Aston Martin DB 4 GT Zagato: Overview

When I first saw pictures of this car as a pimply teenager, it was lust at first sight. Still beautiful after all these years...

This Model Factory Hiro kit is definitely a Holy Grail kit, and it's been on the shelf for a good long while, waiting for me to gather the confidence to build it without screwing up. However, having done well on the 315 S and the Alfa Stradale, I think it's time; and it certainly looks like an easier build than either of those.

This early Model Factory Hiro kit (K123) is likely a re-release of the old Climax kit. It has bigger rear fender openings and a crude fender lip, compared to my mental image of this car. These interfere with the lines in my view; but a little digging revealed that several (perhaps 4) of the original 19 cars were built specifically for racing, and included a lower roof line as well as the prominent rear fenders and a pointier nose. This particular car DNFed at Le Mans in 1961 (battery failure at 24 hours, sadly! On distance covered, the car would have been 9th, ahead of a Triumph TR4S) and ran in the Japanese GP in 1963 (for which I can't find any info online). So I have reluctantly decided to build it out of box, rather than try to reproduce the "street" version. 

 

 

The photo above shows a picture of the kit body overlaid on two pictures from the Internet. (The different vent opening in the front fender is correct as it turns out). The upper red car is gorgeous as is; the lower one is a bit more brutal. The rear wheel opening on the kit is, if anything, even bigger than it should be, and I may fill it in with some strip styrene. The only other complaint I have with the kit so far is that larger rear tires are needed to properly fill the bigger fender openings, and indeed they are visible in period photos of this car; a quick rummage through the parts bin has solved that problem, fortunately. 

 

 

Compared to the 315 S (kit #K693), this older kit (K123) is a lot simpler. I spent a lovely rainy afternoon running spark plug wires, even getting the correct firing order (1-5-3-6-2-4) on the assumption the distributors both turn CCW. 

Stay tuned!