Tamiya McLaren Senna

[harti20]

Hi all

Yesterday I tried option number 2 from my last post regarding the damaged carbon-decal on the front and applied small patches to hide the defects. I think I can live with the result and will leave it this way  But before applying the stripes for the second time, I'll clearcoat it first to seal everything in

Also yesterday I finally managed to apply transparent carbon decals to the middle console. It's not 100% perfect as there are some spots on the edges where the decals overlap and being transparent it is much more visible than with non-transparent decals. But I think, I'll leae it this way now. After a coat of gloss clear I'll paint the oddments tray to clean things up. It may not be 100% accurate this way, but as I already decided on the rear view mirrors to go my own way, that's fine for me

That's it for today's update. I hope that my motivation got a boost from these two successful steps, so I'll take some time to continue with this build
Urs

[mrm]

Yup, overlapping clear carbon decals is al sorts of difficult. I've experienced plenty of that on my Huayra. About your repairs... I run in situations everyone in a while where I need to do the same. I try to make a patch I can cut along the lines of the carbon weave. This way it is easier to line it up with your previous work and it's easier to blend it. Once you clear it it should go completely away. I think you are doing a fantastic work out of all the carbon and the other decals. 

[harti20]

Hi all

On 8/12/2024 at 8:04 PM, mrm said:

Yup, overlapping clear carbon decals is al sorts of difficult. I've experienced plenty of that on my Huayra. About your repairs... I run in situations everyone in a while where I need to do the same. I try to make a patch I can cut along the lines of the carbon weave. This way it is easier to line it up with your previous work and it's easier to blend it. Once you clear it it should go completely away. I think you are doing a fantastic work out of all the carbon and the other decals. 

Sorry for not replying for so long. I thought, I'd answer with my next post which was supposed to be only one week after my last one... Thank you very much for your kind comment, it really helps keeping motivation up

Long time there was no progress on this build, as I didn't manage to apply the transparent decals in a way I was satisfied on one hand and because of a general lack of model-building motivation on the other hand. But finally I managed to apply the decals on the outside of the first seat in an acceptable way. Meanwhile it's clear coated as well to seal the decals before going on to the interior part of the seatshell

The two inner door panels have been carbonized as well. I know, the result is far from being perfect, but it's the best result I was able to achieve, so I'll leave it like this.

And finally the two door sills have also been carbonized and clear coated. Now this will be followed by some masking to paint the interior in dark grey / black. I'll first. have to try to remember how I had planned the interior to look like...

As I'm slowly entering the home stretch with my Ferrari SF90, I'm planning to concentrate my building on the McLaren once the Ferrari is finished. I really wouldn't like to celebrate a third birthday for this WIP...

That's it for today. I really hope there won't be another six months to my next progress-post (I know, I already said that the last few times, but now I really hope, it will be much sooner  ).
Urs

[cifenet]

Fantastic decal work, I know they are tricky, but you got it going nicely.  

Thanks for sharing the progress!

[Nacho Z]

You’ve done a fantastic job on those decals!

[beeRS]

Wow. All the decal work blows my mind. You really have done a great job Urs. 

[harti20]

Hi all

I actually wanted to show the current status here, but as I am not able to send my post (always get the error message "Page cannot be found") I give up and won't continue this WIP on here. I know that there are some SQL-related words that can't be used in a post and will cause this error if used anyway. But I double checked my post and couldn't find any of these... If you like to follow this build, you can do so over on britmodeller or (in german) on koelner-modellbauforum.de.

Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

I just decided to give it a go and try it again. That's what I tried to show you last time:

 

Only very few progress today, but more will be coming soon. I know I've already made this announcement several times in this WIP, but this time it really will be the case. A lot has been going on in the background recently, but not too much that could be shown in pictures yet. On Friday, however, I clear coated all the body parts that had not yet been  clear coated befrore with Ammo's 2K paint. Unfortunately, I only realized afterwards that I applied it too thin on some parts, which resulted in a very uneven surface. I will paint these parts again in about 2 weeks so that I have a thick enough layer for the final sanding and polishing. But now to the only progress that can be seen at the moment: a body part that had already been clear coated months ago has been sanded smooth with a Tamiya 3000 sanding sponge and can now be polished.

