I was lucky enough to have been stationed in Germany in 1976, and not too far from the Nurburgring. And of course Formula 1 racing was highly covered in the "Stars and Stripes" service newspaper. As a car guy, I was intrigued by the stories of a new 6-wheeled F1 car making the circuit, so I decided to head to the track the day before the race to check it out without having to put up with as big a crowd as the race would draw on Sunday.

It was a very eventful race for a number of reasons. First of all the current points leader Niki Lauda was unhappy with track safety over such a huge track (each lap was about 14.2 miles!) and the fact that rain was likely to be a problem. He wanted to boycott the race, the drivers voted by a single vote to continue, and on the second lap, probably due to a failed suspension component, he crashed and was very badly burned.

Second, this wound up being the last F1 German Gran Prix run on the Nurburgring.

And third, the Tyrrell P34 six wheel car, number 3, driven by Jody Scheckter finished in 2nd place. It was the third of four second place finishes he would have that year, although not as notable as the 1-2 finish he and Patrick Depailler had recorded previously at the Swedish Gran Prix.

This is my second build of the 1/12 Tamiya P34. I build my first one in 1977, but that was the earlier version which didn't have the PE.

After my LAST project which took 3 1/2 years and a TON of after market items and scratch building, I REALLY intended to do this one totally OOB. But after doing my research I discovered that in order to do Jody Scheckter's car, the way it appeared during that race



I had to make several modifications.

First, and most noticeable is the fact that the viewing windows in the driver's cowl to look at the wheels and tires, was considerably larger than it had been earlier in the year on Jody's car. So here's modification number 1:


Before:



After:





The next thing I noticed is that the kit has a pair of chrome discs in the chassis decking just behind the front spoiler/wing. Based on the decals provided in the kit, (numbers 1-4)it appears as if this may have intended to indicate some sort of front suspension adjustment point, but I was unable to find any photos of this feature, so I filled it in with a small plastic disc prior to painting.



The next thing I noticed is that the cockpit cowl as furnished contains some sort of air scoop, which again doesn't appear in any photos, so that had to be filled in.


Before:




After:




The next thing I noticed was the arrangement of the air box under the front wing where the ducts sending forced air back to help cool the brakes was. The kit has a piece which appears to have the front duct going straight into a collection box and the rear attaching from the bottom leaving a square opening to collect the air from the scoop in the wing.

Based on all the photos I could find (I couldn't find a good one of the "3" car, but it's very clear in the "4") it appears that the two ducts were each attached to a round tube at the front wing vent in a side by side arrangement:



so I replace the kit part with a scratch built arrangement:





And the last thing I felt should be changed was at the back of the cowl cockpit. The decals provided for the yellow racing strip to continue up the side of the cowl, forward of the driver's name. And there are some photos which show that at some point.

But the photos of the 3 clearly show that at least at the Nurburgring that stripe wasn't there, AND there are two attachment bolts/plugs at the back of that cowl to attach it in place which the kit doesn't show.




So I added those:



And here's the finished product:




All things considered it was a fun build, although it was tricky in several spots and I wouldn't recommend this for a beginning modeler.

My only complaint is that the decals, especially the ones they provided for the tires are very difficult to work with and hard to settle into place.

Hope everyone enjoys!

First, welcome to the AutoModeler section of the site.

Second, that is a lovely build. Your corrections look awesome.

Thanks Dave! It's a bit ironic that a guy who spent 30 years working as a Design Engineer at Ford is only just now making a post on this site!

It was fun to build this car, especially the steering and suspension, as I was a chassis (suspension design) guy for most of my time at Ford.

Tom,
Welcome to AutoModeler, you're going to really like it here.

as for your 1/12 scale Tyrell P34, I'm really quite impressed, as to both your modeling skills, standards, as well as to the level of your research to correct kit errors.

I'm certainly looking forward to your next build. Why not do a build blog so we can follow along. You'll be amazed at how much more you'll enjoy the build.

Joel

Nice build Tom of an iconic car. Great modifications. I don't think I have ever seen someone take on the side windows before. This car and the black and gold Lotus are what got me interested in F1 in the 1970s.

Cheers
Michael

Hi Tom,

Echoing the words of others, welcome to Automodeler! Really nice work on the P34! really looks great - all around.

I'm close to wrapping up the 1976 Japan GP version of car 3 in 1/20. Reading your notes, I couldn't help but wonder about Tamiya's mixing of parts (I suspect must happen in 1/12 and 1/20), or should I say including some parts for two type of cars in both kits. The JGP car has the narrow windows, and so does the kit - but, the kit also includes two different tails and other parts that aren't needed. The JGP version (both Tamiya and real) doesn't include the NACA duct on the driver cowl, so I wonder where those were used? The kit doesn't include the front brake ducts so I made my own. Gabriel is about to start one of these too - I'm curious which version he'll be building.

