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1/24 Revell Lotus


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#1 bosmeck

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Posted 14 January 2009 - 06:30 PM

I like these cars even though they look toy like. I used some Cox Lotus decals to finish this one off.

Posted Image
Chris Clark




#2 Joe Mig

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Posted 14 January 2009 - 08:10 PM

Very nice job :ok: it kind of makes me want to build mine.
Joseph Migliaccio. Karma it's a wonderful thing.

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#3 Tex

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Posted 14 January 2009 - 10:22 PM

Toy-schmoy. You could make an old steak bone look good. Just keep paintin' 'em and givin' us a peek!
Richard L. Hofer

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#4 don.siegel

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Posted 15 January 2009 - 06:14 AM

Chris, your photos don't seem to be coming up today - any problems over there? or maybe it's on my end...

The Revell kits were actually much more model-like than the other slot cars available at the time: Strombecker, Eldon, etc...

Looking forward to seeing what you did to this one!

Don

#5 JimR

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Posted 15 January 2009 - 08:22 AM

My very first slot car! Of course, it never looked anywhere as good as yours, Chris!
Jim Regan

#6 slotcarone

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Posted 15 January 2009 - 08:46 AM

My very first slot car! Of course, it never looked anywhere as good as yours, Chris!

:D Yeah mine too only with the Rat Fink!!!

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#7 Prof. Fate

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Posted 15 January 2009 - 01:31 PM

Hi

In the day, those, the lotus and brm, were two of the earliest 1/24s I bought when I got back from the orient.

Mine never looked that good. And I never could get them running right. But there they sit in a box in the workshop WAITING for me to restore them!

I was so disappointed that the lotus just didn't look right, but I ordered them sight unseen out of AHC. YOU have made the lotus look a lot better than I did.

Fate
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#8 Jean-Michel Piot

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Posted 15 January 2009 - 02:52 PM

The general opinion is that the Lotus made by Revell does not look right ...

Though this model is closer than people generaly think to the very first version of Lotus 25.

Notably, the first Lotus 25, just like here, had a very classical screen with no aerodynamic system.

I will show you a picture of Jim Clark's car taken at Monaco.
(Bud)light is right!

#9 Jean-Michel Piot

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Posted 15 January 2009 - 04:20 PM

Here we are...

25_1.jpg

On my workbench, a picture bought at Donington Park (Midlands, UK) from Maurice Rowe who is the author.

And 3 Lotus 25 by Revell that are waiting ...

Of course the exhaust pipes of the Revell model are too short, but the general shape is there ...

25_2.jpg
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#10 TSR

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Posted 15 January 2009 - 05:51 PM

Jean-Michel,
The Revell model is a mongrel, but it has its charm... it is too tall, the nose too short, the back too long, the exhaust too short, the tires too large... ;)

Did you know that the Japanese Midori slot car model is an exacting duplicate of the Revell car, down to the tiniest of details? :)

Philippe de Lespinay


#11 Jean-Michel Piot

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 05:58 AM

Philippe,

I did not know about Midori's copy.

Now, I agree with you that the Revell model is "false". Then, to my opinion, Chris was totally right to treat it "toy like". Moreover, as said somewhere else in a topic that may become famous, every artist has his own style...
I do not know how I will treat mine, but for the time being I feel I will not paint a yellow stripe and try to get close to the livery of the very first versions of Type 25 of 1963.

I just wanted to show that, contrary to what people generally think while having in mind the more recent Type 25 or Type 33, the windsreen is not wrong on the Revell model nor is the shape of the rear engine cover.

P.S. It's especially a mongrel with the Rat Fink inside... :laugh2:
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#12 Prof. Fate

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 02:41 PM

Hi

In the day, in my circles, we assumed it was supposed to be the Lotus 24. But as a model, it doesn't really work for anything. Russkit did a wonderful version of the 25.

Fate
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#13 Jean-Michel Piot

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 04:24 PM

In 1962 both Lotus 24 and Lotus 25 were in production.

In fact the 24 lasted one year. The 25 was an evolution of Type 24 and went on until 1965 with different modifications. We can even say that the Type 33 is an evolution of Type 25.

I had the same interrogation about whether it was a Type 24 or a 1962 Type 25.

Revell may have created its model from type 24 and adapted the wording of the building instruction to refer to a more recent version.

But indeed in the building instruction of this kit issued in 1963 we read:

"The most advances car entered in the 1962 Formula 1 Championship Races was undoubtly the Colin Chapman-designed British "Lotus25" V-8. Driven by Jim Clark to second place in the Drivers' World Championship Races, the "Lotus25" was the first Formula 1 car with "monocoque" construction ..."

Nevertheless, for sure, if it is a 25 it's a very early 1962 version because of the shape of the rear (and of the screen of course but the 1963 sreen was identical). Then I was wrong to talk of 1963 before.
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#14 TSR

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 04:24 PM

Russkit did a wonderful version of the 25.

