Italeri Alfa 8c- WIP

[jaymcminn]

Now that I have some extra time on my hands for a while, I decided to get stuck in on a big, involved project... Italeri's new release of the Alfa 8c 2300 Monza. My idea for this build was a weathered, slightly beat-up car a few years into its career. I didn't want to build any specific car, instead taking inspiration from a little bit of everything. I decided on Tamiya TS11 Maroon as the color, over their red oxide primer. First was to sand the awful rivet blobs off the body to be replaced with .040 plastic rivets from Tichy Train Group. 

 

[jaymcminn]

The holes in the body that don't have rivets in are going to have fasteners for removeable panels with safety wire. I actually kind of like the sink marks in the body at the rear since the aluminum bodywork on the real thing isn't exactly laser-straight. I next got the wheels together. The wheels build up from three layers of spokes, and look good. The spokes are a bit thick, but I'm not too concerned. Detail is nice with valve stems, and the kit tires are excellent. The knockoff, like pretty much all the kit chrome, was washed with brass acrylic and Testors acrylic black wash to replicate the look of patina on chrome with the brass starting to show through.

 

Weathering on the wheel itself was done with the black wash and Tamiya weathering powders.

 

The chassis went together very well and I was faced with the most fiddly job of the build... the friction shocks. These build up like the real thing, with all of the arms and friction plates sandwiched together and secured with screws and bolts. This is what you start with...

 

And this is the end result.

 

Attached to the rear axle...

The chassis as it stands now with the painted and weathered body sitting on top. The number is a stencil from a company called Orlee. There was an actual car that ran this number, but this isn't it. I just thought it looked cool.

 

Next up was the interior floor, which needed some help. I drilled out the side rails and used aluminum printer's sheet for the floor panels. I embossed the lines into the sheet using a pizza cutter and straightedge. I then scuffed the floorboards and aplied a thin wash of Tamiya Metallic Grey.

[maysula]

I like this alot! Nice color, really fits the car ?  

[Twokidsnosleep]

You are doing a spectacular job

I have all three of the big Italeri retro kits in the stash.
A bit too chicken to break one open though this lay off would be a good time?

[jaymcminn]

13 minutes ago, Twokidsnosleep said:

You are doing a spectacular job

I have all three of the big Italeri retro kits in the stash.
A bit too chicken to break one open though this lay off would be a good time?

Thanks Scott! I'm thinking about picking up the Mefistofele at some point. I know the Mefistofele and the Fiat 806 are ex-Protar kits and this is a new tool (although I'm wondering if it might have been a Protar kit under development when Protar shut down, it just doesn't feel like a state-of-the-art new kit) but the Mefistofele seems like a pretty fun challenge. I will say that the Alfa is going together brilliantly, but Italeri is pretty stingy with the screws, nuts and bolts. Don 't lose any, because you don't get extras!

[Twokidsnosleep]

35 minutes ago, jaymcminn said:

Thanks Scott! I'm thinking about picking up the Mefistofele at some point. I know the Mefistofele and the Fiat 806 are ex-Protar kits and this is a new tool (although I'm wondering if it might have been a Protar kit under development when Protar shut down, it just doesn't feel like a state-of-the-art new kit) but the Mefistofele seems like a pretty fun challenge. I will say that the Alfa is going together brilliantly, but Italeri is pretty stingy with the screws, nuts and bolts. Don 't lose any, because you don't get extras!

We have similar tastes, styles and thoughts my friend 

I really look forward to follow along with this and your future builds???

[jaymcminn]

New update... first some better shots of the completed front and rear suspensions. I will say that this thing is going together wonderfully... the detail is a little on the primitive side, but it looks the business with a little work. 

 

Next I decided to tackle the seat... this is probably the biggest downfall of this kit. It's featureless and lacks any sort of texture. I was limited in terms of how much I wanted to mess with this piece because I'm guessing Italeri's parts replacement program isn't exactly robust, so I didn't want to do anything too drastic. I found a crackle medium on Amazon, applied it over primer and let it sit overnight...

 

Followed by an airbrushed coat of Model Master Acryl Leather...

 

And the final product after a dark gray/brown wash. The result is a nicely cracked leather, but not overdone. I applied a thicker coat of the meduim on the driver's side, which produces more and bigger cracks where you would expect them.

 

Next I sanded the fuse box bases and wires off of the firewall and added scratchbuilt fuse boxes as well as drilled holes for the wiring... much better than the molded in detail.

 

Finally I've started on the engine... more Tichy Train bolts for the transmission bell housing. To be fair, they'll be pretty hard to see once everything's together, but I'll know they're there.

 

That's all for  now, more to follow soon!

[PappyD340]

Incredible work, keep it up!

[Codi]

Amazing effects Jason.  Your weathering skills really lend a look of realism.  cheers, tim

[OldNYJim]

Stunning work so far - LOVE builds like this! ?

The crackle medium you used on the seats really caught my eye - it worked great!

[Belugawrx]

Love the cracked leather !

Keep up the weathering..looks great?

[jaymcminn]

Thanks guys! I've done a rat rod or two in the past, but this is the first time I've tried for that balance of weathered and maintained that you see on old race cars. I've started the process of adding the fasteners and safety wire to the body... pics to come soon. It's pretty tedious work, but the fiddly bits are kind of my favorite part of a build like this. 

[jaymcminn]

22 hours ago, CabDriver said:

Stunning work so far - LOVE builds like this! ?

The crackle medium you used on the seats really caught my eye - it worked great!

