"Gold Leaf" Lotus 72 Jochen Rindt 1970 Tameo WCT 1:43

Hi everybody

As I mentioned in my McLaren thread I didn’t get back to it after finishing the little Porsche 911GT1. After that little trouble- and laboursome bugger I wanted to do a “quick” one in between. My choice fell to the Tameo WCT Lotus 72 in “Gold Leaf” colours. I had bought this kit some time ago from Macs Modeling ( great guy, great service ) and was itching to work on it. All the parts looked great and there’s not a lot of reference for this early version of the 72 around, so I thought I might do it more or less box stock. Well….that plan didn’t survive the first hour. Seems I just can’t do box stock :-)
I only have own reference pictures of later JPS liveried versions of the 72 so there will be no real car pictures in this WIP.
I highly recommend Michael Oliver’s “Lotus 72: Formula 1 icon” though. That’s one of the best books on an F1 car!

First up here’s a few pictures of what you get in the kit:


Everything that’s inside, still in the bags:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/01kitcontents.jpg


The white metal body parts:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/02kitWMbodyparts.jpg


More white metal ( engine and stuff …) :


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/03engineandotherWMbits.jpg


A good deal of photoetch in various thicknesses:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/04kitPEsprues.jpg


A variety of turned metal parts:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/05kitturneddetails.jpg


Turned aluminium rims and tyres:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/06kitwheels.jpg


Two vacform windscreens and various wires:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/07kitwindscreensandwires.jpg


The typical Tameo kit instruction booklet including 4 pages of reference pics:



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/08kitinstructionmanual.jpg



2 sheets of decals….in case you screw some up:



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/09kitdecals.jpg


White metal parts unpacked. All very well cast:



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/10miscWMparts.jpg


Engine and gearbox parts:



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/11engineandgearboxparts.jpg


The engine parts dry fit together after a bit of cleanup and some reference for size:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/12enginesizecomparison.jpg


Overall the parts look very good ( Studio 27 could learn a lot from these white metal castings :-), the PE is very nice and clean too and the decals are very nice ( no need for aftermarket ones…:-) and give you a choice of painting or decaling various areas.
Nevertheless there are some things I don’t like. The first and biggest problem are the tyres. They have an odd profile that makes them look a bit like off road hardware… I’m not yet sure how to deal with that:



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/13kittyres.jpg


For the rear wing elements Tameo didn’t make the typical white metal pieces but supplies pressed photoetch parts. They are crisp….but like that they have no wing profile with a volume. That’s a bit strange too, but can be cured without too much problems.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/14pressedrearwingelements.jpg



In case you screw up the vacform windscreen when cutting it to shape Tameo supplies two. That’s nice…..but in my case they both have identical imperfections as if there was dirt in the mould. That can be evened out but is annoying.
Last are the instructions. They are nice as always but I have found wrong numbers for parts ( a possible problem with those tiny PE parts…)
On the first page you get a picture with all the PE sprues and numbers for all the parts. That’s very good…but they should do the same for the turned metal parts as well. It took me quite a while to figure out all of them ( and the white metal parts ). It’s fun they put numbers for all of them in the instructions but no corresponding numbers anywhere near the parts themselves…!?

On to the build then. As I mentioned the box stock plan didn’t last very long. That changed when I checked the white metal parts for the chassis and bodywork. They are nice but the material thickness was massive for a 43rd scale in some areas that are not more than a couple of fibre glass layers on the real car… Thinning out the parts was no option because the metal parts would bend ( that’s why Tameo doesn’t make them any thinner in the first place…) but with resin parts that would be a different story! For that reason ( and because I hate black fingers from white metal dust ) I decided to make resin copies!
I made them “quick and dirty” because I was going to modify them anyway.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/15castresinbodyparts.jpg


I got some air bubbles but they were taken care of quickly. Some body filler and sanding helped. Here they still look a bit messy:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/16castresinbodypartsprepped.jpg


In the next picture some primer makes them look better already :-) In the back you see the original white metal pieces….no difference really…!?


