Formula one

Detailing the Tamiya McLaren MP 4/6

1/12 scale

  by Mario Covalski © 2008

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When I built my first Tamiya's McLaren MP4/6 in 1992, I thought it was the most advanced kit of its time, with an amazing level of details which I could barely follow, and very complex in its building process. Today, after not many years, we have a great realm of information on this car through a lot of pictures, and the Internet. 

All this pictures shows us that the kit is very well engineered and it has a high quality; but, if you are looking for realism, then there are some missing details, which are very noticeable in the pictures.
 

 

Another point is the great amount of super detailing parts (both PE and resin) available for this car. In this article we will deal with all the extra details that I've added to my model, and the colors I've used to paint it. I'm not going to extent myself in the construction details, because these are well known to most of us.

 


Choosing super detailing parts

There is a kit for this model with lots of super detailing parts, made in aluminum, bronze, laser cut metal parts, and PE. I must admit that I was tempted to buy one of those kits, but I didn't do it finally because of its cost (which is high), and the fact that I prefer to work with plastic, and other better known materials.

I wanted to concentrate my efforts in the electrical system, painting, and other minor details, I didn't want to simply change plastic pieces for metal ones. But this super detailing kit is a good option that you should keep in mind.
The frame and other mechanical components pose some problems when you paint them in different shades of black, which represents different materials and paints, but always around the same material, plastic.


The parts that I've chosen, finally, are:

Braided wire (0,9mm (3/64") and 1,5mm (1/16").
The old (but always excellent) Modeler's hose end set.
Some copper nails (the ones used for wooden ships).
1mm (3/64") plastic sheet.
0,1mm (.010) brass sheet.
0,8mm (1/32") electric wire in different color.
0,45mm (1/64") telephone wires in different colors.
0,5mm (1/64") brass wire.
Electric connectors kit.
Carbon fiber and Kevlar decals.
Marlboro logos decal set. 


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Includes more than 106 pics, here we show only the text pages.

 

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Incluye más de 106 imágenes, aquí solo mostramos las paginas de texto.

 

 

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