Grastens Builds the Tamiya Ferrari 312T3 (47374) with speedy_w_beans

[speedy_w_beans 4277]

I'm glad it all arrived safely, and it's satisfying to see the parts installed on your model!

One thought I had while painting the wheels was to paint the tips of the axle stubs and the lock nuts flat black so they blend into the flat black of the wheel centers.  You can look at the reference photos of the real car to see what I mean.

This was a learning experience for me; I've taken some steps to improve the print quality for future wheels.  For starters I ordered a 0.2 mm nozzle to replace the 0.4 mm nozzle currently on my printer.  I might be able to reduce the layer height a little more, work some finer details into the design, and improve the inter-layer bonding by having more contact points between those layers.  It'll increase the print time, but it could be worth it for aesthetic parts like these.

I look forward to seeing the other details you're pursuing come to fruition.

[Kevin_Mc 411]

Very nice guys, lovely! The details are great and really improve the overall look. 

@Grastens thanks for sharing that photo of Villeneuve in the bodyless car, i’ve never seen anything like that before.

Looking forward to more updates  

[scollins 154]

Very cool collaboration!!!  Nice work fellas!! Speedy Gonzales to the rescue - what a nice gesture to share his efforts and time and support a fellow modeler like this!

[Grastens 2802]

On 1/19/2019 at 3:42 AM, scollins said:

Very cool collaboration!!!  Nice work fellas!! Speedy Gonzales to the rescue - what a nice gesture to share his efforts and time and support a fellow modeler like this!

Indeed, speedy_w_beans has restored my faith

On my end, I have finally procured the supplies needed to complete this model:

Nothing to see here, but within the boxes marked 'Ferrari 312T3,' we have all the paints required, both in cans and jars, as well as a mini pin vise drill set and another tube of Tamiya Modelling Putty. I have two cans of TS-8 Italian Red to avert my paint anxiety, i.e. allaying fears of inadequate coverage.

A can of TS-42 Light Gun Metal is apparent in the box marked 'Lancia Rally.' If I manage to get the engine detail on the rear of the chassis, this paint could see service as highlights for that part. A can of TS-17 Gloss Aluminum is also present for the interior works.

Hence, now all I need is weather! And while I wait for that weather, I wondered what a Ferrari 312T3 would look like in the tri-colour scheme I put on my Avante and Astute, and in Tamiya re-release decals:

It then became speculation about a backmarker F1 team that somehow got their hands on the previous year's 312T3s in time for the 1979 season. Given how the T3s were outdated even in 1978, a team using them could not possibly imagine good results for the following year! Ignoring how anybody could even get their hands on an ex-factory Ferrari F1 car in the first place...

It gets even better: surely a modified version could be more competitive?

Any team still using a 312T3 into 1980 would probably be winding it up by the end of the year, so there would be no 1981 edition. I imagine such a team would be able to score exactly zero points in their short two-year existence, but what a story!

In reality, I have heard of no privateer Ferrari since the Vandervell Thin Wall Special in the 1950s (aside from the NART entries in 1964), though this would be a fun project to embark upon later  The more-modified 312T3-80/F312-01 (assuming the team modifies the car sufficiently to rebrand it as their own!) would almost certainly be done in the ABS plastic shell, while the paint-only 312T3-79 could be in either ABS or polycarbonate.

All of this considered the longer wheelbase of the F104W over the F103RS, which inspired the idea of a prototype/non-factory Ferrari 312T3. I will be staying the course for this specific build thread, though!

 

[Grastens 2802]

After a long time, we return to the:

I had left this project on the shelf with the acquisition of my Bruiser – a build that demanded my attention. Ultimately, it was easier to complete chassis work, however much of it, as opposed to bodywork and scale detailing. That was one reason I had left the 312T3 alone.

The other reason was that I was still figuring out how to build not just a cockpit, but an alternative rear wing stay. The half-baked ideas on the latter centered around the unused wing mount in the kit that appeared in the original. From there, I had plans for the also-unused engine detail that bolts onto the rear chassis – the parts would be linked together using a spare F1 wing stay, resulting in a finished subassembly that pays homage to the original car.

