Silly Putty® Wheel Mask -- A Quick How-To by ChillyB

I don't know whether this has ever come up before in your modeling lives, but I found a need to mask the center of a wheel painted one color while painting the rest of the wheel another color. This is what I came up with:

Using a drafting template, I first select a suitably sized circle:
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Next, I use a small ball of Silly Putty® to fill in the circle equal to the thickness of the template:
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Finally, apply that circle of Silly Putty® to the wheel, taking some care not to distort it too much in the process:
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This is how they turned out last time I tried this:
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Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/995377.aspx

Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber Skip Barber

Sauber C30 launch pictures (31st of January)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w9GVTZGFuLM/TWCRprBHn2I/AAAAAAAAG_U/PyW-luDGng4/s1600/sam31012011002794.jpg

Sauber F1 Team launched their 2011 challenger, the C30 at Valencia on 31st Jan'11.

As compared to its C29 predecessor, the new racer comes with more aggressive sidepods and a single mounting for its rear-wing (rather than double mounting), while also incorporating a blown diffuser. In addition, it has been confirmed that the car will be fitted with a Ferrari-developed Kinetic Energy Recovery System starting with the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

“We want to finish in the points regularly and clearly improve our position in the FIA Formula 1 constructors' world championship,” stated his intentions the very owner of the team Peter Sauber. “2010 marked the 41st year of our company history and one of the most difficult.”

He insisted that after a difficult campaign in 2010, the team is now committed to progress.

“Never before had we faced such reliability problems, but we managed to overcome them in the second half of the season. We implemented some well-considered structural changes. The appointment of James Key as Technical Director already bore fruit last season, and he is now in charge of development of the Sauber C30-Ferrari.”

Technical specifications

Chassis carbon-fibre and honeycomb composite monocoque
Suspension (front) Upper and lower wishbones, inboard springs and dampers, actuated by Sachs pushrods
Suspension (rear) as front
Engine Ferrari Type 056 2,398 cc (146.3 cu in) 90° V8, limited to 18,000 RPM with optional 60 kW (80 hp) KERS naturally aspirated mid-mounted
Transmission Seven-speed semi-automatic carbon-fibre sequential gearbox with reverse gear electronically-controlled, quick-shift Limited-slip differential
Weight 640 kg (1,411 lb) (including driver)
Fuel Shell
Tyres Pirelli P Zero

OZ Wheels (front and rear): 13"

Link
Sauber C30 – Launch Detail and Analysis (Scarbsf1's Blog)
"Development was held back last year as the team focussed its resources on the new car, which first hit the wing tunnel in May. This switch in resource was partly the reason the exhaust blown diffuser was not developed in 2010. Their new car sports just such a device, with an interesting twist. Otherwise the car is largely a logical evolution of the already quite advance concept of the C29. With Key having sorted the Ferrari engine installation problems and the cars ride height sensitivity which blighted the teams early season last year, Now the team can expect a strong run in the midfield for 2011."

Sauber C30 launch pictures







Photos © Sauber ag

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/F1InsightAFormula1Blog/~3/_KoeazpVhdM/sauber-c30-launch-pictures-31st-of.html

Peter Broeker Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown Warwick Brown

Better racing - but is it fake?

In Monaco before Christmas, Formula 1's governing body held a meeting to discuss one of the key and most controversial aspects of 2011 - the Drag Reduction System or DRS.

Introduced amid much controversy and no small amount of trepidation in some quarters, questions about the validity of the overtaking aid, not to mention the wisdom of employing it, decreased during the season. So much so that, at the Monaco meeting, it was decided that only small refinements needed to be made to its use for the 2012 campaign.

But while the FIA and the teams all agree that DRS has played a valuable role in improving F1 as a spectacle, they are determined to ensure it performs in the way intended. In particular, no-one wants to cheapen one of the central aspects of a driver's skill by making overtaking too easy.

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Sebastian Vettel enters the DRS zone at the Spanish Grand Prix. Photo: Getty

To recap briefly, DRS was introduced in an attempt to solve the perennial problem of there being too little overtaking. After years - decades even - of discussions, F1's technical brains hit on what they thought could be a solution: DRS.

DRS does what it says on the tin. When deployed, the top part of the rear wing moves upwards, reducing drag and giving a boost in straight-line speed. In races, drivers could use it only if they were within a second of the car in front at a "detection point" shortly before the "DRS zone". The DRS zone was where DRS could be deployed, which was usually the track's longest straight.

The idea was to make overtaking possible but not too easy.

There is no doubt that racing improved immeasurably as a spectacle in 2011 compared with previous seasons. But how big a role did DRS play? And did overtaking become too easy at some tracks and remain too hard at others?

It is a more complex issue than it at first appears because it is not always easy to tell from the outside whether an overtaking move was a result of DRS or not.

In Turkey and Belgium, for example, several drivers sailed past rivals in the DRS zone long before the end of it, leading many to think the device had made overtaking too easy.

But, armed with statistics, FIA race director Charlie Whiting says appearances were deceptive. What was making overtaking easy at those two races, he said, was the speed advantage of the car behind as the two cars battling for position came off the corner before the DRS zone.

Whiting showed me a spreadsheet detailing the speeds of the respective cars in all the overtaking manoeuvres that happened in the Belgian GP.

