Hi
All the resin parts from Hiro looks the part although the rear cooler housings needs som more detail around the attachment points to the central body. There should be some stiffners on the corners but that is easy modification.
Where the problems start is at the rear suspension. While the parts looks good they don't quite fit properly with the Tamiya parts, and the Hiro drawing is slightly wrong... My suggestion will be to assemble the Tamiya parts with bottom bracket for the lower suspension arms. Attach the lower suspension arms with uprights, the Hiro metal parts for the brakes as well as the Tamiya assembly for the half shafts to form the lower part of the suspension. The trick will now be to get the Hiro parts to fit this somehow. The upper attatchment points consists of a central bar with two additional bars for support. M22+M87+M88 on the drawing. To be able to fit anything and be prototypically correct the kit dampers and J11 have to swap places - that is where the drawing is wrong. Part M22 will have to be bend into shape to fit the attachment points on the roll bar M21 - but you can't bend the upwards too much because that will make the rear suspension look awkward with the half shafts bend rather unrealistically upwards and the rear dampers can't reach the uprights... But worse is that the stabilizer parts M89 and M90 won't fit at all unless the M22 bar is bend even more upwards. I wonder if anyone at Hiro actually has assembled this....? Looks like I will have to redesign some kit parts to make this fit. The start could have been better for me on this project. On another note the Hiro kit lacks the rear brake ducts which are a very prominent feature in the 1:20 kit. It is difficult to see if these were mounted at the Japanese GP, because everything disappears in blackness behind the tyres and bodywork, but why shouldn't they? Otherwise the Hiro kit is fine and very detailed!
Please excuse the agricultural look of some of the Tamiya kit parts which either will be cleaned better or replaced. The setup is for demonstration purposes only.
The heart of the matter is the inverted V shapes in the background. They will not fit the transverse bar unless the part is bent unrealistically upwards and the shafts would then be at an incorrect acute angle. But the parts or those from the kit will be modified to fit.Same seen more from behind. The brakedisks are form the Hiro kit plished but not painted yet. The inside are typically a rough grey with slight rust tinge.Perfect fit of the nosecone. No shrinkage or anything. Just plug on. Full details inside are supplied by Hiro replacing some kit parts.Nice fit of the sidepods where the coolers will be placed. Resin parts will need som more details though around the contact to the main body.Replacement coolers supplied by Hiro. White metal with PE inserts. Look is exellent and fit superb.In a slow progress among other projects I have managed to tackle the gearbox. The main problem was the forward attachment points. These were modified by cutting and reassembly.
The upper fixture that holds the dampers and tierods as well as the roll bar was modified by drilling through the potential fragile white metal and replaced it on both sides with a brass rod that strengthens the assembly and keeps it straight and level as well.
The black intake ducts was made in card stock with measurements taken from the 1:20 kit.
The ‘sparkbox’ is all Hiro and is excellent. Just remember to fold the etch the right way! The etched line should be on the outside – otherwise the rest of the parts won’t fit.
The wing mount is Hiro and had to be mounted by now without the substantial wing. Otherwise I judged it to be a difficult thing to mount with a lot of parts to fix with only two hands. One side is glued the other side is press fit, so the wing can be removed. Note that the right holes in the ‘aluminum’ coloured parts are slightly bigger than the rest.
Br.
Flemming