Side duct

I ran out of white and racing green paint and postponed the side duct. However here it is, stretching fore to aft, properly attached to the rubber tubes and to the side of the cockpit. The multiple paint and clear coats sprayed on the cockpit made it impossible to fit the duct in the holes: the holes were no more at the right size. I preferred to shrink the attachment bits instead of widening the holes because I did not know how brittle the paint job could be. Cracks or other types of damage would make me very sorry at this stage of the assembling... The duct holds by itself, I did not use glue to cement it on the body of the car, I shall see whether it is a long term issue or not.
Painting the duct itself was not much trouble, except that the white paint tended to run a bit, even though I kept the part horizontaly while painting and drying. Consequently, I made several thin layers instead of building thick ones. I sprayed some clear onto it aftewards and applied 3M compound onto the surface in order to give it some shine. I sanded the straps and painted them in their right colours (Red Gore for the "rubber" parts, undercoat of Boltgun Metal then Titanium gold for the metal straps).

Tyres

The tyres provided in the kit are made of soft rubber. It is still stiff enough to stay firmly in place when the tyres are fitted on the rims. I am not sure whether they are true to the real tyres, I simply have not enough documentation. There are pictures from 1967 showing no side markings, markings outside and inside, whitish markings and golden ones... I have not found any proof of the "F" logo, or at least of a highlited one. So it will be kept free of paint. Another weird detail: one side of the front tyres have "Fireston" with a missing e... The main "Firestone" and circle are painted ochre #15 (Andrea Color). They look golden on pictures, but gold paint looks always bogus on a model, except for metal parts. For obvious reasons, the metal particles in the paint are not scaled down, so it looks somewhat off. The ochre paint will have a better finish, especially on pictures. It is hard to paint accurately, so every area where the brush went a bit too wide was cleaned up with a toothpick. Unfortunately, that means that the paint does not adhere to the ruber that well either and will be vulnerable later.

Wheels

The spokes of the rims are in chromed plastic too but I am no fan of that at all, especially because the real spokes are not chromed. I painted them semi-gloss black but left the rest of the rim in all its blingy glory. The overall paint was sprayed, but the sides were touched up by brush. It is highly unlikely that it will be spotted out once assembled. In order to highlight some details, I painted the nut assembly chrome silver, then titanium gold for the washer and titanium silver for the threaded end. Due to the poor covering of those titanium paints, I would advise to paint a metallic undercoat to get a better looking visual impact.
Both parts of the rim were then glued together and finally the brake rotors are attached.

Brake rotors

The brake rotors are painted boltgun metal. On every colour picture I have seen from the cars in 1967, the rim of the disks were fairly rusted (due to heat probably), so that was painted Tin Bitz.

Front wheel hubs, part 1

Like the rear hubs, the front ones are painted semi-gloss black. The brake stirrups are painted chrome silver and enhanced with boltgun metal. I want them to look like they are made of different parts.

Masking the body (red areas)

The relative ease with which I cruised past the first masking stage of this model backfired in a twisted way once I decided to prepare the parts for the red paint application. I used the same method as for the green areas: a first counter-mask identical to the decals supplied with the kit, to be used as a guide for the actual masks.
First, it took me a whole week to get things right. On the one hand I am dealing here with continuously curved surfaces, there is very little aid to place the decals or masks correctly. I have the feeling that one of my masks used on the Lotus 49 was not centered on the nose cone and I did not want to repeat history. So I tried and tried again until I found something hopefully suitable. The engine cover and the sides of the cockpit were easy to deal with and the main challenge was the nose once again. I could use the Castrol logo found at the tip of the red stripe as a gauge for the width between the masks, but it had to be placed evenly from right to left and exactly perpendicular to the axis of the body. I find it difficult to be sure and the next un-masking operation will tell...
On the other hand, it looks like the decals supplied are a bit larger than they should. I am convinced that the bottom of the green area is too low. If I want to keep a white separating stripe which will look proportionate with the model, the top of the red area will also be too low. That should translate in the Loctite logo being partly on the side pods, where it should not be. Once again, time will tell...
This time I chose to keep the whole front of the model assembled before being painted. Runs of paint will give me hell for it I am sure!

Green areas

The Park Green spray paint is easier to use than the white paint. It covers the model much more and is more opaque. The masking tape was removed without any difficulty but revealed a few surprises. I did not mask the sidepods enough and some spray went onto areas whcih should stay white. I guess I will have to brush some touch up eventually. Same story at the border of the masking tape: there are a few runs of paint but nothing too disappointing. I sanded the edge of the front suspension cover: as layers of paint tend to accumulate, the fitting of the parts is a bit impaired. Anyway, that part will be cemented to the cockpit, so I do not need to care too much about the interior of it.

Front wing

Good intentions do not always pay off. I tried twice to build the 107B with the decals and twice I made a mess. I hate large decals, simple as that. Here are the front wing elements with their decals on and even those I cannot get right... I removed all of that in warm water with a shot of vinegar (I placed them a few years ago) without any problem. Of course, the second picture is the new end product with new paint and new decals. Needless to say that I am quite happy with that.

