Finished pictures

Ronnie Peterson's JPS Lotus 72D finished pictures

Added brake leads, electricals (trunk, battery connections, starter engine, etc..), springs holding the exhaust.

Finishing details

Rear view mirror

Pretty decent metal decal supplied in the kit for this.

Seatbelts done

Busy desk, wiring up the instrument panel

Emergency breaker/fire extinguisher handle photoetch, painted red

Aluminium coating the foot end of the monocoque attaching the exhaust manifold and the transaxle

End of October 2014 update

 Ford Cosworth DFV exhaust manifold attached

Aluminium cladding of foot end of Lotus 72D monocoque done.
This is normal household aluminium foil.
Slightly matted side out.
Cockpit interior is covered in the same.
One side of the foil is spayed with glue spray which is allowed to dry
(the kind that can turn any piece of paper into a post-it note)
then attached carefully, starting from one end and rubbing carefully all the while to ensure proper attachment and conformity to the surface.
Watch out for wrinkles!

The transaxle has now been permanently attached.
(Cockpit detail, air intake and wing are only dry fitted)
A bit tricky to do it in this order, but I felt it being the better options as I had some problems attaching the engine to the bulkhead.
Some force was required as it didn't quite fit..

Working on the wing, got some Alclad on, finished the instrument panel and found some jackstands on a sprue..

Oil cooler, light and piping coming along.

Alclad at work. Pretty good stuff. A bit sensitive to handling. May need a coat of clear..

Top view of wing. Nearly done.

More Alclad.

Looks like a Lotus 72d instrument panel to me.. :-)

Found these parts, not in the instructions.
What are they?

Hmm, enough to make two framed boxes..?

I'll make some jackstands..

..-Ok, Kind of useful.. :-)

JPS Lotus bodywork final finish

Clear Coat Woes

Now, on finishing decalling, time has come to look into a suitable clear coat.

Since the paint is Humbrol Black Enamel 21, the logical choice would seem to be to stick with the same manufacturer.
However, right now I'm not so sure.
On a test piece, I have tried Humbrol GlossCote.
It goes on alright, nice gloss finish. seems to dry ok.
-However. On close checking it is not entirely dry!
It can be sanded, seems dry to the touch, -UNLESS, you hold the piece for more than three seconds.
If you do, fingers stick and leaves fingerprints behind in the surface.
A quick Google search on "Humbrol GlossCote tacky" reveals that this is not the only instance, with some reporting tacky surface several years later.
I contacted Humbrol and they replied they are not aware of any problems apart from sometimes needing up to two weeks for full curing.
Well, my test piece is still tacky after two months, so time for plan-B.

I purchased a couple of different clear coats which I tested:
* Testor's (ModelMaster) clear.
      A bit yellow in the bottle, perhaps not so much as a thin coat?

* Mr Hobby Gloss.
      Is a lacquer I believe. Seriously noxious fumes! Also seems to have a tendency to eat decals!
      If you are not extremely careful and apply initial coats as a fine mist and allow to dry in multiple layers, the decals will wrinkle and/or the print dissolve. Decided not to risk it

* Tamiya Gloss acrylic.
      Yes I know, Acrylic on Enamel.
      However, I did not see any issues with reactions to the underlying paint.
     Comparing the result to the ModelMaster clear, it did not seem to flow as well and I didn't quite as good a finish.

So therefore I decided to go with the Testor's ModelMaster Clear Top Coat.

This is the result:

Cured fine, which was my main concern.
Nice hard shiny surface.

Dry fit after some photo etch detail added (cockpit fairing fasteners etc)..

JPS Lotus 72D second coat and start decalling.

Exhaust needs some putty to fill in ejector pin marks.

Here's some work on the exhausts.
Coated with Testor's metalizer and making sure they fit through the suspesion alright.

Cockpit cover with window getting sanded until even.

Sanding first coat. Some imperfections are not really visible until you sand a bit..

Second coat front with front suspension dryfit

Second coat with engine and rear suspension dryfit

Second coat overview dryfit

Decalling

And more decalling, -nearly done
Now says Ronnie Peterson on the cockpit side.

Tamiya 1:12 JPS Lotus suspension and bodywork progress pictures

Parts so far:

Filling in some gaps with putty in preparation for base coat.

 Starting on rear suspension and dry fit to see if all engine parts line up alright.

Front suspension progressing..

Rear wing assembled and primed.

Sides are photoetch.

Lotus JPS gold wheels..

Base coat for the final Lotus black.

Goodyear lettering on tire.

I also sanded the tires to take away some shine.

Progress of rear suspension from underneath.

Rear suspension from front

Rear suspension from top

First coat of paint and dry fit. Starting to look alright..

Ford Cosworth DFV Engine leads and start of Lotus 72D front suspension.

Doing fuel lines and ignition leads:

Fuel lines attached

Ignition leads done

Starting of the Tamiya special functioning front suspension.

Working steering, working suspension.
Pretty neat, but I would prefer better accuracy.
Some parts seem to have been slightly thickened to make this work.