Lotus 25 (1:20) 1963 F1 WDC Jim Clark

[Flying Badger]

Few minor bits done today. Got the upper bodywork clear coated and as soon as it's fully hardened I'll break out the polishing compounds to get a really smooth glossy surface (I hope). Also dipped the glass in floor varnish ready to be fitted.

 

Other than that I added the coil spring and shock units to the rear suspension then finally got the inlet trumpets prepared, painted and gloss coated in Alclad Chrome before fitting them along with the exhaust pipes:

 

 

Solved my issue with the missing decal for the main gauge.... I have the Lotus 79 in the stash to build but like most Tamiya the decals don't include any tobacco advertising which is a bit of an issue for JPS title sponsored lotus in the 70s and 80s.

To rectify this I ordered the Indecal set for the Lotus 79 which includes dials decals, although the original kit decals have those too so having a spare set I selected one that is close enough and used it on the 25. A touch of Tamiya X-22 clear gloss over all of them and they look pretty good!

 

 

 

[Malc2]

That looks fab, I do like the way you have filled the tub top to side join and wrapped the green over the tub, - just like the original.

 

M.

[Flying Badger]

Got the decals on. One thing I love about this early era of F1 is the limited number of sponsors... so not many decals (Decaling has always been a tedious element of modelling for me).

Still have the top coat to add and then polish.

 

 

I still have to work out how to make the mesh cover over the engine inlet trumpets (the kit part is horrible clear plastic - far to over scale.) as well as the top coat and polishing to get a nice gloss shine.

 

All in all I'm relatively happy with it.

 

[Ngantek]

It looks fantastic. What will you use as a top cote? I'd be thinking 'that's the best gloss I'll ever get' as it is right now!

 

I never noticed the climax inlets are offset. Kinda triggered by it tbh .

[Flying Badger]

1 hour ago, Ngantek said:

I never noticed the climax inlets are offset. Kinda triggered by it tbh .

 

They are in nearly all V engines.... the cylinders on each bank of the V have to be offset by at least the width of the big end bearing housing at the end of the piston connecting rod as both left and right bank pistons can't attach to the crank shaft at the same point. So the cylinders are slightly offset, hence the inlets are too.

It's the same on the Ford Cosworth DFV I am slowly reverse engineering in CAD to get a 3D model. That one offset has an impact across every part - from block, head, cam carriers to the valve covers. It's meant I couldn't just design one side and then use a mirror modifier to duplicate the other side. 

 

You could engineer the head for left and right banks to be different to bring the inlets into alignment, but that would be a lot of extra work and having them offset means you can get them slightly closer packed, with the aerodynamic benefits that provides (less drag in a tighter package).

 

[Flying Badger]

As for gloss top coat... thats a bit of a sticky subject. My wife was blowing bubbles for my 3 year old to chase around the house.... little did I know that several ended up on my desk and one landed on the car. When it popped it left tiny spots of soapy stuff across the paintwork, decals and across my desk. 

 

Not realising I sprayed it with Tamiya X-22 clear gloss only to find to my horror that it refused to stick to various spots all over the front of the car  Needless to say I was a tad grumpy.

 

Waited for it to dry and harden up before I sanded the top coat down again. Washed it thoroughly with warm water and I'll wipe it over with IPA before trying again in a moment - hopefully it will spray this time and I can tick this one off as finished. (well once I decide how to deal with the inlet mesh.)

[klubman01]

15 hours ago, Flying Badger said:

I still have to work out how to make the mesh cover over the engine inlet trumpets (the kit part is horrible clear plastic - far to over scale.) as well as the top coat and polishing to get a nice gloss shine.

 

Tameo produce some nice mesh that might be suitable - Art. PG23 in their range.  They specialise in 1/43, so the mesh may be a bit fine for your needs, but there might be other manufacturers with something suitable.

Great work on the model, BTW.

Trevor

[Flying Badger]

36 minutes ago, klubman01 said:

Tameo produce some nice mesh that might be suitable - Art. PG23 in their range.  They specialise in 1/43, so the mesh may be a bit fine for your needs, but there might be other manufacturers with something suitable.

