absmiami

Well thank you Mr Henderson. Was beginning to think that everyone had lost their cell phones ... In order to answer the question of what kits Joker produced, I had to locate my stash of Happy man’s Bibles - that was not easy ... but I found’em - I’ve got about a dozen of them ... so I’ll post a partial list in the morning - it’s an interesting list ...

Krylon 1 Pico 0 .. .... ..

The shadow knows ... Think P Lyons Is doing a book on Nichols and his shadows ...

Correction brace has a diameter of 16th inch. 1&1/2 in in scale

The 32B has a large brace that also serves as the mount for the instrument dash. It’s different than the frames used on the 25 and the 33 - and it appears to add some strength to the tub. Openings ground into the tub. With plastic sleeves - the tube is 1 inch scale made from detail master aluminum rod. The instr panel will be a sandwich of plastic and maybe alu sheet - not sure ...

Good point about the exhaust tips. Very tough to scratchbuild ... alclad or molotow ???

Well done .. ... ..

No. Not Picasso - Picaso sorry ...

Blisters on the cowling - perhaps for the clutch and brake fluid cylinders ? From renshape - glued into holes drilled to locate the blisters ...

So the nose presents a problem. The radiator doesn’t fit properly and it appears to have the wrong profile . So it’s been sawed apart and reassembled with slivers of evergreen. The new profile has enough space for the radiator and matches some drawings that I have for the Lotus 25 - and although there are four years worth of changes to the 32B - the basic profile of the car did not seem to change much... now don’t be worried about those poor naca ducts that I ruined. The 32B didn’t have them because TeamLotus dispensed with them on this car - although I don’t know why ...

The kit includes a resin radiator casting and a portion of the oil tank casted to the chassis casting. That was sawed away and filled out with some evergreen. The radiator has to be reshaped and given more depth ...

The rockers and the pedal assemblies are exposed on the 33 - but on the Lotus 27, 32, and 32B, there is a cover that was made from .015 evergreen sheet ... mockup of the steering rack and some openings drilled for the oil and water lines that run through the bulkheads on their way to and from the oil tank and radiator ... the steering wheel column runs at a slight angle from the instr panel forward to the steering wheel - a feature common on Lotus open wheelers - and something that most kits miss ...

The rockers on this car are carried in a sandwich of two bulkheads. It’s a little different than the 33 - but not much ... the bulkheads are .015 evergreen sheet - cut, CA glued, sanded, filed, and sanded to shape

The in-board shocks are suspended from the rocker arms and drop into a housing on either side of the footwell . This feature is made from a couple of blocked of renshape - filed sanded and CA glued to the chassis casting ...

Excellent ....

Engine porn ...

Hey Randy. - how’d you get your fingers so large ?? Ooph ... .. ...

How good was the Lotus 32B? this is another screen grab fr Wikipedia - have a look at the ‘65 Tasman season results. You could argue that this was Clark’s - and Chapman’s most successful open wheeler ! Not bad ...

On the Lotus 32B - the engine cover is separate from the bodywork - - like the Lotus 25 ... on the 33 the engine cover is altogether with the rest of the body work - Not ready to work on the body yet - but I sawed off the engine cover to check the fit of the suspension casting - needed some minor mods to the body work but everything should fit when I am done ...

Taking stuff off and putting scuff on ... the chassis takes shape with some more Evergreen strip ... and a lot of filing - lots of filing now I can add some front bulkhead compartments - like the steering rack and the pivot / brace for the lower suspension brace and the shock mount

So the other correction to the chassis casting is to reshape the chassis sides forward of the location of the dashboard. The chassis sides hold the same profile from the suspension bulkhead back to the engine bulkhead. So I filed the correct shape and then sharpened the fold line with an Xacto knife.

The scale drawings that I’m using are available on the ‘net with a brief search. They are not Team Lotus drawings - but they are pretty good. The Taylor Lotus bible specs the Lotus 43 width at 30 inches. The width added to the body Casting places it to within a scale inch in width. I’ll take that... And the shape of the driving compartment in the Joker 33 casting is correct for the 43 ... The base of the chassis monocoque has cut-outs for the fuel and oil lines. This area will need some more work ...

Now I can saw apart the casting of the driving compartment to add the needed width. Again with a strip of evergreen ...

A sharpie is used to prep the patient for surgery the body casting is sawed apart and the a strip of evergreen is super glued to one side The will recover the missing body width and it won’t change the shape of the monocoque in any way that can’t be corrected . The details casted into the center line of the casting will be created again once the width of the casting is corrected.

Next is some more scraping and filing to open Channels in the bottom of the chassis - for oil and water lines . And opening the solid block of resin where the foot box is located ... the white metal casting from the kit serves as an assembly for the suspension arms and the brackets from which the pedals are suspended. It’s a pretty good casting I’ll probably use it ...