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Lotus Esprit - quite big


Alan R

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This is another one that has been through the wars a bit.

This is when Bandai were making some very cool large scale cars and things (A Steam roller and a Showmans engine) all in 1/16th scale, long before they got into Gundam and the like.

Now, don't get me wrong, those Gundam and Star Wars model kits are really impressive, and I do see myself indulging an a Star Wars kit some time in my future, but giant robots are not my thing.

They look amazing when built, but they leave me a bit cool. My adult son, on the other hand, thinks that they are really great.

I suppose it's a bit like Rap music or Drum 'n' Base,: Technically really impressive, and I can appreciate te artistry, but I just don't like it.

Anyway, middle-aged moan over, on to this kit.

 

y4mT5Xo2l46GOJvWoiYV9iakVpn8JHCDrD56Svsx

 

The obligatory box top. This has to be one of Colin Chapman's prettier cars, not as beautiful as the original Elan, but pretty none-he-less.

 

Now this kit has had a chequered history. Early on, I decided that I wanted a dark blue Esprit, and sprayed it with Car aerosol paint. However, that stuff was very different from the modern acrylic based car paints. It was the old fashioned Cellulose paints.

There are two main problems that I have encountered

  1. The paint is very unkind to polystyrene. It will eat into the plastic and do some real damage.
  2. The cured paint is very brittle and doesn't flex as well as the underlying Polystyrene.

The first can be mitigated a bit by carefully priming the plastic with a Cellulose primer. It seems a bit less 'hot' than the colour coat.

Anyway, the inevitable happened and the paint started cracking and peeling off before I had even started assembling the body!

Tis left me a bit depressed, and I vowed never to use car paints again...

It ended up in the loft, to probably be ignored forever...

Many years (and house moves) later, I decided to give it another go. This probably was about 5 or 6 years ago.

I stripped the really disastrous blue paint on it, and decided I would paint it Red. The ideal Lotus colour... :)

 

So, at this point, we had:

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The body, stripped. (You can see a bit of the sub-frame to the left)

y4mMAFEpIj8Sd-TRlUBqeG-k_srAQpJSkSsJzJSd

The sub-frame. This was assembled a very long time before, and just forgotten. It was one of my better efforts from way back when, but had suffered the ravages of time.

When I took it out of the box, the front end looked rather tatty, and the whole rear end fell apart.

So, after much cementing, filling and touching up, it was back together again. This is how it looks at present.

y4mkeHcEgVFqR7YaX99SeQ4ZZ9yvYV0dMuZw6MGD

The floor pan, with release marks suitable filled and sanded. Most likely, none of them would be visible when assembled, but hey !

y4mrqOp-PC1WCVbKCMZCQO8tjaCgENXLtxmSpMWf

The engine, almost complete. Then I noticed that avital ancillary part had gone missing during the 30+ years in storage...

I'm not sure what it is, but the instructions were good enough for me to re-create the thingummy, thus:

y4mrOUr_ZjWJKcYPW01fHZ1aVgRhb71zUT7sNkhf

y4mCiIVGP5KkXdYBxdtuDHjJC0MZVcTDPSuePkZ3

y4me-_K4SbIyruDkAMtpZ2z9hp6CZuGuceY1GHEW

y4md6Fzc4lYnYOt5nH6N4jPmAtsgxvz3U2oG_USM

I was so proud of it, I took many pictures of it. The last gives ma sense of scale, I think.

y4mhUT6OhEuJ_dDftvpBi6Jv-7Zrmh8c4Tqxh-8z

The engine again...

y4mKDklSnbt2SLGYuTrgoy0BU4kudp_kr3gQvRMD

Finally all the other body parts, stripped.

This poor car has suffered the Lotus curse:

"Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious"

 

So, this was where it was about two or three years agio. It has been in suspended animation since then.

 

Thanks for looking, 

Alan.

 

 

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A second instalment.

For some reason, I decided to prime the shell in my home made concoction of white primer.

However, when I looked at it this week, the paint was a bit 'rough', so I decided to soak the shell in Caustic soda to remove the paint.

