Axel's corner

The roof is on fire... Well, not really on fire. But at least some work has been done on it. Earlier in this build report I stated that I wasn't happy with the way the wires (simulating the seams of vinyl roof) looked. So I removed them. And in the meantime replaced them with very thin wires I used from a co-axial cable. Instead of using superglue to glue the wires to the roof, I opted this time for Kristal Klear by Microscale Industries. Sounds impressive, but it's actually a kind of clear drying wood glue. With the superglue I've had problems applying the glue even and sparingly. Although it didn't show before painting the roof, after painting the bits of glue that had seeped out from under the wire were very obvious. This was, together with the unrealistic size of the wires, another reason to try it again. The Kristal Klear glue is water soluble and I used a wet Q-tip to remove the excess glue from the roof before the glue dried. As I haven't pain

Interior Several things have been done concerning the interior of the car. The last picture in the last update showed the "raw" build of the fuel cell. Work has been done on the fuel cell in the meantime and it is nearing completion. The right picture above shows the fuel cell and several other parts from the interior covered in carbon pattern decals. To simulate the carbon pattern I used decals from Scale Motorsport. I am planning to spray a very thin layer of Tamiya X-19 smoke on the carbon decals to darken them a bit. Air intake Work has also been done on the air intake. On the previous page I already showed the brake ducts I had made for this car. In the meantime I've also made the grating for the air intake and gave a layer of primer to make sure that the paint will adhere properly to the metal, brass and plastic components. On the first picture you can see the difference between the original grating that was in the PE set from Tamiya and

Starting all over again After a nice dip into the brake fluid, all evidence of a crappy paintjob has been removed. And now I can start all over again. After the body came out of the brake fluid, I scrubbed it down with an old toothbrush and some lukewarm soapy water, to remove all the residue of the brake fluid. Then I noticed something that I haven't seen before. It seems that the brake fluid softened the plastic of the body a bit. Because while scrubbing the body I noticed that the roof seemed to "move" when I scrubbed it. And indeed, a nice crack has appeared on the roof. After drying the body, I put some styrene glue into the crack from the underside. I used the ultra thin cement from Tamiya which did the job perfectly. What I also noticed was that the Tamiya putty I have used on this kit does not like brake fluid. So I also have to redo the putty work on the body. Nothing major, but it definately needs to be done. During my visit to Euro Scale

Although I, still, haven't finished any of the other builds I'm currently working on, I couldn't contain myself and just HAD to start this build. The Martini livery is just too appealing to leave it sitting in the box any longer. However, the deeper I delved into this project, the more "problems" I encountered. First of all, the decal sheet. It looks nice, but it's not complete. Several sponsors seem to be missing (but it is probable that the sponsors varied between races), but more importantly, the Martini striping is not complete. When looking at the pictures below, you can notice that the Martini striping is on AND beneath the rear spoiler. But the decal sheet has only one option, obviously on the rear spoiler. Might seem minor, but I think it's a shame, as it would not have been much trouble to include it on the sheet. Another thing I noticed was that the set of wheels I intended to use actually sucks. The rims are quite unrealistic a