1/43 Chevron B12 Repco, John Woolfe Racing, Le Mans 1968

[klubman01]

Completed earlier this week, here is my model of the Chevron B12 Repco.

 

 

 

This car was commissioned by John Woolfe.  Chevron designer modified the basic Chevron B8 design to accept the Repco 740 V8 engine and Hewland gearbox, as used in the F1 championship winning Brabham BT24 of 1967.  It also incorporated the larger, fifteen inch, Brabham wheels along with the bigger brakes this allowed.  The wheel base was extended rearwards by two and a half inches, lengthening the engine bay to allow the Repco to fit, and he also greatly extended the engine cover.

Unfortunately, it was not successful at Le Mans.  A head gasket blew at the start of the third hour and the car was retired.

 

I started this model two years ago with the Axel'R kit of the B12.  It wasn't completely accurate behind the cockpit, having the same dimensions as a B8.  

 

 

I cut the tail off behind the wheel openings and added a box section of plastic card to extend it.  I moved the rear axle line rearwards and made new wheel opening from plastic card.

 

 

Everything was then faired in with Milliput filler and sanded to shape.

 

 

At this point I realised something was wrong with the proportions.  A double check against my references showed that the roof was too narrow and although the overall height was correct, the tops of the doors were too high resulting in a "squashed" appearance.

 

The model then resided on the shelf of doom for a while until a solution arose.  This came a few weeks later with the purchase of the JPS kit of a Chevron B8.  The plan was to follow the modifications made to the B8 design to create the B12.  

 

 

The cockpit section of the B8 was far more accurate, other parts less so.  Starting again, I removed the extended tail from the Axel'R kit.  The engine cover of the JPS kit was butchered to create the opening for the engine, extend the axle line rearwards, and graft on the Axel'R extended tail.  This was tough work as the JPS resin is very hard and difficult to cut accurately.  I resorted to using a grinding bit in my mini-drill.  The top line of the engine cover was set to its new profile with lengths of 30thou plastic card.

 

 

The top line over the front wheels needed to be raised, and the front wheel openings were enlarged and new, extended, arches made from plastic card.

 

 

The JPS headlight openings were inaccurate so I ground them out, cut the equivalent parts from the Axel'R kit and fixed them in place.  The raised section ahead of the windscreen was made from sections of plastic card, as were the nose tabs and the NACA intake near the right headlight opening.

 

 

At the back, the upper flank intakes, previously removed from the JPS kit were re-inserted at the correct positions, box intakes of plastic card were added and the recess for the filler cap was made and inserted into the engine cover.  A lot of Milliput and sanding was involved during these processes!

 

The wheels/tyres of both kits were poor, so I used some Microsport resin items (much like Marsh Models).  I made a master wheel insert from plastic card tube and rod and created four moulds to produce resin inserts.  I made two sets and picked best four for the model.

 

 

The engine came from a die-cast model of the Brabham BT24 that I found on eBay.  It was far more accurate than the Axel'R parts, with exception of the intakes.  These are the turned metal Axel'R kit parts.  The replacement engine is injection moulded (thankfully) and I drilled out the throttle bodies to accept the kit intakes.

Painting was relatively straight forward.  The body colour is Revell 52 enamel, with everything else done in Humbrol enamels. 

 

 

 

Final assembly was mostly OK.  The Axel'R decals were inaccurate in some areas so I substituted with items from the (also not entirely accurate) Le Mans Decals sheet of the same car where required.  The kit decals were also very inflexible, and did not want to settle over compound curves.  A lot of Micro Sol was required.

 

 

The auxiliary driving lights are from the Axel'R kit, the filler caps from the spares box, and the id lights, roof lights and Dzus fasteners are by Renaissance, with a Tameo wiper arm and blade.  The yellow, wedge shape on the roof covers the cockpit vent holes and was made from 10thou plastic card.

