1/12 Tamiya Wolf WR1 (With a Twist)

[AaronM]

Full confession, I last built model kits in my early to mid teens.  Now I’m past mid-forty and having a go with the hobby a again.

So I sort of have a rough idea of what to do, but am way out of date when it comes to contemporary tools, techniques and build materials.  
 

The Build:

It’s a Tamiya Wolf WR1 F1 car - my kit was bought via eBay and is a genuine 1st release kit - so it’s about 43 years old itself!

However instead of the original paint scheme it’s being painted up more in line with the Stark Racing livery from the Ironman 2 movie.  This has given me some freedom to tweak other things in the build (the movie is set in circa 2010 Monaco and the race is for historic F1 cars) like bringing out some different colours and details.

Fresh paints, tools and new work mat!  Cost me a fortune but have to start!

All sprues and parts accounted for!  
The first completed bits.  Lots of minor detail changes.  Still getting my “build practice”

Test fit of the body parts over the chassis, thankfully it all fits well.  

Getting my fill and sanding practice!

Front bulkhead, oil cooler, plumbing and so on all together.  Some weathering on the cooler as well.

[AaronM]

Sprayed the chassis tub with a Tamiya rattle can.  It came out ok

Front end of the tub, suspension etc.

Hand brush painting (no I don’t have an airbrush) all the fine details!

Rear bulkhead.  I’m proud of this with the anodised look of the fittings etc.

Cockpit with some extra wiring and little touches of extra silver on the switches.

Velocity stacks built up

Closer and closer to finishing the cockpit.

Engine and gearbox being dry fitted. 

[Dave Van]

Another favorite F1 car. Back when you cold tell one from another. Good start.

[steveracer]

Aaron, looking real good after 25 years away!  Can't wait to see the final result, those big scale cars are daunting at times!

[AaronM]

Thanks.  It’s the first model building and painting in all those years too, although I do a lot of microelectronics and stuff so have reasonable practice with fine motor skills.  
 

I think the biggest difference is having the money to simply buy the paint colours, thinners and all the other stuff to make the process easy, plus having move patience to learn the chemistry and techniques.

I would like this to be better and the next ones will be (have a 1/12 Ferrari 312T4 here, a 1/12 Brabham BT44B and Alfa Romeo 179 on order).

And all that’s a build up to the 1/12 Renault RE20 Turbo I always wanted when I was a kid (it was on the high shelf in the local hobby shop).

[AaronM]

An assortment of subsections needing to be assembled.

Distributor wires being loaded into the cap.

Gearbox painted and assembled.  

fuel distributor and ignition etc all set up ready to fit into the valley.

do you see my mistake in assembly?

Yep, got the end piece of the fue block wrong orientation and had to cut it off and rotate 180 degrees.

Doh!

[Belugawrx]

One of my favorite models, you are doing some nice work on the interior tub, and surrounding details?

I think I did the same error in fuel line assembly on mine hehehe.. fixable , but annoying...

The trans paint looks great... is that Tamiya XF-56...or Duplicolor ?

Keep it going ...looking good

[AaronM]

XF-56 brushed on heavy and left to level and dry for a few days.

Water radiators mostly done.  Sharpie and a razor blade as a guide to colour the brace.  I’m use some weathering to blend the edges a bit.

Inner airbox section and a brake caliper.  While I’m not following the kit or Wolf paint scheme closely I’m trying to keep some of the Wolf DNA under the Stark Racing colours.  This means gold stays for uprights, gets in the calipers and the “mesh” of the screens over the intake.  
knuckles down and paint all the suspension rods.  They’ll need touch up and sanding when in situ.  Nice to knock the majority off though because it’s time consuming to do smoothly.

copper for the brake rotor innards.  This tip came from one of the detail guides and I guess is meant to mimic a sprayed on copper finish to minimise the impact of corrosion or heat cycle related seizing of fasteners.  
Gold front calipers will attach to gold front hubs (matching the gold rears).  Will be interesting to see how that effect works out.

[AaronM]

In other news my 2021 Release BT44B kit is on the way.  It’s going to be an interesting comparison between the two.

I’m hoping to do much better with the Brabham, get more fine details right, and address some of my build quality shortfalls.

[AaronM]

Got out the weathering finish and started putting a bit of character into the engine.

Its amazing how just letting some shadow lines and dirty edges form changes it from being “too clean” to being more realistic.

Mixed my own colour for the brake rotors to get a better shine without being bright  silver. 

A test fit of the engine and radiators.  Unfortunately I had a paint mishap with the body so it will need a fair bit of stripping and repainting.

[AaronM]

Moving on I built the header with the engine and gearbox temporarily attached and didn’t glue the header to the engine yet so it could be cleaned up and painted in on piece.

