Lola T-70 Mk III

[Scale-Master]

I soldered a second layer of brass to the stiffeners for detail, and stiffness…

[Scale-Master]

I set my mill up to work as a planer and shaved some basswood stock down for the tops.

I also imbedded some magnets to make them more stable when the hood is perched on them.

[Bugatti Fan]

Fascinating build Mark. That old Tamiya Lola is a good base for the super detailing you are doing to it. Looking great!

[Scale-Master]

Thanks Noel!

 

I painted the insides of the horses and the latch/locks before installing them with hinge pins.

[Scale-Master]

I mixed some enamel cream and acrylic clear yellow and painted where the magnets were visible on the bottom.

Steel pins locate the wood beams to the frames.

Ready for final paint…

[Scale-Master]

The sawhorses are finished.  I made decals and added the pivot point fasteners.

 

[absmiami]

Really nice. Now That the body work has some saw horses for support - is it time to install that engine that you were assembling before the plague ?

[Scale-Master]

Thanks Andrew.  Not quite yet, I still have to set up the throttle linkage before the engine goes in.

[Scale-Master]

[Scale-Master]

Never can be too careful...

[Scale-Master]

I reworked the headlight covers and added the seals & fasteners.  They are just sitting loose on the body.

[Scale-Master]

I mostly planned a way from the start to connect/disconnect the electrical for the lights in the removable hood assembly to the rest of the car.  I found some easy-lock nine-pin connectors that would work and made one from brass with magnets so it should be easy to connect after the hood is installed to the body.  I'll detail them later.

[Scale-Master]

I made decals for the printing on the gas struts for the doors (based on the struts I copied the physical dimensions from off one of our real cars).

[absmiami]

Nice. What are the dimensions?  Guessing a bit over 1 mill dia for the black strut “shell” …

[Scale-Master]

I don't have the dimensions handy, (I built the struts back in August of 2019), but they scale out to the real ones I copied. 

[Scale-Master]

The rest of the car has been modified so much that when I revisited the front of the chassis I realized it needed to be reworked to match.  When I first converted it from right to left hand drive (back in June of 2019) I used a "stock" configuration.  But since the brakes and clutch systems have been upgraded, including the masters, it didn't fit the theme of the rest of the car anymore.  Truly a victim of progress.

I removed all the metal rivets that I made back then (except two that I temporarily used for alignment) and fabricated a new upper plate with a cleaner look that still followed the same style.  I went with ¼ inch diameter rivets instead of 3/8 inch. 

[Scale-Master]

I used the kit reflectors and lenses for the headlights, but I drilled out the reflectors and added halogen light bulbs.  Steel and clear plastic for the bulbs.

More work was done to the back side of the headlights for the electrical connectors.  They are made of brass and styrene.  They will get lightly weathered when the inside of the hood does.

The loom for the light wiring was made the same way as the one for the engine.   It takes 18 inches of armature wire to wrap one inch of the loom.

The pigtails are just fastening features for the offshoots for each light assembly.

It's tighter under there than I expected so I had to be careful how I routed the loom.  The driver's side headlight is connected here.

The lower driving lights have been turned into parking lights/turn indicators.  The front section that supports them had to be reworked to accommodate some other changes I made too; still a little finish work to do on that.  Those lights are connected here.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Scale-Master

[Codi]

I'm gob-smacked Mark.  Too many, (I admit, no such thing as too many) great new details you've shared.  What a build this has turned out to be and I'll certainly keep following till her completion.  Amazing talents on display.  cheers, tim

[beeRS]

This build never fails to amaze me. Keep the good work going.

[Scale-Master]

Thanks Guys!  I appreciate the compliments!  

 

The tail lights got the same treatment as the headlights except I made the bulbs from thin clear tubing that was sealed on the ends with clear gloss.  Since the lenses are molded in clear I used Tamiya lacquers to tint them.

I added details to the housings as well to accept the wiring/plugs.

[Scale-Master]

First part of a new subassembly…  A few hours of machine work; slow going using 1/32 inch end mill.  Now for some hand finish work.

[Scale-Master]

This inset sets the angles for the mirror panels.  It's made up of six pieces.

[absmiami]

A hah …

[Scale-Master]

I made the mounting brackets from aluminum.  I've found in real life these things work best when they are firmly mounted to a rigid part of the car.  They should be mounted as high and forward as possible, but not too close to the (semi-flexible Lexan in this case) windshield.  As great as these are for rear and side views they do clip a bit of the top off what can be seen out the front.  (You get used to it… Like having sun visors permanently down.)  I cut deep grooves into the roll bar for strength, and a welded-in look.

[Scale-Master]

Originally I made the mirror faces for the fender units out of chrome Mylar, but being as large as they are, I later thought they needed more depth...

So I made new ones from stainless steel while I was making the Wink panels.  (Mylar is literally 1000 times easier to work with.)  But the results are an improvement.  Sometimes the reflection is hard for the camera to capture too.

The mirror housings are painted the same color as the body will be.