Pete75

All good, thanks Dann. Got the body cleared & cured ready for a sand & polish. Not sure of the timeframe though as I'm wrestling with 2 other builds that have to take precedence. I did strip the MASSIVE wheels the other day - might do them next ?

Great job! Really like it ?

Took a while catching up with this one - just mind blowing!! ? I kept finding myself laughing because it's beyond anything I could imagine. Twice the normal size & twice the inspiration!

Thanks Sean. It'll certainly be slow; fingers crossed for nice! ?

Hey, thanks. Appreciate the support ?

Too kind, as ever, sir! ? Got it cleared safely now - always makes me feel relieved!

Thanks Dann - great to see you're still here! Bit of a setback today when I discovered a whole sprue tree is missing!! Guess I should've checked earlier ?

The Spy Who Loved Me - Lotus Esprit S1 Hi guys. Slow progress for me, but a milestone reached in (finally) finishing the interior. All brush painted with plenty of masking tape. I’ve included a reference pic of a standard S1 cabin that would’ve been fairly close to the one in the movie, although the film footage was altered in post-production making the fabric appear charcoal grey: I chose to straddle the fence with my colour choice! I’m going to finish up the chassis next because the body has just been dunked in a brake fluid bath prior to starting again!! Keep up the great work folks ?

Thanks for looking in Sonny - good to be back! ? Finally, the interior is done! The orange carpet took countless coats to cover the dark green, otherwise it was pretty much just the micro-masking fest I was expecting. I briefly thought about using Molotow marker for the chrome trim, but it’s much too fragile so I stayed safe & brushed on Revell Aqua silver; whilst doing so I painted on a crude ash tray and moved the door levers which were in the wrong place. Turned out better than the bodywork, which ran into issues & has taken a trip to the brake fluid bath... I’ll get the rest done whilst that’s soaking. Time’s running out but I hope to still make the Cannonball deadline ? ?

Excellent - you're much braver than me!?

Made some progress on this one, although not straight forwardly! First thing was a case of spot the glaring error: I hadn't noticed the gaps on the door sills (above) that shouldn't be there, so I had to pry the doors back out & reset them. One side still wanted to leave a (smaller) gap so I got busy with the cement & some filler. Did the same in a couple of other spots on the side vents then sanded it back & touched up the primer. After flatting with 800 grit all over it was ready for colour, finally! With all the angles on this thing, it takes more paint than most body shells! I wasn't happy with the first attempt (I put it on too "dry" & it came out a bit dull & rough) so I spent a night wet sanding it smooth with 1200/2000 grit. Today I put a proper wet coat on and voila! A lot of work but I'm happy. Probably going to clear coat it tomorrow, then shelve it to cure properly ?

Liking this - nice one!

I already have two other projects in progress but I’m starting this because I want to get another body shell sprayed while the weather is still warm. (I use rattle cans outdoors and things can get a bit tricky here in the U.K. in the winter months). I’ve wanted to do this one for a while now but waited to develop my skills a bit in order to do it some kind of justice & reduce the risk of mishaps. The moment has arrived! It barely all fitted in the box! Twice as many parts as I’ve been used to but looks amazing. The goal is to turn it into something resembling this: Controversial colour choice but I thought long and hard about it: the car is so exotic & spaceship-like that something a bit outrageous seems to fit. I’ve chosen Tamiya candy lime green which has got more flake in it than the above, but it’s pretty close. I’ve watched a number of forum and YouTube builds in preparation, which is just as well because the thing is relatively complex for me and it would take me forever if I just had the instruction sheet. I started with identifying, detaching and tidying every piece that is going to be body coloured. This task would normally be fairly quick but, with all the bits and treading carefully, it took me an evening. How much of it should be assembled before paint and how much after? When researching, I couldn’t find two builds the same here, so I elected to keep the tradition going! A major fork in the road was whether to attempt the opening doors. It would be great to have an interior easily accessible to show off all the hard work that normally gets entombed, but, having observed the experiences of highly proficient modellers, the risk of getting towards the end of the build and discovering the doors don’t fit properly is too high for my liking. Essentially, I have gone for maximum pre-assembly. This even includes the wing mirrors: a copied idea which appealed to me because putting glue on to a finished body brings me out in a cold sweat! The gluing took me another evening, followed by another sanding-out mould lines/surface prep and scribing panel lines. Then, just as it was ready for paint, I noticed small-but-unwelcome gaps on either flank above the big side vents. I was able to close one with just some pressure and quick-drying cement, but the other side needed a dab of filler and leaving to dry. Delayed another da, but pleased to catch the oversight in time. Wet sanded everything with 1200 grit. All went quite well but I discovered that, owing to the fact that panels surrounding the lifting engine cover have some play in their positioning, the cover is going to be a touch more snug than I would've liked by the time it's fully painted & cleared. I did a bit of (very minor) sanding & touching up to try & mitigate this, but I didn't want to risk messing with size/shape to any real extent. Anyhow, she's ready to go green... Thanks for looking ?

Cool! It's on my list for future builds.

+1 Fujimi kit. They released the sub version and the land version of the Lotus a short time apart around about 2016. I'm currently doing the latter.

And I thought the yellow one was good! Mind-blowing stuff, sir.

