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A Flying Finn - Ari Vatanen's Ford Escort RS1800 Mk.II, Lombard RAC Rally ##FINISHED##


nimrod54

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Having made a Norwegian Starfighter, Danish registered SAS Caravelle and Swedish Saab Draken for the previous Nordic GB, I decided it was time for a subject with a Finnish leaning and thought that this would be something different to my usual aircraft builds. It will also rekindle memories of time spent trudging along forest tracks on cold November days back in the 1970's to watch Scandinavian drivers teach us how to drive on the Special Stages of the Lombard RAC Rally.

 

Anyway, here are the box and contents photos of my subject choice, but it will be a short while before I start the build because I have to finish a few others first.

 

51474103772_b620fd9669_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51475805095_445aacc01f_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Cheers.

John

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WooHooo a rally car driven by a mad and incredibly talented Flying Fin!  :thumbsup:

 

Our first car of the build and an Escort at that, will be great to see one of these being built.

 

Good luck with the build, bet there'll be plenty of others remembering the rallies of that era.

 

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Hi all,

 

Father of the rally driver Ari Vatanen, Aarne Pekka Vatanen was a flying Finn too. He was a pilot in the air force flying at least Ilyushin DB-3M during the Continuation War.

 

Cheers (with milk as it is the case with Vatanen ;) ),

 

AaCee

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On 23/09/2021 at 06:46, Foxbat said:

Love the censored box art, and how even the cigarette manufacturer logos on the decal sheet are broken up :D

 

I just hope that I remember to put the decals on the right way round Andy. I am surprised that no attempt was made to disguise the MANS ROTH house colours too, most of us growing up back then would know what it is meant to be anyway. I must admit that it would have been fun to see Fittipaldi's Lotus 72D with 'Special Player John' on it though. :lol:

 

John

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  • 4 weeks later...

I made a start on the Escort during the week, assembling and painting the engine parts. 

 

51621708481_5639b05f90_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51621708561_c230e1b932_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

I then removed the parts required for next stage of the build which includes the one piece floor/chassis/engine bay part, dash, steering wheel, seats and door card/rear interior parts. The floor part had several ejector pin marks which I have filled with discs of plastic that were punched out of a piece of sheet material. Most of the parts require a bit of work before they are ready for use, so I am in the process of tidying those bits up before I start on the painting and assembly.

 

51621931698_2f6be836d7_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51622572940_67bf83f548_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Cheers

John

 

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The old bda 1800 ford engine looks good john, nice job 👍  i remember the  rs mk2 had a little over 110 bhp for its day which doesn't sound impressive but these little cars were 

Well under 900kg , most super cars today are around 1200-1500 kg ,  gordon Murray's T50 super car is only a little heavier than this little escort  at around 980 or so but with over a 1000bhp ,and ground effects , how times have changed , i reckon Murray's car will slay the  aston martin valkyrie  due to its  low overall  weight .

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yeah great start.

 

I saw something you might have like the other day on one of the models forsake site here in OZ ( they only sell local I think) a VERY old !/96th Lincoln International EE Canberra cir 1956. Looked to be in good condition, even the box was nice, $60 + postage Oz.... 30 pounds?

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have pushed this along a bit more, After spraying some of the interior parts the dash was assembled and I fixed one of the side panels in place, once I have painted up the remaining interior details like pedals, gear stick, handbrake and roll cage, I can complete that sub-assembly.

 

51669323551_99972f7d71_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51670009479_e5d1c2e838_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Yesterday I primed and applied three coats of top colour to the body, I will leave that for now to allow the paint to harden off before wet sanding it and applying the decals.

 

51670202355_2674fe09c9_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

 

The bonnet required some filler along sink marks caused by the stiffeners moulded on the underside. I gave it an initial sand this morning and is now ready for some primer and topcoats, after I have carried out any further remedial work.

 

51670202440_7efb5dd9f6_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr 

 

51670009649_5a896d19c9_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr 

 

John.

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19 minutes ago, reini said:

Being patient in the beginning tidying all the problems is gonna be worth it in the end I'm sure. 

 

Did the primer reveal any more issues? 

 

Plenty of patience is needed for for this one Reini, some of the parts have quite a bit of flash but a couple of files, a knife and sanding sticks makes them look presentable. 

 

Other issues that I picked up on the body were around the boot where there are three large ejector pin marks on the underside, there was also a sink line along the length of the rear spoiler which is probably due to the thickness of the plastic in that area. The primer also highlighted a very thin line down the centre of the roof but that was easily polished out.

 

Regards

John

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15 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Nice to see this making good progress John. I took delivery of one if these the other day too, so keen to see how well it all goes together.

Steve.

 

Thanks Steve, The kit is not without its challenges but they are not insurmountable and things are going well so far.

 

18 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

I'll be all set for Nordic III by then. :)

 

:thumbsup:

 

John

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I had same problem with the bonnet.  Luckily the stripes and badges distract the eye from any vestiges of the strengthener sink marks.  Speaking of which the decals are the best bit of the kit, and I was very impressed that their geometry actually works properly round the arches.

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The bonnet has had a couple of coats of primer and will get a light sanding tomorrow before I start on the topcoats. As you can see, there are still traces of the filler showing through, but I am confident that the top layers will take care of that.

 

51677551850_6b233f07b4_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

I also made a start on the front suspension and steering parts and after initial checks I found them to be a rattle fit, so using sections of 1.6 & 1.8mm brass tubing I decided to tighten things up by sleeving the upper and lower ends of the suspension struts, and then adding bushes at the top and bottom connecting points. 

 

51675866257_67e54f3f72_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Time to paint those bits up now.

 

John.

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I put spacers on all the wheels to try and fill out the arches a bit.  Just used some M3 washers from the hardware shop.  I thought raising the suspension might help too, but i didn't do anything about that in the end.

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On 13/11/2021 at 20:18, reini said:

Yeah the bonnet looks smooth - just the colour of the putty showing thru a bit.

 

22 hours ago, malpaso said:

I put spacers on all the wheels to try and fill out the arches a bit.  Just used some M3 washers from the hardware shop.  I thought raising the suspension might help too, but i didn't do anything about that in the end.

 

Thanks guys. I had a bit of a set back today. I was outside spraying the gloss white on the bonnet this morning and had just applied the second coat, then managed to drop the part whilst checking it over. As per usual with these things, Murphy's Law kicked in and it landed wet side down. I have set it aside for now and will start to sand it back tomorrow, then I can reapply the paint. It should be an easy job to sort it out.

 

The spacers are a good idea. I'll check in the shed, I'm sure that I have some suitable washers somewhere.

 

Cheers

John

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