IanH

This is next level, very interesting and wow!

So I messed up with the fuel bottle, had it painted up quite nicely with some clear orange to faintly give the impression of fuel in the bottle, and then I go and drill out the fuel line holes on the wrong side ?‍♂️. To go and fix up that portion and respray is just as much effort as reprinting and starting a fresh. I decided to mock up the steering column with the fuel bottle, and noticed that the bottle was a touch short, so I used this opportunity to extend the fuel bottle before starting the next print. I will get that printed tomorrow. Here's a bit of a mock up

Welcome back! I just read through the thread from the beginning, and what an amazing piece of work. This is going to be a real impressive model. Looking forward to updates as they come through.

I don't know how you are going to part with these when done, they're going to look amazing!

OK, so here we are now, a much brighter red, much better than the first attempt. Was a bit of a pain, the paint remover 'oxytol' which works like magic, literally removes all the paint, primer, etc within 5 minutes or so. But.... This also removed all glues and put ties, so all my modifications came off and needed to be placed again. In the process lost one of these front bumper tabs, as it pinged out of the tweezers, so had to reprint some spares. Up next, a couple of decals, and working on the fuel tank to try paint it to resemble a semi see through bottle with some fuel inside.

Thanks, well at least now I know how to get a dark almost maroon red! Will post an update again shortly, have a new coat of red sprayed on over pink primer.

This is coming together nicely, the dash and gauges look wonderful.

Nice progress so far, pity about the decals for the gauge but I guess you won't see them anyway.

Love the story, and the work so far!

A slightly disappointing update, finally got some paint on during the final hours of last year.... With the darker primer I've used a lot more coats of paint to get it this red, and yet it is still to dark for my liking. I tried for a few days to accept it, but I just can't... So by the time you read this, the frame will be stripped of all this paint, and ready for a lighter primer.

Very cool project, interested to follow your progress.

Small update on this, been spending some time working on the front bumper mounts, and have designed and added these tabs with bolt head which the bumper would bolt to. Struggling to get a quality photo due to its size! Have also started working on the exhaust, and have created this bracket for the exhaust which I will be able to connect the springs to once I get to final assembly.

Wow, this is really incredible and so interesting to see coming together.

Thanks - glad you're enjoying the updates, yeah this has turned out to be a lot more involved than I originally thought! Really enjoying the process myself. I wouldn't say it's been too difficult to find good research material, but there isn't too much out there. There's a few original photos/videos of Senna in the kart, but the quality and distance of the shots are not great. Found some photos of the kart and replicas in various collections, and found a YouTube video of a replica which has probably been the most helpful. Link to that video below: https://youtu.be/1sYUquH--Og?si=ousmAdVY1GINiyD2

Looking good, have this kit in my stash, so keen to follow this and see how it turns out... Really impressed with how yours is coming together.

Pretty much satisfied with the modifications made to the frame. Need to now focus on the motor, then hopefully can start laying down some paint ?

The frame of this kit is also not quite right according to the reference photos, with the main difference being these bars on the side which the side pods of a more modern kart would fit to. These did not exist on the original, but had these smaller bars extending out towards the rear wheels. Removed the side bars, and busy recreating the smaller ones.... Still in progress, but trying to get this right.

Been working on a few things, here's a quick update on the steering column and fuel bottle. The kit parts shown below are for a more modern kart, and not how this DAP kart was raced. I cut the steering column and used 1mm brass to create the bars which look a lot closer to the real thing. Still some work to do on it, but much happier with the look already. I've also been playing around with some designs for the fuel bottle, here's an almost done prototype, not 100% happy with it, but hopefully the next version will be as I intend it.

Manual should be the same as this, just the livery is different I believe. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-12017-yardley-mclaren-m23--122859

Hey Rich, I am so tempted to just pop them on with glue, but it should be quite simple to keep them movable.... Just depends on what I do with the tie rods, haven't given them enough thought yet. Will think about this for a bit... In the meantime I'm busy with the motor, and busy printing a carburetor I designed to fit to the side of the motor, as the reference photos show the carb was on the side just above the crank sprocket, and not on the front as the kit has it.

So after quite some time away I have dusted off this project and aim to complete it soon enough to get cracking on a few others... I had a look at the front spindles of the kit and compared to reference photos and redesigned matching spindles and 3D printed them. Reference: 3D design: Cut off the original spindles and modified the frame to fit the new parts:

Yeah, although I am not aiming to have working steering, seeing yours I have re-thought my design of the front spindles, and they'll hopefully be nicer and more accurate than what I had previously done. Been taking some time sorting out my work space, but will hopefully get onto this shortly.

Nice job there Rich! I started this a while back, but never got very far, have just pulled it out again and will be finishing it up soon. Will continue the updates on my thread.

Oh, I see it's the dspia vice...

Following this with a lot of interest as I have the same kit with the Top Studio upgrades. What's that aluminum vice you have holding the engine?