mclaren mp4/13 -11

The engine is 99% finished... some more wires and it will be done.

Both sidepods are finished and I painted and glued the radiator hoses.

The steering wheel is also finished.

mclaren mp4/13 -10

Finally I could finish the rear suspension system and glued it to the gear box.

Some wires were also added and I drilled two holes on the exhausts and glued the electrical connectors.

The electronic box on the left sidepod is also finished. Now I have to glue the radiator pipes and start working on the right sidepod.

A layer of flat black was airbrushed on the rear part of the body. Now I have to decal it with some CF decals.

mclaren mp4/13 -09

I started decalling the sidepods with kevlar and carbon fiber decals. I also airbrushed them with a mixture of tamiya smoke and flat black (you can see the difference before and then on the picture)

I also decalled and airbrushed the air intake.

The floor is also decalled with carbon fiber.

And also airbrushed a mixture of tamiya smoke and flat black to tone down the shining of the decals. I really like the result.

Finally I made a first test fitting before starting to work on the engine. I also decalled all the suspension arms and glued the heat shield on the floor using foil from a tobaco box.

mclaren mp4/13 -08

just a little update.... I finished the four brake discs and glued the calipers. I must admit that the process to build them is tedious but the result is pretty good.

I painted the exhausts, covered them with foil and finally painted the foil with a mixture of clear red and clear yellow (40-60).
I started working on the engine. Added some wiring and started to apply CF decals to suspension arms. I'll try to post more pictures soon...

mclaren mp4/13 -07

The electronic connectors are glued to the front nose plate. I also added some wires.

I followed working on the brake discs. According to the top studio instruccions, I cut some 5mm-long pieces of 0,5mm solder line, glued to the discs and cut them when dried.

After 2 hours of work, I finally finished one of the brake discs. I'm quite happy with the result so, three more to do.....

mclaren mp4/13 -06

I started working on the front nose. I decaled it with CF sms decal and glued the p.e. parts painted with flat black.

The reservoirs were painted and glued and added some wiring. Still need some job to finish it.

I also finished the calipers. I painted them with xf-56, painted the ap logos and put a temperature sensor decal. I also added a little detail using 0.3mm steel wire.

And I started the work on the rear suspension arms. I first cut the tamiya piece to use the parts from the top studio set.
I painted and glued the suspension srpings from top studio and added some connectors. Next step will be decal the suspension arms with CF and attach them to the springs.

I'm working in too many little parts at the same time......I hope to finish them soon and start working on the engine...

mclaren mp4/13 -05

I started working on the engine. I used a styrene rod to bend the etched plate wich will be place underneath the engine.

I covered the plate with foil and used a file to give it a rough texture. Next step will be paint it with clear orange.

The seat is also finished. I decaled it with CF decals from sms and used the seatbelt hardware from the top studio kit.

mclaren mp4/13 -04

A little update. The painting process of the different parts is so slow... I started working on the brake disks. The disks on the top studio set are presented in two parts. The p.e. part was very easy to glue and fitted perfectly.

Once glued, I primed the disks with grey primmer. I also airbrushed the brake calipers.

I also started working on the wood plank on the floor. I sanded it smoothly and masked the plank.

It's done! the painting process was: first layer of white primer, 2 layers of light sand colour, then I airbrushed some layers of different mixtures of flat earth and brown and also some flat black. Once dried, I sanded carefully some wood lines using a rough sandpaper and airbrhused again a light coats of different browns.

mclaren mp4/13 -03

I glued all the floor parts and sanded the joint. I also sanded the injection marks.

The different parts of the nose were also glued and sanded.

I made a template of the copckit interior walls.

And decalled them with carbon fiber decals.

Finally I glued the 2 parts of the copckit. When the glue dried, I sanded the joint with 400, 800, 1000 and 1500 sandpaper.

I painted the body parts with 2 layers of grey primer. I let them dry two days, sanded them carefully and painted one layer of white primer, I sanded them again and painted a final layer of white primer.

I sanded the second white layer again and airbrushed a first layer of mclaren orange from zero paints.

The body parts are painted. I'll wait some more days to let the paint dry, I will sand them again and I will paint two final coats of orange.

Today I will start working on the engine.

mclaren mp4/13 -02

After few weeks working on a plane that a friend asked to me, I could start working on the mp4/13.
I'll try to show to you all the steps of this WIP.
First of all I painted all the inner parts with flat black.
As the test car don't use cameras on board, I cut the camera on the top of the body.

I also cut the moulded parts to join the cone nose.

A first test fitting. This part will be covered with a photoetched plate.

The guiding lines to paint the GP version were sanded.

I glued the different parts of the cowling and sanded the joint. The hole to put the camera was also filled with putty and sanded.

As I don't want to put the seat before to paint the body, I opened the hole under the body to make it bigger to put the seat from the underside at the final time.