10353 Williams FW14B

[1340cc]

  

Another classic F1 car, now with proper width rear tyres and printed sidewalls. Let's hope Lego sells the new tyres via their pick a brick service otherwise bricklink prices will be brutal with so many of us wanting the tyres for our 10330s.

Edited November 22, 2024 by 1340cc

[TheDeeGee]

Yeh, these tires better be available through pick a brick, that's the least we deserve after their McLaren failure.

[Sven J]

Oh, Lego, why can't you just get it right???
I would really love to buy quite a few classic Formula 1 racers from the 80s and 90s from you, but not such ones.
At least there are now different front/rear tires.
Otherwise, again, there are unnecessary mistakes...
Where the air intake for the engine should be, there’s an additional tile – quite the opposite of an opening.
The rear wing looks terrible when viewed from behind.
And again, when the engine cover is removed, the roll bar comes off at the same time - although it would be easy to model it correctly, for the FW14B’s roll bar is part of the outer skin and doesn’t have to be hidden under the engine cover, as would be the case with the McLarens from that era (a little self-praise: you could have done it like this... ).
Overall, in my opinion, this model is no more accurate to the original than the considerably older and cheaper Bluebrixx model (where I actually find the front more prototypical).
A pity.
After all, we will be able to use the tires for some MOCs from March onwards...

[MAB]

On 11/22/2024 at 9:40 AM, 1340cc said:

Another classic F1 car, now with proper width rear tyres and printed sidewalls. Let's hope Lego sells the new tyres via their pick a brick service otherwise bricklink prices will be brutal with so many of us wanting the tyres for our 10330s.

You think large printed tyres are going to be cheaper on PAB than BL? The unprinted tyres from 10330 are £8.30 each on PAB. The four tyres are just about half the price of the retail price of the whole set. Whereas they are about £1.25 each on BL, even though they only appear in this one set.

[1340cc]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

You think large printed tyres are going to be cheaper on PAB than BL? The unprinted tyres from 10330 are £8.30 each on PAB. The four tyres are just about half the price of the retail price of the whole set. Whereas they are about £1.25 each on BL, even though they only appear in this one set.

Bricklink prices are based on supply and demand. The 10330 tyres are cheap because there's not much demand for them, demand for these new 10353 tyres will be much higher due to 10330 owners upgrading. The new tyres will be more useful for MOC builders as well, which will only further increase demand and prices.

[brickphisto]

On 11/23/2024 at 1:57 PM, Sven J said:

Overall, in my opinion, this model is no more accurate to the original than the considerably older and cheaper Bluebrixx model (where I actually find the front more prototypical).

I like the Lego version much better than the Bluebrixx model. Both are not perfect by any means and the Lego car might not be that much closer in terms of proportions. But as a brick built model it looks far more appealing to me and uses more sophisticated building techniques. Comparing the prices you have to consider that you get a licensed model, printed tyres, an exclusive minifgure, 200+ parts more, licensed stickers, printed instructions and a real original box when buying the Lego set. Prices will drop easily to 50€ (in Germany at least) while Bluebrixx charges 35€ (including unlicensed stickers). I was tempted to give Bluebrixx another try after two disappointments but I will wait patiently for 10353. Very rarely you hear me advocating Lego. This time things are very clear to me though.

[MAB]

20 hours ago, 1340cc said:

Bricklink prices are based on supply and demand. The 10330 tyres are cheap because there's not much demand for them, demand for these new 10353 tyres will be much higher due to 10330 owners upgrading. The new tyres will be more useful for MOC builders as well, which will only further increase demand and prices.

Yes, I know. I have been selling on bricklink for 15 years. The point still remains - a smaller unprinted tyre/wheel is £8.30 on PAB. It is very unlikely that the new printed versions will be cheaper than that even if they are available on PAB. The set price tends to limit what sellers can sell parts for. I doubt a set of the 4 new tyres could be sold for more than 50% of the set price, and a lower percentage is more likely. Above a certain threshold (that will vary from person to person) it makes sense to buy the set for the parts you want and keep the rest for MOCs, MODs, or sell them on.

