Back to the Future

Today is Oct 21, 2015. In the movie Back to the Future II, Marty McFly travelled from 1985 to this date in the DeLorean.

Talking about time, it is almost end of October. Last week, I realized:

I have to finish the Lotus 107 before end of November! The FW29, since it's been taken so long already, I am going to just focus on the Lotus 107 for now and try to get it done. And I am not going to try add any more detail because of time. Last night, I primed the body, base, front and rear wings, which you can see in the top picture.

Of course it was a movie and time machine does not exist yet. But I was able to time travel through the internet.

Two Tyrrell 023s from eBay: Brazilian GP and San Marino GP. I did not know that in 1995, Tyrrell 023 came in 2 different livery. They ran a dark blue colored car before switching to the white body with blue during the 1995 season. the Brazil one was the dark blue one.

Direct from BBR, two Ferrari's. They were on sale at their web store, but as usual with any order from Italian companies, took them quite some time to process the order and ship them to me. They are new old stock. But the cast quality is fantastic.

Shopping

I slowed down buying kits quite a bit nowadays, but the rate is still not zero. Found his BBR Williams FW16. The first 1/43 F1 kit I built was a BBR Ferrari F399. Haven't built another BBR kit since then. I am sure I will get to this one some time. This kit was fairly old, but the quality of metal casting is very good. In my opinion, better than Tameo of that era.

On the reading material front. The latest issue of Model Graphix is quite interesting. The main feature is on layout of model building space. Now I have some ideas to improve my workshop aka living room.

Bonjour!

Over Christmas last year, I got to know a friend's family friend who moved to France for over 30 years and he has been working as a guide at the Louvre. Since I haven't been taking any real vacation for some time now, I decided to visit him before he retires. So I went to Paris last week. After spending the majority of the week visiting museums, churches and palaces, all of a sudden it dawned on me that I should go look for miniature car stores in Paris. Quick check on Tameo's web site and I found the store Boutique Auto Moto. The store is full of model cars of all different scales. Not a whole lot of kits on display, but whenever I started to ask about this and that, Nicolas from the store will go down to the basement and came up with a kit or two. There must be a lot of treasures hiding in the back.

The best part is when Nicolas pull out this Renaissance kit - 1981 Renault RE30, a kit that can be built into the version that French F1 Champion Alain Prost scored his first Grand Prix win at the French GP in 1981. A model of a French F1 car of a French F1 Champion that won French Grand Prix made by a French company available in French store in France, I must have it! So here it is:

The store in Paris is at 6, rue des Halles, 75001 Paris. Very near the Louvre and Palais Royal.

Rehabilitation

Since I have been away from the workbench for quite some time, I pretty much have forgotten where I was on the 2 projects. I found myself staring at all the pieces and have no clue what to do. So, tonight I put myself in model building rehab, get myself back to work. First I picked up the file and grind the Tameo Kits logo off the bottom of the Lotus.

After all, the real car did not have the words "Tameo Kits" on its bottom. Now the bottom is smooth and flat.

Then I opened up a whole bunch of holes and added a mounting nut.

Also drilled open all the suspension mounting holes, mirror mounting holes, antenna hole and pitot tube holes on the body.

And I also got more references and reading materials.

End of an era

It is ironic that as a supply chain consultant, I often question my client's inventory management decision, while on the personal side I have been making all these questionable purchases. Last week I saw another increase in inventory: Tameo Red Bull RB10.

On the real car front, I finally said Good Bye to my long time partner, my very reliable Subaru Legacy GT wagon. Too many miles on the clock (over 200k), while it still can get me from point A to point B and still works really well on slippery roads, the engine is a bit tired. Thank you for getting me through harsh New England and Midwest winters.

Winter Break Continues

My vacation has ended and I am back to work. However my break from the workbench will not end for at least 1 more month. I lost last weekend to company meeting in Florida. I am not complaining about it especially when the temperature in Chicago last week did not go above 10°F. And because of work, I probably will not have any chance to sit in front of my workbench in the next 5 weeks. :(

Anyway, got these from the postman last week, which gave me a little bit of warmth in this brutal winter.

One for Lewis and the other Nico!

Recent Acquisitions

Again, not much to report on the progress of the Williams FW29. Only managed to clean a couple of white metal pieces.

Somehow, Amazon's algorithm has gotten smart enough to know that I am interested in 1/43 model cars and suggested to me the book titled "In The Beginning: The Early Days of 1/43 Modeling" by Wayne E. Moyer. I think it would be an interesting book to read. I will have a report once I finished reading it.

Originally, I was planning to participate again in WS43-san's "Everyone Let's Build" project this year. The subject is Mazda. When asked about which car is the most well known Mazda race car? The answer has to be the 787B that won Le Mans in 1991. So, I hunt down 2 787B kits, one from Provence Moulage and the other from Starter. And I bought reference materials. Then life threw me a big curve ball and I have to drop the plan. Now that things have settled down, it is already October and at my building speed, there is absolutely no way that I can complete building anything before the deadline. I hope I will be able to join the project again next year.

