Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced test/development Chassis).

Models in progress... including non-F1 models.
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KB78
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Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced test/development Chassis).

Post by KB78 »

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For the 1991 F1 season Williams released & raced the FW14, the first Chassis Penned by the recently recruited, ex Leyton House March designer, Adrian Newey. It was very, very good but didn't win either Championship.
For 1992 the team planned to race the new FW15 design. However, come the start of the season it wasn't ready, so FW14 was uprated to "B" spec & in spite of being a stop gap solution, it absolutely destroyed the field, very much in a class of it's own & became an F1 Icon.

The "true" intended 1992 Car, FW15 was eventually ready for deployment in July '92 but thanks to the utter dominance of FW14B, it wasn't needed & never raced. As such it spent the rest of 1992 testing & developing ready for 1993. The rule changes for '93 mandated smaller Wings & narrower Tyres so FW15 evolved into FW15B before eventually emerging as the definitive 1993 FW15C (My favourite Car of all time).

in spite of alot of research, it's very hard to find any information or imagery of the 1992 spec FW15 & I have been able to find precious little. As far as I'm aware (I would like to be wrong) no '92 spec examples still exist, having subsequently been upgraded to "B", "C" & 'early 94 "D" variants. I have however, found "just" enough material (a grand total of 5 Pictures, two of which I "think" are FW15B) to allow me to attempt a build. Essentially FW15 is 1993 bodywork with 1992 livery, suspension, Wheels/Tyres, Nose & Wings.
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FW15 (1).jpg

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FW15 (4) .jpg
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Thanks to a good friend at work (huge, huge, HUGE thanks JC!!) I've obtained a resin FW15D (very early 1994, unraced, Pre FW16 Launch, Rothmans liveried, passively suspended test Car) Body & Floor as well as a Fujimi FW14B. Neither of these Kits were ever designed to fit together so this is going to be highly experimental & probably jam packed with mistakes, dead ends, Headaches & problems. But, it "might" just work.


The Two halves of the equation.
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(1E22).jpg
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The first step was to remove the FW15D, passive suspension, Damper blisters both on the Nose & Engine cover.
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(2E35).jpg
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(3E35).jpg
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(4E35).jpg
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(5E35).jpg
Last edited by KB78 on Wed Apr 26, 2023 5:35 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by KB78 »

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I've hollowed out the Rear end to create space & alllow experimentation with the Gearbox/ Transmission & rear suspension. I'm 99% certain that this is the area that's going to cause the most Headaches, so I'm giving myself as many options as is possible.
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(6E45).jpg
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(7E40).jpg
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Thankfully the Seat required almost no modification, virtually dropping into place with just the merest hint of Sanding.
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(8E37).jpg
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More to follow :D
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by Hein »

Very nice project, and right in my interest sweet spot! (Love early to mid 90s cars!).
And cool to build such a non raced 'obscure' subject. :)

Good luck with your build.
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by daveyman »

I may be able to find a picture of the FW15 when it was launched to the press in 1992. Give me a couple of days to look thru some old magazines and I'll see what I can find.
Great idea for a build, always think this car looked better on the wider 1992 spec rear tyres.
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by KB78 »

Many thanks for the comments!! It's most definitely a VERY niche', very unique project. I'm enjoying it so far.

Also many, many thanks for the offer of Photo's, anything at all is gratefully recieved & very useful. Thank you so much.

Here is my "extensive" library of Pics, the second is "probably" FW15B (Yellow rimmed O.Z. Wheels/ narrow '93 Spec Wheels/ Tyres but deeper '92 Front Wing end Plates/ Bigger Wings/ wider tipped '92 Nose) but still a very, very useful resource :D
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FW15 (2).jpg
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FW15 (5) .jpg
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FW15 (3).jpg
FW15 (3).jpg (54.34 KiB) Viewed 685 times
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by KB78 »

Hi everyone,

Time for an update.

I have widened the narrow tip of the FW15D to the blunter, wider FW14B style required. Originally I was going to chop the Resin Nose & fit the Fujimi component but, for various reasons, realised that Putty was a better solution. However the Fujimi FW14B Nose provided the perfect item from which to copy.
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(1) Wider FW14B Style Nose.jpg
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After this, I started working on mating the Fujimi Suspension to the Resin Monocoque. The Lower Wishbones fitted "almost" perfectly with precious little modification required but the upper units were far too short. I found that the Fujimi FW14B Tub is considerably wider than it's FW15D Resin counterpart so I'm having to scratch build a pair of upper Wishbones, I would have preferred to source another set of FW14B Lower wishbones & repurpose them as uppers but I can't find a source for Fujimi Spare parts. As such, I "think" that I'm probably going to use these ones as templates for a nicer, cleaner Brass Pair later on. My initial attempts are a little too rough & unrefined. I have also cut a notch on the underside of the Nose in order to accomodate the Fujimi FW14B front Wings.
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(2) Suspension mounts.jpg
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(3) Fujimi Wishbones.jpg
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(4) Scratchbuilt Wishbones.jpg
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Ironically, the rear suspension set up that I "thought" would be a bit of a nightmare has been anything but! Slots were cut, holes moved & Putty added but generally it's been plain Sailing. Everything fitting together quite nicely.
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(3) Rear Suspension.jpg
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Overall, progress is good with everything coming together quite nicely.
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(5) Fitted.jpg
Thanks for looking, comments welcome.
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by daveyman »

Looking good.
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by KB78 »

Thank you. Both for the comment and your research, the Image you E-mailed me was from an angle I had never previously seen & had a number of very useful details :D Much, much appreciated!
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by daveyman »

You are most welcome. Sadly I haven't found any more pictures for you but glad to have been of some help anyway. Keep the good work going...
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Re: Williams FW15, 1992 (Unraced).

Post by KB78 »

daveyman wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 7:53 am You are most welcome. Sadly I haven't found any more pictures for you but glad to have been of some help anyway. Keep the good work going...
I knew it was extremly niche' with precious little in the way of reference material. Anything & everything was going to help. Your material helped fill in a Gap or two so thank you very, very much indeed. Weather willing, this weekend will see the first layer of Paint applied so it's all heading in the right direction. Updates "as & when". Thank you! :D
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