[bentobrick]

I'm happy to present an upgraded/modded version of the official LEGO set that improves upon some of its proportions.

I think the official set is very very good, but the engine cover/intake was too short and the nose was a little too long. The changes I made are fairly subtle but I think adds a lot to the look:

• Cockpit moved forward
• Rear wing moved backward
• Engine cover extended with better shaping
• Shortened the nose and fixed the yellow color proportions
• Exposed the leading edge of the front wing
• Cleaned up the rear and added a diffuser

Since the instructions haven't been released yet I did my best to recreate it using the MP4/4 as a base model. However, not knowing the internal structure actually gave me a lot more liberty to change things around as I saw fit. Obviously still a WIP, but let me know what you think! 

Reference image (top), my mod (middle), official LEGO model (bottom)

 

Edited December 27, 2024 by bentobrick

[Sven J]

@bentobrick That's definitely a big step in the right direction!

[prototyp]

Fantastic, Bento. The nose and engine cover are much cleaner... Really looking forward to this one. If you pub instructions, I'm in. (I just wrapped up a massive super-detail redesign of the rest of the 4/4 around your set of front-wing, nose-cowl, and rear suspension mods. It's pretty epic, but have to wait till these new wider-rear wheels are available to call it done)

[bentobrick]

Quote

If you pub instructions, I'm in.

Yes I'll likely do so early March when this set releases.

Quote

(I just wrapped up a massive super-detail redesign of the rest of the 4/4 around your set of front-wing, nose-cowl, and rear suspension mods. It's pretty epic, but have to wait till these new wider-rear wheels are available to call it done)

I'd love to see it when you're done! Looking at the available pictures from the Williams set, I actually believe no changes to the rear suspension will be necessary to accommodate the wide tires since they have deeper rims. Both the Williams and McLaren have their rear suspension pieces "5 modules" apart, but if you wanted to double-up tires on 10330 they have to be placed 3-apart to make it look right.

I also wanted to mention that the designer here did a nice job adding gold pieces to imitate the active suspension which was a defining feature of the FW14B. They're a little exaggerated obviously but it's a detail that I certainly appreciate.

[alpinesman]

On 27/12/2024 at 21:40, bentobrick said:

Je suis heureux de présenter une version améliorée/modifiée de l'ensemble LEGO officiel qui améliore certaines de ses proportions.

Je pense que l'ensemble officiel est très très bon, mais le capot moteur/admission était trop court et le nez était un peu trop long. Les changements que j'ai apportés sont assez subtils mais je pense qu'ils ajoutent beaucoup au look :

• Cockpit avancé
• Aile arrière déplacée vers l'arrière
• Capot moteur rallongé avec une meilleure forme
• Raccourci le nez et corrigé les proportions de couleur jaune
• A exposé le bord d'attaque de l'aile avant
• J'ai nettoyé l'arrière et ajouté un diffuseur

Comme les instructions n'ont pas encore été publiées, j'ai fait de mon mieux pour le recréer en utilisant le MP4/4 comme modèle de base. Cependant, ne pas connaître la structure interne m'a donné beaucoup plus de liberté pour modifier les choses comme bon me semblait. Évidemment, c'est toujours un travail en cours, mais faites-moi savoir ce que vous en pensez ! 

Image de référence (en haut), mon mod (au milieu), modèle LEGO officiel (en bas)

 

This is definitely a must-have improvement. Great work, well done. I'll be watching for your instructions to be published.

[bentobrick]

Here's something interesting about the new printed wheels. I looked closer at the official images, and it seems like the front and rear wheel prints are supposed to be 90 degrees offset from each other (look at the spokes). However, taking a look at @kbalage's recent review, it looks like the prints are rotated the same way which is again different from what was shown in other fan media. Not a huge deal, but thought it was a bit strange.

