Colours for the Lotus 107

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Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by TvD »

I need a bit of help on deciding what colours to use for the 1/20 Tamiya Lotus 107:
104546-10911-pristine.jpg
104546-10911-pristine.jpg (37.11 KiB) Viewed 424 times
I found a couple of older posts here about what colours to use but those are over 5 years old and they mainly talk about what TS-cans you can use. As I mainly use Zero Paints I'd rather try finding out what paints to get from them. I will only be needing to airbrush the main green and yellow as the darker "striping" will be decals.

Sooooo, any suggestions?
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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by Scaleautoperfect »

Hello,

For the green ypu can use the Castrol green ZP-1261 but for the yellow maybe ZP-1147 ( but I'm not sure about it).
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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by eyckles »

Maybe Park Green and Chrome Yellow
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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by CTurbert »

I just acquired the 102D which has the same coloring (I think) and I read that TS-16 and TS-35 are close matches, however it doesn't sound like you want to use TS sprays so I doubt that was helpful :)

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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by TvD »

CTurbert wrote:I just acquired the 102D which has the same coloring (I think) and I read that TS-16 and TS-35 are close matches, however it doesn't sound like you want to use TS sprays so I doubt that was helpful :)
Well, most TS paints are available from Zero paints as well, so it does help. TS35 is Park Green which is name a lot for this car which helps confirm what I was thinking as well.

Not sure about the chrome yellow suggestions though, pretty sure it was a "flat" colour, no chrome or metal effects in any of the close up pics I have seen so far.
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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by R.Wells »

TS-16 is a Bright Yellow, not Chrome Yellow, which is more of an "orange yellow". I have build this kit, and used TS-16 for the yellow.
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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by Steffen_T »

That's the question that also prevented me from building the 102D and the 107.
If you take a closer look on the photo on the frontpage of the 102D instruction you may notice that the builder of that car did not use the large green decals, but cutted out the logos: Between the letters you can see different shades of green, which indicates that the real Lotus 102D green was not available by Tamiya back in 1992.

A few years ago there was an F1-exhibition in the city half an hour away from me also containing this "Frankenstein":
Image
Despite the car being a mix of all Lotus 102 versions at least the yellow colors seemed to be real. I am not sure about the green. I tried to compare them with a RAL colorchart but I couldn't find a match for any of the 4 colors! :x

TS16 is to bright in my opinion:
Image

And here is a close-up of the "BP green".
Image

Remember:
When the Lotus 107 was introduced it was still sponsored by BP. Castrol joined Lotus for the British Grand Prix. The green color might have changed at that time too I could imagine...

I fear the only chance to get the correct color is to locate one of the original cars and compare it with a proper colorchart.
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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by SteveNoble »

TvD wrote:
CTurbert wrote:I just acquired the 102D which has the same coloring (I think) and I read that TS-16 and TS-35 are close matches, however it doesn't sound like you want to use TS sprays so I doubt that was helpful :)
Well, most TS paints are available from Zero paints as well, so it does help. TS35 is Park Green which is name a lot for this car which helps confirm what I was thinking as well.

Not sure about the chrome yellow suggestions though, pretty sure it was a "flat" colour, no chrome or metal effects in any of the close up pics I have seen so far.
Chrome yellow is not metal flake or chrome. It's just a normal, straight gloss yellow. It's actually used on the Tamiya Benetton B192. I think Ts-16 is too light/bright for the Lotus. I used it on my Williams Fw13b and it's quite a sharp bright yellow.
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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by MoFo »

'Chrome Yellow' = lead chromate. It's named after the compound it derives its colour from (like cadmium yellow,
or phthalo blue), not the metal coating process. It's basically 'school bus yellow'.
Steffen_T wrote:Remember:
When the Lotus 107 was introduced it was still sponsored by BP. Castrol joined Lotus for the British Grand Prix. The green color might have changed at that time too I could imagine...
I wonder if it'd help to look at BP's corporate colour guide. Although I guess you'd have to source an old guide, since the colours probably changed with the re-design. Still, it's a start: http://www.jones-blair.com/reimaging/Si ... r-standard

Of course, there is also the problem of, what are the real colours, what are the available hobby colours, and what are the colours used on the decals. And it's highly unlikely that you'll find a match for all three variables.
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Re: Colours for the Lotus 107

Post by stubeck »

Figure bumping this up is better than starting new. I'm starting on a few 90s Lotus cars soon, starting with the Lotus 102D, and am curious what peoples thoughts are for Tamiya colors with the Shunko decal sheet for these cars? I know Zero has a set, but those can be a pain to get, so if I can get them from my local hobby shop instead I'd prefer to just do that.
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