Lotus 72C Ford - GP Great Britain 1970 - WIP

1
June 10, 2012
Everything starts with the central monocoque (with the model as well as with the real car).
2
June 10, 2012
The monocoque has 2 main parts of course: the cockpit and the body cover.
3
June 10, 2012
On top of the monocoque comes the cowling, which is mainly cast in transparant plastic. So I masked the windscreen with some BMF and Maskol.
4
June 10, 2012
Dryfit of the monocoque + cowling. I also added the radiator covers left and right of the monocoque.
5
June 10, 2012
The nose part has been assembled and sanded. The front wings will be spraypainted separately, although they will be sprayed in the same color as the nose. But I don't want to give the impression of a nose + wings being 1 part.
6
June 10, 2012
This is how the nose will look with the front wings attached.
7
June 10, 2012
Here you see the rear wing assembled, as well as the air box.
8
June 10, 2012
Overview of all the Lotus parts so far. Now I will start applying the white primer.
9
June 14, 2012
After the white primer coat, I applied Zero Paints white 'for Team Lotus/Gold Leaf cars'. It comes in a set with the red and gold paint which I applied also after careful masking.
10
June 14, 2012
Here is the result of the 3-colored nose with the front wings dryfitted. Of course the decals are not fixed yet.
11
June 14, 2012
Same exercise for the central hub, except for the gold painted striping which will be formed by a decal here.
12
June 14, 2012
And the radiator covers have been spraypainted in exactly the same manner.
13
June 14, 2012
All the painted parts together and dryfitted to give an impression of the completed bodyparts.
14
June 14, 2012
I also did some work on the tires and rims. I downtoned the heavy chromes wheels with some Aclad 2 "Klear Kote Flat". I also added the valves on the front tires; I still have to find the correct position of the valves on the rear tires.
15
June 14, 2012
The cowling has been spraypainted as well; the white arrow points to the masking tape which protects the transparant part of the windscreen.
16
June 14, 2012
Overview of the work done so far.
17
July 5, 2012
The body has been decalled - the cigarette sponsors are aftermarket.
18
July 5, 2012
Overview of the bodyparts. They still need to be clearcoated.
19
July 5, 2012
Watch out when you build the Silverstone version: the nÂ° 5 decal is positioned wrong on the instructions. It should be turned towards the left hand side from the driver's view.
20
July 5, 2012
Here a reference pictures of the Lotus at Silverstone: note the position of the nr 5 number!
21
August 29, 2012
The interior was sprayed with Gunze Sangyo SM-07 chrome. The seat was painted in different shades of black to enhance the depth effect.
22
August 29, 2012
The plastic kit gear lever was replaced by an aftermarket metal one, and the dashboard has been thoroughly revised.
23
August 29, 2012
At the front I removed all the molded switches, and I drilled holes instead.
24
August 29, 2012
Next I fixed aftermarket metal switches in the holes. The kit instrument decals were used, but I sealed them with a drop of epoxy glue.
25
August 29, 2012
At the rear, I removed all the instruments because they were too small and did not offer the possibility to make the necessary cable connections. So I replaced them by aftermarket parts, the instruments as well as the connections.
26
August 29, 2012
At the rear of the cockpit, behind the driverâ€™s seat, the radiators were fitted and provided with a wash for some more depth.
27
August 29, 2012
Another picture of the central hub.
28
August 29, 2012
Next I fixed the radiator covers.
29
August 29, 2012
View from the rear of the central hub.
30
August 29, 2012
Next I checked if the top cowling would still fit.
31
August 29, 2012
Looks ok, although I'm not very enthousiastic about the one-piece cowling+windscreen. It limits the possibilities.
32
August 29, 2012
And no matter how good your paintjob is, you will always see that the parts are only painted, and not seperate.
33
August 29, 2012
This is because it's impossibel to paint the join line between cowling and windscreen.
34
August 29, 2012
Dryfit with the nose and central hub.
35
August 29, 2012
And another dryfit with the painted parts so far.
36
August 30, 2012
I added the wiring to the dashboard rear, as well as the safety belts in the cockpit. The shoulder belts have been prepared as well. I also replaced the small bolts of the fuel cap by metal wire.
