Maserati 450S: Complete (#2 for 2023)

Done, finally.

As always the finishing touches take forever, with lots of worries about a big fat thumbful of glue in the middle of a hood or a windshield; but it all worked out reasonably OK.

 

These artisan resin kits need lots of fiddling, and I won't deliver a rant because this is the tradeoff that allows me to build kits of obscure stuff like this 1957 Maserati 450S, here in the Le Mans livery driven by Behra and Simon where either transmission failure or an accident (Wikipedia isn't clear) took the car out after only 3 hours. Still a magnificent brute; and Fangio won at Sebring in the same car.

The only adjustment might be the paint on the exhaust, where the flat white heat paint should show some rust or discoloration; but my attempt with Tamiya washes failed and so it's back to flat white. 

So what's next? Who knows! I've been busy with other things, obviously; in past years I'd have completed as many as 10 or 12 kits by late July. Stay tuned!

Maserati 450S: Paint

Moving along, sort of. 

Wheels are the usual Profil 24 delights, consisting of photoetched wires and turned rims, although one of the resin tires fractured as I pushed the rim through. The hubs, made of resin as per usual, are the weak spot and attaching the wheels will likely require lots of 5-minute epoxy. 

I glued both doors shut as the photo-etched hinges are atrocious and flimsy, and I didn't feel like making my own; the interior will be perfectly visible anyway.  

Paint (the usual TS-8 Italian Red) over Tamiya pink primer went on well and there have been no screw ups, yet. Thanks to lots of Micro Sol, decals went on OK, including the one draped over the right rear fender. 

The interior panels got their aluminum paint via brush after the top coat was final. 

Gearing up for body and chassis assembly, and final trim (lights, windshield, grille, etc.) The potential for large gobs of CA glue remains high. Stay tuned!

Maserati 450S: Chassis

Well, any hope of finishing this by the time of the Le Mans race evaporated in the face of other activities.

The chassis, made of square and round tubing, is now essentially complete. In front the suspension consists of equal A-arms top and bottom on coil-overs. I am probably going to leave off the steering column and box (some type of worm and sector, most likely) for now. 

A push in the face of extended procrastination got the rear axle complete. It's classic 50's sports racer: a transaxle for better weight distribution, a De Dion dead axle for reduced unsprung weight compared to a classic live axle, and a transverse leaf spring. Fully independent rear axles were still rare at that time; I once had the pleasure of owning a 1968 Rover 2000 TC which still had a De Dion although not a transaxle.

The rear suspension was a jigsaw of multiple little bits. The assembly sequence is important, so I repeat it here for posterity (the instruction sheet does not provide any guidance on assembly sequence): Transaxle to the frame first, then the forward subframe structure which straddles the transaxle, then the upper subframe structure, then the axles and De Dion tube with no glue so they can all move around a bit, then the rear subframe structure (which locks the De Dion into place), then the trailing arms which slide on the axles and locate to both the the forward subframe and the ends of the transverse leaf. The drum brakes round it all out. I just need to figure out where the shock absorbers fit and it's done.