Fiat Topolino '60s Altered & Finished Slingshot Dragster

[Speedfreak]

Great idea for the shoulder belts Niko, brilliant! The whole thing looks great, the tan belts and all the black looks cool.

[W-409]

Thanks Richard, Dave, Brad, John and Gene! Much appreciated!

Brad has a good point and a question that I have no answer in. To be honest I was wondering about the same thing before I decided to go ahead and use that seat. Unfortunately it was the only seat I had that would fit in here so I couldn't replace it with another one.

Gene, I've done that same thing with a couple of other builds that had seats with belts molded in them. It's a pretty easy way to add a bit of realism into those seat belts rather than doing the massive work with removing molded in seat belts and then later replacing them with aftermarket parts.

 

Here's a minor update too. I just got spark plug wires on place. That Scale Dreams' wire is a good stuff and even though it has been a long time since I put spark plug wires on a scale model this was pretty easy.

[W-409]

Now I decided it was time to do some bodywork while a couple of engine parts were drying. Kit's windows are molded as one piece, but since I want mine to have the windshield only, I had to cut it apart from rest of the windows. Then after a bit of fitting and careful sanding here and there I got it mocked up. It doesn't fit perfectly on place, but it is pretty good.

Another thing I didn't like was the nose clip that has no hole for the grille at all. I wanted mine to have the original Fiat grille on it, so the only choice was to saw a correct size opening for the grille.

Then I started removing mold lines, flash and other that kind of stuff from the body parts to get them in primer. Body had pretty much cleanup to do even if the body is really small, but after everything looked smooth and I had scribed the door lines a bit deeper with Trumpeter's Panel Scriber, everything was ready to go into my "Paint Booth". Note that the Belly Pan wasn't painted yet as it still needs some work.

And then I shot some Red Oxide Primer on this one. It laid down pretty nicely.

 

[gasser59]

Love your unique idea of cutting the body out for the grill and making it an insert instead of just gluing it on top. Looks so much better. This is really coming along and its great to see it in primer.  Well done.

[W-409]

Thanks for the kind words Brad! I was thinking very carefully what should I do with that nose/grill area and that idea sounded the best after all. Smooth nose piece with no grille at all would have been a bit too boring so this modification makes my Fiat a bit different from most of the others.

Now there will be about two weeks before the next update as the next time when I'm at home is on February 19th. Hope to have something done that weekend. This weekend was so busy that I didn't get anything done.

[Mooneyzs]

Nikko... Things are looking great buddy. Man that body looks awesome after getting the Red Oxide Primer on it. Looks ready for some paint. Keep up the great work on this build. It is really showing.

[W-409]

Thanks Chris, I appreciate it! You're right that it would be ready for paint now, but as I'm building this for "Primer Build" on another forum it will be left in this Red Oxide Primer. My plan is to try to add a little Grey Primer overspray to rear quarter panels, but I'm not sure on that yet. It depends on if I can make it with my airbrush or not.

Today I installed fuel pump and its drive belt on place. They fit nicely on their places, but I had a bit of trouble with adding a fuel line from that fuel pump to the junction block that is in the middle of the intake. That fuel line is a piece of some small diameter wire I had laying around and its fittings are made out of plastic rod. I will need to add a fuel line from fuel pump to gas tank as well, but of course I can't do that before engine and gas tank are both installed.

I have a question though. I was thinking of adding a bracket to that fuel pump, but as I don't have much experience in this kind of fuel pumps so I'm not sure what type bracket should it be. Similar to regular alternator bracket? Something else?

I also need to add some black wash to the fuel pump. Now it looks just like a piece of painted plastic.

[Belugawrx]

It looks pretty clean,..Nik, needs a little grease and carbon 

Keep it going

Cheers

[W-409]

Thanks Bruce! There are some little grease marks in the engine block, but not much of them will be added as race cars are not supposed to leak any liquids. Some black washing will be added to the engine though to bring out some detail.

Today I made some good progress with the engine. First I black washed that fuel pump and a couple of other little spots, but some more black washing will be done when I glue the engine on place. Then I added a simple bracket for that fuel pump out of beer can aluminum and started working with carburetor linkage. I used Scale Dreams' Photo Etch parts and some copper wire I had laying around and created a pretty simple but pretty decent linkage. Of course one piece of that wire will be added later on that will connect to the linkage that I already have on place and go through the firewall.

Then I decided to add those aluminum shields on top of carburetors. I've seen those on pretty many old Drag Racers and I believe they were used to protect dust from going into the carbs? They're something that are not seen that often in scale so I decided to make them for this build. Those are simply pieces of beer can aluminum bent into correct shape. I still need to add some minor details to the engine before I can glue it to the chassis, but it shouldn't take too long anymore.

 

[gasser59]

Nice touch with the carb covers. Your skills are always improving Niko. Aside from your attention to detail, that is what I love the most about your builds. Watch out model builders, Niko has got you in his sights.

[Nytrozilla]

Niko, I've followed your builds for a long time and you improve your skills by leaps and bounds every time.

Excellent work young'n.

Nice touch with the carb covers. Your skills are always improving Niko. Aside from your attention to detail, that is what I love the most about your builds. Watch out model builders, Niko has got you in his sights.

I wrote the above before I read Brad's comment, so I'm sticking with it.  I second that emotion Brad.

 

[Randy D]

Hi Niko,

   The detail with the fuel lines and carb linkage looks great.  Leaving this in primer will be cool!!