37
August 30, 2012
Here you see the wiring at the back of the dash board clearly.
38
August 30, 2012
Another shot of the wiring and the switches at the dashboard front.
39
August 30, 2012
Something missing in the kit is the support in the nose of the car, where a fire extuingisher should be fixed. I decided to add this construction for more realism. I used metal wire to assemble the supports.
40
August 30, 2012
Dryfit of the nose parts to the cockpit. Now I can start to spraypaint the parts.
41
August 30, 2012
Another dryfit shot.
42
August 30, 2012
Complete overview of where I am at this point.
43
September 6, 2012
The nose parts were painted in their basic colors.
44
September 6, 2012
It's a shame that the suspension was painted flat black during the British GP, but that's what it was!
45
September 6, 2012
Shot of the shock absorbers, kinda special metallic blue color there.
46
September 6, 2012
Clear shot of the scratched fire extinguisher in the scratched supports.
47
September 6, 2012
The suspension parts were drybrushed to make the details come out better.
48
September 6, 2012
This is how the nose part looks like as a whole.
49
September 6, 2012
Shot from the left side of the nose.
50
September 6, 2012
And something you won't see very often: the bottom of the Lotus...
51
September 6, 2012
Next I fixed the steering wheel and some other parts.
52
September 6, 2012
I also fixed the shoulder belts.
53
September 6, 2012
The parts behind the cockpit have been stripped off all the chrome, and resprayed with Gunze SM-07. I also connected most of the wiring.
54
September 6, 2012
Overview shot of the complete hub without engine.
55
September 6, 2012
Other shot from the central hub.
56
September 6, 2012
Shot from a 'normal' viewer's angle.
57
September 6, 2012
This is how I plan to show the finished model at modelling contests... Now all I have to do is build the engine...
58
September 11, 2012
Now we start building the engine. First job: spraying all the engine parts.
59
September 11, 2012
Then we start to assemble the engine block.
60
September 11, 2012
First I planned on replacing the intakes by aluminium turned parts, but the original kit parts looked so good once painted with Alclad, I decided to use them.
61
September 11, 2012
I also added the spark plug wiring and the fuel lines.
62
September 11, 2012
The Ebbro engine is not a Tamiya copy by the way; it's a completely newly designed engine.
63
September 11, 2012
Except for the wiring, no parts on this picture were replaced by aftermarket stuff.
64
September 11, 2012
And a last picture showing the engine bottom.
65
September 11, 2012
Next I fixed the rear suspension and the first scratchbuilt parts: the springs holding the exhaust and the rear wing supports which I replaced by metal wire.
66
September 11, 2012
The spring at the right hand side is a little too big, this will be fixed later on.
67
September 11, 2012
The exhaust were partly spraypainted with Alclad.
68
September 11, 2012
Here you can clearly see that the left spring is looking ok; the right spring is too long.
69
September 11, 2012
Next I attached the engine to the body.
70
September 11, 2012
Slowly the model starts to look as a Lotus 72C...
71
September 11, 2012
Picture from the car's rear.
72
September 11, 2012
And another one to complete the rear views.
73
September 11, 2012
Next I fixed the oil reservoir and the radiator, as well as the torsion bar and of course the wheels.
74
September 11, 2012
The tires haven't been sanded yet, they still look a bit too glossy.
75
September 11, 2012
The torsion bar was replaced by metal wire to get a more realistic diameter.
76
September 11, 2012
Last picture in this phase.
77
September 11, 2012
Next i could fix the large rear wing.
78
September 11, 2012
I also fixed the scratchbuilt wing supports to the wing.
79
September 11, 2012
I also installed the battery and I added some wiring. In those days F1-cars dragged the battery along during the GP.
80
September 11, 2012
Another picture from the left rear side.
81
September 11, 2012
And an overview picture.
82
September 11, 2012
The car is almost ready, so I took some show pictures from a lower angle.
83
September 11, 2012
This angle is closer to what you would see from 'a man's height'.
84
September 11, 2012
As you can see, I still have to adjust the exhaust spring.
85
September 11, 2012
The large rear wheels really look cool from here.
86
September 11, 2012
Last picture before completion of the Lotus.

