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Tamiya's 12th Scale JPS Lotus Mk.III


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Hi Guys and Gals

 

About 2 years ago I purchased this kit from roymattblack on here. Part of the deal was that I do a build thread and so, without further ado, here we go...

 

Box.jpg

 

Box has seen better days, but that's of no concern as the kit is to be built. Roy's great packaging enabled it to survive the (not so) tender ministrations of the Royal Mail.

 

Sprue Shots:-

 

Chassis_Sprues1.jpg

Chassis_Sprues2.jpg

Chassis_Sprues3.jpg

Body_Sprues.jpg

 

The instruction booklet and decals. The original Tamiya coachlining decals had suffered badly over time and Roy kindly included the Modelworks replacement set

Rules_Decals.jpg

 

and finally, an additional bonus - the Modeler Site guide to building the JPS (and also the Trumpy GT40 - which I may get one day...)

 

Bonus.jpg

 

This will be a slow progress job as I've decided to take some time over it and intersperse it with other models that I'm currently working on. I plan to do at least one update a week, maybe more if the boss lets me relax for a while.

 

Thanks again to Roy for the kit - I've been hankering after this one for a few years.

 

Kev

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Thanks Spooky - I've built this kit twice before (80s and 90s) but love the Tamiya 'biggies' so much that I longed to re-visit it. Yardley McLaren is a lovely kit too. Once this one is finished I may go looking for the big Elf Tyrell :D

 

Thanks Injidup - I'll be doing a comparative review of the MS guide against the kit instructions as I go. I already know that there are some parts of the guide that are handy and others that I shall ignore - all shall be documented. And yes, I'll be using the Modelworks JPS livery in full - I may use some of the smaller Tamiya sheet shown, particularly if I decide to add a helmet to the finished display.

 

Thanks riggy - hope you enjoy the ride-along ;) I'll do my best to describe any modifications/additions as I go.

 

Cheers

 

Kev

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I guess I'm going to follow along as well. Nice and interesting subject. If you built this twice already you'll be aware of its pitfalls, possibly making it an even more interesting build. 

 

A little walkaround that might be useful: 

 

 

 

And a win for Mario Andretti in the 1977 Spanish Grand Prix:

 

 

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Roy - thanks for the walkaround link, it will prove most useful. "pitfalls" - on a Tamiya kit - nahh, you gotta be kidding me, surely???? ;)

 

Between my memory, the research and the MS guide I'm hoping to make this one look as good as possible. Some missing details to be scratched (or possibly 3D printed, as that's my latest little toy) and a few 'fit' issues to overcome are about all I can recall - I'm sure I'll find more to do as I go :D

 

Cheers

 

Kev

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Thanks Hugh - those pics are great and much appreciated.

 

Simon - I must have been lucky, cos the rear suspension I don't recall as being a problem (fiddly alright, but do-able). Found another build thread online where the guy replaced the springs to ease the process, though. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I guess.

 

Kev

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With a busy week now behind me, I managed to get into my shed today. Spent most of the day there, but with very little to show for it. Some of that is due to me poring over the Modeler Site guide/Tamiya Instructions/Kit Parts trying to decide what to do during the build. The final decision is that I shall pretty much ignore the guide as the building method used by the author doesn't seem to make sense to me. Added to that, the poor translation of the text and some errors in the procedures/descriptions all made it hard for me to find it useful. At a price of around £10 (US$14 at present) I'd give it a miss. I shall do a more carefully thought out review of it and expand on my decision, once I've digested and written up the review.

 

Today's work was really just preliminary (and slowly bringing myself back up to speed after a long winter break). Fill and sand ejector pin marks, test fit chassis parts and adjust for a good fit.

 

Despite being a Tamiya kit, the mold quality is appropriate for its age, meaning that it's not as 'shake and bake' as modern products from Big T.

 

I started with filling pin marks on the main chassis and some parts that fit to it. Much easier using Vallejo's Plastic Putty than the Squadron Green stuff I used back in the nineties :-) Also sanded down some prominent positive pin marks that would be visible on the bulkheads.

 

Chassis1.jpg

 

Also made adjustments to the spacers that keep the chassis side walls separated.

 

Chassis1Closeup.jpg

 

As you can probably see from the above pic, I first cut the moulded end pin to a flat end and drilled it out with a 1.5mm drill in a pin vice. I then offered up the spacer to the sides and used Mk.I eyeball to decide how much to trim of the end. I then used CA to fit a length of 1.5mm plastic rod. The side panels now meet the chassis floor where they should with no overlaps at the edges.

 

For no particular reason, other than it had been bothering me, I then jumped to what I see as a majorly unpretty part of the kit representation - the meshes that cover the Air Intake Trumpets. I was fortunate enough to get a 'free sample' set of stainless steel meshes from a metals supplier (a client of my 'day job' employer). Among them was a suitable looking mesh - Mesh 100 with 0.15mm threads. In order to create the replacement mesh I used the kit part to give me an outline of the cover on a piece of 60 thou plastic card. Drawing a line 1mm inboard from the outline gave me an 8mm wide cutout to allow me to shape the mesh. I used a piece of 1/4inch (6.3mm) dowel with it's end rounded off as a 'pounce' to do the shaping. I didn't anneal the mesh as the fineness of it meant it was already very malleable.

