Tamiya 1/20 Renault RE 30B Turbo – Alain Prost
See all my models at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/98961263@N00/albums/72157603606379755
Photograpy: Nikon D300; Focus Stacking using Helicon Focus; Editing using LightRoom
Paint: Tamia TS-16 yellow (decanted); Tamiya LP-2 pure white
Aftermarket: Icon Resin rain tires; Tamiya seatbelts
Decals: Studio 27
The Renault RE30B competed in the 1982 F1 Championship with drivers Alain Prost and Rene Arnoux winning two races each with the season highlight being the French Grand prix where the pair finished 1-2. However, combined, the Renault squad suffered 17 retirements in 16 races. The RE30B was a strong qualifier though with 10 poles. They say it's better to have a fast car that is unreliable than a slow reliable car and that may have been true even for Renault in 1982 since unreliability was a common problem for most teams and Renault managed to finish 3rd in the Constructors' Championship.
The RE30B generated 560 hp through its 1.492 cc V6 turbo. Engines have come a long way since the first turbo V6 era, with current F1 cars putting out closer to 1000 hp. Granted, they get about 160hp from their electric motors but they are still among the most efficient ICEs in existance. But I digress. Here's a brief overview to the car: 1982-renault-re30b-formula-one
The kit is typical Tamia 1980s quality. Nicely moulded with lots of internal detail. Unfortunately, in order to assemble the external body parts, I had to remove some of this detail since it simply did not fit. This is a common problem with F1 models so I tend to build them up and leave off the engine covers to take pictures of the engine detail - then I add the final body parts and seal up the model. This wasn't possible in this case because of the complex nature of the body parts - I didn't want to risk not having all the parts fit together in the end so I sealed it up at the outset and sacrificed the internal detail. But trust me, it looked great.
Comments welcome,
Richard
Good job, as usual, Richard, presumably this is the original Tamiya release, I see that they’ve re-released their 1/12 kit. I remember the dual between Rene Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve in his Ferrari, was it the French Grand Prix?
The big-scale kit is actually RE20, the one in which Rene banged wheels with Gilles (in his 312 T4). And yes, that is the 1979 French Grand Prix at Dijon...I still remember the commentary by the late greats James Hunt and Murray Walker!
Great result, Richard @rbungay
Absolutely brilliant, Richard! I remember being a student back then, watching the F1 championships. The "yellow" Renaults were striking!
Very nice job. I did a couple of the Tamiya F1 models back in the day and really enjoyed them. I keep telling myself I'm going to do another one.
Great job, Richard!
Nicely done Richard, the rain tyres give it a different look.