Lotus 49C by DocRob - FINISHED - 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

[DocRob]

Next was the assembly of the front section and around the cockpit tub. While the red and white body parts fitted well, the front suspension and radiator proved to be difficult to get together. I had to widen many holes with drill bits to and did some cutting to accept the fitting parts. My expectations were a bit higher fit wise, but I was wrong, which showed when I added the front body parts and found out, that there is no way to glue them in the correct position.

Here is how it looked inside the nose with suspension and radiator in place







After half an hour of carefully detecting the culprits, it was clear, the radiator was too far to the front for about two millimeters and I have no idea, where I made a mistake. I then decided to cut the radiator framing and cooling hoses and glue the radiator directly into the front cone. All the struts are completely hidden in the body, so no harm done other than a wounded ego. 

Now the front body parts went on easily and I added the wings as last step before the engine will get build.

 

Cheers Rob

[LoydB]

This is looking good. 

[DocRob]

I have seven or eight kits with the legendary Ford / Cosworth DFV engine implemented and this is the firs time I build one. Actually the Lotus 49 was the first car in a long row using this engine, which proved to be the most victorious F1 engine of all time and for years set a kind of standard in F1 racing until it got finally replaced in 1983.
I decided to give the kit engine some extra love and added a MFH set with turned funnels and fuel and ignition distributors. The engine will be very visible, so a bit extra detailing will improve the looks. I glued the yellow transparent fuel lines to the distributor with CA and then did the same with the ignition wiring, made from black 0,4 mm cable. Drilling the numerous 0,4 mm holes was delicate and gluing everything in place after shortening the tubes and wires will be equally difficult.





I also assembled the gear box and sprayed it gun metal. I decided against the texturized color from Zero paints for that task, because I think in 1/20 scale the texture might be a tad too much.
The valve covers were sprayed firs aluminum, followed by semi mate black, which I planned to carefully erase with a toothpick on the Ford logos. It didn´t work that way, so out with the AK Aluminum pencil, which also wasn´t successful due to the grainy application. It had to be the good old soft pencil, not perfect, but good enough for me.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Finally, I got the wild hairdo of the engine straightened out. I combed and parted the fuel lines and ignition wires and glued them into place with CA. It wasn´t that terrible a task than thought, but needed a steady hand. 
My hand was less steady, when I tried to refine the Ford brandings with a brush and paint. I will rework it, when I have a completely unmoving hand, but today, I exhausted myself with swimming and running, not the best combo for painting these only slightly protruding buggers. 
The worst about macro photos, you can´t hide anything, the engine is tiny and looks better to the real eye.





Cheers Rob

[gsdpic]

Looks great to me!  I’ve built the ford dfv 3 times, all in 1/12th scale from Tamiya.  Yours looks just as good at the smaller scale.  The fuel lines and spark plug wires really help.

[king derelict]

Hi Rob 

This is your usual stunning work and I have a fondness for the Lotus cars of this time and the Cosworth engines.

Regarding the Ford logo, have you tried a silver pencil. I used to use them a lot with aero gas turbines for marking blades for inspection and future checks because they will remain visible after extensive engine running . They look like a standard pencil but have a silvery “lead” which is fairly soft and transfers easily. Welders use them extensively. They are available cheaply on Amazon and might save a lot of frustration. I hope this is useful.

alan

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, gsdpic said:

Looks great to me!  I’ve built the ford dfv 3 times, all in 1/12th scale from Tamiya.  Yours looks just as good at the smaller scale.  The fuel lines and spark plug wires really help.

Thank you Gary, I have two 1/12 scale Tamiya DFV´s as well, the Lotus 72 and Brabham BT44. These will be further detailed with MFH sets, like this one. Than there is one for a MFH Lotus 77, but I missed their actual release, the McLaren M23 with the same engine, which would have been a nice display together, depicting the final race of the 1976 season in the rain in Japan.
Then there are numerous incarnations in 1/20 scale from Tamiya and Ebbro in my stash. I hope, I don´t get bored by replicating this engine so often.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

5 hours ago, king derelict said:

Hi Rob 

This is your usual stunning work and I have a fondness for the Lotus cars of this time and the Cosworth engines.

