Painting Challenge "Mount(s) and Rider(s)" Bonus Round

The F1 Winners from 1976

Having given my competition a three week head start, I am finally making my first submission to the AHPCV.  For the mounts and riders bonus round, I submit a set of 6 representing the six winning car and driver combinations from the 1976 Formula One World Championship.  This was a very dramatic season, so dramatic that they made the movie Rush based on it.  We have

• Niki Lauda Ferrari 312t2
• James Hunt McLaren M23
• Mario Andretti Lotus 77
• Jody Scheckter Tyrrell P34
• Ronnie Peterson March 761
• John Watson Penske PC4

The inspiration

The models are about 1:200 scale and came from Shapeways, a site that produces models with a high quality 3D printer for various designers.  There's lots of cool stuff so go check Shapeways out.  These are designed to work with board game Formula De and indeed we used them in our weekly game at Curt's last night.

L to R: Ferrari, Penske, Lotus, Tyrrell, McLaren, March

I based the models on artist board and then primed them in flat black before painting in my normal artists acrylics.  I used Acrylic Glossy Medium on the bodywork to give them a shine.  I had lots of fun poking around and doing image searches to get the liveries right.  I tried to get the impression of numbers and sponsors' logos rather than exact copies given the small scale.  

It turns out that my bases were too big for the game board, so I will have to trim them to meet with proper F1 specs!  However I wasn't comfortable doing these naked without a base, plus the bases gave me a way of holding on to the cars without painting my fingers (as much).

The first 4 cars (blood red Ferrari, Marlboro McLaren, JSP Lotus and 6 wheeled Tyrrell) are iconic and are driven by world champions from 1975-9, but the last two are more obscure.  The Lotus was the biggest challenge to paint despite having a easy livery.  The problem was off course black - black primer, bodywork, tires and track!  I was reminded of Terry Pratchett's description of Death's Garden in Mort and the various shades of black.  Anyway, I glossed up the body work, left the matte black primer for shading, did the tires in "Mars black" and made the tarmac dark grey.

Penske was pretty dominant in Indy Cars in the 70s and 80s but were pretty much a bust in Formula 1.  Wattie did given them a single victory in 1976 their last year in F1.  Watson himself kept in F1 til the early 80s and had a  number of victories including a couple from way down the grid (like 22nd fastest), making him my inspiration for this year's challenge.  The Penske is in Red White and Blue.

On Curt's Formule De game board, along the harbour from in Monaco.

March built fast but brittle cars and ran on a show string, for works teams and privateers (including Tyrrell, Williams and Penske).  (One of their founders was Max Mosely, son of the Oswald "Worst Britain of the 20th Century" Mosely and a Mitford sister).  Peterson broke in with them in 1970 and returned for the 1976 season.  The March livery was the biggest challenge as the cars used a series of sponsors and ran two different sets of colours at the same event.  Many photos show a bright orange livery used for Peterson's teammate Vittorrio "the Monza Gorilla" Brambilla, while Peterson's car often used the same livery as Penske since they had a common shared sponsor.  In the end I found a blue and yellow livery used by the Swede, which seemed appropriate.