Ebbro/Tamiya 1:12 1968 Matra MS11 F1

[Nacho Z]

10 hours ago, Jonn said:

Agree with all, you’ve nailed the detail with the gauges, so glad your sharing this build, I’m not sure….are you going to add the extra tanks or leave them off, because There’s not many pics out there with tanks on and personally I think I’ll be leaving them off, I’m quite surprised by this kit as Tamiya have gone to a lot of trouble to detail brake lines and other engine and transmission lines also supplying 2mm diameter springs…I’m looking forward to getting this kit started after I complete Kenny Roberts YZR500

 

Thanks, Jonn!  When you mention the extra tanks I am assuming you are talking about the side fuel tanks(?)  If that is correct then yes, I will be adding them.  Concerning your statement about not a lot of pictures with the tanks on, you are correct.  My car is not going to be a specific car or specific race.  I’m basing it off the box art and pictures on Motorsport Images.  I will be adding the nose wings too.  I just like the looks of it and the excess of these cars with their V-12s, big wings, etc.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Nacho Z

[Chris Smith]

Some freaking cool stuff, you have going on! Definitely taking this subject to another level. ?

[Randy D]

The front end pieces are awesome John!!!   Beautiful use of the AK paints.  Love the Wheels and gauges.  

Randy

[Pg265]

Hi,

I restart to read the WIP from the first post: you just made an awesome job!!

A lot of really beautiful handmade parts that add so great details: well done!!

Pascal

[Nacho Z]

I see that September 26th was my last update.  I assure you that I have been busy working on this model.  I will try to get caught up on my progress.  I also realized that I haven't been all that active on MCM.  I'm not sure what happened...lol.

This update will concentrate on the cockpit.  The real car's cockpit was very sparse and the model's cockpit is worse. Because of it was designed to have a driver figure installed in it, Tamiya did not provide much seat detail.  I wanted to add what little seat padding the poor driver had.  Here is what I came up with.

 

This is the kit part, (in blue), along with what I added for the footwell and pedals, (in white).  There is some molded texture but there is no depth to the seat area.

 

I had an idea of trying to make the missing seat padding out of clay.

 

I made an index card template of the textured seat area.

 

My wife was kind enough to let me use one of her rolling pins.  A plastic fondant rolling pin with rings to be precise.  Actually, the rings are important because they allowed me to roll the clay out in exact, even thickness.  I laid the template on the clay and cut it out.

 

After I cut out the seat padding I doubled up the padding for the driver's back, just like the 1:1.  I wore nitrile gloves while working with the clay and used the gloves textured fingertips to add texture to the clay.  I formed it to the kit seat and then baked the clay per its instructions.  Although hard to capture in a photo, the clay's finish really looks the part.

 

Time for full disclosure.  My first attempt did not go well.  I believe my clay was old and a little dried out.  The first attempt at shaping the clay went sideways and then the clay cracked and broke on me.

 

When my second attempt was finished, I realized that I did not add slots for the shoulder belts.  I very carefully put them in.

 

There are some exciting, (at least to me), updates just around the corner.  I'll see you then!

[MarkJ]

John, thanks for opening my eyes to the use of clay. I did not know that was a possibility. I might have to try it someday. Looks great for your seat.

[Brudda]

On 5/23/2022 at 9:54 AM, Nacho Z said:

Keeping on the subject of air funnels and injectors.  I have been concentrating my efforts and work on these.  At this time they are not finished but are close to being done.  I will share the progression of my work.  I will keep repeating that I am not the world's best scratch builder.  I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish and then it takes me several tries to figure out how to make it.

The kit supplied injectors are incorrect for any Matra engine that I have seen.  The kit supplied injectors are also poorly molded and would have taken a lot of work to make them look presentable.

Here are two pictures from the internet of what the 1:1 look like.

This is what the kit supplied setup would look like.

I came up with a basic game plan of how to make new ones and how to correct the existing air funnels.  I glued the incorrect injectors into place on the funnels.  I cut off the injector "arms" and then filled the leftover gap with CA glue.  I hit the CA glue with accelerator and sanded the area smooth.