Anyway, one of those reference materials that I bought was a book on Japanese Group C cars. Back then, other than Mazda, Nissan and Toyota were also competing in FIA Group C. There is a special article on Toyota's effort and it is from there that I learned about Toyota 94C-V. The car competed in Le Mans in 1994, almost winning 1st place overall,  ended up finishing 2nd overall and took 1st place in LMP1 class. So when I came across a kit from Starter on eBay, I just could not resist the urge to buy.

 

Something old, something new

Finally I got the Tameo TG183b, now sitting side by side with the SRC one.

Comparing to the SRC, the newer Tameo kit has more detail and has photo-etched and turned metal parts, as well as an instruction booklet printed in color.

Not much progress with the FW29 since I was out of town. I went to attend a friend's wedding in Austin, TX.

Worked on a couple of pieces of photo-etched parts, that's about it.

Monday is Moon Festival and I am ready (to eat moon cake).

Toleman

Toleman TG183b is a very unique car with front wing mount radiators. More importantly, it was the first F1 car that Senna raced in. For a long time, the only Toleman TG183b kit made in 1/43 scale was by SRC. I was lucky enough to have one in my inventory after a long search. Like any other old kits, SRC kits are not that precisely made. Finally, Tameo is making a kit and my supplier just notified me that it's on the way! Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Good Old Days - My High School Years

I couldn't help but ordered these 1/12 scale classroom desks and chairs set from Hasegawa. Yes, it is the model airplane company and they do make things other than airplanes (or cars). They are intended for 1/12 scale figures.

Although I went to high school in Hong Kong, the classroom desks that I used to use were exactly like these. Since Hong Kong was following the British system, we have 6 years of primary school (elementary Grade 1 through 6). 5 years secondary school (combination of middle school and high school, grades 7 through 11). Then we have to take a public exam, kind of the equivalent of O-Level in UK. Upon passing that, you then can spend 2 years in University Preparation, equivalent to A-Level in UK, 12th and 13th grade.

After spending 6 years in the same school, you pretty much are not afraid of the teachers anymore. It was a different time. Looking back what we thought were crazy back then weren't outrageous at all. And what we considered as serious violations of the code of conduct are child's play in the eyes of kids nowadays.

Back then, in the name of learning English and learn about current affairs, the school kind of forced us to subscribe to an English newspaper. And the news paper gave each student subscriber a deck of vocabulary cards as a gift. We turned the vocabulary cards into a set of mahjong. When a teacher came in to the classroom and question why we were being noisy and what were we doing? We showed the teacher the vocabulary cards and told them that we were brushing up our English vocabulary.

Those were good times.

A moment of weakness

Not long ago, I learned about the existance of this kit. Just like the 2009 to 2011 Energy Drink that gives you wings team's, due to licensing issue, the kit maker cannot use the real names. But you probably can tell from the box dimension who the maker is.

While I am not really a fan of the 2012 F1 cars with the platypus noses, the fact that an Asian driver managed to drive this car to a 3rd place finish in a Grand Prix is something special. I saw this on the bay, kept on telling myself that I should not even bid on it, at the end I just can't keep myself from clicking on the "place bid" button.

Update (1/21/2014):

He's back in F1! Caterham was not competitive in the past couple of seasons. But with the 2014 rule change, I hope that serves as an equalizer. Can't wait to watch the 2014 season unfold!

The Newey-March/Leyton House Trilogy is about to begin!

Both the 881 and 891 are here! After 901, it'll be the 891 and then 881. (As usual, plan subject to change). Sorry McLaren M7A, you will not get any work done in the foreseeable future.

Attention Deficit Disorder

The main reason that I have not been updating the blog was because of the moving. I was too fed up with the old apartment being flooded too many times. Looking for a new place, packing and moving took up most of my time. Now that things are more or less settled down, hopefully, I'll be able to finish up the Audi, and start building something else.

When I was packing, I was shocked to see the number of kits that I have. And I thought they are enough to deter me from buying new kits. That was true for a short while. And very quickly, I have forgotten.

Last week, I saw the news that Tameo's accepting orders for built Red Bull RB9 German Grand Prix, I know they're going to release the kit soon. So, I placed my order with my supplier even before Tameo's announcement! It will take some time before it is ready to ship. I can wait. May be the next project will be building RB6, RB7, RB8 and RB9 all at once?

Le Mans

Today is an important day in motor sports - 90th anniversary of Le Mans 24 hours. Coincidentally, it's also Marty's shop's 20th anniversary. I went down to his store, the usual gang of military modelers were there, and Mary prepared snacks for everyone.

Lot's of stuff are on sale, but I wasn't planning to buy anything. Unfortunately, Marty all of a sudden took out a bottle of champagne. After a glass of bubbly, I felt obligated to buy something. I went up to the 1/43 selves and saw this Renaissance kit of 1997 Gulf Racing McLaren GTR-LM. The number 41 car took 2nd overall and 1st in GT1 class. A perfect kit for the day.

1984 Toleman TG183B!

For a long time, I didn't even know that someone made a Toleman TG183B. It's the car that Senna had his F1 debut. I came to know of this kit's existence when I stumble upon a built version being offered online some where. Came across a seller who wanted to unload this, and there is no way I can say no.

