Took a few days off from actually doing any modeling, then decided on building the Ebbro 1/20 scale Rob Walker Lotus 49b. The kit comes as the final version of the Lotus 49b with exhaust ports on the top of the nose clip for the Radiator in that gaudy Red & Gold paint scheme, which was quite a shocker in 1968, at least it was to me. There were several modifications from the 1st generation Lotus 49 such as moving the front wheels forward by 3 inches, added a high rear wing, and wings to either side of the nose clip. The FIA also approved wider tires for the 1968 season.



Rob Walker ran a very competitive private Formula 1 team with works Lotus cars, but just one driver, who was a personal favorite of mine: Jo Siffert. He, like Clark could literally drive the wheels off any race car. Walker was pretty familar to most of us following F1 in the racing section of Road & Track magazine. Unfortunately, back then there was usually a lag of 2+ months or so between the race and his race article. But that's all we had back in the 1960's. As a side note, Walker never really worried about funding his team without the need for sponsors as his family took care of that issue. They owned Johnny Walker Scotch Whiskey.

The Walker car was basically a one color Dark Blue, so matching it the best I can should be fairly straight forward. Fortunately, Indy Cals makes the correct decals for this car.

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The major difference between Walker's 49b and the official team 49b was the nose and internal ducting to funnel the hot radiator air out and produce a little more downforce.

Here's the nose section of Walkers car:



and here's a look down at a model of the team car.



The kit part.



Added plastic sheet backing



Filled the openings with 2 part Apoxie Sculpt putty, then removed the excess using my fingers and water. Once dry I sanded to shape, then a coat of Bondo, followed by Tamiya putty thinned with Extra Thin to fill in any depressions and scratches.



Up next is priming the nose and fixing all the issues that I'm sure I missed.

Joel

Ok, there's nothing like starting a new build with some major rectification works!

This should be another great project to follow, count me in Joel.

Cheers, D

Oh yeah Joel - another open wheel build and a Lotus to boot - you know I’ll be watching this one !
Cheers - RT
PS - P M sent

Hi Joel, another Lotus underway!
Great to see a Rob Walker version too. The days of privateers are long gone, which is not surprising but in the 60s and 70s they added some real colour.

Cheers
Michael

D,
Always glad to have you along for the ride. For to long I've concentrated on GT Tin Tops and stopped alternating between them and open wheel cars. The major reason was those darn next to impossible Tamiya designed V8 & V12 exhaust systems. I just never could get them dead on, so close was always good enough. But a friend passed on a few tricks he uses, so I'm at it once again.

I've got the original Ebbro Lotus 49 in my stash and for an instant thought about using it's nose cone, but then I came right back to reality The Ghosts of Clark, Hill, and Chapman would be paying me quite a few visits for sure on that one

The modified nose looks and even more important feels pretty good, so I'm confident that the primer coat will show just minor issues to be dealt with. The rest of the build is straight out of the box parts wise.

I never did understand why Walker's car had the old nose cone, and never was updated throughout the season. I was fortunate enough to see it run at the 1968 Watkins Glen F1 GP.

Joel

Richard,
You really made my day. Always a joy and a honor to have you along for the ride. Just be prepared for a few major bumps in the road.

And yes, I just saw in my email your pm. Heading over there to read it in a few.

BTW, sure hope that you didn't get the full brunt of the Tropical storm as it destroyed NJ pretty good from what we saw on the news.

Joel

Michael,
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my 1st update to my Lotus 49b build. Open wheeler are always a lot more challenging to me as everything is basically out in the open for all to see, especially from the 1960-70s eras.

Agreed on the extra color and excitement that privateers offered to the F1 grid back in those days, as it was still mostly about the driver and not how deep the pocketbooks were of the owners.

Joel

Well, as expected the priming of the nose cone showed that more work was needed, mostly concerning those removed air ducts. So I gave them another complete coat of Tamiya Gray putty, waited a full day and sanded them. I carefully with my finger nail went along the surface and any slight issue I covered with regular CA glue. let that dry for 1 hr, then sanded and rubbed out the entire nose cone as prep for re-priming.



Set up the paint booth, and since I have a jar of pre-thinned Mr. Finisher 1500 primer ready to go, all I needed to do was fill my Grex AB cup.

the results really speak for themselves. The finish is about the best that I hope to do.



