Ebbro/Tamiya 1:12 1968 Matra MS11 F1

[jaymcminn]

I love this sort of detail. I like the Tichy Train Group styrene bolts myself... they're designed so you can either trim them flat or drill a mounting hole. Great work!

[Nacho Z]

6 minutes ago, jaymcminn said:

I love this sort of detail. I like the Tichy Train Group styrene bolts myself... they're designed so you can either trim them flat or drill a mounting hole. Great work!

Thanks, Jason!  Yup, I have some of those as well.  They may find their way on this build as well.  Master Club are like that as well.  They have a stem that can be trimmed as needed.

[Nacho Z]

Now that the throttle plates are done I started on the cam covers.  I primed them with Gravity primer and then airbrushed them in Tamiya's yellow lacquer.  This will be the base.  I will shoot Tamiya acrylic over this.  Once cured I will remove the acrylic paint and hopefully not hurt the lacquer paint.

Next I shot them with Tamiya X-18 Semi-gloss black.

I then took on the tedious task of exposing the underlying yellow lacquer.  I used Tamiya's acrylic thinner on their swabs at first but found this to not be to my liking.  The black would smear and I went through a ton of swabs in no time.  I ended up scraping the ribs and words with a #11 blade.  I was worried that the black paint would chip as I did this but it did not.

Once all of the yellow bits were exposed I added PE bolt heads on top of the poorly molded kit bolt heads.

Here is a picture of an engine in a museum, (I believe).  Not an action shot but the details are the same.  I wanted to add the red circles and the white bits where the spark plug wires go in.  The white bits may actually be the spark plugs.  I honestly don't know.

There was no way that I could neatly paint the 4 red discs on the cam cover.  I punched out 4 discs from sheet styrene and painted them red.  I did hand paint the silver parts.

Next I sliced 2mm solid rod into .44mm pieces.  I hand drilled out the centers.  This is where the ignition wires will pass through.

Those pieces were glued to the cam covers.  Here is the final product.  I may add a fitting to each cam cover once I figure out some of the plumbing that I would like to add.

I would love to hear some feedback.  I am open to all suggestions and comments.  Thanks!

Edited June 28, 2022 by Nacho Z
Added captions/explanations.

[porschercr]

Looks Great

[absmiami]

Well well done

[Pierre Rivard]

What you are doing with the engine is masterful. I'm learning so much here.

Engines on these 60's F1 cars make or break the kit because they are in plain view.

This one will definitely make the kit. Bravo!

[Nacho Z]

I'm still able to jump around and work on various sub-assemblies at this point in time.  This update is on the transaxle and the rear engine cover.  As I have said in previous posts, and will probably say in future posts, this is a late '60s tooling and a little disappointing in some areas.  Note on the 3rd picture how the bump outs where the bolt would go do not line up.  Also note the molded in bolt head detail is more of a round shape rather than a hex shape.  I decided to replace the bolt heads with aftermarket ones.  For the transaxle that required 36 individual bolt heads of various sizes.  For the rear engine cover there were 22 individual bolt heads.  Each one of the 58 bolt heads were taken off with a 1mm wide chisel, sanded smooth when needed and replaced by separately painted Meng ones.

 

 

[Bainford]

This is looking fantastic. The effort to properly detail these assemblies is really paying off. The results look great.

[mrm]

Pretty cool watching this coming together. I love builds like this.

[Nacho Z]

On 6/27/2022 at 11:44 PM, porschercr said:

Looks Great

Thank you, Trevor!
 

On 6/28/2022 at 12:39 AM, absmiami said:

Well well done

Much appreciated as always, Andrew.  I am not in the same league as you, not even close!  You give me something to shoot for.
 

On 6/28/2022 at 8:16 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

What you are doing with the engine is masterful. I'm learning so much here.

Engines on these 60's F1 cars make or break the kit because they are in plain view.

This one will definitely make the kit. Bravo!

Wow, Pierre, that is high praise coming from a guy who crushed that Corvette build!!  That model is absolutely gorgeous!  If my Matra turns out half as nice as your Vette I will be pleased.

[Nacho Z]

7 hours ago, Bainford said:

This is looking fantastic. The effort to properly detail these assemblies is really paying off. The results look great.

Thanks for the kind words, Trevor!
 

4 hours ago, mrm said:

Pretty cool watching this coming together. I love builds like this.

Thank you, Michael!
 

[MarkJ]

Great idea for exposing the yellow on the heads. I'll be continuing to watch this fine build.

[Nacho Z]

9 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Great idea for exposing the yellow on the heads. I'll be continuing to watch this fine build.

Thanks, Mark, I appreciate it!  I hope to post an update tomorrow night.

[Chris Smith]

Everything your touching is it’s own little masterpiece, looking forward to seeing it all come together 

[MarkJ]

1 hour ago, Nacho Z said:

Thanks, Mark, I appreciate it!  I hope to post an update tomorrow night.

Sounds good. Looking forward to more updates.

[Nacho Z]

On 7/24/2022 at 5:44 PM, Chris Smith said:

Everything your touching is it’s own little masterpiece, looking forward to seeing it all come together 

You are much too kind!

 

On 7/24/2022 at 6:42 PM, MarkJ said:

Sounds good. Looking forward to more updates.

Thank you for following along!  This subject is not everyone's cup of tea.  As mentioned yesterday I will be posting a quick update right after I submit this reply.

[Nacho Z]

A bit of a milestone for me.  She is beginning to look like a proper drivetrain!  It was a bit nerve-racking to install 12 air funnels and get them lined up in all axes, (yes, axes is the correct plural of axis 😎).  I have already began adding the ignition wiring but will save that for another update.  I did minimal detailing of the front of the engine.  It sits pretty tight against the driver's compartment bulkhead and will not be visible.

Let me know what you think and thanks for looking!

 

[iBorg]

John you always do nice work......I think without a doubt this is your best work. This really wants me to start looking for a 1/12 Tamiya kit.

[Chris Smith]

Well done sir… well done 👍 

[Pierre Rivard]

John, the engine looks fabulous. I can't wait to see it all dressed up. It will be glorious!

[MarkJ]

Love the screens on the air funnels. Did they come in the kit? That looks like a 1:1 engine I'm looking at.

[Force]

Very nice.

[Nacho Z]

18 hours ago, iBorg said:

John you always do nice work......I think without a doubt this is your best work. This really wants me to start looking for a 1/12 Tamiya kit.

Thank you as always, Mike. This was one of those kits I wanted but could never find at a decent price. When I saw that they were going to reissue it I immediately pre-ordered it. I told myself I would build it and not just stick it in the stash.  You don’t see this one built very often and I want mine to be more than a box stock build.  Get yourself a 1:12 kit.  They really do lend themselves to extra detail.

[Nacho Z]

18 hours ago, Chris Smith said:

Well done sir… well done 👍 

I appreciate it! Thank you!

 

9 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

John, the engine looks fabulous. I can't wait to see it all dressed up. It will be glorious!

Thank you for the kind words, Pierre!

 

2 hours ago, Force said:

Very nice.

Thank you!

[Nacho Z]

8 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Love the screens on the air funnels. Did they come in the kit? That looks like a 1:1 engine I'm looking at.

Thanks, Mark!  I made the screens and did a lot of modifications to the funnels.  There are some good photos and descriptions towards the end of page 1 and the beginning of page 2.  The screens aren’t perfect but I think they do add a little something to the engine.  I left them brass for the simple reason that I like them like that more than silver.