I write “pay homage” because the actual wing stay link is a lattice of metal tubes, which I am not about to reproduce in 1:10 scale. It will be enough for me to have a system that works like the original, and hunting down the part from the first kit might cost more than the car itself!

The cockpit might be easier to figure out, especially since there does not appear to be much of it:

Note how exposed the driver is once the bodywork is off; there are no aluminum panels in sight. If going for a similar (and thus more scale) effect in this build, this detail will cut some work for me. It looks as though all I really need to build is a platform with part of a driver figure that will sit on top of the front half of the chassis. The lack of round corners for the monocoque should simplify the cockpit detail build, so all I need to figure out are dimensions.

This is complicated by the presence of the steering servo, which reduces space in the nose. F1 cars of this era sat the driver quite close to it, so as expected, full legs will not be possible. The Tamiya model above suggests that full legs are not required, either, since anything below the knees will be obscured by the steering wheel, gauges, and monocoque.

I was fortunate enough to accidentally wander upon a 1:12 F1 driver figure from a Big-Scale Series kit, and bought it up – this could simplify things in my search for a usable driver. After deeming the original 4 x 4 driver figure I had for the task unsuitable, I did acquire a Tamiya 1:12 Starting Rider kit, with the intention of altering it to fit the cockpit.

I plan to build the cockpit around the driver figure, meaning I will likely not start until it arrives and/or is remodelled. I could take measurements, however, and opted for the unsophisticated method of unscrewing the driver torso in the hard body and lowering it to see how far it could go before touching the chassis, as seen here:

In addition to the servo, I will need to consider the wires and the battery holder:

I envisioned having the driver figure with the chassis, and swapping car bodies around it – this would mean I only need to paint one helmet, and it makes sense to replace bodywork but not the driver – so I believe I will be mounting the cockpit to the battery holder. This way, battery changes are still simple, and I can have the driver and cockpit with the chassis. It will mean cutting out the driver section of the polycarbonate shell, though this should not be a problem.

If none of my earlier writing about the wing stay made sense, this picture could help:

Along with this picture of the Ferrari 312T3’s wing stay arrangement:

My pin vise drill set was of great utility today, even though the largest drill bit was still way too small to drill usable holes for screws. I widened the holes later with a larger drill bit, clamped in a pair of pliers. The black piece was a TRG F1 wing stay; I cut the mounting tabs/ears off both ends to create the link between the wing stay and the engine piece. Compared to the real thing, it is far from accurate, but at least in principle it works similarly – I could paint a lattice pattern on it, if it helped… There is room to mount a single red LED if I have the room/radio capacity to install a brake light.

Fixing the engine piece to the rear end of the F104W without drilling two holes through it entailed building up the rear wing link from behind the engine piece. I had plenty of styrene stock at my disposal to the task, so made relatively-quick work of that. After some iteration, my plan grew to involve two assemblies: a plate that bolts onto the rear gearbox of the chassis, with a perpendicular plate below it that can take two screws to attach the engine piece separately:

I had to build up the rear wing link in order to space the engine piece away from the rear chassis. This was necessary to clear the large spur gear, as well as ensure the link remained rigidly in place:

I am really good at prototyping, but my finishing skills leave quite a bit to be desired. Unfortunately, I tend to measure once and then cut!

The arrangement might make more sense from this angle:

The red markings were from another plan to remove the red-tipped exhaust outlets and either relocate or rebuild them to the circled locations. Nowhere in my research did I see the engine piece's exhaust configuration on the rear end of a 312T3. However, they will be difficult to remove without damaging the rest of the engine piece and the pipes, and I do not have the correct tubing to reproduce them. For now, they remain.

The original wing stay does not use the same system as the type that appears on the re-release. It uses two screws, too, but these are the 2 mm type, and they thread into a metal insert that is sandwiched between the two halves of the wing stay. Like the original rear wing link, this metal insert is incredibly elusive, and so I elected to continue using the modern 3 mm screw method. To compensate for this wing stay’s lack of corresponding holes, I cut a mounting plate out of styrene and glued it to the top:

The grey residue you might see on the top is chrome plating, from an earlier unsuccessful attempt to glue the plate to the wing stay. You can see why that did not work!

