1977 Tyrrell P34 6 wheeler

[Peter Lombardo]

I know, this is long and tedious, but so was this build. I also know F1 cars are not that popular here, but I enjoy building them along with customs and concepts, I will throw one in from time to time. You are welcome to just look at the pictures, but I highly recommend taking a few minutes to review it. It was quite a growing experience for my skills. I had a self imposed deadline of the NNL East for this car to be completed by. I beat my deadline by a few weeks and that makes me happy that I didn’t have to rush “it†at the end.

A few months ago, I posted the genesis of this project. Basically, I wanted to update the Tamiya 1/20 scale 1977 Tyrrell P34 kit, kit number 20053. I think Tamiya took the cheap way out on this car and modeled it as it appeared in the 1977 Monaco GP. That was just a sponsorship and paint scheme variation of the 1976 all blue elf car. It has the short cowl bodywork with the engine completely exposed.

I wanted a version of the car with the full cowl bodywork. I figured that it would be a snap to make a buck for the body and bang out a vacuum form body. While it certainly was do-able, it was anything but a snap.

I chose Balsa wood as the model buck medium and actually that was a good choice. I laid out the measurements based on the 1976 Tyrrell car that I had built a few years back. I built the buck and made a vacuum form body and began work on it. As work on the body cowling progressed, so did work on the chassis and engine. As the chassis came together, it was becoming increasingly evident that the body work proportions were off a bit and the body was not going to work as planned. I had made the front area adjacent to the front wheels too wide, although on the very last version of this car, the front track was indeed wider; I had the proportions out of sync. I went back to the buck and made some adjustments and re-formed a new body. In the end, I had to mold the body 4 times before I was happy enough with the outcome….I never expected that to be the case on what I thought would be a simple body to mold.

As it turned out, this body, which I painted (the paint job was the paint job from Diablo), I mean I had to strip the paint because of one teeny tiny imperfection, but as it turned out, even with all of the sweat and toil, this body was not right in that the back portion did not adequately clear the intake trumpets so all of the paint work was for not. Back to the buck, and a few more changes were made. This time I extended the raised area in the back to better clear the engine plumbing, but I also made a change in thinking at this point.

Now, one thing I found as I researched this project (I amassed a huge stack of pictures of it in its various forms from the internet)…..( let me ask you, how did we ever do the research prior to the internet???….I know, books, magazines and photos, but really, the internet is a lifesaver for this kind of stuff) was that this car appeared differently in just about every race it competed in. The car was in a constant state of improvement and changes ranged from the subtle to the bizarre. The hard part for me was picking a version to model. The car I modeled in the end was not the car I set out to build. In the beginning I planned a car without the front oil radiators, with the two lower cowl air intakes set back and low and no windshield. As you can see, that is not what I ended up with. The more I looked at the research the more I liked the idea of the front oil coolers. I really liked how the oil lines ran down below the outer body, on top of the inner body, plus it was much more of a challenge for me to build the radiators, the plumbing and have the openings line up correctly with the radiators. Also, I like the plumbing connections and the colorful anodized pressure connectors.

Then I thought I would also challenge myself with building the windshield, so it was incorporated into the build. So, when I re-vacuum formed the new body, I also made a body in clear styrene also. The clear body was going to donate the section where the windshield is so I could build a car with the windshield rather than one without. Along with the windshield, that body has its air intakes, on the cowling, in a higher, more centralized location. I cut out the openings for the vents, crafted angled side pieces and then glued on the back so the air is funneled in to the cockpit, around the driver and then to the engine intake.

I drew out the window area on the body and then cut out the clear styrene very carefully so it would fit into the opening. I “painted†the black area with a sharpie marker and set that aside to wait for the body painting to be done.

To paint the body, first after the body modifications were complete, I primed the entire body, it was lightly sanded when dry and then many light coats of white lacquer paint were laid down. Once that was dry, it got two light coats of clear lacquer and that was allowed to dry. Once good and dry, I painted on a heavy coat of liquid masking and allowed that to dry for two days. Once dry, I very carefully, with a new #11 knife blade, cut the line where the two colors of the paint scheme come together. Then I peeled away the masking from where the blue was to go (lower body area). The rest of the white area was taped off and 3 coats of Tamiya blue were laid down. Once that had set up, I very carefully removed the tape and liquid masking to reveal the two tone blue and white paint scheme. Once this was completely dry, the body received countless coats of clear lacquer to seal the paint. Both the nose piece and the wing were painted with the Tamiya Blue and also clear coated with clear lacquer.

The Tamiya decals (they are great on this kit) needed quite a bit of modification to work on this re-built car. The elf up front was cut-apart and repositioned without much bother. The number 4 up front also required a bit of tricky cutting, but it was not that difficult. The trick part was the “FIRST NATIONAL CITY†decals that are in a straight line in the kit form, but needed to be curved around the newly fashioned front cowling. Cutting them apart was tedious as there is very little room between the letters, but the harder part was getting the spacing correct so that the name was balanced properly on the body. I did not want it to be uneven so I was very careful to get that right.

The windshield was glued in and the decals finished and the rearview mirrors attached. That was it for the body, but the chassis got almost as much modification as the body.

