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March 22nd 2004
The second GP of the 2004 season has just ended, Schumacher again. Personally I am more interested in the machines rather than the pilots, since ten years ago.
Even the small aerodynamic changes are interesting to see. But of course the more
extreme changes are great for any F1 fanatic.
I've been working on some of those changes for existing kits like I wrote before. Some of these add-ons or conversions could be prepared for selling. But that would depend on the
demand.
Enjoy the GP's and maybe some historic events.
Januari 3rd 2004
First of all, best wishes to you all for the new year.
This site has been published since juli 2003 and was changed during late November to the present lay-out. I've had some very nice comments from you, and that has motivated me to keep inproving this site. All your ideas to improve the site are very welcome.
This year I hope to visit more races of the Thoroughbred Grand Prix series, and maybe the 50th aniversary of Classic Team Lotus.
Lots of luck to all of you.
Nov 29th 2003
New Layout
As you can see the layout has changed. More pictures have been added. All pictures published here are of my own collection. I have made them available on this site in 800 by 600 format. If you want to have them in a large format simply mail me. I send them to you, no charge.
Have fun with the pictures.
In the last couple of weeks/months a lot of new books heve been released about F1. Some with new information others with more of the old in a new layout. To name a few I've made a short list.
Lotus 78 and 79, by John Tipler
Formule 1 Topteams, by Paolo D'alessio
Lotus 72 formula one icon, by Michael Oliver
More have published, but these I found partically interesting. If your interested in the wingcars the first book is very good. It has a lot of information, not only of the 78 and 79 but also of the 80 and 88.
A must have for any Lotus freak.
Oct-12th-2003
F2002
The days are getting shorter, and colder. It's Fall and most of us spend more time in our homes during these days.Time to build those models that we still haven't built. Some of you might have bought the new kit of Revell, the Ferrari F2002. The discussions all over the world regarding this subject got pretty heated. It was going to be great, bad, rare, worthless, cheap, expensive........... It's arrived and from what I've seen and heard it seems worth the money. It has some strange features like the pre-painted parts and some inaccuracies. But when you can accept a lower quality than Tamiya for a reasonable price (compared to MG) I think it's a welcome change from the old kits. At least it's better than Heller and Protar. The only strange thing is the pre-painted parts. For the more experienced modeler it creates a totally new problem. How to remove this paint. The parts that still need to be cut will not have the same colour where it's cut. In order to get everything the same colour the paint has to be exactly the same. A second problem is that during the building process you will have to careful not to scratch the paint and third is the problem that you will need to remove the paint from the places where parts need to be glued. Even though it's not going to be easy, I believe it will be possible to make a very nice model. And if you want some extra details just wait with the building. There are going to be upgrade sets surely, there always are.
Be creative
There are many ways to approch a kit whem building it. You can spend as little time on it and build it straight from the box. But once you get more experience, you'll try to make it as close to the real thing as possible. Creating some parts that are not in the kit from scratch (connectors, radiators, electric lines etc.). But even then you run into the "problem" of needing a new challange and the number of 1/12 kits is limited.
So what do you do?
You start planning on building a model which you can create from an existing kit. There were some conversion kits in the past but most are out of production, so you have to get creative.
There are some possibilities. Some F1 teams build there cars and kept them running for several years with some modifications. For exemple:
Lotus 49
Lotus 72
McLaren M23
Brabham BT44
Brabham BT49
Ferrari 312T2
Ferrari 312T4
McLaren MP4/17
There are more, but I think I have made my point.
How can this help in finding new challenges? With some research you can build a model slightly different from the one in the kit. For exemple, you can take the Lotus 72D from Tamiya and convert it to the 72 from 1970 (from Jochen Rindt). Or, take the Yardley McLaren M23 and build the 1975 or the early 1976 versions. For an even greater challlenge you can convert it into the 1976 championship car of James Hunt (the one with low airbox and sidepods). These are some exemples of what you can do with experience, research and determination.
One more thing, the decals. For some conversions there are decal sets available (S27, F1 specialists). But you can also make your own decals. If you are an experienced builder and know how to use an airbrush you can paint a lot of the colorscemes. The Marlboro logo is very easy and you will only need the text which you can make on decal paper and an inkjet printer.
How far do you want to take it? As far as your imagination?
If you want, this could be one way of increasing your collection of 1/12 F1 kits. Maybe even doubling it. Here's a list with possible conversions because of the developement of the original car.
Tyrrell P34 => P34 '77 (Monaco version, closed cowling version)
Ferrari 312T4 => 312T5 (front suspension, bodywork, rear breaks)
Lotus 72D => Lotus 72 (wings, sidepods)
Yardley McLaren M23 => Marlboro M23 ('74 airbox, mirrors, decals)
Yardley McLaren M23 => Marlboro M23 ('75 front suspension, mirrors, decals, wings)
Yardley McLaren M23 => Marlboro M23 ('76 frons suspension, sidepods, airbox, wings)
Of course, the list could be much longer, maybe another time.
Some conversions are easy and others require extensive research. But to me that's part of the passion. One of the objectives for this site is to make a liabrary in which the detailed differences are available to all of you. Until then, don't let the big compagnies dictate what models you build.
Be creative and expend your collection.
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