Because I don’t have enough Lotus kits. ...

[absmiami]

[absmiami]

Engine mounts - parts in white - made fr multiple pieces of Evergreen plastic

[absmiami]

Brackets made fr Evergreen for the mounting brackets attached to the block …

[absmiami]

The bulkhead at the end of the frame that supports the suspension and rear frame tubes …

[absmiami]

This bulkhead master is made from layers of Evergreen - to be used as a resin master part - to replace the kit part - which was simplified …

Edited March 30 by absmiami
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[absmiami]

The frame is perforated with a bunch of holes about .040  - or one scale inch …

[absmiami]

The thin sheet in the openings of the bulkhead will make casting easier - they will be easy to remove on the castings - and the holes in the bulkhead will be easy to re-open in the casting …

[absmiami]

Turning my attn to the rear suspension - the A shaped lower links in the Joker kit are white metal - they are simplified - but they have the right shape - so i traced the part on to some .012 plastic sheet as a rough guide …

[absmiami]

Ideally - these parts should be nickel or brass - but i’m trying to make something that can be cast in resin and not be too fragile - I’m using half-round Evergreen tube - liquid glued to the sheet - the tubes - top and bottom - are .060 dia - that’s a little over-scale - but i will end up with a stronger casting …. 

[absmiami]

Not done yet - but the brackets can now be glued on for the basic casting

[absmiami]

Mock up - the frame members are square - but does/will the left hand member interfere with the Webers ?  ??

[absmiami]

The Joker kit seat is the correct shape but a bit too wide - while correcting that I’m switching the pleats to run top to bottom instead of across… note to admin - my posting glitch was corrected after updating some I Cloud settings - or maybe my phone just had a sneeze ?

[absmiami]

The new pleats are made from Evergreen strip …

[absmiami]

[absmiami]

The 18 had a saddle style fuel tank above the fr wheels and a second tank behind the seat …

[absmiami]

The beige sections of the tank behind the seat are Renshape - accidentally discovered that Tamiya liquid glue bonds this stuff to Evergreen styrene - that’s cool …

[absmiami]

The lower fr suspension arm from the kit is white metal - and it looks familiar … so does the spindle …

[absmiami]

Turns out that Mr Joker - whose identity is a mystery to us still - cribbed these parts from the Tamiya Super Seven kit - these are the same parts that I’m using in my Lotus 16 build …

[absmiami]

But if you use the susp arm part as is - the front track is too wide - the kit tie rod is evidence of this error - so some mods are needed - this was done using some brass tube and low temp solder …. The shorter arm will narrow the track to something close to spec …

[absmiami]

With the new and improved suspension arm i have made changes and corrections to the  base casting to produce the features of the forward sectionl of the frame ..

[absmiami]

The Joker kit had upper susp arms that weren’t too good - so I’m turning to the scale drawings to make something …

[absmiami]

The drawing was cut out and glued into a sheet of .012 Evergreen ..

[absmiami]

As i did with the bulkhead - i made a sandwich part with lengths of half-round evergreen rod. -  liqud glued to the sheet following the pattern - the parts were made by scraping down .047 rod to a half-round links …

[absmiami]

This part will be made as a composite with left and right arms linked to the pedal box frame  - as one casting - but more work is needed to reach the correct track width … 

[absmiami]

The track is narrowed to the correct width now - and a few more mods to the base plate casting to make a pedal box that is closer to spec -