The Northward Contrail

A Puma in tiger stripes

A few years ago we were in a hobby shop and I saw this kit.  I'm a sucker for well-done tiny-scale kits, and since I'm mama to a little tiger already, I couldn't resist.  It was only six bucks.  Why not? 

This is the 1:144 Revell-Germany Puma in 2005 Tiger Meet markings.  It, as we say where I come from, ain't no bigger than a minute, but it's nicely done, and a fun way to blow off some steam between more complex projects.  The really fine details like antennae and grab handles are, by necessity, molded too thick, but replacing them would have taken away part of the fun of building this little one just for the heck of it.

The tiger stripes are broken down into sections of decal.  I was a little apprehensive about them, but they cooperated very well and Solvaset helped them conform.  Touch-ups were easy; just a little bit of black paint here and there and you're done.

It's off my beaten path, both because I don't do a lot of this kind of subject and because I don't do a lot of special schemes, but this was a really fun diversion. 

McLaren

I wrote weeks ago about this little devil.  Now, she's finished.  This is the Revell 1:24 McLaren Mercedes MP4-20, all finished, as a generic Juan Pablo Montoya car from the 2005 season.  I really wanted to build this as his car from the 2005 US Grand Prix fiasco, but there are some differences between it and the kit plastic, so I did the best I could without having to conduct major surgery.  It's sort of a mix of the USGP car and the Australian GP car, or at least that's my story.  I'm really not up on my McLarens, so that had something to do with erring on the side of caution.

My original entry about this little one detailed some of the problems I faced, so I won't reprise them.  Painting was a little bit of a challenge because of all the curvy masking and goofy angles, but I got it done.  I thought it looked like hell at first, but once the stripe decal was applied, it started looking much better.

I went all out on the carbon fiber decal on the Renault, but decided not to do the full monty on this one.  Revell gives you foil decals for some of the rear suspension components, for the areas exposed to the heat from the exhaust, so I just applied those and didn't wrap much of the rear suspension in carbon fiber, and did the best I could with the front.  Technically, I should have used carbon fiber decals on both sides of the barge boards, but I just painted them black instead.  It looks okay to me at normal viewing distance.

In some ways this kit was more crude than the Renault.  There were seat belts molded into the seat pan, and I had to grind those out with a motor tool.  The wing and spoiler components also seemed clunkier and required a good bit of thinning.  I also had to grind inside the back of the wheels so they'd fit properly; otherwise, they tracked way too wide.  The front wheel camber wasn't engineered into the kit, so that had to be induced too.  (Yes, real Formula One cars have that goofy front-wheel stance.)  I used some leftover etch from the Renault's photo-etch to make a new set of seat belts.

The kit's clunky, but the decal sheet is gorgeous and is a pleasure to use.  There's no tobacco decals, just the drivers' names done in goofy logotype the way they were done at Hungary and Magny-Cours.  So, again, Crazy Modeler decals to the rescue for the tobacco sponsorship.  The only other addition was a bit of wire for the little antenna and a couple of little plastic strakes behind the cockpit.

There were times I wondered if I'd ever get this kit finished, because it really fought me at a few points.  But I'm glad I stuck with it. It's no Tamiya shake-the-box experience, but it was rewarding in its own way.  It's a nice companion for the Renault, and it's interesting to compare the boxy R23 to the curvy, muscular-looking MP4-20 and see how much F1 cars changed within just a couple of years.

That said, I think I'm done with carbon fiber decals for a little while.  Something simpler would be in order for the next project, I believe.

The salvage job

A couple more projects got finished last week.  This is the first of the two to be finished.  This is a 1:24 scale Renault R23, meant to approximate Jarno Trulli's entry into the 2003 Australian Grand Prix. (I say "approximate" because the kit has its limitations, because there was only so much I was willing to do for the project, and because my research material wasn't very thorough.)

There's a story behind this model.  It was an eBay special I bought about four years ago, a package deal with the tobacco sponsor decals and a fret of photoetched parts.  I started it about three years ago and got it to the point of decaling.  The kit decal sheet gives you the yellow portions of the body as huge decals.  Long story short, I didn't like how it turned out, and put the project aside.  I bought another R23 kit and planned to eventually rebuild it as a 2002 car; the 2002 Renault didn't look so great, but I'd rather do that than throw out a good model.  At any rate, a few weeks ago, I looked at it and decided it wasn't beyond hope, so it was reborn, and here you are.

The kit is more or less box-stock, though I did replace the kit's wheels with more accurate MSM Creation resin units I bought from Mac's Modeling (unfortunately, they're painted black, so you can't see them...trust me, though, they make a difference), and there are also a few of the Acu-Stion etched bits on there too.  Many of the parts, like the wings, spoiler endplates and other thin parts, are molded much too thick in the kit, so I spent a lot of time thinning those down and refining them.  I used flocking on the seat and made new seat belts from painted tape.

I always loved the old Renault scheme of light blue and yellow. Revell's decal sheet gives you the yellow parts as decals, but decals that large fill me with fear and loathing, and the yellow decals were a bit translucent.  That's why I junked the project years ago.  Instead, when I repainted it, I masked and painted the different colors this time, and cut the border stripe from the decal sheet.  It worked a lot better.  Don't tell anyone, but the blue is actually AMC Big Bad Blue and the yellow is actually a Chrysler color, both from the Model Master Lacquer line.