I was actually thinking that the parts should be dust-free, but the photo once again brutally proves the opposite... the dust will (hopefully) be wiped off by the final gallery pictures at the latest... 

 

And now let's move on the the current standing

 

As I mentioned in my last post, some of the body parts had to be clear coated for a second time. That was done last friday, so I had to leave these parts to dry for some days. But the parts that came out well the first time have been sanded smooth and polished, so I could continue assembling the body. Now it finally starts looking like a car  

 

To continue work on the interior I had to mask the already finished carbon fibre work and paint it with some Charcoal Textured paint. When I removed the masking afterwards everything turned out well on the passenger's side. But when I started removing the masking on the drivers side I soon noticed that the masking ripped off a part of the cf decals 😴 Once all the masking had been removed, I tried to cut some clean edges to make it easier to apply a patch to fix it. That's how it looked afterwards

 

While letting the clear coat cure I also had some time to fix this last weekend. It's not really perfect, but I definitely can live with the way how it looks now. And with.a bit of luck this area won't be too visible through the small windows in the lower part of the door anyway...

 

That's all for today. As I'll mainly have to sand and polish a lot of body parts it may now take a while to my next post in here. But now I'm constantly working on this kit to have it (hopefully) finished soon 
Urs

[Funkychiken]

despite the masking issue, still looks amazing, its a great looking kit, and you are doing it justice, looking forward to more!

[harti20]

Hi all

On 5/17/2025 at 6:11 PM, Funkychiken said:

despite the masking issue, still looks amazing, its a great looking kit, and you are doing it justice, looking forward to more!

Thank you very much

 

Small steps on the McLaren. I had actually planned to make more progress on the bodywork last week than was actually the case. The problem, however, was that the air deflectors in the area of the splitter on one side could not be installed. After a long search, I found the root of the problem: the splitter was slightly warped and had to be persuaded to stay in its intended position with a little force. As I wanted to avoid having to make 10 attempts because of removing the clamp too early and thus tear the glue joint open again (as is often the case with me), I let the glue harden for a little more than 24 hours this time. As the other construction steps are also in the area of the splitter, I could not continue here. Here is the current status, with the splitter installed and forced into shape. You can also see the air deflectors on the side where I was able to install them earlier

Beforehand I finished the two headlights. Well.... at least that's what I thought. Them problem if you are working on a project for almost three years now it that you don't always remember exactly what had been done already three years ago... I was wondering because there was no painting instruction for the area behind the big transparent part. Neither could I find anything in the instructions of the PE set used. Today I studied Tamiya's building instructions once again and noticed that there are still two parts missing on each headlight which go behind the big transparent part...

That's it for this week. I hope that I will be able to make more progress this week
Urs

[harti20]

Hi all  

Quite some time has passed since my last post... But progress on the McLaren is continuing steadily, albeit in small steps

The doors have already been completed, as far as is possible at this stage. The windows will only be added once the doors are  attached to the body. Contrary to the assembly instructions, I will only do this once the body has been placed over the interior. I hope that this will mean the body does not have to be stretched so much during marriage.

Some progress has also been made on the bodywork

That's it for today I'll have more to show soon, as the interior is slowly taking shape
Urs

[beeRS]

Amazing work. I can’t stop looking at all the carbon fibre decal work and marveling. 

[SpeedAndViolence]

All that amazing carbon fiber decal work, looks like a whole lot of 'I dont need to buy that kit'...😐

 

[NOBLNG]

It is looking great Urs!👍 I would not have the patience for all that decal work.😬

[harti20]

Hi all

On 6/13/2025 at 7:34 AM, beeRS said:

Amazing work. I can’t stop looking at all the carbon fibre decal work and marveling. 

Thank you very much

On 6/16/2025 at 9:01 PM, SpeedAndViolence said:

All that amazing carbon fiber decal work, looks like a whole lot of 'I dont need to buy that kit'...😐

 

Thank you. You won't have to cover everyting in carbon fiber. There are lots of designs without  

On 6/17/2025 at 1:10 AM, NOBLNG said:

It is looking great Urs!👍 I would not have the patience for all that decal work.😬

Thank you. I guess that's the reason I'm working on it for almost 3 years now... I lost motivation more than once because of all the decal work.

