lol this model continues to be my headache, but I am resigned to finishing it and accepting it with all its ill fitting parts and problems.
Admittedly, I am inexperienced in many areas of the build, and its a learning experience.
I'm close to wrapping up the build, with only a few things left to do.
Once I get the final few parts in place, I plan on attempting some race weathering.
I want to dirty up the glass and other surfaces, and airbrush the race track grime and rain residue that I see in old photos.
Heres the latest set of photos for you to peruse at your leisure.
Let me just point out a few things (that may or may not help anyone else building this model).
The Brake ducting (front) are flexible tubes that would NOT glue to, and stay in place on the front frame plates.
I had to install a small sleeve inside to support the tube and allow more gluing area.
But this just added to the inflexibility of the tube. It kinks, rather than curves towards the brakes/wheels.
And that interferes with the wheels and suspension.
I tried cutting the tubes shorter but it didnt help, they still are kinked.
Steering...the model has moveable rack and pinion steering. The entire rack is what moves to turn the wheels.
And is is attached by gear teeth to the steering column.
Unfortunately everything is a bit sloppy and not very accurate. The column keeps sliding out of place, allowing the rack to jump up and out of place, allowing the upper control arms (at the wheels) to disconnect, etc etc
And, I had to cut and re-glue the rack and pinion part (shorten it) to fix the excessive toe-out of the wheels!
Do yourself a favour and set the wheels in one position and glue the steering parts in place!
The swivel mounting points for the rear body part (engine cover) are a big issue. I wish I had tried to fit the body earlier on and fine tuned the size of the parts and made a better connection. Its a struggle to get the parts to mate and extreme care is required not to break the swivel pins and dislocate other parts in the process. Even now, I have one side that isn't fully seated and may come dislodged.
Even after the engine cover is attached, it doesn't align well. It doesn't close and seat well.
I used a silver paint marker for the side window rivets... what a mess. Rivets of many different sizes and shapes. lol