Mini Cooper Rally.

Another scale creation is assigned to the the display; this time round, I thought I would tackle a model slightly different to the usual F1 subjects.

Tamiya’s Mini Copper 1275s Rally was a subject built purely for fun, and has made a nice addition to the collection. it also enabled me to try out some new paints and “brush up” on a few techniques before tackling my next model.

Since I started a new employment back in February, I haven’t been able to spend as much time on my hobby as I would like, so this one has taken a little longer to complete, although the time spent away from the desk does allow freshly painted parts to dry properly, which has helped me be a little more patient with the finish of the model.

This time round, I thought I would try some new paints too and see how well they come out before investing in more pots for future projects.

Previously, I would use Tamiya Laquer sprays and acrylics, but have begun to find them increasingly difficult to achieve a better finish. Decanted into a smaller pot, left to fizz and then applied to my models using an airbrush – I have had experiences where these paints go on too thick, or not thick enough, ruining the end result. SO i thought i would have a go at some different paints, and investigated the Vallejo Model air colurs after hearing many rave reviews.

The rave reviews were not wrong.

For a similar cost, you get more paint, less waste, a lot less smell and fumes and a much much easier clean up job.Any model that can be completed with less stinky thinners is always going to be better in my book, so i think i will be using these paints a lot more in the future.

A couple of lesson learned mind you; As I was building the car, I found that the paint isn’t as tough as a lacquer finish, and will flake or chip off with rough handling as you build up the model, but once you have sealed the paint with varnish…it’s rock solid and, I think, looks excellent.

I also had a bit of an experiment shooting this model with a fish eye lens, in an attempt to get a more “natural ” appearance to the finished model.

Now ( something I learned a few years ago) most folks think of a fish-eye lens as a tool to make images look bendy. If you use a fish eye with perspective in a photo, you can achieve some stunning effects, accentuating what is happening in the image, with an incredible depth of field. You have to be careful, but it is possible to make a fish-eye work to enhance the photos you take with it, rather than distort them.

So I have had a go at this with this model, to try and add some perspective to the car and create a more ‘life like’ look. It has worked to some extents, but the very shallow depth of field gives it away a bit, as does the short length of the model.

So I think I will have to try this technique again with a longer model…bring on my next F1 !!

Due to a slight tightening of the money belt, the usual snowboarding trip to colder climes was put of this winter, so instead, we decided to go a bit local like, and grab some much needed respite in Derbyshire’s awesome Peak District.

Considering that it’s only a couple of hours up the road, and you don’t have to speak a different language when you get there, it was a wonder why I haven’t visited before, in fact, it’s a wonder why more people don’t get up there. Saying that, I’m sure that in the summer it’s ramma jammered busy with outdoors types, but why not? The place is pretty good fun.

Only being up there for a short visit, and being pulled about by two terror dogs, we didn’t have much time to get to too many locations but we did managed to pack in a few ascents, a few descents and a few original Bakewell puddings too.

As I couldn’t take my bike (next time I will as some of the trails we spied looked awesome), the whole camera bag went with me on this trip, as I though that this would be a perfect opportunity to grab some scenic shots and test out my eye for all things landscape. The only thing that we weren’t really blessed with was the weather. Cold mornings and warmer days meant that misty conditions were a plenty, and of course, when all you can see is grey, it’s not that inspiring.

As we got to the peak of Mam Tor on our first day, the opportunities for taking a few pics looked slim. Clouds met ground and the greyness enveloped us; but as we walked the ridge, the sun decided to have a say and some spectacular views were claimed. It was a great experience to take some different shots from what I would usually shoot, and great to get a bit more practice at shooting some scenery. Those valleys really can be green and grey.

We also took a visit to Dove Dale, followed by a sprint up Thorpe Cloud to get a face full of wind. Considering some of the slopes I’ve stood on top of with a snowboard on my feet, I thought the Thorpe Cloud, which is about 300 metres high, was as gnarly as any of them. It was steep. And very windy. We clambered back down after about 20 minutes for a cup of tea.

So the Peak District was 2 days of awesome. Good food and beer too.

Nigel Mansell was a bit of a hero when I was a kid, and I have some very vivid memories of watching some of the most exciting grand prix racing I have ever seen, as Mr Mansell chased the late, great Ayrton Senna through those infamous Monaco streets in 1992, so building some of Mansell’s cars was a must, especially some of his famous Williams cars from his first stint at the team.

This Williams FW11 was from Nige’s early years at Williams, specifically the 1986 season during which he lost the championship in the final race by one point. Remember it? You have probably seen the footage at some point in your life; Mansell managing to control his car, less one rear tyre, whilst hooning down the Brabham Straight at 180mph, finally bringing it to a safe stop without hitting anything. It was an amazing example of a F1 drivers skill, and a stunning piece of footage from that season of racing, so building a replica of that car was a must.

Of course, with the kit being 27 years old, you would expect it to have gone a bit funky sat in the box for all those years, yet despite its age, only a few parts had succumbed to father time…it was the modellers skills that were really put to the test.

Much sanding, filling, re-sanding and 4 sets of decals later, I finally got the job done and following the pictures, I’m pretty stoked with the results, even if I do say so myself.

For this car, I decided I should try a few new techniques for the photo shoot, so whipping out the manual for my camera, I did a bit of research on how I could best give the images a bit more impact.

Using 3 flash guns ( yeah, a bit excessive ) I have managed to light the car up perfectly, highlighting those vivid colours and contours of the car a treat. I love taking flash photography, as when you get it right, your subject really jumps out of the image due to the reflections and added depth the light sources can give your subject. Using three guns, really give you heaps of lighting flexibility. It might take a few attempts to see what looks the best, but once you’ve got a result, it really works.