Hello all ?. Bit of a break from the bench: "stuff" gets in the way from time to time and I haven't felt like modelling. Just came back to it, though, so time for a quick check-in. Here's a couple of pics I didn't post before my recess: The body has since had its clear coat & is currently drying before flatting & polishing. I had a number of issues to get to this point though: Although I decided not to install the pop-up headlights, getting the flat covers sitting right in the apertures was much trickier than it first: setting them symmetrically and with even panel gaps is not a standard option with this kit, apparently! I opted to glue them as a “best fit” then scribe out the tight lines a bit, and repeat a couple of times during the painting process. The rear skirt (which has to be attached separately) flares excessively at the rear wheel arches. It probably would fit if squeezed during the gluing (not ideal) but I was so busy getting it symmetrical that I didn’t notice until it was super-glued. I decided to leave it in position & adjust each side with a file, sandpaper and some filler. Using a Sharpie to mark out raised moulding areas has always worked fine, but I won’t be getting it in panel lines again! It’s tricky to fully remove and if, like me, you say “Oh well, that’s good enough, it’s getting painted anyhow”, then you might be in for an unpleasant surprise. When the ink bled through the grey primer, I entered a state of denial & proceeded to the colour coat thinking an extra coat will make sure of things. Wrong. Sharpie vs white paint? Winner: Sharpie. In the end I had to put on about 8 coats of TS-26 (pure white), with scribing and sanding in between. (Also, I won’t be using grey primer under my next white model – I reckon it needs to be as white as possible as soon as possible.) I’ve had fun researching the Esprit interior. There was a fair bit of online discussion to be found about the colour of the tartan fabric on the movie car, but here’s my very short version… Filming was done using two prototypes loaned to the production company by Lotus, plus a mock-up interior was used for studio filming. Although it looks like a dark grey fabric, all the interiors – like many of the production models of the S1 that would follow – were actually finished in green and red tartan, similar to that seen below. The reason it appears grey above is, apparently, due to alterations made during the “colour timing/grading” process of the celluloid. (The exact reason is uncertain, but I did see suggestions that there was a clash between the fabric and Roger Moore’s skin tone...) After some deliberation, I decided to tread a middle path between the above pictures and go for a dark-greyish-green. The big question was how-on-earth to do tartan? It came down to a choice between decals or masking and I chose the latter. Because the surface of the seats is corrugated I figured (correctly, as it turned out) there would be little chance of tape holding back seepage/overspill, so I decided it would be easiest to brush paint everything to allow for easy touching up. (Also, it would give me the freedom to mix up my own base colour, rather than be tied to a rattle can). Perhaps better described as a crude check, rather than tartan, but I'm satisfied its about as good as I was going to be able to do; with some chrome trim & carpet I reckon it'll be ok. Good to be back obsessing over little cars!! ??

Hi Sam - thanks very much for your kind words. I'm pretty sure I answered your question on another forum, but in case you didn't see it, I used: Tamiya x27 clear red & x26 clear orange on the back of the lenses; Molotow chrome marker pen on the light recesses; permanent black marker on the lens edges; the lenses were glued in with clear acrylic varnish - any will work, I used Vallejo. I think I detailed the process in my Porsche build thread here - if you can find it! Best of luck. Cheers

Thanks for looking in Trevor. Will you be posting your build? Would be interesting!

No way!! A man of real experience - I'll have to up my game. Cheers Sonny Thanks Ben! Yep, I think Fujimi brought it out in 2016 (ish) along with the submarine version. Cheers for looking in Dann. I recall you're an Esprit afficionado - this one'll be a bit basic for you, but great to have you along! Thanks Jerry! Just checked out your thread - I am doing the tartan, but it won't compete with yours!! Appreciate the support Kurt - it'll be somewhat less intricate than your epic builds!

Excellent work Jerry. That Lotus upholstery is something else!!

Hi all. I wasn't going to do a separate thread for this build - I'm hoping it'll be quick, and it won't be earth shattering - but I've done too much research not to post a bit of it and I don't want to clog up the CBR thread with it. This years theme is Movie/TV vehicles - anyone not taking part already should check out the thread and join in the fun. My entry is a replica of the Bond Lotus driven by Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Second only to the Aston Martin DB5 in Bond automotive iconography, it sticks in the mind owing to it's amphibious capability - and it's looks! It was designed by Giorgetto Guigiaro in the early '70s and pre-production line prototypes were used to shoot the movie in Italy in 1976. (The list of cars Guigiaro was responsible for designing is astonishing!) It was only equipped with a 4 cyclinder, 2 litre engine, widely regarded as "underpowered", but it weighed less than a tonne and apparently stuck to the road like limpet. I'm using the Fujimi 1:24 kit: This is the first Fujimi kit I've done, and it's certainly more basic than, say, Tamiya kits - quite a bit so - but I like what I see. I suppose the lack of an engine would be a particular issue for some, but my solution is, therefore, to either tint the rear glass - it is a spy car, afterall! - or retrofit it with Die Another Day stealth (invisible) technology! Anyway, I'm underway & some pictures will follow shortly...

You're the carbon fibre king!! Awesome

Super nice! That colour is perfect for the car ?

Cool! I've not long finished the Tamiya GT3 & will enjoy watching ?