The idea of this post was that, now that many parts are painted, it’s time to just stick things together. In reality I have repaired areas of damaged paint a number of times, but didn’t take any photos and mostly tried to blot them out from my mind.
Much of Sections 4 and 5 are complete – in these sections the undertray and side pods are joined, and some of the cockpit furniture is built up. The driver – 1/12 Johnny Herbert – is strapped into his chair.
I had much trouble getting the side pods to fit correctly; the screw holes in the parts – which I drilled at the little marks in the mouldings – didnt line up correctly. Better dry fitting would have prevented these problems; I didn’t dry fit the pods’ screws as I find that this the threads of the screw holes get stripped in just one fitting. Anyway, after some shenanigans – gluing, pulling apart, repairing paint, finding a screw that fit better than stock – it is all together
[Update] And speaking of trouble, I have no idea how to use the harness mounting points – two tiny photo-etched loops (E15) – to mount the straps. These loops don’t look like real mounting hardware; more to the point the parts are so small I could not get the red ribbon through them. After remaking some ruined straps (sad) I went with another approach. There are two unused photo-etched parts E33, which look much more like racing harness mounts, and they fit the ribbon. I used some thin wire, twisted around them and passed through the holes drilled for the unused E15s, to mount them to the undertray. I should mention that none of this is visible with the cockpit parts and side pods added.
I’ve also been working on joining the engine and transmission, from Section 9. Some parts haven’t been added as I plan to add them after joining the engine to other parts: the next big step is the marriage of the engine/trans, the monocoque and the undertray/side pods.
Jason's Mazda 787B Build 