1/24 Rothmans Escort

[malpaso]

 

This was a birthday gift from my wife.  Possibly a record in recent times for getting built within two months of acquisition and not suffering a diversion into the stash!  On opening the box I was surprised and pleased to see the decals were for un-PC Rothmans rather than the boxart “Racing”.  The real car is just down the road at Beaulieu if you want to go and see what its supposed to look like.

.

The kit itself is somewhat ancient, originally by Esci and having been reboxed by both Revell and Italeri over the years.  Now I love cars with massive flared arches as much as the next child growing up in the 70s, but these seem to have been tooled by someone from the Matchbox or HotWheels design studio after plenty of wacky baccy!  Whether to do anything about it was the issue, as they stand they don’t look anything like those from the RS Parts ads in the Motoring News we’d avidly read at school in the 70s.  In the end I decided not to bother, as carpaint is a lot less forgiving than painting the filler-fest of some older aircraft kits!  So after a few coats of Halfords Appliance White and the application of the excellent (best part of the kit) decals, I brushed on a couple of coats of Klear to get a reasonable period shine.

 

The kit itself is OOB, I thought several times about the arches but they would need a lot of correcting, so I just stuck M3 washers from the hardware shop as wheel spacers to get the wheels a bit further outboard.  I also suspect the mid-joint in a propshaft is unlikely, and whilst I opened up some lap-belt holes in the side of the seats, I ignored the need for the decal belts to stretch to the back of the car (somewhere); this seems a common failing of decal seatbelts.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, for all its severely compromised accuracy, in this livery the kit looks quite striking and worth the effort.  But any future cars will be Tamiya, Aoshima or Fujimi kits…

 

Cheers

Will

[keefr22]

Very nice build - the washer spacers have worked well and really improve the track! Neat finish and decalling too!

 

1 hour ago, malpaso said:

someone from the Matchbox or HotWheels design studio after plenty of wacky baccy! 

 

🤣

 

Having looked at and modified a few of these over the years I think Esci were trying to get an arch somewhere close to a 'Monte Special' tarmac Escort - which would be odd as Ford only built three of them! - and missed! I think I prefer your explanation though!

 

Keith

[klubman01]

Looks brilliant!  Classic colour scheme, with a legendary crew.  Well done.

Trevor

[Nick Belbin]

Yeah, great scheme, great effort!!

 

Nick

[Vince1159]

Three words 'Work of Art'.....

[Kitkent]

I like it very much,in one of the best colour schemes too. Chris.

[Spiny]

From what I've heard this is a most excremental kit, but this is a very good end result. As with everyone else it seems, I think it was an excellent move to push those wheels a bit further towards the outside of the arches - makes them look much fuller than they would have done otherwise. Good work on getting those decals to lay down so smoothly too.

[Rich G]

Well done mate, I literally just got bought the earlier version of this kit with the white and blue markings for my birthday and I'm having the same experiance as you, it's a fun kit to put together although clearly ancient!

 

Rich

[Windy37]

Good build , excellent decaling . I have the ESCI original kit with Rothmans after market decals and  its still the car most people ask about when looking at my display cabinet full of more modern stuff . Nobody ever realises  it's not accurate.  Until someone brings out a new Mk2  kit this does nicely I think .  

 Gary . 

[Vesa Jussila]

Nice work and good result from old kit. I built original maybe 20 years ago. What disturbed me at that time was tires, that are clearly for tarmac rally.

[FunkyChiken]

Great build! 

[kapam]

Fantastic!

Love your decal work - quite a challenge to get right, I would think, but you have got it 100%

Very inspiring! 

[High-Lander]

Very nice indeed 👏 👏👏

 

I've just started the 1980 Eaton's Yale version and spending most of my time filling sink marks and removing flash. I also filed away ~1.5mm from the depth of the rear arches which has helped the aesthetics, but will also use rear spacers.

Also, if you look closely you'll spot the drivers side front right arch is wider than the passenger side arch (not sure how they got that wrong!)  

 

If I feel brave, maybe post some completed pics in a month or so (my first build since 1992) 

[High-Lander]

Some useful links for anyone else building, or thinking of building, an RS1800

 

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/95907-ford-escort-rs1800/page/25/

 

 

Edited October 29, 2020 by High-Lander
update

[malpaso]

On 10/29/2020 at 6:05 PM, High-Lander said:

Very nice indeed 👏 👏👏

 

I've just started the 1980 Eaton's Yale version and spending most of my time filling sink marks and removing flash. I also filed away ~1.5mm from the depth of the rear arches which has helped the aesthetics, but will also use rear spacers.

Also, if you look closely you'll spot the drivers side front right arch is wider than the passenger side arch (not sure how they got that wrong!)  

 

If I feel brave, maybe post some completed pics in a month or so (my first build since 1992) 

Thanks for your messages.  I had a suspicion about odd front arches but avoided measuring as that seemed like madness if I actually wanted to get on and build the kit!  I agree about the sink marks.  There is a particularly awkward x-shape on the outside of the bonnet, due to the framing inside, I filled and sanded multi-times till it was all as smooth as a baby's derriere, but it still caught the light at certain angles - luckily the Rothmans stripes and decals break up the X but plain colour liveries may be harder to resolve!  

Good Luck with your version

Will

[swralph]

Very nice.