Remember the 20 ‘lost’ models mentioned a few months back? (see HERE for the backstory and photos)
Well, here they are again, but this time ‘nude’, with bodywork removed.
All are from Tamiya’s 1:20 scale Grand Prix series kit range. They were built between about 1984 and 1997 and then lived in an almost dust-proof display cabinet out of direct sunlight.
On the outside, some have aged well, others not. I didn’t know what to expect underneath the engine covers – none of the bodywork panels had been removed in over 20 years, and a couple had become a little stuck.
It would be great to build some of these kits again, just to do a more professional job.
I’ve built plenty more kits beyond these first 20 – look through the Build Diaries for those.
The kits below were all built pretty much straight from the box, and most do not represent the quality of work I can now turn out. They do illustrate, however, how modelling skills take time to develop – in this case, a long time!
So, in model number order, some F1 racers from the 1970s (there will be further posts for the models of the 80s and 90s)…
Tamiya 20001 – 1976 Tyrrell P34 (built as Jody Scheckter #3 version). I can’t recall where the blue paint came from, but reckon it’s a pretty good match to the real thing. The blue was airbrushed with my little hobby Badger I had at the time. Everything else is by brush. The white decals have yellowed and the front tyres have dehydrated, shrunk and split.Tamiya 20004 – 1977 Lotus 78 (built as Mario Andretti #5). As per the Tyrrell above, but with gloss black paint. The decals are printed yellow (not gold as they should be) and on the black body they give off a strange greenish look.Tamiya 20010 – 1978 Ferrari 312 T3 (built as Gilles Villeneuve #12). The red body colour is Tamiya TS rattle can wheres the chassis is Tamiya flat aluminium applied by brush. The white decals were very translucent to begin with and with the yellowing over time are very poor quality now. I’m not a big fan of driver figures, but decided to put Gilles in this one.Tamiya 20012 – 1979 Ligier JS11 (built as Jacques Laffite #26). This was actually the second 1:20 Tamiya kit I ever assembled, however it was initially built without blue paint and just used the kit’s moulded blue plastic for the body colour. Decals were applied straight to that. Several years later, having built a few more models, I pulled much of this one apart, masked and sprayed the blue (which, incidentally, is not the correct shade), touched up the rest of the model wherever a brush could reach and re-did the decals (amazingly fortunate, there were originally 2 sets in this kit – lucky, huh?). I added my own seat belts, made from masking tape.Tamiya 20014 – 1979 Williams FW07 (built as Alan Jones #27). This is the second FW07 I’ve built. The first one was my introduction to the 1:20 Grand Prix series and was simply glued together with virtually no paint (and what paint was used was water-based poster paint!) and I screwed up several of the decals. I’m pretty sure I still have that mess packed away somewhere. It was junk, so having completed a few more builds, I purchased another FW07 and did this. Paint was TS from the can for both the bodywork and the monocoque. Unfortunately, the clear carrier film on the decals has badly discoloured, otherwise this model would still be quite presentable. Again, I added seat belts made with masking tape that had been painted flat blue.
Coming soon, the next installment: F1s of the 1980s…
