Another Gilles Villeneuve helmet!

I’m making a habit of re-doing visors – it’s not that I like doing them but the first one I did for this version of the figure went missing!  This is the ‘GF figure of Gilles again as per his ’82 attire but this time I’ve included the visor for his GPA helmet. – As I didn’t have a decal for the “GPA” lettering at the time of construction, I painted it in, however, since then I bought the Modellers figure which comes with a really good set of decals – including the “GPA” decal for the helmet but there’s … Continue reading Another Gilles Villeneuve helmet!

Gilles Villeneuve – Bell helmet – completed

I picked up some really good decals from Modellers for their Villeneuve figures and I nicked a pair of SMEG decals for the helmet – the decals I have on the Bell helmet in these shots are more than likely not the branding he would have sported while wearing this very early driving suit – they would be more appropriate for his red driving suit which will be the subject of another figure I’m converting at the moment. Continue reading Gilles Villeneuve – Bell helmet – completed

Gilles Villeneuve – another take – WIP

This is another of the great 1/20 scale resin driver figures from GF-models.  This time I’ve depicted him wearing the helmet and white suit worn in the latter stages of his F1 career – some sources show this as the outfit he wore from the ’82 season (his last) and other references I’ve seen show him wearing it prior to that.  Once again, I had a go at using the old Tamiya decals from a couple of the Pit/Driver sets I have from over 20 years ago and (with the exception of the blue lines for the helmet) I was … Continue reading Gilles Villeneuve – another take – WIP

Keep it on the “black stuff” – with the help of Armco!

A while back, I posted pictures of how I modified the Armco barrier which comes with the Tamiya pit set.  I gave it a coat of primer, so now all I have to do is paint it up (Red&White I think?) with some appropriate weathering and it should make a nice “prop” for photographing the 1/20 driver figures. I placed it on a suitable base to take some test shots and see how it looked with figures of the same scale, and I think it looks the part. Continue reading Keep it on the “black stuff” – with the help of Armco!

Gilles Villeneuve 1/20 helmet visor – GF-model figure

I’m not having much luck with these figures recently – after discovering in my last post that I’d put the visor strip on the Schumacher helmet upside down, I then went and accidentally put a nasty crease in the visor of Villeneuves Bell helmet – such is life!   It looked pretty good as I had given it three coats of klear and I had just added the lifting handles and the fastners – it then fell off the workbench and I stupidly picked it up between my fingers with a little too much force….end of visor.   So I’ve cut a … Continue reading Gilles Villeneuve 1/20 helmet visor – GF-model figure

Gilles Villeneuve – 1/20 Helmet – WIP

I got the decals applied yesterday – these decals are from a 20 year old Tamiy pit set – I’m impressed – they floated off the paper in one piece – no problems at all and they even withstood some Champ decal fix to get them to adhere to the shape!  Just for comparison purposes I put it beside the Schumacher helmet – poor Gilles – those old helmets were pretty useless when compared to the sophisticated composites in use today – having said that, I doubt if even a modern Schubert helmet could have saved him given the awful … Continue reading Gilles Villeneuve – 1/20 Helmet – WIP

Gilles Villeneuve – 1/20 GF-models driver figure – nearly there!

I eventually got some decals applied to the suit, so I’ll let them dry and give the whole thing a coat of matt varnish with the airbrush.  Once the coat of Johnsons Klear (I’ve just given to the helmet) dries, I’ll apply decals to there also.  The visor was given a “dipping” in a pot of Klear to bring up the lustre after all the filing and bending to shape it – this process is courtesy of the “Propellor heads” in my local modelling club – (they use it on aircraft canopies to great effect).  So once these are dry … Continue reading Gilles Villeneuve – 1/20 GF-models driver figure – nearly there!

Gilles Villeneuve helmets – WIP – 1/20 scale

I started painting the pattern on the helmets today, with reasonable results. Firstly the color I went for is what I called in my last posting a “Charcoal Blue”” combined with a “Red Orange” .  To get the Charcoal Blue, I mixed (50-50) Valejo Dark Prussian Blue with Dark Sea Blue and added a couple of drops of Scarlet and the “Red Orange”was mixed using Flat Red (20%) and German Cam Orange 80% .  So far I’ve resisted using the only decent set of decals I have from an old Tamiya pit set as I’m not sure they will stand … Continue reading Gilles Villeneuve helmets – WIP – 1/20 scale

Gilles Villeneuve driver figure – more progress….

….well sort of!   In an effort to establish a useable color for the helmet, I decided to have a close up look at my 1/18 scale Exoto diecast 312T4 (which contains a really nicely finished driver figure).  From the many reference photos I’ve seen of his helmet, it’s hard to determine the actual shade of blue used.  I suppose it depends on all sorts of variables including reflected light etc, and in trying to replicate any color on a miniature, the main variable (in my own opinion) is: “does it look right”?   So in an effort to finally decide what … Continue reading Gilles Villeneuve driver figure – more progress….