Porsche 356 C: Complete (#11 for 2018)

Oof, this is one tough little kit. Rewarding for a skilled builder, absolutely not recommended for a beginner. But it's done, and it is at least as good as anything I've built before, so progress continues to be made.



The good: Once again I simply polished the styrene body and sprayed it with clear. This only works, obviously, if you are happy with the colour the kit is molded in, and if the cleanup required is minimal. But it does eliminate runs, drips, orange peel and all the rest, and provides the best finish I've ever managed. Unlike the Alfa, there were seam lines that needed removing, so there was some sanding needed, starting with 1200 grit.





The not so good: The engine is essentially invisible once it's in, which is unfortunate as it is a beauty. (The kit comes with an engine stand so you can display it out of the car). And the engine lid didn't close properly, so I had to carve out some of the inside structure to get it to close. This meant sacrificing the hinges, which are really only for show anyway.



In terms of other little issues, the license plate decals turned to goo with the Micro-Sol solution. I'll be looking for new ones, possibly from the spares bin. I'll leave identifying the other little screw-ups as an exercise for the alert reader.



I worked on all of these back in the day (except the 356, although I did work on an early 912 which was a 911 with the 356 motor), and got to drive all of them (except the Europa, because I couldn't get into it, although I did drive several Elans). Let's see how the 356 stacks up against the competition:



356: 2-litre, DOHC, twin-plug engine making 130 hp. The combination of a rear engine, swing axles and power that comes on with a bang at about 4500 RPM means beware sudden oversteer! Otherwise a focused, serious drive. Thorough, detailed German engineering effort has once again triumphed over one bad design idea that should have been challenged at the start, namely basing all this on what is essentially a 1949 Beetle floorpan and 36-hp engine block. (OK, I fully expect plenty of mail from offended 356 owners). But honestly, the 911 continues the trend: why they left the engine out back when they had the chance at a complete redesign in 1964 is beyond me, because the 911 motor is a gem. At least they got rid of the swing axles, unlike Mercedes who kept putting them in the 6.3 right up until 1973.



Giulia: 1.6 litre, DOHC, twin-plug engine making 113 hp. Typical Alfa handling, which is to say excellent in spite of a solid rear axle. It may well be the only one of the three with a 5-speed. Passionate and involving, with little axle hop or any of the other issues around a solid axle, partly due to the aluminum center section and the A-arm preventing the axle stepping sideways. Treat the second gear synchro sympathetically and it will provide delightful, direct shifts for a long time. Plus it probably has the biggest back seat of the three, and certainly the most generous trunk.



Europa: 1.6 litre, DOHC, single-plug engine making 105 hp. The least powerful of the lot, but the most surgical in terms of go-kart cornering, if you can get into it -- I'm 6'0" and it's tight. But once in it is impossible to upset it -- just point it where you want to go and squeeze the throttle. And I am guessing it holds its own in terms of hp per tonne. The luggage room is surprising, even if it is strictly a 2-seater.



So if I had a million dollars? I'd have to get one of each, obviously. With 356's in Carrera 2000 guise going for $500,000, it might be tight, but doable.

I'll close with another photo of the gorgeous little motor under construction.

Porsche 356 C: Floorpan

What a very detailed kit! In January I described the motor for this Fujimi Enthusiast Series kit, which went so far as to include a crankshaft assembly with pistons and rods. A quick count comes up with about 240 parts, excluding extensive duplicates for the earlier 356 B version (dashboard, wheels, brakes, etc.).



After spending some time spray painting various bits, I've now started on the floor pan. There are some real details here that no one will ever see once it's all together, such as the little handles under the seats for releasing the seat backs, or the handle under the dash for the front hood.



The assembly includes the floor panel, two sills, the 'tunnel' housing shift linkage and clutch cable, four more chassis panels, the toe plate through which the pedals appear, and a host of little brackets and unidentified gubbinses.



The interior is equally well developed, and the little window winders are the only casualties so far -- both broke as I clipped them from the sprue.



As for the body, I liked the polished but unpainted approach to the Alfa GTA so much that I've done the same here. The body will be white, and according to the instructions the interior for a white car should be red or black. There is enough black in this kit, so red it is. Chrome trim is the lovely Testor's enamel pen, which I very much like.



If this is typical detail level of the Enthusiast Series, I've got some nice stuff on the shelf. Stay tuned!

Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA: Complete (#10 for 2018)

The GTA is essentially complete, barring door handles which broke, and windshield trim which I will describe a little further down. It's a very nice kit of a very nice car, and well recommended if you can find one, although note the decal sheet in mine was not useable due to age, and the metal transfers wouldn't stick without some clear gloss to assist.

I recently discovered Testor's enamel pens at a local arts and crafts shop; I assume this is similar to the Molotow pens I have heard of in online forums but not yet seen. I did the side windows with one and I like the result.



Final assembly went as well as it always does, meaning there were some heart stoppers, but nothing major went wrong. It's even got a bit of that tail-dragging stance that Giulias used to get as the rear springs sagged.



The red plastic is excellent on this Tamiya kit, so I polished and put on a coat of clear, which looks great except for a few specs of dust. 



