1/20 Tamiya Ferrari F1 F2000,
1/20th Scale Ferrari F1 2000, Hungarian G.P.
Modeling Descriptions and Photos
Ferrari F1-2000 1/20 Grand Prix Collection No.48
My kit's official license product number is AC69896U. I am certain that some portion of my money ends up at Ferrari somehow. I never care about this sort of thing before, but now I am making these models more than
I can count, it must be a significant amount that ends up at Ferrari.
This Tamiya kit makes a French G.P. version out of the box. This is probably due to the fact that Marlboro markings are prohibited for Tamiya to use (legal issues) in their kits.
Advertising cigarette products are banned in France (and England), thus it is very possible that Tamiya went with the French G.P. car.
Which G.P.?
I have the Marlboro decals from Studio 27 which I am planning to use for this model.
The only task that I need toresolve prior to the build is to find out which G.P. car I want to make. The task isn't simple though; since I want to keep the existing aerodynamic setup, I need to find out which G.P. shares the similar setup
with French G.P. The green arrows indicate the variousaerodynamic setup used by Ferrari for different races.
Hungarian G.P.
I think I found a match. Hungarian G.P. it is. I looked mainly for the front wing, rear wing, and barge boards set up. The Hungarian G.P. was the first race that Schumacher earned a podium finish after getting
DNFs in France, Austrian, and German races. Before these races, he scored the first place at Canadian G.P...
The Body Stuff
These are the main body parts that I need to assemble. I have already built the air intake pod (blue arrow) here. The right side photo shows the join gaps that I would need to putty.
The Air Intake Pod
There are join gaps in the intake pod as well. I took care of the gaps with putty. I applied a light coat of primer to see if the surface is smooth.I lightly sanded out some uneven area.
Stuff
You see, a good preparation provides a good result. I haven't yet to polish the surface, and it seems that I do not have to. Check out what is going on with my Ferrari builds... I should start a factory. ^_^
Painting the Body
When priming the Ferrari body with white, be sure to prime the inside as well (arrow).
This will ensure that the Ferrari Red will not be affected by the interior color when the interior gets a black paint treatment. To make things even safer, I would paint the interior with silver first before putting the black. If you fail to do this, you will realize
that your Ferrari Red might not be as bright as you wanted to be...
Painting and Applying Decals
The exterior painting is almost done here. I am satisfied with the
paint result now. In order to get a good finish, I have to repeat the "boring" painting process till I see what I want. The process involves "sand, paint, rub, sand, paint, rub, polish, sand, paint, rub..." Well, you get the picture. Many things can go
wrong when painting; as long as I put enough effort to repair and fix my mistakes, I usually end up with a good result.
The paint mixture can cause the paint to spit and run, the humidity can change how soon the paint will dry,and even my cat can come into my modeling room to cause damages to plastic parts. I just have to perform many "trial and
error" to get things right...
By the way, this is the decal set from Speedline which I will be using for this Ferrari. I have been using Studio 27 decals up to now, but decided to try new things for a change.
Applying Decals
I guess there is no magic about applying decals. Just slide them on and dry them out. I decided to use Speedline decals on this car. The decals are good and I cannot find a reason not to use them.
I did have a rough time finding a right position for the Marlboro decal on the top of monocoque because it took some time to line it up straight. By the time I applied the
decal onto the surface, it refused to slide around. Adding drops of water did help the decal to slide. I used a pair of tweezers to correct the location of the decal.
Applying Decals Continue
There was a concern that the Speedline decals had a minor flaw. It seemed that the Marlboro decals covering the top of cowling were missing vertical white border lines (blue lines with arrows).
After investigating the decals carefully, I did find that there were white border lines present in the Speedline decal set. I will give this a try...
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