Sabrejet Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 (edited) As a long-term speed hill climb fan, you might imagine that I might have a few kits in my stash, but try to think of anyone who makes a pure hill climb car in kit form? (cue tumbleweed). In fact the only way I could think of doing one was to step down from thoughts of dedicated hill climb cars and look for a more 'mainstream' car that also hill climbed. And here it is: SMTS 1/43 ERA Voiturette, converted to represent ERA B-Type 'R4B' as it appeared at a number of Shelsley Walsh events in 1935, driven by Raymond Mays. I did some minor bits of conversion (changing the steering box to the LH side, twin wheels at the back) and also opened out the carb intake to take some mesh, replaced the kit decal bonnet straps with tape and PE, chopped off the mirror fairing and hollowed it to take a mirror, and added steering arms and a tube exhaust. But the SMTS kit is a real gem and can be thoroughly recommended. an ERA has long been on my Top 10 list of cars I'd love to own, so ticks a number of boxes. It did carry race numbers of course, but since they were mounted on card and attached by string, I left them off for aesthetic reasons. My kit was actually the version to make Prince Bira's Romulus or Remus, but since it came with six wheels, it made my version a lot easier to do. I assume that SMTS did issue a hill climb version of the kit. R4B was later converted to C-Type (as 'R4C') with the fitting of independent front suspension and ultimately it became the sole D-Type and has a continuous race/hill climb history (bar world wars and global pandemics) so that it is nowadays probably the most raced car in the world. Anyway here it is: The kit: And the model: So the next hill climber will be (don't hold your breath for an RFI) a Gould GR.37, 51 or 55! Any ideas where to start with that? Edited June 18, 2020 by Sabrejet 26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad4kits2 Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Nice clean model,well executed,and I like to see a different subject.well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Mansfield Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Nice detail on such a small scale! Really like the idea of creating a hill climb car from this era, the double wheels at the back is a nice touch 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 What a lovely little thing. It would be good to see the real thing in action. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Very nice indeed, really like the paintjob, shine looks just right, and I love that colour! (can I ask what paint it is?) I've got a few hillclimb cars 'in progress', but from the current era where there's basically a class for any car...!! (my avatar is myself in our Modprod class Mini 1275 proceeding (slowly!) up the Epynt hillclimb a few years back - love hillclimbing!) Lovely job - cracking little ERA! Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 2 hours ago, keefr22 said: Very nice indeed, really like the paintjob, shine looks just right, and I love that colour! (can I ask what paint it is?) I've got a few hillclimb cars 'in progress', but from the current era where there's basically a class for any car...!! (my avatar is myself in our Modprod class Mini 1275 proceeding (slowly!) up the Epynt hillclimb a few years back - love hillclimbing!) Lovely job - cracking little ERA! Keith Paint is a 25% green/75% white mix of Mr Color Green 6 and White 1, matched til it looked about right from memory (ERA R1A is painted this colour nowadays). Would love to do any of the Gould or Pilbeam single-seaters or a Pilbeam MP43, but I'd be surprised if anyone made kits of those. I did toy with scratch-building Graeme Wight Jr/Sr's GR51, using the Tamiya Opel Calibra DTM engine as the starting point but just too much of a stretch. I think the best hope would be for someone to do a 1/24 F3 Reynard or RALT and start from there. And I've got drenched at Epynt a few times! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klubman01 Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Very neat little replica. Great work, well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 1 hour ago, Sabrejet said: Paint is a 25% green/75% white mix of Mr Color Green 6 and White 1 Thanks for that! 1 hour ago, Sabrejet said: And I've got drenched at Epynt a few times! You and me both! Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatW Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 Definitely, I saw one at Shelsey Walsh in 1993! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors54 Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 To quote a line from The Italian Job - "Preeety car". Like that a lot and the colour suits it (although it shouldn't, far too Seventies). I remember painting the hall of our first house in a very similar colour, you learn by your mistakes! Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Coors54 said: To quote a line from The Italian Job - "Preeety car". Like that a lot and the colour suits it (although it shouldn't, far too Seventies). I remember painting the hall of our first house in a very similar colour, you learn by your mistakes! Dave It's black nowadays but as far as I can find, it never hill climbed in black with the beam front axle. I have the book of the car (R4D by Porter Press) and it is pretty in-depth apart from technical detail and colours worn. We still need a definitive ERA book! Edited June 19, 2020 by Sabrejet 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 WOWZER !! what a GORGEOUS ,SUPER classy model. Its always SO nice to see old classic cars like this one... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitkent Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 That's beautifully done,and a very smart colour for an ERA. I read the other day that SMTS are moving to bigger premises,which is always a good sign as I know they moved to a smaller place last time! Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 2 hours ago, Kitkent said: That's beautifully done,and a very smart colour for an ERA. I read the other day that SMTS are moving to bigger premises,which is always a good sign as I know they moved to a smaller place last time! Chris Well I just ordered their Aston AMR-1 (lovely kit), so hopefully I've helped their profits a bit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 That's a lovely little model, it's always nice to see well built 1/43 kits. Nice to see a dedicated hill climb racer as well, there are too few of those. A very well done conversion indeed. It even inspired me to restart a sleeping hill climb project, although not as dedicated as this one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 1 hour ago, Bengalensis said: It even inspired me to restart a sleeping hill climb project, although not as dedicated as this one. Ooh - intriguing! Please keep us posted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anteater Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 That's beautiful, and a lovely degree of detail for 1/43rd. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.thumb.jpg.cfc129272ffec824439b15e6013d5952.jpg)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now