McLaren P1

[harti20]

Hi all

After finishing the Audi R8 it was time for a new build. I've chosen alpha model's McLaren P1, hoping it would be less nerve-wracking than the Audi

First of all I cleaned all the resin parts and applied some primer to be able to handle them without gloves. Somehow I always get itchy hands after handling resin parts for some time ?

At the moment there's not that much to show (unless you would like to see a bunch of parts covered with grey primer ? ). First of all the primered body

the painted rims

and finally the partially built engine. This is my first alpha model kit which includes an engine, even if it is held very rudimentary. But considering the fact that absolutely nothing of it will be seen once the model is completed that's no big problem. So I didn't do much research in how the engine should look like and just painted it the way I thought could be possible.

That's all for today. I hope to have piqued your interest with my new build
Urs

[absmiami]

Truly Great car - did you know that T has announced the Murray T50 ??!

[harti20]

Yes, I've seen it, but I think that's one modern supercar kit I won't buy.  

[beeRS]

Nice start. I’ll be watching with interest. Alpha do pick some very nice subjects and their resin castings look good. I need to pluck up the courage to buy one. 

[harti20]

Hi all

On 2/1/2023 at 6:56 AM, beeRS said:

Nice start. I’ll be watching with interest. Alpha do pick some very nice subjects and their resin castings look good. I need to pluck up the courage to buy one. 

Thank you. Their casting is really great. The fit is almost par with Tamiya and so far I never had any imperfections in the parts.

First of all I completed the engine. I tried to add some heat stains on the exhaust by using Tamiya's Weathering set, but it's not that visible in this picture.

This week I started to apply some carbon decals. First on the engine-side of the firewall and then one seat received its carbon decals. Both of them won't be seen (or at least will hardly be seen) once the model is finished, but I know it's there and it gives me some practice in applying carbon decals

One part that is located on top of the engine compartment has been painted in aluminum

And to finish this week's work, I painted the body in McLaren Mauvine Blue. I'll still have to add some carbon to the body, but it will be only in an few spots (on the doors, the triangular area right behind the side windows, on the door sills and on the back)

That's all for this update
Urs

[beeRS]

That colour looks great.

[dino246gt]

Wow, great colour! That will look great when finished!

 

[harti20]

Hi all

Thank you very much for your comments

Unfortunately I haven't had that much time on the workbench over the last two weeks, so there will only be a minor update today. Most of the time spent was taken by creating stencils for the carbon decals and cutting them. Two small pieces already finished decalling are these two pieces located on the rear passenger compartment wall. Once installed, the safety belts will come out through these openings.

Then the brake discs have been painted and assembled.

And finally the body has been masked and painted black. There is still one part that has to be masked and painted black as well (around the opening of the engine hood), but so far I haven't had the time to do so.

That's all for today
Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

Some more progress could be acheived this week on my P1.

First of all the interior tub has been completed. After applying the carbon decals I sealed everything with a coat of clear. After letting the clear completely dry for a few days, I tried to mask the carbon parts as precisely as possible and airbrushed a coat of charcoal textured paint by Zero Paints. After this coat had cured I used some black flocking for the floor.

Then I attached the tire valves to the rims and wanted to finish the wheels. Just before glueing everything together, I realized that there is one PE part and one decal to be applied on each of the rims. Now I'm struggling whether I should seal that in with another coat of clear or  whether I should leave it the way it is now. But as I will install the wheels as one of the last parts, I'll still have some time to decide

Additionally I started applying carbon decals to the large front part. Doing so I made a mistake by cutting one of the first the carbon decals, which I only recognized when I tried to attach the opposite decal. First I thought, the opposite decal was wrong, so I cut it a second time, only to notice that something was still looking wrong... That was the moment I realized that I had made the error when cutting the first decal which was already applied... ? Now I cut the first decal a second time and will apply it over the one I already applied...

And to finish this update, I also started applying carbon decals on the body.

That's all for today
Urs

[iamsuperdan]

That colour definitely suits the car!

 

I like it!

[harti20]

HI all

On 2/28/2023 at 5:00 AM, iamsuperdan said:

That colour definitely suits the car!

 

I like it!

Thank you  I saw pics of the real car when I was looking for reference material and I knew that it had to be this color ?

Unfortunately I couldn't spend that much time on the bench as intended, but some small progress could be made.

First of all the carbon decal work on the body continued

Then I could finish carbon work on the large front piece

and finally I started decaling one small part of the middle console.