Joel

Very nice finish Joel, I can't see where the original ducts were at all! Any other major re-working required on this one?

Cheers, D

buckled up and long for the ride Joel

HI Joel, that's some nice body work! You'd never know those holes were there! I've read about this kit and that there are plenty of fine details and it's a challenge to build, so looking forward to your progress -

cheers
Nick

Thanks D for the thumbs up, it's always greatly appreciated.

As for not seeing any of the original radiator exhaust openings, I was truly surprised myself. With just one major re-putty effort, some CA, sanding, and rubbing out, this is the honest results. Usually I do struggle with this type of work.

From my research of both the real car and other builds from much more skilled modelers then myself, this is basically the only conversion needed. Ebbro has already increased the chassis length by 3 scale inches for the front clip, or so they said. It would be pretty darn hard to actually do that in scale and even harder to measure it.

Joel

Russell,
I'm thrilled that once again you'll be along for the ride. Just buckle up as my trips always seem to be kind of bumpy these days.

joel

Nick,
Like I told D, I'm more surprised then anyone as to those final results. Usually, I have little tell tale seams or a lip, or a what not to kind of spoil the effect, but this time somehow I managed to get it right. Believe me, 75+% of it is the Apoxie Sculpt as it's so easy to work with.

I've built two Ebbro kits: the Brabham BT19 & the Lotus 72E, both were super detailed, and everything fit just fine. The only issues I had with both builds was me screwing things up by insisting to do it my way . I've also got the original 1967 Lotus 49 in my stash (Clark's car), the 49C on my to order list.

Joel

Brilliant finish, Joel!

The Lotus 49 is one of my favorite F1 cars. Beautiful racecar.

Looks like you covered those air ducts perfectly Joel.

Torsten,
Thanks so much my friend for stopping by and checking out my progress to date. It's greatly appreciated for sure.

Joel

Jasper,
Thanks buddy for checking out my nose cone modification, and liking what I managed to actually accomplish. Some times even I get lucky.

Joel

Guys,
I'm putting the Lotus 49b on hold for now. what I thought was a perfect nose modification showed a pretty poor job of finishing the putty work once the 1st layers of color were applied. I applied a coat of Bondo #3 Glazing, followed by a coat of CA Gel. Sanded, polished, primed, and the issues still are visible to me while they don't show up in the photographs.

My Mojo for this build of a very early Ebbro release also has other issues such as the body is comprised of panels not a single main shell that has to be assembled around the driver's compartment pre-paint, and at least on my build has one alignment issue. So I just decided for the time being to let it become my 1st Shelf Queen in more then a few year's time. Got a feeling that the Lotus 49 of Clark will be seating on the shelf un-started for some time to come.

I've decided to start another Beemax curbside model on the Steroids: the BMW M3 E30 Evo II with some AM Goodies thrown in.

Right now my mind just seems to drift to Monday when I'm scheduled for my Cataract surgery. I'm starting to get a little shaky about it. 1st I'm struggling with all the eye drops per day pre surgery, as I suck at actually getting them into my eye. I don't want to tell you guys what the copays were, but my wife sure wasn't happy about the cost, and she'll need double my dose for her two eyes starting next month. And their chart has a 3rd eye drop to be added to the list multiple times per day for 4 more weeks.

Joel

Sorry to hear that Joel, though life is too short if you think the kit is not worth the effort. Good news, though is you're gojng to huild the best little race car ever made, the original M3! I have the Beemax Jagermeister version. I'll be following your new build for sure!
Cheers
Michael

Michael,
I've already started to build with the assembly of the shell, added some PE, and primed it. Now I have to decide which way to go with the team and colors. It's either the Jagermeister or factory Fina First car. More on that when I make my opening Blog post later today.

Every single Beemax, Platz, and Nunu kit has been absolutely top quality. These kits are all curbside on Steroids. They taken the Fujimi concept and gone one or two steps further.

Joel

Joel, are you falling into the closed wheels "trap" ?

Gabriel

Good luck for your eye surgery, Joel! My thoughts are with you.

Torsten

Joel, sorry to hear this kit hasn't worked out-I'll be sure to jump ship to your next build though!

All the best for the eye surgery! May it provide you with the eyesight to build even better models!

Hey Guys,
I'm still going to be building 1 open wheel car now to every 2 closed wheel tin tops. Just lot my mojo for this build for mow.

joel