Now, sometime since the pictures above had been taken, a small piece of the A pillar had broken off and I had repaired the damage. I had properly glued and  filled it, and it looked invisible.

However, while I was inspecting the paint to see if it was coming off, the little bit fell off. I guess the caustic soda had weakened the weld, or the weld was crap...

 

Anyway, these pictures were taken tonight, and I have again attempted to make a repair.

So:

y4mS-zEVEsgqRBo8aX-WGOr4MVWWBtwtEVxlT-8X

Exhibit A: The body having suffered GBH...

y4maW7hrh9nuETAaFKUr_lsqtV_ho3mRE4tYdogS

Exhibit B - The detached bit.

y4mo7MWSx5YvCGNguMHTf7egfFRBoinPJF2kg9il

In case the above picture wasn't very clear, here it is sitting on the roof...

y4mS6uEChXK_3YTyStB-K_PbRgjMwRe2hBPIqHPE

Finally, the A-pillar piece and the body re-united!

I am going to leave this a few days for the cement to really cure, before trying to fill and sand the obvious joins...

 

This one is definitely following the LOTUS mantra...

 

All the best,

Alan.

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These old Bandai kits were a big surprise at this time.

I remember, centuries ago, I build an Excalibur SSK in 1:12 , my Dad brought me from London...

And I build a Fiat X1/9, can't remember the scale, but I remember that it included the option to add wide flares and some wide wheels made out of metal.

Both don't exist anymore, because my Mom decided that I'm adult and don't need such things anymore and throwed it away...😤

That's life, so I decided zo make a restart at that time 😀... meanwhile approx 35 years ago.

I whish System you good luck with this kit

Cheers

Marco F.

 

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Hi Marco,

I have a number of Bandai 1/16th scale kits in my loft awaiting construction.

These include:

Jaguar XJS

Porsche 924

Duesenberg Straight 8 (Not sure of its proper name)

A Fowlers Showman's engine.

I also have a number of Bandai 1/20th kits. I believe that the FIAT X 1/9 was 1/20th as well. The one I had way back was. They are rarer that hen's teeth these days. I have seen two on eBay in the last four years, one was a re-build job, the other pristine. Both went for more than I was prepared to pay...

I think that the Lotus will build into something quite good.

 

Cheers, Alan.

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Hi All,

Another update.

Having re-cemented the A pillar back into the body shell, I decided that after a couple of days, that I would attempt to strengthen the join a bit more.

So I carefully put some more contacta onto the joint, and left it for another day.

After that, I put a slathering of Mr. Surfacer over both joins, and left it for another three days to ensure that the filler was fully cured. This stuff has a habit of breaking off while sanding if you don't leave it long enough to cure, especially if it's getting a bot 'old'.

Anyway, this is the result after some sanding down with 240 & 600 grit wet 'n' dry:

y4mVuZdGUJTCAbZfRogO7_gRQJt9OHM7KKsMLa5L

The whole join

y4mWa18bR-pxvxy2O011MReFGg3OaAB9acv5xTT7

The bottom join

y4mPc30eU8C47rTyS0rzmQyAk4p9bXRfg00NA62f

The top join.

Using my fingers and looking at it under a strong light, the join seems nearly perfect. However, the joins are never as strong as the original plastic, so I am going to be very careful with this one...

It will probably need more sanding and filling and sanding... after I have primed it and the inevitable imperfections show up.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Alan.

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Hello Alan,

I think you're right it was 1/20 not bigger.

If my memories are trustable, I only had AMT kits in 1/16.

So, the model of the X1/9 seems to be as rare as the original today...

 

Yes, I think your Lotus will reach the finish Line beeing a good looking model, good luck!!!

Cheers

Marco F.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All,

 

Jut a minor update.

I primed the shell with ZP grey primer and then left it for a couple of days to allow the primer to cure properly.

Then I noticed that there was a blemish at the rear of the roof.

This blemish was caused by a split that had occurred in the roof many years ago, and my consequent repair, which was to widen the crack into a slot, then insert some polystyrene card into said slot and glued it in place.

