Alfa Giulietta (Protar): Complete (#14 for 2020)

This was a very quick build, due to the fact it is a curbside kit with exceptionally poor chassis detail to boot; three days start to finish is probably a record.

Yes, a 1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider would have had drum brakes, not drilled discs with red calipers, but this build is meant to be a bit of a resto-mod. Discs and calipers are from Model Car Garage, and wheels and tires from Scale Production. The chassis was also lowered about 2.5 mm.



The dashboard is well presented in this kit. The decals looked poor but a coat of clear saved them.



The purists will complain that the lowered suspension and Minilites are, well, sacrilege; as I have another kit of this car, I can afford to build one lightly rodded. The rear wheels do extend a bit far out of the fenders, but this is caused by the inner fenders which I would have had to cut out to improve things. 



I particularly like this view of the car, with the iconic grille unencumbered by a front bumper.

 



The roll bar, which is probably from the Tamiya Lotus Seven kit, is a bit short.



What's next? No idea. Stay tuned!

Alfa Giulietta (Protar): Overview

It turns out I've gotten sucked into buying this kit twice, both times hoping for a detailed motor. The Protar and Italeri kits turn out to be identical, reboxed curbside kits, albeit with a removable hood and trunk lid. So one will get built stock, the other hot rodded; this build is part of an ongoing build-off managed by The New Modeler's Club (TNMC) on Facebook.



The Giulietta, in coupe or spider form, was a gorgeous little thing. The classic aluminum twincam 1290 cc motor made from 52 to 100 hp depending on version; this compares with 60 hp from the relatively agricultural 1275 in the Mini Cooper S. It would be gutless by today's standards, but doubtless a joy on a twisty little mountain route. Later versions were increased to 1570 cc; the larger Giulia had motors up to 2 litres.



This one will get done in yellow, because there are enough red Italian cars in the display case. This has required a lot of primer as the body is molded in red; I've also shaved off the bumper mounting pins, so this will be the hot-rodded version. Currently ride height and a proper wheel and tire combo are being evaluated. I've got a set of Minilites from Scale Production that look about right, and disc brakes from Model Car Garage. I am debating hijacking a set of fender flares designed for the BMW 2002 tii, made by Scale Productions, in case the track with these fat little tires winds up being excessive, but I would also like to save those for the actual 2002, so decisions need to be made.



An appropriate engine may need to be found, without cannibalising a decent Tamiya Giulia kit. Proper Italian motors are few and far between! And I have a couple of Gunze Sangyo Giulias which are also missing a motor, so demand for Alfa Twincams is high. Plan B is of course to build it as a curbside, because the amount of fabrication needed for firewall, radiator, etc., is going to be large.

Stay tuned!

BMW 507: Complete (#13 for 2020)

What a lovely shape! And while this Revell Germany kit had a lot of flash, it is well detailed and easily assembled.



I think the front three quarter view, with this first iteration of the classic grille, is probably my favourite.



From the rear it could almost be a 280 SL; but the Mercedes was almost a decade in the future. Sadly there are no kits of the classic Pagoda-roof SL.



The 3.2 litre V8, at 150 hp, is quite a lot less powerful than the 3.0 litre six in the 300 SL, at 215 hp. Originally New York importer John Hoffman wanted something in between the 300 SL and the under-powered MG A and TR 3. The new V8 from BMW, which was wasted in the ugly 501/502 sedans, should have been a perfect fit for that market niche.



Sadly it seems BMW lost money on every car, due to large amounts of hand assembly, even after the price ballooned to exceed that of a 300 SL. The car almost bankrupted the company, and only 228 were sold.



All three German companies stuck to classic design philosophy after the war; the apples didn't venture very far from the corporate tree. Mercedes relied on the inline 6 with its siamesed exhaust ports, on a chassis with swing axles, until 1974; Porsche's basic concept of hanging a motor out back has outlasted the Beetle that it came from.



BMW went back to the prewar concept of a light sports sedan with the 2000 CS and 3200 CS models, and is still known for its smooth sixes. The next crack at a V8 wasn't until the E34 chassis of the late 80's.



What's next? Stay tuned!

BMW 507: Interior and body

The kit is molded in a pale grey that sadly is not good enough to be simply polished -- you can see the boundaries between different flows of molten styrene as they entered the mold due to poor mixing of the coloured pellets. Instructions are for a black body, but I like the idea of a pale pastel colour. The Interweb shows a number of colours other than black, red and silver which are likely not original, but there is a pale grey that was probably original as well.



In the end I went with Tamiya AS-5 Luftwaffe Light Blue, with a coat of gloss clear. This is likely a decent reproduction of typical paint finish for the late '50s, and the shade is very subtle. There is a bit of orange peel but it doesn't show up as much as it might in black, so I'll likely let it go.