I used Bare Metal Foil for the front and rear windscreen surrounds, and have since decided they don't work. First, the windows seem to stand proud, and I am guessing the thin layer of BMF between glass and post is contributing here. Second, the pen makes a much smoother surface. Of course it's paint, so a slip could be catastrophic... Anyway, after taking these pictures, I popped the windows out and scraped off the BMF; the enamel from the pen is presently drying and the glass will go back in tomorrow.



Here is the Alfa posed with an obvious competitor from the late '60s: Lotus Europa Twin Cam. They would have been relatively well matched in terms of handling or horsepower per tonne, and a buyer might have considered both at the time; the main difference being the Lotus is strictly a two-seater and really compares better to the Alfa Spider.



I had one encounter with a Europa in my days as a mechanic; the cockpit was too small for me to get into easily, and once in I couldn't get my big feet to differentiate between pedals, so I never drove it. I did manage to drive a range of Elans, as long as the top was down, and so I don't doubt the Europa was a fine handling little go-cart; it's just I am about 6" taller than Colin Chapman, with shoes at least three sizes bigger, so I'm definitely not the customer he was thinking of when he designed it.



The Alfa, on the other hand, was nice and roomy, but had the driving position so typical of other Italian sports cars like the Fiat 124: pedals up close and the wheel a long ways away, so my long legs wound up folded in half with my left knee banging on the window winder, while I had to hunch forward to reach the wheel and shifter. I fit much better in E-Types and 911s... I always had expensive tastes.



All in all a fine addition to the shelf, and it is reassuring to see that the level of finish I can muster continues to improve.

Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA

As a break from kitbashing and fabrication, every so often I pull something out of the stash for a quick out-of-box build. Tamiya's lovely kit of the lovely Giulia GTA made the cut this time, with Gunze Sangyo's curbside GTA 1300 Junior a close second.

I had the opportunity back in the '70s to work on a number of 1750 and 2000 Alfas, from the boxy Berlina to the sexy Spider, and while they had their quirks, such as having the only engine I have ever seen that could simultaneously leak oil into the antifreeze (via little O-rings embedded in the head gasket) and antifreeze into the oil (via copper rings sealing the bottom of the wet liners into the block), they were all gorgeous cars that were an absolute pleasure to drive and that clearly displayed the passionate approach that Italian artisans can bring to their trades.



The Tamiya kit has an excellent version of the twin-cam, twin-plug four. I stuck with the stock air filter even though it obscures the carbs. The exhaust was painted with Tamiya TS-42 (Light Gun Metal) followed by Tamiya TS-80 (Flat Clear), both from the rattle can; in my opinion this provides a very nice approximation of a steel manifold and contrasts nicely with the aluminum that dominates the rest of the engine compartment.



As the only non-stock addition, I added a distributor and plug wires. The twin-plug head requires eight plug wires and two coil wires, which at 0.019" are a bit thick, but it will do. The 8-cylinder distributor came from one of the aftermarket suppliers. 



The engine compartment has also gone together well. I'll post further pictures as the drive train, interior and body come together. Stay tuned!

Project Thundering Lightning: bodywork

I am back at the bench, briefly, after getting some fresh air. More fresh air is on the way but meanwhile a fair bit of putty and primer has led to quite a sleek body for the ThunderPig. I've also carved up the chassis, mainly by removing the transmission tunnel, so the engine sits where it should.





I am debating putting some form of bulge over the engine, or leaving it as is to display the engine. A bulge, of course, can lead to a tail fin like a D-Type... with lots of room for rocket-shaped tail lamps, not to mention flaps and other aerodynamic accessories. A bit of a rummage through the box full of wrecked kits might be in order to see what I might have cut up in the past. There is also a hobby shop not far away that has a little corner full of somewhat battered second-hand aviation and military kits where interesting bits might be had cheap. The smaller scales like 1/72 probably won't work, but I could see the upper cockpit and tail from a Spitfire in 1/48 might be a good starting place.





I really like the canopy, which was, in a previous life, a plastic spoon. There are lots of plastic packaging items around which could surely serve to make interesting shapes.



The interior is pretty well done, as shown in this earlier picture. The instrument panel will be attached to the underside of the 'hood'; I'll cut up the console from the T-bird kit to provide a shifter and other controls to the right of the seat. I haven't decided whether to hinge the entire hood, or just the canopy, for access.



Next I'll focus on the chassis and getting the stance and wheels right. I've located an orphan Corvette rear end which will get cut in half and inserted into either side of the Freightliner gearbox, which I will then pretend is some form of mutant Hewland unit capable of handling 1500 hp. The little leaf spring would get twisted into a pretzel in real life, but let's just say this is a design concept and there remain a few minor engineering issues to sort out ... Stay tuned!

PS I am now posting things like this on Facebook, in one of several groups, but I will continue posting longer blog posts here documenting techniques and so on; on the other hand, while the statistics show regular and consistent levels of readership here, I have had almost no comments. This is the opposite of Facebook, where the feedback is usually pretty quick and complimentary. So I hope you are all enjoying this!