1:24 Mini Cooper Fog Lights Set

Lamps on the grille from Monte Carlo

Alec Issigonis's car fitted into under three and a half meters in 1959 and still carried four adults. When the designer John Cooper got to work on it, a sharper variant came about which won the Monte Carlo Rally three times in the 1960s and changed for good the idea of what a small car can do on snowy Alpine passes.

The mark of those machines was a front end occupied by auxiliary lamps. For night and foggy stages a pair or up to four round lamps were mounted on a transverse bracket, each with its own lens and shade. It is exactly this element that turns a model into a competition special before the starting numbers go on it.

Assembly and fitting

Paint the bodies first and only then insert the lenses, otherwise overspray will get onto the glass. Paint the inside of the reflector in gloss silver or line it with a piece of aluminum foil pressed in with a round, blunt tool. Glue the bracket right at the end, once the bumper and the grille are on.

Mark the spacing of the lamps out on a strip of paper beforehand and lay it against the grille. A lamp set off center is visible at first glance on such a small front end, and once the glue is dry nothing can be done about it.

Anyone building the car in civilian form will use only the lower pair and leave the upper part of the bracket out. Obtain the model of the vehicle and paints separately.

Finally it is worth looking over the finished front end against the light. A gap showing through between a body and a lens can be filled with a drop of thin clear glue, which once dry creates the impression of a rubber seal.