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Lancia Beta Montecarlo


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Great work you are doing, as usual, AFX! I follow your AC COBRAs building articles here, and I am amazed to see you are dealing with this Lancia Beta Monte Carlo model! I have to agree with Gramps46: it is amazing how a really ugly car became such a wonderful racing car! Now, returning to this kit, as you are American, you might not be very familiar with ESCI kits AND IT'S DECALS... most of times, when you put it the water, in a few seconds they use to "spread in little parts" like a plague... I bought one of my Betas completely painted in white, but almost half of two MARTINI Le Mans decal sheets where wondering inside the kit box, lots of these tiny little decal parts all around! I found a new decal sheet in Patto's Place, but I am not very pleased with it, the contours of the images are a little vague, so I did not try to decal the car yet... and you may not know that an Italian modeller, gionc 01 made a great photoetch set for this kit some years ago, but although some modellers asked him to make some new copies, he was/is not in the mood to do it... what a pitty... I have been expecting to see if MFH's 1/24 photoetch set shows around... I did not notice that rear wheels size "trick"... I do  have some spare front wheels to correct it, but what is the Scale Production reference of the tyres you will use in your car?

Thank you very much!

gionc 01 Modellismo Forum.jpg

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9 hours ago, chaves pah said:

Great work you are doing, as usual, AFX! I follow your AC COBRAs building articles here, and I am amazed to see you are dealing with this Lancia Beta Monte Carlo model! I have to agree with Gramps46: it is amazing how a really ugly car became such a wonderful racing car! Now, returning to this kit, as you are American, you might not be very familiar with ESCI kits AND IT'S DECALS... most of times, when you put it the water, in a few seconds they use to "spread in little parts" like a plague... I bought one of my Betas completely painted in white, but almost half of two MARTINI Le Mans decal sheets where wondering inside the kit box, lots of these tiny little decal parts all around! I found a new decal sheet in Patto's Place, but I am not very pleased with it, the contours of the images are a little vague, so I did not try to decal the car yet... and you may not know that an Italian modeller, gionc 01 made a great photoetch set for this kit some years ago, but although some modellers asked him to make some new copies, he was/is not in the mood to do it... what a pitty... I have been expecting to see if MFH's 1/24 photoetch set shows around... I did not notice that rear wheels size "trick"... I do  have some spare front wheels to correct it, but what is the Scale Production reference of the tyres you will use in your car?

Thank you very much!

That is a great looking PE set Marco, impossible to find I am sure.  Here are tires I am using at the rear.  They are 15" but I managed to stretch them over my 16" wheels.

https://www.scaleproduction.de/product_info.php?info=p1520_15--slicks.html

15" Slicks

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11 hours ago, Pete75 said:

I don't understand how your projects look cleaner & tidier in the body shop than most finished models do: no sanding marks, nothing!! 🧐

The white plastic hides a lot Pete, primer will reveal all!

Edited by afx
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On 1/31/2021 at 9:59 PM, chaves pah said:

Great work you are doing, as usual, AFX! I follow your AC COBRAs building articles here, and I am amazed to see you are dealing with this Lancia Beta Monte Carlo model! I have to agree with Gramps46: it is amazing how a really ugly car became such a wonderful racing car! Now, returning to this kit, as you are American, you might not be very familiar with ESCI kits AND IT'S DECALS... most of times, when you put it the water, in a few seconds they use to "spread in little parts" like a plague... I bought one of my Betas completely painted in white, but almost half of two MARTINI Le Mans decal sheets where wondering inside the kit box, lots of these tiny little decal parts all around! I found a new decal sheet in Patto's Place, but I am not very pleased with it, the contours of the images are a little vague, so I did not try to decal the car yet... and you may not know that an Italian modeller, gionc 01 made a great photoetch set for this kit some years ago, but although some modellers asked him to make some new copies, he was/is not in the mood to do it... what a pitty... I have been expecting to see if MFH's 1/24 photoetch set shows around... I did not notice that rear wheels size "trick"... I do  have some spare front wheels to correct it, but what is the Scale Production reference of the tyres you will use in your car?

Thank you very much!