I had sanded it so that the repair was completely smooth, but obviously not quite smooth enough. It showed up after the primer had dried.

So, a thin sliver of Mr White putty over the blemish should clear the blemish up.

So, this is where I am with this at the moment:

y4msq8otyJRwL7T-pvacMB6S_i8ZN-OMC8qDvlbC

I have since sanded it, and it looks OK as far as I can tell.

Just another bit of priming to go on this...

 

Thanks for looking,

Alan.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nice to see it's come out ok. I have a not dissimilar project to fix. I built a replica of the Beetle my parents had at the time I was born as a gift for them. It was almost completely finished, but I wasn't happy with the paint. Of course, when I stripped it, the plastic has crazed and one of the front window pillars has weakened and dropped out. :sad: 

 

Your success in resurrection has given me some hope for mine. :fingerscrossed:

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  • 2 years later...

Hi All,

A two and a half year gap!

I decided a few days back to try and make some progress with this.

As an aside, as I am building my kits, I like to keep the small parts (bits) in little sealable pots so, in theory, they are less likely to get lost. Each model in progress has its own little pot, labelled with the model name.

So, I got out the little pot of bits and started on the engine again.

In the past, for some reason, I had detached the inlet manifold, carburettors and the air filter. Here, the manifold and carburettors have been reattached. Also, I reattached the exhaust manifold at the same time.

 

y4mKoID6bUwfpbLvm1kD5p-ewmITIlw2aHNXY5ly

This is engine as I had left it.

There's a whole load of gubbins at the rear of the engine, none of which I know the function of...

The raised parts on the cam covers had been dry-brushed, but had suffered over the years and was looking a bit 'tired'. So I whacked on some Citadel "Abbadon Black", which has a slight satin sheen to it, rather than pure matt. I then reapplied the dry brushed aluminium to the raised parts:

y4mCZuVh5vjKt0mGHd0zID2hXM54u4v0_MKXKJwN

I'm not sure you can see the improvement. Hand-held camera to blame...

y4mHddCct-jBSkKtsaAKFt9dXnOAHHrHCxJKl3r6

Gubbins attached. There is a drive-belt attached to some kind of 'thing'. Looks like a filter of some kind... ?

y4mcYTcWA376EKMLeCdxHQMvP9UQICm2ZMtKo5Jl

 

Bandai, like a number of model manufacturers (Hasegawa - cough, cough) plate the disc brakes. This to my mind is rather too toy-like. So I dropped the disc/calliper assemblies into some caustic soda solution for about an hour. This completely removed the chrome plating.

I then painted them grey, followed by Abbadon Black, and am now in the process of painting the hubs in aluminium, the callipers in metallic grey (XF56) and the rotors in a steel colour (Runefang Steel - Citadel)

The brackets for the rear transmission, at the top of the picture will eventually be aluminium. Hopefully later today.

The two small widgets at the bottom are the hook-joints of the drive shafts (or more precisely half of the hook-joints)

 

More soon, I hope.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Alan.

Edited by Alan R
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Hi All,

Another update. Gosh! two updates on the same topic in one day, whatever next...

 

I have been working on the transmission bits and brakes.

y4m96NAoEWcXY0DAj6gosXKHpeL5WH6QceX--a1w

The bits on the left are the hook-joint and drive-shafts.

The brakes are nearly complete in this picture. The two spidery things at the top are the brackets that tie the whole transmission and frame together.

 

y4mNykrTvEGeHs6GcSEkgwF_T3PV4y56Ij3HSWJr

Here's a better image of the engine and transmission. Somewhat sharper than the last one I showed.

 

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and the other side.

 

Actually, since I took these pictures, I have finished the brakes and callipers, and the brackets and driveshafts have received their last coat of paint. I just want the paint to set properly before attaching them to the transmission.

 

More soon.

 

Thanks for looking,

Cheers,

Alan.

 

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  • 4 months later...