The interior mimics a light carpet with darker brown leather for seats and door panels. The decals for the gauges are very nice and there is even a decal for the shift pattern, in both black and white depending on the colour chosen for the knob. I went with flat white for the gearshift, steering wheel and various other controls as typical of German cars of the period.



With the interior glued to the chassis, the underhood area could be completed.



Next will be attaching body to chassis, which is a bit of a stretch; then on to various chrome and other finishing bits. The lovely grille will need to get opened up, or at least filled with wash; and there are a number of other little upgrades needed. Stay tuned!

BMW 507: engine and chassis

I started this one, partly as an easy build to relax while pondering the bodywork on the Alfa, and partly to enter a build-off for roadsters run by The New Modeler's Club Facebook page, which has an August 1 deadline.

 

A gorgeous car, with a lovely 3.2 litre aluminum V8; it was very advanced for its day but doesn't have the public recognition of its immediate competitor, the 300 SL. Hard to compete with those gulling doors, I guess.



The carbs in the kit are pathetic. I found a pair leftover from the Revell 283 Parts Pack kit; they are not quite right, with 2 bbl each instead of 1, and with smaller air filters, but they will do.



I added an aftermarket distributor and fuel lines. Fuel lines are excessively fat but that's OK.



The chassis, while using a solid rear axle, did have torsion bars front and rear, with a Panhard rod at the back; it is arguable that a well-located solid axle is at least as effective as the low-pivot swing axle Mercedes hung on to until the last of the 300 SELs in 1973 or so. 



The engine is a lovely little item; however it made less power than the smaller engine in the 300 SL. Not sure how that happened. In the end BMW lost money on every one of the 252 cars made, and barely escaped bankruptcy.



On to the interior and body. I am still working on paint; the 507 came in a range of colours and the usual red, white, black and silver are common. But there are pictures online of lovely '50s pastel greens and blues, which may or may not be original; and at least one car has wonderful deep burgundy leather. Stay tuned! 

Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale: Chassis complete

I'm calling the chassis and interior done, with the exception of a bit of tidying up of paint here and there. The wheels are on and it sits square.



It looks good next to the TZ1. The Tipo 33 racers were the spiritual successors to the TZ1 and TZ2, initially with a four cylinder but eventually with the lovely V8 shown here.



Next will be the body which will require some decisions.



One option will be to pose it all with the body off, in order to display the front portion of the chassis; another will be to cut off the front body section so it can be hinged as well as the engine cover (which seems to have, for MFH, a relatively sturdy hinge mechanism as standard).



The interior is pretty simple. I may decide to add some toggle switches to the console.


Up next: The Revell BMW 507, which needs to be complete by August 1 as part of a build-off hosted by The New Modelers Club on Facebook. The body for the 33 may get put off somewhat while I decide what to do about the front clip. Stay tuned!

Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale: Chassis

I gritted my teeth and glued the front and rear chassis components to the central tub.



The forward structure fits nice and snug but the rear section, including engine and transmission, floats around like crazy and the opportunities for misalignment are huge. So I used 5-minute epoxy instead of the usual 5-10 second CA glue in order to have some time to wiggle things around before it all set hard.



The chassis is a pair of large-diameter aluminum tubes that run up the sills, with a floor pan and a rear bulkhead. To the rear of the bulkhead, two tapering tubes reach back to the structure around the gearbox and support the engine en route. This was before the days of stressed engine blocks or transmission casings. Getting all that to sit square was an interesting challenge.



In front a classic tubular subframe grows out of the floorpan and chassis tubes. The kit does not feature an opening front body section, a flaw I may decide to remedy if I can get my courage up, as the level of detail is really quite nice.



The body panels all fit nicely and the car sits square on all four wheels, so things are going OK so far. Cockpit finishing and a few more details around the engine compartment are next, then on to the body and final assembly.




Stay tuned!

Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale: Suspension front and rear

Rear suspension components hang off a square-section subframe encircling the transmission, with the driveshafts poking through a hole in the subframe.

Pictures show the transmission attached to the engine, but not yet glued. Upper links only get put in once the whole thing is glued to the central tub. So there is some room for fiddling to ensure it all sits straight.

 

Front suspension included the opportunity to use some clear tubing, pushed over 0.5 mm brass tube, to model the piping from brake fluid bottles to the master cylinders. First time I've done this; the hose at 1 mm (1" at full scale) is large but will do for a first time. Future attempts will use 0.013" clear fishing wire.

Now the trick will be to get it all to line up!

Stay tuned.