It helps to have a mate who.....

[PR19_Kit]

That set up brings back memories Kit 

So did the smell, semi-burnt balsa and smoking styrene!  I hate to think what Mrs_PR19 would have said! 

She's looking good, that's for sure. I do like the yellow nose - serving on the Russian Front ? 

I'm quite pleased with her so far, but it's a VERY complicated job.

Yellow noses on green bodies were almost a 'works colour scheme' for Lotus cars, and Caterham have carried on offering it a standard scheme. My brother says slower cars can always see it coming up behind them! 

[PR19_Kit]

It's been all wheels and things the last few evenings.

I trimmed the front mudguard mouldings to size, and that was quite a fiddly job as the styrene is quite thin where it's been drawn down the sides of the moulding, but they both came out nicely. I PSP'd the photos of the RW car down to 1:24 scale to use as master drawings, which worked quite well, I'm pleased to say. 

I've got to add some beading on the outside edges of them yet, but the major work on them is done. That's not counting attaching them to the hubs of course, which I'm NOT looking forward to! 

Then I switched to the wheels, and that was mainly gluing the resin inserts in place. The front wheels weren't too difficult as the inserts were slightly smaller than the inner dia. of the tapered rims, and it was a case of dropping them in place, adjusting them so they were aligned and applying the super glue from the rear.

The rear wheels needed a lot more work as the wheel rims were larger than the inserts altogether, so I had to 'extend' the dia. of the inserts with some 10 thou styrene. Amazingly it worked OK on both of them, and the overall results are below.

I've got to paint the wheels yet, and then glue in the hub extensions before I can glue them onto the model.

[NARSES2]

Lovely work Kit 

[zenrat]

Sorting out the wheels and tyres for a car build is an important part of the finished look but can be a real PitA sometimes.  I'll often have the perfect tyres and the perfect wheels but they won't fit together.  Or i'll find i've only got 3 of the tyres I need.  That can be annoying.

[PR19_Kit]

Sorting out the wheels and tyres for a car build is an important part of the finished look but can be a real PitA sometimes.  I'll often have the perfect tyres and the perfect wheels but they won't fit together.  Or i'll find i've only got 3 of the tyres I need.  That can be annoying.

Funny you should say that.........

My long postponed John Player Special Team Lotus trailer came with 6 wheels and tyres originally, and I only got as far as assembling most of it, but minus the roof. I then stored all six wheels/tyres inside the trailer about 5 weeks ago.

Now there's only five of them..............

[Old Wombat]

Sorting out the wheels and tyres for a car build is an important part of the finished look but can be a real PitA sometimes.  I'll often have the perfect tyres and the perfect wheels but they won't fit together.  Or i'll find i've only got 3 of the tyres I need.  That can be annoying.

Funny you should say that.........

My long postponed John Player Special Team Lotus trailer came with 6 wheels and tyres originally, and I only got as far as assembling most of it, but minus the roof. I then stored all six wheels/tyres inside the trailer about 5 weeks ago.

Now there's only five of them..............

Just wait 'til you see the contraption the rats in the attic are going to trot out later this year!

[PR19_Kit]

Made all sorts of progress on the Caterham the last few days. I've primed and painted the wheels, well, the ouster side anyway, I can't paint the inner side at the same time as there's nowhere I can put them down. I've got most of the hoses on the engine and done some of the detail painting on it, but I can't fit it in place until cut the hoses to length.
The pics below show the bits assembled in place with BlueTack so I can see if it sits right, and it does. 

I'll be working on the other set of seat belts this weekend and also starting on the VERY complex (and ugly....) roll cage, which will involve some lengths of 1.5 mm dia. styrene rod and hair drier.........



The engine, not really in focus though.




Front 3/4 view, the big hole in the bonnet is where the air cleaner sticks out, except I haven't made it yet....




Rear 3/4 view, the bonnet hole on this side is just a vent apparently.

[zenrat]

Looking good Kit.
I bend rod in the steam from a kettle.

[PR19_Kit]

I bend rod in the steam from a kettle.

Ahah, right, I'll give that a go, thanks. 

[zenrat]

I bend rod in the steam from a kettle.

Ahah, right, I'll give that a go, thanks. 

I jam the switch in the on position with a piece of plastic card.

[NARSES2]

I bend rod in the steam from a kettle.

Ahah, right, I'll give that a go, thanks. 

Just be careful with the tips of your fingers. We can forget how hot steam is sometimes and get a little to close to the "invisible" bit.

[Nick]

I bend rod in the steam from a kettle.

Ahah, right, I'll give that a go, thanks. 

Just be careful with the tips of your fingers. We can forget how hot steam is sometimes and get a little to close to the "invisible" bit.

I did that while bending a plastic curtain rail to go in the front window. Held it under the hot tap, curved it over my knee and then jumped when the hot water ran down onto my foot!

[PR19_Kit]

I followed Fred's advice and did the roll bar bending in the steam from a boiling kettle. It worked an absolute treat, thanks VERY much Fred. 

Rather oddly I found that if I made a mistake and got the bend in the wrong place, holding the bar back in the steam caused to straighten itself out again, without me doing any un-bending at all. Result! 

Anyway, I've got the rear part of the roll cage bent to shape, glued in place and with its stiffening bars added, and I've also bent up the front bar, and it's held in position in the pic with two small dabs of Blue-Tack as I've got to re-spray the side panels and the dashboard cover before I can glue it in place. The rest of the roll cage can then be bent up and added, and that consists of some VERY weird shapes I can tell you!.




I've also glued the driver's seat belts to the seat and glued it in place in the cockpit. That was a RIGHT pain I can tell you! All my 3 or 4 different types of superglue all went on strike and just would NOT glue the belts in place, and I had to resort to that old standby, Evo-Stick. The seat needs a bit of a re-paint, but otherwise that side of things isn't too bad.



I've STILL got to make up the passenger side harness though, and I'm not looking forward to that.

I've got to hand the completed model over to my brother on April 12th, it's going to be a close run thing!! 

[NARSES2]

Rather oddly I found that if I made a mistake and got the bend in the wrong place, holding the bar back in the steam caused to straighten itself out again, without me doing any un-bending at all. Result! 

I used to know the technical name given to that, but I'll be blowed if I can now 

[PR19_Kit]

Lots of progress today, re-sprayed the sides and dashboard top as they'd got a bit scratched. The spraying went fine but the masking was a RIGHT pain! 

I found one pic in the collection that my brother sent me that showed the instrument panel pretty well so I made it into a decal and applied it to a small piece of 10 thou styrene to put over the Tamiya panel, which was nothing like my brother's car. Then I glued in the steering wheel and gear lever so I could continue with the roll cage, as it'd be almost impossible to do them through the cage.

Then I glued the wheels on, having finished painting and varnishing them.    It looks LOADS better now it sits properly on the road. With luck I'll be able to get the engine in place tonight, once I've drilled the holes for the various pipes and hoses in the umpteen tanks on the bulkhead.

I've also made good progress on adding the beading to the edges of the front mudguards, fiddly, nut necessary.