Spark just released a short video showcasing their manufacturing process. VERY interesting to watch ๐.
Videos
F1 in the 60s
Since I’m not a parade aficionado, I’m not the greatest fan of F1 ๐. God, those races are boring – there’s more excitement off the track than during the race. Yet, it wasn’t always like this. Up to the 70s (80s?), things were way more thrilling. For instance, look at the current Grand Master Parade, the Monaco GP. Thrilling as paint drying nowadays, in the 60s it was awesome. Up above you can see this, and in 4K. The only issue is that the video is dubbed, with car sounds added in post-production (the original movie was like this). And due to the remasterization, some parts of the shot are shaky. Even so, a delightful 10 minutes, proving that F1 is not always bad. Or better saying, was once cool ๐.
Shop tour!
Been a while since I posted an update about how my small shop is shaping up. The big news is that I finally (!) bought a router ๐คฉ! From Makita and battery-operated (18v), the DRT50Z is a very decent piece of kit. I also bought a set of bits from Bosch, which I think will cover most of my needs. However, these bits are 1/4″, and Makita ships the DRT50Z with two collets, in 6 and 8 mm sizes ๐. Therefore, I had to order a 1/4″ (6,35 mm) collet, that arrived today. This afternoon I tried it out on some scraps of wood and the end result looked great.
Can’t say I have any specific job for a palm router right now, yet I’m looking forward to making wood chips fly ๐.
And how is Forza Motorsports doing?
Well, Turn10 fixed most (all?) of the stability issues. Therefore, currently it’s totally playable without you wanting to throw the XBox out the window. There still are some “missing” features, like no damage in single player – if you flip (!!) the car nothing breaks ๐. Frustrating, if you want more realism. Graphics are still sketchy in some parts, and the livery editor is the same neolithic thing of 10 years ago. Yet, worse of all, is if you setup a race session with multiple cars, sometimes a few cars are rendered like a chassis base with four wheels with the pilot sitting inside ๐ฃ. Totally ridiculous.
With all that, and specially having EA WRC at hand, I’m not playing much. The game is (now) essentially OK, however I got so pissed at it in the beginning that currently I can’t be bothered about it ๐.
Why am I starstruck by rally lately?
As I’m sure you noticed, there’s been a lot of rally cars around here. The fact is I just can not be totally flabbergasted by the kind of racing you can see above. It takes some very special skills (and a certain type of crazy) to drive like that ๐. Out of this world! If you want to see more, head to Dirtfish that they have a ton of content like this short video above.
Audi vs Lancia: new movie coming!
For next year there’s something really cool to wait for: the fight between Lancia and Audi in the 1983 WRC. It will be the Quattro ร 037, though I think the focus will be on the management side of the battle. From the trailer above it looks really promising, and I can’t wait to watch it!
New diorama – Rough Road
In early October, I showed a photo of a new project I was working on. It took a while, but I finally finished it. Nothing fancy, I only used simple stuff – I guess the most “pro technique” I used was static grass. Nonetheless, I had to test my ideas every single time, since I wasn’t sure things would work out as I expected. Also, lots of PVA glue and painting, that took sometimes more than a day to dry. With all that, it took me basically a month to get it done ๐. Well, good or bad, here it is! And I think it worked out okay. Pretty soon I’ll use it in my review photos ๐.
If you had $35,000 in 1969
Don’t know about you, but I know what I would like to buy… ๐
When money is not an issue
So, you’re a model collector and in your back yard you have trees that grow money for leaves… And you you live in a huuuuge house. What do you collect? Amalgam models, of course. Just check the video above ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ.
Donohue & Penske Documentary
Written by Brock Yates, I think “Four Hands on The Wheel” came out in 1970. The film is a 47 minutes look into the partnership between Mark Donohue and Roger Penske. Fantastic to see Penske’s blue and yellow Sunoco cars of the late 60s, from Camaros to Lolas. In other words, a must see for gearheads fans of vintage racing.