Lotus 32B from Resin Joker 33 kit - long story

[Art Laski]

Neat project, Andrew! I like the fab work you've done so far.

 

-Art

[absmiami]

Most of!these parts will get a few changes but everything will fit and all of these parts have pegs that will hold them in place after painting And glueing ...

and thanks to mr L ...

[Justin Porter]

Loving seeing these updates to an older resin kit. Probably one of my favorite forms of modeling is builders who look at a part and just say "That doesn't look like the real thing" and then proceed just as you do.

[absmiami]

Yup 

don’t you hate the castings that have 3 or  4 parts cast as one  -  with each part intended it have a different color or finish

how many engine blocks do you own that have a lump cast into it that is supposed to be the starter motor ...??    that’s how scratch building starts - but you probably already knew  that ...

[absmiami]

Exhibit A  ...

[absmiami]

So if you’ve shelled out lots of cash for Tamiya’s 300 sl kit you know what I mean.  While it is a very good kit   T could have casted a stand alone starter to place into the base of the engine block. Not asking too much - how bout it, T. ??   There, rant over - I feel better now ...

[Justin Porter]

On 9/22/2020 at 1:30 PM, absmiami said:

So if you’ve shelled out lots of cash for Tamiya’s 300 sl kit you know what I mean.  While it is a very good kit   T could have casted a stand alone starter to place into the base of the engine block. Not asking too much - how bout it, T. ??   There, rant over - I feel better now ...

I have a Studebaker Avanti project that I got totally burned out on because I was trying to do things like correct a molded in starter and remove ejector pin marks in chrome parts and on and on down the list. 

And I adore the Studebaker Avanti as a gorgeous car but just couldn't keep beating my head against the wall that was the AMT kit with my tools and techniques at the time. 

[absmiami]

You are referring to the old Revell ?  Kit ??  Don’t give up. It was very detailed and has great potential. And one of my favorite cars. 
more on the engine. -  the 32B used side draft Webers  - which was the general choice for the Climax FPF.   I’m using some castings of a Weber that I made years ago.  

[absmiami]

When I made the master - I made the body of the carb just a little too tall .  So I’m performing a Weber lobotomy.  I sawed the cap off  -  sanded away about .020 -  and then epoxied the cap back on - and then the same on the second carb.  

[absmiami]

The carbs will be pegged into an air box that team Lotus used in the Tasman series ...

[absmiami]

The air box is not used on the restored car. - and it’s a safe bet that the actual air box was binned at the end of the season - or when the 32B was sold to an Australian privateer at the end of the season. But there are a handful of photos available online  -  and the design was a pre-cursor of the air boxes used on the Ford DOHC  Indy winner 6 months later.

[absmiami]

Before painting I’m adding dozens of bolts to the block and the cyl head.  Doing this now so I can limit my handling of these parts once they are painted.  Using .020 and .025 bolt heads and nuts  from RB motion, Master Club - those are the plastic bolts on the exhaust manifold flanges.  These are really very sharp castings. Some scale hardware bolts also used.  

[absmiami]

Bout ready to do some painting ...

[absmiami]

Valve covers and fuel pump...

the valve covers are drilled and prepped for a bunch of bolts ...  the fuel pump is made fro evergreen stock. -  based on photos of a pump that I took on a different climax engine. -  the restored car appears to use a slightly different pump - but it’s hard to know what the arrangement was for the Tasman season so I’m winging it ...

[absmiami]

Using my last stock of 0.5 mm bolts. -will there be more ?  I’ll try to find out ....  also using RB motion hardware and resin 3D printed bolts  - these are tiny and with very fine detailed. -  I’ll paint them with a mix of floquil colors for a gun metal finish ...And some brass for contrast ...

[absmiami]

The paint finish on the block is Alcad semi-matte aluminum. Might be a little too dull - not sure - but I’ll paint the engine accessories with a brighter finish to contrast ... the valve covers are painted with hardware store flat black - again it’s impossible to know what exact shade is correct ...

[absmiami]

Using my last stock of 0.5 mm bolts. -will there be more ?  I’ll try to find out ....  also using RB motion hardware and resin 3D printed bolts  - these are tiny and with very fine detailed. -  I’ll paint them with a mix of floquil colors for a gun metal finish ...And some brass for contrast ...

[absmiami]

RB has some acorn nuts in his catalog [ does anyone under the age of thirty know what a catalog is ?]    He probably is too busy filling pandemic orders to have time for custom work at this time -  but a number of years ago he made me some custom acorns with a small sleeve. These are correct for the cylinder head nuts on the climax .  Thank you mr Bentley ...

[absmiami]

The roll bar is braced to the top of the engine - so I’m making the brackets on the cyl head and at the peak of the roll bar for this assembly.  Using RB motion components here too - including some of those rod ends that dandy d is putting to great use on his hot rod Porsche ...  rb makes these in three or four sizes. I’m using an intermediate size here. -  think it .47 ... 

[absmiami]

And it time to mask and paint the gear box. Using 3M parafilm  and Alcad aluminum, polished steel, and magnesium is next ...

[absmiami]

Master club bolts on the gearbox cover - .08 size -  with some sharpie silver - looks a little too flat. - might finish these with a molotov ink pen ...

[absmiami]

And some detailing on the Weber’s ....

[absmiami]

The 4 plug wires are cut from some railroad accessory pick up wire - I like the finish. Real flat and the .015 thickness ...  the plug boots are made from .034 brass tube and finished with a black sharpie. And glued into the cyl head at an angle ...

[absmiami]

The water return pipe ...  the run forward is different on the 32B because the sides of the monocoque are slimmer than the 33 ...  so I can’t use the cast part. It’s replaced with a part that I’ll make with styrene tube with a copper insert - so I can bend it around the fuel filling pipe ...  the styrene was sold by a model railroad outfit called contrail. These aren’t sold anymore. There is probably something similar but I haven’t found it

[absmiami]

The aluminum wire bending jig is Randy D’s fault ...  sold on amazon

and/or eBay.