monsjmse

I'd like to throw my hat in the ring please. Just managed to get hold of a Heller-Humbrol 1:72 Spitfire XVIE off ebay (alas it didn't arrive in anything as interesting as a Tunnocks Teacakes box). It was the first model I ever made back in the mid-80s, so should bring back a few memories of tubes of polystyrene cement and spilt enamel paint.

So I didn't quite make it, though I've put some pics in the gallery anyway. The bodywork looks a bit grubby as the decal solutions still need cleaning off. I needed a clear run to the finish, but encountered a fitting issue with the engine cowling which meant I could not line-up the last few decals. I fear it could be due to the way the engine is attached to the monocoque as it did not fit the way it should according to the plans. I reckon the engine/gearbox is slightly further back than it should be - I'm talking maybe 1 mm at the most, but it is not a quick fix. No need to apologise Paul - it's good discussion that makes these forums what they are. I can offer my experience from this GB. I think that if I had done just one, it would have been completed by the deadline. But now I'm left with one ~75% and one ~90% complete, so overall it has increased my output. It was easy to get disheartened when having to do fairly dull, tricky or laborious things multiple times. With the tyre decals, for instance there were in total 16 to apply for 2 cars. For most of the parts and sub-assemblies, there was one set I thought I'd done a better job on than the other, but the difference in this build was small and probably only visible if you're me and know where to look! There weren't any parts I completely messed up and so I haven't ended up with one looking significantly better than the other. I can see how this could be a problem though if there are several challenging elements in the assembly which could lead to one becoming a test piece and the other being superior as practice makes perfect! It was tempting to leave one behind at times and accelerate one to get it finished. In the end I did just that, but too late. Got to make sure that these don't end up on the shelf without being completed. Maybe if I set a new deadline of Christmas, I'll get them done! Cheers, Mark.

1978 Lotus Type 79 - Ford DFV Some final fit issues on the engine cowl mean I just can't get this one over the line. I don't have time to fix it and get the last decals on. Shame not to post something in the gallery after all that effort, so you will just have to look at her mostly naked . Congrats to everyone on some great models. Thanks Dave for hosting - you've been a great encouragement.

Fantastic build and finish. In need of a damn good wash - just as I like my model aircraft! You can't beat going to town with beating them up. Nice one.

Thanks. They do usually come together fairly quickly towards the end as you say because of the sub assemblies. I've been trying to crack on rather than spend time giving updates, but thought I'd let you know what was happening as we get close to the finish line. I am struggling a bit to get completely done by Saturday, but I reckon I should be able to get one mostly completed - good enough for a few gallery pictures, but probably with a few bits of touching up to do at a later date. When I say 'get one completed', I have a confession to make. I've been making two 79s - I'm doing an Andretti version and a Peterson version. The reason is this: While pondering my appalling modelling output earlier in the year, I decided to try doubling up on future builds. I spend a lot of my time prevaricating on the best way to fit parts together, or the order to paint different bits, or indeed painting said bits. So doing the same thing twice, doesn't take me twice the time if you see what I'm saying. Also, I can never decide which version to build, especially with aircraft, so doubling up also made sense to mitigate my indecisiveness. Though with F1 cars, of course, there is very little difference between the sister cars within the same team. The verdict? It has definitely been quicker. My output is ~2-3 models per year, so nearly getting 2 to completion in less than 4 months is a (quite literally) rapid improvement . I have made progress on the bodywork, which on the Lotus 79 is considerable! Will try to post some pics later in the week. All I can say is, when I close my eyes, all I can see is those damn pinstripe decals. They are a bitch and a half .

Beautiful model. The finish looks perfect. Were the cables to the front brakes in the kit, or were these an add-on?

Just a quick update to keep this ticking over as there is less than 3 weeks to go now . Added what will just about be the last bit of PE to the radiator and oil cooler (spot the difference - they look almost the same). Adding all the parts in and around the gearbox has been a bit delicate, but managed most of it without too much damage to the paintwork. Still a couple of bits to go on including some heat shielding around the exhaust outlets which is a PE part. It needs to wrap around the oil tank, but is stubbornly refusing to comply as I don't have a tool to achieve the required curve radius. I have a cunning plan though to replace the PE with something a bit more pliable. Exhausts are prepped and painted up using MRP's graphite - lovely dark grey metallic effect with this paint. The sculpted floor is finished matt black and stuck to the monocoque. The next bits should come together quite quickly, then I can concentrate on the main body work. Not looking forward to the pinstripe decals...

