Sauber C9 In Progress

First order of business was figuring out how to make the cooling apparatus look better. I created this reservoir tank out of some sprue and Top Studio hose joints, cut off the existing coolant rail ends, and drilled holes to mount the tank. 

From what I can tell, this wasn't in the car circa 1989. It was added to the car sometime between then and when it was offered for sale in 2020, which is where most of my reference pics are coming from.  

Little bit of test fitting before wiring everything up. 

Scale Motorsport carbon decals and a couple of other colors for the airbox. 

Drilled out little holes for the Top Studio wires, secured with CA glue. You can see the little cooling tank painted up in the background. 

Wired! 

Wired! 

The ignition wires plug in to Tamiya's odd excuse for a distributor. It's not super accurate, but it looks cool to me...and really, that's what counts right? 

Might as well wire the interior too! 

Last piece to go on the engine block before it gets dropped into the chassis. 

Firewall/bulkhead built up - tried to make that reservoir tank look like it had some liquid in it, think it came out pretty cool! 

Interior 

Interior 

Painting these braces and rear struts was pretty fun believe it or not. 

First coat of Gravity Colors Sauber Brilliant Silver down, doing a test fit! 

I hate the Tamiya reverse-transfer decals for tires. Instead of trying to do it the way they suggest (burnish onto part with a wet q-tip), I usually dip them in water and carefully slide them onto the tire. This method gives you a bit more accuracy with final placement. It also helps there were like 8 extra decals on the sheet! 

From the right! 

From the left! 

Cartograf decals are easy and compliant as always - we're almost done! 

Everything I mixed to try and color-match the taillight decal for the wing mirrors 

Almost forgot a pic with the turbo heat shielding and that rear coolant/expansion tank in place! The rear tank is just a plain cylinder, so I dressed it up with painted bead wire and heat shrink tubing. The real thing is ribbed hose, but Top Studio stuff was out of stock and I wasn't going to go nuts trying to recreate that... 

They look close enough after a clear coat! 

Rear wing decals 

Window surrounds painted - the masks were a pain, but the results were worth it! 

Mostly together... 

Everything installed except the rear wing...it better hurry up and dry!