DocRob

Obvious, yeah, but had to smile about the creeping errors adding up to the end, have been there often , but luckily mostly there is a solution. Cheers Rob

Nice catch, Paddy. The AMC and some others were available at a large German vendor until a month or so ago for a very reasonable price. I thought hard about, specially liking the Greece or the Lobster scheme. I have so many others, I let it pass. Cheers Rob

Cool, somehow at least Carl, You expect to see the shopping goods and baby carriage still in the back. You can´t hide the boxy appearance of that tank, even behind the branding stickers. Cheers Rob

Windshield looks fantastic Jeroen, the contours seem super sharp for the medium. Cheers Rob

Thank you Paddy, the finish of the build came surprisingly fast, maybe due to many prepared and painted parts. Wiring was especially wild with the BT52, the other MFH kits I built were better documented with only a few loose ends. I cannot see, why MFH is not able to up their game with wiring, it can´t be so hard. When I finish a MFH build, there is always some air out of me, but a day or so later, I think about, which to start next, I think you call that addiction . Cheers Rob

Thank you Hubert and Paul, MFH kits are always a journey, but mostly motivating and entertaining. They are positively challenging unlike many other kits, I feel bored en route. I have some homework to do photo wise, given that it is one of my other hobbies, my model picture skills still lack, but I hope to improve soon, I have some ideas... Cheers Rob

Can´t really tell, which is my favorite, they are all beautiful duos. Maybe the cut off Fiat, which looks very special. I thought about double builds, different outcome as well, but decided against, as I don´t like repetition, but I can really acknowledge it.

Welcome to my first finished kit of LSM MK. II. Overall the Brabham BT 52b was an enjoyable build, with only a few negative aspects. When finishing a MFH kit, I´m always a bit proud, but also a bit annoyed by myself, because of the errors I made and the shortcuts I took. In the end, the guided missile looks good and I think, it is the nicest car of the turbo era, where many oddities where racing around. I listed some positives and negatives about the kit in a list. Good: - Super detailed kit, with no need for AM - Great decals, opaque enough to cover the dark blue body. - Realistic looking carbon fiber decals with fitting paper templates to cut. - Pre printed tyres - Blue tinted vac windshield - Aluminum rims with cast metal inserts. - Choice of braking types with carbon or steel discs - All parts for two different rear wing options included (see bad) - No parts missing (Seems to be self evident, but is not with MFH kits) Bad: - The manual is poor for wiring, often not showing, where the wires leading - Some larger resin parts, like cockpit tub didn´t fit the side fairings, which lead to problems - Many bent metal parts and not only the flimsy ones - The real heavy rear part with engine, … is only fixed by a tiny screw. Careful handling of the finished kit is necessary. - White decals where marred on the surface. No prob under clear coat, but on the windscreen - No decals for the small rear wing version included, despite supplying all the parts for it. - No parts list supplied, which is really needed. You can print it from the MFH page in bad quality, which keeps you guessing at times. Not kit related: Number Five BT52 white paint is way off and unusable, I used MP4 white instead, which matched the decals. Pics, pics, pics: Cheers Rob

Nice Carl, I have the same one in stash, so following your progress and experiences with this kit. Cheers Rob

Thank you Jeroen, there are plenty of areas to improve. In fact, when I finished a MFH kit, I feel like it is a collection of boo boo´s. Fortunately its not that visible with all the other details, kind of razzle dazzle camouflage . To weather one of those would be interesting, but until now, I couldn´t bring myself to do it. Cheers Rob

Almost there, I added the wheels, some spacers on the cars underside, the rear wing, tiny wings on the sides, mirrors, etc. and now there is "only" the body to fit. Cheers Rob

Thank you FA, it is true, you have to put some thoughts into the sequence of the build and sometime in the how to´s. The build is not as straight forward as most plastic kits, but you develop some routine after a while. Cheers Rob

Thank you Nick, don´t rush yourself finishing the Brabham. MFH kits can be overwhelming sometimes. I´ve been there as well, but soon I started to feel the itch to finish the kit. Generally spoken F1 cars are easier to build than closed body racers. All these body parts, doors fairings, numerous vac parts makes them more difficult to build. The BT52 was a bit more demanding than my other F1 build, the Brabham BT45. For once, the wiring was easier and better documented and second, I feel, the newer MFH kits are more refined. Nevertheless, it is quite a task, to put one together, but it is also so rewarding, not only the end result, but also after finishing important steps. Cheers Rob

Racing through the last laps with the BT52. I finished the body work and rear wing with it´s riveting and went to another delicate part of the build, adding the blue tinted windscreen, which I already cut out beforehand. I used double sided transparent adhesive tape for vac parts on other MFH kits, but decided, The tiny rivets would hold the small windshield, when glued from the inside. Then I decaled the windshield, where it is slightly visible, that the white surface of the decals was a bit marred. With clear coat on the large body decals this vanished, but there was no way of getting me to varnish over the vac part. I airbrushed the aluminum rims semi matte black, added the branding decals and oversprayed everything with a semi matte finish. Of course, I forgot to test fit the valve stems and also of course, they wouldn´t fit properly. I managed to drill the holes out, without destroying the finish. The pre printed tyres were added then and rubbed a bit with the bare hand to dull the shine. Lots of wiring and tubing was finished, a terrible task, as the manual often doesn´t show were the plumbing leads. I took some liberty there and there are some wires vanishing somewhere unseen in the abyss. I still have to add some plumbing, before calling the Brabham done. I also made a lot of paint touch ups. And that is where I am now: Cheers Rob

Oh, there is another option, which may comes into play, when I think about. Besides a diffusor, they might have used a linear polarisation filter. With these filters, you can "steer" reflections to a certain grade. I think, I have some and might try it out. Cheers Rob