Good to see something completely different. I had one of these once upon a modelling time. Think it was the 1988 boxing - one of my childhood efforts that was always destined for the bin. I always thought it strange that the scale was OO, yet all my Airfix aircraft models at the time were 1:72. Close enough I suppose!

Maybe it was in their spare parts box . Seems a tad strange to me that they would put an over-sized warning light on an otherwise sparse dash. I've done some work on the gearbox over the last couple of weeks. Interesting inboard placement of the rear brakes, which caused the 79 brake fade issues due to overheating. Pictures of the car in the 1979 season show the brakes moved outboard. The black cylinder is the oil tank. I've also been preparing the main bodywork, including the sculpted base that the monocoque and nose will sit on. The inside of the side pods had some more nice ejector pin marks to get rid of. I have a new weapon in the fight against pin marks - Mr Dissolved Putty. I have to say I'm impressed after one use. It performed better than Mr Surfacer IMO. The underside of this part is sculpted like an inverted aircraft wing for the ground effect. These innovations were kept well hidden from the opposition by Lotus when the car first appeared in 1978. There will be some of this part visible when the engine covers are off, but as you can see from this picture, the innards were certainly no oil painting. The side pods, rear of the engine cover and rear wing all fit together to form one piece. The rear wing end plates are PE parts. I messed up a little and got some glue on the surface of one of the side pods, but the whole assembly needs some more work anyway, because those gaps will need to go.... ...as can be seen in this picture of the real thing, the side pods are nice and smooth all the way back to the openings for the radiators.

Nice to see this one finished. Great job .

And another couple of weeks go by. I've been getting all the cockpit bits ready - seat, belts, dash etc. and then adding them on. That large orange thing in the cockpit is an oil pressure warning light. Why they had to make it so enormous, I'm not sure. So here is the current state of play. Just a few more pieces to add to this now before moving back to the gearbox. Those pieces (steering wheel, gear stick, top of the safety belts, fuel feed system and the rest of the bulkhead) are all painted and ready to stick. Getting there slowly but surely . About 6 week left right?!

Indeed. Fast but fragile. Been a bit slow of late. Managed to get the front wishbones, suspension and brakes etc fixed on this weekend. I also started sticking the gearbox together, but have returned that back to the box for now. Monocoque and cockpit up next. Just noticed that there is a 1:12 MFH version of the 79. Take a look at these : http://www.modelfactoryhiro.com/new/en/archives/1663 Maybe one day I'll get one! Actually these pictures are extremely good references for adding some extra detail should I have any spare time to add some extra wires and tubing.

Well Mr. Chapman certainly liked a good marketing opportunity, so I'm sure he would have approved . Clear coats and I don't really get on very well. I am used to spraying paint quite small and so I don't think I slap it on thick enough. Haven't decided yet what I'm going to put over the fabled Lotus Black, so I'm open to suggestions. Never used clear lacquer. Do you recommend any particular type or brand? No stunning breakthrough progress to report, but I've been chipping away at some of the detail parts. There is some nice PE for the pedals which I finished with a bit of light dust pigment - shame they won't be seen. The front brake assemblies call for some hairy stick action to add the metallic bits. I'm currently trying P3 Formula for brush painted metallics. Quite pleased with it, though no doubt I will try something else soon. More bits being painted. Brake ducts on. And what I presume is an extinguisher, for which I had to mix some 'titanium gold' using Alclad Pale Gold and Aluminium. Looks good enough. There is more PE on the brake discs which adds a bit of detail. Dry fitting of the bulkhead, which doesn't look too fetching at the moment in it its grey primer - it will be silver eventually. I'm getting ahead of myself - there's the front suspension, steering arm and front wishbones to go in first.

Great Anson - really nicely done. Hope Airfix consider re-tooling this one sometime.

I still have said X-wing with battle damage stickers - which I was allowed to put on.. My folks finally made me clear a load of stuff from their place earlier in the year and this was one of the items I rescued. Looking a bit worse for wear now.

Second vote for kit part and I haven't touched a drop yet - too early. Going to look great when finished - especially on that base. Is the 'sea' a photo, or is it 3D?

