Robert,
Thanks so much for your thumbs up. I really appreciate it. And yes, I'm most proud of the overall finish, as that's what I mostly focus on since all my models are for display only.

Joel

Joel. I agree mine just have to look good on my shelf, i have only entered one model in a contest about 8 years ago and that was a 1/6 scale resin Vampirella figure, did pretty good to got second place in the SCFI catagory never entered again did't enjoy the contest vibe.

Great work, Joel... it has great character and work!

Robert,
almost 50 years ago I was a huge IPMS contest guy. And for nearly 10 years that's all I cared about. I judged my models on how they did, not on the enjoyment I got from building them. Slowly but surely I got burnt out and didn't touch a model for more then 30 years. Now I build for myself. No longer belong to a IMPS club, hang with you guys plus one other site, and am enjoying car modeling to the fullest.

Joel

Patrick,
Thanks so much for those most kind words. I really appreciate it.

Joel

Joel, great looking F1 car. Very well done.

Jim

Jim,
Thanks, Much appreciated.

Joel

Joel, great work on a complicated build.

Joel, what a beautiful build! As always it has been an entertaining and educational trip following your progress. Thanks for sharing so much detail along the way, it is all very valuable information for us.

That takes us to 6 completed and 12 in-progress builds at the 1/3 point of the Group Build, from 21 enlisted. An 86% participation rate is brilliant!

Cheers, D

Beautiful Lotus Joel!
I'm sure Ayrton would love to hop in and take for a spin as it looks like it's ready to go.

cheers
Michael

Bill, D, & Michael,

Thank guys so much for your collective thumbs up. I certainly do appreciate them. The build really was a fun journey as Tamiya once again produced a superior kit, and this is one of their earlier F1 kits. I would have even used the kit decals but they substituted Lotus for Camel as per international regulations.

I gotta confess that I to was surprised at just how well the gloss paint job came out. when I saw the pictures with the reflections of the Camel logo on the top of the side pods, I was shocked to say the least, as I never saw them while taking the pictures.

A special shoutout to Nick: Another F1 car where the wheels actually all touched the track without any issues Score another one for Tamiya in that column

And D, 6 in the books at the 1/3 mark is way more then I'd thought we would have gotten. Certainly looks like the guys are to a great extent actively building, which I'm sure that the stay at home from the Pandemic has something to do with, as well as the fact that the GB theme is of interest to them as well.

Joel

Wow Joel, that really is something else.

I got moving on my Reynard last night, got the parts washed. This is really going to be a lot different from everything else. I'm going to have to shoot primer on the outside and the INSIDE of parts, followed up with gloss long before most of the parts are attached to each other....

Typical race car build! I have yet to build a Ferrari or any F1 kits where the parts were painted after assembly! And doing the underside is always a good thing... either in matte black or the same color as the top. Stops light bleed through!

Can't wait to see it!

Mark,
thanks so much for your thumbs up. It's greatly appreciated.

As for your Indy car build, it's not that much different from closed wheel race cars. Just take your time, and you'll enjoy the build for sure. I'm always here to help if I can, as are guys like Nick who are much better modelers then I am.

Joel

Mark, great to see you cracking into your build here, and another open-wheeler hits the track!

Looking forward to progress reports.

Cheers, D

Can we do more than one?

Patrick, you can do as many as you like! Gabriel is working on his third entry now.

The system can only award you one ribbon for participation, but we love to see extra builds hit the bench!

Cheers, D

Patrick,
Like you, I'll be posting my next unofficial GB build which I'm starting today, and a open Build Blog in the Car forum for those members to don't stop by the GB threads. Truth is that it's really hard to follow a build, especially in this GB as we have so many builds going on at one time.

Nunu recently released a 1/24 scale Audi R8 LMS GT3 car from the 2015 season, so that's what will be on my bench, since I've turned into a GT3 junkie as I'm following several series online, and sim racing GT3 cars as well.

Joel

A little progress at the bench tonight, started on the assembly of the rolling chassis and drive train. The engine went in first, then the diff/driveshaft/wheelie-bar assembly. Everything lined up beautifully and just dropped into place.






Cheers, D

Nice looking engine & frame.

Jim

D,
Now that's impressive for sure.

Joel

Very nice D.

Damian. The engine looks great installed in the chassis, i like all the silver tones against the flat black chassis good contrast. I really like the plug wires running under the headers that works well.

Thanks so much for the feedback guys, very much appreciated. I am thinking that things should move along quite quickly now as test fitting some of the cage components has looked OK.

A bit of detail painting along the way to add some bling and brighten things up.

The only thing that I will need to put some thought into is the harness for the driver. Nothing is supplied. I'm thinking of using some medical fabric tape for the texture but I will need to source some clips. I will also need to work out where the belts were mounted, maybe on the floor or the roll cage.

Cheers, D

Damian. For the belts you could try some of that cheap ribbon they make bows out of comes in all different colors and you can cut it to size, just an idea.