Comments

10 June 2012, 10:17

Lesley Eyckerman
Wow, i'm to follow this build with great interest. Nice start.

11 June 2012, 09:08

Guy Golsteyn
Thanks mates; the thread has been updated with new pics 😉

14 June 2012, 13:47

Guy Golsteyn
Could be, but I want to be sure, so I will double-check 😉

14 June 2012, 14:21

Guy Golsteyn
Ok, it's confirmed 😉

14 June 2012, 14:29

Holger Kranich
I always thought, they had slicks in the 70 ´s?

14 June 2012, 14:46

Guy Golsteyn
That is correct, although they only started to use them from 1971 onwards I think.

14 June 2012, 14:59

Holger Kranich
Ah, ok! Btw, very good work, what i can see! Cant wait for the next pix;)!

14 June 2012, 15:02

Bill Gilman
Looking very nice indeed! Maybe the treaded tyres are for the rain?

28 June 2012, 20:58

Guy Golsteyn
They had the treads for the rain, but they didn't use any slick tires until 1971. They just used the same kind of tire, no matter what kind of weather it was. In 1971, Goodyear and Firestone introduced slick tyres to Formula 1.

30 June 2012, 20:42

Terry Burke
Thanks for posting this project, for me while i would like the kit, one more 1/20th might be a "Bridge too far" for me as I'm pretty slow at car. I will be following your work as I think any hints and tips I pick p will translate well onto the Tameo kit. I presume that you have used the zero paints Gold leaf set?
Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing progress,

Regards,

Terry.

30 June 2012, 21:34

Guy Golsteyn
It has been a while since my last post. There is a good reason for this: the instructions mislead me which resulted in a wrong position of the decal with the racenumber 5. I noticed this to late, when I looked at my reference pics. So I asked my fellow modellers who have the same kit if they were planning on building another version of the Lotus, and I was lucky. Thanks to my friend Lesley who will build the Lotus in another race, I could get a new set of nr 5 decals and I spraypainted the white roundel to mask the wrong decal, after which I put the new nr 5 decal on top of it. After a few clearcoats it will be hardly noticeable.

5 July 2012, 17:58

Lesley Eyckerman
Hi Guy,

As usual your work looks and is superb. No problem about the decals. I'm always happy when i can help a friend or a fellow modeler out.

Best regards,
Lesley

5 July 2012, 20:39

Pedro Costa
Great!!

7 July 2012, 14:28

Guy Golsteyn
I updated the 'work in progress pictures'.

29 August 2012, 14:47

Steve Wilson
Nice work Guy...

29 August 2012, 15:23

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
If it comes to racing cars,you are the man!
Great !!!

29 August 2012, 16:42

Guy Golsteyn
Thanks man! I added some more pics 😉

30 August 2012, 18:10

Holger Kranich
Hey Guy, great build! Have you soldered some of the metalparts? If yes, go on, it looks very fine in scale!

31 August 2012, 11:28

Guy Golsteyn
No, I used superglue (which in a way is also soldering)...

31 August 2012, 12:16

Guy Golsteyn
I made some progress and I added some more pics...

6 September 2012, 16:04

Bill Gilman
I agree with the comments, this is a very nice job! I have a bunch of Indy kits in my stash - you are encouraging me to start one! 🙂

6 September 2012, 20:21

Guy Golsteyn
To anyone interested, I'll be taking this build along to KMK Scale World tomorrow! Check it out at the stand of the Paddock Modelbouw!

8 September 2012, 13:44

Dirk Heyer
Aaah Super I will be there tomorrow and check it out!
We will see us!
Greetz

8 September 2012, 14:18

Sherif Sharmy
I have the T`bird 1955 0f Matchbox. How do i get the super glossy finish?

8 September 2012, 14:35

Guy Golsteyn
There really is no secret magic spell: just lots of gloss coats, and after each coat polishing will do the trick. It's a pretty intensive job, but it's worth the effort 😉

11 September 2012, 16:28

Guy Golsteyn
I added some more progress pics, we are nearing the completion 😉

11 September 2012, 16:29

Holger Kranich
WTF!!! Its coming very nicely together, Guy! Wheels, chassis, paintjob= Amazing!🙂

11 September 2012, 16:40

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Looks like the real thing!Amazing

11 September 2012, 19:49

Dirk Heyer
Sadly I did not meet you and your amazing models in Mol! :/

13 September 2012, 10:05

Guy Golsteyn
Too bad! But I'll be in Nieuwegein as well, maybe we can meet there?

13 September 2012, 10:53

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
What is in Nieuwegein ??

13 September 2012, 16:37

Steve Wilson
Nieuwegein is a municipality and city in the Dutch province of Utrecht.

13 September 2012, 16:42

Guy Golsteyn
The IPMS Dutch National Convention 2012. Here is some more information:

euroscalemodelling.n..ernational/Home.html

13 September 2012, 16:42

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanks Steve ,thanks Guy
Oh man this will be heavy,14 october Scale model Factory and 27 october perhaps euroscale.My family will kill me 🙂
But the 27 is a saturday.Maybe i have to work then,then i cant be there.

13 September 2012, 16:53

Lesley Eyckerman
Nieuwegein! That's on my birthday. I'm there to celebrate. 🙂

13 September 2012, 21:49

Project info

Lotus 72C Ford - GP Great Britain 1970

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