Monday, January 30, 2012

Villeneuve vs. Arnoux 1979 French GP Dijon

A must see! Amazing fight between Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux for 2nd place in the final lap of 1979 French GP.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Simtek S951 11

Made quite a bit of progress this weekend. It is almost ready for final assembly. Before that, I'll need to wait for the clearcoat to dry and then polish the whole darn thing to get the blemishes out.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Simtek S951 10

Got my butt off the couch and resumed working on this car last night. While trying to mask off the front wing, I broke the end plate off. When you get lemon, you make lemonade. Saved me the trouble of masking the whole thing, I just paint them on their own. Then I put the decals on. Also, I attached the 2 tiny supports to the barge boards. Those things are really tiny in 1/43 scale.




1000 page views and another successful snipe at the bay

Today, this blog hit 1000 pageviews. I'm not sure how many of these pageviews are from people who really reads my posts, or just stumbled upon here from search engine results. Anyway, 1000 is a milestone.

With a bunch of new kits on the shelf, I was not really planning to buy anything for a while. But then, I was Lotus 79 Tameo WCT kit, I relapsed. It's probably a good piece to sit right next to my Williams FW07B. Afterall, the FW07 was designed based on the Lotus 79 (can't you see the resemblance?).

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Red Packet for the New Year

Giving and receiving red packets (usually a red envelope with lucky money inside) is a Chinese New Year tradition. And I am more than happy to found a red package in my mailbox! Meri Kits Ferrari 643! A very simple kit, the casting was done quite well.



Now, what should I build after I finish the Simtek? So many choices...

Friday, January 20, 2012

Arrival

All those kits that I bought before new year started to come in.


All that is left is a Meri Kits Ferrari 643.

First, take a look at the Meri Kits Tyrell 012's instruction sheet:


Look who did the prototype? It was Luca Tameo!



Here are the rest of the Tameo Kits that I got:

TMK012 Alfa Romea 184T

 TMK119 Benetton Ford B189b

TMK121 Leyton House Judd CG901

TMK267 Brabham BMW BT55

Going to Detroit this weekend, won't have time to work on the Simtek. Next Monday is Chinese New Year, the beginning of the year of the dragon. Hopefully, I will make more progress.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Simtek S951 9

Overestimated the power of decal softener. And thank you Tameo for supplying 2 sheets of decals to save my ass. More touch-up repaint to fix bad decals. Now the rear wing is kind of done (except the rain light in the bottom.)


Will spray the front wing end plate, work on the rear view mirror, barge boards,... etc.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Simtek S951 8

 These were taken Sunday evening. Didn't have time to post them till now. The driver flag and name on the airbox is now fixed with Jos' Dutch flag and his name. Looks ok 5 feet from it.


Then, the end plates were glues onto the front wing. They are not painted in the picture, but in reality they got a coat of black and are drying at home right now. When I get back, The entire front wing assembly will get masked and the outside of the end plate will get the purple color.


The last picture is just a test fit. Plan for this weekend is: 
  1. Paint the front wing
  2. Apply the rest of the decals
  3. Put together the front and rear suspension and brake assemblies
  4. Prepare and paint the mirrors



Saturday, January 7, 2012

Simtek S951 7

Progress is way slower than I hoped. Fixing that mis-applied decal turned out to be way more involved.

Tried to use the decal softener on the decal and then rub it off. Who knows decal softener not just soften the decal, it kind of dissolved the acrylic paint also! Since the white was sprayed over the purple, I rubbed through and exposed the purple coat!

So, I masked it off and spray it again. That means I'll have to wait for it to cure before putting the Jos Verstappen's decal on. So much for this weekend. Clear coat next weekend then.

Update 1/8/2012: let it dried overnight and polished a little bit with the micro sanding stuff. Doesn't look too bad. Lesson learned, the old carpenter's trick applies to pretty much everything: MEASURE TWICE AND CUT ONCE. Double check things, make sure everything is correct before pulling the trigger. It will save myself from a lot of headache. Doing it right the first time is much easier and the result is usually better than trying to repair mistakes. Not just in building model cars, it also applies to life in general. I guess this is my epiphany of the day.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Simtek S951 6

Done with the decals on the car body! Just need to let the decal softener to dry before clear coat. Enough for the day.


There are a couple pieces that need paint. But I don't feel like painting today. Also, the clear coat will need some time to cure. So I can take my time.

Just noticed I mad a mistake in the driver's name decal. No. 12 is Jos Verstappen's and he is Dutch, why did I put the Schiattarella one with the Italian flag on?? Will have to fix it tonight then.

Patrick Head quits Williams

Patrick Head Steps Down from WGPH Board of Directors

After the worst season in Williams history, I guess it is about time. A bit sad to see another figure gone. But I suppose it is the necessary but not sufficient condition for the turn around. We will have to wait and see how the next chapter of Williams F1 will go. Hopefully, it can return to its old glory as a champion F1 constructor. It will be a long and difficult road. As I mentioned before, my first F1 memory was Alan Jones and Williams FW07. I would really hate to see the team bite the dust.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Simtek S951 5

Came back to my workshop yesterday and immediately resumed building this purple little thing. Since I'll be back on the road again starting next week, that means my model building time will be drastically lowered.


Progress has been extremely slow. Today, I only managed to put together the dash, steering wheel with paddle shifter and attached it to the body. Put the decal on the 6 point harness.