 

 

 

 

This was a much longer build than originally anticipated, but I think it turned out OK, despite to difficulties with the decals, and the fact that neither decal sheet is entirely accurate.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Trevor

 

[Sabrejet]

Good work there! Love a Chevron sports racer and Woolfe's B12 is a favourite. Last I recall it survived in Germany.

[klubman01]

Thanks very much for your kind words.

It was recently restored (rebuilt with a 1966 spec Repco 620 engine), and put up for auction.  Don't know where it is now.

Trevor

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, klubman01 said:

This was a much longer build than originally anticipated,

 

Sounds like an endurance battle worthy of Le Mans Trevor - but at least you emerged victorious!! 

 

That's another little gem of a model, really lovely build and finish - top modelling!!

 

Keith

 

[klubman01]

Thanks Keith.  Not one of the most well known Le Mans cars, so references are a bit thin on the ground.  It is, however, a great example of heroic British failures at Le Mans.

Trevor

[Toftdale]

Fantastic build, I would never have had the foresight to believe you could modify a kit in this manner.  Thanks for sharing - Andy 

[Anteater]

Brilliant work, that's quite some commitment to realism. 

[klubman01]

Thanks guys, your encouragement is most appreciated.  I try not to let the non-existence of a kit stop me making those models I want in my collection!

Trevor

[Andy J]

I've said before how much i admire your work at this scale and once again you've knocked it out of the park....stunning build again Trevor i love these builds 🙂😉👌👏

[Malc2]

Thats fantastic, great work on the huge modifications, must have been hard to get it all symmetrical.

The final result looks great!

 

Malc.

 

PS why didn't you just swap the roof and A pillars from the JPS kit to the Axel'R kit?

[Kitkent]

Brilliant stuff Trevor! I didn't know the Axel R kit was so inaccurate,there's a hell of a lot work to correct there,with a unique result. The Chevron B8 normally only had a 1.6 or 2 litre Ford/BMW Motor so a V8 Repco would definitely need more room! The blue colour and all the details are spot on,Chris.

[klubman01]

1 hour ago, Malc2 said:

PS Why didn't you just swap the roof and A pillars from the JPS kit to the Axel'R kit?

Nice idea, but the measurements didn't work out.  The tops of the doors on the Axel'R kit are too high and the result would have just looked weird.  The cockpit dimensions of the JPS kit were spot on, so I just modified the B8, Much as Derek Bennett did with the real thing.  Thanks again for your kind words.

Trevor

2 hours ago, Andy J said:

I've said before how much i admire your work at this scale and once again you've knocked it out of the park....stunning build again Trevor i love these builds 🙂😉👌👏

You are too kind.

Trevor

[klubman01]

1 hour ago, Kitkent said:

Brilliant stuff Trevor! I didn't know the Axel R kit was so inaccurate,there's a hell of a lot work to correct there,with a unique result. The Chevron B8 normally only had a 1.6 or 2 litre Ford/BMW Motor so a V8 Repco would definitely need more room! The blue colour and all the details are spot on,Chris.

Thanks Chris.  It was a lot of work, more than originally anticipated, but "a modeller's gotta do what a modeller's gotta do".

Trevor

[keefr22]

13 hours ago, klubman01 said:

I try not to let the non-existence of a kit

 

Well this one looks more than half scratchbuilt, so I'd say you don't need to try, you can just build whatever takes your fancy.....!!

 

Keith

[klubman01]

Thanks Keith.  I do my best!

Trevor

[Michael Church]

Trevor, thanks for showing the steps in your process. It's a real boon to see what goes into using putty and plastic card for this degree of reconstructive surgery.

[klubman01]

Thanks Michael.  Where would we be without Milliput and plastic card (plus a bit of resin, now and then)?

Trevor 

[Vesa Jussila]

One masterpiece again. Really excellent work.

[klubman01]

1 hour ago, Vesa Jussila said:

One masterpiece again. Really excellent work.

Thanks very much.

Trevor