It has been awhile

[Peter Lombardo]

Last October (2023) I finally completed my long-awaited exudes from New Jersey to sunny Southwest Florida.  I finally was able to make the move as my wife retired as a Registered Nurse after (long, hard, and dedicated) 50 years in the Operating Room in a large hospital in northern New Jersey and since I am semi-retired working from the internet the move was easy for me. 

I say easy because as a golfer now living on a golf course in a gated golf community I am now in Paradise, but I had huge issues with the hundreds of unbuilt kits still in boxes and a few hundred finished builds.  I sold off about 125 unbuilt mostly domestic car kits while keeping about 50 of them.  I took about 165 unbuilt mostly race car kits down to Florida packed in large cardboard boxes and had to get a climate-controlled storage locker to keep them safe and out of the extreme heat and humidity in the summer months down here in SW Florida.  I wanted to keep all the built kits but decided to limit them to my competition builds, a few of my unique designs, and my favorite custom builds.   I packed up 10 large plastic containers using bubble wrap around each car which allowed me to bring down about 135 built vehicles.  I purchased large glass cases with 4 shelfs each then added 4 more in between them and LED light strips giving me 8 display shelfs per case allowing about 125 cars in enclosed cases so they are protected from dust.

Moving from a 3,900+sqf house to a 1,400sqf Condo, even though it is only my wife and I required a rethink of what modeling space I could comfortably utilize.  I found space in our den where I could put in a small desk and space for the two (I need another one) display cases.

I know you guys don’t care about all of this, but I included the info since it is something that many of us have to deal with and it isn’t fun.

Okay, on to the builds I have completed since the move.  I got off to a slow start since I had far more important projects, and a lot of golf, to get finished before the kit building could get underway.

First up, the 1988 all-conquering (winning all but one race that year winning the Constructors Championship and Ayrton Senna the Drivers’ championship) McLaren MP4/4.  I built this kit back in 1990 or so with Alain Prost as the driver.  If I remember correctly back them, Tamiya included the Marlboro red decals for the kit which has been banned now since Tobacco sponsorship is considered evil.  I painted all of the red on the car and used aftermarket Marlboro logo decals.  You can see just how badly the red and white paint on the 1990-built car has faded over the years.  This car was in an enclosed case but exposed to a few hours a day of sunlight.  Other than the drivers and faded paint the other main difference in the cars is that the older kit was built with the turbo snorkels where the newer build was modified to represent a different configuration as raced in 1988.  I prefer the version without the snorkels as do the designers of the car who in a video interview expressed their preference.  I filled in the body holes and crafted a new airflow induction system that bring in cool air next to the radiators under the bodywork.  I think this version is much sleeker-looking.  All of the carbon chassis pieces were decaled with a Studio 27 set of carbon fiber decals.  I added the Ayrton Senna driver to the kit.  I cut off the front nose section on the kit, and I noticed after the photos were taken that the nose was a bit askew in the photo so I took one more with the nose on correctly, as it should have been.  This car, as with just about all of my cars was painted with either spray cans or airbrushed Tamiya paint.  Using one brand of paint, in my mind, simplifies the process and makes clean-up easier because all you need is inexpensive alcohol.

Second up is the BMW M1 Procar made by Italeri Niki Lauda championship car.  

Nothing unique here, painted with Tamiya paints, but I have to tell you, the masking off of the white so I could add the florescent red was a real struggle as no matter how careful I was, the red found a way to bleed into the areas where it was not wanted.  The MP4/4 above did not cause me any issues, but this one was a real bear.   I got it “close” and finally said I was done with it all though it was far from perfect and barely acceptable.

 

Fujimi Williams FW16.  I will forever remember this car as the car that killed Ayrton Senna.  There was a huge legal suit in the Italian courts over whether or not the last-minute modification of the steering system and potential unsatisfactory welds were the cause of the car flying off the track in Imola at the turn named Tamburelio which was considered to be not that difficult a curve to handle, especially by someone as accomplished as Senna.  It was a freak accident because it was a section of the front A-frame strut that hit Senna in the opening for his vision in the helmet.  I read several reports that indicated that had the suspension arm been a few inches higher when it hit the helmet, it would have glanced off and Senna would have easily survived the accident.  But he didn’t and this major blow to the sport of Formula One brought about major changes to the area of driver safety.  Anyway, here is the FW16 as Senna raced it in 1994.  This is pretty straightforward with aftermarket decals and a driver figure added.  I custom-mixed the blue to get it as close as I could to the blue used by Rothmans. The yellow tire markings were airbrush painted on using photo-etched stencils.