Again, everything might make more sense from here:

I assembled everything to confirm the concept; I will disassemble it before painting.

Happily, everything appears straight and sturdy! At present, I am waiting for all of it to cure.

[Grastens 2802]

While I was working on the rear wing stay and mulling over the cockpit, I decided it was time to cut the polycarbonate body. Coarse cuts were made with curved scissors, while fine cuts were scored and folded with a sharp X-Acto #11 blade. I appreciated my eyesight and relatively-good motor skills in the unpolished end result:

Sandpaper – not a Dremel – will be needed to smooth the rough edges and corners. There is excess material at the end of each sidepod, which will be removed before the car is completed. In the meantime, I am having a hard time dealing with the excess wheelbase of the F104W, and this is one way for me to cope!

I used a body reamer for the first time in my life, and already I can appreciate how much plastic it can remove in a short amount of time! Less appreciated was the difficulty in installing the shell onto the chassis, despite making holes in the locations marked on the body. I turned the front body mount hole into an oval, and from then on the shell settled onto the chassis.

Preparing the body had the added benefit of showing how much room I could expect to have for a cockpit, since the ABS and polystyrene bodies are similar:

I do not believe the hard body gives me this much room, since that one has the front windscreen separate from the body, unlike the polycarbonate piece. Nevertheless, this could be quite useful in planning and designing the cockpit.

Fortuitously, the mail arrived while I was working:

The 1:12 Starting Rider was here!

I have come to learn that figures in this scale tend to be hollow, with arms, legs, and torsos often in two or more pieces each. This will make carving and filling more difficult, though the Starting Rider does have some elements that can carry over to my intended purpose – I see little need to alter the legs themselves, for instance. The kit showed up as above, from the box.

Comparing the dimensions against the car, 1:12 does seem a bit diminutive, but the driver will fit comfortably. This might not be the case for the cockpit I am building; nonetheless, I will only need to reposition the figure instead of whittling it down, as I would have with a remodelled 4 x 4 driver figure.

(on another note, that 4 x 4 driver figure is almost certain to pilot my Bruiser)

I glued the legs into the position I thought would be used in the cockpit, and compared it to the car:

The legs will be cut off around the knees, but they look proportional to the driver torso and helmet sitting in the polycarbonate shell. If I can just figure out what I need to lop off the torso to get the correct driving posture in the car, I can assemble the figure and start building the cockpit around it. The arms will still need some adjusting before the figure can be used.

Curiously, the helmet that is supplied with the Starting Rider is quite a bit smaller than the one issued with the Ferrari 312T3, despite the driver bodies appearing similar in size.

I think I will wait for the 1:12 F1 driver to arrive, but if I start remodelling the Starting Rider, there might be no turning back… In the meantime, I guess I can enjoy my own “Clear Cowl” Ferrari 312T3!

There is a future project in there somewhere - probably with the F104W GP or a TRF special…

[Grastens 2802]

Everything eventually cured on the rear wing mounting components, so I gathered up everything I needed to assemble them. Replacing the 3 x 10 flat-head tapping screws on the wing were a pair of 3 x 6 mm flat-head machine screws, held to the rear wing stay by a pair of 3 mm nuts. There is no thread protruding from the nuts, but while vibration resistance is questionable, the look is undeniably cleaner. A pair of 3 x 10 mm machine screws and 3 mm washers were also sourced, to fasten the engine piece to the mounting plate I made for the rear chassis.

Once I am assembling everything after painting, a piece of double-sided tape will find its way in, for reinforcement. For now, I am only working with the hardware.

To my relief, everything went together on the first try:

The nylon locking nuts I used for the rear engine piece were a bit reluctant to thread; while flange nuts would not have fit, perhaps some conventional nuts with thread-lock would have been the better solution. At least the locking nuts allowed me to skip the hassle of finessing it in there!

The 3 x 10 mm machine screws and washers are in use here:

By themselves, they will not lock down the engine piece to the chassis, but with a square of double-sided tape on the other side, there will be no problems. That will wait until after paint.

The entire assembly made it onto the car without breakage, though I feel as if somehow the rear wing is mounted too low:

At least they will be ready for Monza!

