Hi, has anyone built the Tamiya McLaren MP4/13 kit in 1/20 scale? I normally build military kits but being that this was a gift and I had reached a point of burnout on military stuff, I decided to build this. I need some reference info.
Can you guys help?
I haven’t built that particular kit, but if it’s anything like the other Tamiya 1/20 F1 kits, it’ll be a great build. Everything you need to build an accurate model of an MP4-13 is in the box. If you really feel like it, you could add some wiring and carbon fibre decals. But, it would look great without them. For reference, have a look at this site, there’s plenty of good photos there:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eric.evain/mp413.htm
Good luck with your build.
Daniel, I have tried that web site but many of the photos are unaccessable. Are there any other reference sites I can look at? Does anyone one here have any magazine articles on building this kit?
Yeah, built a test version and a “normal” one. One (test) got trashed in a recent move and the other was given away to a friends’ boy. Anyways, will start on the “japan version” shortly. (Meaning maybe sometime this year…)
Don’t have much online refs for you. What you might want todo is to try and get a back-order copy of the manufacturers own modeling magazine (hopefully I won’t get shot for that) issue 76. It is done in there.
The biggest tip I can give you (came from that article) is to first glue up the cockpit, then open up the underneath. Otherwise you’ll have to paint having masked off the seat and steering wheel or paint beforehand and be better at glueing than most mortals as not to get a ridge down the middle of the nose… (rather a nasty place)
Apart from that, follow the instructions and you’ll get a great model. The paintscheme is very much easier than it seems - easy to mask, I think there’s even very light guidance lines.
Hope you enjoy it! If you have questions, just ask! We’ll help where we can.