In the kit, the front wheels are not made to turn. I incorporated all of the linkage so that all four wheels turn together. I had built the 1/12 scale version many years ago and always loved how the wheels worked together, so I needed to modify this to do the same. Now they don’t turn all the way, due to the limitations of the space provided, but they do turn in unison. While I am on the front wheels, I replaced the wheel spindle with small brass bolts and nuts so the wheels can be un-screwed and removed. I also included the red air ducts for brake ventilation.

I fabricated the supports for the two front oil radiators and the necessary plumbing, mentioned earlier. I added most of the electrical wiring to the dash panel and driver area…..while mentioning the driver, he was modified too. The kit, for some strange reason has an abbreviated driver leg area on the driver figure included in the kit. Now, regardless of the version you build, the driver legs are clearly visible, so why would they be amputated just below the knee? I could not allow that to stand, no pun intended, so I drilled holes into the “stubs†and inserted a piece of wire in each leg. Then using the Tamiya two part modeling putty, I gave the drive some huge elephant legs. When dry, they were grinded down and shaped to represent the lower leg and sneaker clad feet of the driver.

The driver was painted with a custom mix of Tamiya flat paints and when dry, top coated with “dull coat†just to help soften the look. The helmet was painted also with Tamiya paint and decaled, and a visor was made and installed with small brass nails into the helmet.

The engine is pretty straight out of the box with the addition of wiring. I used some really neat “spring†wire that I got from the HLJ.com site that is intended for Sci-Fi modelers. I used it for the coolant piping from the engine to the radiators mounted on the outside of the engine area. I fabricated forward radiator supports from a small piece of a diet-coke can and mounted them to the body and when secure, the radiators were attached and plumbed. I had to build the fuel tank sides and fabricated the fuel pick up lines down the side of the tank. I also made the connection plates where the body attaches to the chassis with straight pins.

Overall, I am very happy with this build. I set out to build a version of this car that no one else has and I got to further my Vacuum Forming technique’s too. I challenged myself with a few things and accomplished those tasks. As I have said many times before, I want to challenge myself to improve and broaden my abilities and horizons. No pain, no gain is just as true with modeling as it is with working out.

[crispy]

Peter, Absolutely magnificent. The work, detail and finish are near perfect.

Quite the system you have. Glad to have read and looked at all.

Thanks for sharing your art with us!

Chris

[Monty]

Eh, if that's the best you can do, don't worry about it. If you stay on this board long enough, you'll pick up some great tricks and ideas. Kidding!

You've done some incredible work on that car and I'm impressed by all the "fixes" you incorporated. My favoritre version of this car was the blue and yellow entry in the 1976 Swedish Gran Prix. Feel free to post all the F1 cars you've got.

[John Truby]

Absolutely stunning!!

Your craftsmanship is superb.

I have a hard enough time building race cars box stock!!

John

[935k3]

Peter you dome some amazing work and so quickly. Well done. The full bodywork does look better than the OOB version.

[Railfreak78]

I did not know there was a real car this way. I knew Hot Wheels made one but I didn't know it was based on a real racer. Very beautiful job on a nice subject and thanks for teaching us that need to learn more on the subject. Great work!

[stevegt738]

Very nicely done Peter, your mods look great. Great job. More F1 builds are always good in my book, been following the sport since `81. Watching Melbourne right now.

[RatRod]

Once again you have stunned the crowds with your builds Peter!!! This one came out great as per your usual work.

[curt raitz]

Peter

Very, very nice job on this model from one F-1 modeling fan to another

can't wait to see which one ya build next...

[simonr]

Excellent performance on this one...a classic!...Bravo, Pete!

[Peter Lombardo]

Guys, thank you very much, I really do appreciate the kind words. I know I have said this before, but I really appreciate it when you, fellow modelers have words of encouragement for me....it means a lot because all of you guys "get it". We all understand the hard work and the passion we put into our builds. We all know what it takes and the pride we have when one of our builds get a positive feed back from guys "in the community". Thanks again. Curt, I thought you would appreciate this build, being one of the guys who has posted some absolutely beautiful F1 builds. Thanks.

[dencon]

Nice Model. that has always been one of my favorite race cars. I remember that car from when I was a kid. I have never seen this model built with this much detail. nice work. Nice job on getting the front wheels to work. You even got all of the different angles those front tires would be in a turn. That was such a funky set up.

Matt

[Kombi]

What a fantastic job you've done here, I had to go look at my kit in the box to get a good idea of just how much you had to change.

For my skill set, I'm thinking box stock will have to be sufficient. It reminds me of the little Matchbox car I had of it as a kid anyway.

By coincidence, I happened to catch this video from YouTube on the Tyrrell. The video really shows some of the variety of form the car took that you mentioned. The car at the 1:00 mark really caught my eye with the twin snorkles on either side of the driver. That would be a neat version of the car to build as well.

[Greg Cullinan]

Uh Peter I think those extra wheels were supposed to go on the rear maybe . Really a cool build and thanks for the knowledge!

[Dragline]

Very unique build Peter.

I built one box stock many mons ago. I think it was the first Tamiya kit I ever built.

Your's is superb in all respects.

Bob

[edward smith]

Fantastic work!

[peter31a]

Wow! That is a fantastic piece of work! And thanks for taking the time to tell us the thought and work involved. I really look forward to seeing that one at NNL East.

[Tony T]

What a fantastic build of a very unique time in F1. Fabulous work, and thanks for taking the time to document the trials and tribulations you went through to get to the finished model. Just plain awesome!!! Well done!!

[simonr]

What blue color you used on this one?

Simón Rivera