Here’s a batch of F1s getting their tobacco liveries completed, plus a modern-day F1 that required flag, not fag, markings.
1990 McLaren MP4/5B of Gerhard Berger by Minichamps. The cars and the models of them were more basic in those days, which also meant they were somewhat affordable compared to today. Anyway, the barcode decoration and small red rectangle on the cockpit side have to be removed first.A razor blade, tweezers and nail polish remover were all carefully used to remove those markings. It cleaned up well and luckily no damage to the Honda signage.Now with the Marlboro markings added. The decal sheet also included the tiny Speedline branding for the wheel rims that was not reproduced by Minichamps when this model was first released.Kimi Raikkonen’s World Championship winning Ferrari F2007 by Mattel. This is in the metallic red colour that was used from the Monaco GP onward.Now with all the Marlboros added. While the decal was still dry on its backing sheet, I drilled a small hole in the big one that goes on top of the cockpit to allow the aerial to fit through.This is a strange one – Lewis Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi winner from 2014. The Hammer Time signage that was written on the flag was not applied during manufacture and has to be fitted by the collector. Being a Spark model, it went on easily, but I don’t understand why it was not included in the first place.The Merc F1 W05 now with accurate flag signage.The back of the flag is correctly reverse ‘mirrored’.Ferrari F2005, Michael Schumacher by Hot wheels. It’s not a very good model with quite chunky detail.The overly-fat aerial posts were removed firstThen the Marlboro decals applied.Zakspeed’s first Formula One race car from 1985, by Spark.Now accurate after all the Ws were addedAs usual, Spark included the tiny driver markings to complete the conversion.
