Lotus 49B Ford - GP Mexico 1968 - WIP

This is a picture of the Lotus I want to build: this car won the Mexican GP of 1968 with Graham Hill behind the wheel. He became world champion that year. 

I espially like the very high rear spoilers of the period, which were absolutely new in 1968. So new that F1-designers didn't know what they were messing with, leading to a lot of crashes, resulting in a temporary ban of the rear spoilers... 

This Lotus 49B was appearantly designed by Vincenzo Bosica, a famous name in the world of 1/43 kits and models. I didn't know this until I started to build it. 

First up are the clean-up of the bodyparts. The nose of the Lotus will be detachable with lots of detail inside... 

Dry fit of the bodyparts. 

The white metal rims were cleaned and polished with a Dremel and steel wool.  

I didn't like the heavy rear spoiler struts, so I cut them away and I replaced them by scratched photoetched struts. 

The rear spoiler itself was polished because I don't intend to paint it. It will however receive some small black stripes; I will use decals for this job. 

I also found a 1:43 driver figure of Graham Hill; I would like to put this figure next to the finished model. 

This is what I have realized so far; a lot of cleaned up parts, ready for painting. 

And when I put all these parts together as a dry fit, it starts to look how I would like the end result to become... 

I removed the rivets which were out of scale, and then I sprayed the basic colors on the body. Now I can start decalling 😉 

The driver figure received some painting of the face and hands; the suit is only a base color. 

The helmet will receive the typical white 'oars', symbols of his London Rowing Club.  

After completion of the helmet, I can concentrate on the racesuit. 

The main bodyparts have received their decals, next I sprayed 2 clear coats (1k epoxy) to protect everything. 

Dry fit of the nose part; it needed some trimming to fit again because of the clear coats. 

The wheels and tires have been fixed as well; the wheel centres were painted in semigloss black and the tire decals were put in place. They were protected as well, with flat coat this time. Unfortunately the kit only has 4 'Firestone' decals... 

The 4 cm high driver figure was painted to completion. I added shadows to the race suit, the helmet was hand painted, and I added some sponsor decals which I also sealed with a flat coat. 

The red stripes on both sides of the suit were hand painted. 

The 8 white oars were cut from white decals sheet. 

I'm not sure of there were any sponsors at the back, I didn't find any picture showing this side of Graham Hill in 1968. 

And here we are again with the dry fit of the whole thing. This is how the model should look when it is finished. Graham Hill is already waiting, but unfortunately the car isn't finished yet 😉 

I added a small chin strap to the helmet to enhance the realism. 

I received a few pictures showing Hill's back from some of my good friends, so I added a 'Firestone' sponsor on Hill's back. 

The interior of the monocoque has been painted, now we can start to assemble the front suspension. 

These are all the white metal parts which will together form the front suspension, once completed. 

I decided not to use the steering shaft because it's overdimensioned. I used metal wire instead, as I did for some other parts. 

Here you see the application of the metal wire as a steering shaft, as well as the radiator supports which I replaced as well. The white metal cooling pipes have been replaced by scratched parts because they were too bent and impossible to straithen. 

I'm still not sure if the car will be presented open like this or with the nose part on top. The problem is not the level of detail, but the model has been designed the wrong way: the front spoiler should be attached to the car when the nose is detached. 

I made some progress, building parts inside the cockpit. 

The dashboard was upgraded with some spare dial decals, some wiring and a few switches. 

The steering shaft was replaced by a thinner specimen, and the gear lever was replaced as well. 

The kit roll bars were thrown away and replaced by scratched metal wire roll bars. 

Overview of the Lotus so far. Next up will be the engine. 

The basic engine parts have been assembled. 

The engine block and some of the suspension parts have been in basic colors. 

The white metal rear exhaust supports have been replaced by thin metal wire supports. 

Dry fit of the Lotus with wheels attached. 

And this is how it looks with the nose part in place. 

I continued working on the engine. 

The engine is as good as ready now. 

What I still have to do is fix the spark plug wiring, and add some weathering. 

When the engine will be finished I still have to fix the gigantic real spoiler, and the windscreen.