  Randy

 

 

[6bblbird]

Niko, great job! This is turning out quite well.

Regarding the shields over the carbs. They are there to prevent fuel from being siphoned out of the the tops of the carbs while at speed. The airflow over the carb will pull fuel out in a liquid and vapor form and it would travel back toward the driver. Not a good thing if it were to catch fire. It also severely leans out the carbs. Velocity stacks also help to prevent this from happening.

WF

[W-409]

Thanks so much guys!

Brad & Joe: You're right, my skills have improved a lot since I joined here. Lots of good tips and tricks have been found in this forum and I've got good help from other builders too as well as the amount of inspiration that can be found in here. I'm trying to get better with every build and I want to try some new things that might make my builds better. Hopefully some day my builds will be as high quality as some of the Masters in here.

Randy: It's interesting to see how this will look in my display case when completed as I have never built anything that was left in Primer before. It's nice to do something different from time to time and this is actually quite fun...This won't be the only build that I'm leaving in primer. I'm sure I'll do another one some time.

Walter: That's some interesting information, thanks! It sounds really clever as who would want his car to catch fire during the Quarter Mile trip, or even worse, have flames hit his face if driving an Open Rail. Those are something I haven't seen often in scale so it's fun to see how people react to those parts in model car shows "What the heck are those?".

Thanks again for the kind words. They are really appreciated!

[W-409]

Now there's a Model Car Show on March 5th that is pretty close to where I live so my goal is to have this one completed by then. Looks like I could make it but there's still lots of work to be done so I need to stay busy.

I shot some flat clear to the body parts last weekend and today I continued by painting inside of the body flat black. My original plan was to shoot some grey primer overspray on rear wheel opening-areas, but I found out that my airbrush couldn't do it well enough so now this thing has only this Red Oxide Primer on it. After flat black on the inside was dry, I painted class markings to the doors. I used a small brush, free hand and Tamiya Acrylic white paint for this and the end result is decent. I tried to achieve a look that those were done with white shoe polish at the pits and I guess it could be worse. Last, I added a bit of black wash to door lines using Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color.

Engine was installed on place and Belly Pan was painted with primer too. Tomorrow I need to make a driveshaft and then I can continue assembly/final detailing.

[W-409]

Today I did lots of little detailing & assembly on the frame. I started by making a driveshaft from something I found from my parts box. After some cutting the driveshaft was a lot shorter and then it fit well on place. I painted it with Revell 91 silver and added a bit of black washing to the joints to bring out a little detail. Most of this driveshaft will be hidden under the Belly Pan anyway.

Then I moved on to the "interior" where I installed pedals, steering wheel, brake handle etc. It's starting to come together now, I still have to add brake lines, chute handle, tachometer etc. Gas Tank was also painted and installed and I added fuel line from tank to fuel pump as well. And as usual, those fuel line fittings are made out of plastic rod.

I installed the grill on place too. Black wash is The Detailer's liquid.

Now I also glued windshield on but as it's drying I have no pics of it yet. I hope I can get this one done next Friday in time for the show.

[Greg Myers]

Niko brings us the beauty of this board, love and learn.

Ya just gotta love seeing builds like this.

You just can't help but learn as you read through these threads.

Thanks Niko, for making the board what it is.

[Davewilly]

Looking good!

[W-409]

Greg: Thanks so much, you're too kind ! Usually it's me who is learning from other people's threads but it's great to hear that some of you find my threads helpful as well! It keeps me motivated to post some stuff in here too.

Dave: Thanks a lot, I appreciate it! I have to agree that I'm happy how this one looks. Little modifications and some extra detailing on an old kit like this can really make a difference.

 

Today I got this thing finished so here is the last set of WIP pictures. The first picture shows almost finished chassis and body parts along with lots of minor details were waiting to be installed.

This picture shows the interior after adding a a tachometer from my parts box. Its cable is made out of Scale Dreams' wire and it goes through the firewall and contacts to the magneto. I also added a launch handle for parachute that I made out of sheet styrene, but its' cable is still missing in this picture.

Here is the completed parachute. Details were made out of Scale Dreams' wire, regular metal wire and masking tape that I used to create that "rope" that connects to the frame.

Here is the finished product in one small picture. I'll shoot proper pics on Sunday and post them up. But now I have this thing boxed up and ready to go for a local Model Car Show tomorrow.

 

 

[gasser59]

Sweet looking build Niko. Congrats on a well thought out and executed vintage dragster. I love this one Niko. Have fun at the show.

Edited March 4, 2016 by gasser59

[Dogfish_7]

Incredible Craftsmanship!

[Greg Pugh]

That's SO cool!!

[W-409]

Thanks Brad, Bruce and Greg, your kind words are highly appreciated!

Here are some pictures of the finished product. It was a fun build and I'm pretty happy how it turned out even though it's far from perfect. These Vintage Drag Cars are my favorite subjects and of course you need to have at least one old Altered on your shelf! Thanks for looking everyone and especially thanks for the kind comments during the buildup. Here are the pics, and of course comments are always welcome...Good or Bad!

And here's a shot together with my FED that I finished a few years ago from this same kit:

And a picture from yesterday's Model Car Show. Looks like the judges liked it as it placed 2nd in Racing category. To be honest it was a surprise as there were some high quality models there!

[SteelyEd]

Congrats on the Win!  Car look great, love the color and the class markings on the door.  You nailed the look!

[gasser59]

It comes as no surprise to me Niko. That is one sweet, period correct build and it looks oh so right.