1/12 Tamiya Caterham Super Seven

[jaymcminn]

This is the 1/12 scale Caterham BDR by Tamiya. I've had my eye on this kit since it came out back in the 90s and got a great deal on a sealed kit on eBay a month or so ago. It is an unusual kit for Tamiya and they've never made anything else quite like it. 

This kit was apparently a passion project for the Tamiya engineers. They wanted to create something that was as close as possible to the experience of building a 1:1 Caterham (appropriate as the Super Seven is available as a kit), so it goes together much the same way as the real thing. Real aluminum panels are screwed to the tube frame. The working suspension is then assembled to the tub, at which point the interior and engine are fitted. It's an impressive kit, beautifully engineered and impressively packaged.

I decided to create a bit of an homage to the Lotus 7 from "The Prisoner" while still showing some of the bare aluminum panels. I decided to paint the aluminum hood and cowl as well as the fenders and nose cone in Splash Paints Bentley Racing Green Metallic. Rather than painting the whole nose cone yellow as the Prisoner car was, I went with a thin yellow stripe in Tamiya Camel Yellow. The painted parts after clear and polishing...

Next I started on the complex front and rear suspension. The working shocks are pretty much standard Tamiya fare. The suspension arms are cast metal for additional strength. Everything goes together with tiny screws/bolts. The screwdriver Tamiya provides is excellent compared with most screwdrivers you get in a model kit, and I stuck a small neodymium magnet to it to magnetize it so it will hold the screws in place. The front suspension was incredibly fiddly as a lot of the mounting points are inside the tub and would be a bit of a challenge to get to on the 1:1! 

Bare frame...

Front suspension in situ...

 

The rear suspension is just as complex as the front but easier to mount up. The paint on the brake discs is Vallejo Metal Air Chrome. As chrome paint it's not great but it's excellent for a polished/shiny metal surface.

Next up is the rollbar, which is chromed metal. The metal boot floor goes in now as well. These shots also give a sneak peek of the Dull Red interior color, which really pops against the green.

That's where we stand now... more updates soon!