1987 LOTUS 99T, Tamiya 1/20 + few details.

[pg265]

Good evening everyone,

The immobilization of my wrist and the forced rest gave me time to browse, take a look at the boxes... at the accessories... And Paf!

Here is this beautiful model, the reproduction of the beautiful and monstrous Honda-powered Lotus that is the 99T from 1987 by Tamiya, in the 20th century.
It is a very pretty model to which I will add some accessories and for which I do not refrain from adding personal details for a little more realism.
The radiator extractors are mounted on the hull, puttyed and clamped.
It was then prepared and primed before receiving a coat of Camel Yellow. i.servimg.com/u/f12/12/38/43/52/2ca01910.jpg[/img]

A thankless task if ever there was one, but necessary: ​​filling in holes, prints and other traces in places where they are not wanted...
For greater speed, this is done with resin and photo-sensitive putty.The pellets and other things blocked yesterday with resin are sanded.

There's still a lot of preparation work to be done on the parts to be painted Camel Yellow.
Modifications such as the front spoiler fins or the rear spoiler mounting system need a little thought...

The body has been sanded and re-primed.

The next coat of Camel Yellow will be the final one.







The metal "washers" molded onto the chassis, or supplied photo-cut, are in fact inserts.
These are "flush" with the composite panels.
I'm thinking of removing all those embossed by Tamiya.
Here's an example.





Yellow is out!
First I made a pass in the hollows, the less accessible areas...







Once the color is almost saturated on these areas, the body can be treated as a whole.









A pretty Camel yellow:

Decoration and varnish to follow.



The aerodynamic elements require a little preparation before painting and assembly.
The special feature of this model is the way the rear spoiler is mounted on its mast:
- The lower part is fitted with the double-post mast, which itself requires assembly of the two halves of the engine block.
- Then the top surface is attached to the top, sandwiching the engine mast square.
Basically, we end up with the main plane of the rear wing attached to its mast and the engine for the preparation and painting stages...





That's only half right!
So I've carefully split this group into two subsets.
This will allow:
- treat these elements separately,
- to be able to install the complete fin on the mast while maintaining the right height and squareness.



Although retained during cutting, the representation of the system for maintaining the horizontal plane on the mast will be replaced by photo-cut parts.

The rest of the rear wing elements are ready. They are sanded, puttied and await the primer.

Pascal

[pg265]

Me again,

The rest of the rear spoiler components are ready. They are sanded, puttied and awaiting the primer.



I'm thinking of slightly detailing the vertical partitions.

The front fin is also assembled, puttied and sanded.
The daggerboards, however, need to be modified and detailed, but above all slimmed down initially.





The one on the left is refined.
As planned, I've also modified the front fin.
The improvement is made in 0.25 plastic card.



The fin "skirts" are also made from the same material, but will only be installed at the end.
The mast attachment area for the rear fin's main horizontal plane is levelled:
Strips of CP are glued on, sanded to be flush with the underside, then masked off (on the left in the photo, the hand where the thumb is on the right...).



The mast amounts are treated accordingly.

All this is then primed



A quick look at the chassis and I'm ready to go.
I decided to show the monocoque inserts flush...
So I started by drilling the center of each molded insert to ø 0.3, then leveling them all.






Unnecessary holes and shrinkage on the flat bottom have been filled.



Then removed the molded belts with the bucket.







Varnish dries



A first "Check"...







The detailing work progresses.
It's taking a long time to take and transfer dimensions.
One side remains to be completed and the rear bulkhead detailed.





The bucket is progressing and is almost complete.
All that remains is a little fine-tuning, smoothing and drilling the openings for the harness straps.



I've started work on the tire tread.



The rims will be painted and fitted with a valve and balancing weights.



The new plastic-card cockpit is done.



It fits the monohull well.



All that's left to do now is to add elements such as the selector and its linkage, the anchorages for the upper straps... but above all to paint the whole thing and cover it with carbon.
On the subject of details, to furnish the space, a fire extinguisher and an oxygen bottle are turned.
I still had a fire extinguisher stand to install the finished piece.
The O2 bottle will be installed in one of the side panels.



Once again, these two pieces of equipment, both already fitted with machined fittings, need to be painted and detailed.
The bathtub is primed.
Black and carbon will follow.




I took the opportunity to cover the previously turned carboys.
Like the bathtub, they will soon receive their final tint.



The steering wheel also benefits from the addition of details. Connectors and wiring will soon be added.







I've turned the final part of the column. I'm hesitating between aluminum and brass...