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/17bodypartcomparisonWMvsResinprimed.jpg


In the next pictures you can see that better. Especially on the nosecone and the cockpit surround the reduced material thickness will make a difference ( at least for me :-). In some areas I’m down to 0,1mm. The resin is of course quite flexible like that but can still be handled. White metal would bend like there’s no tomorrow.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/18cockpitsurroundingcomparison.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/19noseconecomparison.jpg


The nose cone and cockpit surround will still need some work but that will have to wait until after I have worked on other areas. More to come in an update!

Jaykay

Another lesson in scale modeling perfection !!!!!
I've got my notebook ready!

Great job on casting the bodywork!
What color red are you planning on using?

chris

This is going to be good very cool work on making those body parts can't wait till the next update.

Another lesson in scale modeling perfection !!!!!
I've got my notebook ready!
Perfectly put :thumbsup:

I am very much looking forward to seeing this come together.

Fabulous start to this model. Can't wait to see more.

I am ready to go :D, like you said thickness is one of the biggest problems with white metal models in 43. Nice subject also.

Very nice!
Btw, MFH is going to release 1/20 version soon.

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah ! :eek2:

Really nice start. I'm going to enjoy watching this one. Hope you don't mind me putting this link in for the Macs Modeling 1/12th version because I wished he'd get on and finish it!

http://www.macsmodeling.com/Lotus%2072C.htm

:)

rEALLY NICE TOUCH ON CASTING IT IN RESIN GIVES A MORE REALISTIC FEEL WHEN IT IS THINNER.

LOL Hopefully Luca Tameo wouldn't see those cloned messy parts or he'll have an heart attack and we'll loose all future releases :D. BTW the managed result is just at "Jay' standard" so, super. I'm tuned.

Thanks for your replies guys! I’ll try to justify your expectations :-)

@builder77: I’ll get to the paint in the next update.

@360spider: I sure know:-) I bought this one to keep me from buying the Hiro!

@Gionc: Tell Luca Tameo to make resin bodies for his kits….so I don’t have to make messy copies…lol!

All right then. Here we go with some progress.

While I was waiting for the resin parts to cure and later the paint to dry I started working on the photoetch parts. These are really fun to work with and particularly bring those aluminium chassis F1 cars to life. I started with the cockpit tub of course. It’s like a big origami piece. You only have to cut the pieces from the sprue, sand all the edges a bit, fold and glue them together.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/20chassistubbuiltup.jpg


While I was folding and glueing away I was soon starting to wonder, why the hell I bother to build anything less than that or a Hiro. Unlike the BBR GT1 for example where I was always thinking..” what can I do to make this part look better…” I was constantly worrying “…what can I do to not mess this part up…”?
The result was that I bought another 3 WCTs on ebay before Christmas ( for a pretty good price :-) Now they sit in front of me all the time….tempting :-)
Anyway, there’s still room for improvement…
Next I installed the “dent” in the right side of the tub where the driver shifts. It’s a white metal piece that I hand milled out some more to make the hole bigger. I tried to add “rivets” around it as per the original with tiny dots of silver paint but I didn’t manage to place the dots properly so in the end I shelved that plan. I wonder why Tameo doesn’t etch them in like on other pieces!?


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/21gearstickmounted.jpg


Then followed the gear stick itself. It’s a nice turned aluminium piece…but it was a bit biggish so I chucked it in my Proxxon mini drill and made the ball smaller with some fine sand paper. I painted the ball semi gloss black and then glued it in along with the gear linkage that I souped up a bit with extra pieces. Looks nice now…but it took me countless tries until it looked like that and was properly fixed :-)

Next was the seat. Here you see the PE pieces that represents the cushion the driver sits on….doesn’t really look comfortable :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/22PEseatpadding.jpg



To change that I brush painted dots of 2K primer ( because it’s rather thick when unthinned ) on each of the squares, gave it a layer of primer from the airbrush after these dots had dried and finally airbrushed the part and also the white metal piece for the backrest with ZERO “Jet Black”.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/23seatpainted.jpg


That looks more like a leather cushion I’d say :-)
In the next picture they are placed in the tub


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/24seatdryfit.jpg


That’s it for now. In the next update I’ll get to painting some parts.

