Windshield, mirrors and wheel nuts

Those are the outstanding items. Almost done. Almost done.

Almost, but not quite

 

Getting close to the end of the tunnel. But man, the front wing was a disaster. I should have done a better test fit in the very beginning. It took me the whole evening to fit and put the front wing together. Then it was the little extensions from the front wing end plates interfere with the lower front suspension arms. Again, it took me a while to figure out the angles of the arms were wrong. And while I was trying to get the wing and suspension pieces together, I rubbed off most of the metal transfers. It will be a task for tomorrow, to reapply the metal transfers. May be I can finish it before Chinese New Year!

I hate seat belts

 

Got the rear suspension together and the shoulder belts done. Man, I hate doing the belts. Using the photo etched belt pieces would be a lot easier, but the cloth belts just look so much better. I bought this Z Model racing harness set from an online retailer. Thank you エヌエフさん who recommended the Z Model harness. Originally, I was going to use it on the BAR 006, but was too frustrated because of the clear coat and decal incident. This is the first time I try. The buckles are so darn small. And in the process, I lost 3 buckles. They are probably on the carpet, looking for them would be just like finding a needle in a haystack. This is what the Ferrari looks like now. (And by the way, on a brand new cutting mat).

High School, Manga/Comic, Baseball

I started reading manga since maybe around 1st grade. There's a monthly kids magazine that has Doraemon in it. Of course it was translated to Chinese, I didn't start learning Japanese until after college.

I started reading Adachi Mitsuru's あだち充 manga maybe around my first year in secondary school (7th grade in US System). It was because of his work Miyuki みゆき being published in a weekly manga magazine in Hong Kong. Unlike Japan, nobody play baseball in Hong Kong. So, there was no market for baseball manga such as Touch! タッチ. So it was not published until a TV station in Hong Kong started broadcasting the anime version of Touch! I was about maybe 11th grade or 12th grade at that time. I was watching the story of Kazuya 上杉和也, Tatsuya 上杉達也 and Minami 浅倉南 unfold, and learning the game of baseball at the same time. (That really helped me when I moved to US and watch MLB)
Recently, I came across a picture like the one above. Saw the Meisei 明青 uniform, two guys and a girl, very familiar composition, but it is not Touch! It's actually a new series call Mix. Baseball, Meisei High School, "Twin Brothers", brother and a sister with no blood relation... Isn't it a hybrid of Touch! and Miyuki? No wonder it is called Mix. I guess it will probably have the same old story line and nothing new.

The sad thing is Touch! was published twenty something years ago. I was a young high school kid back then. Now, I am just a middle aged dude. I still read manga, I still watch anime, and I still build models. Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Today is Superbowl Sunday, no building today. Only Food, drink and TV is allowed.

Progress

After putting together the Gantt Chart of almost all the tasks, I have been making small progress every day.

Just now, I put the transmission together and mounted it to the body, installed the dash and steering wheel, painted and installed the headrest. That's enough for the day. I should go outside, even though it is below freezing right now. That's the price I have to pay for living in Chicago.

Project Management

May be it is time to start using the project management tools to manage my building projects. So, I put together a work plan in MS Projects. I guess, the earliest I can finish the Ferrari would be 3rd week of February.

Never too late to get new reference material

Even though Tameo's assembly instructions had improved a lot, still there is no substitute for reference photos.
Despite the fact that I am quite far along in the Ferrari 641 build, I got this:

Get back on the horse

It took exactly a week, my apartment is finally back together. Cabinets put back, walls patched and repainted, floor and carpet cleaned.

Just when I had a routine going to build my cars little by little, it was interrupted by the busted pipe. Now I need to get my routine back. So, I started to work on the Audi again. Just some decal work, but it's a start.

Excuse

With all these noisy machines running and the mess in my apartment, I just needed to get away from the house. So I went to Marty and Mary's store to kill time on Saturday.

As usual, by the time I arrived, the military model gang were already there. Military model is the main business of the shop, and they have a wide variety of military kits, detailing parts, reference materials from every manufacturer. Besides military stuff, they have some really special car stuff. At least in the US, you almost never find any 1/43 scale kits in any store, so it is really rare that they have some Tameo, Provence Moulage, Renaissance and Starter stuff in stock. Moreover, they have Make Up (from Japan), Feeling 43, Profil 24 and a couple of 1/20 BBR resin kits. Since I was the only customer in store who appreciate these things, Mary was digging into the shelves and was showing me all sorts of kits, decals, transkits. Then she pulled out something which the clear plastic packaging has already turned yellow:

This is a 1/87 1996 Porsche GT1 from Le Mans Miniatures. The car that placed 2nd overall and 1st in class during its debut year. Once I saw it, I knew I must have it. I'll need a microscope to put it together.

