1:24 Racing Seatbelts PE Set Green

Green and its place in motorsport

The shade of the straps tends not to be an accident. British cars ran for decades in a dark green finish and the suppliers of safety equipment offered them hardware in a matching tone. Green harnesses also appeared with rally crews, where they served as a quick way of telling two cars of one team apart, and in the 1960s and 1970s they could be seen in endurance racing prototypes as well. A deeper green moreover works well in a cabin tuned to beige or gray, where a dark belt would be lost and a red one would overpower everything else. The choice of color is therefore not mere decoration but a way of giving the interior a focus for the eye.

What the set is made up of

The metal part is done in photo-etch: you will find the buckles, the guide eyelets, the stops and the plates for fixing to the shell. The textile side is represented by a flexible strap in a green shade, which holds its shape once folded and does not spring back. The layout on the fret tends to be in pairs with this line, so the contents can be divided between the driver's and the passenger's position.

Bending and polishing the hardware

With the colored variants one extra rule applies: the strap is already colored, so paint need not go on it, but it should go on the hardware. The buckles will stand out if, after polishing them with a cotton swab, you go over them with a smoke shade and wipe the surplus off so that it stays only in the etched recesses. Make the bends over a straight edge in one movement; repeated adjustment tires the metal and it cracks at the fold. When seating them in the interior, watch that the shoulder part comes out roughly at the level of the shoulders of a figure or of the backrest, otherwise the whole impression fails. The car and the seats are not supplied.