After building the new Gordon Murray GMA T.50 last month I felt the need to build this.
Western Models white metal kit in 1/43rd from 1981. Like many of these kits, some of the parts are a little deformed.
Besides the bent cockpit area, one wing is missing part of the leading edge and it also has some missing material at the fill points.
Interesting! As a race/airfield marshall at Silverstone I saw this car on it’s first testing and later race. It was though banned later due it’s superior ground effects technology!
I read an article recently that claims the car was actually “banned” by Bernie Ecclestone who was running Team Brabham at that time. Not because it was superior, but because he wanted to be more involved with Formula 1 (and we know what happened on that front) and fighting for the “interpretation of rules” calling it a cooling fan system could’ve tarnished his reputation.
After straightening and some clean up (there was a lot of filled in and crusty areas due to a worn mold) it’s starting to come along. A small chisel was very helpful.
The fan fits pretty well but the casting is rough.
The rear wing still needs more work.
The leading edge of the left wing was filled in and reshaped.
That’s a little better…
Yes you are possibly right although he blamed the FIA for banning it. Bernie was a one for complaining about other teams as if he was perfect, I don’t think as I came across him numerous times in my 20+ years of marshalling at Silverstone, any rules in place on the circuit side he would break them and shout people down!
Everthing he did was for his benefit only!
The aluminum rims were pretty rough inside and the lips were not consistent sizes, so I cleaned and trued them up on my lathe. The centers of the front wheels are white metal so I polished them to brighten them up. (The one on the left is raw white metal.)
The decals were very yellowed. I taped them to a window for a few days in direct sunlight and they bleached out quite well. (The set on the bottom still need to be sun-bleached for comparison.)
I shot the body with Tamiya Italian Red.
The rear rims were very rough inside too, so I machined a clean bevel into the centers. This is a mock-up to determine the track width of the axles.
The decals and instructions are interesting… There are multiple errors on the instructions, and some of the decals are shown to be applied in multiple places, but there are not enough of them despite the kit coming with three complete (and different) sheets. They don’t fit well either (too small in some cases and the casting is irregular left to right) so I mixed a dark blue to do a good bit of freehand touching up and filling in. I made a couple decals to make up for the missing ones.
Nothing like a coat of clear to even things out…
The windshield is not a positive fit, and it’s also short and stubby at the front, on par for these kits… (I trimmed and fitted it before painting.) Canopy glue did a good job of hiding much of the fit issues. It is vac-u-formed in the tinted blue color.
Finished.
Looks great Mark. Those wheels really look sharp - makes me want to order turned/cast wheels for all my car kits.
Another excellent build Mark! Very nice work.
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
Aha!
That is, without a doubt a fine looking and executed build, Kudos for a job “Well Done”