Starting the Lotus 49

I have finally bought the articles in the Modeler Site in order to have some good pictures and answers to my previous interrogations. Mr Allen points out that the inside of the tube can be inserted through the back of the cockpit if the rear bulhead is not cemented, so I decided to go that way. He also seems to make no case of the suspension holes not fitting the shape of the body, so I will let them as they are too, instead of ruining everything. Both halves of the tube are glued together, with the battery door between them. I put the front and rear bulkhead in place and kept them there with soft rubber bands to allow the glue to gel while the parts are in their correct location. Then I cemented the lower and side borders of the front bulkhead to the tube. I placed the cover at that time to give a hint about what the assembly may look like after. I could see that the nose cone will then fit quite well. After a few hours wait, I cemented the front portion (fuel trap) of the cover to the halves of the tube, and only this portion. I do not want to rigidify the whole tube too much before I have a chance to make the adjustment to the nose cone. This time I used stiffer rubber bands in order to maintain a strong and even contact between the glued parts. Furthermore, in Mr Allen's article, the rivets were sacrified to the sake of the shape and in order to get a smooth surface between the cover and the tube, free of any parting line. I want to keep the parting line, and in fact I want to enhance it. Pictures of the real car clearly show how the whole thing came together, and there is definitely a gap between the metal panels which I would like to reproduce. However, the cover is quite thin in that area and I will have to find a good solution to give a realistic look to the final product.

Finally, this picture shows the slight misalignment between the nose and the tube. I will try to correct that by shiming the right side , thus lowering the left one. In theory, of course, because I will have to see how strong the bond between the tube and the cover is before doing anything. I want to avoid any kind of adjustment by grinding through the thickness of the tube.