Primer takes place before nice coats of hard paint. The lower front wing is painted Camel Yellow (TS-34) first. The end is then masked and the rest painted Racing Green, as well as the outside of the end plates and the flaps.


When I removed the masks on the lower lip, I found out that paint eventually found its way under the tape (not a real surprise, I am anxiously waiting for what it will look like on the cockpit) and I had some touch up to do. A smooth sanding of the extra green paint resulted in making the primer visible on the edge of the area where the nose will be attached. Fortunately I had some Golden Yellow from Citadel, which is quite close to Camel Yellow, but flat. Hopefully it will not show after a few coats of clear.

I used decals to finish the wing: the Good Year ones were not a problem at all. Then I cut out the blue stripes from the main decals of the flaps and finaly the Burmha logo. It is fascinating to see that the Camel Yellow and Racing Green match the colours of the original decals, with more shine as a bonus. So far clear coats have not messed the decals like with the Lotus 49, and I am glad because that would have meant that another kit would have to be bought to start again (for what? fourth time?).

Masking the body (green areas)

Working on both a 1960s and a 1990s Lotuses makes it obvious how things became more complex at some point in time. The body of the 49 is merely made of two separate elements: a nose and a cokpit. The body of the 107B is made of a nose, a cockpit, a front suspension cover and an engine cover. Anything different from a plain paint job gets very complicated very quickly!
I had to assemble some of the parts together in order to do the masking and make sure that there would be perfect joint lines between every body components. The decals were very useful to get the right shapes and to help to place the actual masks onto the body.
My fears are about paint running under the masks, and I do not think that I will be able to prevent them. I also think that I should remove the front suspension cover to paint it apart from the cockpit. Odds are that the paint will cement both elements together and even the sharpest blade will make a mess of that.

Preparation and primer

Priming is now a classic operation, so here it goes on the various parts making the body of the car. Prior to that, some adjustment has to be made on the two halves of the cockpit. Careful cementing (alignment is important) goes with some repairs on the joint lines and some sanding to prevent huge gaps between cockpit and nose and cover. I am proud of what I did on the front suspension cover: it comes with two holes for the antenna, but one has to be removed. I, for once, did a great job cutting it off with a very sharp blade, as close to the surface as possible, and then sanding the part to level things. Then mist sprays and thin sprays will get me going.

Small fleet step by step: painting the bow

Before I can comfortably glue the ships to their base, I need to paint the bow and quarters with a total freedom of movement. I started with the bow of the ships. The work is not really complicated since there is not much detail to be seen. I just painted the whole area Chaos Black and then painted over the delicate woodwork with the same colour used on the hull.

Small fleet step by step: the sides of the hull

Time has come to paint the main colour theme of the ships. I chose a traditional Nelson checkered pattern for the English, even though the moulding of the hulls does not show any gun port lid. There should then be an ochre stripe at the gun deck level. For the French, I chose a red theme, a bit like the Acheron as seen in Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World.












The steps are straightforward: a base coat of ochre is followed by a dark wash (Chaos Black diluted in water). When the wash has dried, I highlight the stripe with the same ochre. The black stripes are Chaos Black highlighted with a dark mix of Chaos Black and Skull White brushed on the whales and channels. This highlight adds some depth to the models, as the black stripes would just look flat otherwise. It is just a pity that the effect is not more visible on the pictures.












The same process is repeated on the French hulls. The ochre is replaced by Terracota.

Small fleet step by step: painting the deck

Since all seems ready to be painted, there is not a moment to lose. Of the different stages of making a 1/1200 ship, painting it is probably the easiest but also something that requires some research and organisation in order to be well done. For example, it could be useful to find out what differences there are between the paint schemes of various nationalities and how to reflect them on such small models. However there is no point in trying to stick to details that are not moulded. The main goal of those ships is for them to be different enough on a table to add some flavour to the game in progress.

The following pictures show the two different models, with the English ship at the top and the French ship at the bottom.

The first and foremost step is to spray some primer on the ships. I am using the same Tamiya primer as for the plastic models. I always fear to find one day that acrylic paint fall from the pewter models, so some binding agent can do no harm. As always with primer, the target is to cover the part without clogging the details.

















I will then apply the colours by starting by the inner surfaces, meaning that I will paint the outer side of the hull at the end only. That allows me to manipulate the models between my fingers at will. I am starting with the deck, painted in Bleached Bone (left pic.), then washed with diluted black paint (middle pic.). Once the wash is dry, I highlight the planking with Bleached Bone again (right pic.).


























The next step is to paint the details on the deck, such as guns, gun carriages, bits, gratings and stairs. I do not apply a darker wash and just highlight with a lighter shade of the colour. All the wooden parts are painted Scorched Brown (left pic.) and highlighted with Vermin Brown or Snakebite Leather (right pic.). The right picture also shows the guns and carriages. I opted for a traditional ochre (Andrea Color 15) for the English ship and Terracota for the French ships. Terracota will also be the color of the hull, and I chose to have it on the inside planking of the hull on the quarter deck.