Jaykay

Fantastic the origami & incredible the cushion! Great thought!

Wow, great job in such a small scale. Great work on the seat cushion. One thing I realized was I have no idea what a 50 cent Euro looks like but I think I get the idea.

Mike

That is the coolest seat cushion thanks for shearing your tips. I don't know when I will be building something with a seat like that but it is sure nice to know for the future.

Nice update JayKay. The seat looks like a big improvement. Maybe some glitter would have worked for the bolts on the recessed part for the driver's hand to be able to change gears?

Fantastic car.
Fantastic work.
And fantastic tips.

Please more pics soon.

Impressive work!

How do you guys do it? You make me sick :popcorn:

Hi everybody

In the last update i promised to get to some painting…well here we go :-)
As I mentioned before I started preparing some of the photoetch detail parts while waiting for the body bits to be ready. Normally I try to paint as late as possible while building and test fitting detail bits to not mess the paint job up. I soon realized though with this kit that wasn’t gonna work. Pretty much everything is connected to the main tub and test fitting without glueing didn’t really work so I decided to paint the tub and sidepods and add bits from there.
I went with ZERO paints and after the primer was sanded I added a layer of pure white. No problems there. Tameo gives you the decals to just paint the car red and add white and gold with decals but I decided against that.
Next was the ZERO red. The kit instructions call for RAL 3020 which I got. When comparing that colour with my reference pictures in books, the instruction reference pictures and digital pictures I wasn’t convinced though. It was a bit too yellow ( or orange if you will ) for my taste. Instead I ended up using Ferrari Rosso Scuderia ( also from ZERO ) that was a better match to the red in the decals as well. This is what that looked like:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/25chassistubbasecoatpainted.jpg


Directly on the base coat paint I put the decals that were no problem to work with.
I only had one problem with the numbers on the sidepods. You could still see the dividing line between red and white under them. Putting on a second decal layer mostly cured that.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/26chassistubandsidepodspainteddecal.jpg


On top of the decals I put a serious layer of urethane clear. That was then sanded and polished with micromesh pads up to 12000 followed by acrylic glass polish that made the surfaces mirror like.
Then I glued the sidepods to the tub.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/27chassistubandsidepodsassembled1.jpg



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/28chassistubandsidepodsassembled2.jpg



I was very proud of myself and this was the most trouble free paint job I had done in ages …

…. but sadly the story doesn’t end there :-(
I got to that point right before Christmas and then because of holidays and other duties the model sat around for weeks. I had realized while polishing there were two spots where the clear wasn’t fully hardened ( that layer was seriously thick…).
No problem then. I carried on doing some silly details to add later and let it cure a bit more.
In between I checked the body every now and then, but there were little pimples showing up
in two or three places. I sanded and polished them again. No problem….enough clear to sand and polish. What puzzled me though was that these seemed to be under all the paint ( not just in the clear ) and I got worried. I didn’t wanna glue all those lovely little etched and turned parts to this body that seemed to head into puberty and an increasing case of acne…
I suspected that maybe the resin underneath wasn’t fully cured ( although I think it had time enough ) and caused this trouble.
To make a long story short, I peeled the paint off the tub last night and I’ll redo it. I can tell you that hurt! Paint jobs and me still seem to not get along with each other very well…
I saved the side pods but the tub currently looks like this again:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/29tubstripped.jpg


There’s at least one good thing about it. I can fix an inaccuracy I found out about while making some details. You can see where i filled those holes behind the driver with body filler....i’ll get to that later.
The extra set of decals will then also come in handy!
Tonight the body will get a new layer of primer. Before I carry on with the paint I will put all the resin parts into the oven for a bit to anneal them…just to be sure. I think I’ll do that always with my home made resin parts from now on!
See you for the next update!