Great build, and thanks for posting -

Cheers
Nick

Great build Tom, your modifications to the kit look really good with the references images of the 1:1 for comparison. The current Race Theme Group Build has brought in some new additions to the AutoModeler team and some very nice builds are turning up, both past completed builds and new builds. The F1 and NASCAR types are especially out for a run!

Thanks for posting your thoughts and progress images on this build, hopefully we will see more from you here soon.

Cheers, D

Tom, Welcome to AM! Beautiful build and excellent research on the subject. That will make the third P34 in very short time on the site.
As Nick mentioned, I am about to start my own in 1/20th scale - I just received it today. The lid claims that is the version from 1977 Monaco GP, but I haven't studied yet the details. However, I have noticed that they are already 2 cockpit cowlings in the kit. For markings, I'm going to chose the #4, because I was unpleasantly impressed with Scheckter attitude on leaving the team.

Gabriel

Thanks to everyone for the welcome, kind words and comments.

Joel, I usually do a build blog, but as I mentioned, my last project
http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/forums/253190&page=1

took about 3 1/2 years to complete. By the time I got towards the end I was working towards a deadline (which with the pandemic has become moot at this point) and just wanted to get it DONE! Additionally I used to work from my workshop in the basement and had a separate area set up to take photos, so it wasn't that big a deal to stop. But in the middle of that project we decided to completely finish the basement and so I "temporarily" moved operations to a card table in my den. Still there. And I've found stopping and setting up to take photos feels like a pain. That's why I decided to (try to) make this build a quick OOB. Yeah, right!

Nick:
I'm not sure how Tamiya did things with the 1/20 kit. I know that the 1/12 was previously released in the 1977 time frame because I had built it before. I think all they did was to re-issue the same sprues, but include a PE fret which wasn't available/common back then. I'm guessing they decided to add some variety in the 1/20? In any case, other than a couple of odd extra engine parts on one fret (perhaps common with another kit?) the only extra parts were the plastic parts which were replaced by PE versions in the re-issue.

It's interesting that Scheckter didn't use the larger window for the JGP. It was introduced sometime in the middle of the season, was on for a couple of races including the German GP, but I guess abandoned later. Wonder what the reasoning was?

As far as the NACA duct in the cowling, I've not been able to find any pictures which show it there, although there are photos of there being ducts in other places on other versions of the car.

One thing I've discovered doing builds is that not only is the "what" important, but the "where" and "when" as well. Armored vehicles, planes and especially ships are all unique and ships especially are modified and changed all the time. So if you're trying to do something specific, doing research is crucial, because I've found that manufactures either may not pick the same exact version I'm choosing to model, or worse, just don't do very good research.

Gabriel:
Looking forward to your build! As I said, if you're planning to do the car exactly as it was, don't just rely on the manufacturer. According to Wikipedia the car chassis in 1977 was redesigned some and called the "P34B" and "The P34B was wider and heavier than before" whatever that means. Who knows whether any differences are even noticeable in 1/20. However there clearly are several different looks this car had during the season, some very noticeable! Check these out. I don't know for certain the where and when for ALL of these but I suspect the first one is from the 1977 Monaco GP based on the sign in the background:

These are the "4" car:







Notice the two different front spoilers, and in one case the exposed front stabilizer bar.

And here are some of the "3" car from I believe 1977:





Notice how the first two shots show the front spoiler similar to the 1976 version as well as an exposed engine, while the second two show a revised spoiler with two radiator/coolers and the engine is now covered.

And I also get the sentiment for picking Depailler's car. Scheckter quit the team at the end of the 1976 season, calling the car, "a piece of junk".

That said, it IS interesting that in 1976, Scheckter only retired in 2 of the 12 races he ran and finished with the ONLY first place the car ever got, as well as four 2nd's. Depailler managed four second place finishes as well. The following year with the newer car, Ronnie Petersen retired in 10 of the 17 races and his best finish was a single 3rd place, while Depailler retired in 9 of the 17 races and only managed 2 thirds and one second.

But that doesn't change the fact that this is still an iconic and innovative race car!!

Thanks, Tom, meanwhile I did my research and I reached a few conclusions. Yes, the P34B supposedly had a wider wheel base and the crossbar was passing now in top of the lower body, before being thru the cockpit and bent to clear the pilot's feet. There are various cowlings employed by the team and that makes the things a little confusing. Even on Monaco race, Peterson and Depallier have different cowlings.
Thanks for sharing the pictures!

Gabriel

Great job on your P34. It looks great. I built this kit back in 1992, and I still have it (intact) after all this time and multiple moves.

Jim