Tamiya 1/24 Mazda 787B Le Mans winner

Hi All,

I had a crisis of motivation yesterday, so cleared the bench and picked up a kit I've had for a while - Tamiya's 1/24 Mazda 787B. This is my favourite racing car, driven to victory by my favourite driver (Johnnie Herbert) at my favourite race. In 2011 I saw Johnnie's demo run at Le Mans, and the car very much lived up to the legend. I've built this kit before, back in 1994 in the tiny kitchen of a tiny bedsit in Putney. All that survives is the windscreen wiper. I wanted to build another but it has long been out of production with these decals and eBay prices were ridiculous. I found this second hand for £16 (!) at a show in Stoke about 5 years ago. I remember physically shaking when I found it was an unstarted and complete kit. (It's soon to be reissued, but it won't be sixteen quid!) 

This is one of the reasons the car is so loved. (Le Mans legend has it that at night the car could be heard for the entire lap from the campsites!)

https://youtu.be/9jAngoCbOMg



So here we go. The classic box art. I cut this from the lid back in the 90s and it was always on my various bedroom walls of the time. (Students move a lot!)



I've got Hobby Design's comprehensive PE sheet to add. 

 



And here's all that survives of my previous build. God knows why it's still in my toolbox!





I don't like the look of the decals, being very thick and shiny. I remember really struggling to get them to lay down last time so I'll be getting replacements, and painting the green areas.





I'm looking at the feasibility of opening a door too, if I can detail the cockpit sufficiently. 

More soon, and thanks for looking in,
Gareth

Wow. Can't wait to see you do a car in your level of detail. I like that one too, nice piece of history to it.

Here's some of the PE. Some parts are very fine, and I've managed to mar one piece being ham fisted. 









The rear wing support is replaced with PE parts, some of which are aligned with tiny 'bolts'. There's dozens of these to place. I REALLY hope there are some spares. 





Cheers,

Gareth

I saw the reissue coming up on this. Having some urges to build it, and had wondered at the feasibility of opening a door and maybe the front cowl.

I'll enjoy watching your build, as I still sit on the fence on whether or not to build another model kit.

Those little tiny bolts are giving me the heeby-geebies just looking at them.

You and me both. I've lost count of how many I've lost, and getting them to stay in without a mess of glue is an absolute joy....

Building the Tamiya 10th scale cars was bad enough, with my eyesight now I would have no hope in doing those 1:24.

I did love making the 1:10 RC cars from Tamiya and had great fun racing them and then building their Wild Willy was fun and doing stunts with it Ah great little beast that it was.

Cheers everyone. I've had a good day in the shed today.

I've started the wheels. The first task is to remove the moulding seam down round the centre of the tyre. I fit them to the wheel and spin in the Dremel and use a sanding stick to sand it back. This also gives a nice scuffed surface, as if they've been driven on. You can also get a nice finish with a quick wipe over with a little turpentine. 





The windscreen wiper is complete. I'm sure it's not put together as the manufacturer intended but I couldn't make head nor tail of the instructions. I should have copied the layout of the kit part but it never occurred to me. Still, I can't imagine anyone is going to tell the difference.





More soon,

Gareth

Good show there goon..I don't have the skills to do what you guys do,,but love following what folks like you and Ajay are doing and of course I'm amazed at Darts work..

A load of goodies arrived last week. I bought the Hiroboy paint se, Studio 27 carbon decals and a reference book.



There are 40 pages of detail like this. The only thing it doesn't cover is the inside of the door, which I could do with if I'm to open it.




The studio 27 decals are superb, but getting all 66 in place will take some time! (I've used these on a 1/12 Moto GP so I'm very confident of the quality. It's not a doddle to do, but it's hard to see how it could be made any easier. They react superbly well to MicroScale decal solutions, and are robust enough to slide around to get the right position.)




And some of the actual model. The rear wing with new end plates and Gurney strip.



