Thursday 7 March 2013

WILLIAMS FW 14B Problems and solutions

The exhaust fit, front wing and electrics.
I completed the exhausts with some difficulty, it was like trying to reassemble a segmented orange back to its original state and then fit it back into the skin. I tried to align all the pipes in line as shown on the diagram, using a ruler, but gave up and gave it my best shot. When dry I gave them a dry fit and the seemed ok so I glued them in place and used the alignment part supplied, however when the body assembly was fitted to the undertray the left exhaust was still out of line. I fixed this by using a toothpick to align it and fixed it in place with some good old superglue. I fitted the bottom radiator connections with no problem and moved on to fixing the ready painted engine intake. I had painted the blue square onto the yellow base paint using the measurements of the blue decal and the result was fine. I am still constructing the rear wing and will apply the wing decals before fitting as it would seem easier to fit these without being hampered by the bodywork. Working with large decals is difficult enough, as I found out with the front wing decal. Construction of the front wing was simple enough,but the white decal became a real problem. I fitted the decal in place, allowed it to semi dry and fitted it to the body. Big problem, as soon as I fitted it it began to tear wherever I touched it and the fit with the nose tore it even more. Fortunately I had bought an extra set of decals, as I could foresee problems with fitting the coach line detail, particularly on the front body between the front suspension arms. I cut out the new decal and decided to cut out the section under the nose before applying. I also used humbrol decal cote to fix it and trimmed the ends as the decal was slightly oversized. This worked much better and I am now waiting for it to dry completely before giving it a coat of clear paint, so that the white finish matches the rest of the gloss bodywork white. I then decided to add the extra cable detail to the right radiator duct. I raided one of my bits boxes and lets face it we all have them. I made the cable connector from two 1:35 tank periscopes and drilled out the holes for the cable, using the thin black cable supplied with the kit, the only cable with any spare. I used some thick black cable for the other connector and passed through some fine black cable from my bits box for the other cables. I know it is not as good as others I have seen, but it serves the purpose. I have decided to write this blog as a distraction from my current task of cleaning off the mould lines from the tyres. I have spent about two hours on this so far as I have to do it by hand using the good old sandpaper. I hope the result gives the impression of new tyres as I have tyre decals to fit on at the end. I can now see the end of construction in sight and am kind of looking forward to the end result, but as I have mentioned I can see problems with fitting the decals. One other thing I should mention is that I am leaving the fitting of the mirrors, aerial and windshield until after the decal fit as the coach lines will be easier to fit. I suppose some of the decals could have been fitted earlier, but then they would not have withstood much handling. A bit of a case of a glass half full rather than half empty, what ho! That's all for now toodle pip for now and as I have said in the past a bit of feedback, good or bad would be greatly appreciated. Cheerio.











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