Juhunio's Bits-A-Builds

[Juhunio 7105]

Front and rear light buckets fitted along with the transparent headlamp stickers from the 51365 body set, the only non-vintage stickers used 

[Juhunio 7105]

[Juhunio 7105]

Almost a full year after I last worked on this Audi R8 LMS shell, I finally finished it!

It's a great fit on the TA04-RR bits-a-build, so that's another one finished 😀

 

[Juhunio 7105]

[Juhunio 7105]

[Juhunio 7105]

[Juhunio 7105]

[Juhunio 7105]

[ChrisRx718 4712]

Where on earth did you find one of those bodies? I've wanted to do one for a while - I see MCI do the Bilstein livery (blue/yellow). I've just never been able to track down a bodyshell.

Looks ace 

[Juhunio 7105]

Tamiya 51471 Audi R8 LMS Body Set on a TA04-RR built entirely from parts with the addition of:

• upgraded one-piece diff joints
• carbon fibre front and rear damper stays
• carbon fibre battery straps
• silver aluminium steering arms 

[Juhunio 7105]

10 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Where on earth did you find one of those bodies? I've wanted to do one for a while - I see MCI do the Bilstein livery (blue/yellow). I've just never been able to track down a bodyshell.

Looks ace 

Cheers! I got the body set, inevitably, from Japanese Yahoo. Including fees and domestic shipping it was a tick over £60 and I managed to offset the international shipping by selling a few bits and bobs I shipped with it. Well worth the hassle though, I absolutely love it

I also really love the blue / yellow Bilstein livery, I did something similar on an AMG GT3 shell that sits on my TB02-R bits-a-build using a sticker set I managed to get Nath at MCI to produce for me using a 1/24 decal set as a base and adding in lots of patience and a fair amount of arm twisting!

Again, worth the hassle though 😊

 

[Nicadraus 6679]

On 8/10/2023 at 5:15 AM, Juhunio said:

Tamiya 51471 Audi R8 LMS Body Set on a TA04-RR built entirely from parts with the addition of:

• upgraded one-piece diff joints
• carbon fibre front and rear damper stays
• carbon fibre battery straps
• silver aluminium steering arms 

Beautiful! 

I miss my TA-04R. 

[Juhunio 7105]

Picking up this thread again after a few months away...

Sometime late in 2023 I finally tracked down a set of the right wheels to finish off the TB-Evo III project. I wanted some rims that had the right moulding to suit the GT-R Gr.A, but they had to be 24mm to fit onto the Evo III's suspension. A few years ago I had seen a set of Cross rims on Japanese Yahoo that fit the bill but missed out on them, so when two sets came up at a good buy-now price, I jumped

They're a much better match to the body shell than the Tamiya racing rims I had initially fitted, and as close as I could find to the Tamiya Skyline rims in 24mm width. I think they finish the build off nicely 

It took a ridiculous amount of time to track down all the parts for the chassis, then decide on a body and then find the best possible rims to match the body and fit the chassis. But I got there in the end, and reckon it was worth it 

[jonboy1 3696]

i think you knocked it out of the park (although I'm trying to unsee the red hub nuts on the rear wheels....)

An absolute masterpiece and showcase of tenacity to collect all the best parts for it.

[Superluminal 4000]

1 hour ago, Juhunio said:

But I got there in the end, and reckon it was worth it 

Absolutely! Looks stunning

[Juhunio 7105]

19 minutes ago, jonboy1 said:

I'm trying to unsee the red hub nuts on the rear wheels....

I think that back when I was painting and stickering the shell I read some articles on the original race car, for info and reference pics, and the race car ran with blue nuts on the front and red on the rear. Or at least sometimes it did. Of course, I can't find that reference now, but I'm sure there was some method to my madness 

[jonboy1 3696]

4 minutes ago, Juhunio said:

I think that back when I was painting and stickering the shell I read some articles on the original race car, for info and reference pics, and the race car ran with blue nuts on the front and red on the rear. Or at least sometimes it did. Of course, I can't find that reference now, but I'm sure there was some method to my madness 

you know i think you're right! 