Regarding the Ford logo, have you tried a silver pencil. I used to use them a lot with aero gas turbines for marking blades for inspection and future checks because they will remain visible after extensive engine running . They look like a standard pencil but have a silvery “lead” which is fairly soft and transfers easily. Welders use them extensively. They are available cheaply on Amazon and might save a lot of frustration. I hope this is useful.

alan

Thank you Alan, most the Lotus cars of the era are absolute beauties, no matter if green and yellow or red, white and gold or black and gold.
Thanks for your information about the silver pencil, I will buy one. I tried AK´s silver weathering pencil, but used dry, it is too grainy. Used dampened, it would have flown too much, equal with a silver marker. Initially I used a soft pencil, which fabricated great contours, but not enough silverness. My last attempt with a brush was not too successful as you can see, with the letters barely protruding.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

A lot is going on lately, not modeling wise unfortunately, but I´m still onto the Lotus 49. Everything is prepared and painted and waiting to be assembled.
The kit is a VERY mixed bag quality wise. Some engineering is fantastic and you need no glue to assemble, others areas are downright terrible, specially where the pre chromed parts come into play. I de-chromed the sprues with oven cleaner, because the detail looked soft. Unfortunately it wasn´t the chrome, the plastic got covered in a layer which looks like clear resin as a base for the chrome and this is not removable. It´s also impossible to glue the de-chromed parts with plastic glue, they call for CA. I had to drill most of the holes on the back end out, they were simply to narrow.

One of the best aspects of the kit are the pre-printed tires, an approach, I wish other companies would copy. The rims were sprayed polished aluminum and semi gloss black, as the chrome looked wrong.



I assembled the gearbox with the rear suspension, an area, where there is great engineering, intersecting the parts with almost no need for glue.



One of the worst area of the kit were the exhausts, which were chromed, albeit they need to be painted black or white, depending the car you show. The de-chromed plastic doesn´t take paint well and need CA to glue, not easy, when you assemble the four parts per side with only seconds to fit them to the engine case, moving and wiggling the fragile parts.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Almost done, the Lotus and my nerves. Assembly is very difficult due to fit issues and the complexity of the car itself. There were the exhausts with a special PITA award mentioning. I had to break them from the engine, because it would have been impossible to install the four chromed rods, connecting the body with the rear suspension. I had to shave off a lot of the exhausts undersides to fiddle them in and glue them in place.









Cheers Rob

[yvesvidal]

Another museum quality piece, Rob. Fantastic work.

 

Yves

[gsdpic]

Looks great, like you are overcoming all the challenges well.  That rear suspension does look like a delicate and fiddly piece.

[DocRob]

6 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Another museum quality piece, Rob. Fantastic work.

Thank you Yves, but the result wouldn´t be sufficient for further macro photos. The Lotus was supposed to be a fun build, but was more of a nuisance then. I hope fot the best with the fragile rear wing construction, but could imagine some more probs on the horizon.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, gsdpic said:

Looks great, like you are overcoming all the challenges well.  That rear suspension does look like a delicate and fiddly piece.

Thank you Gary, it´s good to see the checkered flag near by with the Lotus. There will be an extensive touch up session before I call it finished. The sprayed chrome is very sensitive to the touch, luckily a chrome pen works relatively well. With the delicate construction, I omitted further wiring and piping. That will have to wait for a Tamiya Lotus 79 in 1/20 scale.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I got the Lotus 49c over the finish line. Final assemblies were the rear wing, the tiny metal nets over the air intakes, the steering wheel and clear parts around the cockpit and many small parts. The wing was easier mounted then thought, luckily. The rods were fragile and I can understand, why wings were banned sometimes in F1 due to the risk of flying around and hurting somebody.
I hope, I did Jochen Rindt´s 1970 Monaco winner some justice. The build was not always pleasant, but I like the result despite some shortcomings.

Cheers Rob

[Canute]

Nicely done, Rob. 👍

 

The driver's "office" was so much simpler back then.

[GrandpaPhil]

Very nicely done!

[king derelict]

A beautiful model Rob. It looks excellent in spite of the frustrations during some of the builds. Very nostalgic for me, I loved the cars of that period.

As always, the stunning photography complements the beautiful model Rob.

Alan