There is no denying from me this car still has presence, even in its unfinished state:

I alluded to the “Clear-Cowl” version of Tamiya’s Ferrari 312T3 static model. The wiring on the 1:10 radio-controlled car does not lend itself that well to the concept, unfortunately:

That could change if I figure out a neater wiring solution, I guess!

Seeing as the top body clip position is used on the rear mounting posts, I slipped a black O-ring on each rear body post, to take up the slack and provide some (limited) vibration suppression:

I should not have been surprised that the rear wing would not look straight upon closer inspection, though there could be any number of things contributing to that illusion, such as the fact that I made the body post holes on the polycarbonate shell, or the way I tightened the differential…

In the meantime, I am happy that the rear wing appears level:

The stay is sturdy, too. A good hit will probably separate the many glued-together components, but I would expect damage anyway in a rear-end collision. If it remains as I built it under regular running, that will be more than my craftsmanship deserves!

The rear wing position compares favourably to a contemporarily-prepared 312T3:

However, the wing is always noticeably higher in period:

… Except at Monza!

I could justify the stock rear wing stay as a “high-downforce option,” while running with my custom rear wing stay for my typically flat-out bash sessions! At the end of the day, I built it to run, so I look forward to being able to do that and seeing how it fares in running conditions.

[ACCEL 2016]

This build is simply just Marvelous, i do not want to Hijack your thread but i have so many Indy/F1's 1/32 scale slots that would inspire to build one, someday.

you are a Busy Bee, i'm think'n you are Santa's helper? 

[speedy_w_beans 4277]

Grastens, do you need or want a different wing mount?  If you can draw up a sketch with some dimensions and hole locations, I might be able to model and print you something.  I even have some chrome foil that might match the wing.

[Grastens 2802]

On 2/21/2019 at 8:17 AM, ACCEL said:

This build is simply just Marvelous, i do not want to Hijack your thread but i have so many Indy/F1's 1/32 scale slots that would inspire to build one, someday.

you are a Busy Bee, i'm think'n you are Santa's helper? 

Thank you! I guess I do have my hands on a lot of toys - how else do you think he has it all ready by the end of the year?  I think the slot cars deserve a thread on their own, by the way, like the spectacular-looking Fat Fox build

But speaking of Santa Claus:

19 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

Grastens, do you need or want a different wing mount?  If you can draw up a sketch with some dimensions and hole locations, I might be able to model and print you something.  I even have some chrome foil that might match the wing.

Your generosity and ingenuity know no bounds! I will measure up the rear wing stay and have some dimensions/a design over this weekend.

Over the weekend - don't look now, but temperatures might climb to painting ones. That is a long-shot, but it does have me thinking about paint - the polycarbonate 312T3 body will require extensive masking. The manual recommends masking off for PS-1 White, PS-2 Red, and PS-5 Black - in that order - and then removing each mask to paint the colours in reverse, in addition to starting with the special PS-48 Semi-Gloss Silver Anodized Aluminum for the front wing.

The difference between that paint and PS-12 Silver is not immediately clear to me, but I elected to follow the manual in case there is an appreciable variation between the two.

Meanwhile, the ABS shell only requires masking for part of the rear bodywork that is not covered by a white decal, and advises starting the entire shell in TS-26 Pure White before masking off that section and painting the rest in TS-8 Italian Red. As it is more difficult to obtain a good surface finish on this in comparison to the polycarbonate shell, the latter is likely to be painted first. That, in turn, will wait until I can build a good cockpit for the chassis.

... I am not terribly confident about painting weather, then! Nonetheless, I am playing the painting steps over in my head so I can keep it straight!

[Grastens 2802]

More work on the:

On an unrelated note: the Tamiya Striker is often described as a Formula One-style off-road buggy. Surely, I cannot be the first one to consider bringing the Striker back to its F1 roots, and I might not be the last, and any attempt must be better than sticking the upper body onto a Tamiya F104W:

Yet here we are!

