1/12 tamiya RA 273

[Brudda]

A little wiring. And a few things added to the engine. Fuel lines next. 

[Brudda]

Starting of the spaghetti exhaust mess. One half sanded and trying to fit. Looks ok I guess. Have to make a make shift exhaust manifold. Totally not accurate. The exhaust just hangs in mid air. Weird. Will finish the other side in a few days. There is a lot of sanding of seam lines . 

[Brudda]

I noticed in the pic that the fuel lines just about touched the exhaust. Not good in real life. On the real car there is a heat shield that the model does not have. Might have to make that also, 

[Dave B]

Looking really good Bruce, had one way back when they were first released.

Dave B

[Brudda]

7 hours ago, Dave B said:

Looking really good Bruce, had one way back when they were first released.

Dave B

Thank you Dave B

[Brudda]

What a mess of pipes. Filling the seams on the collectors. Then paint. I was going to make an exhaust manifold but you cannot even see the beginning of the pipes. So I’ll leave it. The plastic is so brittle that it breaks when I’m sanding the seam lines out of the pipes. I was sanding my coils and the one just broke in a few pieces , never had this happen on any model before. I’m expecting the car to disintegrate into a mess of plastic. 

[Brudda]

Building out of sequence. Going to put the exhaust on last. That way I can get a good alignment. If I put them on now I will have to fight to keep them out of harms way. I really did not want to do this but the rotors and lack of calipers on the tamiya kit are really bad. I’m going to use my parts bin of mfh parts to modify the brake and rotors on the Honda. I really wanted to keep this build simple , but since I have the parts and the car is turning out better than I thought it would, I’m going the extra mile to make it a little better. I just wanted a simple build but NOOO, I have to improve it. I need to see a doctor. I did want to make this an inexpensive build. , that was my main goal. $10 for one kit,that was incomplete . $15 for the other incomplete kit, $18 for the decals, and the other parts are kit bashed parts that were given to me by other modelers. So I guess I’m not in it very much. The photoetch parts are extra from my other mfh kits. Here are pics of the improved rotors, calipers. Again it’s not correct but it will look better. I hope the fragile suspension can handle the weight of the tire, wheel , rotors and calipers. Here goes ……..

[Brudda]

Here is the tamiya rotor and the mfh rotor and caliper. I need to put the mfh stuff on the car. The tamiya caliper is on the spindle. I’ll have to modify the Tamiya spindle. 

[Brudda]

Here is the modified spindle and the mfh rotor and caliper. Compared to the tamiya kit part. The rotor should be more in the wheel in real life. Just because of the unsparing weight of the wheel to brake. As it is on the model, it’s totally not right. But for a model , not many people are engineers on f1 brakes . It will look ok for the model. This kit is soo far off the original anyways that most people will not even notice. 

[Pierre Rivard]

The fix on these brake components is a big improvement. The Tamiya discs just don't look the part. Wonderful way of making this old kit better.

Skip the doctor thing. Mine says it's an incurable disease! ?

[Rich Chernosky]

Bruce...have really been enjoying your WIP.  Your brake fix was amazing.  Like you I just want a model to look good and try not to get all mired down in it being accurate. That's just me. I want it done too.  It just doesn't matter to the casual observer. I have taken many an F-1 car to a model show,  only to have people say...nice Indy car.   Aaaargghh!!

[Brudda]

On 10/31/2024 at 6:27 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

The fix on these brake components is a big improvement. The Tamiya discs just don't look the part. Wonderful way of making this old kit better.

Skip the doctor thing. Mine says it's an incurable disease! ?

HA! Thank you Pierre, this build is an inaccurate as it gets. I finally said the kit is way off . The crazy problems are crazy. I am using all of my experience on this kit. Has warp problems, pin marks, sink marks, but the biggest problem is the plastic. I was sanding the seam lines out on a coil and the coil fell apart into pieces. A solid piece of plastic! I have an old otaki kit and I have not finished it because of the same plastic brittle problem. So I’m fighting that issue. I’m hoping that it does not turn into a big pile of crumbling plastic. 

