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Tamiya1/18 Lola T-160 TS


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My very first car entry on the forum,  my recently aquired Lola by Tamiya. This is an old kit; a 1995 re-release of a 1970 mold!

This was one of Tamiya’s first plastic kits as far as I can tell- kit number 10004.

This is going together fairly well, though out of the box it lacks a great many details to be truly authentic.

I set about grabbing as much reference material as possible, and have thereby modified or scratch built a number of parts.

I have added considerable body detail- NACA ducts, body pin holes, rear wheel arch fairings and the like.

Underneath, though reasonably detailed, I have given the main chassis some metalizer finish (from C1), added some roughly accurate front suspension (other than the geometry which is off due to the models own geometry), plenty of braided hosing courtesy of some guitar strings which are not strictly scale braid, but they due look the part and adapt very well to model making.

I have completely ignored Tamiya’s very basic paint references in favour of the compiled reference photos, airbrushing or brush painting where applicable.

The sticky-shiny ‘Rubber-like’ tyres were 2000 grit sanded on their rolling face to texture them a little and remove the seam, and a simple rubbing of the walls with my rough index finger took away the ‘brillo’, -I prefer them to look like they have at least rolled into the paddock.

The body parts are presently drying after two dust and two wet coats with Vallejo Premium red, which unfortunately will require some light colour sanding all over. I hope there is enough paint...

So far I am enjoying this model, spending odd hours here and there, and my first serious effort of pure scale modelling after a few years of radio control, and perhaps 25 years since my last plastic model was built.

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Edited by mitchy
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It is a curious model.

Apparently motorised models were all the rage in Japan in the late 60’s and early 70’s, precursors to the radio controlled models they are also famous for. This was originally in 1970 one such model: high detail but compromised for motorised running.

it has a basic funcional rear suspension so the detail suffers plenty. The front end is also designed to be steerable, but without the correct (fragile if motorised) details.

the detailed motor and gearbox originally (1970 version) hid an electric motor and brass gears, the gearbox end plate moulding actually retains two noticeable holes, one supposes for two power cables perhaps? Since filled with putty....

the undercarriage also sports two doors for AA batteries. 

Therefore this 1995 re-release marks the year ‘1970’ on the parts trees, though the kit lacks the original’s blister packs with the mechanised parts.

I also dis-repected the assembly order of the chassis to allow for filling and painting of some unwanted join lines!

Added are more pictures of the build, in no particular order:

-Added body detail and faults filled

-Test fitting before glueing the engine to the chassis

-Added engine details, paint splodges etc

-Body in Vallejo Premium red.. must now polish my novice airbrush skills out of that shell... looks worse in photo than in the flesh. **edit: at second glance, and compared to the respray photo, it looks terrible!

 

 

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Edited by mitchy
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Thanks for that

I remember being impatient and always always spoiling my models when I was a kid- now I have learned patience (being busy and having to find time for the build also helps),

This is actually a refresher build for me- plenty of experiment, and of course the internet offers so much help.

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@Racersonly: Formula Ford? Wowee, if only..... that looks really superb.

After my not particularly satisfying body paintjob, I sanded back a little with 2500 grit micromesh to lose the texture. Of course, and as expected, I went through to the white primer layer on the high spots in one or two areas.

I took out the airbrush again and this time diluted the Vallejo down a little more with good old distilled water.

Bingo!! Two more dust coats and two good wet coats, a few hours of drying (not totally dry yet, and given the weather I’m going to leave it until January to cure before touching it again) and I have a very pleasing smooth smooth smooth finish.

Still learning.

This will maybe take to some Tamiya fine polishing compound, or perhaps if I am really lucky just a wax. I want it shiny. 

 

But after the red has cured I shall be masking out for the white Surtees arrow design- I dont trust the 23 year old decals, plus they come in sections and I dont believe that they will line up invisibly, plus the niggly fact that they are a tad too narrow compared to the real car.

originally I was going to lacquer over the whole body once the decals  are applied, but now I am not so sure- can anyone suggest how to protect the smaller sponsor decals please?

Anyhoo, nothing more to add, and no more to do until the new year, so perhaps I’ll get one of the other projects out of its box...

Thanks for looking.

A photo of the fresh paint- the paint went on sooo smooth this time- happy chappy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited by mitchy
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That paint looks really nice! This build is a pleasure to follow along, and I'm glad you're sharing. I can relate to the lack of patience "spoiling" builds because that has been my primary malfunction all along! Trying to change that (after all these years!)

Looking forward to the progress- looking great so far!

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?

So far no big disasters - I did however manage to snap the ever-so-fragile lower ‘blade’ beneath the front air intake... a little gob of Tamiya cement will see it right. Patience is certainly a necessary virtue, slowly finding it as I mellow into middle-age!

I’ll be sure to keep posting my progress, thanks.

ok ok, I couldn’t resist....

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Edited by mitchy
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Jasper

This model is fairly straightforward, good Tamiya instruction,  so difficult to make errors. It is an old kit, so one must expect a few mold errors, though nothing terrible- it is Tamiya 100%!

Most of us like to look at 1:1 reference photos for our builds, as a model will almost always miss detail, and a lot of the enjoyment for me is to invent and add to the basic build.

The Lola was built as a motorized model originally, some some scale features are sacrificed for function.

I built some of the chassis in a different order to the instructions, as I wanted to fill some joints (not there on the 1:1) before painting, for realism.

As always, read the instructions very well beforehand, take some heed to the paint colours; warning: I find that that if you blindly follow the instructions and paint silver the parts marked ‘silver’, satin black the parts marked ‘satin black’, you will end up with a very dull colour scheme. Simply adding a drop of black or white or other colours to these base colours between component and component you will have a far more detailed looking model for almost no extra work.

as an example of what I mean, the cast aluminium engine parts are really a totally different ‘silver’ to the bare aluminium sheet chassis, polished alloy wheels, etc. Each part  should have its own ‘silver’ finish and tone.

if you follow tamiya’s colour instructions, all silver parts are the same, black parts all the same, and the finish can be quite boring as a result.

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  • 6 months later...

.....and I bet you thought I wasn’t coming back!

I have had a busy work season, now relaxing during the summer holidays.

Time to pull out the plastic again!

I have spent a few hours today on the body, and about three months ago I airbrushed the white arrow design. I removed the masking last week!

The rivet details, side scoops, rear arch farings and body clip holes were not on the kit molding, they are additions.

The old decals were a bit scary to apply, especially the ‘TEAM SURTEES CHEV’ arrows, as they have very little paint and split like crazy, but I got them on!

Some rivet detail and shading wash in the crevices really finishes it off!

Tomorrow I will give it a good cleaning and eventually get some clear coat AB’d on.

 

Thanks!

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Thanks, I find these racing cars are a model within a model. The fact that you can remove all of the bodywork to see the full chassis detail makes them very special:

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Edited by mitchy
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