 

Marco, found these replacement decals and have ordered a set.  A leap of faith as no image of the actual decals.

https://www.bestbalsakits.com/tamiya/tamiya-detail.asp?kitnumber=2958

1.jpg

Edited by afx
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Hi, AFX, I already new about his decal sheet, but did forget the producer name, I did try to find it these last days, but in vane... I thought it was Shunko... but I did find a new alternative, a new brand that also make this white striped decals but specialy it was expected to make THESE ONES, the Martini, but unfortunately I already contacted them and Andrea, one of two the  partners, explained me that this decal sheet was drawm based on a Heller 1/43 Martini Beta decal sheet they did multiply by 24, but the result was not good enough for some buyers, so they decided to stop making it for now... they are now working in a 1/24 LC1 Lancia full kit that will lid to make a new LC2, and may be they make new correct Beta decals again at the same time... this one was a transkit and did also have these two small extra panels that in Le Mans did close about 50% of the engine aperture, on bot sides of the exausts... they are 3D experts and already have lots of interesting 1/24 stuff!  I started my "short tail" again and, regarding the tires, I found a Revell 934 Porsche set in the junk box, I replaced all the kit wheels with Scale Production great and correct ones, as these Revells do have the correct dimensions for the Beta car... I only have to add an extra rim to enlarge the rear wheels; the engine, as the instructions images are a little vague... that drive chains box!... judging  by the MFH 1/12 Beta engine, the should chains face the right side of the car, as the pulleys are in this side of the engine, so all the details this part has will desapear when it is glued to the engine block... is the right side of the drive chains covered? I could not find, not one, image of this part in the real cars photographers for some obscure reason are always on the left side! and I decided to draw some hinges to allow the engine cover to open, it would be GREAT to make it in photoetch, so I will try to make it in beer can tin,,,

PS:  Well, this "tunned" red street Lancia Beta you show manages to be very good to the eye...

KMP.jpg

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13 hours ago, chaves pah said:

Hi, AFX, I already new about his decal sheet, but did forget the producer name, I did try to find it these last days, but in vane... I thought it was Shunko... but I did find a new alternative, a new brand that also make this white striped decals but specialy it was expected to make THESE ONES, the Martini, but unfortunately I already contacted them and Andrea, one of two the  partners, explained me that this decal sheet was drawm based on a Heller 1/43 Martini Beta decal sheet they did multiply by 24, but the result was not good enough for some buyers, so they decided to stop making it for now... they are now working in a 1/24 LC1 Lancia full kit that will lid to make a new LC2, and may be they make new correct Beta decals again at the same time... this one was a transkit and did also have these two small extra panels that in Le Mans did close about 50% of the engine aperture, on bot sides of the exausts... they are 3D experts and already have lots of interesting 1/24 stuff!  I started my "short tail" again and, regarding the tires, I found a Revell 934 Porsche set in the junk box, I replaced all the kit wheels with Scale Production great and correct ones, as these Revells do have the correct dimensions for the Beta car... I only have to add an extra rim to enlarge the rear wheels; the engine, as the instructions images are a little vague... that drive chains box!... judging  by the MFH 1/12 Beta engine, the should chains face the right side of the car, as the pulleys are in this side of the engine, so all the details this part has will desapear when it is glued to the engine block... is the right side of the drive chains covered? I could not find, not one, image of this part in the real cars photographers for some obscure reason are always on the left side! and I decided to draw some hinges to allow the engine cover to open, it would be GREAT to make it in photoetch, so I will try to make it in beer can tin,,,

PS:  Well, this "tunned" red street Lancia Beta you show manages to be very good to the eye...

 

Marco, yes detail photos of the engine are difficult to find for the Beta.  I have been using the 1/12 scale MFH kit as a reference to help me detail the Esci kit.  I decided not to scratch build all the pulleys and belts as they are difficult to see on the finished model.  Here are some photos of the MFH kit.  Beautiful kit but close to $1,000!  Way more than I am willing to spend.

Image result for MFH lancia beta montecarloImage result for MFH lancia beta montecarloImage result for MFH lancia beta montecarlo

Edited by afx
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Well,  at last I found one photo taken from the right side, it was in the middle of a bunch of images I downloaded from the net, wich I had not edited yet... it is from one Martini car, and that triangular aperture made by the chassis where in the MFH we can clearly see the pulleys and the belts, in this particular car, if not in all others, is totally closed with a metal sheet, as you can see in photo engine11!... probably to get more rigidity to the chassis frame... most probably these chains have no cover, as it will be easier to replace, but it is clearly impossible for it to be seen behind all that tubing and... and we can clearly see that the MFH engine is different of the engine in our kit (earlier version?) at least the Martini, the Fruit of the Loom and the Alitalia use the same engine version, with an oil cap on the valve cover and that black pipe entering  on the oposite side, near the distributor (which is also of a diffrent type)... and that pipe-like air admission has a little cap when the engine is not in use... uor car has a diffrent type of air admission type, pointing to the left side, but horizontally, so no need for the cap... and look at these orange very large pipes coming from both side radiators...  great photo!

engine06-vi.jpg

engine07-vi.jpg

engine09-vi.jpg

engine11-vi.jpg

lancia79-vi.jpg

LanciaBetaZolder81-vi.jpg

lancialc1lc23-vi.jpg

engine15-vi.jpg

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