 

 

[prototyp]

On 2/27/2025 at 10:12 PM, bentobrick said:

Here's something interesting about the new printed wheels. I looked closer at the official images, and it seems like the front and rear wheel prints are supposed to be 90 degrees offset from each other (look at the spokes). However, taking a look at @kbalage's recent review, it looks like the prints are rotated the same way which is again different from what was shown in other fan media. Not a huge deal, but thought it was a bit strange.

 

 

In these examples, the printing aligns the "ƒ" foot graphic in the middle of the Good Year logo with the + orientation of the axle-hole. Mine arrive today, will check them and see if there's a pattern... If so, I would guess that's how the piece is stabilized for printing.

[bentobrick]

And after a test build caught some stability issues, free instructions are now here! https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-213807/bentobrick/williams-fw14b-upgrade/#details

Tried my best to make this accessible, only 120 extra pieces needed. 

There's certainly still room for improvement. I used an orthographic view this time (no perspective distortion) and the rear wheel could probably be extended back by a stud or two (I'll let @prototyp handle that one). Not the happiest about the intake either, but it's a tradeoff between that iconic shape and turning it into a real opening.

 

[prototyp]

Alright here we go... One was a novelty, two is a lineage. Here's a(nother) ground-up redesign of a Lego Icons F1 model. Again, hat-tip to @bentobrick for some early inspiration and collaboration as we worked on reconstructing the kit build to get a representative base (I ended up scrubbing the speed-build on youtube pretty much frame-by-frame, that was nuts).

The Williams set is a very promising second chapter for the Lego Icons series. They're definitely on to a fantastic concept. The colorway is bright and beautiful, the mechanical and bodywork details are quite sweet. Those properly staggered slick tire widths. Spotted straight away the much-too-short rear center, the truncated engine cover and the kind-of-too-forward nose bodywork. So let's get to to work...

Like the McLaren 4/4 super-mod, this one’s pretty much all different as well. Reworked proportions with a longer wheelbase, widened track front and rear, a lower, redesigned floor with ‘tea-tray’ undernose detail. There’s a wider wing with angled flaps up front. Entirely new tub build with revised bodywork and additional active-suspension details. Tried to get the steering wheel jammed up under the front cowling so it's not crowding the cockpit but there's really no way to do it.

Lengthened mechanical area with reworked engine and details; designed for pneumatic-hose headers to be added (inserted in the instructions, they're impossible to render in Studio). New sidepods with improved radiator details and internal ducting. Have a new roll hoop build with open air-intake which is separate from the lift-off rear bodywork. I'm particularly proud of the new aft sidepod vertical surfaces with those small trailing cooling ducts. New tail-box bodywork and underfloor diffuser builds along with less bulky rear wing flaps round things out.

Uses most of the kit’s stickered parts as-is except the Canon graphics on the front wing which will need to be moved to 1x6 tiles. Instructions and a bunch of various parts-lists for kit parts used, new parts to add, and the full build are all up at my shop http://prototyp-brickworks.com, will be up on Rebrickable in a bit as well.

• 1/13ish scale
• 794 parts total
• 372 parts used from the 10353 set
• 422 parts to add

Enjoy... Any wagers on what next year's F1 Icon will be? I've got a long wish list for sure...

 

 

Edited March 15 by prototyp

[TheDeeGee]

This is Bentobrick's model but i changed some things.

• Upper rear wing is slighty shifted forward so Canon aligns better with the bottom.
• Added extra suspesion bars like with his MP4/4 mod.
• Airbox is now curved forward.

The airbox is by no means perfect, but LEGO has it's limitations, i do think the car looks a lot better now because of it.

 

Edited May 27 by TheDeeGee

[Sven J]

1 hour ago, TheDeeGee said:

Airbox is now curved forward.

That's excellent!

[Shiva]

Nice!