I just came back from Silicon Valley Scale Modeler IPMS Kickoff Classics model contest at Santa Clara convention center. I took my F310B that I built 4 yrs ago there. I am very lucky to win the Best of Show in this biggest Northern California model contest. I am so surprised with this award as there were tons of nicely built military models. I'd like to thank all the modelers who put this nice show together.

Now I hope I will be able to finish my Minardi in time and take it to IPMS National in Southern California this year.

Finally made some progress on Minardi M193 project. I airbrushed the 3 layer of white paint last weekend and polished during the mid week. Yesterday I washed the body panel line with thinned enamel black and started the fun part - decaling. The AMC decal quality is really good. No excess film to trim and the decal is very rigid and not easy to tear when used with Gunze decal softener. Aligning the yellow/black strip was tough. The joint point at the cowling backbone was ~1mm off to the right.. but I will just let it go.

It's fun to do some small F1 team. A lot of small sponsors logo here and there. The while/black/some yellow livery does look quite good too, at least look better than champcars and IRL

One disappointing part was that the old panel line started to reappear on the body. I believe it is due to stress after snapping the body onto the undertray. Luciky paint didn't crack and I hope 2 layers of clearcoat can help to hide them.

I will wash the whole model after I let the decal to dry for couple days. Then it's time for clear coating and polishing...

Here are some pics:

Enjoys,

I attended the Jim Russell advanced karting school today. I never expected I would try this again in such a short time after the technique class, but they called me with a special discount package and I just went for it. I would say this one is much better than last one. It had timed session, rolling start practice, passing practice (although I did it 100% wrong) and the young instructor was really paying attention of all 5 students in our group and pointed out the mistake in a very frank manner.

My first kart #43 was pretty bad and it kept breaking down and it's abit too small for me. Quite a bit of track practice time was lost due to the mechanical failure. Then they replaced me a #45 kart in last 2 sessions and it was much more comfortable to drive with better leg room. My lap time was horribly slow My best lap time was only 57.93s, while my 2 other classmates in same group were almost 2s faster than me. There were another group of seasoned karters and their best time were almost 4-5s faster.. Going fast with this kart is not easy at all.. Maybe it's time to lose some of my 30 lbs fat before I try next time.

Here are 2 video links from youtube.

Me lapping around the track.

Race start.. I was on 3rd and then spun off.. but the time I finished 1st lap, it was more than 10s behind the leader already.

Here are some pics, enjoys

1) Me lapping around the track

2) Rolling start practice (#43 3rd karter is me.)

3) Rolling start practice (#43 3rd karter is me.)

Today I bought a 1/12 Tamiya Texaco Marlboro M23 from Kevin at GMPA.org. Special thanks to Kevin for selling his favorite kit to me. I had wanted to get this kit for long long time and I am happy that I can finally "afford" and get one now. This kit is in really good shape given that it is a 30+ yrs old kit. Even the orignal decal is still in very fine shape. Kevin includes a S27 decal and it is a big bonus too. I don't know when I will build this, but I am so excited to add this kit into my Tamiya F1 collection.

While my Minardi project is set aside and waiting for gloss white paint. I continue to do some other fun stuff. I built a F1 tire stand with styrene sheets, wires and a resin tool wheel casted by my good friend Mario. This idea is 100% inspired by AJ's super Ferrari workshop diorama. This is my 1st try to build tools myself.. Hopefully I will be able to build a F1 garage scene one day too