Thanks for looking in,
Gareth

Nice project. Cars scare me because the paintjob has too be so #%&*$# slick! Re instructions, i've found a ton of things on my Warspite build where i have had to look at other builds owing to wonky instruction angles and parts that are in the finished picture but nowhere else.

Gurney strip, as in Dan Gurney?

^Jep, he invented them.

Yes, Gurney invented the flap / strip.

The seat is done. The shape is accurate but the surface texture is poor. I painted it with Tamiya white bottle cement, which does not evaporate as quickly as other thin glues. I then dunked it is baking soda, working on small areas at a time. Once set I sprayed a few coats of Tamiya NATO Black, before dunking in Klear to make it withstand handling. Studio 27 provide carbon decals for the seat back, and the Hobby Design set has PE parts for the belts. There's also a sheet of sticky backed fabric textured material to make the belts. I'm pretty sure these aren't set up exactly as the original, but the diagrams in the PE set are unclear, and I couldn't find conclusive photos. I'm sure it will look suitable complex one in place. (There was a point in making these that I almost gave up model making on a permanent basis. Absolutely infuriating!)







Thanks for looking in again,
Gareth.

Knowing you that Seat is prolly less than an inch and it looks as real as the full size thing...

The seat is around 1.5" / 38mm tall.

The cockpit is finished, with a placards and such from the spares box to make it look 'busy', and scratch built fire extinguisher and lead wire radio button flex. Pleased with that.









I'm still undecided about opening the door, as it exposes bits of the kit that aren't supposed to be seen. I think I might have a couple of strong beers this afternoon and cut it out anyway, and then think about fixing the 'mess'!

I've had a long break from this to attend my 11th Le Mans race, and solo this year for the first time, but here's a small update.

In the end beer won over caution, and I chopped the door out. I think making the hinges work is too difficult so it will be fixed open.



I've also had a test of the photo etch mask for the Dunlop logo on the tyres on the inside of one of the front wheels. I've seen real tyres with the logo obviously applied by spray can and mask, so this works for me.



More soon,
Gareth

A picture of the completed wheels from last week before we went on 'holiday'. (Sarah and I are now Competent Crew (Sail) rated by the RYA. From never having set foot on a yacht to certified crew in 5 days!) I'm really pleased with the Dunlop logos, a really nice effect from the mask, way better than the supplied decals.



I've had a delivery of tubing and braided lines from Hiroboy today so might go a bit quiet while I work out what to do with them.

That's just crazy good!

I've got the metal replacement wing mounts in place, and some new lights from Gemini car models in Italy.





Over the weekend I started wiring the engine, and on the first try at heating the shrink tube I got distracted and melted the plate that all the connectors mount to - a careless error! I tried straightening it with hot water but it was too far gone.





Nothing for it but to make a new one, which was simple enough. I cut a piece of plastic card, and took off the original connectors, which luckily were undamaged. It also gave me the kick I needed to redo the pulleys on the top, which are just blobs on the original. I used my Silhouette plotter to cut the parts.





This is now mounted in place, and most of the ignition wiring done, but, inevitably ran out of shrink tubing with only one to make. There's more on the way, so I'll post a pic when it's complete.



Cheers,

Gareth

Nice going!

The 787B has to be one of the most remarkable endurance racers of all time. It SCREAMS at high revs like no other car!

Looking good, nothing like some errors to make modelling more interesting. The tyres look legit.

Very true. I saw it demonstrated at Le Mans in 2011, and although Herbert gave it the beans it can't have been flat out, but still sounded like nothing else that weekend. We were sitting at the Ford Chicane and you could hear it downshifting to enter Porsche Curves even from there! Through Ford Chicane it was an absolute barrage of noise before disappearing up to Dunlop, where it only went out of earshot as it went down the other side of the hill.


Some shots of where this build is up to. I've wired the ignition. The leads are a bit overscale, but I couldn't find any finer shrink tube. They are easy enough to make and you can even manipulate the shape by stretching whilst still pliable. A couple of drill bits will make some shrouds for the plug ends too.



The engine with the replacement parts and added extras. The gearbox oil cooler is just dry fitted at the moment, while I try and work out where the hose on each side runs too.

















