Starting the F1 Santos Dumont Project
Okay so I randomly got this idea at 3 AM last Tuesday – why not mash up vintage aircraft design with modern Formula 1 aesthetics? Santos Dumont’s old school planes have those gorgeous curved wings that’d look killer on a race car. Dug out my sketchpad and started drawing right there in bed while my wife yelled at me to turn the damn lamp off.
The Messy Building Part
First I grabbed this cheap 1:18 scale model F1 kit from my garage stash. Took my hobby knife and just started chopping off chunks like a maniac – bye-bye rear wing, see ya front wing. Got superglue all over my fingers like always, looked like I’d dunked my hands in syrup. Then I shaped balsa wood for Dumont’s crescent wings by eyeballing pictures on my phone, sanding pieces until my whole desk looked like a snow globe exploded.
Glue apocalypse:
- First attempt: Wings flopped down like wet noodles after 5 minutes
- Second try: Gorilla Glue overflow made ugly white boogers everywhere
- Final hack: Drilled toothpick spines into wings and body for reinforcement
Painting Fiasco
Spray painted the whole thing British racing green before realizing the original Demoiselle plane was creamy beige. Screwed up the color mix three times – first batch came out neon tan like cheap sunscreen. Finally got it right by adding coffee grounds to acrylic paint for that vintage stained look. Airbrushed mahogany woodgrain patterns on the wings that look dope up close but honestly messy from three feet away.
The Weird Testing Phase
Took my abomination to the community college parking lot at dawn to do roll tests. Security guard caught me and thought I was trying to steal shopping carts until I showed him the model. Thing pulled left like a drunk raccoon because the wing angles were off. Took three evenings of bending the wire underframe by 1mm increments while binge-watching baking shows.
Why This Stupid Project Matters
Honestly the whole thing started after I got laid off from that drone startup last month. Boss called me in saying “restructuring” while chewing a fancy salad. Suddenly had all this empty time and kept staring at my kid’s unfinished Lego F1 set. Building this franken-car kept me from doomscrolling job boards all day. Finished it right when UPS delivered my severance package – felt like the universe was laughing at me. But damn if holding this ridiculous green and brown monstrosity doesn’t make me stupidly proud. Sometimes you gotta glue toothpicks into plastic just to remember how to fix things.
