Chevron Transkit for Tamiya's 1/12 Tyrrel P34

by Mario Covalski

The Car

The Tyrrel project 34, or six wheels is one of the competition cars that most impressed through the passing years. Its history was not brilliant, maybe its design didn't come up in the right time, just before the wingcar era begun, but the truth is that the concept was great, especially for modellers.

Recently I received the transkit I ordered from outside of my country, I was immediately impressed by its good presentation and the amount of resin and metal parts.

Chevron products are the well known garage kits - made in small quantity by artisans - for the scale car builders delight. [Editors Note: The company carrying these kits notes that they are rare to come by and you should contact them for availability before ordering - RNP] The finished model shows the six wheels as it looked by the end of 1977, with the careened engine and more streamlined profile, It's an ideal complement for Tamiya's kit.

The Kit

The most important novelty about this transkit, is that besides being the first for 1/12 scale, is that body parts are made of vacuform plastic.

This has advantages and disadvantages. My experience using vacuform with regard to body resin, is that the thickness of the material comes closer to scale reality, this is positive. On the other hand, the parts are fragile and very troublesome to be cut.

What attracted my attention was the two fronts which differ in the brakes air intake, and as there are two sheets of decals, I think it would be possible to build both.

During high school I failed in Japanese, yes Sr.!, so I will have to give somebody the instruction manual to be translated. Its print quality is poor, but seems to be very well detailed .

Another drawing shows the decals location, and a picture of the finished model.

I appreciate that the conversion does not only include the body, but there are also many resin and metal parts for modifying the chassis and engine.

The kit has a complete seat-belt set, I think I will replace this hardware with photoetched parts as it seems more real.

Conclusion

For all above this kit can be highly recommended, It would be better if there were some detail pictures but this is not a problem as it is not difficult to get good references today. In spite of this kit is previous to the Ferrari 312 T2 I built, there are two identical sheets of decals, what is very good.

I think this kit is expensive, because we have to buy also a Tamiya's Tyrrel to achieve this project, but It's really the level Tamiya deserves.

If you have finished a Tamiya Tyrrel successfully, you are ready to confront this project, which is really complex but is worthwhile the final result.......add to our collection another six wheeled car!.

My thanks to Motoi, Hapico's owner, for the review samples and his continuous support without which this review would not have been possible. He informs me that these kits are in short supply, so contact him for availability.