gsdpic

Thanks, though I think the tach is the large central gauge. Can't really see it in this photo, but the main needle on that gauge is in the 4 o'clock position at 0, and 10, 11, 12 thousand RPM are straight up, just as you describe. So that one is the correct orientation. The gauges to the left are something more minor like oil pressure or temperature or something. Oh well. Thank you. Really glad that the metallic gold decals still worked ok. I learned that this iteration of lotus was the only one that actually had metallic gold....the lotus 78 and 79 that had similar "John Player Special" livery actually just used a non-metallic yellowish tan color. Furthermore, I learned that at least some of the third party decals available for this car are also non-metallic.

Thanks. You and anyone else certainly may provide suggestions. And this sounds like a good one. I'll have to try it out. I definitely agree that the thin clear part sort of spoils the whole look of the model, so any improvement will be welcome.

I have been working on a lot of little details, but I am getting close to wrapping up this project. I might even complete it today, we'll see. I believe that all that remains are the seat belts, attaching the rear wing/oil tank including attaching 3 oil lines, and attaching the wheels. Below are pictures of some of the details. Unidentified important bits between the seat and engine. I thought about adding more lines between these bits and the engine but really should have done it before attaching the roll bar. And I should have done a better job with the mold lines on the roll bar Dashboard front and back. Yes, I purchased some tiny turned metal toggle switches to replace the molded in ones. And again, I could have created more wires to the back of the dashboard for those switches, but did not. I put two on there but they are not really visible in the pictures, behind the hoses that go to the gauges. Oh, and I realized too late that the left dashboard instrument decal is on upside down. 🙃 Main cockpit upper cowl. Wheel and tire with hand painted Firestone logo on the tire. I should get some better quality tiny brushes for such work, though it looks ok. Oh, I forgot I also bought some tiny valve stems and have not put those on the wheels yet.

A lot of good progress. The "Mr. Dissolved Putty" looks interesting, I had not heard of that though I've recently used some of the Mr Color paints for the first time and liked them. I've used the Tamiya putty in a tube but it can be difficult to apply smoothly and is often required in places that are difficult to sand well. It sounds like this stuff might be a better solution.

Bit of a milestone today as I joined the front suspension assembly and the drivetrain/rear suspension to the tub. I still have some coolant pipes and hoses to join the radiators to the engine and then some oil hoses to join the engine to the oil tank and cooler which also serves as the base of the rear wing. In the cockpit area, I need to do the dashboard and a few other bits including roll bar between the cockpit and engine, and then attach the rear wing, front cowl, and wheels and I am done.

That's funny about the shipping to the Canary Islands taking almost as long. The Spot Model web site said it would be 10 to 30 days for delivery to the US, and it was at the very low end of that range. On the older version of the kit like I have, the only seat belts supplied by Tamiya are molded into the supplied driver figurine, which I plan to not use. They did not provide any seat belts to use if you are leaving the driver out. I found some other 1/12th scale seat belts by another brand but they did not look as good as the MFH ones.

Welcome to MSW. Is that different from the stage coach that is listed on the Artesania Latina website? If that is the one, they have downloadable instructions there: https://artesanialatina.net/en/heritage/3469-stage-coach-1848-wooden-model-heritage-collection-8421426203400.html

Thanks guys for the comments, and to others for the likes. One other quick note today...I like the seat belts from Model Factory Hiro (like docrob used on the Renault) and could not find a US supplier. So, I ordered some of them and a few other things that seem difficult to source in the US from Spot Model in Spain. I ordered them on September 15th and they arrived by US mail today. So that was not too bad at all. I've also started doing the clear coat of the main body parts. Have a few more coats to do, not sure how many. Today I did one light mist coat mainly over the decals, then one heavier coat. I'll likely do at least a couple more tomorrow and see what I think from there.

