Matra MS11 1:12 scale

With the BT50 waiting for fresh decals, I'm hankering for another large scale period F1 car and I have chosen one of my favourites.... the Matra MS11 which will be built as the Jean Pierre Beltoise version, team mate to Jackie Stewart in 1968 although I believe 'Wor Jackie' raced the MS10 and not the MS11 (at least according to Wikepedia) even though the decal sheet has Stewarts name on it!!!!!

The kit is already well enough detailed but I'll be adding as much of my own detail as I can, as I did with my 1:12 scale Brabham Bt44.

Gorgeous looking jam jar.

Is that a V12?

Yup!! Three litre. Problem was it was thirsty, underpowered, unreliable and prone to overheating. Also driven almost exclusively by Beltoise with Stewart driving the Ford DFV powered MS10

JYS went on to great things with Ken Tyrrel, a Matra chassis and a DFV.

so much more interesting to look at than todays racers

V 12's sound amazing at high revs, it's musical.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POZuAilZw50

Got some basic clean up and a little construcion done:





The fit of this air intake was attrocious with nothing to glue it too so I had to add some thin strips of styrene to give it some support and of course now it will need a little filler before spraying.

Don't often see a V 12 getting built up.

You got the correct Matra blue paint then? lol

Keep going Al boy.

'course I have Shay. Sent to France for it.

I wouldn't expect anything less mate!

While I am waiting for the paint coming from France (LOL, private joke between Shay and I ) I have made a start on the engine:

Looks like your engine is getting attacked by one of those small rare red Haydon Bridge octopuses you were telling me about Al

I would have thought it would have twin dizzys, but an early Countach V 12  only had one as well.

Tamiya's callout for the transaxle colour is black but in most of the photos I've seen of the 1
1;1, It's more of a charcoal colour. So I did it with Alclad Burnt Iron..... still looks a bit black though. Will see what I can do to change that later.

Tamiya also supplies red wire for the HT leads whereas most of the photos I've researched show yellow plug leads. I don't have any yellow wire of the correct diameter so have settled for what Tamiya supplied.

Transaxle colour now changed to more lifelike 'Gunmetal'

Don"t get bogged down with colours Al, it's all good.

I don't think there's many Matra experts around.

How did you go about the MATRA sign? Did you put some BMF down then paint around it?

I won't Shay.... you know me I'm no 'you know who' LOL

Dave, not exactly. I fist laid and burnished down well some BMF. Then sprayed the satin black paint. When the paint was properly dry, I used a slightly blunted toothpick to carefully and gently scrape away the paint on the lettering. Was quite pleased with the result.

I'm going to have a similar go with the finning but I think the 'Sports' lettering is going to be beyond my skill set.