Tamiya 1/12 Tyrrell P34 (six wheeler) WIP (Update Sep. 27).
I ususally build model airplanes and model cars. For the past five years I have only built model planes. Plus, most of those builds were finished in Bare Metal Foil. Well, I got burned out from doing that, so I thought that I would build a model car.
I decided to build something really bizzare, so I chose the Tamiya Tyrrell P34 in 1/12 scale. In case you are not familiar with this car, it has six wheels!!! Two regular size wheels in the back and four really small wheels (10 " dia.) in the front. It ran its first F1 race in 1975 and, using a modified body, it's last F1 race in 1977. This model was recently rereleased by Tamiya; however, it was originally released in the mid 1970's and many of the kit's parts are made from the original molds (that sounds like possible bad news).
I started this build in February, and it is still not finished. My other hobby, gardening, has taken up a lot of my time. Anyway, following is my build.
There are 370 parts with many small parts. A lot of these parts will need to be individually painted. The red arrow is pointing at a 12" ruler to provide reference. The instructions are dated 2007; however many frets are dated 1975 and the parts will need to be sanded to remove mold lines.
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Here is a comparison between a 1/12 scale car and a 1/25 scale car. There is a lot more room for detailed parts in the 1/12 scale car.
Before I started building the model I marked each fret with masking tape and a Sharpie.
I started on the engine. I painted the nicely detailed engine in Testors' Aluminum Plate Metalize paint. After the paint dried I sealed it with Testors' Clear Flat. I did not use Testors' Matalizer Sealer because I do not like the way it looks.
I removed the plastic bolt heads and replaced them with stainless steel bolts. I also used some Vallejo oil colored paint to simulate oil stains at the drain plug.
Here is a size comparison between the P34's 1/12 scale engine and a 1/25 scale engine.