As always, thanks for the comments, the likes/wows, and for just looking in and taking a peek at what I am doing. I've now finished the whole engine and gear box and joined them together. Above and beyond what is in the kit, I added some "wiring harness" and the rear brake lines over the gear box. If you look closely, you might also see a few of the photo etched "hose clamps" that I bought. I like them, but they are a real pain. Of course they come flat, so have to be wrapped around the "hose", but they are a bit springy so they resist being glued down, even with CA. And of course I glued some of them to a flat black painted surface and the CA just lifted the paint. Others were glued to the rubber hose provided in the kit but the CA also did not seem to work well there either. The exhaust was a bit of an issue too. It was tough to get the four individual pipes joined together correctly and glued into the cylinder head. Then when I put the gear box and engine together, the end of the exhaust pointed right at one of the suspension members so I had to squeeze it in some to get the exhaust through the suspension, which loosened the other end of the exhaust where it was glued to the cylinder head. Oh, I tried something on the exhaust as well. The pipe is painted with Alclad Chrome, then I put a bit of clear yellow and clear blue on it to represent the heat discoloration. When I attach this unit to the tub, there will be a couple more connections and hoses added, as well as some hoses from the engine to the oil tank and cooler which also serves as the support for the rear wing. I also have some work to do on the dashboard, but otherwise there are not too many remaining parts. I still need to work on clear coat on all the body pieces.

Looking good! On the prior pictures of the chassis...maybe there is a white balance problem or something, but the "light gull grey" looks rather green. I thought I'd clicked into a build log for an army truck. I assume the first picture of post #25 is much closer to the true color.

I believe that it is still undecided exactly where she will ultimately end up, but as I understand there is some funding from the Texas government that requires the ultimate location to be somewhere on that upper/eastern Texas coast, around Galveston or in the bays or channels leading up toward Houston. To me, seems to make sense to put her back where she was near the San Jacinto monument, though I guess she'd get a lot more visitors if she was in Galveston.

Resurrecting this old(ish) thread. I happened across a new youtube video with some drone shots of the current state of the restoration of the USS Texas. Edit: Not my video, video by https://www.thirdcoastdrone.com/

Wow, Mike, sorry to hear that about your eye diagnosis. I've enjoyed following several of your builds, though I know you've said in the past that you were considering slowing down on the modelling. Hope the progression is slow and does not hamper other activities too much.

Thanks for the comment CDW and thanks to all the others for the likes and the wows. Not sure my work lives up to a "wow" but I'll take it. So I said the exhaust was next but I skipped ahead a little bit and worked on painting the wheels. The wheels presented a couple of conundrums. But first, back when I built the Ferrari shown above, I wondered about the goldish tone of wheels on race cars from around 1970 and google told me all about "DOW 7". For those unfamiliar, the wheels were made of magnesium to reduce weight, but it is fairly reactive to the environment, so the magnesium was coated with some chemical mix to prevent corrosion. "DOW 7" is the current name for one such mix; not sure if that is what it was called back in 1970. It is a sort of non-metallic goldish tan color, sometimes with a little tinge of green, though looking at net pictures of magnesium wheels shows a wide variety of color. As for the conundrums (conundra?), the various pictures and youtube videos of this car (not to mention models of this car) show a variety of wheels and a variety of schemes for coloration of the wheels, usually with a silver rim along with some parts in a goldish color, and some times black as well. So the first issue was just how to paint the wheels. For the front, as shown, I've gone with a black inner section, gold wheel, with some silver trim around the edge. The rears are a different style and very deep so I did not do the black inner section on them. The second conundrum is regarding the gold color. Was the gold wheel on the 72D a magnesium wheel coated with DOW 7? Or was the wheel painted gold to match the livery of the car, with the gold stripes? As much as I might have wanted the latter, I assumed the former. So I started out painting the wheels with the dreaded alclad gloss black, thinking I might be painting some polished aluminum over it, though that did not occur. I then did a light mist coat of flat "German Grey" Tamiya paint just to knock down the gloss and blackness of the inner part a bit. Then I masked the inner wheel section and painted the wheel with Alclad's "pale gold". That was the first time I used it, and I have to say it went on beautifully. At that point I was tempted to pretend the wheels were painted gold to match the livery and let it go. But no, I continued with my original plan to attempt to make the wheels more "DOW 7"ish, and put on a mist coat of Tamiya Flat Earth with a couple of drops of green in it. Finally, I went around the rim of the wheel using the molotow chrome paint marker. Below is what it looks like now. I'll likely go over the rim with another pass or two of the molotow paint marker and then maybe shoot the whole thing with a semi-gloss clear coat. But, even as is, I am quite pleased with how this came out. If you made it this far, thanks for reading this overly long explanation for painting a wheel

