Merry Christmas everyone! Let's celebrate with another part of my construction report!
Wings
As usual, I started with the rear wing, so here's the drawing I made.
First, I built the endplates. In my previous experience, the connection between the endplates and the flaps was a weak point, so I introduced two ribs aiming to enforce the bond. Not much more to say about that stage of the project, except the many vanes and cutouts which I had to take into account.
Then, I made the wing profiles. The ribs fitted neatly inside and gave shape to the wing. They were more straightforward than the Mercedes' (which had different colours). A goof I made was the McLaren logo I glued - it has a wrong "a"
Fixing the completed rear wing to the car wasn't that much of a challenge, since there are two slots on the floor which hold it alongside the central pylon. This enabled a comparatively stiff connection. The pylon though brought some headaches, as it had to be positioned in a narrow zone and accommodate the DRS flap as well. In the end, I decided to build the DRS activator as a sepperate unit, a correct decision as it later turned out.
Moving on to the front wing, it was also built using a different technique compared to the F1W05. I used a central reenforced section (which also houses nose connection pins - a feature allowing a more precise and strong installation of the profile to the nosecone. This is quite an important feature that for some reason was missing from my previous car) and added the individual flaps one by one, glueing the endplate bases to the first one (check the FW drawing, where there's a section called mounting aid.)
Here's how the wing grew. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, the profiles are pretty much ine the shape they should be:
The endplates followed. Nothing special here, McLaren made my job relatively easy. The spec I built was the one raced in the latter part of the season which is evident when you look at the slot. With the endplates in place, I could go on and add the remaining two flaps. They were slightly trickier due to their complex curvature. Also, they are structurally connected to the endplate bases only, and must therefore be more precise. A real challenge were the metal connectors for setting the angle of attack. They are so small that I only hardly could install them properly. The cascades and underside srakes were the final touches.
The nosecone followed. I started with a framework which holds the nails used for fitting to the chassis. A novelty was that I cut off the heads of the nails so that the could be glued more stably. I let the framework harden properly before continuing work. Now it's very strong and I can hold the whole car by the nosecone only. Then I worked out the shape of the cover, which took me four attempts to get right. Once that was done, I glued two structural supports on each side and added the cover. Its red stripe was achieved exactly the same way as the sidepods' - by slotting the cardboard. Finally, I closed the nosecone's bottom and shaped the little forward extension on which the "Honda" decal stays by using a 400 grit sandpaper.
Then it was just a matter of applying decals, attaching the FW to the nosecone and varnishing. Which brings us here:
Thanks for watching! If you want to see more pictures, please
visit the construction report on my website!
The project is nearing completion, so do stick around, as more is to come very soon
And have a wonderful new year!
Cheers
