert a copper wire into the coil spring, to bend it easily into the needed curve. I tried and it worked.



Half an hour later, this issue was fixed and I have an open issue less on my schedule.







Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today I finished the steering wheel, which was first airbrushed gloss black for decaling, then received the rivets, followed by a coat of semi matte clear. After drying, I masked the inner part and applied a coat of Tamiya LP flat black and dabbed in some black StreetBlister textile flocks for texture with a brush.
I was not satisfied with the matte look and added a coat of Tamiya LP flat clear, again not flat enough. Finally, I used good old Tamiya XF-1 flat black.
The fibers were finger dabbed into the fresh point and there are still some of them waiting for a shave. It looks a bit coarse in the pic, but this is heavy macroed.

  

The instrument front panel, made from PE was also sprayed gloss black, followed by decaling the switches and dials, followed by a semi matte clear coat as a finish. I then added some brackets to the instruments, before gluing and riveting everything to the front roll bar, which was polished beforehand.
The bezels are supplied as clear acetate circles, which I glued using Future. Last were the white metal switches, with only the fire extinguisher pull ring missing, because it´s to fragile



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I finished the front office. Before installation, I glued all the tubing and wiring to the backside with CA and let dry. Then I fiddled the steering column with the instrument panel in place and laid the wires in their correct places, a delicate affair.
After adding the x-bar to the instrument panel, I made the final installments to the front side, namely the fire extinguisher pull ring and the steering wheel.













Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The front section was really difficult to build together due to many intersecting parts. Finally, I got the coolers glued to the framework and let dry for a while. The next difficulty was to add the front section to the monocoque. You had to plan ahead and follow the instructions to the number, to get it done. Finally, I got the four connection points glued in, while fiddling all the other ducts, hoses and wires in. I´m lucky that this part of the build is behind me now and I can look forward to marry the monocoque to the engine section soon. 









Cheers Rob

Edited July 12 by DocRob

[MAGIC's Craig]

My quaking hand starts to shake just looking at the exquisite details of your project and trying to imagine the necessary precision which would be required.  What a treat that you also take such excellent and revealing photos!

 

Many thanks for sharing your progress to us all.

 

Craig

[DocRob]

20 hours ago, MAGIC's Craig said:

My quaking hand starts to shake just looking at the exquisite details of your project and trying to imagine the necessary precision which would be required.  What a treat that you also take such excellent and revealing photos!

 

Many thanks for sharing your progress to us all.

Thank you for your nice comment and for dropping into my log, Craig. I believe a forum like MSW is always a two way exchange platform, I give and I receive. I´m glad to share my experiences with my niche of modeling with you and benefited a lot through the input of fellow members in my threads or browsing through MSW, searching for help, information or just a friendly pat on the shoulder (literally).

Cheers Rob 

[DocRob]

Today, I joined the engine with the monocoque. Test fitting was done before, but a last aggregate with three tubes attached needed to be fittet in between. That proved very difficult, but after some attempts, I got it done. If you ever build the kit, don´t glue the metal end plates (M142, M143) to the monocoque, like shown in step 13. Luckily I didn´t, because other ways I would have had to remove them to fit the engine in step 17.











And finally, I tried the fit of the center body parts.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Slowly, I´m nearing the finish line. I added many details to the body, like fasteners, bolts and rivets and worked on the final fitting of the body parts. I am always a little scared when it comes to vacuum formed parts like the smoke clear windshield. It´s always best to cut it with a pair of scissors, than sanding, because the burr is very hard to remove. Finally I got it done, using Tamiya flexible masking tape as a guideline.
The clear part was glued to the body with 1mm wide double sided clear adhesive tape and then received the tiny rivets. The side air intakes are not finally glued to the body, I may let them removable for better sight on the engine, but then, I add some guiding bolts.
Now I´m preparing the rims and the nose section and then wroarrrrrrrrrrr 🏁.





Cheers Rob

 

[yvesvidal]

What a marvel !!!

 

Yves

[DocRob]

There is a song from The Reverend Horton Heat, which is called "It´s Martini Time". The song is like a anthem to me as I love cocktails and specially Martini cocktails, albeit, I never prepare them with Martini. Anyway, the BT45 would fit into the bar, but no chance, no models in the living area .

After two more sessions, the BT45 was done surprisingly rapid in the end. The innards of the nose section fit perfectly and on went the nose. It is removable as are the cockpit and engine fairing. 
It felt nearly indecent, to paint the beautiful turned aluminum rims, but my car had them in black. After drilling all the needed holes very carefully, not to scratch the precious parts, I primed them with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black and found the matte black looked so good, why spoiling it with a color coat. Finally the tyres were mounted onto the rims and then I added the air vents, which proved fiddly. The tyres are absolutely perfect, with pre printed branding and much heavier and durable then e.g. Tamiya tyres. They need to be with the weight of the car, which is also supported by two spacers under the chassis.

Well, let the pics speak:







































Cheers Rob


 

[DocRob]

Here is the song. If the Reverend says so it must be true 
 

Cheers (I mean it) Rob

Edited Friday at 02:42 PM by DocRob

[Canute]

That's one beautiful build, Rob. The F1 racers are so aerodynamic. Well done. 👍

[yvesvidal]

Beautifully executed Rob. Maybe you should have a group picture of all your Model Hiro Factory models.....

 

What is the next candidate?

 

Yves

[DocRob]

52 minutes ago, Canute said:

That's one beautiful build, Rob. The F1 racers are so aerodynamic. Well done. 👍

Thank you Ken, I especially like the looks of the BT45, it looks faster than it actually was with it´s sleek low profile shape, which was possible due to the use of the flat 12 cylinder engine.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

14 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

Beautifully executed Rob. Maybe you should have a group picture of all your Model Hiro Factory models.....

 

What is the next candidate?

Thank you Yves, there are not so many finished MFH kits. I built three, the Crocker motorcycle, the Cobra Coupe and now the BT45. As I guessed before, building a MFH Formula 1 kit was much easier than a full bodied race car like the Cobra Coupe with all it´s doors, bonnet, many clear parts, etc.
Basically there were no real problematic areas through the build and I enjoyed it massively. The build took less than three months.
What´s next, good question, cleaning the bench is a must, which is cluttered with parts and tools, jars and reference and then...
I will be traveling a bit over the next weeks, so maybe a short project, probably not a MFH kit.

Cheers Rob
 

[gsdpic]

Wow, beautiful build, take a bow.  And pretty quickly done for such a complex kit.  Glad it went together so well for you, and looking forward to what's next.

 

[king derelict]

We need a “super wow” emoji for builds like this one. Congratulations Rob, it’s beautiful and great photos as always. Very neat work and the kit details are staggeringly good. You deserve several martinis.

alan