TOPIC:

Great project and a lovely find.

I just got a similar cassis but no body, a 1/12 Tamiya shell will no doubt find its way onto mine before Xmas

Shiny!!!
nice job Jonny

Very motivating topic, i also got some 1/12 scale kits in my stash but always been a bit shy to do this, wether you like the Lotus or not, it's iconic and very rare, 2 reasons which make a build different and stand out, very nice!

I've made a few bits of progress on the body:

- Vent mesh on engine cover & nose araldited in & painted "smoke"

- window surround & two-tone border chrome strips done with aluminium tape

- all chrome body bits glued on

- vacformed window piece fixed with Novus 3 part polish set & servo taped in

- indicator, reflector & taillight recesses painted

- indicator, reflector & taillights painted (not pictured) - these need some drying time before they can be glued on

- chassis dismantled ready for cleaning (again, not pictured) - I was going to leave it, but there are a few bits of corrosion & scratches that ideally need to be sorted.

Nicely done JR, that chrome tape certainly does the job

Remainder of the lights are on, along with the transfers ... considering they're 30+ years old & have been badly stored, they went on quite well, but a bit of Decalfix brushed along the edges (after they'd been put on with water & let dry) has helped with the bonding & "silvering" effect (see the "before" and "after" pics. I couldn't find a list of what's in the Decalfix, but my mk.1 gas chromatagraph suggests it's mostly water with some peroxide & ammonia in there, along with a trace of Isopropanol... I've also got the tyres soaking - note how they're shunning the gylcerine at the moment.

Very nice détails Jonny

The wheels are quite small & delicate so had been really butchered by being twisted off the sprue ... so I thought I'd have a go at making my own.... next time I think I'd just repair them


Starting with 32mm round 6082 Aluminium bar ...





... hacksawed & faced to wheel dimensions...






... bulk of metal taken off with a pointy cutter ...





... rest taken off to make the faces square ...





... polished & spacer added to replicated the inside off the wheel (I couldn't do this in one piece, the unimat is not stiff enough & chattered, dug in & flung the wheel out) ...




... repeat for the other side, and the outside ... and for the 3 other wheels ...




... double sided tape & lettering to finish

Nice. If you are not too precious about the old wheels, why don't you remove the centres and fit them into the new ally rims?

Martin wrote:

Nice. If you are not too precious about the old wheels, why don't you remove the centres and fit them into the new ally rims?

I have a cunning (and much less invasive) plan