On the 30th November, I was invited to join Neil Trundle at McLaren to display some of my 1/12 scale models. This followed various communications with Neil over the previous year or so regarding the steady completion of the Tyrrell 006. Last autumn, we met in the pub opposite the factory over lunch (Sands), where the primered parts of 006 were displayed in separated form, ahead of painting and assembly, a process that has since taken over a year. Neil, a former Tyrrell mechanic (007 onwards) who works with the McLaren historic cars (anything over two years old), recommended I bring other examples as well as the Tyrrell 006, which led to this lunchtime presentation in one of McLaren’s refreshment outlets. The 1968 Matras MS10 and 11 were alongside the 1972 McLaren M19C and then the 1973 Tyrrell 006, with the 1974 Brabham BT44 at the end of the row. Initially, they came in ones and twos, then once mobile phone pictures started to be taken the text messages alerted colleagues of the unusual lunchtime entertainment, then things took off. Soon more and more folk came down to see, from young mechanics, to senior marketing men and some of McLaren’s senior staff came by. Many had a chat with me and I had a wonderful lunchtime in an inspiring venue, where everything around me was awesome in its finish and presentation. The M19C was to some extent the star of the show and was later photographed on the car (M19C/1) itself. The other models had similar interest and there was a constant wonderment at each display, giving opportunity for many simultaneous viewings. Having the M19C/1 on the real M19C was a little like Andy Mathews leaving his incredible Williams Fw14B placed on the sidepod of Nigel Mansell’s car and witnessing an increasing stream of admirers coming down to see it, finally Patrick Head himself (see p107 in Andy Mathews book Clear View-F1 FW14B). For a few pictures, see my Twitter output. Thank you Neil!

This iconic 1/12 model is now finished and pictures appear on my Twitter ; the Twitter icon also appears on the right of the menu bar for fast access whilst on other pages.

The fully detailed monocoque is equipped with removable deformable bodywork, on which the sidepods can be fitted. I have made two sets of sidepods for this model, namely those which were used in the early Grands Prix, Monaco being chosen for this model. These sidepods represent the full rear deck, including louvres over the engine/exhausts and accompany the cockpit surround that features the mirrors on the usual long support stays. Additionally, the airbox is characteristic being depicted with ‘elf’ logo lower down on the body of the airbox, the upper air-intake at that stage of the season being completed in an unfinished semi-matt blue fibreglass. The airbox has an aerodynamic tail, which was originally developed for the earlier 005 where the rear wing was positioned further forward. For early races such as Monaco, the rear wing end plates were rectangular in shape.

Shorter side pods can be substituted for mid season races and the updated airbox with repositioned ‘elf’ logo on the polished air intake and absent aero’ tail, replaces the earlier version. In this setting, the early season cockpit surround remained in use and the rear wing end-plates were exchanged for the rounder profiled shape, used until season end.

The driver names and numbers can be changed and thus four different cars can be presented according to need.

A fifth and final version will be possible later in the year when I hope to re-plumb the removable oil coolers on a beam across the gearbox, representing the car as driven in North America. The second cockpit surround carrying Jackie Stewart’s name is available with its more modern wingmirrors positioned against the cockpit sides, brought into effect in the interest of reduced drag, I understand. For this iteration, the mid-season short sidepods will be removed and a roughly square roundel placed on the rear aspects of the deformable bodywork to carry the race number for the 1973 World Champion driver Jackie Stewart, in his last Grand Prix appearance at Watkins Glen.

To see these pictures, press the Twitter icon on the menu bar, or press the link above.

To see how this virtually scratch-built model is coming along, take a look at my Twitter page. You can also click on the Twitter icon on the RHS of the menu bar.

I tweet a lot of photos to do with the progress of the car and it’s the fastest and easiest way to see what I’ve been up to. There is a Recent Images link on the left hand side, on that there are around 160 photos.

