Lotus 79 Ford - GP France 1978 - WIP

I started cleaning up and polishing the white metal parts that will form the body. The front spoiler was fitted with photo-etched endplates, just like the rear spoiler. The 'windshield' also consists of a piece of photo-etch. The mirrors, airscope and spoilers have all been installed so that everything is nicely sprayed. Only the front and rear bodywork was kept separate, so that we can look under the cowling later.

The chassis, to which a whole piece of bodywork is attached, was sprayed with a layer of gray primer and then with 3 layers of TS-14 gloss black. Later the chassis itself will be painted in aluminum color with the brush.

I added both body parts. They were of course painted in the same way as the chassis.

And with all the parts together you get an idea of what it should look like later.

And with all the parts together you get an idea of what it should look like later.

The decalling is done, and in general the result looks okay. But! I should have known better... When cleaning and polishing the parts, I had not immediately paid attention to the fact that the front and rear cowlings are not perfectly the same height, and therefore do not fit together. I have illustrated that in the photo.

Moreover, when applying the decals, I placed all the body parts separately on a support so as not to have to touch the sprayed parts too much with my fingers. And if you look at everything separately, the decals look well placed, of course. Only the piece of transparent decal that I have indicated with a red arrow looks a little less successful: for some reason, liters of sol have not had much effect on this, because after drying it looks as if there is air under the decal, which gives an ugly appearance. The rest of the parts still need to be polished with Tamiya polish paste to remove all traces of glue, but that is 'standard procedure'.

Things are worse when the body parts are dry-fitted to the chassis. Because the sides of the cowling are not the same height and I have placed the striping the same distance from the edge of the part everywhere, the striping and the text now jump at the transition from the front to the rear cowling. This is especially noticeable on the left side. Now that in itself is not so bad because the intention of the model is to show it with the cowling removed, so that you can view as much of the details as possible, but I also want to take pictures of the complete model and then that error will be very noticeable.

On the right side the problem is slightly less serious, but still visible. I would of course have better applied the striping with all the body parts fitted to the chassis, but I was not aware that there would be a problem.

And after a night's sleep and a morning of worrying, I came up with a solution that seems feasible and not too expensive. I checked via the Grand Prix Models site (where I bought this kit) whether the decal sheet can be purchased separately, and that turned out to be the case. So I ordered a new one, and once the decal sheet arrives, I'm going to put the rear cowling in the acetone, after which I'm going to raise it with some plasticard so that it fits perfectly on the front cowling. Then I can spray it again and apply the decals in a responsible manner. This gives me a minimum of extra work and I can also continue working on the model in peace, because respraying the rear cowling does not hinder the construction of this Lotus in the least.