The exhaust only had a very shallow 'blind' hole so the end was cut off and fitted with some plastic the wall thinned to be better in scale.





The rear uprights and brake cooling intakes, with the brake discs in place.





The cockpit and engine bay bulkhead in place. Only dry fitted for now as my replacement parts on the engine are making it a very tight fit. A few tweaks to the locating holes and it should drop in to place. There's half dozen hoses to be added to these parts. (Particularly like the minute PE addon for the cap on the header tank. 



I can't go much further with the internals for the moment as the side pods have to be fitted before the cockpit, and they'll need fully painting before that, perhaps even decalling.


Thanks for looking in again,

Gareth

I've finished the rear suspension modifications. Here's the original part, with a replacement spring and new shock absorber shown too.




This is how it will all fit together. The 'doughnut' is a bump stop rubber, ready to be painted red.




Here's all the parts in an 'exploded' view before painting.




And now all in place and painted. I can see a few touch ups are needed now it's blown up to the size of my monitor! (Yes, the right one could be a touch longer, but it's hard to spot on the model.)




Thanks for looking in again,
Gareth

That. Is. Insane.

I've done a bit on the wing. Looking closely at my references I can see that there are exposed metallic areas around the fasteners of the end plates. I'm nut sure what the plates are made, but i'm assuming they are strengthening bushes in some kind of composite / plastic.

First off I made round masks just bigger than the fastener heads with a micro punch and die set. Each one was placed and the remainder of the plate masked off.




Before being sprayed with Alclad Steel. unmasked, they look like this.




I've painted the Gurney flap, picked out the fastener heads, and added the decals. I did three light coats of clear gloss before the decals, buffing each one with car paintwork scratch remover. It will need another to seal the decal in and even out the finish. Here's the wing dry fitted to the support.




More soon!

Man that is some detailing there Goon, looking forward to seeing the rest of the build.

You all make me feel like a baboon. The best I’ve ever done is about 1/10 as good as you fellows are regularly turning out.

That's just crazy attention to detail.

Shes gonna be suberb when she leaves the shop Goon, that wing and support is slick.

I've got a lot of the hoses fitted. Even with the excellent detail shots in my reference book it's hard to see both ends at times. Where I'm not certain I've just tucked them under the engine. Luckily it's herd to spot.





I bought some really cool white metal simulated braided radiator hoses. I painted them with Tamiya Smoke and flat coated. 





Very effective in place.




More soon,

Gareth

The PE parts I have make a big difference to the louvres over the front wheels. First the existing plastic has to be cut out.




Then the PE frame has to be shaped so that it conforms to the curve of the body work. This means it will sit down nicely and not need any (or as much) filling.




There are seven louvres to fit. They look easy, but it's been a really 'fun' hour to get them in place!




I need to get everything I can done on the body work before I fit these, as I can be clumsy at time and one slip wil destroy them.

Off to get on with the second one, and the interior of the doors next.

Cheers,
Gareth

Those louvres are small kits in themselves!

Yeah, they were great fun, but such an improvement over the kit mouldings.

Here's some pictures of them being fitted and finished.

I've gone ahead and fitted the louvres as the orange paint depends on lots and lots of coats to cover the white primer. It's very difficult to touch up, with a bristle or airbrush, so the had to go in before the first coats of paint. I used a method I've used to make other PE parts almost self adhesive. This is double sided tape, which I cut out in the hole the PE parts fit in, leaving a strip around the four sides. This means you can twaek the positioning a little, as the tape is a little stratchy. Once it's in place I trimmed around the outside with a brand new scalpel and cleared the excess away. It didn't quite stick in all places due to the PE not exactly maching the contours, but I ran some Roket Hot super glue under and held it down until fixed. 





I forgot to take any pics of the rest of the process, but this is how they look under the first coats of paint and and Zero Paints Clear Coat (fantastic stuff, if a little 'hot'!) 





