Yesterday I began to think about building a late '60's F1 from the so called 3L period.
The only shell I had that would be appropriate was a Dave Jones Lotus 25, bought from him back in 2011 at Early Birds.
I have never really studied this period of cars so it took me a little research to understand the differences.
I had a hunt around my box and found much of what I needed:
Tyres, gears, motor, wheels, axles, body shell, driver body.
I've cut a brass sheet for a simple chassis but i'm worried that the motor will be too high in the cockpit if I sit it on top...... the body is really very low!
The wheels are 13" David, correct for this car of course.
The fronts are Ostorero Lotus 79 parts. Contact the Ostorero brothers via their website if you want some. They are great as they have no inner hub which i've always disliked.
The rears are Allslot Cars front wheels. Just the right width for this set of rules and super light. The only issue is that finding tyres to go on these 13" wheels is very tricky. The car sits on the Allslot front tyres at the rear which are perfect size but very hard. I shall try them but imagine i'll end up using some Paul Gage Urethane. I have personally never liked Urethane, preferring soft rubber and it has been shown that NSR for example performs well in these proxies but to my knowledge there are no NSR tyres with small enough inner diameter for these wheels.
I'd be happy to hear if anyone knows of soft rubber tyres that would fit.....
The build has moved on and after numerous rounds of filler and sanding we have got some top coat on.
I tried a technique whereby I masked the steip and sprayed the green first. The thinking was that I wanted a deffinate yellow strip rather than using decals and I wanted both the yellow and green on the white undercoat.
it has more or less worked with a tiny bit of white edge showing in one place.
The engine and exhaust detail is from a Scalextric Lotus 49 which I had recently carved up to do one of my Policar conversions.
The chassis has been painted black so that it fades into the shadow under the car.
Progress is slow but constant, I suppose in reality I only began this about 3 weeks ago but it seems like ages....
Once the shell was painted I began decalling and immediately realsied that the roundels were not strong enoug white to work on top of the dark background. This was annoying as it set me back and meant I had to rethink on the hoof. In hindsight I should have reverted to another roundel with a stronger white but I decided to spray the roundels instead.
Cutting perfect circles and then expecting them to form a perfect round when the masking was removed was ambitious. Too ambitious as it turned out.
Anyway to cut the story short I trimmed a bit, sanded lightly and polished out some of the defects and from about 1m away it looks fine but of course shows up in the close ups!!
No time to start agin so on with the decals and tamiya top coat and the thing is starting to look like a car.
Clark (Immense Miniatures of course), is in the car and the windscreen is on. A host of tiny details to go but i'm confident I will make the start line in early December.
Hi Tony, they are a mixture, coming part from Pre Wing (Mel Ault) and part from Indycals.
Now I think Mel's supplier is Indycals anyway so effectively one supplier by two means!
The quality is excellent except for unfortunately the strength of the white background. They don't melt under Tamiya spray either although I also use Pattos which I have techniques to avoid melting too!
Oh dear David, there goes my concourse points....
Well the gearbox comes off a Scalextric Lotus 49 so I have no doubt that it isn't quite right for tbe Lotus 33. I'll see what I can do.
Andi
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