I tried to create the base for the new injectors by hand but quickly realized that I would never get 12 uniform bases.  My wife cut them out for me on her Cricut.  They are slightly oversized.  I wanted to be able to add the injector nozzle and two bolt heads to each one.

I cut two different sizes of brass tubing to represent the nozzle and its base.

I used .7mm MasterClub bolts.  Here is the first mockup.  Nothing is glued into place yet.

 

WOW

[Nacho Z]

8 hours ago, MarkJ said:

John, thanks for opening my eyes to the use of clay. I did not know that was a possibility. I might have to try it someday. Looks great for your seat.

I am definitely pleased with how it turned out.  The clay that I used, Sculpey Premo, actually has a date on the package.  My assumption is you want the newest, freshest package you can find.  I found that the clay was very easily marred so it is easy to put dents and creases in it.

[Nacho Z]

I have a good amount of sub-assemblies completed on this model and it is getting time to get the body pieces under paint so that I can begin to assemble the car.  There are a total of 13 pieces that need to be painted body color.  Due to the amount of paint needed for this, I used Tamiya TS-10 French Blue right out of the spray can.  I applied 3 coats.  What you see in the following pictures is the paint after it had cured for 24 hours.  Nothing has been polished.
 

 

[Chris Smith]

Amazing job!! Coming together nicely 

[Belugawrx]

Paint laid down real nice for you John ?

Love the seat treatment too.

Cheers

[Pierre Rivard]

So the making of a masterpiece resumes!

[Belugawrx]

Hey John

Just found this on the F1 site

http://www.zul-racing.com/projects/matra-ms11/

Or these 42 pages....omg

https://forum.f1m.com/viewtopic.php?t=25563&start=400

Hope it helps a little

Cheers

Edited February 7, 2023 by Belugawrx

[Nacho Z]

On 2/6/2023 at 10:02 PM, Chris Smith said:

Amazing job!! Coming together nicely 

Thank you, Chris!  I appreciate you checking in on this one!

 

On 2/7/2023 at 5:43 AM, Belugawrx said:

Paint laid down real nice for you John ?

Love the seat treatment too.

Cheers

Thank you, Bruce!

 

On 2/7/2023 at 7:47 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

So the making of a masterpiece resumes!

Thanks, Pierre, you are much too kind!

[Nacho Z]

On 2/7/2023 at 10:44 AM, Belugawrx said:

Hey John

Just found this on the F1 site

http://www.zul-racing.com/projects/matra-ms11/

Or these 42 pages....omg

https://forum.f1m.com/viewtopic.php?t=25563&start=400

Hope it helps a little

Cheers

Thanks for this, Bruce!  Actually, these are 2 of my 4 main sites.  The guy over on F1M is ridiculously talented.  I have definitely poured over his thread.  I use Motor Sports Images a lot also.  Anyhow, that was incredibly nice of you to post those links for me.  It is truly appreciated!

[Nacho Z]

It is Monday night, time for another update!  The next two or three updates will concentrate on the front bulkhead.  The model kit provides no detail whatsoever.  The only thing provided is the steering rack. To be fair to Tamiya there will be a water tank and a radiator that will cover everything up anyhow.  However, this are was just begging for some detail, and well, one thing led to another.  I'll start with the brake and clutch reservoirs.  I will caption each photo as needed.

Here is a photo of the real car under restoration.

I scratch built front and rear brake reservoirs from 9 separate pieces and the clutch reservoir from 8 pieces.

 

A reservoir mocked up.

 

I patterned mine off of a kit part from another kit.  I had to make mine a very specific size.  It had to clear other items that I will be adding and yet be low enough to fit under the water tank.

 

Hard to tell but there are 3 different shades of metallizers on these.  I also add bolt heads to each mounting flange.

 

A different background shows the colors a little better.

 

A quick mockup. I also added two mounting brackets for the front brake lines.