Time for a bit of an update. Some of the main front piece towards the nose will be visible on the completed car, so this needs to be black. The rest will end up either in the cockpit, or covered with the side pods and whatnot. There are also a couple of photo-etch parts that sit just above the lower front arms. I presume these also need to be black, but it doesn't say in the instructions. I -maybe- foolishly bought some 'Lotus Black' Zero paint for this build. I've been meaning to try out Zero Paints for a while and got a couple of other colours at the same time to make it worthwhile with the shipping cost. I'm sure my standard MRP black would have done here, but what the hell. This is colour-matched Lotus Black . So the Lotus Black went over the primer and then some masking was called for to spray the silver areas. One intensely irritating thing is that after spraying on the black layer, the sink marks, which had disappeared under the primer, re-appeared. Not to their former pronounced extent, but certainly visible. Everything had plenty of drying time between layers, but I can only put this down to something in the Zero paint causing some shrinkage of the Mr Surfacer, even after it had dried. I could not be bothered to fix them again. I'm now painting up and sticking in all the parts that go inside. Hopefully I'll be able to get this finished over the weekend so I can move onto the monocoque and cockpit. Have a great modelling weekend! Mark.

Holy moly . Hope you have a large brush you can deploy!

You're so right Dave. I think I will always be experimenting with some kind of paint and especially metallics. I had gone off Alclads and had them stored away, but using them again for some of the engine parts I think I'm back on them . I am surprised that Tamiya still use that 'A' sprue for the Ford DFV as it sticks out like a sore thumb in terms of part quality in the kit. Like H's DFV on the Tyrrell, I'm not convinced it is totally straight, which may cause a problem later on... It's together now anyway and just about finished. There is a decal I need to add and I may put some fuel lines on later. Moving on now and back to beginning (in terms of the instructions) with the front end and the monocoque. There are some irritating ejection pin marks in areas that will be semi-visible once the bulkheads are in place. Mr Surfacer 500 is my weapon of choice for these, but the sanding is a pain in the butt in these tight areas. After much cursing I managed to get something I was happy with. One of the photo etch pieces is just a disc to cover that great hole in the centre just behind where the pedals will go. A coat of primer later and thankfully they are not visible. The other pin marks will be covered by other parts.

Just catching up on this. Great progress! Keep going at this rate, you'll be able to get another and build the #4 Tyrrell as well. As usual I feel the need to hurry up a bit. Don't think I could ever manage a Blitzbuild!

Bit of an update from some 'work' over the weekend. I have indeed decided to start with the motor. It is the ubiquitous Ford DFV and I was amused to find that the mold for the A parts where the majority of engine parts reside is a year older than machine the model depicts. It is a fairly nasty, soft, silver-grey plastic with plenty of lines and flash to clean. Not all of these parts are needed thankfully and they are supplemented with some newer looking black plastic from the other frames which are from 2010 molds. Some clean-up and sanding time later... and ready to start sticking. These parts don't go together quite as well as we have now come to expect from Tamiya, but I ended up with something resembling an engine block. These are now in paint - a combination of MRP and Alclad as I'm still experimenting with metallics. It looks better upside down at the moment. I'm going to use some dark panel liner to give it more depth. More soon!

Thank you all. Just hope I do this great car justice. I'll look out for those pinstripe decals - they do look as though they could be quite challenging. No real progress yet of note - just cutting a few parts out and doing a bit of cleaning. Haven't decided where to start with the sticking, but may follow Hockeyboy's example and go straight for the Ford power plant.

Nice Murrayism! The engine's always a nice place to start on F1 kits I find. Feels as though you've actually achieved something fairly early on when it's built up.

Underway at last! This has been staring down at me from the shelf for several months now and I've opened the box several times for a peek but resisted starting it. The Lotus Type 79, powered by a 3 litre Ford Cosworth DFV V8, was introduced at the Belgian GP part-way through the 1978 season and was the dominant car that year. The car employed ground effect aerodynamics with a shaped underside to greatly enhance downforce, improving on a concept introduced on the Type 78. Mario Andretti, who had won the opening round in Argentina in a Type 78, drove the Type 79 to victory in its first outing and went on to win a further 4 races to take the title. His team-mate Ronnie Peterson ended the season as a posthumous runner-up, having tragically died following a crash at the start of the Italian GP. I'll be building the 1:20 Tamiya kit, which I'm hoping will fall together as nicely as the other Tamiya F1 models I built back in the day. I also have the Tamiya PE set and a set of decals from Decalpool that includes the John Player Special logos not included in the Tamiya kit. and for the record, here are all the parts... Looking forward to a great Group Build and seeing everyone's models come together! Mark.

A great return! Very nice McLaren . What safety belts did you use in the cockpit? Were they in the kit or aftermarket? Mark.