The model is at least 75% complete and having spent two years making all the parts, I am now about nine months into the build, which still requires new parts making, plus the finishing/perfecting ‘fit’ of the parts already made, so plenty of work to be done along the way. This is the most comprehensive 1/12 model I have built to date, where extensive use of a lathe and mill have been made. Some parts have been subcontracted out for resin casting after I made patterns and I have had decals made professionally, but otherwise, it has been a totally handmade project (whilst accepting that a Tamiya DFV engine block, wheels and tyres are being used). I hope it is enjoyable to study and compare with Amalgam’s 1/8 model, the Model Factory Hiro 1/20 multi-media kit and shortly to be released, Truescale’s 1/18 scale die-cast model of Sir Jackie Stewart’s winning car at the Nurburgring in 1973, contributing to his Drivers Championship that year. It is intended that my model is adaptable for early, mid and late season variations and also to allow for representation of Francois Cevert’s drives in mid season. I hope to complete the model mid to late summer this year. Thank you to all those who have helped along the way and shown enthusiastic support.

Thanks for viewing content of this site, the subject material of which, I feel very passionate about. Since August last year, all my spare energy has been focussed on the Tyrrell 006/2 build, Jackie Stewart’s 1973 Championship winning car, never before in 1/12 scale as far as I know. The parts-preparation largely ended late summer 2011 (nearly two years) and the painting and assembly of those parts then began. At this point, a Twitter page was opened (thank you Thomas) and since then, all activity has been directed at moving the build on, week by week, aiming to have the car finished this summer/autumn. (If in doubt, click on the blue Twitter icon on the far right of the interactive Menu Bar under the title photo of the McLaren M23, then when page loaded, click on ‘View all images’ on the right of the Twitter page. Clicking on any one thumbnail enlarges that image and limited text is supplied beneath).

There are many challenges still ahead and interesting strategies yet to be worked-out to complete certain areas with the vision of as near perfection as possible. As each new area is tackled, some new parts and adjustments are needed. I hope therefore, you will understand the static nature of the main website material and accept instead the roughly weekly input on the Twitter page representing the relentless push to complete such a wonderful, though complex car. Thomas who constructed and now looks after the website, is approaching the end of his first ‘A’ level year and so that poses another challenge on his time, as time rolls on towards his second year. The unclothed monocoque is possibly a little difficult to appreciate when compared to the final appearance, so do feel free to look back at the grey-primered images on the home page and on the initial pages under ‘Cars’, where the complete car with all bodywork in place does appear (just imagine it all dark/royal blue). On this page, there is the benefit of a discussion about the history of Tyrrell 006/2 and the model itself (also referred to, in Projects – ‘Present’). Mark.

Thank you for viewing this website over the past several months, I hope it satisfies interests. With the building of the Tyrrell 006 in full swing since August, I have not added any new material to the website for the past four months and nor am I likely to until the 006 is completed towards the summer of 2012 – simply isn’t the time with full-time job, family etc. Longer term, there’s lots to add-to on this site, for example Thomas my 17 year old son (one of twins, with Philip, also an IT guru, Android phones see teamROU and ROU Launcher) provided a Twitter interactive icon (for mrof1models) when the 006 build started. By clicking on the Twitter icon (RHS Menu bar), the Twitter page loads (don’t need to be a member) and then by clicking on ‘view all images’ about 70 thumbnail images appear (most recent at top), clicking on any one of these reveals full image and text…enjoy!
Meanwhile, as we celebrate God’s gift to us, His son Jesus our Saviour this Christmas, I wish you all a successful and healthy 2012. Mark

Thank you for watching the progress of the Tyrrell 006/2 as it is assembled from the individual items made over the past one to two years. The photos are quick to acquire but unfortunately show every blemish in harsh contrasting light, however, I can reassure you the same parts look better in the flesh as it were, to the human eye.
Please become a ‘follower’ of my Twitter in order to have automatic updates in your own Twitter accounts.
Without ‘followers’ or some form of feedback, I have no idea whether or not the content is being watched and is of interest and there would be a risk I could lose interest myself and at a later stage, withdraw the Twitter facility.
Meanwhile, I hope you like what you are being shown.