You can get a really good shine wiith the lacquer. This is the finished engine cover outside in the sun to try and capture the shine. There's three coats of lacquer, each one cut back with Turtle Wax scratch remover before the next was applied. Then it was polished with a resin 'wax' I use on my real car. There's replacement Gurney flap in the rear too.




I've also got the decal made for the inside of the open door. I've made this on a plotter cutter, cutting self adhesive vinyl to test and tweak the drawing, before the actual decal itself. It fits perfectly on the inside of the window. The carbon pattern isn't quite right so I might make the decal again in another pattern.





Thanks for looking in again, more soon I hope!

I only just noticed little Johnny Herbets name on the car Interesting approach on the pe goon, why not just ca it or do you find this gives you a bit more workable time to tweak if needed?

To be frank I was very worried about making a mess of them. If it went wrong the model is either scrap or very much more expensive because of having to buy the PE again. Using this method to attach them meant it was easily reversible. A little turps will soften the tape adhesive. As it was I had to get some CA in there anyway, but I knew they were in the proper place by then. (My epxerience of CA and critical details is that is sticks when you don't want it to, and doesn't when you do!)

Johnny is my favourite driver. Very talented and a properly nice bloke.

I was thinking the inside of the door was spot on, and then I read the comment.

I can't believe there could be an improvement to it, but you've done unbelievable work so far, so....

I was thinking that you need to make a little turntable to set the model on in the clear box for display, so one could rotate it and look at all the details.

Fantastic work Goon.

Nice idea Dart,.a very slow turning turn table.

Go to Hobby Lobby and get one of their wall clock motors and gear it with the second hand.

It's definitely going in a case as it's going to be a gift, and I like the idea of a turntable too.

Just a small update to show the little added details to the inside of the door. (This week has been one step forward and two back as I spent most of it rebuilding the rear suspension after effectively punching the model across the desk by accident (long story!)) Depsite my previous comment there IS a clear picture of the inside of the door in my book. It shows this webbing strap used for closing it from inside, and the mechansim for unlatching from inside. This is basically the handle froma farm yard water tap and some baling wire! All this amazing technology and such an agricultural solution to opening the door.)

Yep, that's crazy detail right there.

Oh, and a mirror for the floor of the display.

Technology cannot trump backyard solutions It's fun launching models across and off desks isn't it!

Ajay - On another thread someone said "If it's light and it works..."

This thread has been slightly neglected, but I've been away celebrating my 50th birthday for a week. (!)

Here's where we're at, with some quick phone pictures. It's mostly decalling from here on in, with just the gloss finish to achive.







There's a deadline for this one, so forgive me if I go straight back to it!

Gareth

In the body shop now, trying to get a nice finish.

Adding the final details now, including the tips to one of the antennae.



And the last hot from the WIP bit. It's nice that the first bit I completed is the last part to be placed. The model is finished and ready to be mounted in it's box.
i've done four solid days in the shed to get this finished by Saturday! (I'm not complaining, I've loved every minute )



I'll post some completion shots later.

Thanks for following along again,
Gareth

Here's the finished model. There are a couple of problem with it that mar the finish slightly. (The headlight covers fogged under the clear, any amount of polishing wouldn't clear them, and the gloss isn't as good as I'd like up close.) I've touched in any areas of paint you can see are slightly chipped, and recentred the wheel disc on the left front.


































Next up. work starts on 'The Big One' (Model Factory Hiro 1/12 Full detail Kit)

Cheers,
Gareth

As usual, fantastic amount of detail. The headlights - I guess that's how they look after 24 hours

Superb Gareth.

Really nice bit of kit Goonsta, talk about decal hell! I like the headlight covers as well, adds to the model being a bit foggy like that instead of crystal clear. The rims and wheel covers look legit too. Have you thought about whipping a quick road base for it or are you out of time?

Thanks everyone. I did think about weathering it as if it had just finished a race, but it was too risky to try something I've never done before. It's on a base now Ajay, I quickly did some grid markings on a piece of wet and dry. I'll add another pic in it's case before it gets wrapped.

Thanks again,
Gareth