The cylinders are painted and varnished.



Finally, I've turned a brass filler hole, which I think will replace the casting on the monocoque.







Sorry about the photos of this part...
The detail will be more visible when the relief is highlighted; the part is very shiny when it comes out of the machining.
I decided to turn small manos for the O2 cylinder and the fire extinguisher cylinder to add a little detail.



A small decal enlivens the center of the indicator by just under 2mm.
Here they are, installed on the decorated bottles and fitted with fittings and other supports.



The gearshift control is modified: punched, perforated, butchered, fitted with a turned selector and a 0.8 stainless steel rod.



Anyway, I've been doing a bit of work on the monocoque part.
- The moulded housings on the exchanger pontoons have been removed, and the hole sealed with speed tape has to be filled with mastic.
- The upper part has also been stripped of everything that was molded into the hatch, and the upper housing supports have been removed.
- The former location of the fuel filler valve is drilled out, along with a vent and the two outlets for future fittings.
Brass tubes to accommodate them are temporarily installed.
- All insert holes are re-drilled, and the nose separation regreased.




I didn't like the tank valve I'd made previously, nor the next one: so I made another.
This time it's made of aluminum, turned into a 4.8 rivet.
I love using these rivets to make my parts!
Here it is, temporarily installed.





The hoop requires a bit of work.
It's necessary to position an antenna support, but above all to remove all the molding lines.
We also take the opportunity to fill in the recesses and drill the tubes at the anchor points at the rear of the hoop.



The antenna comes from a Top Studio set.
All that remains to be done is to create a camera support on the right and halfway up the hoop.
The "sun visor" above the dashboard is modified and covered in carbon.


I'm not entirely convinced... we'll see with a bit of satin varnish.

I'd completely forgotten about the splines...







Woilà, woilààà!

I would like to apologize about « my » English in this WIP, but I must admit that I just copy my French WIP in a translator to… save time and paste the result.

More soon.
Pascal

[indycals]

Very impressive!

[racerbrown]

WOW!
I always love your WIP threads!

Duane

[kyledehart5]

My goodness!! That is remarkable!! Amazing WIP as usual. I shall have to now put my unbuilt 99t up for sale. 😂

[pg265]

Hi,

Thank you very much!

Still progressing…
The monocoque's various bulkheads and couples are currently being manufactured.



A crankset will be fitted in front of the middle bulkhead, while the master cylinders will be installed on the right-hand one: it's a bit of a cheat, but it allows the anchoring points for the wishbones to be hidden.
I took over the bathtub on its rear part and validated the installation on the couple that holds the lower and upper triangles.





I didn't like the "cap": a new one is made of 1/10th aluminum.









The carbon is a bit fresh, the finishing will wait, the satin varnish will come later.
There's still some work to be done on the dashboard...

The "carbonization" can begin.
The bathtub, some couples, the fuel tank "hatch"...
The appearance will be softened by the various paint/varnish phases.




On-board electronics are time-consuming and labor-intensive.
New electronic units are created.



Lots of dust, but straight, regular housings.

The small family of ECUs equipped with circular connector plates: Deutsch, Amphenol, Socapex... Take your pick.





It's a bit slow and gives the impression of moving... slowly!
The planned modifications require a lot of preparatory work, shimming and other tedious dimensioning, which I'll spare you.
I'm also waiting for some documentation, hoping to find the one that corresponds to the chosen version.
The cockpit is now "Full Carbon".









A little drying before varnishing, and then we can think about integrating the details.
The other positive point is that I'll be able to take care of the exterior carbon.
Still a lot of preparation, testing and adaptation to bring a little detail to the engine part.
In the meantime, one side of the hull is getting brighter and more colorful.







I chose to use the superb FMD plate printed by Cartograph.
However, I hesitated with the Museum Collection one, also very beautiful...
Don't forget the Tamiya decals in the box (N°20 first edition), which are of very high quality. All the Camels are supplied, and all the motifs are very fine and very shiny... 3 beautiful plates indeed!


The application of the decals is complete.
Well, almost, since only the two "elf" vertical fins on the rear spoiler remain to be installed: this will be done once the spoiler is fixed to its mast.
Here are a few images to help you get everything dry and ready.











The decals are dry:
A final coat of varnish is then applied to seal in the Lotus decals.









I'm continuing with the modifications but I'm forced to make choices:
The doc makes you want to go into a lot of detail, so I'll stick to the essentials.

The rims are detailed with the tire bead fasteners: BTR dished heads on washers.





More very soon.

Pascal