Lego Speed Champions: Ferrari 512 M

 My first Lego set! Well not the first, but the first one that i'm doing a little write up about anyway. Like I seem to say every time with these things, I've had this little set for a good while. It must've been a chrishtmas/bday present (they merge into one for me, so close together) from an old friend. But enough of that lets get to it.

Ferrari 512:

So a little history about the Fezza 512 then. Quite like doing these as it allows me to learn a bit about it as well :).

It had a very short career only spanning a couple of years 1969-1970 before they moved work onto the 312 PB, that seems to be the running theme with sportscar racing at the time however, with its main rival the Porsche 917 having a similar lifespan (albeit being a lot more successful, sorry Ferrari). It's quite odd that Lego decided to do a set of the 512 thinking about it, it's quite pretty but other than that it isn't particularly well known.

The 512 name comes from its 5 litre V12 engine which as you can imagine sounds pretty orgasmic. Putting out over 600hp it actually outclassed the early 917's in that regard, before Porsche decided to strap on a couple turbochargers to its 5 litre flat 12. The Ferrari however was heavier, and less reliable with issues affecting the suspension and transmission.

As is usually the case, the later M variant fixed quite a few of the issues faced with the first 512's but by then the plug had already been pulled and focus had shifted to the 312 PB because of the rule changes coming up in 1972, so we never got to see its full potential.

The Build:

I do quite enjoy building the little speed champions kits, there's something satisfying about getting it done start to finish in a leisurely couple of hours.

After the first bag

I still find the stickers the hardest part haha, the bottom of the doors are curved so that was fun. You've got one chance to get it right.

Not much to say really, it was pretty straightforward as these usually are. I'm sure there's more you could do with it re custom parts and lights etc but they have a nice simplicity all of their own without anything extra.

And there it is! overall a pretty fun build, no real tricky bits and I think the whole Lego aesthetic works really well with the 1970's blocky-ness and straight lines. It doesn't work well with some of the speed champions sets in my opinion, just look at the modern super car ones like the Koenigsegg or Huracan compared to this and the Audi Quattro. See what I mean? The older race cars look so much better to me.

A song about expecting too much from people and those expecting too much from you. When you're put on a pedestal and idealised by someone, there will inevitably come a point when you fall off it.

I must confess, I've made a mess of what should be a small success. But I digress, at least I've tried my very best, I guess.

I Won a Thing! 🏁

The guys over at Mutiny Motorsport are celebrating the 1 year anniversary since their inception, and to mark the event the guys decided to organise a charity race at the famed Watkins Glen circuit in upstate New York. MM is a growing community on the fairly niche sim Automobilista 2 or AMS2 for short, I've raced a couple of seasons with them now and you would struggle to find a more welcoming bunch.

Thank you TTAR for the poster!

I've never felt completely comfortable on AMS2 although its a sim that I really want to enjoy to its fullest, I struggle to describe it but its almost as if the cars feel a little floaty compared to other titles. That being said I think it is absolutely excellent at simulating older formula cars and that's where it can really shine, add on the fact that it has a good number of official historic versions of famous race tracks and you've definitely something worth investing in.

For the anniversary race we were running the Formula Retro Gen2 cars which are based on late 1970s F1 cars, a time where aerodynamics were really kicking off with ground affect becoming the new fashion. Going off a few pictures I'd say they are copies of the 1979 Shadow DN9, and these things were crazy fun to race with. 

Every now and again you just have a car/track combo that you really gel with and this was certainly mine. Normally I can't really keep up with the fastest guys in MM (not without making lots of mistakes anyway) but I felt right at home lapping the Glen with this machine.

The charity that the community voted to support was the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is a global organisation set up to protect marine wildlife and our ocean ecosystems. Former F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel famously promoted this charity by wearing the "act now or swim later" shirt at the 2020 Miami GP and now lists it on his website where €30 from each shirt sold is donated to Sea Shepherd. We managed to raise $269, which I don't think is bad at all considering that it was only a small group of us driving pretend race cars. Thank you to everyone that donated, raced and the admins at MM for organising the event and for the t-shirt, it was a pleasure to take part in as always.

I've always thought of myself more of a winter person but these past few have got me questioning that, luckily today it seemed as though the sun had raised high up enough to be noticeable and that finally, spring is close. It's like I get to mid January and I just shut down, and while that is not unheard of for many people I don't like how it can affect me so much, and how as a result effect others in close proximity to me. I've basically had this album on repeat for the past god knows how many weeks, "Northern Attitude" is the first track but I would highly recommend listening to the whole Stick Season album if you have a spare hour, its a banger and highly relatable.

First Post!

 For my first post I though I would share a few pictures of the models I have previously completed in the past 2 years or so and a little bit about them.

Tiger 2 Porsche turret 1/76:

This was the model that got me back into modelling. It's one of those airfix 1/76 starter kits which includes glue, a brush and some old dried up paints. I recieved it as a Christmas present and I really enjoyed it. So much so I purchased a vallejo oiled earth wash especially for it and a few more bits and peices to really kickstart the hobby.

Churchill 7 1/76:

Another Airfix kit, although a total opposite to the King Tiger. I didn't particularly enjoy this one if i'm honest. I believe its quite an old mold? It was quite frustrating getting things to line up properly, namely the main hull and the tracks on either side if I remember correctly. So mine is a little wonky and I don't think I ever completely finished the paint as a reult of being a bit fed up with the thing.

SU-100 1/72:

Really didn't know what to expect when I bought this Zvezda kit but the quality and the ease of building it was really impressive, although coming after the nightmarish Churchill I might've been easily pleased. Bought a set of MLG ww2 Russian paints as well for this model which finished it off nicely.

IS-3 1/72:

I love the style of these early cold war era soviet beasts and I just had to get my hands on an IS-3. This Trumpeter model has a great amount of detail even if parts were a little fiddly at times, finished again with the MLG paints it looks pretty smart.

T29E1 1/35:

My first attempt at one of the massive 1/35 scale monsters and I chose a T29 after loving the T29/T30/T34 set of tanks on WoT. This was a Hobbyboss kit which was fine, nothing bad to say apart from the tracks being a bit of a slog to put together (tempted to try some ebay diecast tracks next time). I used a Humbrol light olive spray can for the base and experimented a bit with Vallejo thick mud and splash mud around the tracks and some dry Revell weathering pigments roughly brushed on.

Jaguar XJ6 1/43:

First of my car model experiments is this Jaguar banger racer. Ignore the paint for the most part it was a really quick job. I mainly just wanted to try out simulating damage and it turned out alright for a first try. It was done by starting with a 1/43 die cast model and cutting the rear and front end out with a dremel and replacing it with a roughly molded shell made out of thin sheet aluminium, then crushing it up as much as was appropriate.

The end! Thanks for reading if you got this far and stay tuned for future projects.