Seeing the upper body made me believe for a second that I could make up a lower body for the F104W, and thus have a monocoque chassis similar to the original! It is mostly flat surfaces, after all… However, not only is the aesthetic not quite what I would go for (I would consider a pre-Striker F1 car – I keep seeing an early 1970s racer, maybe even with an airbox, in the blue and turquoise stripes), but it would consume much of my styrene stock for a chassis that will likely be fragile.

However, the mood was set for something more important:

All the drawing and prototyping eventually had me making a real effort at designing a cockpit for the Ferrari 312T3. I know it can be done, and I see a way to try it, but can it work?

The prototyping was done with a scrap piece of corrugated cardboard I found on a shelf. The thickness is wrong, but it is easy to cut, and if cut properly, warps less than the thin, non-corrugated type. I used it so I could preserve my styrene stock for the actual assembly. I had the chassis and bodies set up while I made a draft:

The clear shell is proving indispensable for this project!

The drawing may be unclear in the photo, but the idea was to build up representations of the sides and front of the aluminum monocoque from a flat base plate. This plate would be mounted on the chassis, with the front of the monocoque being used as a means of compensating for the steering servo’s presence. Following my original idea of mounting the cockpit assembly to the battery holder, a slot would be cut in the middle to clear it, and a hole cut out in front for the servo, around which the front monocoque would be constructed.

I find this arrangement suitable, since it works around the steering servo and cuts off the driver figure’s legs at around the point where they would be obscured anyway. Again, the “Clear-Cowl” Ferrari 312T3 from Tamiya demonstrates this:

I was going to dig into my new styrene, but unearthed some old sheets. This was ideal, since none of my new stock was 1 mm thick; I only had 0.5 mm, 0.75 mm, and 1.5 mm, in addition to a 2-mm sheet. I ended up using 2-mm sheet for the base, and 1-mm sheet for every other panel.

The design of the base considered the servo and battery holder. Here, a test-fit verifies the concept:

The notch for the servo wire was added in an attempt to sort out the wire, which would otherwise be easily caught under the chassis plate. I am already looking for solutions for the rest of the cables.

I was going to make the most of this stock, and could do so once the base was finished – 1-mm sheet is much easier to cut:

After the base, I cut panels for the monocoque front and sides, as well as a rear panel. I am unsure if a seat will make its way in there, since the driver would be obscuring much of it once in the car. This picture shows the panels cut and laid out, with the front monocoque “assembled” with some tape:

If everything was measured competently, it could all go together! It is appearing that I did not need to wait for a proper driver figure in order to begin designing and building this assembly.

[Grastens 2802]

A reminder on the cockpit’s appearance, again with Tamiya’s 1:20 model:

… Did I get it?

I would like to think it looks a little like it is supposed to:

Next time, I could widen the base out to the sidepods on the shell, but the width I settled on (60 mm) still allows the ESC, motor, and battery cables some room to stretch. This is important for the F104W and its rotating electronics trays; the F103 may have less of an issue with this.

In any case, coverage to the edges of the cockpit fairing looks better than if I had elected to build just the cockpit, without extensions to the width (46 mm). On the actual 312T3, any gaps would be exposing the ductwork in the sidepods.

Once everything was built up, it became clear how much space I needed to leave under the cockpit. To keep it level and with space for cables to run underneath it, I needed a 3 mm gap between the base plate and the upper chassis deck. As the battery holder takes up 2 mm on the front, I added 1-mm styrene to the front, and 3 mm of sheet to the back:

And while I did not even attempt to alter the one 1:12 figure I have, I still posed it in the new cockpit:

… Well, I tried!

1:12 might be small, but the 4 x 4 driver is too large. Since much of any driver figure would be hacked away to fit into this cockpit, it may not be a big deal for me to remodel the Starting Rider to fit. From what I can see, I need to lop some plastic off the neck to get the head sitting right, and then perform a cut-and-shut-style operation to join the glued-in-position legs to the torso, and at the correct posture. As before, the parts of the legs that would otherwise be obscured by the front monocoque will be cut off, too. Vitally, though, I will not need to make the driver’s backside presentable, as long as the figure fits without visible or excessive gaps.

