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This is built from the re-issued orange box kit to which I added the Tamiya photo-etch set and after-market cigarette sponsor decals from MSM Creation. The exterior was airbrushed using red and white McLaren colors Zero base paints. All of the kit chromed parts were oven cleaner stripped and re-metallized using Alclad over black lacquer. The remaining parts were painted using airbrushed Tamiya acrylics per the instruction call-outs. This is the first kit that I have clear coated using airbrushed Mr Color “Super Clear UV Cut” lacquer and self-leveling thinner (50/50) which, unlike Tamiya TS-13 clear coat that I’ve used on past builds, had no effect on the decals - I’m sold! I added MFH fuel lines and additional black shrink tubing oil cooler lines and fittings and seat belt material from Tuner Model Manufactory (unfortunately I only had black, they should be blue). This kit went together seamlessly until I installed the roll bar and support after which the cockpit and engine cover location pins refused to fit into the mating holes on the lower body shell. I was able to fix this by removing plastic from the rear white crossmember on the cockpit cover which was interfering with the front of the roll bar. Otherwise typical Tamiya smooth going. I like building classic race cars that I actually saw race in the period - this one with James Hunt and Jochen Mass driving in Long Beach in ‘77. Between these 1/20 Tamiya seventies F1 kits and the 60’s -70’s 1/20 kits from Ebbro and Hasegawa, I have built seven thus far and have another 8 - 9 in my stash. Even built OOTB, I find this 1/20 scale ideal for creating detailed models of these classic racing machines without taking up a lot of shelf space (or box space in the closet in my case!). Hope you like this one. Cheers, John

Getting ready to start my next project. I will be attempting to build the 1/12 scale Tamiya M23 kit with photo etch using the EJan 1976 Japanese Grand Prix Conversion kit. I'll be building the James Hunt version to go with the Niki Lauda 1975 312T Ferrari that I recently completed. This will be my first use of a conversion kit and also with resin body parts. I used the Top Studio detail sets for my McLaren MP4/6 but they were nothing like the EJan kit. Limited instructions as to which original kit parts the conversion parts replace. Some are obvious but others will take alot of studying of reference pictures and test fitting. It's going to be interesting for sure. Just sorting things out now and ordering my reference books. Surprisingly I haven't been able to find to much on the internet to use as reference photos. There are pics out there but not enough showing details that I am looking for. I hope the books are better. Thank you for looking.