The Legend - Lotus 72D - Tamiya 1/12

[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

[Martinnfb]

JPS livery is an absolute must for this beauty. Will follow with interest.

Cheers

Martin

[BlrwestSiR]

The classic black and gold paint scheme. Absolutely iconic. 

[DocRob]

On 11/14/2025 at 1:30 AM, Martinnfb said:

JPS livery is an absolute must for this beauty. Will follow with interest.

 

7 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

The classic black and gold paint scheme. Absolutely iconic. 

Good to have you with me, Martin and Carl. I´m preparing the body for painting and decaling right now. It needs a bit of extra love, because of the age of the molds.

Cheers Rob

[PanzerWomble]

Love the scheme …. Used to smoke the cigs 😪 and have repainted so many bikes in black with gold wheels itbecame a micktake meme among my mates… . who says 200kmh cigarette adverts were bad for children 😀

 

i admire you taking such such an old kit, but reckon you will nail it as usual ! 
 

 

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, PanzerWomble said:

Love the scheme …. Used to smoke the cigs 😪 and have repainted so many bikes in black with gold wheels itbecame a micktake meme among my mates… . who says 200kmh cigarette adverts were bad for children 😀

 

i admire you taking such such an old kit, but reckon you will nail it as usual ! 

Thanks for your confidence, PW. The kit isn´t too bad until now, not up to todays standards, but decent. It´s my first JPS livery, but I have some more Lotus in my stash.
Until I stopped smoking two decades ago, it was Players Navy Cut or Senior Service, sometimes Lucky Strike, but there are no F1 liveries except for the latter. 

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

In high school I had a summer job working for Players as a stock boy. They paid really well for what it was but the biggest perk was the discount on the cigarettes. I think they were $20 a carton which was I think less than half price. I should have stocked up on them and sold them to my classmates as I didn't smoke myself. 

[Landlubber Mike]

Fantastic subject Rob, nice!

I picked up the older JPS kit a while back.  The seller had included a lot of the same AM you have, with the exception of EJan parts for the DFV distributor, etc. instead of the MFH kit.  They look pretty similar.  In researching the kit, I heard people had some problems with the nose which doesn't seem to ever fit correctly.  Maybe they fixed it on your version.

Do you know what you are going to use for the black paint?  I saw that Zero does a Lotus Black, but saw that Plasmo on Youtube just used Mr Color GX2.  

Looking forward to your work on it!

[Count0]

Nice. JPS was never my favorite. I certainly don't envy you all those pinstripes. That's going to be a sober, steady hand day job.

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Fantastic subject Rob, nice!

I picked up the older JPS kit a while back.  The seller had included a lot of the same AM you have, with the exception of EJan parts for the DFV distributor, etc. instead of the MFH kit.  They look pretty similar.  In researching the kit, I heard people had some problems with the nose which doesn't seem to ever fit correctly.  Maybe they fixed it on your version.

Do you know what you are going to use for the black paint?  I saw that Zero does a Lotus Black, but saw that Plasmo on Youtube just used Mr Color GX2.  

Looking forward to your work on it!

Thanks Mike, I hope the best for the nose section. The body parts fit so far with the nose, but I have to see, how it works with the innards.
I will use Tamiya LP1 as gloss black. Actually I started with it, but have some tiny runners on the body and have to wait until it´s completely cured, before I sand again.
Companies like Zero or Number Five sell different Lotus blacks for different types, weird.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

In fact, the Lotus 72D was so famous, that it got it´s own song. A Samba piece by Zé Roberto.
 

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

[KevinM]

Looking good Rob I think I saw one of these built at the last meet in June it was a stunner to the eye black/gold it was.I have resorted to using Tamyia acrylics for my base on NMF depending on the result wanted Semi/Gloss  maybe imagination or not seems harder when dry?

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, KevinM said:

Looking good Rob I think I saw one of these built at the last meet in June it was a stunner to the eye black/gold it was.I have resorted to using Tamyia acrylics for my base on NMF depending on the result wanted Semi/Gloss  maybe imagination or not seems harder when dry?

Thank you Kevin, my go to base for metallics is Tamiya LP-1 which also dries very hard. The only problems, I sometimes have are tiny color runs, because my last coat is so highly thinned, to get a perfect shiny surface. It´s kind of a struggle to get it right, but a good shiny base reduces the needed polishing work in the end. Which some hard to reach areas for example on the wings, it´s worth the struggle.

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

Very nice finish on the gloss black there Rob.  Not the easiest thing to do. 

As for Ammo being Alclad, I know their primer is made by them so it wouldn't surprise me if their metallics were too.

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Very nice finish on the gloss black there Rob.  Not the easiest thing to do. 

As for Ammo being Alclad, I know their primer is made by them so it wouldn't surprise me if their metallics were too.

Thanks Carl, the Tamiya LP-1 is always good for a deep shiny finish, without orange peel effect, when thinned properly. I think it´s best, to prepare as good as possible for the best finish. Sanding and polishing in the end on the clear is difficult in places.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

After the three jars of Tamiya LP-1 have cured, I started with the decaling. The TBDecals are very good to work with, the carrier film is very thin and they can be slipped off the backing paper within seconds. Some of the stripes folded over, but none teared. I used only warm water with a drop of detergent for decaling, luckily there are not many curves to contour the decals around. The multi piece pinstripes on the body and nose were applied quite rapidly in one go, to get them aligned perfectly and symmetrical. I hope the decals are not too sensitive concerning a later clear coat to seal everything in.





Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

That looks fantastic. 

[Martinnfb]

Splendid!

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

That looks fantastic.

 

23 minutes ago, Martinnfb said:

Splendid!

Muchas gracias amigos, I hope the rest of this very old kit holds up to the bodyworks, but I wanted to do this first, as it is the dealbreaker.

Cheers Rob

[Count0]

Looks good. 👍