Voisin Laboratoire 1923 Grand Prix Car (1/24)

    I thought I'd try my hand at this interesting subject. Gabriel Voisin was a French aircraft designer/manufacturer who turned his hands to producing luxury cars, under the brand Avions Voisin. This race car was built for the 1923 Grand Prix season. Despite some innovative engineering, the car was not successful. Still, being angular in shape, it lends itself well to a paper model :)


    The actual cars comprised of a wooden frame and aluminium panels. Two lengths of the wooden frame can be seen running along the sides, below the cockpit.


    This particular kit is available as a free download. This is what I started with (printed on 160gsm).

    The rear box section was assembled and attached to the chassis.

    The box is also where the rear wheels are to be attached (marked with a cross). The sides of the body have tabs and these have been scored and folded.

    I assembled the rear section of the body first, starting at the top of the seat and working backwards, then repeating on the other side.

    I forgot to colour the insides of the cockpit that would be visible 8| . So I tried colouring retrospectively with a pencil but didn't like the result. I decided, therefore, to line the insides with textured aluminium foil (from the top of a yogurt pot). This gives the impression of panelling. I would have been unable to do this had the front of the body been glued on. Phew!!

    Using self-adhesive aluminium foil, I made up the top panel to achieve layering.

    I also used foil to cover the white area between the front/top body panel fold and number plate.

    I made the 'rectangular' steering wheel...... This is designed to be folded and glued to give double thickness, but when I did this it did not line up correctly. So I cut them out individually and glued them together. After trimming, and edge colouring, it looked good.

    Photographs indicate that the steering wheel spokes should be aluminium, not black. So I covered these in aluminium foil.... I also foiled another white space (rectangle) on the dashboard (below where the steering wheel boss is to be glued).

    More layering..... Not sure exactly what these side pieces are but they could be air intakes. I decided to make them in double-thickness card and covered them with the aluminium foil. The front of each was coloured black, to represent the intake.

    This shows the top body panel...... I think it may be best to assemble the engine/main intake (part 7) and glue it onto the top panel first (over the white area)........ Then, it should conform to the shape required.

    Engine cowling and oil pump cover assembled.

    I added a piece of plastic rod..... This will be used to attach the spinner/propeller that drives the oil pump

    Intake cowling assembled. I noticed that the grill was left in a white finish..... It should be aluminium, so I coloured it grey with a pencil.

    I decided it might be better to put the top panel on first, then the intake cowl.

    The black colour was done because the rear of the cowl is open (designed like this, I think).

    More layering.... This time I made up two lengths of double-thickness card strips and coloured them to represent the wooden strips that run along the sides. I think my attempt at wood grain is okay (using orange, red, then brown felt pens, smudging the colours with a finger).

    Should look nice when varnished.

    Backpain has hindered progress as it's difficult to sit at the desk. I managed to get the wood effect on each side.

    And the radiator cowling attached

    I also made two exhaust tips from card.

    I decided to tackle the road wheels.


    I used a circle cutter to cut the individual (circular) components out - first time I've really used this and it worked well.

    I wasn't too sure how rigid the assembled wheels would be, so I cut out 8 pieces of soft card that would form centre pieces (shown above). When glued together, they look like this (after edge colouring)......

    I made sure the thickness of the middle cards was the same as the outer perimeter piece (shown here after rolling to shape)...... The triangular tabs were cut off, as they were not required.

    All edges were coloured black before attaching the perimeter pieces.


    The tab on each perimeter pieces was slightly shortened and coloured with a pencil to match.

    The assembled wheels are shown..... Nice and rigid. I prefer this method to using the triangular tabs.

    One thing I forgot to do was colour the inside of the rear body black before attaching it to the chassis. Better to show black than white card. So I did this retrospectively with black acrylic paint.

    I also coloured the top insides of the rear wheels, as they can also just be seen through the wheel arches

    I decided to highlight some of the printed details by layering.


    The petrol caps: I printed out a copy on normal paper, transferred it to card, then applied self-adhesive aluminium foil.


    On the photos, you can also see that I lined the edges of the cockpit with aluminium foil. Looks tidier.


    I also did the same for the two caps on the cowling......


    Once varnished, these should all blend in nicely.

    Working on the front suspension components. Without instructions, it wasn't easy to determine the score and fold lines.


    I think this may be a handbrake mechanism (one side only):

    I think these are torsion bars (I coloured the undersides black and reinforced with lengths of double-thickness card, before folding):

    Here they are attached:

    The tie rods, as printed, are too small to fit:

    So I made a couple from plastic rod. I coloured the rods with a pencil to get the aluminium effect:

    Here they are attached:

    The rear of the body opens in a clamshell fashion, and is held down by a leather strap.


    I made the strap by colouring a strip of card. The buckle was made using card with self-adhesive foil stuck on, as shown:

    The real windscreen (fold down type) didn't use glass, it used a mesh. To replicate, I cut out the frame and attached a piece of plastic mesh.

    Final component.... The starting handle and bracket.


    The printed bracket was too short, so I made another up from card. The handle itself, I thought would look better if it was made from round wire rather than flat paper:

    Assembled.... Also, the propellor has been installed (on the real car, this powered the oil cooler - I believe it wasn't very effective):

    I will now reinforce all component joins with dilute PVA glue.

    Completed. I sprayed a coat of acrylic matt varnish. I will post additional photos in the gallery. Thanks for following and thumbs 😄👍🏻✂️