Thanks for the history lesson, egilman, and thanks to others for the likes. I received the braided metal line that I ordered and used it for the front fire extinguisher. The diameter is not quite as large as I expected and it is a bit floppier than I expected, so not sure if it will be appropriate for the oil lines. I'll figure that out much later in the build. I've also almost completed the gearbox and rear suspension. It was not quite as tricky as the front, but close. The remaining thing to do is to add the shock absorbers (aka dampers) which is done when attaching the gear box to the engine, as the shock absorber mounts on a brace between the two pieces. I hope to still do a bit more detailing on the gear box, with some brake lines to the calipers and also some wiring harness to connect to the battery and I think that is the starter just ahead of the battery. Next up is exhaust, then connecting the gearbox and engine to each other and then to the body. But, I still have not done any clear coat on the body panels. I am waiting for a delivery that is expected on Friday that includes some Tamiya X-22. I have more experience with that since I got my air brush than any other clear, so figured it was the best/safest choice for this model.

I'm in. Just what I need, to be tempted by another 1/12th scale old race car build. I prefer the fresh out of the factory look, but only because I am too chicken to attempt any serious weathering. Maybe some day. I am preparing to be amazed by what you come up with

I hope you are patient And and thanks to the others for the likes. I've now pretty much completed the engine. The gear box, along with rear suspension and rear brakes, is next. I painted the engine block with metallic gray (XF-56) then used black panel line accent and some dry brushed flat aluminum (XF-16) to provide some variation. I have to say in the pictures, the variation shows up more than it does in real life. I also think the spark plug wires/tubes are a bit out of scale but will leave them for now. Funny thing is that in my stash I have both the Lotus 49 and the Lotus 78, which were also powered by the Ford/Cosworth DFV engine so I'll have two more chance to build pretty much the exact same engine, whenever I get around to doing those other two.

Beautiful! Looks like she just rolled off the assembly line.

Thanks to OC for the comment, and to everyone else for looking in and hitting the like button. I've completed the decals on the body parts. It went quite well....sure there are a few wrinkles and a few places the decals tore and a little bit of silvering here and there but overall I am pleased with the way it went. I was surprised that the long skinny stripe decals did not pose too much issue, though a couple of them did break apart. But I was able to just nudge the two edges together. The larger decals seemed a little more problematic, as there were more likely to be spots where the decal film did not want to release from the backing paper. In a few cases I had to grab the decal with tweezers and delicately pull it off of the backing paper. Below are a couple of pictures. Excuse the masking tape, I am leaving that in place until after I do the clear coat, which I have not started yet. Also, the upper cowl is just sitting on the main tub now. Unfortunately it is slightly warped. I think the kit intends you to not glue that in place so that it can be removed for better viewing of the cockpit but I may need to glue it down to have it sit nice on the tub. That's probable not a big loss as there is not a lot to view in the cockpit. I also started assembling the engine and gearbox. I placed the front cowl, the body, the engine/gearbox and rear wing all next to each other on my table and was a bit surprised just how big this model is going to be. I guess I should have thought about that before I started hoarding 1/12th or 1/16th scale car models bought off of ebay. This is one of 9 that I have. Oops.

Well done! Another tremendously creative and entertaining build. Maybe the first time on MSW that the builder used his own livestock as the prototype for part of the build!

Wonderful result! The carvings, the rigging, everything is just superb. Thanks so much for sharing your work in this build log.