Hi All,

 

Just doing a catch-up with all my builds, so this post is probably the result of about five sessions on the bench. I think that because there are so many things done, I might just split this up into a set of logical sessions.

I had primed the body grey, as this shows the imperfections better, but isn't ideal for covering in my chosen colour, red.

So, I sprayed Zero Paints White Filler primer over the body shell:

y4mopWMIsmseq9XvTXD-12T5bHF1KUFoOTWLdffu

This took some time (Sever days) to completely cover. It could do with another couple of coats, but there "Best" and there is "Good Enough". Sometimes best is the enemy of progress...

So, good enough it is. I have stocked up on sufficient ZP Red to paint all the body parts.

While I was at it, I started on some interior parts. Namely the seats.

These are not exactly brilliant mouldings. The backs that fit in to the seat 'shell' don't fit great:

These are the seats, after a bit of sanding to round off the edges.

y4m-op94OatuWG4ocO4fWOmKe6r4gpyRYbUBvtrI

With the backs fitted:

y4mDGNZVndijirgX2zOhExfioWrqs732Sq_ENbkO

They don't look too bad from here, but the top of the seat and head-rests are a very poor fit.

I had to overlay the top of the back with some poly sheet, thus:

y4mW5K7DiycuZftb9XnRbYZo4cXKvhdPg-tHdK4W

Then start the process of filling the remaining gaps...

y4mENlwWDAibCKEHfj1qVjI0U9BvahnJFo2gnBUJ

Milliput is your friend here. It's great at filling large voids.

A quick splosh of grey to highlight the imperfections:

y4m11Z-xTy3_ev2mYliSjeJedWRVX5h0F9WenzqF

 

The instructions suggest that you paint the seats grey, and then some kind of Tartan for the inner parts. I decided that my Esprit came with Black leather:

y4mBE-UCMUEKBs_O0IrJZZB_AnMbliqVRi6ADzmk

 

So that's the main body shell primed and the seats done.

 

More soon.

 

Cheers,

Alan.

 

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Hi Al,

Second instalment for today.

The engine and chassis.

y4ml8FixIU61A2Q1e2WsziQSRt84-GJDelQI5iHS

The disc brakes on the Esprit are inboard and they fitted easily.

y4me6t8Xe5uy36yIhnh7KITLfMoXsIrbkubLCPhT

The front.

y4mr5H1l7i8559r73FHILJo_hkUEfARuJYV8QEjd

y4mlzVLtOHLo13yTrrvFY5J7R8Zdsai9HB1veTtr

There are a number of hoses that connect various parts of the induction system. As this is a 40 plus year old model, the original PVC piped had become rigid and brittle.

This kind of scuppered progress.

Eventually, I sourced some various diameter silicone rubber piping that fitted the bill perfectly. I now have several metres of suitable piping for coolant and breather hoses.

y4mgB_2SsjiPetxgHCNaIfexTb6B6JII7lQSbEVh

y4mi-OYZ7EfCyLyag63zfyxhqcUAMBWPllcs3MZ1

How accurate this is, I don't know, but it looks busy enough.

y4mbk3WbMHaYREwyg4X4M9s7vvBR7hkwsk2BLtld

y4mkVScJihNgy9FAkZbmnrZz9GHNQ3uK5gScyprv

Here we have the coolant hoses installed.

Here the engine has been installed in the chassis.

y4mbbSJBkg7vuudPZI6D7KbSVgedr0DWEDSm9rkp 

y4mGrYFvVSk5rA-UtMH-K8lbtrkxt_0c_A6yYlu3

This wasn't entirely straightforward, as at this stage you have to install the drive-shafts after the engine has been installed.

In my first attempt to fit the drive-shafts, I managed to demolish the rear sub-frame!

Eventually, I managed to find a solution.

None of the pictured show the drive shafts installed.

 

More soon,

Cheers,

Alan.

Edited by Alan R
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On 03/10/2021 at 17:37, Alan R said:

some kind of Tartan for the inner parts. I decided that my Esprit came with Black leather:

Haha! The best way to sort out the seats after so much effort to get them looking right

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