I would love to sit on that seat for sure, I still can't believe its 1/43. Thank you for sharing your tips with us Jay!

Hi

I’m still repainting the chassis tub. It’s currently red and white again but I’m taking my time with each step and let the paint layers thoroughly dry. I hope that’s gonna pay off in the end!
Well anyway, while doing that and waiting I carried on doing some details and I wanna show you the first few in this update!
I’m staying at the front end where the pedals box sits underneath the nosecone. Attached to this metal box that builds up from photoetch pieces in the kit are the inboard front brakes and suspension elements.
In the first picture this is the front and top wall ( not yet folded ) with the hole through which the pedals are visible. This looks a bit naked…


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/30pedalboxkitPEelement.jpg


I wonder why Tameo again didn’t etch some rivets in… I decided to change that. Drilling holes and putting in raised rivet heads was no option at this size so I milled some in.
The mill made it a lot easier to get a consistent spacing. It can be done by hand though. Kamimura San proves that :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/31millingsimulatedrivets.jpg


On top of that I added a flange around the hole. On the real car that’s the sheet aluminium folded up a bit for added stiffness. On the photoetch part that wasn’t possible so i added a strip of 0,1mm nickel silver sheet.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/32addingflange.jpg


I glued it with superglue. Soldering would have been better but too messy as well. It’s not sitting perfect when seen from the top but it took me long enough and I decided to leave it like that. Could be much worse too :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/33flangefinished.jpg


Next is one of the front suspension subframes with turned aluminium damper and upper A-arm.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/34kitfrontsuspensionsubframe.jpg


I wasn’t too happy about how the damper is connected to this diagonal strut, so I rebuilt the strut with a bit more ( correct ) shape to it and milled a proper top element for both sides’ dampers ( the kit provides those for the rear dampers though ) including bump rubbers.
I then had to shorten the lower damper elements a bit and after also beefing up the A-arm pickup points on the subframe I painted the frames with a mix of light blue and gray and the dampers with transparent blue followed by a mix of matt clear and matt dark blue to tone it down a bit.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/35frontsuspsubframemodified.jpg


The paint looks a bit thick up close but maybe the next shot puts this in a bit of perspective :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/36frontsubframeandsizereference.jpg


Inside these frames will go the front brakes as well. The turned parts that came in the kit looked a bit messy again:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/37kitbrakediscs.jpg


I chucked them in my Proxxon again and sanded them smooth with fine sand paper.
In the next picture you see one along with more pieces that go on each side that are already sanded and painted with different types of Alclad and ZERO Jet Black.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/38frontbrakedetails.jpg



Once the tub is ready I can assemble these and build the front end up…I hope :-)

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking!

Come on that's crazy :screwy: but crazy in a good...master modeler way :grinyes:

Hats off, that's sensational work :popcorn:

I am not really sure why I even try to scratch build anything :screwy: Just awesome work your doing in this scale.

can't wait to see those brakes completed!

Bummer about the paint acting all crazy Jay!

If you didn't post comparative pics with pennies it's really easy to forget the actual size of this thing.

How the hell do you do it?!?!?!

Impressive, most impressive!

Great to see you work on other projects other than the Mp4/4, gives you time to step back, clear your mind, look at the overall picture and, when the time is right and your pasion for it is back, I'm sure you'll go back to it to complete what is simply the best model I have ever seen.

:biggrin:

Fantastic! Just think how easy your next 1/24 will be!!

O.k.

