Hi everybody!
I have watched your Le Mans contest during the earlier part of the year with great interest but i was way too late to join. Now with the new contest i'll give it a try:-) With a deadline 11 months away even i may have a chance to finish something in time.
My interest if it comes to modeling are F1 and LM cars from 1:43rd up to 1:12 scale. To be honest though i have finished only one 43rd car in "recent times" and a couple under progress on my desk ( for longer than i'd like to admit:-).
The contest theme has now changed my planned schedule and against my promises i have started something new.
My choice was in between a Rothmans 956, a Sauber C9, the McLaren MP4/4 and a Ferrari F189 ( aka 640 ) ( all by Tamiya ). Since the Porsches and Saubers seem to be very popular here i decided to go F1 and while the Ferrari is my favourite F1 car the McLaren finally won for a couple of reasons.
- Reference.... I managed to take a bunch of pictures of the real thing during the last two Goodwood FOS.....very important :-)
- Modeling problems.... i have a 1993 McLaren MP4/8 on the desk which is about half finished. It has become a testbed for my modeling skills and various techniques and after i had my fair share of problems with it this will make the 4/4 a bit quicker ( hopefully ). The Ferrari would be more trying new things out again....
- Detail..... I think the Ferrari would be a bit too short on details for this contest in fact. One of the things i like about that car is its cleanliness! There's just so little in comparison to other cars ( especially an active suspension MP4/8 ) but since i want to add some serious detail for the contest the McLaren looks like the better option:-)
- History....and success. I wanted something great as a topic and if it comes to successful F1 cars of the '80s this is the one!
Driven by Senna and Prost it won 15 of the 16 races that year and would have won all of them if not for an end of race collision of Senna laping J.L.Schlesser ( Sauber C9 anyone :-) at Monza....but that's history;-) Senna finally won his first championship in the 4/4 that season and i guess it will look great next to the 4/8 ( his first next to his last McLaren ).
The Ferrari was more innovative one year later but unfortunately very unreliable.....it's still the nicer car though:-)
So much talking for now! Watch this space until i have figured out how to post pictures here and then i'll start the build diary. So far the forum rules at the bottom of the page say i may not post attachments!? What do i have to do? Any hints are very welcome!
Cheers
Jaykay