Rocky,
I am not aware of any such model, and I can recite Russkit in my sleep... are you instead, talking about a clear-plastic body by Lancer? Or are you mixing the rather poor injection molded Russkit Cooper-Climax with the Lotus-Climax? :)

Jean-Michel,
We have a Rick Thigpen-built model of the Revell Lotus and it is absolutely splendid. I will take pictures and post them next week.

Philippe de Lespinay


#15 Jean-Michel Piot

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 04:38 PM

With pleasure!
(Bud)light is right!

#16 slowjim

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 04:50 PM

Nice model, even if the shape is all out of whack. I have both the Lotus and BRM sitting in the box, original bodies and chassis repopped by EJ's Hobbies, with Revell-Pitmann motors, Maybe I'll build them now.
One small point, the Lotus 24 had little to do with the 25. The 24 had a tube space frame, and was intended for sales to customers, and something to run if the 25 didn't work. Team Lotus ran the 24 in 1962 in races propr to the Dutch Grand Prix, when the 25 made it's racing debut.----slowjim
Jim Bronson

#17 Jean-Michel Piot

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 04:54 PM

Yes we know. The 25 was the first monocoque.

But the general shape is alike. OK the word "evolution" was not precise enough, I admit your good point.

And the more I think of it and observe the Revell model the more it appears to me perfectly possible that they have reproduced a 24 and presented the model as a 25 in the building instructions !

I will try to find more pictures of the early Type 25 to try to make a strong opinion. For the time being, I only have doubts...

Any expert?
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#18 Jean-Michel Piot

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 05:57 PM

Just before going to bed (close to midnight here) I had a look at my reference books.

The very first Type 25 has exactly the same kind of box cover at the rear as the one of the Revell model or a 24.

So the rear is not distinctive either ...
(Bud)light is right!

#19 TSR

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Posted 16 January 2009 - 06:36 PM

The few visual differences between the tube-frame 24 and the tub-frame 25 are minor. Both use the same engine cover and nose piece. Both use the same Coventry-Climax FWMV 1.5-liter V8 16-valve engine. The gearbox in the 24 is a Hewland HD5 and a ZF in the 25.

Philippe de Lespinay


#20 Prof. Fate

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Posted 17 January 2009 - 03:52 PM

Hi

P, Russkit did the 25 as part of the Superleggera series in white styrene plastic. Not a RTR. I only have one survivor and haven't built it up for that reason. I have been hoping to find a second so that I can field the car.

Jack Brabham confronted Chapman when he had a brand new Lotus 24 at a race (waiting for the BT3 to come on) and complained to chapman that, verbally, he was supposed to have bought the newest lotus.

Colin insisted the 24 and 25 were just the same.

And Jack responded with "I see that, except for the part where you left out the chassis!"

I read about that in the day. As you facilitated that I got to spend some time with Brabham I can now HEAR him say it in my head.

Fate
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#21 TSR

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Posted 17 January 2009 - 04:33 PM

Indeed I forgot the styrene body.

Regarding the Russkit 1/32 bodies, the first four Superleggera (Lister Jaguar, Maserati Birdcage, lotus 23, and Lotus 25 F.1) were all done in both 1/32 as well as 1/24th scale, all were molded in white styrene, with a clear sheet of acetate and pattern to make the windscreens. I believe that most or all of these were the pattern work of Bob Braverman. (It is possible that some of these cars' pattern work may have been done by either Jake Benedict or others, but that is conjecture on my part. Am quite sure that the birdcage was by Braverman).


So much for my brain cells... ;)

Philippe de Lespinay


#22 Prof. Fate

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Posted 18 January 2009 - 02:27 PM

Indeed I forgot the styrene body.



So much for my brain cells... ;)


That's why we need you to finish the @@#$%^&* book! Neither of us are as good as we used to be.

Fate
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#23 Tex

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Posted 18 January 2009 - 03:08 PM

One small point, the Lotus 24 had little to do with the 25. The 24 had a tube space frame, and was intended for sales to customers, and something to run if the 25 didn't work.


Something historic about this that I find interesting(Dokk, correct me if I'm wrong). I read that "Black Jack" Brabham had ordered what he thought to be a Lotus 25 from Colin Chapman. Instead of the monocoque Lotus 25, Jack received the tubular space-framed Lotus 24; Jack was furious!! Thinking about it now, knowing the race car manufacturer that Jack became, I wonder if this ill-fated transaction played a part in Jack's decision to build his own cars(?).
Richard L. Hofer

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#24 Horsepower

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Posted 19 January 2009 - 11:47 PM

This?

Attached Images

  • Kitty_at_Christmas_and_others_021.jpg

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#25 Prof. Fate

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Posted 20 January 2009 - 01:48 PM

Hi
Ya.

Got more?

Fate
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