Not even June and I bought 3 kits already. I am in trouble.

The team formerly known as Toleman/Benetton/Renault and the real deal

© LAT Photographic

Last weekend, we saw Kimi Raikkonen won the 2013 season opener in Australia with the team formerly known as Toleman/Benetton/Renault. I was sleep deprived. Malaysian GP will be on in a couple of days. Let's see if pretend to be Lotus can repeat!

Talking about Lotus, the MFH 1/43 Lotus 79 order came in today. So, I used up another unit of my 2013 quota. With the MFH kit, I actually have 2 full detail Lotus 79. On the left, the Tameo WCT version of Lotus 79, found that in auction last year or may be 2011. On the right, the brand new MFH Lotus 79.

Not sure when I will get to them, but I will definitely put these 2 together. May be I should build them into the 1978 Holland GP version where Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson finished 1-2.

2013 Quota minus 1

©Reuters

I promised myself to limit my 1/43 kit purchasing to 5 this year. By dividing 365 by 5, the answer is 73. On the average, I can only make one purchase every 73 days. Today is March 5, which is day 64 of year 2013. And I broke down and bought my first kit in 2013 (considering shipping, I probably won't get it before March 14, i.e. day 73). Last year, I had this idea of gathering the all the cars that won the driver's championship since 2000. For a long time, the only missing piece was 2006's Renault R26 driven by Fernando Alonso. There is one on the bay for a long time, but the seller's selling price and shipping charge is just too high. Then another one show up with free shipping and is the British GP version with the very cool looking tiger livery. So, I simply do not have any excuse not to buy it.

Blame it on the magazine

I wanted to subscribe (electronically) to F1 Racing magazine for a long time. It has been available on Zinio for a long time, but since I started several magazine subscription on Apple's iTunes store, I just do not want to create and manage yet another account. So, when I found out that the magazine is available through Apple, I subscribed immediately.

The October issue cover featured all the living F1 Champions. And since it was also the 200th issue of the magazine, it has an article on all the constructor's champion machines since the magazine's 1st issue.

And I did not know what happened, all of a sudden, I just want to have a collection of champion machines from 2000 to 2010. A quick inventory check showed that I already have:
2000 Schumacher Ferrari F2000
2005 Alonso Renault R25
2007 Raikkonen Ferrari F2007
2008 Hamilton McLaren MP4/23
2010 Vettel Red Bull RB6 

So, I bought a Ferrari F2001, F2002 and F2004 from eBay. I am still looking for a
2003 Schumacher F2003GA
2006 Alonso Renault R26
2009 Button Brawn BGP001

And of course, the biggest news lately was Hamilton moving to Mercedes followed by Schumacher's re-retirement. Then I saw an article in CAR Magazine contrasting the Schumacher's Benetton B192 (1st GP win) and the latest Mercedes W03. Then I saw a B192 on eBay... Sigh...

So, for the past month, I bought 5 more, but didn't even finish 1. It's all the magazine's fault!

Internet, eCommerce and Logistics

I was kind of an Otaku when I was growing up (I probably still am one), I read comic books, watch anime, build plastic models. My dad's office was in a complex attached to a shopping mall with shops and restaurants. Every now and then, we will go there to meet dad for lunch on Saturday. I especially like to go there because there is a Japanese department store, Tokyu 東急, inside that mall. So, when we were waiting to get seated in the restaurant, I would sneak to the book store section and check out the comic books, anime magazines and hobby magazines.

Back then when there was no internet, no eCommerce, selection of goods were only limited to what the stores' purchasing department thought they could sell. If a particular comic book or magazine was not on the shelf or in the rack, you are out of luck. In terms of model kits, shops only carry popular items. I still remember one Christmas, I had my eye on a MIG25 kit from Revell for months, but didn't have money to buy. Right before the holiday when I finally got money from my parents to buy myself a gift, the MIG25 was gone and I was very very disappointed. I read Hobby Japan every now and then. That's where I learned about all these cool resin or vinyl garage kits. But most hobby stores did not want to carry those items.

Fast forward to now. We have eBay, companies have their own webstores, there is Amazon. Then there are shipping companies like FedEx, UPS, DHL, or post office's EMS. Buying things from the opposite side of the globe is so much easier. As long you have a computer and a credit card, you can pretty much buy anything from anywhere. As a result...

Fresh from MFH, 1/43 1972 Lotus 72D Italian Grand Prix version. Reference book from MFH's Joe Honda Pictorial Series, Lotus 72 1970-72.

More leisure reading materials: Model Art's Auto Modeling vol. 27 and Motor Fan illustrated F1 Technology 4.

All freshly delivered from the other side of the world. Don't you think technology is amazing?

Iceman Returns

Fresh from Italy, brand new Lotus E20 for Kimi Raikkonen's return to F1! The current Lotus F1 is not the same team that Colin Chapman found. Today's Lotus F1 actually originated as Toleman, which became Benetton, and then Renault.

 

This is not the only Lotus that I bought this month. I also ordered a MFH made Lotus 72D Type B Italian GP version. Still have the Lotus 79 on the shelf...