Here we go with some more progress. The chassis tub is finally painted again. It took a bit longer than expected, also due to some possibly catastrophic mishaps again, but here it is:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/39repaintedbodyandcockpittubassembl.jpg


Painting went nicely and I had no problem with sanding and polishing. Then I wanted to glue the PE cockpit tub. This slides in from underneath and is a pretty tight fit around the upper edge…..which became a problem. With the first paintjob it was sitting very tight with no problem if handled carefully.
Now after the second paintjob it was too tight and of course the sharp edges of the sidewalls chipped of the paint at the cockpit surrounding edges in two places. I nearly fainted when that happened! I just couldn’t believe it …:-)
To make a long story short, I managed to fix that ( also due to the ZERO paint being quite good for such spot repair ) and then to get a smooth finish I decided to give the body yet another layer of clearcoat ( after widening the cockpit surround that is! ).
That delayed everything some more but finally I could get the cockpit in place safely and attach the sidepods again.

Next up were the pedals. The etched kit pieces come like this:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/40kitPEpedals.jpg



They have a nice texture but I didn’t like them being so “flat”, so I souped them up with some scratch pieces from PE sprues and 0,3mm nickel silver rod.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/41reworkedpedalsinstalled.jpg


Then I could finally install the pieces for the footbox around the pedals I showed you in the previous update.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/42footboxbuiltup.jpg


…and here’s how you see the pedals through the top hole:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/43pedalsinfootbox.jpg


Now I will get to install some more little goodies I already prepared. More of that in the next update. Thanks for watching!

Excellent and very interesting :thumbsup:

The painted body and PE chassis combo... is just a "modelling scream": simply anyone can't rexist and avoid to desire one... superb, terrific job, Jay.

This is lots of motivation watching the build and also realising that even the best modelers make mistakes.. or is it some models have mistakes that only the best modelers can fix :screwy: ?
either way you are definately in the BEST of the best category!

The body looks great repainted not that it looked bad before. The PE pedals are very cool looking and really add to the front of the car. Can't wait to see whats next.

Jaykay, I always drool over anything you produce. You have an exceptional hand when it comes to building well, anything!

One suggestion for your shifter bucket rivet dilemna. I use a sharp hobby awl and simply press until the desired look is achieved. The awl pushes the white metal to the sides producing a fantastic looking rivet with a convincing looking head. I have only done this in 24th scale and don't quite know how it would look in 43rd.

Keep up the incredible work!

Hi guys

Here’s the next update with some of the goodies I promised. I stayed with the front end and installed the suspension. It’s not yet finished due to me getting a bit into silly details again but I decided to post what I have now. I won’t get any modelling time this weekend because of some family business so the model will stay like this for a bit.

I started by installing the inboard brake assemblies. They are a pretty tight fit ( especially after my subframe mods:-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/44frontbrakesanddampersinstalled1.jpg


Next were the dampers. All this was pretty fiddly as expected but no real problem. I used epoxy and superglue.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/45frontbrakesanddampersinstalled2.jpg


Then came the A-arms, uprights and brake shafts. The arms needed some sanding for fit and finish. I first thought about painting them black ( the 72 ran with black ones in some races ) but then stayed with the bare metal look.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/46frontsuspensioninstalled.jpg


The uprights were thinned quite a bit around the little “noses” that the steering arms will later connect to. Then they were airbrushed ZERO “Jet Black” ( and the rubber sleeves around the brake shafts as well ).


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/47frontsuspensioninstalled2.jpg


Then I got to the front anti roll bar. The kit supplies the 0,4mm wire and a nice template to bend it. But after spending the time to carefully bend it to that shape I realized it’s all wrong. Tameo’s own reference pictures in the instructions show that…
So I did a new one with the correct shape. The mounting points to the chassis were wrong as well….no comment :-)
Here’s the Tameo shape bar up front with “mine” behind it:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/48frontantirollbarassembly.jpg


The little vertical arms are a modification as well. The kit comes with photoetched bits of course but they were inevitably flat. I wanted a round shape so I made my own with 0,4mm stainless tubes and added those rod ends. ( I really need to photoetch a bunch of them for future 43rd scale projects…).
Here’s a picture to give you a better idea about their size. In the back is the Tameo part.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/49antirollbarlinkage.jpg


An here finally the assembly is mounted.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/50frontantirollbarinstalled.jpg



One thing that bugged me was the front plate of the chassis pedal box. It has all these holes and right in the middle there’s the rear end visible of a piece glued in from the inside that will later hold the steering column. That looks crap and it would have stayed visible! So I made another front wall from 0,1mm nickel silver sheet to hide it. This also gave me the chance to add some rivets by punching them in with a needle tip along a ruler.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/51pedalboxfrontwallnew.jpg



@ Raikkobin: You see I know what you mean. The problem around the gear shift is, I can’t do that because the etched walls are thicker and too hard, so it will stay without “rivets”.