Thanks as always for the comments and likes! I have the front suspension structure 99% done now, shown below. The fire extinguisher is toward the front of the car, the back bulkhead/frame fits against the main tub of the car. The one part that I have not done is the hose from the fire extinguisher to the front bulkhead. The kit supplies some black rubber/vinyl tube for that purpose. I hope to obtain some of the metal, braided lines and use that in place of the vinyl hose. Note also the bare wires on the front, representing the hydraulic lines for the brakes and clutch. The three cylinders in front are the master cylinders. I added those wires, they were not part of the kit. I also added the black control wire from the bulkhead to the fire extinguisher. The front cowl snaps on, so in theory, most of this stuff can be made visible by removing the cowl. It cannot be seen in these photos, but I also added rods from the pedals to the opposite side of the master cylinders. They can be seen if you look straight down through that square opening in the top. I presume that is how this worked....the pedals acted as levers pushing rods into the cylinders to provide the pressure needed to brake or release the clutch. I am also tempted to add a rectangular decal or two to the fire extinguisher, as it looks a bit bare as is. With this, I am through step 26 out of 45 in the instructions. The next step begins assembly of the engine. I might also go back and resume putting decals on the main tub. The gloss black paint there has been curing for a week or two and is no longer tacky at all.

Thanks again CDW and egilman. I also thought about possibly painting the gold stuff if the decals were not usable. Or microscale suggests painting on decal film to create decals, saying it may be easier to paint on a flat surface than directly on the model. Though for something like stripes it may be tough to map the curved decal to the flat decal sheet if you do not have existing decals to work from. I did scan in the decal sheet before I cut it up in case I needed to refer to it in the future. I've used Indycals in the past when I messed up the decals on a Fujimi Ford GT 40 model and was pleased with what I got. The lotus 72D is one that they do not have decals for....perhaps he also cannot print metallic gold.

Thanks. This is only about the second time dealing with such old decals. I still have some of the longest and most complex ones to do so I am not out of the woods yet. And on a few that I have done, I could see that about as much of the color stayed on the backing paper as on the decal film. In the past I've made a few decals using the inkjet printer compatible decal paper but I am sure my inkjet could not recreate the metallic gold decals on this kit. Thanks for the links! I've bookmarked them just in case...I hope not for this kit but possibly in the future. And thanks to all the others for the likes. I've continued with the kit. The next part is mostly construction of the front suspension. And yes, that was quite a beast to complete. I've got it about 80% done but the rest should be much easier. They design it so that the suspension moves like the real thing....deflects up and down, the front wheels turn left and right, and they rotate as well. When they rotate, drive shafts also cause the inboard mounted brake disks to rotate. So, many of those parts just snap together to allow movement but when gluing the two main frames together, you need to hold about 8 other pieces in place, so it was not easy. And with all that, one of the wheels does not turn as freely as I would like but it'll do. I had one near catastrophe. The uprights/hubs have two ball-and-socket joints, one on top and one on bottom. On one of the hubs, I broke off one of the balls. Without that ball, the hub would not attach to the suspension. Fortunately I had some sewing pins with small, round plastic heads. I was able to sand down the round head of one of those pins to make it the same size as the broken ball, drill a hole into the hub and cut off most of the pin and then CA the pin into the hub. That worked surprisingly well. For now, just one picture. Once I complete this a bit more, I'll post a few more pictures. I've used a variety of paints on this....tamiya gun metal, metallic gray, and black, alclad black and semi-matte aluminum, and model masters steel.

Just a quick update. First, I have done all the decals on the front cowl now. A couple were a bit dicey but overall it went ok. The line around the very front broke in a couple pieces but I was able to slide the pieces together and (mostly) hide it. I need to very carefully clean some of the water spots off of the cowl and then clear coat it. I've also resprayed the body panels on the main tub. It looks much better now and it seems to be less tacky even after just 12 hours. This time I was far more diligent about shaking up the bottle of paint before using it, so I think that might have helped. I've also done a bit more work on the front suspension bits but not enough to bother showing at this time. Oh, I also stripped all the chrome off of the one small sprue of chrome parts, as a couple of them are on the front suspension. Most of them I'll likely repaint with either chrome or polished aluminum paint from Alclad. Here's the fully decal'ed front cowl. That stripe around the top edge of the cowl was made up of 5 individual decals that you butt up against each other to form the complete line. I started with the one in the front then worked my way up each side.