Tommi Makkinen

iTrader: (28)

F-1 racing has taken off in a big way here in the Philippines... a lot of racers here have bought every stock of the F-103RM kits in the shops here and some had resorted to even having kits shipped from Hongkong or Japan...

I managed to dust off my F-103RX which is basically an RM kit but with a few more extras added... but i had a dilemma.

i have no F-1 body to use... actually i have 2 F-1 bodies. a mint condition Lotus 99T and Lotus 102B. but im saving them for next year. I heard some rumor that Tamiya might revive the F-103 class in the Tamiya Series...

having no direct access to online shops that sell f-1 stuff (got no credit card...hehehehehe) i decided to settle for the only thing i could do... improvise...


i bought a Tamiya Rahal-Hogan MGD Lola T94/00 Honda Indycar body (whew! try saying that 5 times real fast... hehehehe) for the F-103L and took some measurements...


the 103L chassis was 1 inch longer than the RX or RM chassis. so i trimmed off 1 inch from the rear end of the Lola body. then bored new holes for the body post.

check out the pics. painted it dayglo-orange and gunmetal with a light blue stripe. more for better visibility than scale accuracy... hope you guys like it... now the car looks either like the old Indy Lights car or a Formula 3 car minus the side air intake pod...

terryh1313

iTrader: (8)

like the orange

Tommi Makkinen

iTrader: (28)

Thanks bro. will finish the decal work, cockpit and the helmet details tomorrow. still trying to find a good part to simulate the air intake pod on the F-3 cars, if not, then its sticking to the Indy Lights scheme...

go F-3 with that intake pod on the right side of the pic...



or go Indy Lights...



maybe i should go Indy Lights...

Rogier

iTrader: (1)

Does anybody knows an online shop which has the F103RM with M-body in stock???

liljohn1064

iTrader: (17)

Mine are currently under 3 coats of Bob Dively Liquid mask. I gave up on tape after seeing all the finger prints I was leaving behind. I hope mine turn out half as nice as Tommi's. I get to start tracing tonight, maybe even try some painting.

liljohn1064

iTrader: (17)

Might sound a little unrealistic, but I think the whole world is out of stock. I do seriously believe there are none in all of North America, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, Australia... My guess is there is a huge stock of kits waiting for the big reveal at the toy show in 2 weeks, but I'm not holding my breath.

DucatiGary

mine finally arrived today !



still waiting for a couple of things to arrive but most of the hop ups are here.

going to paint her up tomorrow

here she is body cut but with no body paint and the car 90% built.

Hebiki

iTrader: (26)

how do these things handle in comparison to the F103GT? the F103GT was pretty funky on rubber tires.

Tommi Makkinen

iTrader: (28)

actually, my color scheme is just masking tape. i kinda prefer doing simple color schemes over the full blown custom airbrush tribal lightning flamework... hehehehehe

Tommi Makkinen

iTrader: (28)

this would be a likely scenario...

Tommi Makkinen

iTrader: (28)

it grips like heck on foam tires running on most asphalt and carpet but does handle a bit funky on Rubbers. unless you use tire warmers and a bit of Paragon...

DucatiGary

another shot part built

hobbipro

iTrader: (23)

Here's a T-body kit in stock here: http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/rc-tam...cPath=420_1167

And here an M body kit: http://cgi.ebay.com/49498-Tamiya-F10...3286.m20.l1116

And another T kit: http://cgi.ebay.com/84031-Tamiya-F10...3286.m20.l1116

I've personally ordered from both places, and both are very good.

liljohn1064

iTrader: (17)

the only 3 not purchased left on the planet.

hobbipro

iTrader: (23)

You are right! These will probably be gone by end of weekend. I've watched a few on ebay, and they are flying off very quickly. Must be a real sign of the times, PPL want to race realistic looking cars. Plus a cheaper alternative to TC racing.