Fujimi Fina McLaren F1 GTR Long Tail

[MarkJ]

Looking great John as always. I know what you mean about trouble posting. I can no longer view any of my modeling sites on my phone. All I get is a warning that somebody might be trying to steal my information. I can't even go to the noaa weather site anymore which makes it hard to keep up with the weather when I'm out and about in my car.

[Nacho Z]

I have all of the external (body) PE grills, etc. prepped and painted.  There are 15 pieces with approximately 40  attachment points that needed to be filed down.

 

Something that I thought was kind of neat when I saw it.  This is a picture of the leftover Tamiya tape that I used to hold the PE pieces in place while I airbrushed them.

 

I have also started on some interior details.  I painted the roll cage semi-gloss black, masked off the padding and then shot a metal color.  The effect is subtle, but your eye will catch it.

 

I will work on the racing harness next.

 

Thanks for checking in!

[MarkJ]

Wow, that's some extreme close-up shots you have there, John. No way I could work with parts that small.

[Nacho Z]

Work is complete on the interior.  I thought I would share some WIP pictures.

Here is the original kit part, it is a center console.  I tried to do some detail painting, but the results were unacceptable.

 

I bought a variety of switches from ESS Resinworks.  I primed and painted them.  I removed all of the molded on kit part details and installed the ESS Resinworks items.  I also cut small squares from sheet styrene and painted them clear orange to simulate warning lights.  It is not prototypically correct, but it looks so much better.

 

I am always disappointed to see molded in items that would be so much better as separate pieces.  I masked the fire extinguisher and shot it red..

 

Next were the electronic boxes.  There was no way that I would be able to mask them.  I cut out pieces from .010” sheet styrene and sized them to each electronic box.  I then removed all molded on detail from the kit boxes.  I painted my sheet styrene “covers” in three different colors for visual interest.  I glued them on the appropriate electronic box and added details as needed.  The decals are just random spares that I had.

 

That is it for now.  I’ll post the 6 point race harness that I made and the completed interior next time.  Thanks for checking in.  Comments, suggestions, and critiques are welcome.

 

 

[Dave B]

That's coming on very nicely John.

Dave B

[Mattilacken]

Nice build! And great work on the interior details, your electrical boxes came out great! 

[Nacho Z]

On 5/21/2025 at 10:48 PM, Dave B said:

That's coming on very nicely John.

Dave B

Thank you, Dave!

 

On 5/22/2025 at 5:43 PM, Mattilacken said:

Nice build! And great work on the interior details, your electrical boxes came out great! 

 

I appreciate that, Anton!  

[absmiami]

Goodstuff !!

gotta ch out ESS …

[Rich Chernosky]

John...I can certainly identify with working with tiny pieces of photo etch having just completed a project with 100's of tiny pieces.  One tip I can give you if you aren't already doing it. To get those attachment points on PE I use the cut-off wheel to the moto-tool. Chuck the wheel into a battery operated unit  on at the lowest possible speed. Hold the piece tightly with a good pair of pliers and gently move the piece up against the spinning wheel. Hold the piece on its edge and make sure you use the side spinning away from you. That little attachment piece will disappear very quickly. I work on a full sheet of black construction paper and keep it completely clear of tools and parts. The parts will fly ( and some will fer sure)  but they show up on black easily. A magnet sometimes helps too.  You are doing a fabulous job on  this project. That dash is killer. 

[kensar]

Nice detail work and creative way to handle the moulded in details.

[Nacho Z]

My goal for this model was not to build a super detailed model, but just to improve it beyond box stock.  I have never liked using decals for racing harnesses. The Hobby Design detail up set had a funky piece of material that you had to cut into strips for the seat belt material.  I made a couple of strips but I just didn’t like the looks of it.  I bought a variety of 2mm wide ribbon and used that as my seat belts.  I used a combination of kit PE and Hobby Design PE for the harness hardware.  I didn’t take any pictures while I was making them.

 

With the interior tub complete, I turned my attention to the body and began the decaling process.

And so it begins!

 

Thanks for checking in!  Thank you to everyone who has left a comment.  The next update will be decaling progress.

Edited May 25 by Nacho Z

[Nacho Z]

The McLaren is fully decaled.  It took me several nights to do them all.  I believe there were around 107 decals.  I’ll post a few in progress pictures so that you can see the sequence that I did them in.

 

A couple of notes.  I noticed when I taped the doors in place that they are just a shade of white different than the body.  I’m sure that I painted everything the same number of coats.  My guess is that I just shot it a little heavier on the body.  The good thing is that I plan to display it with the doors open.  You will not be able to notice the difference.  The next thing is that the decals, or the guy putting them on, are not perfect.  There were gaps in some areas.  Also, the decals did not completely cover the bottom of the car and the inner lips of the wheel wells.  I mixed some blues together until I got a match.  I am very happy with how it turned out!

 

As always, thanks for checking in on this one.  Comments, advice, and critiques are welcome.

[Belugawrx]

That looks great John

Nice job on the decals!

[Mattilacken]

Great progress! Looking realy good!

[Rattlecan Dan]

You're going waaay past improving box stock! Very nice work.

[nickfzr61]

This is coming along real nice. Almost looks like a 1/12 scale with the details you’ve done. 

[4knflyin]

On 4/8/2025 at 8:22 PM, Nacho Z said:

Lastly, two pictures of the real thing.  I think she is beautiful!!

 

 

On 4/15/2025 at 9:02 PM, Nacho Z said:

I will say that careful masking does pay off.

 

 

Agreed, it is gorgeous! And the way you did those windows, paying heightened attention there, really did pay big dividends. 

After the yellow Harrods GTR livery, this is my favorite. Yet what do I have in my stash? The attention grabbing, can’t take your eyes off it, Ueno Clinic gray on gray with silvery gray highlights… my least favorite GTR livery.

A few months ago, Spot Model erroneously started advertising pre-order for the MFH 1:12 Fina and I added it to my notifications. And then it disappeared… without notification. “Sorry, not sorry.”

Great work on this, as usual!

[Pete75]

Looking great. Nice to know I'm not alone in touching up decals with paint!