Lotus 79 1979 WIP

Making good progress on Lotus build. Masked and painted all areas needed to be black. I have no reference pictures for inside of the body, so I used my own discretion and painted it all black. It seemed to go well until I started to remove masking tape. Tape lifted clear coat a bit in few places. Unfortunately one is on rear engine cover is quite visible. Don't know what to do with that now. I guess I will have to leave with it and make sure I clean parts better after decal application next time. I'm having more issues with this build compared to F60. It isn't that smooth at all.


Next I installed radiators. Then worked on seat belts and finally put seat in place. I just used kit PE parts and "plastic" like belt material. They look Ok, but for my detailed build of 1978 car I will most likely use different material, more realistic and closer to real car.


I then went on to install dashboard, gearbox and rear sway bar adjustment levers and both fire extinguishers. Basically put everything in place before I can close monococque with top panels.


Installed front body panels and closed monococque. I don't think it is like that on a real car, but probably the only way to design model kit, so internals could be installed easily. It's all practically finished. I plan to polish clear coat on the body panels and try to get rid of some contamination. Then only wheels and tires will be left to finish this model off. And steering wheel and refinished velocity stacks of course.


Enjoyable kit of great car, but not without issues. I'm a bit surprised by those issues after F60 went together easily and cleanly.

Tamiya Lotus 79 1979 WIP

Mated engine/gearbox with monococque. That's was first time for last two builds of Tamiya kits when I got an issue. Under body panels do not fit very well because of interference with exhaust pipes. I might have done something wrong, but I'm not sure what. Had a bit of struggle to align engine and body parallel to the ground. Had to remove some plastic here and there. Finally got it ok, but in the process of multiple test fittings I've rubbed some Alclad paint of. Now I have to fix edges on monococque and re-paint engine trumpets. Alclad's own enamel black base does not work that well for me. I found Tamiya TS-14 to provide better base for Alclad metallic paints. Will use TS-14 from now on.



This is how it looks right now with body panel temporary on. Body panels still need to be painted black inside. Then I will attach the remaining detail parts. Last part will be wheels and tires. I plan to try using tire stencil again. According to other modelers tire markings on cars from that era weren't crisp and were made via real size stencils. Hopefully I will have better luck compare to markings on modern tires.