1/20 Tamiya RA272 finally done

[CBartholomew4677]

Great work on the RA272, turned out beautifully. This is a nice little kit, with a lot of room to add detail, as you know well. I saw the real RA272 at the North American International Auto Show this year, and it is REALLY small!!
Cheers,
Chris

[turboF1]

Excellent build! Well done and I love the attention to detail and thoughtfulness of your process.

[tommyjsaari]

Very Nice!

[Schumi]

Looks awesome Chris, your patience has a great result

Cheers, Martijn

[Eagle50]

Wow! Praise from Alex P, Harvey, Eddie, Alex, Jeff, Gen X, Greg, Bill, Davey, CK, Chris, Martijn, and all the rest of my heroes! Thanks everyone!

@Alex P: I thought about painting the (0.3mm gauge fishing line) fuel lines with clear yellow, but I didn't think I could get the paintbrush down around corners around the engine. Was more afraid of muffing it up, and getting yellow paint all over the engine where it didn't belong. I'm telling myself that this is the way the car looked, before being fueled up. LOL

@builder77: Next on my bench is an Ebbro Tyrrell 003. I've just started spraying the TS-15 Blue over the undercoat, and have the engine half done already. I won't be super detailing this one. There's others - like Aoshima's upcoming MP4/2 - that I want to get done this year.

@Terry: Glad you had time to comment. Sounds like you're busy these days? Nice to hear from ya, buddy!

@vekkuli: I used my cheap Casio Exilim with all the camera settings on automatic. You're right, the photos are kind of dark. They were taken indoors, under fluorescent lighting. I should take some photos outside now.

@Greg V: Thanks for the YouTube of the actual car being fired up. Cool! You know, I googled for hours at the usual places - Flickr etc - looking for reference picts. Why didn't I think of searching YouTube for reference videos...? (Chris slaps forehead) I see some wiring that I could've "woven" through the car differently now. Oh well...

For those interested, here's another YouTube of Ginther's car being fired up. This is probably the chassis that the kit is based on. But notice how much shorter the real car looks..! Seems like Mr Kiya really took liberties when he designed the Tamiya, to make it look sleeker and longer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uCjw2gZaqE

@Chris: Which ties into what you said, Chris. It really is a tiny, stubby little car in real life, isn't it!

Thanks again for all the complements, guys. Now I can stop taking my anti-anxiety pills..! LOL

Cheers! Chris

[PJE]

Wonderful build Chris. I’ve lost count as to the number of times I’ve had my kit out on the work bench. After seeing your wonderful work, I’m thinking of dragging it out again.
I have a question concerning the air scoop that’s normally in the area of the rising sun. You have chosen to not replicate it in your build. Is this a bit of builder’s license or is it based on some history or photo reference that you used. You are not the first modeler that I’ve seen do this, but I’ve never found period photos of the car without the scoop. Did the car run races without the scoop?

Paul Erlendson

[Eagle50]

... the air scoop that’s normally in the area of the rising sun. You have chosen to not replicate it in your build. ...
Paul Erlendson

Hey Paul, thank for the compliment. The air scoop is there all right. You can just see it in my last photo, although it isn't easy to see from that angle / with that lighting. It doesn't stick up that much, and isn't obvious unless you're look at the nose cone up close.

Tamiya replicated the scoop with a thick part on the kit's clear plastic tree. When you glue it on, it just looks like a half circle bump. I thinned mine from the back with files, so that it would be an open scoop when I glued it on. But there was a limit to how far I could thin that tiny little clear plastic scoop part without breaking it. So even now, it's not open very much to the "airstream" and still looks pretty much like a bump.

There are two even smaller bumps moulded into the nose cone plastic, on either side of the scoop you're talking about. Those are supposed to be extra tiny air scoops (maybe to cool the drivers' feet?), and look like itty bitty open half circles when viewed head on - like "periscope tops just breaking the water surface" - on the real car. But, I had no idea how to open those up without breaking the nose cone. So I left them as-is, as two tiny moulded-in bumps. I suppose a hard core modeler could drill those bumps away, and replace them with short lengths of very thin brass tube. But I didn't want to go that far.

Cheers,
Chris

[tunyco]

Wow Chris, very nice one, it's wonderful super build kit.

Cheers
Antonio

[MarcoSaupe]

Excellent model, looks very nice!

[R.Wells]

How the heck did I miss this?????

Wow!!!, just Wow!!!

I have this kit, also with the turned intake funnels. I will have to refer back to your pictures if, and when I ever build it.

Nice work!!!!!