successes

Well, first of all, Robert Kubica won his first F1 race this past weekend while in Canada! I was lucky enough to catch it live with a couple of friends in Krakow.

On to the model, I'm really close to painting, so I thought I better do some quick research to make sure I plan to paint it right.

The instructions say to paint the lower element of the rear wing all black. As can be seen in these two photos, the top of the lower element is black and the bottom or rear is white.




The instructions would also have me paint the aerodynamic element around the gearbox black, but it should be white, as seen in this picture my dad took.



Here is a view of the putty work I did to get the sidepods to fit.



The sidepods kept on flexing slightly, so I glued this plastic brace in, to keep them from flexing. If the putty cracks again because of the flexing sidepods, so be it, I'm not going to chase this part of the kit forever, especially when it already looks so good.



Before and after pics.






I'm ready to paint. I haven't sprayed the first coat of primer today because I need to pick up some good scotch tape that doesn't leave glue behind when you remove it, and it's way too windy on my balcony today. I'll spray the first coat of primer sometime this week.

Total: 35 h

actual real painting!

Not a whole lot to do here, I've got to wait for the putty to cure on the monocoque through the weekend, so I did a little bit of tinkering.

Here, another component of the engine is glued together



Then, I painted my first parts flat aluminum. This paint is spectacular, but very thin, it will take a couple of coats on the engine block and radiators.



Finally, prepared the steering wheel for painting.



Total: 32.5 h

Cutting the last parts from the tree

Ever closer to the first coat of primer and some assembly...the only part that remains to be cut from the parts tree is the steering wheel.

Below are the ready for painting wheels, a couple winglets, rear-view mirros and monocoque bits.



This is the underside of the lower element of the rear wing. I successfully managed to putty up some mold ejection pin marks.



Total: 31.5 h

Lots of work

Well this was a hard day. For the second time in my life, I lost a job that I never actually started due to work permit crap. So, I spent a few hours sanding. I had everything perfect, when I did a test fitting. Fitting the monocoque to the undertray flexes the sidepods, and made the now smoothed out putty crack at the mating point between the sidepods and the monocoque. I ran a touch of glue along this seam and let it dry, with the sidepods flexed out. Then I smoothed it over with a little bit of putty again.

If anyone ever asks me, if I have ever balanced a Samsung subwoofer on top of a 1:24 scale F1 model, I can now say yes.



I did this so that the putty would dry with the sidepods flexed fitted to the undertray for a couple of days. I'll probably come back to this next week and do the final sanding and polishing before the first coat of primer.



I have to say everything looks great, everything looks like it will fit together fantastically, and I'm really enthused to see how the first coat of primer comes out, more good things to come!

Total: 29.5 h

Engine

Couldn't keep my hands off the kit tonight, so I prepared the engine and radiators for painting.



This is a curbside kit, so the engine is pretty unimportant. The exhaust headers will be visible through the ventilation slats on the top of the sidepods, so they are necessary, and what better to connect them to than an engine. Looks a little sloppy and out of scale to me, but whatever, you won't even see it on the completed model.



Total: 25.5 h

Rear wing and last putty application

Today, I made the last, but most cosmetically important applications of putty to smooth out seams in the mating surfaces between the monocoque and the sidepods.



I also applied just a dab of putty on the underside of the sidepods, where they will mate with the gearbox. It's just been driving me nuts that it doesn't create a tight fit.



I'll also do a little touchup of the pilons that connect the front wing to the nose.



Then there is the matter of the diffuser.



I prepared the rear wing assembly for painting.



Here are a couple of test fittings.




The underside of the lower rear wing plane had a couple of mold ejection pin marks molded into it. After a test fitting, it was evident that these marks would be visible from underneath, so we'll smooth those out too.



Total: 23.5 h

It's beginning to look a lot like a F1 car

I glued together a couple more parts of the diffuser today, this is a particulary difficult part of this kit to get right.



I think I got it straight




I also did a bit of work on the roll hoop, sanding smooth the putty I used to get it to mate up with the engine cover. I used the backside of a hobby knife to straighten up the lines between the roll hoop and the engine cover.




Then I filed the engine cover a bit in the back on the lefthand side to get it to mate up with the gearbox better. This now looks real nice.



Finally, I did another test fitting of the kit after preparing the seat for painting.





Total: 22.5h