The F1M Forums

A short while ago I received a set of replacement tyres from JamesB for the Heller Ligier JS11. The tyres are moulded in dark grey resin complete with sidewall markings (but not the manufacturers logo which are supplied as a decal), they look superb. So I got down my kit from the SABLE to have a look at them alongside the model and before I knew it I had started the engine……. So to speak.

I can’t believe how much these kits are now fetching on the bay of e, I got mine a looooong time ago in a remainder sale and there it sat on the shelf while I wondered how to handle those epically bad tyres.
So just to remind everyone of the great box art that promised so much!A couple of shots of the tyres, epically bad vs. epically good, I will let you decide which is which……I assembled the basic pieces of the engine and gearbox, ideally you would replace the gearbox with the Tamiya version, but that was not an option I had, to be fair the engine is pretty good, it looks to be a direct copy of the Tamiya block, although the Tamiya ancillaries are better moulded with sharper detail.

The lower rear wishbone attachment plate between the gearbox end casing and main case needed modifying,to add more representative pick up points - and painting blue, so to avoid a difficult masking job I decided to make a new one. So I broke out the razor saw of DOOM.The slots at the bottom are the original lower rear wishbone attachment points.

Before I made the cut, I drilled 0.8mm indexing holes through three fixing bolts to ensure it all went back together in the same orientation. The rear wing mounts on the rear casing so it needs to be square!The hole in the gearbox side was filled with plastic rod butted up against the opposite side (to stop it falling in) does anyone know what this hole is for? (It does not appear to be required) I hope not anyway!
Finished plate in 30thou plastic card, hex nuts sliced from hex rodIn place with lower armAttached to the underside of the gearbox is an oil tank unique to Ligier, the kit sump plate which I had just glued on before checking my reference pictures was removed (D’oh) and the tank made from 20thou, its temporarily in place for clearance check to the lower arms. Blu Tack is a great model aid!Some detailing to the top of the gearbox, in hindsight it looks a little over scale, but its done now! I just noticed one piece has gone AWOL, but it will be hidden under the cross member.I also lowered the top of the oil tank and added some ribs.

Very nice start and attention to detail, will be following this build!

"epically good", my tyres I am overwhelmed with gratefulness!
Thanks!
But even more overwhelmed with the approach: I see a late seventies F1 workshop, but with polystyrene instead of aluminum. That gearbox and wishbones attachments, just wow!!!
BTW, I owe you pics of the car, sorry!
Keep going
J

Very good choice for the WIP, the HELLer Kit. In Fact I'm currently building the Tamiya's 1/20 Ligier JS11 .

Nice one...such a beautiful car. Have one in my stash including a Tamiya Wolf as a donor kit...

Malc,
Good to see you have started this at last. I often see you buy kits, but making them is better!

Thanks guys.

I have modified the rear beam, aerofoiling the body supports and building up the ends to add support for the radius arm attachments. The rear arms (part 61) in the kit do not appear in period photos so I will not fit these (lucky because one was missing in my kit…!)(Second round - 1979 Brazilian GP)
Rear beam with additional pivot points added to the rear side of the beam, the originals remain on the front side, (see photo further below)I also separated the exhaust tips from each other – part 92And glued them to the main pipes, a new support is made for the exhaust tips - to go on the rear beam, the moulded in support was smoothed off the exhaust and the joints filled with Milliput

Exhaust support in place and on the front side of the beam I added the anti roll bar, the kit only supplies the actuating leversI tend to jump around a bit, to allow the current piece to dry, or allow thinking time for the next steps, although I will try to group the photos together to show the progression of each part in a single post.
So attention turned to the seat. The moulded on belts were removed by scraping and sanding, the ghost of the removed detail is left making it hard to see when to stop sanding.The back of the seat has no sides and the see through look of the kit seat is not very scale, so I blanked each side off with plastic card and added Milliput over the sides to fill out the shape to better represent the real thing. The sharp top edge was removed , filled with a piece of scrap card and rounded over.So back to the engine, some other small details were added to the engine ancillaries along with a fuel pump which Heller represented with a hexagonTube and rod glued together in to a fuel pump and added to the ancillarydriveUnderneath

Opposite side – I also added the bell housing fixing boss with a piece of thick card and slices of hex rod to simulate fixings top and bottomSo now a plea for help, has anyone got the Japanese F1 Modeling Vol 19? This one:-If you have, can you have a look at the JS11/15 pages and let me know if there are any detail pictures of the car?

Malc.