Toleman TG184 13

Close, really close...

Still have to paint the roll hoop, put the wheel center lock nut and put on the side vent mesh. But that's for tomorrow.

Toleman TG184 12

My tree of wheels, ready for a coat of paint.

Painted and with tires... Need to put the tire decals on...

Seat belts also installed.

In the final stretch now, probably can finish it sometime this week.

My Addiction: Lotus 97T and Ferrari 312T3

As if I don't have enough unbuilt kits, just added 2 more kits to my inventory. First one is Lotus 97T, the car that Senna had his first GP win. And the other one is Ferrari 312T3 Canadian GP, which legendary Canadian driver Gilles Villeneuve took first place the first time in his home GP.

I guess these will have to wait after I finish the Toleman TG184 and then the Williams FW07. That means sometime in 2012? 

Toleman TG184 11

Done putting decals on the body! Really glad that Tameo always supply 2 sets of decal.

After letting the decal to set overnight, sprayed the first layer of clear coat. Now the task is to watch the paint dry and then spray a couple more layers

Here's my high tech paint booth again.

Note to myself: do not touch until it is completely cured...

Toleman TG184 10

Making progress. Slowly. Very slowly.

Toleman TG184 9

Little by little...

It'll be a while before I can finish putting all the decals on.

Toleman TG184 8

In the middle of applying decals. Using decal softeners and waiting for decals to set is a good test of my patience. Sorry no picture yet. Will have another update probably over the weekend.

Update: ok, here's another work in progress picture

Toleman TG184 7

Rear suspension test fit before painting.

Painted and installed

Next Project Preview - 1980 Williams FW07B

Even though I am not even half way through my current project building the Tameo Toleman TG184, I've already planned out my next project. It's a 1980 Williams FW07B!

I was only planning to pick up 2 bottles of paint from the hobby store. But here's what I ended up with:

It's an old kit from SRC. I was checking out what Tameo kits the store has, but nothing really whet my appetite. I starting checking out other manufacturers and came across a bunch of SRC stuff. Among them, this Williams FW07 Alan Jones. And I know I have to get it.

FW07 was the first F1 car that got me interested in F1 racing. I was in second grade when FW07 in the hands of Alan Jones kept winning races and the championship. Back then, my dream was to buy a Tamiya FW07 RC car. I saved enough money to buy one, but my mom never allowed me to spend that kind of money on toys (to compensate, as an adult now I spent a lot of money on toys...)

For those not familiar with SRC, here is a Japanese guy's blog that I follow, he just finished a SRC made Lotus 78. Really impressive. Lotus on Alfa & Macchina

Toleman TG184 6

That's all I did today - rear suspension and 4 disc brakes.

Toleman TG184 5

Busy day at work, got back home a couple of minutes ago and found this in the mailbox!

Found on eBay a couple of weeks ago. Another 1/43 Toleman TG184 kit! This is from Meri. As you can see from how the box looks, this is a relatively old kit. All white metal parts, no photo-etched anything. This kit is the early version of TG184, and can be built into either Monaco GP version of Detroit GP. However, It did not supply a set of rain tire, so Monaco GP version will not look right without the correct tire. May be I should start looking to steal rain tires from other kits.

Here I have the 2 bodies side by side. The one on the left is my work in progress Tameo one. The one on the right is the Meri one. First impression is that the Meri kit's molded white metal body seems very clean, that will save me a lot of time prepping it.

Ok, back to the Tameo one. Put a couple of pieces on the engine. The instruction called for painting the exhaust pipe polished steel. But instead of painting, I just polished the white metal piece. Also, opened up the tip of the exhaust with a 0.5mm drill. Picture shows the test fit. Can't put the rear suspension, drive shaft and the rest of the pieces on yet. Still waiting for the drill bit from McMaster-Carr. UPS probably had delivered it, but probably stuck in the mailroom. Really looking forward to the weekend when I can make more progress.

Toleman TG184 4

Another slow day. Sanded the primer on the body and the rear wing. 2 coats of gloss white. Here you can see my high tech spray booth. My new Iwata airbrush is amazing. The double action gravity feed is way easier to use than my old single action bottom feed one.

Found display case and detail up 1/43 seat belt on eBay. I guess I will wait for the belts to come and use those instead of the photo-etched metal belts that came with the kit.

Toleman TG184 3

Not much progress today. I was too lazy and hand painted the bottom and the front suspension. But they looked terrible. So I stripped all of them and repainted them using the new Iwata airbrush. It's gravity feed and double action. It's so easy to use, should have bought one years ago.

Toleman TG184 2

Went to Boston for the weekend, so there was not much progress to report. Primer on the body is now fully dried. Rear wing assembly put together. Glued the vent pieces on the side pod. Here's what it looks like in another trial fit.

Next on the list:

• Put together the disc brakes
• Engine and rear suspension assembly
• Spray a coat of gloss white on body and rear wing
• Decal
• Clear coat on body and wing

Toleman TG184 1

I got a bit crazy buying 1/43 scale model car kits a couple of years ago. I successfully put a Ferrari F399 together, but then the second one, a McLaren MP4/2, was a failure. As a result, all the kits got shelved.

Thanks to the Senna movie, my interest in building 1/43 F1 cars got re-ignited again. So, I dug up that box of Tameo kits from mom's garage and have it shipped back to Chicago. I also found a hobby store in the Chicago area where the owner also loves building 1/43 cars and he knows a lot of tricks on the subject.

My first trial is a 1984 Toleman TG184 Portugal GP, the last car that Senna raced for Toleman before moving to Lotus. This is a Tameo kit, TMK 229

Here I'll document my progress.

First, I got the white metal body cleaned up, holes drilled and front suspension pieces bent. Now, it is time for a trial fit.

With the front wing end plates, and the mirrors attached, a first coat of white primer is sprayed on.