Tamiya 1/20 Tyrrell P34 ’77 Monaco GP – F1

The Tyrrell P34 (Project 34) otherwise known as the “six-wheeler” was an innovative Formula One machine designed with 4 wheels in the front to reduce ‘drag’ on the front end of the car.  The car was powered by a Ford DFV, common in many F1 cars throughout the 1970’s.

Tamiya has released this stunning machine in 1/20th scale with a fully detailed engine, suspension and cockpit with removable cowling.  The car depicted is the 1977 Monaco GP edition with a choice of two drivers, Patrick Depallier and Ronnie Peterson.

Model: 1/20 Tyrrell P34 1977 Monaco Grand Prix

The Kitset

The kitset comes moulded in blue, white, and black with chrome engine trumpets.  The fitment is brilliant, and decals are high quality, included are Cartograf decals for cars #3 & #4 (Ronnie Peterson & Patrick Depallier).  With removable cowling and open engine means there is a lot of potential for additional detailing of the kitset in both engine, and the cockpit.

Engine and Suspension

The Ford DFV in 1/20th scale consists of 8 main pieces, the engine has some simplistic plumbing wire included standard, I have included additional yellow plug lead to the kit.  Rear suspension links up to the engine block as one unit which then connects to the chassis via a central screw.  Front suspension which comes later in assembly is a basic firm unit and despite having 4 wheels in such a confined space, everything all lined up well and all wheels touch the ground equally, which was a concern of mine initially.  The exhaust pipes are 5 pieces per unit, which can take a bit of time although upon completion they can still be viewed with the bodywork attached so your hard work doesn’t go to waste.

Engine block, and headers

Engine firewall

Unpainted engine block and completed exhausts

Rear suspension, driveshaft, and brakes

Engine & suspension joined together

Bodywork & cockpit

The chassis is a flat base with the majority of it’s shape coming once the body is placed on top.

Bare chassis with engine and suspension attached.

The body consists of the tub, side cowling and front wing in one large piece.  This is good as such a large area of the car will give you no headaches regarding join lines, and fitment issues.  Side coolers are attached to the body and not the chassis.  Once the body is on the car really becomes much more 3 dimensional.  Front cowling is a 2 piece construction with excellent fitting only requiring minimal sanding to remove the join line.  By this stage your model is really taking shape!

The cockpit is well detailed.  The seat and rear panelling is one single part while a birdframe housing the steering wheel, dash and switches fits over the driver’s legs with pedals slotted in at the far front of the cockpit.  Holes are present in the bottom of the seat allowing for a photo-etched seatbelt kit to be attached, however a full F1 harness decal is provided standard with the kit for curbside.  The cowling, when removed displays the cockpit very openly so any additional detailing is well seen.  In this case I added a seatbelt set and some wiring from the birdcage’s dash.

Finishing touches

The regal blue and white of the Tyrrell is a famous combination, easily recognizable to any F1 fan.  The blue (TS15) and white (TS26) require very little masking except for the seat and rear cowling area.  The white decals are very bold and not transparent despite the blue being very strong, and the borders on the decals are minimal also.

The chassis minus wheels and rear wing

Full decals including Goodyear are supplied with the kitset

Overall Impression

I was very impressed with this kitset despite having attempted it a number of years ago.  The tooling of the parts was fantastic, fitment an proportions of everything are spot on as we expect from Tamiya.  The kit presented me with no real problems, and espite being such a complex car in real life, Tamiya has made the build process very smooth indeed.

With such an open cockpit and engine, once completed this model displays very well and as it is one of the most recognizable F1 designs in history it will surely attract a lot of attention sitting proudly on the mantle.  A must have for any real F1 fanatic.