Perhaps against my better judgement (there again perhaps not), my IT genius twin sons (Thomas and Philip) have persuaded me to join Twitter in order to allow all interested parties to follow my exploits, initially with the Tyrrell 006/2 in particular.
I will try and ‘tweet’ every week or two, hopefully with a photo from time to time. Serious updates with significant photos and text will be posted on the website as usual indicated by a New! tag announcing new material, however this is unlikely to be more frequent than once a month or so.

After nearly two years (Oct 2009) making all the parts for this Tyrrell 006 in 1/12 scale, all but the last few parts have been completed. So, this week, grey-primered parts and the aluminium and brass parts made on the lathe, were photographed together before committing to apply final colour to everything except the bodywork. All but the engine block, wheels, tyres and steering wheel have been effectively scratch-built, often with God’s help to keep going through various pain barriers and not to give up. I have counted approximately 170 sub-assemblies, many of which are made up of many parts themselves, the rear wing for instance contains sixty individual parts, so I estimate the total number of parts is perhaps in excess of 1000.

A total of nineteen new photographs have been added, including those of the recent ‘energy-sapping effort’ in making the first of two rear wings (approx one month’s work); this includes a hinged adjustable rearmost flap.

Other photos show the main group of painted parts making up the entire car except for, the as-yet unpainted bodywork. This enables me to begin assembling the parts in the coming couple of months pending fine-tuning of fit, for every part will now need detail painting and edge preparation before they will again come together (after their original dry-fit during the grey primer stage); this concern will involve the rear wing hinge particularly, so I await with interest if I can maintain this as a working hinge.

The painting challenges have and will include replicating chrome (Alclad chrome alone isn’t sufficiently robust to stand ‘handling’ during the building process), the blue (having obtained the original 1970’s paint code) and finally incorporating the precious decals (so hard-won earlier in the year) under lacquer if possible, (successful trials having been conducted in my workshop this week).

Estimated completion time for this 1973 006/2, is a further four to six months.

Thomas (nearly 17 years old; see last years post re Jochen Rindt) who has recently completed his GCSE exmas, has been busy adding updated photographs of various cars, namely the 1974 Ferrari 312B3, the 1980 Ferrari 312T5, the 1969 Lotus 49B, the early season 1972 Lotus 72D, the 1992 Williams FW14B and the 1977 Wolf WR1. These photographs are good, but not in quite the style I would like (eg as McLaren M19C and Matras for instance) and so in months to come or next year perhaps, I will hopefully have an opportunity to retake these and replace some of them. However, at least there is something to look at, hopefully enjoy, be encouraged by, or criticise (and I am very prone to self-criticism myself and aspire to do better, so feel free to recognise errors and areas of improvement).
I will endeavour to complete more text over the coming month or so for the 1986 McLaren MP4/2C, the 1980 Renault RE20, the 1982 Renault RE30B, the 1971 Surtees TS9, the 1971 Tyrrell 001, the 1974 and 1975 Tyrrell 007’s and the 1977 Wolf WR1.

This beautiful car is an ambitious project and is currently progressing slower than planned due to the busyness of summer activities etc. Compounding this, has been an exceptionally busy time at work (others on holiday etc) and my choice a month or so ago to duplicate large areas of bodywork (rear wing, cockpit surround, sidepods and airbox) in order to provide extra parts that will enable three versions of the final model to be presented (1973 Monaco full bodywork version, the abbreviated bodywork versions mid-season car and the ultra reduced bodywork approach of the North American races at season’s end). These parts need to be perfected while the model is in grey primer state, which has been a slow process, further slowed by a period of acute trapped nerve discomfort (upper thoracic/neck) last month, now resolving thankfully. I am about 75% through this process of bodywork duplication and this means final completion cannot realistically be expected before the end of the year.