Fujimi FW13b

One of my all-time favorite F1 cars of all time.  In 1992 I watched all the races that were televised even staying up to 2 or 3 am.  Nigel Mansell is a great driver having followed up his World Championship year in 1992 with the Indy Car Championship the very next year, but in all honesty, the FW14b was far and away the most dominant F1 car of the period.  It was so dominant in 1992 that it was banned in 1993.  The car did nothing illegal, but because it had perfected the use of “Full Active” suspension it was running better than the competition to the point where the driver was less important so it begs the question, was it the FW14b and not Mansell that made the difference?  Many years ago I was the Controller in an Infiniti Dealership.  I had the opportunity to drive the Q45a on all kinds of local roads and a race track full out. The Q45a coupled a massive 4.5 liter V8 and a fully active suspension that used computer-activated dampers in place of shock absorbers, just as the FW14b did.  The computer-controlled dampers kept the Infiniti on a level keel regardless of potholes or hard turns at high speed just as it did on the Williams.  The FW14b could keep a consistent ride height regardless of speed or cornering and a consistent ride height means consistent airflow over the wings and foils that it could corner at astonishing speed because of the huge downforce generated which also meant it could use less “wing” so it was faster in a straight line too.  The car could outperform other comparable vehicles because the suspension was so amazing.  So, here is my Fujimi 1/20^th scale car with Nigel as he looked when he clinched the 1992 Drivers Championship.  I added a gaggle of wires under the body shell and used aftermarket decals for the Camel logos. The yellow is Tamiya Camel Yellow; the white is bright white but the blue is a custom mix of Tamiya paint.   The white Goodyear tire markings were airbrush painted on using photo-etched stencils.  Along with this, I included a Hasagawa 1/24^th scale model of the car I built back in 1993 and then I made a Pinewood Derby car of the FW14b to race back in 1993 in the “family” category.  All hand painted and logoed but sadly, not as fast as the real car so it didn’t win for speed, but got a trophy for best looking.

Mazda RX7

This is a curbside Hasegawa kit of the 1979 Daytona GTU Class winner.  I always liked the look of the livery on this car but once I got the kit, curbside just wasn’t going to work.  I opened the doors and then thought about the engine bay.  I found a 3D-printed twin-rotor engine and under-the-hood fenders and firewall so it wasn’t an easy conversion, but it all fit together reasonably well.  All were painted with Tamiya paints and used the kit supplied decals along with a bit of custom mixed paint to fill in a few areas where the decals fought me a bit too hard.

Toyota 200GT “wire wheel” Hasagawa curbside kit

A car that honestly, I was not very familiar with.  It has the same basic body lines as the XKE Coupe, Ferrari GTO, and Datsun 240Z, yet it never really made it into high production.  Its only real claim to fame is it was used in a Bond movie, but because it has such a low roof it was modified into a roadster (they made 2 of them for the movie) because Sean Connery could not fit in it.   Anyway, once again, this is a curbside kit but when it ended up on the workbench I felt compelled to open the doors.  One thing led to another and the hood got opened and then the rear hatch.  I had a Nissan 2.4 liter inline 6 engine that was not being used so it was pressed into service.  You can’t tell a 2.0 from a 2.4 liter so that wasn’t a problem and both were twin overhead cam designs so that worked.  The only issues were, the distributor was on the wrong side of the front of the engine and the inlet and exhaust ports had to be flip-flopped to the other side of the engine, also not a real issue at all.  I fabricated the new exhaust pipes out of solder.  Built the firewall and foot space into the engine bay and added the radiator wall that surrounds two radiators and an electric fan.  The car is painted a custom mix of very light blue metallic paint topped with clear coat.

And finally.

Nissan HKS Skyline GT-R Group A     Another Hasagawa curbside kit.

Pardon my language, but this kit was a B _ T C H.  One of those builds that fight you all the way, I’m sure you all know about these builds that don’t want to be completed, right?   This build almost found its way into the dumpster.  But I calmed down, reconsidered the time and money invested, and found a way to get’r done.

As with the others, it started life as a curbside kit but ended up causing me massive pain.  Opened the doors, easy, opened the hood, easy, opened the trunk, also easy.  Hinging the doors, easy, hinging the hood, not so easy, hinging the trunk, darn near impossible.   Hours and hours and still not as well as I wanted.  I scratch-built the inside fillers, fuel lines, and new fuel tank both under the chassis and under the trunk.   The interior electrical boxes were wired.  So tell me this, why does the roll cage (kit supplied) not fit properly?  It’s too tall causing me all kinds of issues.  I added a 3D printed firewall, wheel wells, and radiator surround and then a beautifully done 3D Nissan RB26 2.6-liter twin-turbo engine instead of the phony cast lump cast into the chassis.  The car was painted Tamiya gloss black and the matt, but very colorful decals were applied.  I had high hopes for this build and now I am very disappointed with the result.  Oh well, can’t win them all.  My starting lineup of Ford GT40s for 1966

[karbuildr]

Very nice builds, all of them. And welcome back.

[Yeah Nah]

Wow! Amazing output and quality.

[ea0863]

Fascinating builds Peter! I'm just familiarizing myself with race cars - being a custom car guy myself, but I can clearly see the thousands of hours you have into your finely detailed models. Oh, and by the way, your move to Florida IS interesting to many of us who are walking parallel paths down the road of life. In my case, remove "Florida" from your story, and insert "Nevada" instead - and you have my story  

[slusher]

Great builds, I like them all!

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Peter!

Glad that you made it with the collection intact. Moving so many models on such a distance is a challenge.

My wife is starting to "talk" about selling the house and settling in a condo, but I try to postpone it for a few years. Staying involved in the hobby is a major concern for me, and anything that impedes that worries me. Oh well...

Happy life in FLA!

CT 

[Oliver77]

It is good to think ahead to future accommodations, and since I 'specialize' in 48 and 72 aircraft, HO trains, as well as 1:25 cars and trucks...OH MY!