Pierre Rivard

Opening doors and bonnet, that is ambitious for anybody and should be a fun challenge. I look forward to your updates Perry. I am in full learning mode!

I have been delaying the decision on color themes. I'm down to 4 options: 1 - All black or perhaps black with flat aluminium bonnet 2 - Dark blue... or blue with aluminium bonnet 3 - Dark red... or red and black 4 - Yellow and black Well, that's more than only 4 finalists.... HELP!

Thanks Helmut, I think it is the closest I could get to a sport body with the kit fenders as a starting point. Now I need to figure out period style tool boxes and fluid containers I was fortunate that the styrene on this kit cooperated so well. Some old kit have brittle styrene, not this one. True Daniel, big headers and I will have to consider how to replicate that. Adding it to the list! Thank you Francis. Working with styrene makes this possible even with simple tools. I like the fender design I have come up with, racy and stylish.

Now that's dedication, putting so much into components that are not very visible after the model is fully assembled. Superb machining as always. Do you plan to maintain the metal finishes natural or paint some of the components?

There's always a part of a build that we like less or not comfortable with. For me definitely engines and sometimes bail out to a curbside. No such luck for you my friend, gotta have a body on this build. Break down the tasks, just like an engine build, one little victory at a time. Perhaps not your favorite part of the build but no doubt with your talent and resilience that body will turn out great. Decal day (my favorite) is not far away!

Formidable historic car. I built Tazio's 1933 Le mans winner and would love to do a P3 some day, so I'll be following your journey with great pleasure.

The kit as tooled portrays the touring body (pretty accurate) but then added chrome bumpers and whitewall tires, both of which I doubt were ever seen on these cars. The touring body was raced at times (see ref picture 1) but the sport bodies (ref 2-3) were usually used for racing. I very muck like the Dorothy Page SSK at REV's with it's variation on the sport body with more flowing fenders. The plan is to go for something like that but maintain the small steps/platforms for the tool box & fluid containers. First task is the step, basically downsizing and repositioning them. Done. Front fenders are big and close in completely on the wheel back side. First I moved back the headlamp assembly about 2 mm, which sets up where one of my fender attachments will need to be, then moved on with the task of opening up the back of the fenders. I then re-contoured the fenders to drop faster at the back and then cut off and reshaped the trailing edge. I also sanded the top inboard & outboard edges to remove a bit of the flat top surface appearance. Rear fenders are an easier task. Again opening up the back side, shortening the front and reshaping the rear so that they flow away from the tires

What a beautiful replica of... a beautiful car. Just the instrument panel and the wood steering wheel are enough to make my day! Thank you for sharing this with the whole gang!

Starting some body fabrication at the rear. The kit's rear chassis cross bar has lead off for bumpers, which these cars never had. I replaced it with 1.5mm Evergreen. The small body panel covering the rear of the chassis has been shortened to expose that bar. I then added the fuel cell attachment straps to this bar (0.25x1.0 & 0.25x1.5 strips), and then attached to the bar the fabricated legs and shoes to support the rear part of the spare wheels. All these components were lacking in the rudimentary kit design.

Working the front axle part of the braking actuators and a quick fabrication of the 4 pull rods with 0.75 mm brass. Braking system is 95% done.

Thank you sir. This kit is very basic and with many inaccuracies, but worth upgrading because I love this old race car.

I can see you are planning for a very detailed engine compartment with lots of added components and substitutions for race use. Look forward to it. About the windshield line. Glad you think it's fine, otherwise you're committing to major surgery. Revell uses a shorter convertible windshield on the coupe and the front part of the roof dips down to reach it. Picture is worth a thousand words they say...

The weathering is mighty impressive and super realistic. Well done sir!

Lovely fabrication Andrew. Fair to assume the top cover of the body and nose cone will be removable to show these finely crafted elements?

Added the U bolt fasteners (PE) on the spring/axle clamp and then moved on to the center part of the braking system, the central cross axle on which the brake pedal and pull rod levers are attached

Sketching the general layout helps me plan the fab & assembly. Information may be only 50% accurate based on bits and pieces of learnings from multiple sources but offers a reasonable replica for this type of braking system. Thanks Alan, It's a foray to unknown territory but quite enjoyable Fun stuff, I'm planning to add brass rods. encroaching on the rules of the plastic/glue/putty builder's club. That was sort of the idea with the spring. They lack detail but at least they are there...

Love that driver figure. Wish they were more available to customers. 99% out of stock...

This will take a few days as I try to figure out what can be done to replicate the visible components. So far I have done the rear axle piece of the system.

Taking on the braking system. First picture shows the parts as supplied with the kit (not really useable) and second is my home made schematics of my understanding of the system functionality and I will try to replicate the most visible components. These mechanical brakes use rods that enter into the drums and pivot to move the shoe with some sort of cam device (inside the drums). These rods that run side to side front and rear pivot through a lever and pull rods. These rods are pulled from small arms connected to a pivot axle that runs through the lower part of the trans case. The brake pedal and arm transfers foot movement to pivot the axle that pulls on the rods etc. There is a second brake pedal for the riding mechanic that also connects to that axle, and a hand brake that also connects to one of the rods.

That roll bar was VERY secure.... for a Lotus. 🧩 Don't feel like you have to glue everything in place... it's a Lotus

Do I know the feeling friend, there's always something we forgot. Hang in there!

The brake drum casings were ribbed on the SSK, something that could not be done with the tool orientation of the kit's casting process. Short of having a lathe or 3D printing capability I will try to mimic these with 0.5mm Evergreen and CA glue. We don't do fancy here, this is a plastic/glue/putty shop! 😃

Gorgeous models Bob. You definitely had a smiling good year. My favorite is the Daytona, it manages to look fearsome and fast standing still. Simply gorgeous. The woody looks like real wood. It is real wood...right?

Agree, not completely accurate but a lot more realistic looking than the kit wheels, which by the way also have an incorrect wire pattern for a 1920's car. I believe the Johan kit depicts the 500K with a straight 8 engine? So much potential. PLEASE build it.... or ship it to Montreal! 😃 Thank you Ricky. Super satisfied with the engine. Focus is now on finding a solution for the fenders. I want to find a way to make it look like a race car while the kit was designed more as a touring car. Perhaps too high expectations, but I will try my best but mostly focus on enjoying the journey whatever the end result

Is it me? something wrong here.... yes that dime is really really BIG! Superlative fabrication. Next, next level stuff.