[Brudda]

On 10/31/2024 at 7:09 AM, Rich Chernosky said:

Bruce...have really been enjoying your WIP.  Your brake fix was amazing.  Like you I just want a model to look good and try not to get all mired down in it being accurate. That's just me. I want it done too.  It just doesn't matter to the casual observer. I have taken many an F-1 car to a model show,  only to have people say...nice Indy car.   Aaaargghh!!

Hello Rich, and thank you. You’re right, I guess I’m fighting that feeling also. You know it’s way off but I’m just trying not to let the kit get to me. I am making this from two kits from a swap meet . Bought them about two years apart. One for $10 and the other for $15. I wondered why some of the parts were missing but now I know why. They were mad, threw the parts away. Those guys were saving themselves from insanity. 

[Brudda]

Here is some pics of the modified spindles and the mfh rotors and calipers. Just mocking it up as I had to modify the upper ball joint to get the right camber on the front wheels. I’m going to add the brake lines and tie rods later.  I just wanted a simple old tamiya kit to be an easy build, but noooo it’s the hardest tamiya kit I have ever worked on. 

[Brudda]

Set the rear suspension. Want to see the ride height. Looks ok. Starting to come around.

[Brudda]

The big rotors would not work. So I found a set of Ferrari 250 GTO rear discs that fit perfectly. 

[Pierre Rivard]

These look like they fit inside the wheels like they should. I think it's a good move.

[Brudda]

3 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

These look like they fit inside the wheels like they should. I think it's a good move.

Yes Pierre, I tried most things for the front but could not get the rotors to sit inside the wheel with the big brakes. Could it have been done? Heck yes but I just did not want to spend hours and hours of modification. The kit is kicking the heck out of me. The kit brakes sat outside of the wheels, I just took it for granted that they were supposed to be there. I messed up by not looking at the real pics first. If I did look at the pic first I probably would have just put the kit back on my shelf as it’s really that bad for accuracy. Thanks for your support. This is the first kit that does not stop kicking me in the groin. Now I know why I bought these two kits so cheap. They sold them to stop the insanity. HA!

[Brudda]

Ok rear suspension and brakes completed. Had a motor boat stance so I took the front end apart and took a coil out of the spring. Sitting better. Thank god for the items from the model factory hiro parts boxes. They helped a lot. Making it a better looking build. Especially in the tire / wheel and brake departments. 

[Brudda]

Front end on. Suprises it fit. A box of machine screws comes in handy. The kit screw is bad. 

[Brudda]

Somehow all of those pipes fit. Played around with the burnt painted exhaust look. Starting to look like a F1  car. One more thing to do, the wind screen. 

[Brudda]

[Rich Chernosky]

Bruce...looking real good, like a race car should. It nice having all that extra stuff when you run into a problem. Years of accumulating that stuff really pays off sometimes.  Glad the exhaust fit and that seat looks very realistic. 

[Brudda]

12 hours ago, Rich Chernosky said:

Bruce...looking real good, like a race car should. It nice having all that extra stuff when you run into a problem. Years of accumulating that stuff really pays off sometimes.  Glad the exhaust fit and that seat looks very realistic. 

Thank you Rich. My modeling friend Bob said a long time ago, if someone wants to give you extra parts , take them. You will use them . This build is really on the cheap. $10 for one Honda kit. $15 for the other. Both kits were missing parts, but together they made a whole kit. The indycals cost $18 plus shipping. The rest are parts from free  hiro kits that people just gave up on. The paint was free. A little glue. Tamiya paints that I had. Car paints that I had. Used some scale Motorsport pe parts I had.  Although not very accurate, the model is looking pretty good for what it is, a bunch of parts and kits no one wanted. Here is a few more wip pics. Windshield next. Then it’s finished. 

[Brudda]

I just finished the fire extinguisher. Installed it and it is really strange. John Surtees must have looked at that and said “ you have to be kidding.” First of all it’s by your head. And you’re sitting in a bomb, is this going to help? No seat belts and a fire extinguisher that will do nothing. Not a lot of confidence in safety.