Lotus Europa. Tamiya 1/24

doing this for British Car GB somewhere

not sure yet what colour, probably BRG or Henley Blue which is a Rover colour

currently had a wash and is drying out

Looks a nice kit!

After the Elan, many (me included) felt the Europa was a designing mistake. Where the Elan was traditional, the Europa's small engine in back was not enough and the interior pretty cramped. The kit looks like good Tamiya quality. Good luck!

I have this one in the stash so I will be following along.

  

Looks like a good kit. What scale is it?

RENAULT ENGINE..... .....wobbly plastic body !....nice design otherwise.

The specials got a 125 bhp (ish) twin cam Lotus-ford engine.
still has a Renault gearbox, 5 speed though so i suppose it's not so bad.... made 60 in about 6 secs

LOTUS..... Loads Of Trouble, Usually Serious!!!

Going to be stock or kit bash it? I've got a Lancia Stratos kit that is begging for a V8.

finally got to the bench

decided to take the simple route, no fancy detailing..............and the old standby...if in doubt, matt black! lol

the shell comes in several pieces. ive attached the front lower bit of the nose. i wasnt going to attach the side lowers, paint them white (which was common on Europas) and attach them after i had spayed the rest of the shell but in the end it was a case of cba.
its been primed and is ready to get some top coat soon. ive also not decided if im going to make it curbside (which would make the spraying easier) of leave it open to show the engine. ......but the engine cover is a very tight fit!



engine is kept simple......not going to wire it up



front suspension/steering attached to the chassis



and engine inserted




body tub attached to the chassis

I think that little engine is worth seeing. I say no curbside.

Engine does have good detail and if previous comment is correct it's the Lotus twin cammer. Worth detailing with paint and a wash. Good luck, brakes and suspension look pretty good too!

Zbuckster wrote:I think that little engine is worth seeing. I say no curbside.

Ditto.

Very nice! This car should have the same engine used on Renault cars.

splash of Henley Blue



im not sure what im going to do with the wheels. they are very shiny chrome and look horrible. the real ones are alloy with painted black inserts. no matter what i do i dont think i can paint the inserts accuratly. so i think i shall probably strip the chrome and respray alloy and give them a black wash. i might look thro the spares box and see what there is.......some Minilites would be handy

 

Paul, how about spraying the wheels with Dulcote? It takes the gloss off nicely & gives a reasonable
'machined alloy' look.

Cheers,

Chris

Nice color and paint job.

Looking good....I've only seen them in blue. Did they come in other colours?

 

so i tried masking then brush painting the screen/door surround, next is a wash in the panel lines

 

Looking good!

wheels on, shell on to the chassis





the end is in sight :)

You are moving right along on this one. Looking good all the way.