On to Plastic 1/20 F1 at Last
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all rights reserved, Model Graphix magazine Japan ---
----And, then
you hinted at your coming plastic 1/20 entry, by displaying that “Something
Else 2012” signboard at the 51st All Japan Model & Hobby Show in October ’11.
I was greatly
surprised by the fun and playfulness of that expression, which you don’t see in
the average Japanese.
Ah, well you know, that’s because I’m only
doing this for fun (laughs).
----You’d been
telling me “I want to get into plastic model planning, design and creation once
more” for quite a long while before that, but from about when could you see
your 1/20 F1 commercialization vision clearly?
To start, the first catalyst was the
manufacturing advancements at the Chinese factory Ebbro uses. Our processes for manufacturing diecast
models in China had become more and more digitalized, and once our CAD and CAM
were properly linked together, we were quite able to have data we’d designed
here cut exactly as-is into die stamps.
On top of that, we could for example create
a wooden mockup here, and if we 3D scanned that and converted it to 3D data, we
could have that milled into a die stamp over there too.
So, I was thinking “Does that mean that if
we create our 3D CAD data properly, we can perhaps mill injection molds as part
units too?” and when we transferred some part data over and tried that, sure
enough the part unit molds were milled properly. Then, it was like “If you really think about
it, this isn’t any different from making molds for plastic models is it!” and I
started to think “If that’s so, then isn’t it about time to do plastic models?”
And, as Sugiura-san had just retired from
Tamiya and gone freelance at the time, I talked with Sugiura-san about it and
he said “Well then, let’s give it a try”.
I had also been telling Sugiura-san “Design some plastic models for us
once you’re a pensioner” every chance I got, since Sugiura-san was about to
reach pension age. That said, there were
still a few areas we were uncertain about with the Lotus 72C in the beginning,
so I had Sugiura-san do the designs in 2D CAD first, then had some acquaintances
in Tokyo and Shizuoka help us turn that into 3D data, and handed the perfected
data over to China. And you know, I was
surprised to be honest when that came out milled exactly as-is, because even
though I was thinking “They’ll be able to do it” I was still amazed when I saw
the molds actually milled.
----So, if you
hadn’t been able to rely on Sugiura-san, would you have done the designing
yourself, Kiya-san?
Yeah, I would’ve. You know, I drew a certain amount of the
blueprints for the Tyrrell 002 and 003 that will be released next too.
----Ah, oh
really!?
Yeah, we didn’t have any help from
Sugiura-san on those. I had wanted to
leave it up to Sugiura-san actually, but he’s busy with other commitments
now. So I drew up the basic blueprints,
had an acquaintance pursue the details, created wooden mockups, had those
wooden mockups turned into 3D data, and everything else after that we had done
in China. I’m not very good at drawing
up blueprints for exhaust manifolds though, so in the end, we had a guy in China
look at some photographs and create those.
----So in other
words, you didn’t deliver perfected 3D data as you did with the Lotus 72C, and
started in with the catch ball like methods you’re using with diecast model
development, early on in the Tyrrell stages?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ve already started
integrating, and are sharing the data work back and forth now. The data isn’t dependent on one place
anymore.
The Lotus 72E cowling had to fit properly though,
so we created all the 3D data for that here in Japan. With the 72E, the designs were really only
possible because our processing accuracy has risen so much. The 72C came out injection molded exactly
like the 3D data, so we said “If that’s so, we can just use the same method as
on the real car, where the 72C monocoque was dressed in cowling to modify it to
the 72E” when we designed our 72E. At
first, I’d thought we’d need to make another new monocoque mold especially for
the 72E…
----Ah, so, commercializing
that “72E body cowling dressed on a 72C monocoque” structure hadn’t been
decided from the beginning?
No, no.
And I wondered what Sugiura-san would think… When I said “Let’s have a structure where the
72E is 72C monocoque parts covered with cowling” he said “What!?”, so he
probably didn’t think we could do it.
But you know, I was still thinking “I hope
we can make the lower clearance limits” with my fingers crossed when we did do it
(chagrin).
----So now that
you’ve already started transferring data work back and forth with China like
this, what does that hold for your development methods in future?
In a way, I can “see” the future now. If we just create our basic 3D data shapes in
Japan, I think we can leave
things to a certain extent up to China after that. Whether Sugiura-san or anyone else draws up
the body surface blueprints in 2D CAD, there’s still the work of turning that
into 3D data, so when it comes to whether or not to do that in Japan or in
China, we’ve decided that “We can’t go wrong if we do that in Japan for
reliability”.
----So it’s
okay to leave other parts like suspension arms and exhaust manifolds up to China?
Yeah.
But sometime in the future I’m thinking I want to have parts blueprints
drawn up by layering the blueprints in 2D, then have our staff in China
do the conversion of the 2D data that comes from that, into 3D data.
----In other
words, if you can raise the level of your collaboration, and have China carry the
weight of more work elements, your production costs will naturally come down,
right?
That’s right. We’ve got to bring the development costs down
more. So right now, we’re setting our
prices at a uniform 5800 yen for all our F1 Grand Prix series, and as that’s
naturally not leaving us much margin, we’re cutting it pretty close. On top of that the yen is so weak now, and
even the cost of the molds we make in China has risen by 20%. So we’re going to have to think of ways to
reduce production costs over there.
----And, are
you already beginning to see that..?
Yeah, I think we are.