William's Fw14b

[Peter Lombardo]

I am willing to bet that most of you guys, certainly the guys who have sons, have been dragged into building a Pinewood Derby Car or two. I certainly have, as my son was a scout for a number of years. He always built his car, as I wanted him to be proud of his entry. But our scout troop had a category for fathers too. I built at least 4 different cars over the years, but this was my favorite.

I was a big fan of Formula One back in the early and mid ninety’s. Senna was my guy and I was heartbroken the day I watched him buy the ranch in 1994 at Imola. I also was a fan of Nigel Mansel and the Williams team in general. I built the World Champion Williams FW14b from a Hasagawa kit. It is 1/24th scale, and quite frankly, I have not seen any other builds of this kit. Every build of this car I see is the 1/12 Tamiya kit. Anyway, this is a pretty straight forward build of the car, except I added aftermarket decals for the Camel logos.

But the reason for the post is that it was the inspiration for the pinewood derby build. I hand formed the car, using my Dremel tool with a drum sanding grinder, from the standard pinewood blank that you are given by the scouts, not one of the pre cut bodies you can get from the hobby store. I hand painted the body and all of the lettering using my Hasagawa model as the guide. This was built back in 1995.

I am curious….How many of you guys did Pinewood Derby cars? And maybe we can see them. I’m will to but that there are some pretty wild builds out there. Lets see them!

[mikelo]

I have done the pine wood for cub/boy scouts and mine were also inspired by Indy cars, but looked no where like yours. Last year my wife signed me up for the Awana grand Prix (I can't find any real difference except some of the rules). Since everyone knew I am a car guy and a model builder, the pressure was on. I have always had issues with the hieght of the bottom of the cars. While in the scouts, I had always added wood between the wheels, level with the bottom and not past the sides of the wheels. Last year, I took it to a new dimension with my side extensions. Not only did I go out, but I also took them down with in the width of the wheels so it did not rub anything. I am sure you can see my inspiration for this design. I did restrain myself and not paint it red. It is supposed to be a grey/green color changing paint, but will change about any color. I have seen blue, purple, gold and red. It pasted all the requirements (even with complaints) and was able to compete.

[Peter Lombardo]

I have done the pine wood for cub/boy scouts and mine were also inspired by Indy cars, but looked no where like yours. Last year my wife signed me up for the Awana grand Prix (I can't find any real difference except some of the rules). Since everyone knew I am a car guy and a model builder, the pressure was on. I have always had issues with the hieght of the bottom of the cars. While in the scouts, I had always added wood between the wheels, level with the bottom and not past the sides of the wheels. Last year, I took it to a new dimension with my side extensions. Not only did I go out, but I also took them down with in the width of the wheels so it did not rub anything. I am sure you can see my inspiration for this design. I did restrain myself and not paint it red. It is supposed to be a grey/green color changing paint, but will change about any color. I have seen blue, purple, gold and red. It pasted all the requirements (even with complaints) and was able to compete.

Mike, great job on that very sleek racer...I never heard of Awana before, but I can see where that would kinda neat to do. I really like the way you added the fender flares around the wheels. The color works great on it because there is a lot of space to see the color changes with the suttle body curves. Very nice. Anyone else build anything?

[Brendan]

Very cool pine car. I've seen some other people do Formula 1 cars before. It's a unique way of showing off the car. Also very nice work on the Hasegawa kit. I have one of those sitting around somewhere. Just need to find it. I know the body is done, but not much else.