WIP Tameo 1/24 F2002

[keithwwalker]

Question: is this kit a curbside or does it have engine detail?

[AJP01]

It's a curbside but the gearbox and the rear of the engine heads are visible through the rear area suspension. The gearbox and suspension mount points are exposed and you can see into the rear of the engine bay sort of like this:

Cheers,
AJ

[AJP01]

Shaping work continues on the sidepod ducts. They have a complex profile in 3D and they have to match the intake red painted areas at the front of the sidepod while also matching the radiator parallelogram faces at the rear. Buhhh.

Okay, so, let's add more material at the sides to be able to carve the shape in a curve to match the inner intake face which is painted red. This part will be carbon fiber when done but the outside edge has to curve a bit.

So first we add plasticard material to give some thickness, and we round the outer corners to allow this all to fit inside the kit bodywork.

Then we fabricate some inner split plates since this intake actually divides into two interior ducts, one for the radiator and one for the oil cooler on each side.

Then we shape the sidepod edges some with the tools, some carving with blades and Dremel, and then we fit the inner dividers to check placement.

This is going pretty well here, so I'm pleased for the moment. Work continues...

AJ

[PJE]

While waiting for the airbox resin to cure completely I did a resin mold and cast of the steering wheel also. This is so I can grind off the smaller dials/switches on the wheel and remake them using individual switches, which will be easier to paint before setting them in the wheel. Tameo does a nice white metal steering wheel with details but in 1/24 it would be difficult to paint, thus the effort to cast a copy and work with each switch individually.

Been busy with the silicone and resin on this build so far...

Build 44 sm.jpg

Cheers,
AJ

I'm very interested in your build AJ as I've had this kit along with the F2000 for many years. Are you familiar with the Scale Motorsport photoetch set for the Revell F2003GA?
It has some very nice detail pieces for the steering wheel that you might find very helpful. I think that it's out of production but there are a number of them on EBay.

Paul Erlendson

[AJP01]

Thanks for the feedback all. Good motivation!

Paul - appreciate the note. No, I had not thought of the SMS F2003GA detail set in 1/24 but I will certainly be taking a look at it now. I agree there are pieces in there that will be very useful I think.

So, now that we've got a better look at how things are fitting for the intake sidepod areas and splitters we can shape/round the edges a bit to get the right final profile. This is to match as closely as possible the outer bodywork lip for the intake itself, and it's a bit tricky as commented earlier.

We shape and putty, profile, sand, etc...

Making sure we like the look of the profile from front and back, so that we get a good look inside once done...

And check things against the final look before committing to this shaping. Looks just about right, and now once we add the splitters back into it will look like the reference photos. This is a look at the car bodywork with the newly-shaped part held just below for a check:

To avoid getting burned out on one part of the car I like to switch around a bit, so now back to the floor pan.

Lots of straightening and thinning still underway. This is a look at the rear diffuser tunnel and you can see the top edge with a bit of thinning while the bottom side has yet to be done:

This gives an indication of how much extra material was removed, and we could safely say this is being done on all edges of this floor until it looks right.

More to come. Thanks for looking!

AJ

[wilchan]

Woohoo!!! this is an excellent work AJ!!! Please keep the updates coming

[AJP01]

Back at it.

Now we bond the splitters into place after refining their shape, and we begin the process of fitment into the chassis casting.

Bond with some CA and set the correct angles for the split PE radiators / oil coolers:

Then we figure out a way to set correct alignment into the chassis so that when we cut this seat away (still debating that) we can ensure that the sidepods fit into the car with the exact same position.

Mark positions with some black lines:

Then drill matching holes in the chassis and the sidepod fabricated elements both, carefully matching their exact position as closely as possible.

Fit pins made from aluminum rod with a slight taper on the ends.

[AJP01]

Then see if it all works:

Yes - looks good so far.

Back to the floor and also to shaping the sidepod inlets in the white metal with some puttying and smoothing.

Cheers,
AJ

[Mr.Grumpy]

looking really good.

[AJP01]

Thanks Grumpy!

Time to start working on the cockpit area a bit as well as floor refinements.

The tub floor has already been worked on a bit as shown in prior posts, but it's still got some rough edges:

Need to thin and smooth those edges and get them into a workable profile so that when they are bonded into the main tub I can blend them seamlessly using putty and styrene. Now this is looking much better and I'll repeat the process on the other side:

This is the area that the floor will bond to and I've already been grinding it to shape in preparation for more work. It will need a good blending plus some added material to get the inner tub wall to the correct shape, which will be critical later on:

The cockpit wall needs a better, straighter profile. So, adding plastic card to form a base for the upcoming putty work and blending, carefully measured and cut to the right basic shape to minimize putty:

You can see better in this picture the fit I'm attempting to get, which will work well for the putty soon. The floor is held in place here and you can see the ground-down edge that I'm going to feather in with putty. Bonding this firmly in place.

Cheers,
AJ