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

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.

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.

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.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Happy 2012.

I thought the Alfa Romeo would be my last kit purchased in 2011.
I was wrong.
Before the year 2011 ended, I purchased 2 more Meri kits from the bay. 1985 Tyrrell 014 and 1991 Ferrari 643. I am hopeless.

 

Tyrrell 014

Ferrari 643

And New Year's day morning, I snatched up 2 more kits from Tameo. Continuing my quest of collecting backmarkers, I grabbed a Brabham BT55 and a Leyton House CG901. So, 2012 started pretty well so far.

Brabham BT55

Leyton House CG901

Brabham BT55 was Gordon Murray's last car at Brabham before he moved to McLaren and helped Steve Nichols to design the very successful MP4/4. Leyton House CG901 was Adrian Newey's design before he got fired by the team in the summer of 1990. Newey joined Williams that same year and the rest was history.

Wish whoever reading this all the best in 2012!

Yeah, it's an addiction

Sigh... Couldn't help myself. I Bought another kit from the bay. Another addition to my collection of also ran backmarkers, a 1984 Alfa Romeo T184. Benetton ditched Tyrrell and sponsored Alfa Romeo in 1984 and 1985. Then the money went to Toleman and eventually Benetton bought Toleman and formed Benetton Formula 1.

In the Name of Glory

Was told by Marty that both Lauda's (Ferrari 312T2) and Hunt's (McLaren M23) for the 1976 season are available from Tameo. One is a WCT and the other is a Super Kit. But Tameo being typical Italian, they're having their winter break, so I probably won't get to see the kits until end of February 2012. (Well, at my rate, I may still be working on the Simtek S951)

The 1976 season was a fascinating one. To get to know more about their story, I recommend reading Tom Rubython's In the Name of Glory. Read half of it on the flight to California. Really interesting story about how the 1976 season unfold, what was going on behind the scenes. Rivalry within each team fighting to be the number 1 driver (Lauda vs Regazzoni and Hunt vs Mass). It also tells Lauda and Hunt's personal story during that year.

Also, famous director Ron Howard is working on a movie of the same story of the 1976 Grand Prix season. Don't know when it'll be released, but I really look forward to seeing it in the theater.

Simtek S951 4

This is probably the last update of the Simtek S951 build for the year 2011. I'll be "home" for Christmas and won't be back in my workshop till 2012.

The side deflector plates are photo etched instead of cast (as in the case of the BBR Ferrari F399). Tameo provided a jig to bend it to shape. But there are these 2 little support at the bottom that need to bend at a right angle to the plate. I broke one off by mistake. And unfortunately, the piece flew off and disappeared. So I have to fabricate using the Photo Etch stem and solder it back.

The seat belt harness is painted and is now on the seat, just need to put the decals on. Top of air box is painted white, inside got a coat of flat black. The picture shows a test fit, it'll still need the dash, steering wheel, and head rest on before closing up the body. But that will be for 2012.
 

Simtek S951 3

The last time I went to Marty's store and chat with the guys there, I learned a new airbrushing trick - use lacquer thinner to cut acrylic paint! Yes lacquer thinner. I added a bit more clear and lacquer thinner to the Tamiya X-16 and sprayed the car body. So now they looks like Barney the dinosaur. After it is dried, the body will need some polishing, then I'll need to spray the top of the air-box white and the inside of the body with flat black.

The base got a coat of flat black.

The wheels, head rest, front wing, front and rear brake cooling duct all received a coat of matt black. The rear wing needed more work. First the side plates were sprayed purple, dried and then masked before spraying flat black on the inside of the side plates and the 2 horizontal wing elements.

The 4 Brembo brakes with gold calipers were also put together.

Simtek S951 2.5

Well, I am still waiting for the primer to dry before I can continue work on the car's body.

Simtek is one of those short lived F1 teams, but they've been around long before they compete in F1. They have been an engineering consulting firm which was founded by Max Mosley (yeah, that Max Mosley) and Nick Wirth. The F1 competed in 1994 and (part of) 1995. Simtek was an unlucky team. 1994 San Marino GP, everybody remember that because of Senna's death. But not many people still remember the day before Senna's crash, rookie Roland Ratzenberger was killed during practice in the Simtek S941. The team finished the 1994 season without scoring 1 single point. In 1995, MTV the main sponsor of the team cut back their sponsorship and then other sponsorship deals all fell through. The team only competed in the first 5 races and then went belly up.

The team was only in existence for 18 months.

 

Simtek S951 2

All holes are drilled. The body pieces cleaned up. And a coat of white primer on.

Suspension arms were bent. Rear wing partially assembled.

Could have done a bit more, but I'm a bit lazy.

Simtek S951 1

Debated a little bit which kit I should work on. At the end, I picked the relatively simple kit of Simtek S951 1995 San Marino G.P.

Got most holes drilled. And now is just cleaning up all the flashings and fix any body imperfection.

Bigger issue ahead is to get the right purple paint. The paint chip provided is some kind of metallic purple. Not quite sure what to do yet. May be I'll just use an off the shelf non-metallic purple.

After 1 whole evening of elbow grease, got the body cleaned up.

Williams FW07/FW07B Complete

I think I am done. Overall a good learning experience. Building this S.R.C. kit made me appreciate the thought that Tameo put in when designing their kits even more. For one thing I think all kits should come with 2 sets of decals. Wheels should be turned machine parts rather than cast pieces. The mistakes I made in building this kit caused me to salvage parts from the FW07 kit. So, instead of 2, I only have 1 car built.

Another note - I did it again. Went down to Marty's store and picked up a Tameo SLK015 BAR 006

Idle

Just found out my current project at work will be wrapping up this week. So, I pretty much can resume my Williams FW07/FW07B full time! So, it's actually possible to finish before end of the year!

Read about the upcoming movie that director Ron Howard was shooting in the latest issue of F1 magazine. A movie about the 1976 GP season and the Rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda. On top of that I just got the Model Art Extra Auto Modeling vol. 23 on 70's F1 cars. One project idea came up, build the McLaren M23 and Ferrari 312T2 that Hunt and Lauda drove in the 1976 season. Tameo made both kits, but both of them are super kits. Not sure if I have the skill and patience. But I just shot an email to my supplier to see if they are available.If not, I am out of luck. Even if they have them, the lead time is going to be 2 months.

Meanwhile, I'll be building my 3 recent purchases: Tyrrell 023, Simtek S951 and Benetton B189b.