A batch of new sculpts/ conversions in 43rd scale include, Senna, Hill, Clark, Hunt and Siffert.  The initial pose of each has been established with wire and Sylmasta.  I’m currently adding the surface detail of each one using Magic Sculp (for the first time) – we shall see?  Once refined, I’ll hopefully get my casting colleague (John Murphy) to work his “magic” on them and produce a limited run of each.  More detail on these later in the week, Cheers for now,

I’ve had problems getting to grips with magic Sculp so instead I’ve persevered with the Sylmasta to create the remaining features on the James Hunt figure including the helmet bib, hair line (which is way too big but I’ll calm it down with the dremmel and a scalpel blade) and bulking out the sleeves of the T shirt.   I’ll refine these further once hardened but so far it’s getting there,  (I think!).

 

I’m also planning a little Monaco Royal Box vignette so once again the denizen Spectators are being used to good effect as (Grace and Renier!).  The palace guard is a Trackpass figure with a bobby type helmet and plume added.  I’m adding a hat and bag to Grace and I think I’ll give both of them sunglasses for that all round “Royal” look!

Having discarded the rather crude ignition system which comes with the kit, I’ve done some work on scratchbuilding a reasonable replacement layout.  I took the reference photo’s of the real engine in the pits at the recent Silverstone Classic meeting.  It was great festival and it really delivered on it’s promise of “access all areas” so I was spoilt for choice in terms of the photograpic opportunities.  I first of all filled the head of the engine with Sylmasta putty into which I was able to drill ports for the plugs and the water manifolds.  I’ve implanted 12 pieces of short wire to represent the plugs onto which I will connect a length of ignition cable to each.  The cables run from a pair of distributor caps (which I’m replacing with ones from scratch plastic) on either side of the engine and then through metal trunking and onto the plug heads themselves.  The metal trunking is foil wrapped round plastic rod.  The plastic rod is slightly shorter than the foil in order to create a recess for anchoring the plug leads inside with some superglue.   I thought rather than having to plumb each individual lead through the trunking, that I would instead just drill through the foil/ plastic and insert a short length running to each plug – that’s the theory! As the kit only provides one waterflow manifold (for some odd reason), I’ve scratched another from plastic sprue (to be covered with putty) for attachment to the head.   More on this later.

In a slightly larger scale, I’m converting a 1/18 figure of Jacky Ickx (by Le mans Miniatures) to give him a more Paul Newman(ish) look!  A bit of carving and filling just might make him look more like the latter so that he can partner a 1/18 scale diecast by Kyosho of the 365GTB driven by the real Paul Newman at Daytona – once again, we shall see!

Not motorsport related but a group of resin figures in 1/32nd scale of Dad’s Army- ( the Pals Home Guard) from the fictional town of Walmington- on- Sea in WWII as depicted in the popular BBC series many years ago.  Since I posted the first of these figures some time ago, I’ve received many queries about how they are progressing.  So in addition the two figures I’ve started, (genial Godfrey and Sgt. Wilson) I’ve now asembled the remaining two of Cpl. Jones (fixing the cold steele) and their brave leader Capt. Manwaring.  All undercoated and awaiting further orders….!  More on these ones soon.

Hunt, Siffert, Hill, Clark and Senna are all pretty much ready for John Murphy to make the rubber moulds from.  Any imperfections or errors can be tidied up when the first castings are taken so I’ll get these off to John in the next couple of days and look forward to the results.  I’m getting to grips with using the Magic Sculp resin putty.  It has a lovely buttery consistency but I think it’s inclined to go-off a bit quicker than Milliput so one has to work quickly while it’s still soft.  I had a bit left over so I decided to use it up by tackling an Eddie Jordan look-alike using one of the Denizen spectator figures.  I had forgotten that I had already made some modifications (anatomically – say no more!) to one of the Denizen grid girls – to make her proportions in line with one of Eddies more famous promotional models (who curiously enough modeled under the name “Jordan” aka Katie Price) and was used to good affect by the marketing division of B& H when tobacco advertising was the life-blood of the sport – how things have changed!  So now I’ve ended up with “EJ” and “Jordan” – I’m sure Mr Murphy might enjoy adding these two to his production run – more later!…..

With the main modifications and scratchbuilding finished, I’m just dryfitting the components of the Maserati engine to see how they look.  The changes and additions seem to me to capture the key elements I was looking for, so next stop is to get started on painting; something I haven’t done for a couple of months now and I’m very much looking forward to it, Cheers,

I eventualy got some painting done yesterday (the first for a very long time). I finally got painting Gilles Villeneuve to represent him after his first Ferrari win (which was fittingly achieved in Montreal in 1978) using a modified 1/20 GF- Models figure in resin.  I just have to add the helmet visor and give the figure a couple of coats of matt varnish and it should be complete.

In 1/43rd scale, Renier and Princess Grace have both been to the Opticians and as a result are soporting nice 9Royal) eye protection from the Monte Carlo sun!  After painting, they should then be able to take their rightful places in the Royal Box!

I eventually got my hands on some excellent conversion decals for the Minichamps RB1 when both Red Bulls sported Star Wars livery at the 2005 Monaco GP to partner with George Lucas in promoting the Star wars movie; “Return of the Sith”.  So with the Star Wars theme in my head at the moment it prompted me to dig out some metal Stormtrooper figures (by Knight Models) which I’ve had stashed away for some time so I’ll throw these into the mix while I’m working on the conversion and see if I can at least get them assembled and painted.  Having said that, I would love to convert them into the actual pit crew they used at Monaco in 2005 – they sported awsome looking (mock) StormTrooper armour suits and helmets emblazoned with the appropriate Red Bull branding – (with Adrian Horner playing the part of Han Solo looking on!) – then again maybe not – I shall see how I get on!  Better get a move on; tomorrow is the last day of September – where did that month go!! Cheers for now.

 

 

 

 

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