Ferrari SF71H 2018 F1

[Mirco Hussmann]

Hello everybody,

 

I'd like to share my latest project, an ~ 1:8 scale model of Ferrari's new Formula 1 car, the SF71H piloted by Räikkönen and Vettel.

 

 

Features include:

- PF-driven remote controlled driving and steering

- custom stickers and tyre decals

- functional crash structures (Halo, airbox, front and rear)

- damperless suspension (more on that below)

- realistic rake

- bricks with Technic holes as "skeleton"

 

The car is designed in the same manner as the Racers 2008 Ferrari (8157), though I completely started over with this MOC, I just use the same basic idea to get the whole car structurally stable and nearly flex-free.

The Halo is the only non-Lego part I had to use because I don't have red flex axles, so instead I used part of a firetruck hose I found somewhere between old toys and stuck them onto 53451 mounted in holes next to the headrest section.

The suspension is quite unconventional. I don't own the Technic F1 suspension bricks and I didn't feel like buying them, so I tried to build kind of an F1 style suspension without them. The front one is nearly the same as 8157's, only with a few adjustions, mainly in width. The rear unit is a standard double wishbone suspension with 9L liftarms, the driveshafts only have CV joints at the differential, not at the wheel carriers. This way, I was able to mount the Porsche wheels to the axle using truck rims to connect them.

At first, I had the suspension fixed with all sorts of L-shaped technic bricks, but neither worked in holding the suspension high enough for the car to be tilted forwards or even even (^^). I didn't want to use shock absorbers because a) there is no space for them and b) if I would've mounted them directly, without pushrods, they would've stuck out, and I didn't want them to spoil the otherwise pretty clean look of the rear. The alternative I went for was mounting two 32140 Technic L-bricks to the upper wishbones with two black mounting pins, with the outer as a regular pin, while the inner pins are ones that are borken on one side so the whole thing could flex quite a bit. I then asymmetrically mounted a 13L liftarm between the tops of them to push them apart, and the flex made possible by the broken pins allows the whole thing to absorb pretty decent bumps.

I also crashtested the Halo which can be seen at the end of this video. The official FIA Test used a 20kg tyre fired at the cockpit with 225 kph, so considering the scale of the model, my tyre should be about 7 m/s fast when hitting Halo. My highly scientific approach of making sure that is roughly case was to throw the tyre across the room, making it travel about 7 metres in less than a second. Scienced.

Stickers were made by printing on photo paper, putting transparent duct tape on it and double-sided tape on the rear, no muscles strained there.

For the tyre decals, I used my mother's Silhouette Cameo 3, a basic plotter, with yellow Oracal vinyl material that is usually used for car stickers. It's a bit of a pain in the brick to put them on the tyres and keep them there, but if they are really clean and dry and the glue on the vinyl is fresh and new, it can be done. I also used the rest of that material for decals on my little brother's -removed- Porsche for a livery he "designed" himself, here's a picture to show what else can be done with this method.

Image removed.

Finally, I'd like to give some impressions of the car, which can also be seen in the video, but the original pictures are higher res, so here they are.

 

I know it's not perfect and I still improve it day by day, but I just had to share it now, so let me know what you think!

 

Edit: recalculated scale due to new information available.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Mirco Hussmann
Removed image of clone brand.

[LM71Blackbird]

Cool looking build! It looks pretty close to the real thing! Keep up the awesome work!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Wow you've already done your own replica ...awesome work!

[Milan]

@Mirco Hussmann

I have removed your image and text of clone brand product. We don't allow these brands to be shown on EB.

[Mirco Hussmann]

Good evening everybody!

 

So, first of all, thanks for your feedback so far. :)

I've made quite a bit of progress on the car in the last week, and today I found the time as well as the good weather I needed for shooting. 

Main changes:

- completely remodeled airbox with more detailed stickers and replacement of the T-wing

- enlarged inner sidepod intakes

- steering wheel is now turning when, well, steering

- Halo is now solid and not any longer made of a liftarm

- slight remodeling of rear wing barge boards and smoothening of the mounting

- covered up the complete rear of the car and the sides of the nose with tiles for a much cleaner look

The first thing I did was covering everything up with tiles, nothing too special there.

I was unhappy with the design and building style of the airbox from the start, but waited until I had the rest finished before I got to that. The stickers cover up that I actually used other bricks than the ones that would fit perfectly, but it sits in a way that it doesn't show and simultaneously suggests the bricks are the "right" ones. The white part isn't completely linear, but sadly I missed the 3 long "roof" bricks that would've been necessary to achieve that, and I think it's a minor flaw. My concern was, at first, that the 3-wide style would make the white part too wide, but it pretty much fits this way and I dont think I'm gonna change it anymore. Also, the side and top cameras are now really looking like the original and not just some black stuff I threw onto it.

For the Halo, I already had the most part lying around, but I only managed to find the top technic brick two days ago when looking for other stuff.

Rear wing changes are minor, just some mounting changes so it doesn't collide with the rear wheels and looks more smooth and round like the original.

Steering wheel moving isn't all too big of a change, but because I apparently started to construct sensible and actually stable builds, I had to rip the whole chassis apart to get to the servo and turn it around. It's now facing downwards, so the secondary output is on the top. When it was the other way round, I couldn't manage to get the CV-joint powered axle to the steering wheel without it sticking out, so I turned the servo around, moved it one hole to the rear, used 3 8-tooth-gears to move the main output to the right height again and connected the steering wheel. The area in front of the cockpit and Halo mount also got more clean during this procedure.

Lastly, I made some minor changes like adding black supports to the inner side of the barge boards on the side pods and exchanging the 2x1 bricks seperating the two side pod intakes with a red "window", so the wall is thinner and the shape of the openings resembles the original much better.

A few more impressions:

Nice view of the front wing aero elements.

My favourite angle when looking at the car - I really love the rake of this year's F1 generation

Final view of the current state.

I don't know yet what the next thing is gonna be. I'm pretty happy with the elements I recently made changes to, so I guess the next part would be the front wing, one of the first things I amde. I don't know yet what I'm gonna improve, but this most definitely isn't even its final form

Maybe I'll have more stickers in the next update. During the race weekend in Melbourne I saw some that I didn't catch yet, like the Kaspersky on the side of the nose, V-Power on the front wing and more stuff on Halo, and maybe with the tiles I am going to try to find a way for the Ray-Ban and Alfa Romeo stickers in the rear of the car.

 

As always, let me know what you think of it, and if you have any suggestions for improvement, please, please give it to me!

[Andy98]

Beautiful design, looks like the real thing!