Comparing my scratch-built cockpit to the supplied driver torso, I can see that I made it slightly shorter than the kit part. If the kit driver were used, the monocoque would interfere with the steering wheel. However, I feel I have some licence in this area, especially if I put the front roll bar and gauge panel in the same positions that they would be in on the kit driver’s base plate.

Overall, I can call this miniature scratch-building project a success. The cockpit is just over 30 mm deep, which should be enough depth for me to fit a three-dimensional torso and legs. The overall proportions do not have to be completely accurate; it will be enough for the figure to convey the depth of the cockpit. Anybody working on Tamiya’s Rally Cockpit Set may be able to attest to that effect.

Meanwhile, I see some unused screw holes on the upper chassis deck I can use to attach a roll bar directly to the chassis. That would allow me to dispense with the kit-supplied part for the hard body, and add some detail for the polycarbonate shell (which has no provisions for one). It would be a matter of bending a styrene rod (which I have) to shape, and then gluing it to a panel that can screw onto the chassis via the unused screw holes in the upper deck. The cockpit part can even be used to reinforce the bar; on the actual car, the bar was attached to the monocoque, with the bodywork slipping over it.

Despite the success of my scratch-built cockpit, I am calling the rear wing stay a failure, noting its excessively-low and laid-back position. It is not symmetrical, either, though rectifying that issue is a simple matter of re-drilling the mounting plate. I actually like the position of the wing that the standard re-release wing stay takes it to, though…

I will take you up on your offer, please, @speedy_w_beans!

I like the re-release standard wing stay, but would like it printed as a single-leg stay (like the original 312T3) and a centimetre higher, with no protuberances under the wing mount (I will not be using self-tapping screws to fix the wing). The wing mounting holes, like those for screwing the mount onto the chassis, look to be 29 mm wide (centre-to-centre), and the new rear wing position I propose would put the top of the wing mount at 60 mm above the centre of the chassis-mount holes (stock is 50 mm). If this is possible, I would appreciate it immensely; otherwise, there will be no problems as I will continue to use the re-release wing stay. At this point, using the rear detail piece is less important to me.

As for the build: next up will likely be the aforementioned roll bar. Additionally, I will look to add detail to the cockpit in the forms of pieces like a steering column, gauge panel, more roll-bar tubing, and other parts that may be visible under inspection. With the cockpit I constructed being usable, perhaps I can also cut out the driver section entirely on the polycarbonate shell! That might wait until the driver figure, I think, but I would not have gotten this far without proving that wrong...

[speedy_w_beans 4277]

Hey Grastens, I'll take a look at this in the next day or two; I'm currently tied up with some other tasks.

[Grastens 2802]

3 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

Hey Grastens, I'll take a look at this in the next day or two; I'm currently tied up with some other tasks.

Not a problem! I will be preoccupied with the cockpit and paint-related work, so a rear wing stay can definitely wait

Besides, I need to work on a drawing first!

[Grastens 2802]

A recent delivery of an elusive sprue:

The similarities between the F1 driver figures and the figures in the early 1:12 scale Tamiya RC cars had me wondering if I actually needed a 1:12 driver. While the partial-legs version from the Ferrari 312B static model would have been ideal, this sprue from a parted-out Lotus 72 kit should suffice. In any case, it would require less modification than the Starting Rider figure I was preparing to carve!

The figure was easy to assemble, and the arms were moulded as one solid piece each, instead of the two halves that form one hollow arm per side. I believed this would facilitate alterations to the arms, which I envisioned since the figure does not seem to hold the steering wheel symmetrically. A turning posture would be fine for a static model, but I wanted a more conventional 9 – 3 position for the cockpit.

As the driver’s body consisted of a front half and a back half, there would also be the simple option of excluding one half if I was really pressed for space in the cockpit. However, for depth, I wished to assemble the driver’s main body before making cuts to ensure proper seating.

Something was definitely off, though: the driver head I intended to use was visibly too large for the 1:12 body. The 1:12 head on the matching body was a combination too small for the car. It does not answer what kind of scale the Bruiser’s hop-up driver figure truly is, but I can confirm Tamiya’s 1:12 driver is a bit diminutive to be putting in any 1:10 F1 kit – I felt absurd writing that, yet I needed to revisit it in person, so write it I did!