 

IntakeGuard1.jpg

 

Placing my 'mold' over the open bench vice, I then proceeded to rub the mesh with the pounce to stretch it out the desired shape. The beauty of the dowel pounce is that it simply gets more rounded the harder you press. You do have to clean the dust out of the mesh, however. The end result was pleasing - one down, one to go.

 

IntakeGuard1Closeup.jpg

 

No real sense of urgency in this build, as the completed model is going to a housemate, so I'm just enjoying myself as I go. More to come tomorrow.

 

Cheers

 

Kev

 

 

 

 

 

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Great start Kev, I was waiting for this first posting. Love the mesh.

I've used a few of the Modeler Sites guides and agree some of the translation isn't great and they go off on a tangent you might not want to follow but I look at it as another guide and always pick up ideas and build issues throughout even when not following religiously and it gives you a great feeling when you pick up on a detail they have left off.

 

Regards

John

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Thanks John and Simon

 

Finished off the mount plate for the mesh today. Ended up designing a template to make the plate:

 

IntakeMeshTemplate.jpg

 

Now have a reasonably matched pair

IntakeMeshParts.jpg

 

The mount plate will be chromed with Alclad before fitting the meshes permanently. A closer look:

 

IntakeMeshCloseup.jpg

 

Decided today that I won't strip the chrome plating off the parts and re-do them. The recipient likes his bling and there's not that much chrome in the kit anyway.

 

That left me free to do these:

 

Wheels.jpg

 

Hubs were hand-painted with Alclad Pale Gold (no primer).

 

I think that my pace is getting even slower than my previously glacial pace? I've been modelling all day and this is all I have to show for it. Oh, that's if I forget about the primer coat I did on a resin 1/10th Samurai Bust and meal and coffee breaks. :-) Still enjoying this build immensely. I think I've found a painting order that should work so I may start in on the chassis and bodywork pre-paint fit testing and construction tomorrow.

 

Cheers for now, folks

 

Kev

 

 

 

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Glacial pace is what I seem to work at nowadays Kev.

Still it keeps me happy, and also helps to stop boo boo`s happening by getting carried away to.

 

Those air filters? look great BTW.

 

Simon.

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Update for this week. It's been another busy one for me, so not too much has been done.

 

Fitting together the body parts and sorting out (where possible) the few problems that one would expect from a kit of this vintage [even a Tamiya one]

 

BodyPartsDryFit1.jpg

 

A loose dry fit of the main body parts. I can't do anything about the side panels and covers until I've got the chassis constructed, which requires some painting first. so for now I'm 'fettling' the body panels for the nose cone:

 

NoseArea1.jpg

NoseConeUnderside.jpg

 

Not fixed the nose cone as a single assembly yet, as I haven't yet fitted the mesh inside the top part. I've decided to fit that prior to painting the entire nose cone and may simply coat the mesh after painting to get the right sheen to it.

 

The engine cover (my nasty fingerprints and the equally nasty joint seams shall be removed soon, I hope!)

 

EngineCover1.jpg

 

The cockpit cowling - an area that needs careful construction followed by filling and sanding.

CockpitCowling.jpg

CockpitArea1.jpg

 

And adding some detail to the cockpit interior

 

CockpitInterior2.jpg

CockpitInterior1.jpg

 

Again - a small bit of filling required, but not as much as I know some modellers have encountered with this area.

 

I do have one bad fit problem, and that's with the cockpit cowling mirror nacelles. The right hand side is fine, but the left hand side has an atrocious gap:

FitProblem1.jpg

 

After some head scratching and due consideration I have decided NOT to try and fix this. The gap is visible from a few angles, and should be less obvious when the entire chassis and body is built. So, I've decided to leave well alone. A fix would require some fairly intensive surgery of the cowling as I think the misalignment is mainly caused by the warping of both the main cowling part and the bottom part of the mirror nacelle. Just heating and attempting to 're-shape' it would then lead to problems with the locating pin that holds the cowling to the chassis. As I would like to leave the cowling as a removable item I think leaving a little gap presents a more acceptable solution.

 

Whilst there is still quite a bit to do on the chassis, I've actually decided to start on the main even of this kit -the Engine!

 

The block is now underway:

 

EngineBlock1.jpg

EngineBlock2.jpg

 

This will be followed by the gearbox and whatever sub-assemblies I can build prior to painting. My hope is to find time during the coming week to start getting paint onto this baby. Paints will be a mixture of Alclad (Acrylic Primer and Metallic Lacquers), AK Interactive (Metallic Acrylic), Lifecolor (Acrylics) and some Tamiya (Acrylics).

 

Thanks for waiting and watching

 

Kev

 

 

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I built this kit when it first came out decades ago.  Really nice detail going on here...have fun!

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  • 1 month later...

Kevin

 

A very nice start. I still have a version built in the 80's and still like looking at it. The design (not my build alas) of the car/model shows what great engineering can do. 

 

I hope you continue to enjoy the build and I'll follow it if that is ok.

 

Regards

Quentin

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  • 5 months later...

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