Hello gents,
Thanks for dropping by -
Yes, no doubt like many of you, this guy is still home quarantined - I've joked via text with guy that owns my neighborhood bar that he should open a speakeasy - mask and gloves required for entry. In the meantime, limited social interaction, and time to do other stuff, like building models. It's raining out, so only indoor photos for now, as the Zakspeed is done.
Mike, long time no talk, yep, this guy is still building, and I'm guessing you are too! I've stepped out of (my) armor for a while, haha - thanks for stopping by.
Hi Joel, yes, this car, as it turns out, is widely recognized to have been as failure, which is too bad, it sure looks nice! As for the trumpets, straight from the junkbox - I thought I'd use them for something else. I don't have any machining tools, except some files, cutters, pin vices, an etch bender, and time! I saw a blog about a guy remilling a Ferrari engine in his garage!! Milling, welding cylinder walls and ports - unbelievable! really inspired me to do something a bit more adventurous!
Michael! I'm glad you noticed the rivets!! I think bolt heads would have been better, but I simply don't have tiny metal bolt "blanks" on hand - the shaft on the rivets is .5 mm in diameter - good enough for this!
Hi Damian, I can't say this kit is a complete dog, but it's not great - at all. Better luck with yours! The most recent feature has been parts snapping off with random predictability!! I don't think I've ever had to drill and pin so many parts on a kit - - alas, as I have time, why not??
Hi David, well, one down! and more to go - It seems I'll be stuck here at the home office for a while, as many work projects have ground to a halt....I had one call today, discussing how we'll try and crank up again in a couple of weeks. I'm involved with land planning and development, and while the big concern is the health risk, the "other" big concern is what's happened to the market in the last two weeks, and what might eventually happen. For now model building.
Hi Gabriel, glad this is proving interesting. While not as bad as your Ferrari to build, this has featured an abundance of tedious problems. That said, it's a $20 kit....not a Fujimi or Tamiya - it has reminded me of how good they are though!
Hi Jesper, You know, I've thought that myself from time to time. Once the paint and body goes on, a lot of that detail and nice visual character is lost. As you'll see below, with paint - the wires "disappear" -
Ok, on with some photos - sadly, only from indoors, but even then, you'll see this turned out pretty well. You'll also see - photo proof, that primer color makes a difference. My plan was to paint all of this red, then add white body color decals. Unhappily most of the body color decals were wrecked, so, I decided to paint those on. Still good, a bit of bleeding, but not much. Except, for the main body I used pink primer, while for the rear cowl, I used, grey...and lets see what happened:
OK, of course the server is slow again..I'll be here for a half an hour posting! alas, the guy still has time on his hands...perfect...and still waiting for the server...after a long wait- I'm going for a speed post of the Zakspeed:
In spite of being a mediocre kit, and my (successful) attempts to screw up the paint, not a bad first F1 kit for me! If this were a better kit, or one that I had some enthusiasm about, I could have reworked the paint on the cowl - nah, it's done.
I am pleased with the engine, the bit of unfinished metal, added detail, combined with a generous mix of variations in black paint, give it a better than the kit is look. The seat belts are really old from Eduard - Sparco I think. They give the kit the "finished look". As for the wheels - those of you who have seen my F150 will recognize that nice copper color - not at all authentic, I just like it. Of course, I've since changed that color out of the F150 - lol
So one down.
Next up, a Fujimi, 1/20 scale Ferrari 126 C2, with the bonus feature of an "FMD" detail kit. I've never heard of FMD, but found this kit with all sorts of etch, white metal and resin on sale, at what looked like a really low price, which led me to finding the Ferrari kt. In total, the cost was about $120. So, on we go - First up, some of the lower body/chassis/monocoque:
The lower body is boxy, with a facade of nicely detailed photoetch. This applique will stay unpainted. In this strange photo, you can see both exterior (foreground) and interior conditions. I show this because inevitably, when I attach big sheets of etch to plastic, I will at some point, accidentally "flick it" off. So, to combat that problem, I did three things:
1) rough up the inside of the etch with a file and sand paper - creating as coarse a surface as I can;
2) rough up the surface of the plastic which the etch will be glued to with a steel brush; and,
3) you can see on the far side of the photo, a large portion of the exterior facing etch hangs below the body plastic, where I added several lead foil "tabs" glued to both the plastic and inside of the etch.
This might seem like a bit much, but there's few things that annoy this guy more than accidentally flicking the etch off the car, once the body is painted!!! Think about the rear etch fins on 917k's and GT40 MK Iv's - I managed to "flick" these off on both kits!!
The kit came with a one piece front wing, and multi piece for the rear. They look fine. But, the FMD kit comes with the opportunity to use etch AND white metal for both! woohoo. For the nose wing, the central section of the plastic part needs for be carved out, then, two pairs of holes need to be drilled into the sides of the nose, to receive the wings and some etch. Of course, the instructions don't mention this "little" step in the process, so this guy was being challenged.
As for the rear wing assembly, all FMD stuff, vague instructions, oh, and me needing to tediously drill 8 small holes (only needed three bits!!) through the two layers of etch on each side, then drilling matching holes in the white metal wings...and finally, inserting and gluing 8 metal pins to hold it all together. Oh, except for the top wing, which is, well, eyeballed and glued. Piece of cake....
Within the actual monocoque, there is an ample supply of details and opportunity to use more of the thin wire. So I did. Believe it or, not, there is more wire to add, but I'll do that after paint.
As I seem to be tackling one tedious project after another, I thought, "hey - lets assemble the white metal wheels - how hard can that be?" well, read on:
Yeah, so the plastic kit wheels (right) and nice rubber tires are wider than the multi part, fancy pants white metal wheels (left)...perfect
As is often the case, Evergreen to the rescue! Flat for the front wheels, on end for the rear, and how to install it:
Above, you can see "just" curve the plastic to match the rim, and keep it curving to match the radius, and glue it down. As with the etch body parts, I really don't want these to flick off, so back to adding metal pins. This was easier said than done. The rim wall are thin - so, I drilled #78 pilot holes, followed by #72 holes, for metal rods. Good times. This followed by cleaning up the edge to the extent practical, and filling any gaps.
As seen above, the results are pretty good.
Next steps - I haven't decided - Maybe prime and paint the monocoque upper and lower halves? It will also receive a ONE piece etch facade - over the entire thing! This guy is nervous about that simple task...It needs to be done though, as most of the Fujimi front suspension will be replaced by FMD etch and white metal. The brackets for the new suspension, will be attached to the etch monocoque shell.
As this is not quite as anxiety inducing as an MFH kit, it is giving me a run for a lot less money. I'm hoping this process will sharpen my skills so I can eventually try another MFH kit!
Stay well model guys -
Cheers
Nick
