The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

With 60 holes to drill it was worth getting out. The collet's shaft unfortunately appears to be metric rather than the required 1/4 inch so a bit of masking tape was required to reduce wobble

That is a really good idea with the drill. I have been thinking for some time about finding a suitable small drill for modelling - you may have given me an idea.

Nice to see that others also manage to put new parts into the wrong places first time round..... very re-assuring!

Enjoying this immensely and your models are truly a delight!

The Great Auk

Thanks for the comments. Post extension work has taken up most of my holiday spare time, but I still intend to finish the Surtees for Huddersfield. One on the outstanding jobs is to paint the driver 'Jochen Mass'. I had hoped to make of mould from the parts for my other 1/32 race cars but I don't have the time or materials. So let's get on with him. He's been cleaned up.



but his helmet needs some mods, firstly the back is rather undercut and he needs a peak to his visor, both of which need scratch building.

Good to see the F-1 build back on the go, James and I'm looking forward to seeing 'Jochen' develop!

Twiddling with Jochen last night but nothing to show yet. Found this very useful reference though as almost all contempory photos show him driving from a distance so only the helmet is visible. Dark blue overall will make a nice contrast.

http://www.racephoto.de/fotos/fotos_por ... -01-01.JPG;

It wasn't just a flash in the pan I've managed two nights of modelling, helped by the fact my wife has needed to spend a couple of evening decorating a cake for a neighbour.

Jochen lost his head! For several reasons, I wanted to have the head turned slightly as if going into a corner, makes painting easier and he had no neck. As well as reshaping the back of the helmet I extended the chin area a little else his visor would squish his nose which is bound to affect his driving.



In some "Tower of London"-esque scene I've mounted all his body parts onto poles



Most of the time has been doing some very necessary replacement of the axel stubs for the front and rear wheels. The plastic was just too weedy, the wheels were a loose fit and the pins for wheel nuts were half the size they needed to be in all dimensions.

Before and after:





The kits axles were cut off and the mounts drill out to accept 1.5mm Al tubing, this in turn had been drill out to accept 1mm brass rod onto which the wheel nuts will fit. A bit fiddly as the tolerance were tight. Some vernier calipers helped greatly in keeping things accurate. The rod has not yet been added to the front wheel as I need to get the track width correct during final assembling. Test fit of the rear wheels:

Looking very good James.

Holy cow! Great looking motor!

What color do you use for the dark, almost black, metallic parts?

Softscience wrote:Holy cow! Great looking motor!

What color do you use for the dark, almost black, metallic parts?

Thanks. IIRC Valjeo Metal Color Burnt Iron. They are great acrylics metals as they can be hand brushed as well as airbrushed

Completed my first build of the year. Mark 1's lovely Hawker Hunter T7 in diddy 1/144 scale (must resist buying a T8) for the Hunter GB:

http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=382&t=16711;




What to start next, apart from knuckling down and getting the Surtess completed? The recently acquired Neptune is calling me especially as Dwomby has kindly set me various references, though it's not exactly shake and bake!

Very smart looking James. Especially for 1/144

Holy cow! 1/144? That looks sharp as a tack.

Nice Hunter, James. That Surtees engine and rear suspension module isn't shabby either!

Love the Hunter James; immaculate work in that small scale!