The result was also a bit absurd, and unintentionally had a bit of a Wild Willy feel to it…

Like any post-1970 (some might say post-1960) F1 car, the 312T3’s cockpit is a bit claustrophobic. Though Gilles Villeneuve was small, he still filled it up when he drove it. I designed the cockpit piece with an eye on its proportions relative to the car, and the result seems to favour the roughly-1:10 Bruiser figure, seen here with the cockpit, 1:12 driver, and the stock driver torso (with alternative Bruiser head):

The 1:12 figure’s shoulders are ideal for the narrow cockpit, but not the rest of it:

Meanwhile, the Bruiser figure fills it up more convincingly, though as before the upper body is too large:

Yet a mashup of the 1:12 upper body and 1:10 lower body would be bizarre… Lining up both the 1:10 and 1:12 lower bodies to the kit-supplied driver torso, the torso is smaller than 1:10 and longer than 1:12. It could work with the 1:10 lower body, requiring material cut away from the upper body and arms (of course) and putty to fill in the hollow arms from underneath the figure. It was proposed earlier in this thread, and is a promising solution.

In the end, the hot knife came out…

[Grastens 2802]

As I had envisioned in my earliest designs for this:

I ended up using the 1:10 Bruiser driver, and taking a whole lot of plastic out of it! The result would not leave a lot of driver, but done properly, could give some depth to the cockpit.

The primary objectives were: reduce the width of the shoulders; extend the arms out in front; cut the legs to reduce their splay (F1 cockpits are claustrophobic) and to the length of the cockpit; and make sure it all fit at a reasonable height. To that end, I removed substantial sections of the shoulders, and also took off the legs above the knee. To accompany the additional cuts to the underside of the figure, I also cut down the torso by 10 mm, to ensure the driver did not sit too high.

The result is what you see here – the remaining driver on the left, and the discarded cuts on the right:

I glued and added putty to the driver in a rudimentary assembly process. The right arm was cut and a wedge of plastic taken out of the elbow. The intention is to straighten out the arm and change the angle of the wrist to allow the figure to grip a steering wheel. The Bruiser figure has a larger bend in its right arm than its left; the cut I made changes that, though consequently leaves the left arm longer. I will rectify that as the project progresses, either at the elbow or shoulder.

In a slightly-macabre twist, the Bruiser figure’s non-helmeted head fit perfectly in the torso, and so provided bracing for the upper torso while the glue and putty dried:

… It might even stay there! I could build up the torso around it using putty, but at the moment the head is only an interim measure.

What I am more certain of is that the cut-down driver is a better-looking fit in the cockpit:

I will need to chop the legs further, however, if I am to retain the ability to change bodyshells without removing the cockpit; in the picture, the figure is just a bit too long, and the helmet would foul the headrest on either shell.

Speaking of which, I sat the helmet on the figure to get a better feel for its fit and presence:

The reduced size of the figure brings the helmet more into scale with the rest of the driver – again, that was a lot of plastic lopped off…

There is still more carving to do, for there is still no room for the figure’s shoulders. I did shave off some material at the arm’s shoulders, but will need to remove more from there and the torso to get the desired position. In the meantime, only pre-determined gestures and poses can be obtained from what is there of the driver figure:

What is the signal here:

As I write, the putty has cured and the glue has set. The figure is probably strong enough for me to continue work on it, and in a rare instance of a plan working, I know how to proceed.

Post-script: the 1:12 driver will live - hopefully to drive another car!

[Badcrumble 4415]

12 hours ago, Grastens said:

What is the signal here:

 

Blue flags!! Can’t you see the ********** blue flags?!

[ruebiracer 1173]

On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 9:15 PM, Grastens said:

As I had envisioned in my earliest designs for this:

I ended up using the 1:10 Bruiser driver, and taking a whole lot of plastic out of it! The result would not leave a lot of driver, but done properly, could give some depth to the cockpit.

The primary objectives were: reduce the width of the shoulders; extend the arms out in front; cut the legs to reduce their splay (F1 cockpits are claustrophobic) and to the length of the cockpit; and make sure it all fit at a reasonable height. To that end, I removed substantial sections of the shoulders, and also took off the legs above the knee. To accompany the additional cuts to the underside of the figure, I also cut down the torso by 10 mm, to ensure the driver did not sit too high.