So that’s it for now. I’m currently working on the steering arms. They need a bit of improvement now to go with the rest.
For one brief moment I thought about making the steering movable. It’s doable. A friend of mine did it on his McLaren M23, but with the inboard brakes and drive shafts it would be really tricky on this 72. I’ll keep that for a future build :-)

Thanks once again for your comments. CU for the next update!

Looks superb (as ever).

The inboard brakes at the front are unusual by today's standards and the reason why there are front axles which look so odd to someone who hasn't modelled an F1 car of this era. Also, thanks for using the word "upright" as I have been struggling to find (or remember) the correct term for that part.

Kind regards,
Bill

1:43...ehhh...crazy people :iceslolan :iceslolan :iceslolan


I can't get enough of your builds, thanks for sharing!!

Hello everybody and welcome back to a thread from the dead :-)

This build has been in coma for quite a while. I didn’t have time for modeling for a couple of months after my last update. During that time disaster stroke again. The old paint troubles I had with the bodywork reoccurred. Not as quick and bad as the first time but they were increasing. In the end I was happy I hadn’t progressed any further…
During summer holidays I finally took the plunge and broke the model apart. I nearly sh.. my pants before doing it because I was afraid to mess things up badly and ruin my previous work. Don’t wanna have to do that again!
I decided to finally use the kit metal parts for chassis and sidepods because it really looked like the root of all evil were my cast resin parts. I will still try to use them for the nosecone and cockpit bodywork though. They are quite thin and had a lot of time to cure now…I hope :-)

So I went ahead and modified the metal tub just like I did with the resin part before because also on this one the PE cockpit stuck out at the top. For anyone building this kit I’d highly recommend to check the fit in that area before painting the body parts.
I extended the white metal body with a wedge of nickel silver and solder ( 0,5mm at the back and around 0,2mm at the front ). That may sound ridiculously small but it really shows in this scale!
After fitting the sidepod pieces to the tub I went ahead with painting using 2K primer, Zero pure white and Ferrari Rosso Corsa red again. Unlike my previous two paintjobs I then added a layer of 2K clear which was wet sanded with 1200 grit sandpaper. The reason for this was to get rid of the step between the red and white layers. Previously that had been visible under the delicate decals, especially the gold stripe.
The decals were the main reason for this build being delayed further yet at that point. After using up the two sets from the kit I needed replacements and ( for various reasons ) they took long enough to arrive so I could build another 43rd scale….and I’m slow :-)
Anyway I finally got them 2 days after finishing the Audi R8C and went ahead with decaling and a good layer of 2K clear which was then sanded and polished. With all the troubles this has caused me so far I have to say though that this is my best paintjob of the three. Well, practice makes perfect, but I hope I won’t need to repeat that process on future builds!!
Here’s a picture of where I’m at right now. Back to where I was more than half a year ago….spot the difference! :-)



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/52newbuildupwithwhitemetalbody.jpg



I want to add two more recommendations for other modelers building this kit.
First, the number decals on the sidepods: The numbers come on a white surface so on the first two paintjobs I put them over the separation of red and white paint. However even with two layers of decal the different undercoats were still noticeable when watched up close, so this time I masked the whole area of the numbers and kept it white underneath the decals. The result is better!

