Lotus 32B from Resin Joker 33 kit - long story

[absmiami]

The pipe has some heat shielding - this was added with some tape. The shielding will be painted red and the exposed pipe is aluminum ...  there is a short length of rubber pipe running past the roll bar and into the collector in front of the cyl head  - there is just enough room there - things are going to get crowded in the engine bay ...

[absmiami]

Seat covering ...  team lotus used red leather. Figure painters have a great knack for painting a surface and making it look like leather.  And I am not a figure painter. So I’m trying different things. Too shiny. Too dark. Etc. the fix I think will be the thin leather - think it’s calf skin not sure - coated with a red sharpie. Getting close but I’ll try a perm marker with a slightly darker shade of red ....

[absmiami]

Time for some rivets ...

using Archer and some alt pattern rivets from Micro Mark 
these work well. Try them. You’ll like them ...

[absmiami]

Rivet

rivet  rivet ...

[absmiami]

No matter what ...  there are always repairs or corrections on the body work after the first primer coat.   The second coat is on now. You can see that the rivets will stand out under the paint   and the carrier film for the rivet decals just sort of goes away - it is not visible ...

[absmiami]

Wheels:  kit white metal parts. The 32B ran the same wheels and tires as the 33.  The tires are some old stash Perry’s Resin Dunlops rubber - very nice.

Inner rims are enlarged to match the Dunlops  -  wheels and rims are painted with Tamiya yellow. Some paint over-run on the outer rims are removed with some small grinding bits and sanding sticks while the wheels are held in a 3 jaw Chuck on the Sherline.  Then the wheels and rims got a coat of Alcad semi gloss ..  the wheels were also drilled for wheel nuts ....

[Bainford]

Looking great. Nice scratch work. It's coming along nicely.

[absmiami]

Gracias. And my compliments to your profile ID box Picture / thingy ...

[absmiami]

[absmiami]

Thanks for viewing ...

and thanks for voting ...

[absmiami]

Back to the dash before making the exhaust pipes ..

the instrument panel on the 32b is based upon the Lotus 32 panel. A restored one is pictured here ...

[absmiami]

The panel on the Team Lotus restored 32b is here.  There are no good pictures that I have seen of the panel as raced in the Tasman series. But I’m pretty sure that it was different than the restored panel. -  so I’ll make some changes based upon what I have seen in contemporary shots of Lotus formula cars in ‘64 and ‘65 .  

[absmiami]

The panel is exposed. So I have to show some of the detail on the back side. Making the instr housings from plastic tube and rod and straps made from  .013 nickel Wire bent, sanded, and glued to the plastic housing

[absmiami]

Also did some work on the wheels and tires while waiting out our last ?? ?? Tropical storm of the season to pass ...

tire valves made from RB motion fuel line connections and steel wire. And wheel balance weights Made from soft tin wire ...  pondering the wheel nuts .              ..  not certain yet ...

[absmiami]

The few contemporary photos from the Tasman campaign suggest that the tire markings were painted gold.  Again not certain but taking a shot with an ink based Fine point gold sharpie.  This is some hold your breath - not after a beer Modeling and yes magnified - most of this build has been done with an opti-visor. Which is now a more important tool than my Xacto knife ....   the excess ink is mostly removed with the point of the xacto ...

[absmiami]

I the instr panel is fighting me ...  I’m fighting it back ...  the rivets were difficult to install. Would have been smarter to have used a rivet decal and picked out the silver after painting. Anyway ... punching out and installing BBK gauges after a coat of Tamiya red. With some flat additive ...

[absmiami]

Gauge bevels made from  .013 nickel Wire bent around a file to make that curly Q. Which is cut into rings and filed flat in the bottom side . ...  this should work ...

[absmiami]

The modeling gods had some fun at my expense tonite ...  not surprised ...  the thin plastic panel required a lot of handling. And sure enough - it broke in two while I was installing the gauge bezels ...  should have made the panel in aluminum or brass ...  but I can still use this - I think - when left and right are glued to the brace and the other parts are attached - I think it will look fine ...  to be continued ...

[absmiami]

Taking shape ...   the left / right halves are glued to the brace -  the instr gauge housings on the back side are then glued and will / should / probably hold everything together ...  added ignition and fuel pump switches plus oil temp light and starter button. Pretty crowded. Next is the tach and the last detail on the back side ...  this process reminds me why I don’t build 43rd scale kits ...

[absmiami]

Bezel for tach made fr .015 nickel silver ...  glued with Tamiya clear ...   dash is almost done ...

[Mattilacken]

Looks Wonderful!

[Belugawrx]

Nice work on the dash Andrew !.. and nice save?

[absmiami]

So. As long as I am breaking things ....  might as well show you the broken halves of the rocker arm bulkhead ... this is a lovely kit part - I messed around with it so much that it finally broke in half ...  fortuitously, the part(s) are sandwiched between two thin supports so the final installation will look fine...

[absmiami]

The pedals hang down from this part.  The clutch and brake are made from smashed tin solder with a pliers  - then I  rolled a diamond pattern onto the surface and then cut and shaped and

glued this onto a pedal bracket made from nickel silver

[absmiami]

Now to the exhaust pipes. 1 & 4  and 2 & 3 join in collectors and end in a single pipe.  Using nickel silver rod. .062. This is probably slightly under scale. But .070 will not fit well into the cylinder head. So this is a scale casualty but not a terrible one.  Set up a jig on the beaders’ tool Plate that Randy D used for the exhausts on his bonkers Porsche engine ...
speaking of bonkers ...

don’t miss the Cosworth WIP ...