Lotus 72D by DocRob - Tamiya - 1/12 - Plastic/Metal - The Legend

[DocRob]

Hola amigos of the 70´s Formula 1 cars. For my next build, I chose the most iconic one of it´s time, the Lotus Type 72D, produced by Tamiya first in 1973. It´s an old kit, which will need a bit of attention. Tamiya re-released the kit a while ago, adding PE parts, seat belts and new decals.
The decals unfortunately don´t have the JPS branding included and therefore, I added a complete TBDecals sheet. Other extras will be MFH aluminum air funnels and distributor and maybe MFH seatbelts, if I don´t use the included driver figure of Emerson Fittipaldi. 



Here are the extras;



For a start, I test fitted the body section, to see, how the fit is and what will be my painting and decaling approach. There will be a lot of sanding and maybe filling to get rid off the seams. I started with the air intake and it took a lot of sanding, to erase the parting line.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Over the last days, I did a lot of sanding and test fitting, to prepare the body and wing parts for painting and decaling. I decided to add the front wings to the nose and built up the upper side of the body along the radiator housings for not having to glue these parts later after painting and decaling.
This way, I could ensure a proper fit and alignment of the parts, which will help later in the build.

I primed the parts with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black primer and then sprayed Tamiya LP-1 gloss black on, heavily thinned with leveling thinner. Unfortunately, I had some tiny color runs, which easily happens with paint, thinned so much. After drying, I sanded away the imperfections and today, I resprayed the black body color. Now it looks decal ready with a near perfect high gloss finish.

I also sprayed the cockpit with Ammo´s polished aluminum, which is shining fantastic, even better to the human eye, than on the picture. I read rumors, these Ammo metallic are the same as Alclad, but I don´t know for sure. Anyway, polished aluminum sprays perfectly in very fine layers over a base coat of Tamiya LP-1 gloss black.





Cheers Rob

[yvesvidal]

Fantastic. And thank you for detailing all the "secret" recipes for painting 🙂

 

Yves

[gsdpic]

Off to a great start.  That polished aluminum on the interior is looking especially good.   I used matte aluminum on mine.   The replacement JPS decals look good too....the gold color looks pretty accurate.  As I recall when I built mine, some of the third party decals looked more like yellow and not so much like gold.  Your upper cowl looks good too; mine had a bit of twist/warp to it.   Anyway, you are bringing back some memories.  I am looking forward to see what you do with the kit, I am sure your efforts will outshine mine.

 

[king derelict]

Beautiful finishes on the body and cockpit Rob. The aluminum looks excellent.

alan

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Fantastic. And thank you for detailing all the "secret" recipes for painting 🙂

De nada Yves, I´m still in the learning process with car body finishes, but have established something like a working process, depending the used type of color. With the Tamiya lacquer paint, I start with a mixing ratio of about 40% to 50% of added levelling thinner. I always test spray, to see, if the paint is leveling well. The second coat got more thinner added (about 60%). It levels beautifully, but is very thin and therefore prone to color runners.
It´s a bit of a struggle, but worth it in the end. I think, the better the preparation, the lesser is the sanding and polishing work in the end, which is hard to achieve in some "hidden" places, like on the wings corners.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, gsdpic said:

Off to a great start.  That polished aluminum on the interior is looking especially good.   I used matte aluminum on mine.   The replacement JPS decals look good too....the gold color looks pretty accurate.  As I recall when I built mine, some of the third party decals looked more like yellow and not so much like gold.  Your upper cowl looks good too; mine had a bit of twist/warp to it.   Anyway, you are bringing back some memories.  I am looking forward to see what you do with the kit, I am sure your efforts will outshine mine.

Thank you Gary, I remember your great build and am on a bit of a Lotus track myself right now. Photos I have seen suggest polished aluminum for the tub, maybe not as shiny as mine. Not much will be visible, if my plan, adding the driver figure works out.
The gold color of the TBDecals sheet look good and I hope they are equally good to work with. Unfortunately there is no placement guide included, which would have been very helpful.
I don´t know, how you approached the upper cowl. I took the sidewalls, taped them to the floor part temporarily and then glued in the two upper parts permanently. There is no warping at all.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

8 hours ago, king derelict said:

Beautiful finishes on the body and cockpit Rob. The aluminum looks excellent.

Thank you Alan, I have developed a hate/love relation with high shine metal surfaces in modeling. They are difficult to achieve and very fragile, but very rewarding, when properly done. 

Cheers Rob