Big Yellow Distraction from my B-24

[BlrwestSiR]

Ok, the ADHD is strong with this one. That and I can't find one of the prop blades for the B-24. I need to stop putting parts away for safe keeping. 

So let's see how I do on this one. 

Inside the box:

The body panels are stamped aluminum.  In the regular kit, they're left NMF but for this release they're painted in a blinding yellow.

One piece main chassis. It's ABS so fairly resilient.

[HubertB]

I thought you were going for a lemon or a banana 😂 !

Hubert

[belugawhaleman]

A lemon, or banana, or my AMX-13. Very nice, and pre-painted! Cool

[GusMac]

Ah, the mid-life crisis killer! Heard too many stories of people (actually us males) of a certain age with too much disposable cash buying these then wrapping them round trees are the road holding and power aren't quite in sync.

Looks like a great kit Carl, looking forward to seeing how it builds up.

[BlrwestSiR]

2 hours ago, GusMac said:

Ah, the mid-life crisis killer! Heard too many stories of people (actually us males) of a certain age with too much disposable cash buying these then wrapping them round trees are the road holding and power aren't quite in sync.

Looks like a great kit Carl, looking forward to seeing how it builds up.

Being one of Colin Chapman's most successful designs, it doesn't have much excess to it. Except for maybe power.

 

[mark31]

Looki g forward to see this build

 

Mark

[DocRob]

Nice to see this one started Carl, I won't buckle in, too confined space for my liking, but will be a spector all the way. If I only could lay my hand one one of the regular boxings.

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

21 hours ago, GusMac said:

Ah, the mid-life crisis killer! Heard too many stories of people (actually us males) of a certain age with too much disposable cash buying these then wrapping them round trees are the road holding and power aren't quite in sync.

Looks like a great kit Carl, looking forward to seeing how it builds up.

As we lose brain cells after 30, maybe it’s more an issue of the driver misjudging that his money bought him extra piloting talents at mid-life ? These Sevens have actually amazing road-handling qualities. 
Whilst definitely heavier, my Cayman GTS is also amazing. But, frankly, I am not sure I’d ever be able to push it to its limits without overreaching my driving talent

Back to the kit. That one piece ABS chassis is a remarkable piece of engineering and molding.

Hubert

[Kaireckstadt]

Copy Mark! Have never seen this before.

[GusMac]

2 hours ago, HubertB said:

As we lose brain cells after 30, maybe it’s more an issue of the driver misjudging that his money bought him extra piloting talents at mid-life ? These Sevens have actually amazing road-handling qualities. 
Whilst definitely heavier, my Cayman GTS is also amazing. But, frankly, I am not sure I’d ever be able to push it to its limits without overreaching my driving talent

Back to the kit. That one piece ABS chassis is a remarkable piece of engineering and molding.

Hubert

Very true Hubert. Hard to find anyone who thinks they're a bad driver. 😁

[Peterpools]

Carl

WOW, going to be a fantastic build top follow and enjoy. I'll be with you all the way and enjoying every update and photograph.

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Something a bit different for one of Tamiya's plastic kits versus their RC ones. 

Tamiya package their screws and other hardware into small bags. They then label the bag A, B, C and so on. 

On the back of the label, they provide a 1:1 scale drawing of each and every type of screw in the bag along with the total quantity.

Any mix-ups during assembly therefore are on the modeler. 

Speaking of assembly, I go the steering rack together. Upper and lower rack, pinon and moveable arms at the end. There's rubber boots to go on too once it's all cleaned up and painted. 

Lastly our older cat Fur, had ensconced herself in the box. Makes it a bit hard to take sprues out without upsetting her. 

[BlrwestSiR]

I assembled the shocks/dampers. I painted the bodies silver along with the brake rotors.

I used Hasegawa's mirror finish self adhesive film on the shock shaft.

Then the shocks were assembled with the pre-coloured springs. 

The transmission was next, a simple assembly. 

Lastly I removed the excess sprue bits from the chassis and cleaned up the seams. 

 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Not much gluing in the next few steps but some decent progress though. 

The rear upper shock mounts were screwed into place. 

These were followed by the rear bulkheads. 

Floorboards were up next. 

I then added the steering rack. 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Terrific start and progress of the Lotus - going to be a fun project to follow and be inspired by as well.

I've heard about Hasegawa's mirror finish self-adhesive film and have been wanting to give it a try on oleo shocks rather then going through the full Alclad Chrome process. Will be ordering some and testing it out. Thanks for the tip and pointing it out.

 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Here's the pre-finished body panels. 

They go on with a couple screws so no fears of glue smears. 

Next up is the front suspension brackets.

Then the first arms themselves. These are cast metal and are pre-painted as well.

Upper and lower arms in place. 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

1 minute ago, Peterpools said:

Carl

Terrific start and progress of the Lotus - going to be a fun project to follow and be inspired by as well.

I've heard about Hasegawa's mirror finish self-adhesive film and have been wanting to give it a try on oleo shocks rather then going through the full Alclad Chrome process. Will be ordering some and testing it out. Thanks for the tip and pointing it out.

 

 

Peter, the stuff works really well. It's very durable, has some stretch to it and is very thin. Nothing like Bare Metal Foil.  Just measure and cut to size. It's the same material I used on the fender but that had a carbon print to it. 

[Peterpools]

Carl

I'm starting to look into all of the types of Hasegawa foils as they seem to have so many applications, as I just think about it. You're flying through the Lotus and it's an awesome and inspiring build for sure.

 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Peter, I've got a few of them. They do a flat white one which I think would be perfect for the tape that you see on the front cowls of so many F4U Corsairs. There's a textured one for walkways or other coarse surfaces etc.

 

[Kaireckstadt]

Awesome and fast build Carl! You really compete with John…😉

[Peterpools]

Carl

Thanks for the info and I'm checking it out as we speak

 

[BlrwestSiR]

55 minutes ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Awesome and fast build Carl! You really compete with John…😉

Thanks Kai! To be honest, it's the kit that's making this look so easy. Mostly it's just seam cleanup and then screw some parts together. The engine is where the more typical assembly starts. 

[BlrwestSiR]

With the front suspension done, it was time to head out back. 

The Caterham has a de Dion rear suspension which is semi-independent. The diff is mounted to the chassis and the hubs are linked by a beam but free to move independently of each other. 

Here's the diff and driveshaft all painted up. 

And then mounted to the chassis.

Next up is the gas tank. This wraps around the diff a bit so needs to go in after the diff. 

Next up are the axle stubs. One pair goes into the diff, then you attach a rubber boot to them, the driveshaft and finally the rear hub. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Here's the de Dion tube that links the two hubs together. In the kit, it's diecast and pre-painted. The end plates need to be done in silver. I botched that up. 

So I stripped the end plates back to bare metal and polished them. At the same time, I decided to fill in the ejector pin marks in the tube. 

The end plates got masked off and I sprayed the tube in semi-gloss black.

All done and unmasked. 

Edited July 11, 2022 by BlrwestSiR
Fix typo

[BlrwestSiR]

The shocks, and links were then added to the tube. 

The rear anti-roll bar was fitted to the subframe. 

That was then bolted in place along with the rear undertray and the rear suspension was done.