 

Thanks. I'll take a look - I looked at some other manufacturers and it was all a bit off in scale and look but hopefully if they do 1/43 there should be something that looks OK in 1:20 

[Flying Badger]

Bit of research this morning over coffee....

 

Stainless steel filter screen mesh (used for making coffee filters etc.) is very high quality woven mesh and comes in finely controlled sizes (the higher the mesh number the finer the wire and holes)

The Tameo PG23 (as best as I can measure it from the photos), seems to be equivalent of 80micron wire and 220micron gaps. (or 1.6mm wire and 4.4mm holes at 1:20)

That seems a little over scale but not far off.

The nearest filtre screens are 120 mesh and 200 mesh:

120 mesh = 80 micron wire, 125micron holes (or 1.6mm wire and 2.5mm holes at 1:20)

200 mesh - 60 micron wire, 75micron holes (or 1.2mm wire and 1.5mm holes at 1:20)

 

The filtre screen is £8.99 posted for 30cm x 100cm on amazon and the Tameo stuff is Euro 7.20 for 5cm x 5cm so the filtre screen comes out far cheaper for a finer quality mesh. 

I've ordered both 120 and 200 mesh and we'll see what they are like.

 

[Flying Badger]

Last bit of building for this kit.... the mesh air intake guard over the engine trumpets.

 

The kit part is a bit rubbish:

 

The stainless steel filtre screen mesh arrived. This is the 120mesh:

 

Here is a close up to show the size of the mesh:

 

It cuts with scissors or a razor blade and is similar to bend to thin photo etch

 

With the top edge bent over I folded it around to form the sides of the guard:

 

Thin CA glue holds it nice and secure and I then added the top piece to form the finished guard:

 

Here it is on the car after I'd trimmed the bottom edge to the right size:

 

For comparison here is a picture of the real thing (not my image).

the join should be on the back edge but other than that I'm really happy how this came out.

 

[klubman01]

That looks so much better than the plastic kit part.  Nicely done!

Trevor

[Flying Badger]

22 minutes ago, klubman01 said:

That looks so much better than the plastic kit part.  Nicely done!

Trevor

Thanks Trevor, I'm pleased with how it came out. Another advantage of this stainless steel mesh is that it doesn't need painting so there is no clogging of the mesh with paint to look wrong.

 

I worked out the difference between this and the Tameo mesh is that for about the same money you get 120 times the amount of material! (it comes in 30 x 100cm pieces verses the 5cm x 5cm pieces of Tameo modelling mesh) so there is lots of room for error and experimentation.

Edited June 16, 2022 by Flying Badger

[Malc2]

That looks 100% better.

Any chance you could post a close up pic of the 200 an 120 mesh together?

Could you post a link to the mesh on Amazon?

Cheers,

Malc.

[CrazyCrank]

1 hour ago, Malc2 said:

That looks 100% better.

Any chance you could post a close up pic of the 200 an 120 mesh together?

Could you post a link to the mesh on Amazon?

Cheers,

Malc.

 

Here it is: Mesh 120

Cheers

CC

[Flying Badger]

 

1 hour ago, Malc2 said:

Any chance you could post a close up pic of the 200 an 120 mesh together?

Hi Malc, sure no problem.

 

The 200 mesh was this stuff: Amazon link to 200 Stainless Steel mesh

The 120 Mesh is: Amazon link to 120 Stainless Steel mesh

They also do other mesh densities and there is an image on one of the above listings that includes the mesh, hole and wire sizes for each to help you select. I just chose these two as they were close when scaled up by 20 to what I guessed the real thing was made of.

 

Here is a comparison. 120 mesh on the left, 200 mesh on the right

 

This shows the relative opacity between the two (200 mesh on the right being more opaque)

 

They come in 1m long x 30cm wide rolls which is far more than I need now but will come in handy when making radiators etc. in the future.

 

Hope that is useful

 

Andy

[Malc2]

Perfect, thanks!

 

M.