Wow, hard to believe I've been working on this kit since August! Seems like not very much done in that time, the kit is excellent for the most part, and challenging for me. I spent a lot of time on areas that ended up being completely hidden, but hey, that's how it goes and it was good practice!
Here's what we started with, the box top shows some great detail that isn't shown in the instructions such as drilling the shift knob, so good reference:
I've read in some builds of this kit that the front wheels sometimes don't line up correctly so I omitted the workable steering rack and used telescoping tubing. I never really liked the workable steering on these Tamiya kits anyway. Added fine screen to the pedals which can't be seen when assembled and made some templates for carbon fiber for cockpit.
Joined the tub together before painting to get rid of the seam, then masked everything up. Lightly sanded the rivets to let the silver show through.
The rear wing took a LOT of work to get smooth, and masking the body was stressful since you can only be about 1mm off. Tamiya does have raised lines to assist with this but they were pretty much gone after prepping the body.
Added a little detail to the front, not accurate by any means, but I'm not an accurate guy!
Decals on!!! One of the pinstripe curved decals blew off with the hair dryer so I had to dig into the spares and get creative.
Added some wiring, again not accurate
Front and rear wings completed
And as she sits now
I'll try and get this complete before the end of the group build!! Having issues with one of my camera lenses (new one ordered) so not too many in progress pics.