The result is what you see here – the remaining driver on the left, and the discarded cuts on the right:

I glued and added putty to the driver in a rudimentary assembly process. The right arm was cut and a wedge of plastic taken out of the elbow. The intention is to straighten out the arm and change the angle of the wrist to allow the figure to grip a steering wheel. The Bruiser figure has a larger bend in its right arm than its left; the cut I made changes that, though consequently leaves the left arm longer. I will rectify that as the project progresses, either at the elbow or shoulder.

In a slightly-macabre twist, the Bruiser figure’s non-helmeted head fit perfectly in the torso, and so provided bracing for the upper torso while the glue and putty dried:

… It might even stay there! I could build up the torso around it using putty, but at the moment the head is only an interim measure.

What I am more certain of is that the cut-down driver is a better-looking fit in the cockpit:

I will need to chop the legs further, however, if I am to retain the ability to change bodyshells without removing the cockpit; in the picture, the figure is just a bit too long, and the helmet would foul the headrest on either shell.

Speaking of which, I sat the helmet on the figure to get a better feel for its fit and presence:

The reduced size of the figure brings the helmet more into scale with the rest of the driver – again, that was a lot of plastic lopped off…

There is still more carving to do, for there is still no room for the figure’s shoulders. I did shave off some material at the arm’s shoulders, but will need to remove more from there and the torso to get the desired position. In the meantime, only pre-determined gestures and poses can be obtained from what is there of the driver figure:

What is the signal here:

As I write, the putty has cured and the glue has set. The figure is probably strong enough for me to continue work on it, and in a rare instance of a plan working, I know how to proceed.

Post-script: the 1:12 driver will live - hopefully to drive another car!

Incredible attention to detail again, unbelievable time to spend alone in the driving figure. Seems Tamiya putty is really a good help to rearrange such "Frankensteins". What a project, Always adding another highlight from both of you. Can´t wait to see the final result.

 

[speedy_w_beans 4277]

Hey Grastens, it's been far too long since I offered up a different rear wing stay.  I just modeled the existing kit part today and wanted to confirm what you asked for in the past -- 10 mm increase in height, single post, and remove the screw holes?  See below.

[Grastens 2802]

Yes - thank you very much! Holes can be kept on the mounting tab, but the "wells" for the screws can be deleted. Single-post is perfect, though looking at the chassis again, I think 5 mm of extra height should be sufficient as opposed to 10.

Thanks again for all your work!

[speedy_w_beans 4277]

Grastens, please take a look at this and let me know what you think.  The mounting holes for the motor pod are in exactly the same position on both the kit part and our custom part, and the wing mount holes are in the same X/Y location, just elevated by 5 mm in the Z direction.  The big bosses for the wing screws have been deleted.  For the single center post I used the parts from Tamiya's chrome parts tree as reference for the profile, then made the height to fit the slightly higher wing mounting holes.  At the bottom of the post I narrowed the center block by 2 mm, extended the length out back, added some ribbing to represent the truss structure used in the real car, and moved the LED hole to the very back.

[Grastens 2802]

@speedy_w_beans it's better than perfect!  Thank you so much!

I will be looking to make more progress on the driver figure in the coming week 

[speedy_w_beans 4277]

In for a penny, in for a pound...  Let's do this up right!  I used the white Z4 part in combination with some photos to make a custom C2 motor pod part as well.  It's crazy how many 312T3 photos I see with varying exhaust pipes, varying brake reservoirs, varying wing placement, etc.  It's almost impossible to say there is a single "most correct" version of the car.  I've been favoring photos that feature the Canadian GP version of the car, though, since that was Grasten's original focus.  The wing stay can work with either the original C2 part or this custom one.

[speedy_w_beans 4277]

Just bumped into a web site with all sorts of valuable photos of Gilles Villeneuve's car.  I wish I would have found this site months ago!  It would have influenced my part designs more.

1978 Ferrari 312T3 Serial Number 034

 

[speedy_w_beans 4277]

Physical parts ready for detailing...