Thanks Mark

I quite terminated the work on this "carbon beast"

The hardest areas of this "wrapping" are the inside of headrest (specially the air vents) and the cowling dash that i would carbon in one piece.
The other bodyshel is very helpful to create templeate without working on new bodyshell.

I leave and rest carbon for two week and then I'll start to coat with clear matt.

Thanks Malc

I'm started with a hard/boring carbon work on brake duct

Befor to carbon them, i opended the blanked vent on middle duct.

I finished with a quite result the first rear duct....but it's wrong.

I take as example the front vent taht is full carbon, the rear is not like the front. The rear vent have the other duct (yellow marked) in other material (finest carbon or ABS or metal).

So, i just peel off the decal, I'll resprayed them and then i'll apply the correct decals

I've started th work with MC decal, it's first time with these...and i' didn't know how are made.

Before to aplly them on wings, i painted the inside of wings with base color graphite.
I saw that the most used base color is alu+smoke....but this color never give me the right response as real mp4:4
En each photo that i saw, the diagonal fibre are almost invisible and imperceptible.
So i made some experiment with color and for me the best match is graphite (not metallic.

After painting and before to apply decal, with copy of same decal, i made the template for open the hole for the bracket for central wing.

Finally i fitted the decal and i waited 30 minuts before to re-profile the exceed of decal

Once they'l be dried, i'll spray some final matt coat because these MC are too glossy.

I've painted the front and rear zone of monocoque.

As base color i used a pale gold + 2 coat of TS71 Smoke.














After the painted a starte to work on central zone to try to replicate the rough carbon zone (blue area)

Some excellent work and tips. Great job.

Mark

Thanks Mark, i'll try to do my personal bes with this one.



Thanks very much Low, I love too much the motorsport racing (expecially F1, Endurance and Rally) and i'm a big fan of Ayrton.
I'l try do to my best with this iconic McLaren, and i think is one of the hardest car to rty to reproduce.
You're word are amazing and hope my topic will be a help for your future building.


I started the work with decal on monocoque, but before to place them i mmade some extra paint area.
So while i'm waiting the dry of paint, i strated the decal on nose cone.

I bought the kit from MC...these decal are totally wrong. The carbon on nose cone is really extra fine and grey matt color

The MC decal are too big and with a wrong fiber drawing

So i take a new set of decal like the radiator box and i'll do a new decal work on nose cone using as template the wrong mc decal

Before to decal monocoque i watched the real car.

Mp4/4 have 3 different carbon zone

- On both side of front wishbones suspension. In this area there's a darker carbon (is similar a dark wood color)

- on top of front monocoque above the cockpit -dashboard zone: there's a little lighter area ( i think a different carbon composition)

- A little darker area on both sides of engine mount plates. There's a little piece o darker carbon, i think a reinforced area for high engine-monocoque stress


For wishbones arm sides and engine plate i give a first coat of metallic brown and a final smoke coat

For top area of monocoque i used a tintanum gold coat and a little smoke coat

I also paint with semi gloss balck the bracket for bodyshell

I placed the MC decal for monocoque and i think to quite reach the result of real car

I'll wait the drying of decal and the I'll give a final matt clear coat. Then i started with details work of rivets and Hercules and Malboro Decals

2/2

Another zone that need some extra is the leg tube and pedal zone

I noticed that throttle cable, antiroll bar asdjust cable and footrest are missing

Is also missing the bracket for antiroll bar adjust cable.

I stateds to made some carbon rough on inside of tunnel leg

I added on antiroll bar the bracket for cable, with a modified top studio joint i do my best to replicate the uniball and new cable to connect on antiroll lever inside the cockpit zone

Here is a test photo, I'll mould and sand and I'll repaint

In the next days i'll started to self made the brake-bias, the throttle cable and the footrest


Tratto dal mio libro Haynes


Tratto dal mio libro Haynes


Tratto dal mio libro Haynes

I continued the work on tunnel legs.

The kyosho kit fix the directly in front of the lower part of monocoque.
Fixing this part in this way, is impossible to add or work inside teh tunnel leg

After studing reference a notices some missing details that i’d like to add.

I selfmade a new plate fixed on internal structure of monocoque to fix pedals.

I made this to work easily and add:
- throttle cable with alu bracket and connection pivot on throttle pedal
- adjust cable for brake-bias
- footrest at base of pedal

With Hex Punch&Die Tools i selfmade the hex head nut to cover the bad screw head. I started from front absorber.