Secondly be absolutely careful when installing the photoetched cockpit inside the painted white metal tub. You have to slide it in from underneath and with the tight tolerances the sharp edges of the sidewalls can easily peel of the paint and cause major trouble. That happened to me at my first attempt. To avoid this I now put some scotch tape on the edges which helped to slide the piece in without damage. After gluing the cockpit in place I just pulled the tapes out.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/53savecockpitinstallation.jpg


So here I am and can finally continue adding little bits. I hope top make some progress now and the next update should be more pictures and less babbling :-)

Cheers

Jaykay

Incredible.

Amazing work!

Boy am I glad to see this build back to "in progress."

Just as Rob said earlier: "The BEST of the best" :worshippy

Yowser! Amazing work here.

Hey man, more!....more!


Outstanding work!

Man that looks like a 1:12 scale model! :worshippy

Show us some proof this on being actually in 1:43 scale!!! :evillol: :evillol:
Massive respect for your patience with this and your will for perfection...

Robert

Hi again. Thanks for all those positive responses for the last update… that didn’t really show something new :-)
For today I have a short one with a bit more progress.
The next thing to work on was the roll hoop behind the driver. In the kit you get some white metal parts to build it from. These would have needed extensive cleaning to get them to a nice polished look which is tricky. Instead I decided to rebuild it from tube material.
My first try at this was made from brass tubes some time ago. It was pretty much a copy of the kit parts. The problem then was to get it to a chromed look. Alclad would have been an option but it would easily rub off. Not good. Covering it with tin in a chemical bath didn’t work as planned. Here you see the kit parts and the brass version ( Yes….i needed more than one try :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/54kitandbrassrollhoops.jpg


I also realized that the original bar looked different to the kit one around the base where it’s fixed to the chassis. So while redoing the chassis because of the paint troubles I also modified the back end area to fit an improved roll hoop. This was built up from 0,9mm stainless steel tubes and 0,5mm nickel silver rods using epoxy and superglue.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/55rollhoopinstalledfront.jpg


I also mounted a new turned aluminium fuel filler that I painted Alclad pale gold. The kit one that was kinda integrated in the roll bar base didn’t look anything like the real one.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/56rollhoopinstalledrear.jpg


Now I need to add the other small bits of that area. That’s a bit tricky because I have no proper reference of a 72C. I’ll need to guess a bit then :-)
So much for now! Thanks for looking!

excellent stuf JK, your attention to detail is just mind blowing.

Jay does his magic again!

Sweet! :thumbsup:

Jay does his magic again!

yes and it is bloody impressive :2cents:

Can't wait for the next update, it just keeps getting better and better...:popcorn:

Thanks guys :-) Here we go with some more progress!

As I mentioned the last time there were more pieces to put under the roll hoop. I don’t really know what everything is but they must have to do with the fuel system :-)
Since I hardly have any reference for the area on a 72C I took some freedom and modified the kit parts mostly using some bolts and cables along what I could see on later versions of the car.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/57detailsunderrollhoopleftside.jpg



I used brass bolt heads, rubber thread and 0.22” R.B.Motion A/N-Fittings that I painted with Alclad transparent red and blue.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/58detailsunderrollhooprightside.jpg



I think the kit parts are rather large and there wasn’t enough room to put all the lines and cables that I saw on reference pictures but for a 43rd scale it should be o.k. The area looks sufficiently busy now :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/59detailsunderrollhooprear.jpg


Up next was the dashboard. In the kit you get a photoetched piece and turned aluminium bits for the dials. All these are nice but there was room for improvement.
For the dashboard itself I made a thin strip of 0,1mm nickel silver around the edge to make it look more like the original which has this folded around edge. That also hides the thickness of the etched dashboard piece which is quite chunky. Gluing the strip around the edge didn’t work, so I had to solder it and then clean everything up. That was annoying but worked o.k. in the end.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/60dashboardpieces.jpg


