My Tamiya Lotus 102B was the second Tamiya 1:20 scale F1 model kit that I completed, after the Tyrrell 020, and I finished it in 2012. I can’t remember where I bought it, probably on eBay as I don’t believe it’s been re-released unlike many of the other Tamiya F1 cars. In fact, that probably puts the 102B in pretty rare company, alongside the Leyton House and possibly a few others.

Tamiya’s love affair with Lotus in the early 1990s started with the 102B kit, in no small part due to the presence of Tamiya logos on the front wing and the rear wing endplates of the race car. The 102D, 107 and 107B kits would all follow.

In keeping with my preference for more obscure F1 kits, the Tamiya Lotus 102B was a pretty poor subject, managing a paltry three world championship points during 1991. It’s not quite the worst-performing Lotus kit made by Tamiya. That honour goes to the 102D which only managed to score two points. In 1991 the 102B was driven by four men during the season. One car was for up-and-coming rookie Mika Hakkinen, who had won the British F3 title in 1990. The second car was shared between pay drivers Julian Bailey and Michael Bartels, and Johnny Herbert as he tried to rebuild his F1 career.

Tamiya Lotus 102B box art
Tamiya Lotus 102B box art (photo pinched from scalemates.com)

Building a Tamiya Lotus 102B

In line with my other early builds, unfortunately I don’t have many pictures or notes from when I built the 102B kit. I picked it for the relatively simple colour scheme and decals, at least compared to some of the other Tamiya kits! It had been some time since I’d finished the Tyrrell, and the complexities of many F1 liveries had put me off doing another. As kits go, this wasn’t a bad choice to get my confidence back up.

The Lotus was built straight from the box, with no extras. At this stage I did not have the ability or inclination to add extra detail. However I did use some kitchen foil to simulate the heat shielding on the floor around the exhausts, but this turned out to be a waste of time. The reason becomes clear later on!

I chose to build my 102B as Herbert’s car from the 1991 British Grand Prix. The kit’s decal sheet gives plenty of options on which livery to use. Team Lotus were very short of money by this point and unsurprisingly the car turned up with a different set of logos at almost every race. At the British GP, one of the more prominent ones was “Swithland Motors plc” on the engine cover. This particular sponsor, a car dealership, ended up becoming embroiled in a scam and collapsed in 1993 owing £15 million. Two of their directors were jailed for a total of more than eight years!

The Lotus on display at the 2014 Poole Vikings Model Show, with its competition entry slip

An (un)safe pair of hands

While the overall finish on my Lotus wasn’t bad, there were a few problem areas which you should take note of if building the kit yourself. The application of the decals was aided enormously with the help of the indispensible Micro Set and Micro Sol. There’s no point trying to attempt the decals without a softening solution such as the Microscale range. But even while using this, I was unable to get a perfect finish to the decals around the radiator intakes. The yellow pin stripes don’t quite line up and go all the way around. On reflection, more experience of decal application and just taking more time would probably have given a better result. My tip would be to not rush the decal job!

Another area that threw up a problem was the application of white decals over dark green decals. Note the white bands on the rear wing endplates for the Tamiya logos. The decals are too thin and the green is showing through. They need a layer of paint, or an additional white decal underneath to give a more solid white colour.

But perhaps the biggest obstacle to me finishing the 102B was when I dropped the half finished chassis onto hard wood flooring from a height of about 4 feet! The impact broke the floor piece clean in two. This necessitated a careful repair and required the engine cover to be glued down to provide extra strength. I learned my lesson there! Safe hands, I think not!

The 102B was a bronze winner after the Poole Vikings show. Can’t complain!

Improvements and advice for next time

It’s been a long time since I’ve built this Lotus 102B, and I’d certainly consider doing another, if I found one at a reasonable price. They’re going for silly money on eBay right now. There’s definitely a few things I’d do differently too:

  • I would take my time with the decal application. The yellow pin stripes make spraying the green areas very difficult, but a careful decal job gives a great result.
  • There’s a lot of decal options for the Lotus. I think I’d pick another version, perhaps one of Bartels’ races where he had the Tic Tac logos on the car.
  • It’s become apparent in the years since building the kit that I didn’t apply a clear coat over the paint and decals. This has meant some of the decals have yellowed, and others have cracked at the edges. Because of this I’d always recommend getting some type of clear coat onto a kit. However, the lack of clear coat does make it considerably easier for me to go back and re-do my earlier decal job, but I’ll have a hard time finding a replacement decal sheet.
  • And lastly, I’d try and keep the car in one piece and avoid dropping it!
Tamiya Lotus 102B model kit
1:20 Tamiya Lotus 102B model kit