The crackle finish is cool but a little unpredictable. Thin coats give you finer cracks, which would work best in 1/24, but if you go too thin the cracks won't happen at all. And of course it's tough to see them at all until the final paint coat and weathering so you aren't sure what you've got until the final step. In addition the finish is extremely fragile, which works out well if you've got the right base color under the crackle medium because anything that flakes off will show more of your base leather color. I'm looking forward to playing with this stuff on future builds, because I can see lots of uses for it... checked and peeling lacquer or clear coat, rusting steel, etc. 

[Dann Tier]

Simply INCREDIBLE!!!!!!

[jaymcminn]

Latest update... I finished the instrument panel and the firewall. Instrument panel detail is very nice, with excellent decals under clear lenses. I used Molotow Chrome to highlight the instrument bezels. The firewall was painted in Tamiya Gunship Grey . Depressions were washed with a black wash and highlights were drybrushed and then everything was blended with gunmetal Tamiya weathering powder. 

 

Next came the safety wire on the removable body panels... I used square-head bolts from Tichy Train Group and silver cotton quilting thread to closely approximate the look of the fasteners and safety wire seen on the 1/1 cars. If it was perfectly accurate the wire would pass through the bolt heads instead of under them, but I wasn't able to figure out a way to make that work without driving myself completely nuts. I could never have drilled all of these holes without the Tamiya Handy Drill I purchased for this project... it's the perfect tool to drill several dozen little holes in plastic without causing any damage to either the kit or yourself. I can't recommend it enough.

 

I installed the firewall and instrument panel, which involves adding the tubes that run from the instruments and ignition to the engine. The tubing supplied with the kit was hopeless, but I had some better-quality stuff in the parts box. 

 

Body shell is done except for a few details that'll go on later... on to the motor next!

[iBorg]

This is a kit I'd never consider buying. Now I will. This build has so many nice elements to it. I love the concept. The build is fitting the concept of a used race car that's not used up. 

I'm looking forward to learn from this build.

[Italianhorses]

Wow, fantastic job on the model overall, but man, that seat! It turned out unbelievable!

What crackle medium did you use?

[absmiami]

Me too

inquiring minds want

to know - which medium did you try ? 

[jaymcminn]

6 hours ago, Italianhorses said:

Wow, fantastic job on the model overall, but man, that seat! It turned out unbelievable!

What crackle medium did you use?

 

6 hours ago, absmiami said:

Me too

inquiring minds want

to know - which medium did you try ? 

Thanks guys, it's this stuff:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FY5HCW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's always cool when you can repurpose something that isn't specific to our hobby with good results!

[Italianhorses]

2 hours ago, jaymcminn said:

 

Thanks guys, it's this stuff:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FY5HCW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's always cool when you can repurpose something that isn't specific to our hobby with good results!

Awesome, thanks!

[jaymcminn]

On to the motor... lots of finishes here. Engine/Transmission were airbrushed in Tamiya Metallic Grey, the intake manifold/supercharger were assembled as a unit and painted in Flat Aluminum. I used Testors black enamel stain for the weathering on  the engine/transmission... it has an oily black look as opposed to the flat dark grey of the acrylic wash I usually use. I did use the acrylic wash on the intake manifold, steering box, etc. I also used the acrylic wash on the plated cam covers... I applied it thick and then used a makeup applicator to blot it off, leaving a nice discolored effect that matches up well with pics I've seen of these motors online. I picked out the bolts in Tamiya chrome silver. Ignition wires were done with braided cord. For the various data plates attached to the engine I decided not to apply the decals directly to the cam covers and engine mount, choosing rather to mount them to the same thin aluminum sheet I used for the interior floor before mounting them to the engine. This adds just a little dimension and detail. The air cleaner (brass bit at the front of the motor) can be built two ways- either a kit plastic part or a photoetched part with nylon screen. Neither of these is ideal, so I used the kit photoetched part under some fine brass screen that I formed over the plastic part to get the correct shape. 

One thing I have realized... when you take on a weathered build like this you have to commit to weathering pretty much every single part of the model. The old adage "treat every single assembly as a model in itself" really applies here. It's a challenge and it's a fun one. On to pics!

 

Finally a quick stance check now that the backing plates are on the chassis. Four wheels touching... bingo!

[Bainford]

Very impressive. Great use of textures and washes. This is going to look awesome. 

[jaymcminn]

The motor meets the chassis...

 

I decided to go with Tamiya Metallic Grey for the backing plates and brake and steering system instead of body color. Washes on these parts were done in Testors black enamel stain for its oily look. The stencil on the radiator is from the same set as the side stencils... 13 is definitely the best number for a racer. 

Since I took these pics over the weekend, I have basically buttoned this build up... finished pics, including one final detail I decided to add in literally when the thing was done, should be up tomorrow. As always, questions and comments are welcome!

[jaymcminn]

Under glass... When I had everything pretty much done I was going through my reference photos and saw a rear-view mirror on one of the Scuderia Ferrari cars I really liked. I scratchbuilt one out of a 1/24 license plate frame from the parts box as well as a mirror bracket from (I think) a 1/12 '67 Corvette, some styrene and Tichy Train bolts. The original.

 

 

And the final result...

 

And a couple of pics of this monster finished!

 

 

Just noticed that I never cleaned the plastic out of the interior from the holes I drilled in the cowl for the mirror... it's done now. More pics in Under Glass soon!

 

 

[doggie427]

Tremendous work Jason. I love everything about this .