1:24 Heller Brabham F3 - Danish driver

[neckcheese]

I have had the Union (Heller) Brabham F3 kit for ages and have done some research on the 60's Danish F3 scane as i wanted to make it as a Danish car.
There is a couple of great Danish books on the 60/70's Danish and Scandinavian racing scene and I began building the kit, postphoning the decision of driver choise.

At last I opted for the car of Danish Race Track owner and driver, Jens Christian Legarth. Legarth build the Danish Ring Djursland track and was himself a competent race driver.
Unfortunately Legarth was killed after having retired, at an accident on his track that also cost the life of Doug Revson, younger brother of well known race car driver Peter Revson.



So I thought that building his car would be a fitting tribute to the memory of mr. Legarth.





The very nice and detailed kit. The parts are very fine and nicely done, especially for an earlt 70's kit



Chassis



trial assembly - a very small car



The engine cowl existed in different versions and had to be modified for this car





details added - mostly stock from kit







Wheels - the tyre on the left has not been sanded and there is an ugly casting edge. Rubber is not an easy material to sand.



The carb is not from the kit and the manifold is modified to fit



Now ready for detailing with oil and brake lines etc.



Edges of body parts are thinned for a more scale look







now ready for paint, decals etc









The car is on the cover on this book on three Danish 60's racing drivers.



pics from the inside of the book


A nice and rewarding project, which was cheap in money, but expensive in time :-) - but its always more fun when there is a story with the model.

Niels, DK

[Deleted]

well done!
i always love to see a WIP with some modifications to go with it.
thanks for sharing.
duane

[Art]

Looks great, Niels! That looks like a neat little kit.

[Chris K. Hale]

Super Sweet Neils, I unfortunately have had to put mine away until after the move to Arizona the 1st week of August, it will be a great comparison, I added a Weber carb, its detailed up real nice, scratchbuilt a Oval shaped radiator, and made a modified gas tank in a semi-triangular shape. More mods planed based on some research pics but everyone will have to wait a few weeks until I can get back to it!!! Chris

[2lapsdown]

Beautiful job on a really neat little kit

John

[Patrick]

;DNiels,

I must agree with you that this little Heller kit is SO sweet! I've built 3 of them now in F2 and F3 trim and have enjoyed each one of them. I'm pleased you chose to pick a car/driver that means something to you. Great choice! Chris' car has some great mods done to it and I can't wait for him to get settled.

Patrick

[dustymojave]

I love this little model. In fact I'm pretty fond of all of Phillipe de Lespinay's models. He is active recently on another forum. He had recently acquired one of these Brabhams and was rebuilding it. In spite of having designed the kit, he didn't have any of them.

In the late 1960s, these Brabhams were quite common in SCCA racing here in the US. They were raced some in F/C, which would relate to FIA F3, and with larger engines in F/B, which related to F2.

I got my Brabham in the double kit with the Matra F2 packaged by AMT. I built it as an F/C club racer. After sitting on the shelf for some time, a large earthquake damaged it. The fragile suspension survived with little more required than re-assembly, but the belly pan was broken and pieces went missing. I replaced the pan with a sheet of aluminum from a soda can and re-painted the whole body. Since then (1971), it has suffered some damage in moving and while in storage. I would like to rebuild it again.

I have some detail photos I took at Riverside in about 1969 of an F/B Brabham with a Lotus-Ford Twin Cam engine. I plan to dig those out and scan them. When I do, I'll share them on here and elsewhere.

[imsanut]

Love it.

[dustymojave]

A while back I said I had some detail photos of this type of car taken in the late 60s which I would look for and scan. I've now found them and uploaded them to my Photobucket account.

These 1st 2 photos are of a BT18-Ford Twin Cam F/B in the garages at Riverside. The fact that it is an 18 instead of the kit 16 is a matter of slightly different hubs which will not show in the model. The fact that they show an F/B (equivalent to FIA F2) with a 1600cc Twin Cam engine also does not present an issue as the engine is not shown. The wheels and tires would have been slightly larger in the F/B than in the F3 - F/C version which also is not an issue for the purpose of these photos. The body work, frame and visible suspension remain the same.





This photos shows another BT18 Twin Cam at Willow Springs Raceway obviously successful. Note that the nose of the model kit is rather squarish compared to that shown in the 1st photo posted by neckcheese and this here. That's a flaw in the kit.



The following 2 photos show the same engine in a Lotus F/C at Riverside. The Weber carb is a downdraft instead of a side draft as modeled in the kit. This is EZ to change if you want this style. Note that the carb is a 2 barrel Weber, but only one barrel is used. The other throat is blocked off and the jets soldered shut. The kit represents this accurately. I did see later-on another car which used both throats of the Weber carb. It is EZ to model this also by removing a little material in the center of the manifold and adding a squarish plenum wide enough to span the 2 throats of the Weber, and centering the carb on the manifold and it's done.

[rickh]

I took some photos of Al Murray's FB BT21 at the SOVREN vintage races last month and was going to post them here. It turns out that my subject is presented much better at www.britishracecar.com/AlMurray-Brabham-BT21.htm. Let it suffice to say that we have plenty of detail photos and information if we decide to build the Heller/Union kit a a BT21 with a Lotus twincam engine with dual Webers.
Rick

[Ed Holly]

Hi Niels, I have recently purchased the remains of this car here in Sydney Australia. After Jens finsihed with it it went to Ole Vejlund in 66 then to Kurt Seerup in 67. In 68 it is in the USA with Tom Watson then Gerry Wilson and in 1972 it has an terrible accident with Al Essig. Al was quite hurt and the car so badly damaged that the front from the rollbar forward was cut off and discarded. Al kept the rear section some other bits including the chassis plate - and - the frame number is still stamped into the remaining part of the chassis which is important. I am liaising with Al Essig and my plans are to restore the car to race again. I have owned and raced Brabhams, Lotuses and Elfins over the years and I owned and raced a BT15 previously. This car is chassis F3-18-65 my other 15 which is now in the UK was chassis 25. I can see you have taken great care to replicate the car in your model so now I know what colour it will have to be. Many years ago I bought and still have that Heller kit, I opened it a few times, maybe one day I will have to build it too. Kind regards ... Ed Holly.