Caterham Super Seven JPE (Tamiya 1/12)

[The Creative Explorer]

Everybody has those kits in their stash 'for later on, when I can do justice to that kit'. I have a couple of them and kept saving them for later. But very recently I lost a modelling friend to that awful 'C'-disease, he basically kept modelling till the last and he could enjoy it a little bit. But passing around 50 isn't what we all want or expect.
But it does make you realise how unexpected life can be and how vulnerable it is.

So, I decided to put projects aside and grab one of the kits that I've been saving for later, since later could already be now. It is in my opinion one of the best kits ever made and the guys at Tamiya went crazy on it. It has a full alluminium body and lots and lots of details. Even straight out of the box, it will make a very handsome model.

 

My plans are to stick close to the manual, the car in itself is almost as good as it gets and so does the kit. But there is also room for improvement and detailling, which I will be doing. Albeit, I won't go crazy on it; it has to be a fun build as well.

 

I am taking small steps and where I usually sand every part of the kit, I take this in sections, to give more attention to detail and make it less to be a assembly-line feel to it.
Here I am taking on the frame, most of the ejector pin marks will be hidden after assembly, but some will be visible and some might, and therefore have to be gone.

 

I initially planned to make a new driveshaft, but after cleaning it up, I think it will look pretty good with just some details.

 

The fueltank was awful though, it needed a lot of sanding and filler

 

I painted the frame in a gun-metal color, I think it will look nice when it comes together.

http://www.firerods.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jpe005.jpg/

 

Hard to see, but I clearcoated it also.

 

The front coilovers where sprayed in chromesilver, then I masked them and painted the screws/rings with molotow chrome markers, When it is fully cured, I will ad a color to make it look anodised.

 

http://www.firerods.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jpe008.jpg/

 

The first parts installed! This is the steering box (duh)

 

And the rear spring holders

 

Together with some more aluminium detail:

 

 

 

 

This is the result so far, even though with so few parts, it is already starting to look like something.

 

Very early in the assembly process, some of the body panels have to be assembled. They are factory painted and look pretty good, it might lack a little in luster, but it can be used straight out of the box.
But... So much neon yellow hurts my eye, so I have to respray the body panels, but I want it still to be a JPE, therefore I will keep a couple of those neon yellow details.

 

The steps that are being made, are small and timeconsuming, but I guess also part of the fun. Normally, I would've had the body in the paintbooth by now and started painting, but I am taking some extra steps and being a bit more cautious I guess.

 

Because I also don't like the 5 spoke wheels that comes with the JPE, I designed and printed a Watanabe-like wheel, rather than a Minilite. I am not completely satisfied with the design, so I have to make some adjustments and print a master for casting. The wheel will be a 2-piece; easier for printing/casting, but also for painting.

 

But most of the time went to prepping the body parts, even though the Tamiya paintjob is not bad at all, there are some mishaps to be dealing with, like seam lines on the plastic parts.

 

And some paint boo-boo's on some other parts

 

 

 

 

 

Today I started working on finalising the prepwork and started to laydown the masking for the paint-design, I also noticed another little plastic defect that I took care off

 

And this will be the final design for the paintjob, I had different idea's yesterday, but came up with this tonight and I like it. Hopefully I will be able to start laying down some paint tomorrow.

 

I managed to lay down the BRG and it went on pretty nice. I took the Bentley Speed 8 Le Mans BRG, since I love that hue. It is my favourite BRG.

 

And the best part is to unwrap all that masking tape, to see how it turned out and I love it! It looks even better than I hoped for and I am glad I made the last minute decission not to make the front part of the nosecone yellow, but just striped it.

 

 

Something that has been bothering me are the coilovers, they don't look good. In the back are the stock parts and in the front are the stock parts painted and partly chromed.
Even though it doesn't even look too terrible, I don't like it, since it is a very visible piece. I have been on this for over a week and tried several ways to make something nice of it, but it was failure after failure.

 

 

But I am on to something now, I will be using different materials to get to my endgoal. I printed a few spring nuts and I ordered some aluminium rods, that I will die cut? with a very fine thread. The Die Cut has been ordered and may take a little while until it gets here, since it is a special order.

 

 

But I made a prototype with a regular bolt and normal thread tapped into the nut. I did it rough and quick, hence it is crooked. But the concept worked and if everything works out a little bit, I will have a working coilover on the Caterham.

 

Having not much time laying around, progress is slow. I did order tools and material to work on the coilovers and I worked on sanding some parts.

I also managed to work on the discbrakes, they are detailled, but they lack the proper finish. Personally, I don't like the PE sets that much, as they do not reflect discbrakes enough (to me). I had an idea for a while and tried that, and it worked like a charm, really. I think it captures the look of a discbrake perfectly.

 

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

You're so right, go for it. Life's too short! 

 

Looking good so far, love the colour. 

[harveyb258]

Keep up the good work!! I will be watching this one.

 

Cheers, H

[Anthony Kesterton]

Fantastic work!  Very interesting techniques

[Matt Crane]

CE, firstly I want to thank you for your inspiring proloque. I have more or less similar kind of situation, couple of Tamiya Caterhams and Antares detail set, some F1 kits by Tamiya, MFH and even Scale Motorsport 935 detail kit and of course the Tamiya kit to go with it.

 

Secondly, I find your approach to JPE kit interesting and I like what I’ve seen so far. I’ll be watching this one for sure.

[tweeky]

Caterham Chassis is powder coated black.

[The Creative Explorer]

Thank you guys for the support and reactions.

 

This week I got another confirmation about the our limited time. A close (modelling)-friend passed away suddenly, when his heart decided to stop, being 47 years old. I spoke to him just a couple of days ago and now we have to get ready for a memorial service for him on wednesday. It is just so freaking fragile. So this week I barely worked on any models and decided to spend some good time with my young kids (3 & 7). I've been working overtime since January, working 50+ ours a week and don't get to spend much time with them.

Upcoming week will be a weird week, but after that I hope to start working on the Caterham again.

 

My coilovers are not working out the way I want, so I thought of a new way of making them on the Lathe. Instead of making them individually, I will make then in a row and hope it will work out better that way.

And next to the coilovers, I need to work on the paintwork in order to continue, everything has to be clearcoated.  And has to be perfect. The weather is very good for that, so I hope to work on it and finish it before I head for Czech on vacation.

[ElectricLightAndy]

Fantastic start, even if the catalyst was an unfortunate one, I have never seen this kit before, looks very interesting 😀

 

Andy.