1976 Lotus Esprit S1 [1/24 Fujimi]

[Pete75]

My latest completion. I used the 2016 Fujimi kit as part of the 2020 Cannonball Run group build. Exterior sprayed with Tamiya cans, then sanded & polished; interior brush painted using mixes of Revell Aqua. More build details at WIP thread.

Questions/comments welcome. Thanks for looking ??

[cobraman]

Nicely done !

[Tommy124]

That license plate looks familiar... Bond, James Bond... I was 8 or 9 years old when I watched "The Spy who loved me" in the cinema. So you'd imagine this car made a great impression on me back then, and it still does. Your build is a great model of that car!

Btw, I really hope someone will do the '81 Esprit turbo kit someday, too. Maybe Hasegawa...?

[Belugawrx]

Nice job on the Bond car Pete, see you at the starting line??

[Spottedlaurel]

Very sharp build. With the white paint and black trim you have nowhere to hide, it looks great.

Pleasing for me to see something built with a Norfolk registration.

[Bainford]

Nice looking Esprit. The S1 is my favourite of the breed, and they look best in white. The Fujimi kit captures the subtleties of the body lines nicely, and you've done a great job getting it together. Good work on the stance, too. Nicely done.

[grodudulle77]

Your model is very neat, and the pics too ! Very nice work !! ??

[Pete75]

6 hours ago, cobraman said:

Nicely done !

 

38 minutes ago, grodudulle77 said:

Your model is very neat, and the pics too ! Very nice work !! ??

Thanks guys, appreciate it ??

[Pete75]

5 hours ago, Tommy124 said:

That license plate looks familiar... Bond, James Bond... I was 8 or 9 years old when I watched "The Spy who loved me" in the cinema. So you'd imagine this car made a great impression on me back then, and it still does. Your build is a great model of that car!

Btw, I really hope someone will do the '81 Esprit turbo kit someday, too. Maybe Hasegawa...?

Thanks very much Tommy. I remember having a diecast model of the submarine version that fired (and quickly lost!) little plastic missiles. This was before my first Bond cinema experience, which was Octopussy in 1983: this only had an Alfa Romeo 155 which, although cool, doesn't compare to the Lotus! I totally agree about the Esprit Turbo, someone really should do a kit as it was awesome! ?

[Pete75]

5 hours ago, Belugawrx said:

Nice job on the Bond car Pete, see you at the starting line??

Thank you sir. Not a patch on your awesome Cobra: that's really something! ?

[e30lover]

Very clean build! It's pain in the ass to get the crisp masking and panel line accents on white body, but you've done an amazing job. And that interior is one of the cleanest brush work that I've seen!
 

[Pete75]

6 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Very sharp build. With the white paint and black trim you have nowhere to hide, it looks great.

Pleasing for me to see something built with a Norfolk registration.

Thanks Nigel - I see you are a local! I had to look it up, I didn't know PW was the old code for Norwich. ?

For any non Brits that may be curious, UK plates used to start with 3 letters, the first indicating the year of registration and the second two the place. PPW indicates 1975 and Norwich, which is the nearest city to Lotus HQ in the county of Norfolk. I also discovered that if the car had been registered in Guildford, it would've been PPK... ?

[Pete75]

2 hours ago, Bainford said:

Nice looking Esprit. The S1 is my favourite of the breed, and they look best in white. The Fujimi kit captures the subtleties of the body lines nicely, and you've done a great job getting it together. Good work on the stance, too. Nicely done.

Thanks Trevor, much appreciated. The stance turned out better than I had thought, but I'm sure you're right about the wheel dimensions being a bit off. Before I started, I think I would've chosen the Esprit Turbo as my favourite (more masculine etc.) but this build has converted to the S1: Guigiaro's original lines have such elegance that I don't think they needed messing with! ?

[Pete75]

50 minutes ago, e30lover said:

Very clean build! It's pain in the ass to get the crisp masking and panel line accents on white body, but you've done an amazing job. And that interior is one of the cleanest brush work that I've seen!
 

Thanks very much Chang! Although the interior was tricky, I was delighted to discover that the windscreen affords a full view of the cabin, right down to the carpet; so at least all the work isn't wasted!?

[Funkychiken]

Pete, this build looks amazing, very sharp!, you'd never know the interior was brush painted, its so smooth...

[Pete75]

30 minutes ago, Funkychiken said:

Pete, this build looks amazing, very sharp!, you'd never know the interior was brush painted, its so smooth...

Cheers Atin! The good thing about brushing, I've discovered, is you can sand the surface back & touch up as many times as you like ?

[PappyD340]

Looks great!

[Venom]

Hi Peter... I love these little Lotus four bangers...Awesome cars! You did a really excellent, clean job on this. Beautiful work!

Added note: I like the backdrop as well. I’m not always a fan of details in the background, but yours is tasteful, simple and authentic looking... goes well with that era of car.

Edited November 22, 2020 by Venom

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[Classicgas]

Well done.

[Pete75]

On 11/20/2020 at 10:45 PM, PappyD340 said:

Looks great!

 

6 hours ago, ChrisR said:

Looks great!

 

2 hours ago, Classicgas said:

Well done.

Thanks guys, appreciate it ?

[Pete75]

14 hours ago, Venom said:

Hi Peter... I love these little Lotus four bangers...Awesome cars! You did a really excellent, clean job on this. Beautiful work!

Added note: I like the backdrop as well. I’m not always a fan of details in the background, but yours is tasteful, simple and authentic looking... goes well with that era of car.

Thanks very much Josh?. I'm especially pleased you like my new collapsible diorama that I used here for the first time; the retro UK signs might not totally suit most other builds, but they do fit the Lotus at least!

[doorsovdoon]

Super clean build, very nicely done. Those door handles are pinched from the Morris Marina, but don't mention that to Esprit owners, they get jealous;) xD

[Pete75]

3 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

Super clean build, very nicely done. Those door handles are pinched from the Morris Marina, but don't mention that to Esprit owners, they get jealous;) xD

? Thanks Gareth! The handles are not a selling point, that's for sure. At least the 007 model didn't have the "deluxe" chrome effect Marina handles that appeared soon afterwards! 

[disconovaman]

I'm impressed with the simplicity of the kit and how you were able to add so much detail to it... Awesome build and Great execution. It represents the movie, and also looks excellent with the other builds in the "Starting Line" finished builds thread!