A spot of retouching, to get rid of any rouge specks of dust, and some slight vignette to tone down the bright backgrounds caused when exposure has to be a touch longer to show the darker areas of the model, and I think my images of this particular motor racing machine do it justice. I hope you like it.

Julian Bailey won’t be a name that springs to mind when you think of Formula One cars, but he did indeed pilot a machine for the Lotus Racing team in the early 90′s. this is another model I have carefully crafted which replicates Julian’s drive of the early 1991 season. He only lasted three races that year and was then dropped by the team for the younger, and eventually more successful Johnny Herbert (Everyone has heard of Johnny Herbert haven’t they ?)

As my collection of models driven by British F1 drivers grows, I am learning much about the cars, and the characters that sat in them. It’s pretty interesting if you like that sort of thing. I am also learning how to get the best photos of these scale replicas, which as i have found can be quite tricky, especially when you are trying to make it look real. These things are pretty small and can be quite detailed, depending on your patience, and how you photograph them, this will determine how much of that detail and work is shown off.

So for these photos I tried a different style of shooting the model, to try and make it look real and take away that miniature sense of scale. I think it’s worked in some respects, but not in others. One thing it has done is shown up the flaws in the model…but they are for me to know and for your beady eyes to try and spot!

The next one will be better…promise

I love Instagram.

I remember downloading it ages ago, when it was first becoming popular, but deleted it from my phone pretty quickly, as I instantly assumed it stole your photos.

But a few months back, I decided to give it another try, actually learnt a bit more about it and have been hooked since.

It’s a great app, if you are into your photos, and if you are willing to take some time to get creative, you can get some awesome looking results, especially with the filters that the app lets you apply.

I can’t say I am too fond of those users who use the app to flaunt their professional pictures, uploaded from a far more capable camera, I think that missing the point of the app ( I started to do this, but then had second thoughts, as I don’t think that is the idea), and I am also amazed at the amount of shit that gets posted to it.

I am also amazed at the amount of folks who post the same style of image, over and over again, and constantly gain thousands and thousands of “likes”. That says a lot to me about people creativity…or possibly their lack of it?

Anyhow, here are a few examples of my instagram creations. I am also aiming for 100k followers…so please oblige me @webbeldez

If you like – you can even buy these images as a canvas print – www.instacanv.as/webbeldez – I bought one for a present and have to say the quality is excellent!

When I worked for myself running an online magazine, I used to have to take trips to advertisers premises and shops to photograph a selection of their products for display and promotion in articles and features.

It was great fun, as the shoots would often have to be done on-site, with the minimal of facility, as I had no studio or backdrops to shoot with and expenditure was at a bare minimum.

Creativity was the key, and I got pretty good at using my camera equipment and areas of the surroundings to make the most of the product that needed to be promoted.

It was often and simple recipe that worked the best – a neutral back drop that would draw attention to the bright colours of the subject, with some pretty intense, reflected flash to set those colours off.

I think it worked quite well.

This has to be one of my favourite cars ever made.

Now I’m not a huge car boffin or that much of an enthusiast, but every now and again, you see a motor that really catches your eye and you think, “If I had the money…”

This is one of those. I’ll never get to drive one, as only two were ever made, but when I saw this kit I thought it would have been rude not to partake.

It wasn’t the easiest model to make, especially as it was only the fourth model car I had ever made, but after some struggle due to my ham fists and butter fingers, the end result was again a pleasing one of course.

If it wasn’t I wouldn’t be showing off the photos!

I love my F1, so when Red Bull won the 2011 world championship and announced that they were running a demonstration in the middle of Milton Keynes, I jumped at the rare chance to go and try to photograph some F1 cars in action.

I didn’t count on it being quite as busy as it was however.

Taking good action images is hard enough at the best of times, let alone when you have to contend with over 20,000 people all clammering for a brief glimpse of a Red Bull as it hammers along the streets of MK.

Add to that the sinking December sun in totally the wrong place, no vantage points and a world of security fencing, prime locations for any decent captures were off the menu.

So I had to make the most of the opportunity, and managed to snap a few images to capture some of the action.

A few careful crops here and there, and you hopefully get the jist of what was a good experience – it’s not often you get a F1 car barrel past you at less than 10 meters away.

The effect is mind blowing.

This gallery was the first time I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with an outdoor snowboarding event, but I can’t say it all went entirely to plan.

Events like this are quite difficult to shoot, as I found out, due to the differences in levels, lighting and the speed that everything happens at. This was accentuated by the sheer amount of people and how the jump was not the best, made up out of old bits of plywood and scaffold.

As I learnt to take snowboard photography, I became more aware of how the use of scale is very important, as it provides an understanding to what a rider is doing.

Obviously, over a jump you want to show off how big the jump is, to provide that WOW factor, but at this event, it was pretty tricky.

With many bodies in the way, a fairly badly proportioned jump and a dark arena, image were few and far between…especially when your flash remotes don’t work properly resulting on only a few of the images being worth a look.

Another model completed in the summer of 2012, and another addition to my F1 car collection in this the Lotus 25 of Jim Clark from 1965.

These older subjects are difficult to come by, as obviously they aren’t that common on the track these days, but they are possibly the most fun to make, and the difference in how modern cars are made is considerable.

This kit is one of my best efforts so far, with some extra detail added to the engine and even a set of bespoke shocks on the rear wheels.

This time round, I tried a different backdrop to present this model, which has worked well I think, although it would have been better to have used an image that had more depth in it, to make the car fit in a bit more.

I think I might try and build this model again in the future, but to add more detail and correct the mistakes I made on this one… see if you can spot them!