Lotus 49C by DocRob - Ebbro- 1/20 - Plastic

[DocRob]

I was not sure, if I should write a log for this build, but hey, there are not so many car builds around here. Ebbro the producing company is unfortunately not longer existing and we modelers lost a great source for 1/20 historic F1 cars.
The Lotus 49 started it´s career in 1967 in the green and yellow Lotus livery. The later 49B and 49C models, were the first to sport full sponsorship brand colors, in red white and gold to my knowledge. My build will show the 49C as Jochen Rindt´s, who won the Monaco Grand Prix in 1970. By that time the 49´s where already replaced by the Lotus 72, but Rindt disliked the later type.

The kit itself is nicely designed with black, grey, white and chrome sprues, along a yellow tinted clear sprue for the windshield. The tyres have the branding and stripes already printed on, nice. The manual sports some similarities with Tamiya´s.
I will add some extra detailing for the engine with Model Factory Hiro details and fabric seat belts from the same company and some piping and wiring.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I started with the cockpit, which was a straight forward construction. The light grey tub receives the seat and some spars, gear shifter and of course the instrument panel. The kit supplied decals for the seat belts are not my cup of tea in this scale and I substituted them with fabric ones from MFH. Fiddly to build, but they look way better. You have to cut the fabric to length and add the buckles and then glue the fabric with supplied double sided adhesive tape, which I also used to hold the belts in place. I like that solution, because you don´t have to mess (literally) with CA



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Next were the body parts, which I initially wanted to paint red and use the supplied decals for the white and gold trims. The parts were primed with pink Mr. Surfacer 1500, a good base, then followed by Number 5 Lotus red, which sprayed beautifully, thinned with Mr. Leveling thinner. The wing parts were left on the sprue, which I rarely do, but it would have been difficult to hold the parts during the painting stage

Pink


Red


You may noticed, I also sprayed the front wings and little spoiler with Number 5 Lotus 49C gold, but the hue looked completely off and was completely different from the color of the decals. I then rummaged through my car color stash and found some Wolf Racing gold from the same brand, which fitted almost perfectly.

Wolf gold left, the completely off Lotus 49C gold right.


Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I test fitted the red airbrushed and gloss coated body parts around the tub and to my surprise the fit was very good. The instrument panel received the supplied decals for the dials, which were than sealed with a drop of Pledge for a better glass appearance. The later visible backside got the instrument housings drilled with a 0,5 mm bit and I added some 0,4 mm black and red cables for further detailing.





Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

My initial plan of decaling the white and gold livery with the supplied decals went wrong, I had some tiny crinkles, which I may could have solved with a hairdryer and some decal fluid, but I misaligned one decal and was not too keen of cutting all the edges of the decal with a sharp blade.
Luckily I made copies of the decals as backup, to use them as templates for masks. After removing the decals, I masked everything with Kabuki tape and sprayed the white and gold onto the red.



Then I applied the decals, which were ok but not great quality wise. Some colors are a bit strange and there is a slight offset for example on the Union Jack´s.
They needed some Micro Sol to get them settled over the rivets. Meanwhile, the parts are gloss coated with Zero Paints Lacquer clear, which sprays extremely well.



I usually spray three to four layers per color or clear coat for car bodies. I thin the paint or clear with Mr. Leveling thinner. It has proved best for me, to start with a first coat of color with about 30 to 40% thinner only misted on. This thin coat dries super fast and the risk of damaging the plastic or decals with the hot paints and thinners is reduced. The next coat is applied a bit heavier and possibly thinned with another 10% of thinner. The third coat has 50 to 60% thinner, which let it level very easy and the surface is very shiny. The last coat, if necessary is thinned with about 80% of thinner, which levels even better, but care has to be taken not to produce color runs.
The first coat needs to dry properly, as it works as a protective shield for the plastic and decals, the others are applied with only some minutes of drying time, which causes the following heavier thinned coat to eat into the one before and level better

Cheers Rob

[Canute]

Love the way the colors work. Red is always tough, but your pink base coat works well. And the seat harness looks great. 👍

[yvesvidal]

Another masterpiece in the making....

 

Yves

[gsdpic]

Great start, the paint work and decals are looking very nice, and the car looks like an interesting half way point between the original Lotus 49 and the 72.  I've seen a few Ebbro kits on ebay and such places but have never seen the contents of the box or a build log, so it will be interesting to see how it goes together.  And I know what you mean about build logs for cars, they are pretty rare around here.  I just finished another car but did not bother with a build log myself.   After I take a few pictures, I'll post them in the completed non-ship build section.

 

[DocRob]

On 10/3/2025 at 1:41 PM, Canute said:

Love the way the colors work. Red is always tough, but your pink base coat works well. And the seat harness looks great. 👍

Thank you Ken, I learned through a forum post about pink primer as the best base for red colors. I used it the second time with the Lotus and really like the results.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

On 10/3/2025 at 1:45 PM, yvesvidal said:

Another masterpiece in the making....

Lets hope so Yves, it is my first Ebbro kit and I hope there will not too many obstacles with the build. For now, everything looks promising.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

On 10/3/2025 at 1:56 PM, gsdpic said:

Great start, the paint work and decals are looking very nice, and the car looks like an interesting half way point between the original Lotus 49 and the 72.  I've seen a few Ebbro kits on ebay and such places but have never seen the contents of the box or a build log, so it will be interesting to see how it goes together.  And I know what you mean about build logs for cars, they are pretty rare around here.  I just finished another car but did not bother with a build log myself.   After I take a few pictures, I'll post them in the completed non-ship build section.

Thank you Gary, exactly my thinking about the 49C being somewhat in the middle of development from the early 49 to the Lotus 72. It´s interesting, how long the always same engine was used in F1 racing.
Until now, the fit is decent, even with the multiple body parts, where I feared problems, luckily unfounded. The chrome sprues looked a little soft detail wise and I de-chromed them with oven cleaner, only to find out, the softness was not because of the chrome. 

Cheers Rob