A few from my F-1 coolection (yes, it's misspelled)

Martin Oostrom
Pretty cool.
To be very proud of Patrick 👍

Tom ...
Bravo! Particularly like the JPS!

Richmond
Wow!

Patrick Nance
Thanks all! I have a few more not pictured (Wolf WR1 and Ferrari 312T4) and 7 or 8 still in the box! There are 3 kits in the large scale I haven't been able to find at a reasonable price... McLaren M23, Ferrari 312 and the Tyrrell 003. Thanks for the nice words.

Julian Herrero aka Yuri
Yessss COOOL !!!

Mike Thomas
Wow. Nice work, Patrick. I've been looking at 1/12 for awhile now but the price....well, when I figure I could buy four or five 1/20 for the price of one 1/12, I kinda have to think twice.

Tim Heimer
Beautiful! Nice coolection indeed! Mike you should do at least one!

Mike Thomas
I'd love to, Tim. Maybe Santa will be good this year....if he can keep his hands out of my savings account until then. 🙂

Tim Heimer
LOL! What are you saying? Bad Santa?

Mike Thomas
Nah...Santa's good...to my kids. I just gotta learn to spend a little on me this time. Of course, by the time I get enough saved to buy a 1/12 kit, the prices will have gone up. A vicious circle, it is.

Patrick Nance
Tell me about it... 20 years ago when I built the RE20, the kit was around $100. I was looking at a Yardley McLaren M23 the other day... going price is around $200. But it is out of production.

Mike Thomas
If I was going to buy one, I would be looking at either the MP4/6, the Ferrari 641/2 or maybe the Williams FW14B. What I see on Ebay right now is $180.00 for the Williams, all the way up to $1100.00(!!!) for the MP4/6....a bit rich for my blood.

Tim Heimer
Damn! Now I understand what you were saying.

Patrick Nance
Mike... I have the FW14, and the Ferrari 641/2, and I am not sure they did the MP4/6 in 12th scale. But it is a pretty penny to build in this large scale. I took these on when I first started building models again and I learned a lot about detailing. I'm looking at the Yardley M23 and it's pricing out at somewhere $200. Can't quite pull the trigger yet as there is one place I have left to look!

Mike Thomas
Tamiya does the MP4/6, there are a bunch of 'em on Ebay. There's also an M23 for $145.00CDN (about $110.00US)

I just need to get myself in the "mood", I guess. It seems like a lot for one kit but here in Canada, $40 for a 1/24, 1/25 kit is the norm, so maybe it's not so bad after all.

Patrick Nance
I just added four more "Big Scale" F-1 kits to the pile... two Tamiya (Yardley McLaren M23, Texaco McLaren M23) and two Protar (Ferrari 312T2 and 312T5) as well as a 60s UPC 1/16th scale Ford GT40. Glutton for punishment, I guess! Need to find a Lotus 49 (have the 49B) and a Ferrari 312T3 to make a complete set of 312s...

Tim Heimer
Too cool!

Holger Kranich
Wonderful cars! You had to have balls to drive ´em!

Mike Thomas
I finally decided to take the dive myself. I purchased a 641/2 on ebay. According to the tracking number, I should have it July 10.

Patrick Nance
Mike, it is one of the tightest kits. I really loved mine. And I just picked up 2 more big Scale Tamiya kits, both McLaren M23s and two more Ferraris from Protar…. a 312T and a 312T5. That makes 14 left to build to join the 9 that already exist. Enjoy it and let me know if you have any questions!

Mike Thomas
Yeah, I think I've lost it, Patrick. I found a guy that does photo etch and cast resin and metal parts for this kit, so I ordered everything he had....I don't wanna tell ya how much I spent. If I was still married, I would be getting divorced! 🙂

And I do have a question, actually. What paint did you use for your 641/2?

Patrick Nance
Mike, I use Tamiya Italian red right out of the rattle can with no gloss or clear coat. I've had great luck with it. I use two light mist coats, buff out ant imperfections and then one medium gloss coat and Novus polishing compound.

By the way, the Tamiya decals don't include the Marlboro emblems. But they are available from several sources! That is about my favorite of all my F-1 kits. It is so clean and straightforward.

Stay in touch through this thread, please! It's been probably 15 years since I built mine!

Mike Thomas
I'll stay in touch for sure, as I imagine I will have another question or two.. 🙂 As for the decals, I recently purchased some others from TB Decals in Italy for the 1/20 f310b and a couple others and they are great decals. Thin and strong. Only one complaint and that was the top side Marlboro for the F1-2000 broke on the really thin part at the top but it was an easy fix. He has the 1/12 641/2 listed so I may end up buying them from him but...I have attached a picture that the seller included with the kit that shows the Marlboro logo on the decals. Older release? Aftermarket? Don't know but they are there! I noticed the kit decals from the F1-2000 seem a bit thick compared to the TB decals, so, if the 641/2 has thicker decals, I may just order the thinner ones from TB anyway.

