Tamiya 1/24 Mazda 787B plus some aftermarket parts

[JonMW]

Tamiyas kit of the Mazda 787B Le Mans group C racer, the original release is from 1992, in that release it came as car #55 this #18 is from 2012. Only thing that differs is the decals and the color of the plastic. I build one of these a few years ago and there where no real problems with it, no flash and no other mold problems. There are some details that could be a bit better and the Dunlop markings are missing, other that is't a nice kit that goes together without any problems.


The kit in question




The parts


Detail shot of one of the rims with nice molded in bolt heads, but the air valve is missing.


The brake disc and caliper don't have too many details but the ones that's there is nice and you wont see much of it ones done.


Fluid catch can, would look better with a drilled out handle.


Front spring and damper, a bit of a mold seam that can be hard to clean up. And it is the wring orientation, but you can't see it at all once it's in place.


Lower body sides, there is a thin line (at the arrow) that is made as a masking line for the older release of the kit, so you need to sand those off.


Engine and gearbox in two half with some nice details like bolt heads and spark plugs. The seam will be along the top and bottom of the engine, as the car has a full floor the bottom one can't be seen and only a few small spots of the top will be seen after the other engine and suspension parts are on. So it's not as critical to remove the seam.


Close up of the drive shaft location.


Gearbox oil cooler, the fittings for the oil lines are not the best, but at least they are there.


Pulleys for the front of the engine,the belt is a bit thick, but really hard to see once done. However there is a hole on the back of what I guess is the alternator that is really easy to see and will need to be filled with something like a styreen rod.


Wing mount with some pretty good molded in details.


Ignition coils and a plate with some connectors. The coils looks good but the connectors are missing some details, but you could easily add some details with some wires.


Nice dashboard


The steering wheel is really nice


One of the bigger let downs on the kit for me is the molded in seat belts. Will take a bit of work to remove and get the seat smooth if you want to replace them with after market ones.


The rest of the interior, there is a few electronics boxes missing from the passenger side. However in some pictures it looks like they covered all the electronics with a fake seat so this may be correct for that.


Body parts, also covered small lines for the paint scheme of the older release. Fit between the parts is pretty much perfect.




The glass is super clear, but has some distortion but it's not too bad.


Tires has a big seam down the middle that will need sanding.


Wheel "nut"








Really nice decals, the "VOLK RACING" text is about 0.35 mm and the "SUPERFINE" about 0.1 mm tall!


Cartograf really know what they are doing.


Pre-cut masks for the windows.


Thin metal wire for the antennas























Overall it's a really nice kit that builds up to a nice model with no major problems.

[JonMW]

Some aftermarket parts that are available for the kit. Staring with a wheel set from Top Studio (£29.95).


Turned aluminium rims and PE centers.


PE bolts


Center


Aluminum wheel nut


And the rim. And these don't come with any air valve either.


MSM Creation decals (£11.80) for the #55 Le Mans wining car, this is the same scheme that came from Tamiya in the original release of the kit.




Same "VOLK RACING" and "SUPERFINE MAG" as on the Tamiya sheet, but no way near as detailed. The best best is to use as many of the Tamiya decals as you can and just take the ones specific for this scheme from this sheet,


The instructions may not be the most clear but works.








Scale Motorsport carbon fiber template decals (£24.85) comes on three sheets with different patterns.






The back of the sheets are marked where to cut. If they are anything like the other SMS decals the outlines will most likely be slightly too big and will need final trimming (better that then the other way around). And they should react well with Micro Sol.


SMS PE set (£22.60), the brake discs looks pretty good and there is some nice details. One thing that I think should be included is hardware for the seat belt. SMS has some nice PE sets for the belts but they never include it in the other PE kits, most likely because they wan you to by more stuff.


The radiator is missing one row so the fins are only attached to one side.




The instructions are not that help full, even less since the box are is different between the two Tamiya releases and it seems like you need the older one for this.


And finally a PE set from Hobby Design (£26.75)


Comes with five PE sheets.


Seat belt material, rivets, resin set belt buckle and a metal rod.










A lot of nice PE in a few different thicknesses. With details from multi layer radiators, painting template for the tires, suspension and wing mounts and seat belts. It's nice that the smallest parts don't have any attachment points.


Rivet and resin buckle.


The seat belt material has a really nice texture that is not overdone. This is probably one of the best I have seen, the problem is that it's way too glossy and you have to cut it. And it's usually really hard do cut 2 mm wide stripes that are perfectly straight.


And an instruction sheet that actually gives some instructions.

All the prices are taken from hiroboy.com