The Model
This is a model of a truck contestant in the Arras-Madrid-Dakar 2002 rally, better know
as the Paris-Dakar 2002 rally, which was held around Christmas and New Year's
2001-2002. This Tatra 815 4x4 was of the BR Petrbras Lubrax team and came in
10th the final standings. The model is represented in 1/32 scale.
The Kit
The kit is printed on 5 pages in A4-size and has around 460 parts. As always,
in a good Czech tradition, no part of the paper is wasted: all parts are densely
printed on the pages. This saves paper and printing costs, but has the disadvantage
of having to really search for some parts! They are not always grouped together.
The printing is clear and sharp. 2 pages are in full color, the other 3 are
in greyscale. I find this makes them less vivid, although most parts are very
dark grey, only a few real black.
On the inside of the glossy cover are the instructions, which consists of Czech
text, 'exploded' views, and a few templates. These last have to be used for
preparing parts of skewers and iron wire in various thickness. The views are
fairly clear by themselves. The Czech text, which I cannot read, indicates the
building-order. This mainly follows the parts-numbers, starting with 1, 2, 3
and so on. But in some occasions the numbers divert; with parts 3, 4 followed
by 215. Then come 5, 6, 21 and next 7, 8 etc. Although un-readable for me,
the text instructions give an extra indication for the parts used and their
building order.
Construction
The model is
built up in 4 stages:
1- Engine
2- Chassis and axles
3- Tanks and technicals
4- Bodywork
1-Engine
Constructing the engine starts with preparing parts 14 using the template. I
made them of 3 mm thick isolated massive cored electrical wire, black colored.
Following mostly the parts numbers, with some 'deviations' as indicated in the
text, the engine builds-up fairly easy. The parts have an excellent fit and
folding-lines are clearly indicated: downfolds with a traingle, upfolds with
a dotted-line, both pointing at the folding line on the part.
It has 35 parts, some very small. At the smallest parts I usually omit
the glueing tabs. This makes folding easier and the connection much sharper.
Only when strength is needed the tabs are not removed.
The
engine is completed: the electrical-wire-parts (14) are very noticable at the
top.
This wire is fixed by using a kind of white glue suitable for plastics and
paper. At both ends the wire is slit into appropiate holes, punched with a cheap
leatherpunch tool.
At this point I haven't found
where to put the ends of parts 20L & P...
2- Chassis and axles
Building the chassis starts by constructing a simple frame of 4 beams, at one
side are 2 corner-reinforcements (parts 36) attached. In the main layers (parts
33P&L) 6 holes are punched for parts 92. The templates show the size, made
of skewer, and again 6 are needed.
It is important to make the frame straight and square and to do exact folding.
A failure or irregularity will annoy throughout the rest of the build: a good
chassis is a firm base.
The picture shows many parts from the axles, not all... As you can see I omitted
the tabs where no real strength is needed. Especially with round areas I try
to do without: makes the part smoothly curved, no 'facetted' roundings.
The rear axle unit is completed. Note the holes in the tubular area. Later on
part 80 will be attached there. The position of the holes are indicated (parts
47). This in contrary to the front axle unit.
The parts 49 require also holes for attaching later parts 70. Their positions
are not indicated. They should be halfway the tube, looking backwards. I had
to drill them after completing the axle.
Also there's no template for part 70. Made of a skewer and painted black (kinda
like Mick Jagger...). Length should be around 63 millimeter. Because the are
at both ends slit in a hole there's some slack.
Because of the dark grey color it is necessary to color the edges
as well. I started with doing this after completing a seperate part. Later I
switched to doing it right after cutting and scoring. For coloring I use a simple
cheap kid's waterpaint box. Has all main colors and they are easy to mix to
get a good match with the printed stuff.
The
assembled axle units are reinforced with parts 217 and 218: skewers sized according
to the supplied templates. These are slit into the holes in parts 39-40 or 54
and glued in place. Look out for not fixing part 45: it has to be free to rotate.
Next is the assembling of the gearbox unit. Also here no fittingproblems
and clear indication of the folds. Again a skewer is needed for part 72. Not
painted the way Mike Jagger did to that red door. Grey it will be.
Template for it is provided.
The chassis frame will be completed with details, like shock absorbers (parts
73-75), before the axle- and gearbox-units are attached to it.
3- Tanks and technicals & 4- Bodywork
Next month!
Summary
| Model: | Team BR Petrobras Lubrax TATRA815 4x4 |
| Kit: | Vimos Publishing No. 5 |
| Designers: | Jir� Vintr (CZ) |
| Availability: | http://www.maquettespapier.com/ |
| Scale: | 1/32 |
| Difficulty: | medium |
| Number of Parts: | 460 |
| Instructions: | Czech text |
| Diagrams: | Clear exploded views |
| Fit: | Excellent |
| Coloring and Artwork: | Good |
| Printing: | Good |
