A couple of months ago there was discussion on this site about what the next group build might me. I suggested the Le Mans 24 hour sportscar race might be a suitable subject, and went ahead and bought this Fujimi kit. The group build didn't happen (not yet, anyway), so I put the kit aside for the time being. While pondering about how to tackle the painting of my Battle of France kit, I thought I may as well make start on the McLaren. It's basically a kerbside kit, and consists of sprues moulded in black, white and transparent plastic, along with rubber tyres, a decal sheet by Cartograph, and some optional etched detail parts. It all looked very nice except for some funny transations from the original Japanese text on the instructions. The box art

features a picture of the real thing racing at Le Mans.

Construction starts with the wheels, moulded in black, they need to be painted in a steel colour.

The build moves on to what might be called the chassis, with the suspension arms, brake assemblies, steering mechanism to be added. These are all moulded in a nice semi matt black polystyrene, and, as they will all but hidden when completed, I decided only to paint the seat and the top of the dashboard. Fujimi provide some etched harness buckles, but no belt material or instructions, so I made up the harness from Tamiya masking tape painted red, it's only a rough impression, but, again, won't really be seen on the finished model. The interior still needs some detail painting, and the roll cage has to be added.

At about this time Al Hoffman posted his model of the Brabham Alfa Romeo BT 46 F1 car (also, coincidentally, a Gordon Murray design). Al described his finished process in using the moulded colour of the bodywork (red in his case), applying the decals, and giving it a finished coat of Finish, and I thought I would employ a similar process. The livery of this car is white with blue markings.

The body, outer doors and rear aerofoil come moulded in white, so I decided to apply the decals and then spray it with gloss. Then I will add the other details, finish the interior, fit the glazing, and highlight various parts and try some panel lining. Here's the bodywork and aerofoil with the majority of the decals applied,but before any gloss has been applied. The door shells are temporarily held on with masking tape, and still have to have the strenghening bar removed. That's as far as I've got so far!

Thanks for looking.

Cool! I'm impressed with the finish given you applied the decals straight on to the plastic George. I was always told never rely on coloured plastic to use as a base colour, always, always apply paint! So much for that myth then...:)

Al, Fujimi seem to do an interesting collection of 1/24 European cars, both competition and road. I'm not sure about the availability, they seem to come and go a bit, and dealers here in China have a nasty habit of advertising things they don't actually have in stock! But, they do have some tempting models, including Ford GT40s, Porsche 917s, Ferrari 512S, and the later McLarens, as well as various F1 cars, all of which are tempting. They seem to be priced a little higher than the Tamiya 1/24 range, but, are probably a little more detailed, and usually include Cartograf decals plus some etched details. Hope this helps.

Thats impressive George ! Your racers are stunning builds, very tempting !