This is how the Brabham looks opened up right now. Don´t look to close, many wires and tubes are not connected and many repairs are not done on the pics. Meanwhile, I repaired many, like the ignition wiring and am ready to install the right cooling unit with all the tubing permanently. I have no idea, where all the tubes and wires lead to and the manual is not a great help there, but I will try to figure out.











Cheers Rob

Very tidy Rob, i am in a position to really appreciate the work you put into this 😁

Edited May 27May 27 by Paddy

17 hours ago, Paddy said:

Very tidy Rob, i am in a position to really appreciate the work you put into this 😁

Thank you Paddy, I´m sure you are . I was adding the right radiator with it´s plumbing and made another test fit with the rear body. Everything looks fine, astonishingly. Connecting all the loose ends of the tubing will be another challenge.
Blood sweat and tears, that´s what MFH kits are made of, but also joy, positive challenge and lots of satisfaction. No other type of kit gives me that felling of pleasure, not only at the end, but within the build as well.

Cheers Rob

Excellent looking car model... I really haven't looked at many.

The pictures show the actual state of the Brabham. Many repairs have been done. The engine and gearbox unit is quite heavy and is hold in place only with one M1,4 screw of 3 mm length. I substituted the screw for a longer one, to guarantee a secure fit. I also added the mesh parts over the radiators, where you had to spray the number on, using a PE template.

The front wing assembly was relatively straight forward, besides the rivets which keep the white end plates in place. These are only 1,5 mm long and a pain to install. Why MFH has chosen such short rivets is beyond me. This will be even worse with the rear wing, where I still have to install numerous of these rivets.
The rear wing is only glued together and not glued to the body right now. I test fitted numerous times, to do everything right, when CA is on, but managed to get some parts slightly misaligned.





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

Looking fantastic Rob! I must admit I have put my build on hold for a bit, need a break from it and don’t think it was the ideal choice for my first mfh build.. but then I suppose none of them really are!

Very detailed and beautiful. I can see that you have put a lot of time and thought into building this.🥇

6 hours ago, Nick said:

Looking fantastic Rob! I must admit I have put my build on hold for a bit, need a break from it and don’t think it was the ideal choice for my first mfh build.. but then I suppose none of them really are!

You start when you get the inspiration you need.🙂

10 hours ago, Nick said:

Looking fantastic Rob! I must admit I have put my build on hold for a bit, need a break from it and don’t think it was the ideal choice for my first mfh build.. but then I suppose none of them really are!

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

4 hours ago, FullArmor said:

Very detailed and beautiful. I can see that you have put a lot of time and thought into building this.🥇

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

Beautiful work Rob😀

this exceeds my skills. I need grimy weathering to hide my fudge ups!

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

1 minute ago, Jeroen Peters said:

this exceeds my skills. I need grimy weathering to hide my fudge ups!

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