williamsfw13b

The FW12C was created by the Williams team to satisfy the regulation changes brought in at the beginning of the 1989 season. Turbochargers were banned so Renault designed a normally aspirated 3.5 litre engine for the new car.

Later that year the FW13 was introduced, still using Renault’s RS1 V10 engine. The team came second in the constructors championship in 1989, proving the car was a good basis from which to evolve the FW13B for the 1990 season.

The model was enjoyable to build but presented some challenges when applying the decals. I decided not to use the white decal on the front wing on which the Canon decals are placed, instead I masked the wing to obtain a straight edge and painted the white area for a deeper white. The blue decals on which the elf and Renault sponsors are placed did’nt quite meet up at the rear of the bodywork so some blue paint was matched to the decal colour to fill in the gap. Some decal softner and a hair dryer are a must when getting the decal to fit the bodywork. The car reminded me of the Williams FW11 in the way the bodywork is sprayed white all over and then yellow for the upper half, the decal covers the line where the colours join.

I only found a few pictures of the FW13B on the web, but for what it’s worth, here they are.