The decals came from the other R23 kit, which will probably be used as the basis for a 2005 Jordan Toyota conversion someday.  The Mild Seven decals don't come in the kit, and I'd already used the Tabu sheet that came with the package deal, so this set came from a Crazy Modeler sheet.  (No, really, that's the brand name of the decal sheet.  It sounds silly, I know, but it's for real, and it's kind of appropriate for some of us).  There's still a decal or two I need to make and print the next time I run some decals, but it's no big deal.  I used a lot of carbon fiber decal sheet, wrapping suspension components, chassis segments, and other components in the stuff.  It looks great, but it's also a great way to build your vocabulary.

Considering this project was abandoned for so long, I'm happy it cleaned up so well.  It's not perfect, but it's still a particular relief to have it salvaged.

Beat the clock

A year or so back we started doing something when the race at Le Mans starts each year: we each start building a model, and work on it while we're watching the coverage.  The object is to have it finished by the time the race ends 24 hours later.  Hubby started doing this a couple years ago, and last year I joined him.  It was a lot of fun, and the motivation to beat the clock was a real rush.

So, this year, we did it again.  My kit this time was the Fujimi Porsche Cayman in 1:24 scale.  It's a curbside kit (which means no separate engine, only what you can see molded into the chassis, and no working hood), but nicely detailed and an easy, fun build.  The body was molded in yellow, and since a certain friend's yellow Porsche has influenced me, I stuck with that color.  Frustratingly, Fujimi molded the mirrors and rear spoiler in black, and that required two coats of primer (one gray, one white) before the color coat.  And still it didn't quite match.  Grrr.  Oh, well.

The paint is Tamiya Chrome Yellow, from the spray can.  I love Tamiya spray paints, which (at least here) harden up quickly, perfect for a rush job like this.  I sprayed the body before we went out for lunch, and was able to polish it out that night.  The chassis and other parts were also painted with Tamiya rattlecans.  The brake calipers should be yellow, but I painted them red for contrast and interest.  The interior was airbrushed with various shades of Model Master Leather acrylic, with hand-painted details.  You can't see much of it, anyway.  I had to make masks to airbrush the black trim around the window edges inside and out.  Frustrating, but it worked.  The window unit is a big one-piece greenhouse that doesn't fit flush with the window openings, making it all look a little toylike.  You could fiddle with it if you wanted, but I chose not to.  The clunky window fit is kind of a shame, because the rest of the kit goes together extremely well.  It really was a pleasure to build.

Total elapsed time on the build was probably 14 hours, which meant I finished the build with about 10 hours left in the race.  It roughly matches what happened with my little Fiat Abarth last year. 

Le Mans is always fun to watch, and when you have a project like this, it adds something to it.  I can't wait for next year's, both for the race and for the chance for us to do this again with new kits.

New beginnings

One afternoon about 15 months ago, the phone rang.  Hubby was headed home early because he'd been given the axe.  I'll never forget the feeling I had for the next hour, how it felt in the pit of my stomach. But, as is typical for me, I burned through my foul horror in a hurry, and quickly began to see the up-side.  This job was killing him, after all, and being freed of it was a release.  That night I took him out for pizza and ice cream.  And, though we didn't really know it, the long, long wait had begun.

The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months.  He farmed out applications and resumes, but there were no takers.  We both worried.  We had a house to worry about keeping, groceries we needed to keep on the table, and other concerns.  My income and his savings could only take us so far.  So a lot of plans fell by the wayside over the coming months.  We still managed a little getaway every now and then, and the fact we could pretty much choose any day of the week to do it sure helped, but those were simple little things, nothing of the sort we might have done had things been different.

Near the end of last summer an opportunity came up for him.  It wasn't in his field and didn't pay that well, but it was something he enjoyed, and it gave him something to do and helped pay for groceries, at least. Eventually it became full-time, but it was six days a week and he got home late.  We didn't get to see much of each other, and since his only day off was during the week, we didn't get to go many places.

One morning a few Mondays ago, the phone rang.  He'd been working on a particular lead for a while, and and they wanted to talk to him.  It went okay.  Then they wanted to talk to him again.  Long story short, it worked out.  This morning, he reports to work at this new job.  It's a return to a field he's spent most of his life in, for which he spent six years in school to build his qualifications, and that he knows like the back of his hand.  As much as he's enjoyed the low-paying but low-stress job that's helped tide things over, I can't help thinking some part of him is very happy to be back in the game.

For me, it's a source of relief, albeit tinged with caution.  I have no way of knowing where this is headed for him.  It could be the greatest thing ever and he could end up as contented at his new job as I am with mine.  Or it could all go blooey at some point down the road, and we'd be right back where we were.

But, at least for now, this is a blessed thing with potential.  It's at least an opportunity for things to get back to something approaching "normal" again, to being able to do once more the things we were able to back when, to a life where we're not quite so worried about making ends meet as we have been.  I hope the opportunity will translate into a reality.  I'm not a betting person, so I'm not going to lay odds.  But I do have hope.  It was hope that got me through the last 15 months.  There was something that told me that dark Thursday afternoon that, hey, we'll get through this somehow.

I sure hope we have.