WIP Tameo 1/24 F2002

[AJP01]

Michael - You are the master of Tameo kit builds, so I take a compliment from you very happily.

I think that in 1/43, the engineering of a kit and its assembly break lines is very well understood by Tameo. In 1/24, the almost quadrupled mass of the kit and sizing of the white metal castings challenges the principles used in 1/43 and so these kits are engineered differently. In my view, it's a limitation of the material itself and not the design. To sum it up, nothing fits quite right and that requires patience and corrections.

But I have to say, even though it's taking many hours of work I'm actually enjoying the challenge and learning a lot from it.

Cheers,
AJ

[AJP01]

Now I have to make a method of ensuring that the floor of the tub and the (cut off) tea tray will line up when I'm going to do final assembly.

So let's drill holes and create some pins on the tub mounting angle points

And let's drill / cut some slots in the resin tea tray copy which is cut to fit the other metal part

And let's do a test fit to make sure that our pins and slots line up the tea tray well; assembly of this will occur after most of the body and floor has been painted and decaled so I have to make sure that it will fit right.

I can't convey properly how much care is needed to make sure that everything lines up this way on two separate angled cuts. But I'm really happy with this fit.

[AJP01]

Let's continue with working the bottom of the tub floor near the tea tray, this time from the inside.

We have to make a bit more space in the floor since the driver's seat snugs up right against it. On the left you can see the enlarged curvature of the floor and how the sides have been reworked, compared to the resin copy to the right of the picture.

And now we fit that reworked floor and check the alignment on the inside of the cockpit, which will be puttied and sanded further later.

We also need to make a new dashboard, on the left is the PE supplied with the kit, in the tub is the fabricated styrene version which will form the base of the dashboard controls, seat contact points, steering wheel mount, etc. You'll see the dashboard is biased slightly to the left since there is a large control panel on the cockpit wall left side while the right side does not have that. As a result, I'll make this so that the seat is modified to fit right up against the dash where appropriate as in the reference photos I've found.

On the left is the kit supplied seat area, on the right is my resin copy reworked version. You can see I'm building up the sides, opening up seat belt holes, and getting ready for test fit.

And then start test fitting and modifying until it's right.

Cheers,
AJ

[AJP01]

In an attempt to make sure that I don't get frustrated with any one portion of work on this kit, I tend to move around a bit from section to section. That way it gives me time to figure out better ideas to the problems I encounter along the way.

Moving over to work on the wings. You'll remember that I took resin casts of the original pieces early on in this build so that I can separate wing elements, paint more easily, etc. This means that I have to work a lot to finesse the parts so that they fit just right, and also make the later build after painting possible with the least amount of potential problems.

Original metal rear wing upper element, and resin cast copy with elements separated and shaped. You'll also notice I've started to drill and insert brass pins where the original white metal pins were designed to link up with the sideplates.

I've also decided to keep the lower black carbon mainplane in white metal. It still takes some filing and reshaping to fit correctly, and additional alignment pins made, etc., but this is how they're looking at this point.

Test fit and file, shape, sand until everything correct.

And repeat this process for the other elements of the wing. This is the Japanese GP version of the car so it has multiple upper elements.

Every time I'm working on a wing element, whether it's white metal or resin, I have to be sure that it's absolutely straight and true to the reference plane otherwise it will cause problems down the way. So every part gets a good filing and sanding to make it straight as I can get it.

Cheers,
AJ

[AJP01]

Start reworking the front wings also, using same ideas from the other rear wing set...

Figuring out a way to get these to align perfectly with the end plates and the nose-wing support pillars is going to be interesting. These front wings have a lot of compound curves to them which have to show a consistent gap between the main plane and upper plane wings. Ah - challenge.

Cheers,
AJ

[R.Wells]

Outstanding work AJ. Patience galore.

[AJP01]

Back from the dead. Well, not dead, just preoccupied with COVID and life, job, etc. More progress to report:

Time to start assembling and bonding. Roll hoop was cast in resin so that I could hollow it out accurately (difficult to do in white metal), and now it's ready to bond since the metal reshaping work on this kit is starting to wind down towards putty and primer.

Bonded roll hoop structure with CA gel, good alignment I think -

Good view from the front also -

Work to place small gap fillers in styrene for ideal fit, less putty work later -

Nice tight fit for the floor of the tub in front, foundation for further work -

[AJP01]

Now to work on the side air deflectors for the main chassis sidepods. Have to drill and place these very carefully for symmetrical appearance -

Drill and pin the side flares themselves with best accuracy possible to match the chassis drilled holes -

Pray for good luck and mercy from above while placing and checking pin alignment, fitment, and precision -

Apply the technique of thinning and rounding the edges of white metal to produce a better scale thinness appearance; Thank You 43rdMichael for the technique! -

Good symmetry - good results - will look even better and more even when bonded in place and filled -

I may decide to add more pins but that would be pressing my luck a bit to hope for perfect alignment across 3 or 4 mount points. I think that these pins in combination with good CA gel bonding and strengthening along the whole flare will be sufficiently strong. At least I hope it will!

Best -
AJ

[PJE]

Glad to see you back working on this one AJ.

Paul Erlendson

[Schumi]

Great to have you and the F2002 back again! It looks like she’s quite ready for a first layer of primer. Always a challenging moment because only then the rough arias are highlighted.
Good luck!