I wasn't criticising, just didn't seem cohesive when taken into context with the blue chassis. Totally makes sense in context with the body though. Besides, it's a stunning build whatever the colour of the nuts!!! 

[Juhunio 7105]

7 minutes ago, jonboy1 said:

you know i think you're right! 

I wasn't criticising, just didn't seem cohesive when taken into context with the blue chassis. Totally makes sense in context with the body though. Besides, it's a stunning build whatever the colour of the nuts!!! 

Don't worry, I didn't take it as a criticism  And you're right, without the shell that random flash of red on the rear wheels does stick out like a sore thumb against all the blue sprayed across the chassis! 

[ThunderDragonCy 8721]

47 minutes ago, Juhunio said:

I think that back when I was painting and stickering the shell I read some articles on the original race car, for info and reference pics, and the race car ran with blue nuts on the front and red on the rear. Or at least sometimes it did. Of course, I can't find that reference now, but I'm sure there was some method to my madness 

There is quite a lot of race cars that run red on one side, blue on the other so they can be easily identified 

[Pylon80 4151]

6 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

There is quite a lot of race cars that run red on one side, blue on the other so they can be easily identified 

I think some race cars use normal thread on the left and reverse threads on the right, hence the need for color coding?

[ThunderDragonCy 8721]

1 hour ago, Pylon80 said:

I think some race cars use normal thread on the left and reverse threads on the right, hence the need for color coding?

Sounds like a good reason

[Juhunio 7105]

Having finally wrapped up the TB Evo III 'Blurikarn' Nissan Skyline GT-R Gr.A, the next chapter of Operation Getsomethingsfinishedforchrissakes is going to be this, my super-hopped up TA04-TRF

I got as far as finishing the chassis and painting the body shell, but never did the stickering

So, that's the next job...sticker the shell

Looks like 78 stickers...with lots of livery stickers at the front and rear which have multiple join lines over contoured surfaces...having not done any model stickering for over 18 months...

What could go wrong, hey? 

[Juhunio 7105]

On 1/21/2025 at 10:51 AM, Juhunio said:

What could go wrong, hey? 

The answer was...quite a lot could have gone wrong but, thankfully, not much did go wrong . Turns out it was 88 stickers in the end, 80 off the sticker sheet and 8 extras that I added 

I did make a bit of a mistake on the first corner (front right). There are four overlapping stickers there and the one that folds over the side of the body has a dotted line through it which I forgot is there to be cut through to help the sticker fold (like I said, it's been a while). But I just about salvaged it and added that white Dunlop sticker over the offending area to cover it. 

I also added the Dunlop and Shell stickers to the sponsor stack on the rear doors...I found a few pics of the original race car which has those sponsor logos there and I had the stickers in my pile of offcuts so, why not?

The rear quarters are a bit of a nightmare! The stripes from the side of the tailfin down to the arches are made up of 5 interconnecting stickers which have virtually zero tolerance or overlap...if you get the first sticker just a mm or so out it has pretty big implications on the fit around the arches. It took water spray, time, patience and multiple refits to get it right enough, not perfect but right enough. 

Matching additional Dunlop stickers on each side...

And the last couple of extra stickers are on the back, a Tamiya logo and chassis code sticker to tie it all together

And that's it done!

 

 

[jonboy1 3696]

that is gorgeous!! 

incredible work making it look so good mate!

[Juhunio 7105]

A final couple of pics of this one, of the completed chassis finished off with the kit-spec rims and tyres, before I stick it up on eBay. Thoroughly enjoyed putting this fully Hopped-Up TA04-TRF together over the last 3.5 years, but with no room to display it (and categorically never going to run it!) it's time for it to find a new home