McLaren MP4/6
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2022 Model Build #3 - 1/20 McLaren MP4/6
I've always wanted to build a late 80s or early 90s McLaren, so when I found this Fujimi kit, I jumped at it. The kit is Fujimi GP-25/092133.
The kit started off well, but as the pieces came together near the end, the fit issues started to become worse and worse. By the time I finished it, I just wanted it done and lost the motivation to try and make it better. I had planned to try out custom seat belts and things like that, but decided not to spend the time in the end. The kit sits high at the front due to the suspension. The base and body required significant clamping to get them to stick together. There's some residuce from the glue that's spoiled the finish a bit. Equally, the transfers on the wheels didn't go so well. I don't think I'd used that type before, so I learnt a bit and will hopefully do better next time.
I ended up repainting it several times as initially I had primed it grey. This meant getting the white took way too many coats. So after getting some white primer I had to start again. Then I realised I'd done the rear fin red over grey which made it look different from the body, so I had to redo that too. Definitely an exercise in patience!
The decals were really nice. I used Microscale Micro Set and Micro Sol. I'm really happy with the result as there's no silvering. The kit came with masks for the body which I used to create my own. Unfortunately I had bleed through under the tape which, even after correcting, still persisted. I tried a new technique with masking then respraying the base colour (white) before the red which definitely helped, but unfortunately the tape had lifted slightly in some areas. The finish on the body is probably the best I've achieved. I used 4 coats of Alclad Aqua Clear, followed by sanding and polishing to get it shiny. Again, it could be better, but I'm pretty happy with how it went, and it's easily the shiniest finish I've achieved from using acrylics to date.
The kit and decals depict Senna's car from the 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix. All up it was on the bench for 3 months, but I had a decent break from it near the end.
The lessons:
- Respraying the base coat after masking really does help with paint bleeding under the tape.
- To get a decent gloss finish, more than one coat of gloss is required
- Priming white is required when the final finish is a light colour
The firsts:
- None really
The good:
- The finish on the body
The bad:
- The final fit