Ferrari F189

Nigel Mansell

After his initial stint at Williams F1, Nigel Mansell travelled on to Ferrari after being hand picked by the late great Enzo Ferrari for a seat during the 1989 season.

Mansell was just as fast and fearless in the F189 (also known as the Ferrari 640) as he had been during his previous years at Williams, but during this 2 year episode of his career, he was to encounter more politics from the team and less reliability from the car, scuppering his plans to become the World Drivers Champion.

The 640 in particular was certainly fast, but due to it’s unreliability, Mansell was only able to take the car to 6 podiums through the 1989 season, including 2 wins and 4 podiums.

The rest of the races he either didn’t finish, or was excluded/disqualified due to incidents.

Mansell was certainly firing on all cylinders, even if the car wasn’t as those 6 results saw him take 4th in the championship for his first season with Ferrari.

Imagine what he could have achieved if the Prancing Horse had worked properly…

Building the F189 – 2020

I decided to rebuild my first attempt of the Ferrari F189 as I had managed to source a new set of decals from Shunko, which included replications of the original tobacco sponsors.

I much prefer a finsihed model that has all the authentic markings applied.

I didn’t remake this kit with as much detail, going for a better finish that too many addtions as I try to enhance my modelling skills and airbrush techniques. I think I’ve managed to produce a  better model, and picked up a welcome bit of practice along the way.

Building the F189 – 2012

One of my first 1/20 scale F1 models, and I think it shows, now that I have learnt a little more about the craft, so this car will certainly get built again in the future.

This Tamiya kit was an easy,well fitting build, being one the few cars where the cowing actually fits the rest of the model well…no crazy gaps or warped surfaces to worry about in the final finish, but because of the design of the actual car, the kit can look a bit sparse if you don’t add any extra detail, such as the coolant system that reaches around the sides of the cock pit to the radiators.

As this was one of my first 1/20 F1’s, I was that clued up on the use of putty and plastic card to help in the construction and finish of my models. I hadn’t encountered photo etch, decal sets or metallic Lacquers, so the finish of the model is a bit basic.

I used the cores from a piece of cooker flex to construct the coolant pipes, a Tamiya Seatbelt Set which I didn’t cut very well and made a right boob with top part of the body work (I bent the nose with vigorous polishing)

The model was essentially a big modelling learning curve for me.

Still it wasn’t all bad, as a nicely mottled seat looked the part and at the time, this was my best paint job yet…but it shall be improved upon in the future.

Oh yes.