1/12th scale RE50 T-car

[Starr]

Very interesting to see how you make the plastic sheets take the form of a race car in scale.

Thanks for share it, I really appreciate.

Cheers,

Starr

PS: I would love to scratchbuild a Copersucar F5A

[daveyman]

Very interesting WIP. I am learning a lot from yourself and Cedric. Keep at it...

[JamesB]

Thanks guys!!
Your comments are encouraging, thanks for watching.

PS: I would love to scratchbuild a Copersucar F5A

Hmmm... it's up to you.... a quite feasible car...
80% is about flat sufaces or just 1 degree curvatures, so flat developeable.... GO FOR IT!!!!

[JamesB]

OK, time to resurrect this one

Actually, I indeed had done more work than I had showed, so that´s good.
Well, we have a reasonable cockpit and sidepods now.
The thing looks like that, with plastiline nose cone and engine cover mock up.

A joint research with Cedric aka "the master of the big Renaults" (and Alfas, and Ligiers...) led us to reconsider the nose cone bulkhead. This nice pic:

Proves the need of making this section with taller shoulders. That means that the vertical lines of the sketch are meant to be straight for a bit longer, and the rounded upper shape is lower, taking less % of the part heigth.
That'll mean that some putty will be added to the conical shape of front of cockpit, where you aleady see some brown putty.
Now on with the engine cover.
I am not as brave as Cedric, and don't trust my skill to manage a double curvature plastic part. So I'll use the old system of making a "male" cast and apply a skin of epoxy on it.
But first I need to understand the shape of the engine cover. It has a really smooth curve seen from the side...
Unlike the quite round, too bulky at the rear, shape I've done!

But that's just a first approach
...and other point is how much it takes in the width of the thing.
These two pics (one is swewed to get a better understanding of cockpit shape) show how sidepods remain the same width without "invading" the area set bu the width of monocoque. That was a usual thing in that era's designs, but certainly not in the RE50 case.




For instance, see this die cast, where the edges of the engine cover laying on the sidepod surface draw a semi ellipse, while these edges are straight seen from above on the real thing.



Another thing to be noted is that the rear of the engine cover protrudes quite a lot from the sidepods end, in the length sense.

Anyway, I see I gotta build a quite solid base to build the engine cover upon. It might be a quite "physical" thing, so I need parts to be strongly and accurately placed, even if I might put them apart again later for finishing.
Also I played with the idea of leaving the sidepods an independent part to help painting, but the latter explained, plus the nature of the sidepods inlets probably leads me to bonf the three big parts together rather sooner than later... probably with a definite floor too. We'll see...

[Daryl_Huhtala]

Interestingly, I see the outer edge of the left sidepod does not extend forward like the right side on the Tambay pic
Good work so far!

[serros07]

Hi James

Fantastic job

If you want , I can send you the Map of the RE50 (scale 1/12) . When I aw "young" , I made it (full views). Cédric have the similar details with their drawings;

Gilles

[edgarmiro]

Good job scratching!!

"Molt inspirador... segueix així."

[JamesB]

Thanks mates!
Thanks for the drawing offer, mon ami Though the dimensional chapter is quite fixed by mow, it's never too late to re-check. And I love those old drawings as they remind me to waht we did back then (well, it's actually waht we did back then!). I like the see everyone's approaches.
Daryl, I'd say it's a combo effect of the skewing of a "conical" pic, plus the design itself that hides the "protuberance" depending on the POV. I'll check, but these V6 turbos had every reason to be fully symmetrical, specially cooling wise.
Thanks Edgar! then "vinga, inspira't" it's quite refreshing trying one of those that can be easily done from just plastic... I am thinking for instance of stuff like a Lotus 81...
Thenks to all, a bit more today, later.

[RE60B]

Good evening eagle eyes friend!

Glad you have time for the RE50. I have not a the time grrrr

mine stay cool on the deck, but she is affraid at each time i approach!

cheers

Cedric

[Jeff]

Great project James, looking forward to more updates!