Airfix 1/32 WRC Rallycars.

Well I have first few pics of the two kits, firstly the painted shell of the Fiesta..............

And two pics of the Mini, the roof has been painted in white and masked and two red coats are now on the rest of the body......

That won't take long to dry as it is about 86F today! I am hand painting the smaller bits, eg. shocks and steering wheel, then I will start to build up the Mini chassis.

Here we are with two pics of the shell before spraying the pillars matt black...........

I've been sniffing the paint again! But only to spray satin black onto the pillars and around the edge of the shell!.....

I've also had to search in my decal collection to find some seatbelt decals and something for the large round speedo in the middle of the dashboard. Airfix don't supply interior decals which is such a shame as it would add to the detailing inside the car. As I only have two seatbelt decals I've put just one on each instead of two and as you will see further down I've found a red aircraft roundel for that speedo. All other decals are either too big at !/24 or 1/25 or too small at 1/43 scale.....................

I've also fitted the steering wheel and gearchange combo as WRC cars have sequential gearboxes like motorcycles, so you pulled the lever towards the driver up going up the box 1>6 and push the lever towards the dashboard to go down the box 6>1.

I shall also have to put a drop of matt black on the handle before I fit the steering wheel, but that will be tomorrow after the steering column has set up overnight.

Hi, more pics from todays work of building and fitting the rollcage and taking it apart again!............

I had to take apart as stage 12 in the build book is not achieveable. When you get to stage 9, before putting the whole cage together take the drivers side of the cage and attach to the inside on the locators the steering column brace (cage to column), then finish the cage build as shown in stage 9. I built and fitted the cage to the floorpan only to find that you cannot fit the brace as there is far to little space to get it in! I say this having built 1/43 cages out of photoetch and white metal  for rallycars of that scale.

I started to lay up the decals today. The first one over the door came apart on the paper as I put it in the warm water! I just put it on in two bits! But the big chequered one went on a treat................

The roof decals , the big ones and the small one over the drivers door went on great as well............

So I should finish the decals tomorrow and leave to dry over the weekend. Then on Monday when all is dry give the decaled areas two coats of gloss clear.

Well the MINI is done...................

The decals are 'sticky' so plenty of water needed. The windows clip in, but I added a bit of glue inside the roof.

The decals for the front and rear screen and the headlights are just 'rings' so need a lot of patience and water until they are correctly placed.

I don't know whether to put the rest of this thread on here as no one has any comment on the MINI. I suppose the main interest on this site is Military so I'm not surprised.  

I've tried twice to put pics of a turbocharged Meyers Manx on the gallery and got nowhere. So I think I'll take this site off my favourites and forget it. 

Pat....sorry but the auto section doesn't get the volume that air & armorial do......having said that there are some talented auto modelers that post here and your work is in that league.

Hope you stick around....would love to see the Fiesta finished.

I am primarily an Aircraft guy but I do try to read through posts such as yours to try to learn whatever I can. I don't have any working knowledge of the types of cars that you are building but I do have some knowledge of other types of cars. Also I'm thinkin' that it is the time of year that most folks are involved in different things, like Vacations, etc. I did enjoy looking at your Mini build. It looks pretty good to me. Later...                    Bob

Thanks guys I just have a problem with modellers who just want to build killing machines and nothing else. I think I'll stick to Scale Auto and Model Cars sites as they are at least interested.

Killing machines? Maybe. I have a very strong sense of History, particularly the WWII time period. I also have a deep respect for the sacrifices and Bravery that many folks exhibited during that troubling time. Whenever I build the Warbirds I am usually reflecting on these things. Also, I am a bit of a "Tech Gearhead" and the Military Aircraft were usually ahead of the curve for their given time period. As I build I also take the time to research many of the technical aspects of the project at hand. I apologize if my interests cause some level of stress.                                                  Bob

Firstly Bob please accept my apologies. I also have great respect for those who lost their lives in any conflict since the first World War. I was born at the end of the second World War so as I grew up I heard stories of incessant day and night bombing here in the towns and cities in the UK. My mothers family were originally from Ireland and had moved to England to improve their life, that was in the early 1900's. There were 11 children of that there were seven brothers, six of which were Metropolitan Police in London who were all killed in the Blitz so I never knew them. The only uncle I knew on Mothers side was one of the very few survivors of the sinking of HMS Hood by one of Germany's largest battleships, a thousand or more men were lost at sea that day. My father joined up in 1921 aged just 14 years in the all new Royal Air Force (previously the Royal Flying Corps) and served for 30 years as an aero engineer. He firstly served in peace time in India, Persia (now Iran) and in Iraq. His time during the second World as a Sergeant was across North Africa, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Suez and out towards the Arab States as they were called then. He never went to any remembrance as he said to us that he wanted to forget the loss of so many of both his and my mothers families but also so many colleagues. My brother, born before the second World War was at school in the town where we were born, as a youngster  had to hide under his school desk on numerous occasions when flying bombs (doodlebugs) flew over the town, one of which missed the school by only a few hundred yards. So although we constantly praise those who saved us from the tyrany of the Nazi's still want to forget a war as close as that. Apologies Bob.  

PatW

Firstly Bob please accept my apologies. I also have great respect for those who lost their lives in any conflict since the first World War. I was born at the end of the second World War so as I grew up I heard stories of incessant day and night bombing here in the towns and cities in the UK. My mothers family were originally from Ireland and had moved to England to improve their life, that was in the early 1900's. There were 11 children of that there were seven brothers, six of which were Metropolitan Police in London who were all killed in the Blitz so I never knew them. The only uncle I knew on Mothers side was one of the very few survivors of the sinking of HMS Hood by one of Germany's largest battleships, a thousand or more men were lost at sea that day. My father joined up in 1921 aged just 14 years in the all new Royal Air Force (previously the Royal Flying Corps) and served for 30 years as an aero engineer. He firstly served in peace time in India, Persia (now Iran) and in Iraq. His time during the second World as a Sergeant was across North Africa, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Suez and out towards the Arab States as they were called then. He never went to any remembrance as he said to us that he wanted to forget the loss of so many of both his and my mothers families but also so many colleagues. My brother, born before the second World War was at school in the town where we were born, as a youngster  had to hide under his school desk on numerous occasions when flying bombs (doodlebugs) flew over the town, one of which missed the school by only a few hundred yards. So although we constantly praise those who saved us from the tyrany of the Nazi's still want to forget a war as close as that. Apologies Bob.  

Thanks Bob for your understanding.

Hi I have a few pics of the Ford Fiesta WRC...........

The thin white line decals are sometimes a smidge difficult to get around the rear panels!

A side view..................

Anf a front view. You will see by the low front end that this is a tarmac version. The gravel version would have the longer higher front suspension.

It's lookin' pretty good Pat. To my untrained eye it looks like there is a lot of tedious custom work involved. GOOD JOB !!!!                                                                                                         Bob

Thanks Bob. Yes it is time consuming, my wife tells me I have no patience but the decals and small bits certainly slowed me down! Two things I found out....the cage needs a couple of millimetres off the bottom before fitting ( as the body doesn't sit on the chassis) and cutting the small bits like aerials and wipers from the sprue is very difficult as there is no leeway to cut the parts away. I had to remake bits or try to salvage them to finish the build.

Nice job Pat-the decals along would keep me away from this build.

Hi bobbailey thanks. I seem to have a magnetic pull to anything with loads of decals! I always seem to buy race or rallycars of any size from 1/43 upwards, is it the decals? Whose to know!