Although I said I am limiting myself to buy only 5 kits in 2013, this is not in 1/43 scale so it does not count. This is the excuse I gave myself.

Flood on the 25th floor (updated with pictures)

No, it was not like a biblical flood that Lake Michigan's water level went up and the entire Chicago was under water.

Yesterday morning started out just like any other morning when I don't need to travel. I woke up, showered and head downstairs to get my cup of coffee. When I was waiting for the elevator, I heard the sound of water gushing behind the door to the electrical closet in the hallway. I thought, "That's not good."

Later, I found out that it happened again, this is the second time in 2 years that a water pipe broke and flooded the building. This time is 33rd floor. This time around, at least my carpet was not soaked. They found moisture behind the dry wall of my kitchen and bathroom. So, they have to pull the kitchen cabinets, the stove and the refrigerator out, poke holes in the wall, brought in an industrial size dehumidifier and a whole bunch of fans to dry it out.

Now, I don't have a kitchen to cook. My bathroom sink is blocked. And I have big noisy pieces of machines running 24 hours. At least, I do not have to be evacuated to a shelter.

This is going to further slow down my already slow pace of building my model cars. 

Little by little

Baby steps. Little by little. Eventually, it will be done.
Last night was putting the radiator to the body. Today, just put the brake calipers on the brakes.

Self torture

I started to think all of us who build 1/43 scale cars have mental issues. We enjoy torturing ourselves.

Why did I say that? I will explain.

Today, Tameo and MFH could be the only companies that produce precision white metal cast parts. But precise is a relative term, they are no where close to mass produced injection molded plastic kits. This is the result of limited resources of most of these companies, and the limited amount of development time in creating these kits. Now, CAD and desktop rapid prototyping is becoming affordable, kits can be more accurate.

This Audi kit is pretty old, and the quality is not that great. There are so many things that are messed up. Even though since day 1 I have been fixing one thing after another, I found myself getting more and more excited about building it. I have been spending more time on it than the Ferrari! So, why am I doing this? My only conclusion is that I simply enjoy torturing myself.

Back to the build. I got most of the stuff fixed and test fitted the major pieces. Looks ok so far. For the body, there is a boss right underneath the hood. Because of that, a dimple was formed. Got the dimple as well as numerous little dings and dents fixed with putty. I also drilled and pinned the rear spoiler for mounting. Then I sprayed a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1200. That's about all for tonight.

Guilt

Felt like I have been having too much fun playing with the Racing43 kit and have ignored the Ferrari. There is an old Cantonese Chinese saying that "New toilet smells nice for 3 days" to describe people always want to play with their new toys.

May be it is guilt, I switched back to work on the Ferrari tonight. I bought the Z Model harness kit for a while. The instruction sheet is not too clear. I tried to use it on the BAR 006 but failed. Thanks to a recent blog post of エヌエフさん's Lotus E20 build with a big and clear photo of how it is done, I now have a better idea how it is done.

So, I finished the lower 4 belts. I will do the 2 shoulder belts last. Enough work for the day. I was planning to spray a coat of clear on the body. Oh well, it will be a job for tomorrow.

Got bitten by the bug

If you saw the time stamp of my last post, it was quite late last night (or early morning today). January in Chicago is supposed to be cold. It was no exception this morning - below freezing and with gusty wind). On my way to church, I was only thinking about how comfortable the heated apartment is and THE ROLL CAGE.

Yes, when I call it a quit last night, the roll cage still needs 2 more members. I got home around noon, fixed myself some lunch and I started working. Cut 2 pieces of brass rods, bent and solder it to the cage.

So now the roll cage is done. Not a bad start. I may make more parts for this kit as I move along.

Eat my own words

Ok, I was only going to build the Audi out of the box, no fabrication of anything. Unfortunately, when I really look at the parts, I found this:

A broken and all banged up roll cage! Oh well, white metal is basically some sort of really soft alloy with tin and lead. And packaging is usually an after thought for all these little manufacturers. So, this kind of things happened.

I am going to try fabricate the roll cage out of bronze bars. In the old days, it would be an easy job since I have access to my tiny little machine shop at work. But now, I don't have clamps and jigs to hold things. We'll see how well I can get this thing made.

I went down to the art supply store, got some 3/64" brass rods, a bending jig, and got to work. Cut and bent a couple pieces, and solder them together. The result is not bad. It looks better then the cast white metal one that is for sure.