As I almost can't see any carbon decals by now, I started another build to get some distraction when I need it (the other build I had started already before the P1 was the McLaren Senna and everything I have to do on this one to be able to progess is... carbon decal work... ?). But the newly started one definitely won't have any carbon decals to apply as it an oldtimer from the 1930's: Heller's Mercedes 170 Va. Maybe I'll start another W.I.P for this one as well
Urs

[adamelvis]

Nice Color, Nice Details ! 

Adam

[harti20]

Hi all  

Thanks a lot Adam. I'm glad you like it

Lately I didn't have so much time to continue here because of a flu (although.... that's not quite true: I would have had time, just not enough energy...  ? )

Nevertheless, I made some progress with the carbon decals on the body. Now only the carbon decals at the side of the front (these more or less triangular deepenings) are missing. So far I've always put them off, because I'm afraid that applying them might not be that easy...

Additionally, I made a little progress in creating the templates for further carbon decals. But so far there's not much to see, except some scribbled masking tape pieces, so there are no photos

To get a little distance to the carbon decals (also with the McLaren Senna, which I also have in work, there is nothing else to do at the moment...), I got another kit out of storage and started it. This was triggered by a GroupBuild in a facebook group about German cars. I will do another W.I.P. on this in a moment. And there I can 100% guarantee that certainly no carbon decals will be used ? 

That's it again for today. I hope that next time I will be able to show something else than just carbon work ?
Urs

[Codi]

One of the best looking cars ever Urs.  Nice to see you tackling this one.   cheers, tim

[harti20]

Hi all

Long time I didn't continue on this build as I had to get some distance to the carbon job. But meanwhile I managed to, at least, complete the carbon work on the bodyshell

Additionally I almost finished the dashboard. There are only the kit decals and the PE parts missing

Also the door panels have been painted and carbonized. On the other door panel I'll have to redo the carbon work as it got partially ripped off when removing the masking tape after painting the brown area  I'll also have to apply the PE parts on the door panels and brushpaint some a few spots in brown.

 

That's it for today's update
Urs

[ea0863]

Your carbon fiber work is spectacular! I know how difficult it is to do, especially on such complex surfaces as the dash. Well done!

[absmiami]

bet you didn't think this would be so difficult when you opened the box ...

[cifenet]

Nice CF job so far!

The color is looking great and love the details. 

[beeRS]

Great work on the CF decals. This must be so tricky to do, but the results look fantastic. 

[adamelvis]

Love the work so far ! 
TCB, Adam

[Mattilacken]

Beautifull work there! Will look realy sharp when done!

[harti20]

Hi all

Long time since the last update. First of all I'd like to thank all of you for your kind comments. I really appreciate it, especially in the last few weeks, where my motivation was almost on an all-time low. But meanwhile motivation came back, so there will soon be an update also on my McLaren Senna, I suppose  

But first I'll show you the progress made on the P1. First of all the dashboard has been almost completed

After that the first few PE parts could be placed in the interior tub

And finally it was time for some clearcoat. As I thougt, I'd need more than usual, I used another mixing ration than usual. Once that was highly recommended by a guy on youtube I really like (and who is also the sponsor of this model kit  ). That was the second time I tried his formula and the second time I had problems with laying down the clear coat (at least in some parts). Most of all it went on smooth with only the usual small dust inclusions here and there. But on two side panels and on the splitter it mas more a test ground for the next Mars robot: wavy and full of craters. So I decided to strip these parts and start all over. For the splitter this meant to also cut and re-apply all the carbon decals of course. Happily I always keep the stencils for the self-made decals, so I didn't have to do this as well. But now on to the pictures. First the body which came out quite ok  

And the all new splitter, clearcoated a second time (this time with my own mixing ration for the clear)

That's it for today's update. I finally reached the home stretch with this build, so I think the next update in this W.I.P will be the last one
Urs

[beeRS]

Nice work Urs. This is nearing completion now. What kind of clear did you use? Was it 2K?

[harti20]

3 hours ago, beeRS said:

Nice work Urs. This is nearing completion now. What kind of clear did you use? Was it 2K?

Thank you  Yes, I used ZeroPaints' 2K Diamond Gloss, as I always do for my cars.

[beeRS]

21 hours ago, harti20 said:

Thank you  Yes, I used ZeroPaints' 2K Diamond Gloss, as I always do for my cars.

My favourite brand of 2K too??. 

I have a question about Alpha kits, and I hope you don’t mind me asking it here, since you have built a few. Do they always supply the ‘glass’ parts as a flat sheet, or are they vac formed for double curvature?