Alfa 8C 2300 Monza: Overview, engine and chassis

So the 1/12 scale 1938 Alfa Mille Miglia 8C 2900B Spyder from Model Factory Hiro is now on the shelf. This requires a specific shade of red paint, called Alfa Corse, available from Zero Paints. The fact that this paint is formulated for airbrushes leads to further snowballing as I haven't, so far, owned an airbrush. 

So the next step, after ordering the Zero Paints, was to order a small hand-held air brush from Amazon. I used this to paint the 917K, using a well-thinned bottle of Testor's; it all seemed to work OK. But I figured I should try out the airbrush and Zero Paints on a larger, 'cheaper' 1/12 scale kit such as Italeri's 1936 Alfa 8C 2300 Monza. Hence this post. 

The paint went on well, but slowly! I used Tamiya dark red primer, which may in retrospect have been too dark; I'll probably step back to the pink primer for the 2900B. 

I put decals on over the base red coat, probably a mistake as they don't slide around very well on the rough surface; Zero Paints recommends at least one coat of clear before decals. In my haste, I didn't put on sufficient mist coats of clear (TS-13) over the decals, and several of them bubbled; this is a rookie mistake and I am working on fixing them using sandpaper followed by Tamiya X-2 White with a fine brush. More sanding and polishing will follow, with more Tamiya TS-13 Clear to follow that.  

The engine is nice but the level of detail is not much better than a good 1/24 kit, and nowhere up to the level of MFH. The instructions provide an incorrect firing order (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) which I looked up and corrected (1-4-7-3-8-5-2-6, for the keeners).

In another rookie mistake, I tried painting the cam covers, decided I didn't like it, and dunked them in lacquer thinner where they promptly melted. Italeri, fortunately, has spares at a cost of 6 euros for mailing, so replacements are on the way. 

The chassis involves some fiddly 1 mm screws and nuts. The little 'wrench' supplied is useless; you'll need a 2 mm socket or wrench. Furthermore the screws require a flat head screwdriver, so it is easy to slip and scratch the paint. A Phillips or better yet an Allen head would have been appreciated. The steering "works" but will be stiff by the time you've assembled it all.

The aim is to complete this, with the exception of the engine covers so the cam covers can be installed, hopefully by year-end. Meanwhile I have Italeri's 1/12 kit of the oddball 1927 Fiat 806, with a pair of inline sixes on a common crankcase, which I am considering selling. If you are going to build at 1/12, go for the MFH level of detail.