Unobtanium 1/12 Honda RA273 Exhaust Upgrade Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

With 3D printers becoming more common over the last decade and print quality likewise improving, we're starting to see products that were not common until very recently. A new company has started in the United Kingdom called Unobtainium that produces a growing series of detail sets targeted (for now) to the larger scale car modeler. One of their first sets is the unique 'bunch of snakes' exhaust system used on the Honda RA273 formula one racer (produced by Tamiya in 1/12 scale). The image below shows the parts tree out of the kit for that exhaust system, and having built this car several decades ago, I remember that I didn't have enough hands to get all of those pipes together (without a mess).

In contrast, look at Unobtanium's 3D resin-printed assembly. Instead of lots of random plumbing, you see the two assemblies cast onto one carrier platform and can be removed for clean-up and painting before mounting them to the engine. Look at the image on the right how these 3D parts are hollow on the ends and are actually hollow from end-to-end.

As beautiful as these castings are, they are still for experienced modelers who have the tools and patience to remove the casting supports from the parts and clean up any stub remnants. If you have some of the latest chroming products available, these castings are ready for chrome after clean-up.

Check out these and other products coming from Unobtainium and we'll be looking at their spoked wheel set for the Italeri 1/12 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza kit.

My sincere thanks to Unobtanium for this review sample!