Once this side was done and the glue dry I realised just how much more prep I should have done.

So for the next side I scraped parting lines, filled mould imperfections and sanded, sanded and sanded.  Then everything’s had two light coats of matt black.  The already built header in the background is “ok” but I had to fix up a fair bit and some bits just won’t have the paint finish or smooth pipe that the good side will.  This is all part of the learning process.

I made a custom mix of paint for the steel of the brake rotors - pretty much 1:1 metallic grey and titanium silver.  It really came up “just right”.

Cat fur flying about and some “bottom of can” problems trashed my bodywork painting - rookie mistakes on my part, but I can rub back and recoat - no harm done.

started to feel a bit depressed that it was not going to look good and that I am eating time etc.  disillusionment phase I guess, so got the engine and gearbox sitting next to each other.  I feel better now.

Next side of headers waiting for the glue to dry.  
 

Once they’re set up enough I’ll do some paint touch ups and finish the weathering/line highlighting on the engine and gearbox.  Paint up both headers with their final coats and start work on the rear suspension.

Im upping the attention to detail with mould lines and sanding etc so progress is slower but I think doing that will make me feel 100x better about the results.

[AaronM]

Headers were finally attached to the engine this week.  Left a lot of time for them to cure into position and started back this past weekend by building up the rear uprights and starting work on the fronts.

 

Prop and glue and lean and prop.  The instructions aren’t great at describing how this should be done and at what angle so I eyeballed it and hope it all fits.

Both sides done.  I’m still pretty happy with my efforts on the build.  I’m starting to understand more about when and where to invest prep time and ho much further I need to go with prep.

Rear uprights started.  Wheels assembled so I can paint them.

Attaching all the suspension pickup points to the uprights.  

Starting to put together all the sud-sections for the front uprights.  
 

Haven’t really started to work on fixing up the paint problem on the body yet, but once the weather improves I will have to get into that, then make the mask to paint the blue sections.

I think I’ve got 2 or 3 weeks of work left.

Edited July 25, 2021 by AaronM

[AaronM]

had a shock fail on install so bit of a build hiccup there.

Calipers and uprights for the front.

mock up fit.  

[AaronM]

Painted up the wheels and mounted the tyres.

Built up the front uprights and assembled the brake discs onto them.

Last but of structural assembly has commenced (wing mount).

I really need to work on my workspace tidiness for my next build.

Filling some moulding divots on the inside of the front wing end plates.

[IanH]

That's looking good, keep it up! 

[kpnuts]

Wow is all I can say 

[David G.]

Wow!!

Based on what I've seen so far, it sure doesn't look like you've been away from the hobby for thirty years. You're building like someone who's been doing it his entire life.

Very impressive work so far.

David G.

[AaronM]

Thanks.  Legitimately 30 years maybe 31.  Been doing microelectronics/drones, 1:1 car stuff and so on in between and nothing like tapping the skills I’ve had to develop.

I actually look at it and still see a lot of room for improvement.  I’m a bit short on sanding supplies and tools, and my painting is a bit hit and miss.  As winter draws to a close here I’m hoping to do some airbrushing on the next one.  Have to invest in some more tools for that though!

[AaronM]

From unsightly divots, to blobs and back to a smooth surface!  I guess this is an example of how through the build I’ve come to learn about building better, and the steps necessary to do so.

I made a wash to dull down the brightness of the calipers and make more of the feature details stand out.  I’m exceptionally happy with the result.  It’s really important to me that I give things I’ve not done before a go, push myself to continuously improve etc.

At the rear end I went back to Mr Color Weathering Finish.  It also did what I needed and because it’s not based on the same solvents as the paint it’s easier to work with.  In any case I’m glad I tried it and will continue to attempt to up my paint game in the next build.

[AaronM]

Not much progress on this as I have to try and get final Pearl White coat on the body.  Hopefully I have enough paint because we are locked down pretty had at the moment and that means no browsing around for paint.

[Kingslug]

How do you find working with Tamiya paint as far as brushing..I finaly bought an airbrush as it just wasn't working for me..it dries so fast. 

Great job so far..you got back into it quick..I was away for 30 years as well and was amazed at how it changed as far as materials and techniques..its come a long way.

[PatW]

Good job, so far. Having not seen the film you mention, but the real thing in the day as a race marshal and knowing also in the day Walter Wolf trackside in the pits etc.

[Belugawrx]

Really coming along nicely Aaron

Is this the livery your after?

Edited September 2, 2021 by Belugawrx

[AaronM]

On 9/3/2021 at 1:09 AM, Belugawrx said:

Really coming along nicely Aaron

Is this the livery your after?

That’s the one.  Obviously there’s scope to adjust things a bit more to suit the lines of the Wolf.