Bengalensis

OK, I'll admit, I'm a speed freak, sort of... so I have for some time been toying with the idea of a Speed GB, with its foundation in speed as in km/h, mph, knots, mach etc. Speed. I also like the idea of a GB that would have potential appeal for all sorts of subjects to join in, making modellers of very different genres come together and share some building time. Speed I think would allow that. Anything would fit; cars, boats, planes, bikes, helicopters, locomotives, spaceships (even sci-fi), tanks, rockets, you name it, as long as (higher) speed was a (the) major driving force, or something we all know and remember it for. Speed. I would like to see everything in such a Speed GB that was somehow built or used (or dreamt up?) with higher speeds in mind. New speed records, even higher speed than before, to be the fastest... be it a success or a failure. It can of course be (or tried to be) the fastest in "its class", like a 250 cc bike is fastest in its class, although there are faster bikes, if you see what I mean. Or something that just happened to be the fastest of it's kind at some time. Perhaps even Sgt. Jones fighter that was always the fastest plane in the division, because he and his ground crew where speed freaks and kept everything tip top for speed, always able to open up the throttles beyond the rules and the limitations? I'm thinking speed as in outright speed. Not the fastest lap around a circuit, or the fastest crossing of the Atlantic, which may not necessarily be the fastest in top speed. I might be convinced to change my mind on this though. Speed. What do you think? Would a Speed GB be anything of interest?

Excellent choice of a wonderful car! I think I have never seen this kit built, so looking forward to this.

Making nice progress here. I'm still sticking to "my" choice of the current Aoshima wheels.

In all its simplicity I think it's a brilliant little model finished in this way. I'm glad we got to see it in this GB. Well done.

I'm slowly adding some details to the body. The small black shield where the exhaust exits the bodywork had to be scratched from a cut up aluminium tube. I had a surprisingly tricky time fitting the four light covers - I have done so many by now I shouldn't have that really - and didn't do the best job in my life initially, which meant spending time making the joints reasonably good afterwards. I actually had to put it aside for a day or two before proceeding. I think I will try some light washing and/or dry brushing of the rear lights before a little clear. Next will be to put the thing on its wheels.

I think I will be very tempted to join in. I haven't built a helicopter since I was a kid, and that's some time ago... I just recently got Hasegawa's 1/48 Sea King, the box with # 66 from the Apollo rescue missions, mainly due to my interest for the 60's space programme, with the idea to build it as just before the Apollo 11 rescue. It looks a bit scary in the box and I don't really know how to best paint such a thing...

Photo etch and turned aluminium doesn't automatically make things better, no matter the price tag, IMO. I'd go with the Aoshima plastic of these two, unless I might be proven otherwise when they are in place and can be compared under the body.

This build is coming along very well indeed. Lovely body and interior colour combination for this car too. I must be honest and say that I have seen better photo etched wire wheels than those. Between the lines I can sort of read that you feel something like that too, right? Judging from what I see on the picture here I would go for the injected Aoshima styrene wheels given the choice of these two. Looking forward to a comparison with wheels under the body shell.

Got some detail work done today with the last parts in the kit and some small improvements. After the CF decals had dried up I cut and dry fitted the vac form light covers, always a fiddly work. I also put some pieces of tape across them as support lines when I painted the black areas from behind. A windshield was also cut and formed. It's only dry fitted here, and on the way of falling down... There is a photo etched "mesh" in the kit for the small front air intake, but it looked far to coarse for me. In the seemingly eternal depths of my part and material boxes I found a fine steel mesh that looked better. Also a loose dry fit here. A small steel pipe became a new connector for the hydraulic jacks. It will probably get a brass coloured centre later. The cast in rear detail looks ok to me, but there should be a round bright steel bar across, which surfaced from the depth of my box for "round material" and was cut to size. When the paint on the light covers have dried it looks like I have to start the final assembly...

Absolutely wonderful!

