Hunter's hobbies: WILLIAMS FW 14 B UPDATE

I have completed the cockpit tub and am now ready to cover it up in the front part of the body work, which will hide forever the foot pedals and most of the internal detail if the drivers compartment, so I thought I might as well take some photos and describe some of the problems I encountered.

I began by spraying it blue, giving it 3 coats and allowing 12 hours between coats. I then masked of the blue and sprayed the semi gloss black areas. Having looked at the instructions for installation of the engine I needn't have taken so much care with the back as it is covered with metal foil. Ah well, tinkity tonk as they say. I proceeded to add the subsequent detail and was quite pleased with the result. The seat belts were a bit fiddly, making sure they were aligned properly with no overlapped areas. It is also important to remember not to fold the main body strap section before attaching it to the adjustment buckle, one of the very few ambiguous parts of Tamiya instructions. The straps themselves seem very prone to fraying and once attached to the seat need a careful eye to remove stray threads. Fitting the seat is also a little ambiguous and I referred to the box art for positioning. Once again much of the dashboard detail and the internal cockpit will be hidden when I attach the front cockpit cover.

Here is my next problem. I need to spray this part yellow, blue and black. There are no clear instructions as to where to spray the blue paint on the underside of the front upper arm suspension covers and I cannot decide which colour to spray first. The instructions also do not indicate if the inside is sprayed black, but I assume it is. I shall now move on to completing the active suspension detail and the front brake assembly.

I am enjoying making this model and in many ways I will be sad to complete it. I hope you enjoy the photos and if anyone out there has any advice please Email me at malcolmh61@googlemail.com

Also note here that there is no clearance between the steering shaft and the brake pedal.Having fixed the pedals earlier there wasn't much I could do here. The green cable attached to the pedals is also fixed with super glue. There is no way on earth that I can tie a knot in 10mm of cable, perhaps some superhuman at Tamiya can sent me a tutorial, because now I am trying to think of how I am going to tie it onto the throttle on the engine block. Hey ho another problem for another day.