[img1]

Mike Thomas
Oh yeah...I also bought these tire stencils, thinking that spraying the white letters might look a little more "real" than the decals. Never noticed the mistake when I bought them but when I opened the package it jumped right out at me. Can you see it?

[img1]

Mike Thomas
Yeah....the "EAGLE" is upside down. Or at least, it should be. I never really noticed in the picture when I bought it but for some reason, as soon as I took it out of the package, my eye went right to it.
[img1]

Patrick Nance
Actually there is a very glaring inconsistency and that is the winged foot should be centered between the "GOOD" and the "YEAR". The gap between the winged foot and "YEAR" makes it look awkward. But yes, spraying the tires looks more realistic and I have NEVER had any luck getting decals to stick to the rubber and look like anything but decals. Since real tires are painted it looks better. As far as decals, Tamiya had a tencency to make their decals very thick. I have been having a horrible time just recently decaling a Yahama motorcycle. It has taken 4 or 5 applications of MicroSol to get them to lay down flat. i was almost to the point of painting the large areas when they finally settled down.

Never used TB decals but am trying to find better decals for my 312 T2 and 312T5. Protar actually has peel and stick for some of the decals which makes no sense at all!

Patrick Nance
You can see here the wing is a little separated but not as much as on your stencil... whoops, how do you add an image?

Mike Thomas
I'm using Windows 10, so I don't know if this works for other systems but just right click on the image and "copy image address", then paste it into your comment...providing it's already online somewhere.

I see the foot is a little off now that you mention it. I wrote a note to the supplier (he doesn't make them) and he said he will mention it to the manufacturer. If they correct it, he will send me a new one. If not...well, it'll have to be decals, I guess.

This is the first time I used TB decals but it won't be the last. I like them. Other than that one little break (which may have been my fault) they are very sharp and very thin. My phone takes poopy pictures so I'll drag out the big camera later and see if I can get a decent picture to show you.

Mike Thomas
Here's a link to the 1/12 decals he carries....
tbdecalsmodels.com/1-12-cars

Laurent VILLANUEVA "HELLER-forever"
nice !!!

Patrick Nance
Mike, I'm on my phone so... and TB looks like good stuff but no 312T2 or T5 decals! I'll get on my computer in a minute and post a photo of a real F-1 Goodyear racing Eagle... I also have been working on an Excel spreadsheet of something I've never been to find... a list of plastic model F-1 kits in 1/12, 1/20, and 1/24 scale (no diecast allowed). I'm surprised how many Fujimi kits there are!

Patrick Nance
So I finished my database of F-1 kits... if anyone is interested. It may not be complete but it is better than what is out there now. I don't want ads or to look at prices or go to a hobby store site and scroll through hundreds of pages. I just wanted a simple spreadsheet with manufacturer and kit number. Now I have one! And I'm willing to share!

Mike Thomas
My 641/2 arrived this morning! Box is in kinda rough shape. Not a big concern, everything inside is fine...except, one little corner at rear of cowling broken of. The piece is still in the bag, clean break, easy fix. The decals do have the Marlboro markings but I'm not sure if they are going to get used. After all, according to the copyright date, they are 28 years old! Now, I'm waiting for the aftermarket goodies to show up then I can tackle this thing. Having never seen one before, it's actually bigger than I expected. That's a good thing...more room for details!

Patrick Nance
I think indycals.com has a set that you can purchase! Too bad about the corner but if it can be repaired, the great! Is this the Tamiya or Protar?

Mike Thomas
It's the Tamiya kit. The corner is a simple fix, no big deal. I think I'm going to go with the TB sheet. I've used indycals before and although I like Mike's work, the TB decals are each on an individual carrier, where as Mike's are all on one piece of film.

The broken piece:
[img1]

After taking a better look, the decals are shot. They look like they may have gotten wet at one point. The 2nd blue FIAT decal looks like a reflection but it's actually the paper that was over them that was stuck:
[img1]

And finally, a link to all the aftermarket stuff I ordered. I ordered the entire page 🙂
thundervalleyf1.com/..s/ferrari-641-2.html

Patrick Nance
Did you buy all the aftermarket stuff?

Mike Thomas
Everything that is on that page. I've never gone full out on a model before. Some detailing here and there but with the amazing aftermarket stuff that's available now, I just had to give it a shot.

I'm single, don't drink, don't smoke so what else am I going to spend money on?🙂