Beautiful work on equally beautiful subject. As so often, I once again feel I was born far too late when I see this wonderful aircraft. It gets my imagination going... Looking forward to next update, and the next...

Moto GP first sounded to me - who doesn't know that much about bike racing - like modern stuff, but now that I reread the first post I understand it would include historic racing bikes as well? Then I will definately be very tempted to join in, as I have set my eyes on a few nice ones.

Starting to take shape. The Matech Competition site seems to have been taken down some time ago, but it contained quite a lot of great photos including some of the interior. I did save a good deal of them as I'm working (slowly, or rather paused...) on # 61 car. If you need them just let me know.

Great looking engine! That beige resin works really well to capture the special look of the 917 parts.

Here's where we are now. With a satin/matt clear coat after the decals the body starts to make sense again. I will let it rest for a few days before adding carbon fibre decals inside the four light recesses and some detail painting. BTW, here is the "Mattierungsmittel" (Graupner Best.-Nr. 925) I mentioned that I'm mixing in my 2K clear. No picture, but it's a thick liquid in a glass bottle. LINK I'm happy with my experiment to tone the side numbers, it gave the subtle change in colour I was looking for. The amount of toning can be varied by spraying more or less clear paint on the decal paper.

I do it like that all the time. I centre the print in the "page setup menu" in the program I use, that way I don't even need to waste a test print if I know what I will get, then just tape the decal paper piece, on all edges, centered on ordinary paper. I cut the decal piece at least 1 cm larger then needed. Works like charm all the time on my Alps/OKI MD5000.

The more I think of this build, the more I like it. I really like to see it finished.

So true. The sound of the early Panoz cars was also just wonderful music.

Carlos, I'm very touched by your words. I read in your presentation thread that your work is all over the world. Now if you land in Sweden some day, please give me a note and we'll see if you can pass by my home, you would be most welcome. Im sure that today you can teach me a thing or two as well. Maybe you are right that I should start a thread showing my older models. I joined this forum when I started building my RM Routemaster bus 1½ years ago, then I quickly found that Britmodeller has a wonderful mix of model builders and caters for all kind of modelling genres, so it soon became a major hangout for me, but I have never displayed any older work here, actually not even everything I've done the last year... Back on to the Delta, I have today sprayed a piece of clear decal paper with a very thin layer of well thinned down Tamiya red clear paint. Judging by the difference of the sprayed and unsprayed areas, it provides the pink shading I want for the side numbers. I plan to cut ellipses of this to put over the 0:s, hoping that it will alter the white colour, but not be visible in the black centre. We'll soon see if it works...

Hello Carlos! It really warms my heart that my old modelling on the web did have such a meaning. Sure I remember the GT90, it's still in my collection and cared for, as are all other old models since then. It will be great to have you with us here Carlos. It's been a quiet few days on the Delta. We have installed a whole new waste water cleaning system dug down in a corner of the garden this week (all finished now, and no, it was not fun at all) and what little modelling time I've had has been further distracted by cleaning up the resin parts for another figure, let's call her miss Death... Hopefully things will be more normal now and the decal work will start.

Thanks everyone. It now has a thin glossy clear coat waiting for decals, and as soon as it's glossy black it sort of looses it's meaning... it really needs its satin/matt black finish. I'm also thinking of a way to replicate the faint pinkish tone the side race numbers should have, and I hope my simple idea will work.

Good to see another entry from this fantastic era. Looking forward to see this progressing.

Ah, one of the best sounding cars over the last years races, great choice.

I'd like to thank the guys who initiated this GB and set it it up, and everyone who has either built bikes, or watched and commented. I have really enjoyd it. I don't think I would have built a bike without it, but there it was, and it has been one of my most enjoyable builds for the last year or two, if not longer, when I have been low on inspiration for my usual subjects. I will definately build some more older bikes. Great work everyone!

Lovely work, and those classic racing colours . Great photo of your two 1/1 bikes BTW .