1974 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale [1/24 Fujimi Enthusiast Series]

[e30lover]

Hi all, I finally finished my third Fujimi Enthusiast model. It's hard to call this a real deal enthusiast kit as it recycles most of its engine parts from their Dino kit, while missing most of Stratos-specific engine accessories.
I also noticed that the body proportion is slightly off (especially distance between shoulder line and body baseline appears to be too thick) and wheel size is slightly smaller than real car.

However the assembly of engine and suspension components is very accurate and I didn't encounter any fitment issues that I experienced with Porsche enthusiast kits in the past. Also it comes with metal mesh, rubber hoses and PE parts out of box. 

Build summary:
Tamiya grey primer
2 coats of TS-93 Pure Blue and 2 coats of TS-13 clear
3000grit sandpaper then polished with 3-stage tamiya compounds
Added ignition lines, braided line and a few vacuum hoses

Thank you for looking!

[afx]

Very nice Chang.

[Dann Tier]

STUNNING!!!! -one of my all time favorite rally cars!!

[doorsovdoon]

Very clean build, looks showroom quality. Super nice paint, very nice.

[Spottedlaurel]

That looks excellent, you've done a great job there.

[Bainford]

Beautiful Stratos. Such an awesome car. Your build captures the vibe of the Stradale nicely.

[e30lover]

21 hours ago, afx said:

Very nice Chang.

Thank you! 

20 hours ago, Dann Tier said:

STUNNING!!!! -one of my all time favorite rally cars!!

One of my favorite as well! 

19 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

Very clean build, looks showroom quality. Super nice paint, very nice.

Thanks. I had to lay thinner coats than usual as the mold lines were thin, so couldn't flatten the surface as much as I would normally do. 

19 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

That looks excellent, you've done a great job there.

Appreciate it!

14 hours ago, Bainford said:

Beautiful Stratos. Such an awesome car. Your build captures the vibe of the Stradale nicely.

Thank you! I would love to build other Lancia homologation street models in the future. 

[grodudulle77]

Awesome details , very nice paint work, your model is very neat !! ??

[Rich Chernosky]

The Stratos is a very cool and different looking car. I have seen one in person. Your model certainly does it justice. 

[doggie427]

Beautiful paint and a very clean building style adds up to an outstanding model. Well done.

[Dave B]

That's a really nice build Chang

Dave B

[mrm]

Beautiful model. Glad to see it in blue also. 

[beeRS]

Beautiful job. Great to see this Enthusiast kit done. We see lots of the others (Porsche, Ferrari), but seldom the Stratos. You’ve done a wonderful job. 

[ChrisR]

Looks great!!

[mattg]

Admirably done!

I have that kit sitting on my stash waiting to be built along with four other Enthusiast series kits.

[peteski]

Looks great!  Until I saw this thread I didn't even know that this model even existed.

I suppose it is an older kit?  Hard to find? Expensive?  I know some Enthusiast kits fetch pretty high prices.

[mattg]

Not that hard to find, but they go for around $70-100 on Ebay regularily. I got mine for 35 Euros from a fellow modeler. 30-50 is the range for most Enthusiast kits if you take your time.

[Tommy124]

Nice model and indeed, a rare sight! For those seeking a kit, maybe the Hasegawa (1972) kit is an option. It's much easier to find for certain. I have this in my stash, but did not build it yet. From the parts and instructions pictures, it looks pretty decent though: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10037739

[Mattilacken]

Good looking model!

[e30lover]

On 11/17/2020 at 2:57 PM, grodudulle77 said:

Awesome details , very nice paint work, your model is very neat !! ??

Thank you! I usually do straight box build so at least it's gotta be clean ?

On 11/17/2020 at 3:41 PM, Rich Chernosky said:

The Stratos is a very cool and different looking car. I have seen one in person. Your model certainly does it justice. 

It's very unique looking design indeed - arguably one of the most iconic design among many other Gandini-designed cars!

On 11/17/2020 at 6:45 PM, doggie427 said:

Beautiful paint and a very clean building style adds up to an outstanding model. Well done.

Thank you! One more layer of clearcoat would've allowed me to flatten the surface better and get mirror finish, but mold lines were pretty thin & shallow so I didn't push for it.

On 11/17/2020 at 7:22 PM, Dave B said:

That's a really nice build Chang

Dave B

Thank you Dave! 

On 11/17/2020 at 7:41 PM, mrm said:

Beautiful model. Glad to see it in blue also. 

Thanks. I was contemplating between yellow vs blue - blue was definitely more manageable as it hides a lot of small flaws!

19 hours ago, beeRS said:

Beautiful job. Great to see this Enthusiast kit done. We see lots of the others (Porsche, Ferrari), but seldom the Stratos. You’ve done a wonderful job. 

Thank you! This is definitely easier to build than Porsche and Ferrari EM kits.

16 hours ago, ChrisR said:

Looks great!!

Thanks Chris!

14 hours ago, mattg said:

Admirably done!

I have that kit sitting on my stash waiting to be built along with four other Enthusiast series kits.

Enthusiast series definitely gave me different feelings - the excitement when you buy one, and hesitation whenever you open it, excitement of getting started then frustration when things don't fit! 

14 hours ago, peteski said:

Looks great!  Until I saw this thread I didn't even know that this model even existed.

I suppose it is an older kit?  Hard to find? Expensive?  I know some Enthusiast kits fetch pretty high prices.

I bought one back in 2010 for $60 and mine seemed to be the initial release back in 1997 (no wonder the plastics were impeccably clean) and it was relatively easy to buy back then. Not sure if they re-released it.

14 hours ago, mattg said:

Not that hard to find, but they go for around $70-100 on Ebay regularily. I got mine for 35 Euros from a fellow modeler. 30-50 is the range for most Enthusiast kits if you take your time.

Yeah. Certain desirable ones are definitely harder to find - I personally want to get E24 Alpina and 356A coupe but they're pretty rare.

12 hours ago, Tommy124 said:

Nice model and indeed, a rare sight! For those seeking a kit, maybe the Hasegawa (1972) kit is an option. It's much easier to find for certain. I have this in my stash, but did not build it yet. From the parts and instructions pictures, it looks pretty decent though: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10037739

Hasegawa version is curbside kit but body proportion and wheel size is much more accurate than Fujimi kit.

11 hours ago, Mattilacken said:

Good looking model!

Thank you!  

[peteski]

Thanks for the info e30lover. I might look for the Hasegawa kit.

[mattg]

16 minutes ago, peteski said:

Thanks for the info e30lover. I might look for the Hasegawa kit.

The Hasegawa kit doesn't include an engine, if that's important. However, there is a resin engine kit from Reji Model that can be used: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/reji-model-sp992-lancia-stratos-hf--278995

Edited November 19, 2020 by mattg

[peteski]

27 minutes ago, mattg said:

The Hasegawa kit doesn't include an engine, if that's important. However, there is a resin engine kit from Reji Model that can be used: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/reji-model-sp992-lancia-stratos-hf--278995

I'm sometimes ok with curbside models, but I will definitely keep this info for reference.  Thanks Matthias!

[afx]

10 hours ago, mattg said:

The Hasegawa kit doesn't include an engine, if that's important. However, there is a resin engine kit from Reji Model that can be used: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/reji-model-sp992-lancia-stratos-hf--278995

The Reji engine is a resin copy of the Fujimi engine.

Edited November 19, 2020 by afx

[89AKurt]

Nice job on that!  A favorite subject of mine.