British F1 Chassis Grey

Number Five British F1 Chassis Grey, the gray beneath the bodywork of formula cars

The gray counterpart of the chassis green from the same line. It aims at the tone that the aluminum shells, bulkheads and load-bearing elements of British formula cars had at the moment when they did not stay in bare metal.

What the shade stands for

A monocoque of riveted sheet, the suspension arms, the uprights and the castings of light alloys do not have the color of polished aluminum. They are flatter, cooler and in service they darken further from heat and oil mist. This gray is exactly such a working tone: it allows the load-bearing structure to be set apart from the body and from the metal parts that are meant to stay glossy. With formula models with an exposed chassis it decides whether the machinery comes across as a machine or as glued plastic. It serves well as a base too, on which the scrapes and the traces of service only then arise. In a collection it then holds a whole car together: a body can be as varied as you like, but the structure beneath it has the same expression on all cars, given by function and not by livery.

Where you will use the shade

• Monocoques and bulkheads of formula models in the large scales
• Suspension arms, uprights and load-bearing brackets
• Floors, diffusers and the lower parts of cars
• A base beneath later scrapes and deposits of dirt

Whom the shade will serve

Modelers who expose the innards of their formula cars and prototypes and do not want to use the same color on the structure as on the body. Modelers who work with detail sets for the suspension will appreciate it too. The riveted sheets of a monocoque moreover have a fine structure of their own, on which a flatter tone behaves differently from a glossy one.