 

[Nacho Z]

Big update this week!!  This will be the second update of three that concentrate on the front bulkhead. As mentioned last week, Tamiya provide no detail whatsoever on the front bulkhead.  Again, it will be covered by a water tank and a radiator but I just couldn't help myself, I had to add a few details.

 

This is what I started with.

 

I filled in various openings that were not used.  I made small brackets for the front brake lines.

 

The silver steering rack is all that is provided in the kit.  Here you can see the openings that I filled in and others that I created.

 

I made an anti-roll bar from aluminum tubing and styrene.

 

I also made a bracket to go over the steering rack. The brake and clutch reservoirs, (from last week), clear the anti-roll bar.

 

I fitted the bulkhead to the body and filled in the seam all the way around.  Here is mounted.  I made what I assume are some type of proportioning valves for the brakes, front and rear.

 

Although it probably will never be seen, I actually plumbed the reservoirs to the proportioning valves.  It was ridiculously hard to do.

 

All of the planning, measuring and test fitting that I did paid off.  Everything fit perfectly!  The reservoirs cleared the anti-roll bar and fit under the water tank.

 

More updates next week! 

[absmiami]

Yup 

[Nacho Z]

This will be the third and final update concentrating on the front bulkhead.  As stated previously, the kit provides no detail whatsoever, only the steering rack.  Let me know what you think.

Here you can see that I've added fittings to the hard lines for the front brakes.

 

Slightly different angle.

 

From the other side.

 

And from above.

 

Here is a photo of the real thing.

 

And a photo of my brake line and fittings.

 

I am pleased with the overall results.

 

I understand big scale, foreign, open wheel race cars don't garner a lot of love but I would like to hear some feedback on this one.  I'm open to comments, advice, critiques or just some plain old discussion on this one.  Thanks!

 

 

[Belugawrx]

Coming along nicely, the reservoirs look great.

I always add alot of details to these big scale kits, and sometimes it gets hidden behind or under more parts, but I know they are there. Filling voids and empty spaces just adds to the realism of the build...keep it up?

Cheers 

[Pierre Rivard]

Lovely work John. Almost too bad that the nose cone will cover this. The beauty of these 60's F1 is that a lot of the mechanicals are visible even with the body panels on and that's why they provide such opportunity for scale modeling. A lot of your gorgeous detailing will remain highly visible. Pure joy to follow this build.

[Randy D]

You should be pleased John, that whole front end looks awesome!!!   Everything very precise and to scale.

 

Randy 

[Rich Chernosky]

Been awhile since I checked in on you John.  You are really knocking this one out of the park.  This is going to be museum quality. Keep up the great work. 

[Nacho Z]

On 2/27/2023 at 8:27 PM, Belugawrx said:

Coming along nicely, the reservoirs look great.

I always add alot of details to these big scale kits, and sometimes it gets hidden behind or under more parts, but I know they are there. Filling voids and empty spaces just adds to the realism of the build...keep it up?

Cheers 

Thank you, Bruce!  You are absolutely correct about the realism.

On 2/28/2023 at 7:29 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

Lovely work John. Almost too bad that the nose cone will cover this. The beauty of these 60's F1 is that a lot of the mechanicals are visible even with the body panels on and that's why they provide such opportunity for scale modeling. A lot of your gorgeous detailing will remain highly visible. Pure joy to follow this build.

As always, Pierre, thank you for the kind words!  I will display this car with the nose off.  I will probably leave the wheels and tires off as well.  I’m still deciding about the cockpit cowling.

[Nacho Z]

On 2/28/2023 at 2:25 PM, Randy D said:

You should be pleased John, that whole front end looks awesome!!!   Everything very precise and to scale.

 

Randy 

Thank you, Randy!

 

On 3/1/2023 at 4:18 PM, Rich Chernosky said:

Been awhile since I checked in on you John.  You are really knocking this one out of the park.  This is going to be museum quality. Keep up the great work. 

Hi, Rich!  Thanks, buddy, I am trying my best.  So far, so good! ?