The turned parts for the dials that you can see in the left part of the picture also needed attention. The front surfaces needed sanding so the decals could be placed as per the instructions. But I wasn’t happy about how that would turn out so I went further. I chucked the pieces in my motor tool and made holes in the fronts using drills and milling heads held in a pin vise. This left only small silver rings at the sides. I painted the holes black and then applied the decals. After they were dry I added big drops of 2K-clear and let them thoroughly dry. Then I sanded them flat and polished the surfaces. Like that I achieved a look that’s much closer to the real dials and gives the impression of depth. Here you can see the painted parts:



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/61dashboardpiecespainted.jpg


I also painted the rear ends of the dials and they were ready to go in the dash. This was painted Zero Jet Black on the front with high pressure to get the rough surface look like on the real one. The back side is still plain metal.
I erased one of the fire extinguisher buttons with body filler, because in the Michael Oliver book there’s a picture of Rindt in the car with only one button. Later they all had two buttons.
The red ring was punched out from a piece of red decal and the buttons are photoetched from Model Car Garage. The Lotus chassis plate decal from the kit is a bit large but I used it anyway.
Next I could mount the dash on the chassis:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/62dashboardinstalled.jpg


The main issue when installing all the bits was again to not mess them up with glue. Most of the time I used epoxy or superglue.

Then came the tricky part of putting some entertainment on the back side of the dashboard. I clearly didn’t wanna leave it empty, so I added wires and cables for switches and dials as per the reference pictures of later cars. The wires on the left hand side run into a “cable tunnel” as per the original that I made from 0,1mm nickel silver. They are mostly styrene threads made from sprues over a candle and some Hiro 0,24mm spark plug wire. Some etched bolts were also added and paint to finish it up. It’s not exactly like the real dashboard but it’s hard to see all the details with the naked eye anyway :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/63dashboardwired.jpg


Then I added the support strut that fixes the dashboard towards the front of the cockpit. Instead of the flat etched piece from the kit I used one I made from 0,4mm nickel silver rod.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/64dashwithsupportstrut.jpg


Then finally I could install the steering column and wheel. The column is a 0,6mm rod from the kit. The steering wheel is made from a nice turned brass ring that comes in the kit and has cutouts for the etched spoke piece. I glued these parts together, filled the remaining holes on the back up with body filler and sanded them before airbrushing the wheel Jet Black. The steering wheel centre received the same treatment as the dials ( without sanding the 2K-clear flat this time ) to get the Lotus logo decal a bit deeper and under a slightly spherical “glass”.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/65steeringwheelinstalled.jpg


And here for those who wonder, a picture with a bit of size reference. Yes….the parts are small… :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/Lotus%2072/67USsizecomparison.jpg



So this is where I am right now. Gotta think about what to do next :-)
Thanks for looking and see you for that!

Wow!, I can't even think this small.

Great detailing.

The detailing is great, paint is superb, and materials used are top notch. But you know what? What simply astounds me is the cleanliness of the work and accuracy of the assembly, especially in such a small scale. That is a sign of a true master. Awe-inspiring work Jay!

My eyes are seeing this but my brain is having problems digesting the level of skill, patience and talent it takes to make work of this level at this scale look so simple :eek2: :worshippy :worshippy

Jay I agree with guys: quality of materials, detail, cleanliness, well that's great for a 1/20 or 1/12 indeed scale: alien for a 1/43 stuff.

How tall are you? I think you are 1:43 scale too... unbelievable!

That is crazy nice!!! Keep up the great work.


Tom Tanner/SD

Hello jaykay,

unfortunately i clicked this wip a few moments ago for the first time.
My only excuse is that maybe i was not that much interested in the subject, sorry sorry!

This is pure demonstration of art!

When looking at all your presented work so far you deserve a lifetime award for your projects.
Highest skills, 100% care for delicate details, absolute brilliant performance and implementation of your projects!
Your wip's are a must for all freaks and enthusiasts.

to klutz,
i had to laugh at your comment, really. It's one thing to see it and another to understand it.....

to 360spyder,
i totally agree with you, this wip shows off a real pro builder because of the ability of handling the idea, the instruments and materials to a perfect grade.

Chapeau

Yours
jochen

Amazing work!