"This shows very clearly that when the speed delta [difference] between the two cars at the beginning of the zone is low, then overtaking is not easy," he said. "But if one car goes through Eau Rouge that bit quicker, sometimes you had a speed delta of 18km/h (11mph). Well, that's going to be an overtake whether you've got DRS or not."

According to Whiting, the statistics show that if the two cars come off the corner into the DRS zone at similar speeds, then the driver behind needs to be far closer than the one-second margin that activates the DRS if he is to overtake.

"One second is the activation but that won't do it for you," Whiting said. "You've got to be 0.4secs behind to get alongside into the braking zone."

Confusing the picture in 2011 - particularly early in the season - was the fast-wearing nature of the new Pirelli tyres, which led to huge grip differences between cars at various points of the races. A driver on fresher tyres would come off a corner much faster and brake that much later for the next one. That would have a far greater impact on the ease of an overtaking move than DRS ever would.

Critics of DRS might argue that while it may be useful at tracks where overtaking has traditionally been difficult, like Melbourne, Valencia and Barcelona, for example, it is debatable whether there is a need for it at circuits where historically there has been good racing, like Turkey, Belgium and Brazil.

According to Whiting, DRS does not diminish the value of an overtaking move at tracks where it is usually easy to pass. It just means that DRS opens up the possibility for more. In other words, it works just as it does at any other track.

McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe is an influential member of the Technical Working Group of leading engineers which came up with DRS. He said people had been arguing for years that engineers should alter the fundamental design of cars to facilitate overtaking.

However, tinkering with aerodynamic design was never going to be a solution, according to Lowe, because F1 cars will always need downforce to produce such high performance, and that means overtaking will always, by the cars' nature, be difficult.

"What's great [about DRS is] at least we can move on from this debate of trying to change the aerodynamic characteristics of cars to try to improve overtaking," added Lowe.

"We've found something much more authoritative, much cheaper, easier and more effective, and adjustable from race to race."

Whiting thinks DRS worked as expected everywhere except Melbourne and Valencia.

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Valencia's DRS zone could be extended for 2012. Photo: Getty 

So for next season's opening race in Australia, he is considering adding a second DRS zone after the first chicane, so drivers who have used DRS to draw close to rivals along the pit straight can have another crack at overtaking straight afterwards. As for Valencia, traditionally the least entertaining race of the year, the FIA will simply make the zone, which is located on the run to Turn 12, longer.

There is potentially one big negative about DRS, though.

There is a risk that its introduction could mean the end of races in which a driver uses his skills to hold off a rival in a faster car. Some of the greatest defensive victories of the modern age have been achieved in this way. One thinks of Gilles Villeneuve holding off a train of four cars in his powerful but poor-handling Ferrari to win in Jarama in 1981, or Fernando Alonso fending off Michael Schumacher's faster Ferrari at Imola in 2005.

The idea behind the introduction of DRS was for a much faster car to be able to overtake relatively easily but for passing still to be difficult between two cars of comparative performance. In theory, if that philosophy is adhered to rigidly, the sorts of races mentioned above will still be possible.

However, once an aid has been introduced that gives the driver behind a straight-line speed advantage that is an incredibly difficult line to walk, as Whiting himself admits. "You've got to take the rough with the smooth to a certain extent," he said.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/12/drs.html

Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams

The French Grand Prix

The stories suggesting that the French Grand Prix will be back on the calendar in September 2013 could be true. The plan is to alternate the race with the Belgian GP and use the Paul Ricard circuit, near Toulon. This has very limited spectator capacity and poor access roads, but it is the venue that [...]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/the-french-grand-prix/

Tommy Byrne Giulio Cabianca Phil Cade Alex Caffi John CampbellJones

Ferrari Launch Their 2011 Car The F150

Ferrari have become the first team to launch their 2011 Formula One car – named the F150. Thw F150 name comes from the fact it is 150 years since Italian unification, the flag bearer for the nation decided it was important to increase exposure of the major event in the country’s long history.  The cars [...]

Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/ferrari-launch-their-2011-car-the-f150/

Luiz Bueno Ian Burgess Luciano Burti Roberto Bussinello Jenson Button

Relabeled Tamiya paint is NOT the same as before

Tamiya used to sell three different types of primer in the tall cans . One was white with a fine pigment and two were gray , one fine ,and the other regular . I was able to aquire three cans of the "newly relabeled" primer from my local hobby shop guy and he told me there would be a delay before he could get any more . Normally three cans would last for three to four models each , except I came across an old Revell 1/10 scale Mercedes 300 SL. With all the body work that thing required , I used almost two cans on it alone .

 One thing I learned was the new primer does not dry dull flat like the old stuff but to more of a semigloss finish . I used to polish the old stuff before applying the finish coat . and the results were impressive . One thing I noticed on the new can is that it says for metal and plastic , the old stuff was for plastic only, and was MUCH BETTER, I am extremely dissappointed with the new product and resigned myself to finding a replacement . Back to the trusty white t-235 plasticote. Any one else notice this? The new stuff sprays funny too , it lays down like a gloss, then dries to a semi gloss finish....YUK...I WANT MY OLD TAMIYA PRIMER!!!!!!!!!! 

      (I'm talking about thier Lacquer spray cans)

   Take care and see you around the club house  Steve D.

Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/994332.aspx

Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder