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  Just thought I'd start my build thread on my current build, the Ebbro 1/20 scale  JPS Lotus Type 72E of Emmo Fittipaldi that he drove to a win at the 1973 Spanish F1GP. 

 

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   If all goes according to plan, I'll have my 1st real update late this coming week.

Joel

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  • Joel_W changed the title to Ebbro 1/20 Scale Lotus 72E
10 hours ago, CaptainObvious said:

Hi Joel,

Another iconic subject. I've heard good things about Ebbro kits.
I hope you don't mind me coming along for the ride.

-co

Capt. Obvious,

  I'm thrilled that you want to join us on my adventure into the world of Lotus cars.  

 Lotus is my number 1 formula 1 mark, and I'm planning on concentrating on that make till I've got them all built.   One deviation will be when I can do a private entry of Team Rob Walker ( owner of Walker Red & Black Label Scotch) with Jo Siffert behind the wheel, I will indulge myself.  

Joel

 

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3 hours ago, Peterpools said:

JA

Great choice for your second build project and looking forward to following the adventure.

Bro  :thumbsup:

Bro,

  And I've already got the Zero Black Paint on the shelf.

Bro

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Stevehnz,

  Same here. Lotus was always at the front of the curve, and produced some of the fastest and most beautiful F1 cars of the time. The 88 and 88B were two examples that pushed the rules to far, and the other teams got them banned. Kind of like the Chaparral 2J car from the Can Am series that literally sucked the car to the ground;

 

Joel

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 Well, finally it's time for my 1st update. 

   Just like with aircraft, I like to start my builds with the drivers tub even though it starts as step #3.  Ebbro has molded all the parts in either Black or a Metallic Gray that does look pretty good, and nice match for Flat Aluminum.  This will come in handy for some small parts that are buried deep in the suspension or engine/transmission, where they will be almost to completely be unseen. 

  The chassis consists of the bottom plate of the monocoque frame with the tub. The tub is basically one piece with an insert for the shift level and spacing for the drivers hand so he can go through the gears. The fit isn't up to my standards, so some sanding, putty, more sanding, and polishing took care of those issues. I then glued it to the bottom plate. The sides of the tub were glued up, then both were masked for Black primer, then Alcad CL#101 Flat Aluminum.  I also masked the two side radiators, and painted them at the same time.


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The simple IP was painted Tamiya Nato Black. Using the kit instrument decals and a liberal dose of Pledge, the IP was finished and installed. The shift level Knob was painted gloss Black, and installed. Finally, I glued the sides to the tub and bottom plate. 

 

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 Next I built up the side pods and dry fitted them. The fit is perfect, as you can easily see how they cover most of the outer tub, so I didn't bother painting it except for the top rear section. 

 

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 I built up the nose sub assembly with the front wing, and the a little sanding and putty work was needed.

 

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And finally the massive rear one piece wing was assembled.

 

jB1OL1.jpg

 

Edited by Joel_W
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JA

Super start on the Lotus and the interior tub and cockpit do look real good. Fit also seems pretty very good. Two questions just hit me in the head:

How much of the rear portion of the IP will be seen at completion and just wondering what your POA is for the radiators.

Keep 'em comin

Bro :thumbsup:

 

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50 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

JA

Super start on the Lotus and the interior tub and cockpit do look real good. Fit also seems pretty very good. Two questions just hit me in the head:

How much of the rear portion of the IP will be seen at completion and just wondering what your POA is for the radiators.

Keep 'em comin

Bro :thumbsup:

 

 Bro,

  The back of the IP will be under the cowling. Look at my signature picture. The IP should be just where the clear plexi wraps around. As for the radiators, I'm going to be adding the water hoses to each of them.

Bro

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13 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

Good start.  Lotus was a ground-breaking company.

Startibartfast,

   Thanks for checking out my start.

   Just got in the mail today two more Ebbro Lotus kits: Another Lotus 49 DVF, and the Lotus 49B with the option for either a high or low rear wing. I ordered Rob Walker decals from Indy Cal for the 49B.

Joel

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11 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I liked reading his F1 reports in Road & Track.

Slartibartfast,

  Yep, Walker was basically my only resource for F1 news. The lag time if I remember correctly was like 3 months. The South African F1GP was run in January, and his report usually appeared in the March issue. But better then nothing.  That eventually changed a few years later when I started to drive, and found a import car parts store ( I owned a 1967 MGB back then) that carried Chris Economaki's National Speed & Sport weekly newspaper.

Joel

 

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5 minutes ago, Ben Brown said:

I always forget to scroll this far down the forum. :doh:  Your Lotus is looking great! I've never heard of Ebbro.

 

Ben

Ben,

  No problems. So glad to have you along for the ride.

 

  the CEO of Ebbro was the head of the  auto model div at Tamiya. Not sure exactly how all of this transpired, but he went out on his own with Tamiya as he major backer. I'm sure that they get a lot more help then just financial from them.  So far I'm more then impressed with the kit as I finished the drivers tub and the front suspension clip. Talk about complex!  The car has inboard front and rear brakes. I really had my concerns about how the front wheels would properly align as the discs attach to the suspension inner frame at angles. The Ebbro engineers already solved that concern with "floating half shafts so that the wheel spindles align by the A Arms, and toe links.

 Joel

 

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   Well, it's time for my next build update. 

   My focus continued on getting the various body and wing assemblies ready for primining. Once I reached that stage, I primed them using Tamiya Gray lacquer Surface Primer thinned 1:1 with their Yellow Cap lacquer Thinner, air brushed @ a flow rate of 20 psi. After a few hours I very lightly polished out all the surfaces with  a piece of Tamiya 3,000 sponge.

   the Nose clip wings really needed more work, then repriming and polishing. Looks pretty good now. 

 

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 I must have missed it, but in the picture of the wing, I can see a smalls section of the far side plate seam that needs a little more filler. I'll go with Vallejo Acrylic White Putty just to shallow up, & even the seam.

   Next up was the front suspension and steering box, which turned out to be a model all by itself.  I started off with the brake discs which are mounted inboard rather then stuffed into the back of the wheels. What concerned me was that the surface that the discs mount to are angled down & inward. My concern was that the steering half shafts would fit at the correct angles. So my plan was to enlarge the mounting holes for the shafts to give them a little alignment play. I then dry fitted them to see how much I needed to enlarge those holes. Well, the Ebbro engineers already addressed this issue by having the outer steering half shafts as a tapered cone fitting into a female cone with a little play. Everything aligned perfectly.  I air brushed the Aluminum sheet parts Alcad #101 Flat Aluminum, and all the polished steel rods #107 Chrome. The outer sections of the steering tie rods are a sort of Metallic Blue, which I air brushed Tamiya Clear blue over the Chrome. I brush painted the caps for the 3 brake fluid canisters an off white.

   One everything dried, I dry fitted the front clip.

 

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 Finally, I finished up the week with masking the huge combination cowl and clear plexi which is one piece. That's really a nice touch as there is no chance of screwing up trying to glue it in place.

 

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 As always, thanks for taking the time to checkout my progress on the Lotus 72E build. It's always much appreciated.

Joel

Edited by Joel_W
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JA
WOW, now that's progress for sure. Front end looks great now and all the imperfections we found have been fixed and look great. The huge combination cowl and clear plexi windscreen are going to look great and Ebbro easily took a page out of Tamiya's book with this assembly as thtis is how they do in on their 32nd scale aircraft kit and also on their 48th scale F-14A.

Looking mighty good

Keep 'em comin

Bro :thumbsup:

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15 hours ago, Peterpools said:

JA
WOW, now that's progress for sure. Front end looks great now and all the imperfections we found have been fixed and look great. The huge combination cowl and clear plexi windscreen are going to look great and Ebbro easily took a page out of Tamiya's book with this assembly as thtis is how they do in on their 32nd scale aircraft kit and also on their 48th scale F-14A.

Looking mighty good

Keep 'em comin

Bro :thumbsup:

Bro,

  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my Lotus build to date. it's always much appreciated.

Bro

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12 minutes ago, CaptainObvious said:

Hey Joel,

You're on a roll! Nice job cleaning up the front and back wings.
The front end looks impressively complicated. I hope the model has the option to display it when done.

-co

 

Capt. Obvious,

  Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out the Lotus to date. 

   The front end can nose can be left off or glued in place. I'm going to leave it off, but try to work out a 3 pin system so I can have the best of both worlds. It took to long and came out just to good to cover up.

 

Joel

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  • 2 weeks later...

  Finally, time for another update. 

 

    My orginal plan was to paint the body sections as well as the intake Lotus Gloss Black, which I had a nearly 8 year old bottle of Zero Lacquer paint, but was never opened. Zero paints come pre-thinned so you just shoot them straight as is from the bottle. I opted for a flow rate of 20 psi with a nice flow of paint and what I call even, light coats. Well, to put it midly the first few coats came out looking more like lizard skin. Just not up to my expectations. i tried to rub it out, but for the most part only the clear cockpit combing and intake look the part. So I stripped the paint using Denatured Alcohol, then checked the Zero site for any info. they don't recomend keeping their paints after 1 yr, and this bottle along with 6 others are nearly 8 years old. Makes no sense as there is no epaoration that I can see in the level of the paint in the bottles, but so be it. 

 

    I then ordered several bottles of paint from Gravity of Spain. From date of order to my front door is 5 days, as DHL emailed me that my package will be deliverd the next day. Amazing that it takes about the same time for a domestic delivery as it does from Spain, and it only costs $10 with tracking. Go figure.

 

    So my attention in the mean time turned to the 3.0 liter Ford Cosworth V8 engine.  Ebbro did a fantastic job of engineering the engine. the finished unit looks fantastic. I'm not entirely convinced at to their color callouts, but I've got more then enough reference pictures to create a race engine, not a display engine.

 

    Case in point is the intake trumpets. The kit has them in chrome, as that's the call out on the instructions. the Trumpets are made from aluminum and come new in sort of a shiny Aluminum, but very quickly turn a dull, dirty Aluminum color. I should know as my race MG-B had two of them, and the several race cars i pitted for all had them.  Certainly none were chromed, but on show cars they usually are.  So I stripped the kit parts with plain old bleach, and the raw plastic is a milky color. 
 

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  I just primed them with Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black followed with a few coats of Alcad II white Aluminum. A slight shine, but not chrome looking. 
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 Then I installed the combination distributor and coil assembly painting both caps a Redish Brown, and wired the coil to the center of the cap. I then wired  the spark plugs on both cylinder heads. So far no big issues except that with just one eye, close up work like this is not exactly the easiest thing to do. 

    Now my attention turned to the fuel injectors and the fuel lines. Each of the 8 injectors needed to have the little plastic nubs cut off, and a hole drilled through the injector to accept a fuel line. Ok so I just took my time and got it done. Then I glued on the injectors. I have the proper size clear tubing instead of the more traditional yellowish tubing that reflects the effects of the fuel flowing through the line. Next time I'll go that route. To get the 4 lines per side to each injector through the drilled hole, and then snaked below the intake manifolds seemed like a fairly straight foward job. Well, it took this old half blind modeler literally 3 hrs to get it done!! talk about being frustrated, just ask my brother.

 

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 the Lotus ran with a massive by the standards of the day intake, so I dry fitted the one for Emmo's car. It's only painted and rubbed out with 3,000 grit at this point, but you'll get the idea of how it will look.
 

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   I just noticed that one of the trumpets really needs to be redone, so it's on my fix it list. Also the tape holding the spark plug wires needs to be replaced with a longer piece. Then both pcs will be paints a dark rubber color.

 

 Thanks to all for stopping by and checking out my build to date. It's always much appreciated.

 

Joel

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