 

Quite some progress could be made in the last two weeks. First of all I worked on the interior, added floormats, accelerator and brake-pedals

Then the brake discs have been completed. That's something that was lying around for months now, ready to assemble, but nobody ever took the time to really do it...

After that, everything went rather fast, so that it will soon be time for marriage. Only some minoer work has to be done to complete the interior (cover one more piece with transparent CF decal for the dashboard, paint and assemble one small console for the driver's seat and finally install all the seatbelts. The McLaren Senna I'm building has quite a lot of them, as he has a 3-point seatbelt installed as well as a 6-poiint...

 

So much for today. I guess, that I'll soon enter the home stretch with this build
Urs

[Mattilacken]

Epic build! The decal work is so extensive so I would have given up long ago! But the end result is looking so good! And as part Brazilian, married to a woman from Brazil, and having two kids which are part Brazilian these colors makes me more proud and patriotic than my own colors, we Swedes are not that patriotic and don’t use our flag much. The Brazil 🇧🇷 scheme really makes it look great! 

[harti20]

Hi all

On 6/25/2025 at 10:49 AM, Mattilacken said:

Epic build! The decal work is so extensive so I would have given up long ago! But the end result is looking so good! And as part Brazilian, married to a woman from Brazil, and having two kids which are part Brazilian these colors makes me more proud and patriotic than my own colors, we Swedes are not that patriotic and don’t use our flag much. The Brazil 🇧🇷 scheme really makes it look great! 

Thank you very much I almost gave up long ago  But I just loved the design of this car too much to really give up, so I just paused its build several times.

Exactly three years ago today, I started building the McLaren Senna. At the time, I thought it would be a challenge with a kit, a set of PE parts, and two decal sets to be applied on top of each other. But I never would have dreamed back then that I would still be working on it three years later. A lot of things turned out the way I had hoped, but I had to make quite a few compromises and couldn't stick to the original model completely. Overall, however, I'm still happy with how it's turned out so far.

Today, there is only small progress to show you, but one that brings me a step closer to completing this build. Now I just need to finish the seats (and seat belts), and then the wedding can take place soon. After that, all that's left to do is sand, polish, and assemble the spoiler.

But now to the pictures. First, the two door panels were completed. There were actually etched parts for the speakers (as a replacement for the decals), but I like them better with decals.

Then the dashboard was also completed. Once again, I realized that parts I thought I had already painted were still on the sprue. I also had to deviate from the original again with the steering wheel, as the parts that I have now simply painted black would have been made of green carbon fiber.

That's it for the birthday post  Now I'm going to continue sweating and maybe finish the seat belts
Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

After having finished the door panels and the dashboard in my last post, it was time to finally finish and install the seats. After completing all the seat belt parts I could install them in the interior

Once installed I could also attach the door panels and the dashboard

With this being done, it was time for the engagement photo (with the door on the driver's side only mocked up)

Then everything went quite fast: marriage took place

In another WIP I once read that quite a few body parts fell off during marriage, that's why I waited with installing the doors and the rear (the part with the green crossbar) until after inserting the interior. Especially the door section had to be pulled apart quite a bit. With the doors already installed it would been necessary to bend it even more, as the doors go underneath the interior tub to attach some undercarriage parts.

Now everything that's left to do is installing the undercarriage and assemble and install the spoiler. But that will be done in the final post of this build
Urs

[beeRS]

This is looking absolutely stunning. A true masterpiece.

[harti20]

Hi all

On 7/9/2025 at 1:21 PM, beeRS said:

This is looking absolutely stunning. A true masterpiece.

Thank you very much Sonny

Meanwhile the McLaren has been finished und was parked around the corner where it was spotted by a fellow photographer  A thread in the Under Glass section will follow as soon as I've been to the studio for the next time (hopefully soon).

That's it from this build. From now on work on the Sauber C9 will continue and at the same time I started another project (better said, I took it over from my son as he has lost interest in it).
Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

The thread in the Under Glass section can be found here:  https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/202146-mclaren-senna

 

Thank you all for your comments during this build. I hope to see you again on my next project
Urs

Edited Monday at 06:02 PM by harti20