Benetton Ford B190B (Group Build 2008) - update 2008-07-27

[DerXL]

Hi everybody.

As the first finished model has already appeared in the completed builds section, I thought it about time to get started on my contribution for this GB.

The kit I chose is the 1/24 scale Haségawa Benetton Ford B190B, as driven by Nelson Piquet in the first two GP's of the 1991 season.

First a picture of the box and a picture of the real deal, to see where this build should be going...
The box:

The real deal:


As I've only built Tamiya F1 kits before, I was quite curious about the quality of this kit, compared to Tamiya.
I have to say that I was as much disappointed as I was pleased with the quality.
Some parts are really great, like the valve covers. They have lots of detail and I'm sure they will look great, once finished.

The engine cowling too is very nice, with some slight ridges along the surface, to indicate where the borders of the different colours are. A nice touch which should make masking a lot easier.

Sadly, for all the great parts in this kit, there are also bad ones.
The wing elements for instance, all have ejector pin marks on the upper surfaces. Almost all radiators have very shallow detail and ejector pin marks on the visible surfaces.
But the worst parts must be the front brake ducts. They have huge sink marks on them.

Nothing that can't be fixed, but it's a shame nonetheless. And a company like Tamiya shows that it isn't necessary to have these kind of (minor) flaws...

I started this build only recently, so there's not that much that can be said about the build itself. I'm just busy cleaning parts.
But to show something, I included a picture of several parts I already assembled.

Sadly, Haségawa decided to split these parts lengthwise. In my eyes a bit of a shame, because that gives me more work in trying to remove the join-lines...
But hey, that's just an extra challenge, right ?

More info in the next update (and I have to forewarn everybody that I'm a slow builder, so it may take some time...)

If you would like to read and see more about this build you can visit my homepage (www.axelv.com).

Regards,
Axel.

[Shunter]

I liked this eries of cars that Hasegawa did, i have this one and had a look and my brake ducts were OK. Good luck and will enjoy your progress.

[CaptainMark]

Cool, keep us posted!

[DerXL]

Hmm. My build is apparently not the only one that is a bit slow going.
But I guess that is just the calm before the storm. The current F1 season is only just past the halfway point, so a lot can still happen. I hope.

I see that it is almost 3 months ago since I started this thread, so it's about time I continued with my build report.
Here goes:
After so much time, there is still not a single part of this kit that has been painted.
First job has been to eliminate the hardly visible mould lines and deepen the panel lines (orange arrows in image below).
Apart from that, I also had to remove the incredible convenient borders that were on the monocoque to mark the borders of the different colors. Sadly those borders only apply for the 1990 livery of the car, so could not be used for this version.
Removing those lines wasn't much work, but it had to been done nonetheless.

However most of the work has gone into filling all the sink marks on the various parts. The parts shown below are only a selection...


Apart from all the filling and sanding I also managed to do some fun work (well, at least that's how I see it).
As this kit is from Hasegawa, the colours indicated in the instructions are from Hasegawa too. But as they're not very easy to come by in the Netherlands, I decided to use colours that are freely available to me.
The green and yellow colour were easy to come by (green from the B188 from Tamiya and Camel yellow in the spraycan, also from Tamiya).
The blue was a bit more difficult. In the various colour charts I've found on the internet, I couldn't find an alternative for the Hasegawa colour indicated. So I started mixing some colours myself.
With the help of some reference pictures I've decided that the blue should be ultramarine blue (36151) from the Revell Aqua Color series.


A potential problem
While testfitting the various parts I encountered a potential problem.
The fitment of the rear bodywork is not perfect as can be seen in the pictures below. The walls of the rear bodywork face slightly inward so there is a small gap between the front and rear part of the bodywork (see arrows).



In my eyes there are several solutions to the problem. I can glue the rear bodywork to the undertray (which Reno did with his B190). This would probably give the best fitment, but than the engine can not be seen anymore, which would be a bit of a shame as it will be quite nice looking (I suspect).
Another solution is bending the vertical walls a bit to the outside while applying heat (like from a hairdryer). I have used this technique a few times with success. But not on a symmetrical object, so getting everything looking right might be a bit of a challenge.
The most likely solution I will try (first) is glueing small strips of sheet styrene to the front bodywork (the inside of the sidepods, indicated in the picture below) which will function as a sort of guide for the rear bodywork. Because I do like the idea of being able to remove the bodywork to show the engine.

For some reason Hasegawa has provided some holes in the undertray where nothing is mounted (picture below). Which is rather odd. I first thought that mounting pins from the rear bodywork should fit in those holes, but the rear bodywork doesn't have any mounting pins... It might be an option to make some pins of my own, to get the rear bodywork to fit to the undertray.

If the first idea doesn't work, I will try adding mounting pins instead.

And here's where you, readers, come into play. If you have a suggestion or a remark concerning the fitment of the rear bodywork (or a remark about my report in general), I'd love to hear it.