The F1M Forums

Hi,

Great start!
I wanted to sell my FW14B full option set, but I’m now in the expectancy watching at your build.

Pascal

A little more progress…

The blue paint is now on the nose and main monocoque, Zero Paints as always. I chopped the nose off and removed the moulded bulkhead to be replaced wit the TS versions, far far superior in terms of detail and quality.

Also started on the cockpit, again the TS set has an incredible amount of detail here which sadly is all hidden behind the moulded seat, however - the 1:1 car had a seat pad moulding which was split in half probably to allow ease of fit and quick removal so therefore I’m going to make one too. I think I’ve thought of a way to do this and I’ll post pics up as I go.

Working now all weekend so the bench will sadly be left alone for a few days, however I should still get part 4 of the build log up on Monday evening. For those of you who already do so, thanks ever so much for following along.

Looking forward to your update, any plans to fix the nose with magnets to make it removable?

TOP !!!

Cockpit wiring…

Wow there is some incredible detail in the Top Studio sets and especially the cockpit sets, I’m super impressed. The kit’s seat would permanently cover almost all of this however I think I have come up with a plan to allow it all to be displayed.

The original 1:1 seat according to the references I’ve found was a fastened in separate unit, moulded to the driver’s backside and also would split into two halves. Therefore my idea is to cut the moulded kit seat in two, thin it considerably, flock it to replicate the suede effect and then hopefully be able to fit it afterwards with the ability to remove it.

I looked at fitting the top part of the bodywork like our friend Kenji has done, however I just couldn’t see how I could feasibly get in from the underside and detail/connect everything up so my plan is going to be to get all of the cockpit finished, attach the top cover sprayed in yellow & blue and then clear over the whole thing masking the cockpit inside off first.

Having a lot of fun with these

Update:

Paint and some decals are now on, I initially wanted to attach the top cowling before paint and decal and clear were applied, creating one constant monocoque without joins, however I couldn't figure out a way of adding all the suspension arms and bulkhead details as well as getting the cockpit inserted inside with the top cover fixed so I've had to revert to adding the top cowling after these details are done.
I've made sure the fit is as good as it possibly can be and am hoping I can use the decal strip to help hide the join too, I guess we'll find out

As I mentioned the seat will be a removable two part piece as per the 1:1 car and my initially dry fitting tests seem to show it will work fine - I'll use magnets to help keep everything in place, and the same for the nose cone too.

I can't recommend the Top Studio sets highly enough, an absolute joy to use and install - they have done some serious work and research creating these and they really enhance the model in terms of detail to the next level... hats off to Top Studio.

Dreaded clear coat next, hoping the Tamiya and Museum Collection aftermarket decals are robust. I'll be using Zero Paints two part Clear.

Great work! I'm a huge fan of the Top Studio sets as well. I can probably scan the instructions for the TVF1 brakes, but I don't recall a fact sheet for the photoetch. I'll be back home next week and check.

There were 4 instruction sheets for the FW14b TVF PE.
If you can't find them I have the .PDF's I could post screen shots of.
(I don't think you can post .pdf docs here?).

Malc.

Top work on the FW14 BTW!

M.

the four sheets are posted in open section under .. thunder valley photo etch instructions fw14 .. Joe