A REALLY REALLY BIG EXOTIC building the Pocher 1:8 Pagani Utopia my way

[mrm]

Hi y'all.

I had a really really rough start of the year and have not touched a model in 2025. I lost my job, decided to start my own company, my dog which I've had since he was born passed after over a month of trying to fight his heart disease and ripped my soul apart. Just a month after some kids rear ended my wife on a parking lot creating a nightmare battle with insurance companies. Just two weeks after my Duke passed away, my wife got diagnosed with breast cancer. Doctors, treatments, two surgeries and business picking up kept me preoccupied. My kid came home from college, so that just added to it all. 

    And then I ran across an opportunity to get a model that I just could not pass up. The latest from Pocher in 1:8th scale. The Pagani Utopia, which is also the latest from the Modenese exotic company. Last time I had seen or worked on a Pocher model was a couple of decades ago on one of their Ferrari F40s. This new kit seems to be a great improvement in every possible regard, yet some things never change I guess. The model is huge and it is Diecast metal. Or at least a great portion of it. That is definitely a double sided sword. Especially considering that everything is supposed to be prepainted and ready for assembly. That comes as a blessing to a lot of people, especially when it comes to the body, which is finished very nicely. It is still a kit with about 600 parts, not counting all the screws. 

   Strangely I have not seen almost any of these being built. I found one on a British automotive forum, one on a British modeler YouTube channel and recently one on a German forum. And people are complaining that there is too much gluing and too many parts, which should somewhat give you an idea of the crowd this kit has attracted. On top of that the British modelers I mentioned apparently are absolutely clueless on the subject matter they are building. Anywho....

   To me personally the refinished parts are plain annoying as they are not finished in the colors I would like (and in some cases plain inaccurate) and I don't like the color spec of the model. To be fair, this model is designed to represent the sample first presented to the press and to be build ratter quick with moderate effort. I did not get this for free and I am not affiliated with Pocher or any of their distributors. This thread could be used as a fair review of the kit I guess. The first thing I have to say is that the instructions are far from good and you have to download and print your own copy. The 140 page manual is not included. Some steps are downright wrong from what I have studied. Now, as we all know any seasoned modeler would have no problem putting this together as we take instructions more as a suggestion how to build our models. 

    A big deal with this model is that I have to start by great preparations on top of the usual painstaking research, which is not an easy task with these exotics. If you think finding the wiring and plumbing for the bespoke twin turbo V12 built by AMG exclusively for Pagani is as simple as a google search, I have some disappointing news for you. Then comes the fact that although a huge improvement from the kits Pocher marketed under the Testors brand back in the '90s, this kit kit is still at the level of a good 1:18 Diecast at best, only bigger. It blows my mind that they are still using Philips head screws even in this scale for some bolts that are going to be clearly visible on the finished model. This is especially annoying on a car like the Pagani, which is famous for having every single titanium bolt and nut polished, engraved with the company's name and put proudly on display as a design element. So I had to spend stupid amount of time sorting, measuring, documenting and arranging screws, which I had then to chase replacements for to have them with the proper shaped polished Torx heads to match the ones on the real car. Finding M1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.3 and 2.5 in various lengths, with Torx button heads turned out to be considerably harder than I thought. There is a variety of other detail I had to accumulate before starting this model, which I didn't have simply because of the sheer size of it. 

    Then I decided that this project is a good reason to finally put my garage in order and fix my painting station in it. I end up buying a really big compressor to use for everything else in the garage too, a new large paint booth, which resulted in building a work table for it, running ducting through the garage wall for the exhaust fan and the whole thing spiraled out of control. So far I am about $2K into this Pagani project before I have even begun and I am still not ready with the garage and the paint station. But I am slowly getting this party started...

 

 

These are the original screws provided with the kit. All of them are Philips heads and they are black.

 

These are all the screws I have gotten so far to replace the ones from the kit. They are all silver and are Torx button heads. I had to get some black ones too and also quite a bit of tools. Like micro Torx screwdrivers, metric thread cutters because the holes the screws are supposed to go into have no threads and the parts are metal, Some more serious drill bits and a couple of new rotary tools. 

 

I also got bunch of generic 1/12 detail parts from Top Studio that I can use on this build and I would have to 3D print a myriad of bolt heads and other little detail. I am also working with Scalemotorsports to see if they can print me some large sheets of carbon decals. That's gonna cost me too I'm sure...

 

Here is the engine and transmission assembled as they come prepainted from the kit. Now I have to strip them, add some kind of shapes and detail to the casting which is ratter generic and then prime and paint everything just to get a starting base. 

 

Stay tuned...

Edited Tuesday at 10:32 PM by mrm

[stavanzer]

Wow!

What a hard 6 months.

But, what a Kit! I am convinced that with your skills and attention to detail, it will be a museum piece when finished.

I'll be following along as you go.

[mrm]

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Wow!

What a hard 6 months.

But, what a Kit! I am convinced that with your skills and attention to detail, it will be a museum piece when finished.

I'll be following along as you go.

Thank you Alan.

Last night I had a little time and decided to just check how some things fit on my dining table. Next thing you know I am detailing the plenum.

What you see here id the induction system of this insane motor. Basically its intakes get connected from the turbos straight up to a water-to-air intercoolers on each side, which are directly bolted on each side of the plenum. On the real car they are highly polished aluminum and everything is created from beautifully welded together pieces. The parts in the kit do not do justice to what's in the real car. Especially considering that the plenum is always visible, even when the engine hood is closed. 

    The kit's intake system consists of about twenty something parts, twenty of which you see here glued together. Interestingly enough the coolers are made from metal halves that are screwed together and everything else is plastic. The finishes are wrong and there is no trace of the artful welds. 

 

Since I would have to repaint all this anyway, I thought to bring some realism to it with some photo etched weld lines. They come as straight strips, but with some persuasion they could be manipulated into curves. 

 

Here you can see the weld line on the left where the cooler meets the plenum. This not only adds a lot of realism, but also hides the glue line, so I don't have to putty it.

 

 

I don't know if it is by coincidence or by design, but all the weld lines on the real car are exactly where the pieces are glued together. On the pictures you can see fogging from the ca I used to attach the photo etched weld lines. After all the welds are applied everything would be sanded smooth and then painted. 

 

Welds on the right vs plain joint line on the left.

 

This is what I am trying to replicate

 

Stay tuned...

[mrm]

Slowly I am starting to prep parts. The A-arms on any Pagani car is a work of art as it is a part assembled from few pieces and it is always on display. In the kit the upper A-arms are made from 2 pieces and are bolted from above with ugly black Phillips head screws, which ruin the whole part for me. 

 

Pocher had the decency to actually mold the upper part with the correct cut out in it, but then for some reason the bottom part is missing it and they ruined it with the screw design. So I glued the two pieces with CA and used the screws basically just to clamp the two pieces together. Then I removed the crews and filled their holes with JB Weld steel reinforced epoxy putty. This should allow to eliminate the screws and to putty and sand everything smooth. 

 

This however did not solve my issue of the solid piece underneath. So I decided to open up the holes like on the real car, which is all about saving weight. Digging through almost 1/4 inch of die cast metal was not quite as bad as expected, but it definitely took a while. 

 

Original part with the holes filled with steel putty on the left and the drilled out part on the right.

 

I am quite happy how they turned out. Now I have to putty and sand the surface where the screws were and they will be ready to receive a fresh gold coating. 

[stavanzer]

Jaw Dropping Detail.

Your Work on this is Superb!

[mrm]

11 minutes ago, stavanzer said:

Jaw Dropping Detail.

Your Work on this is Superb!

Thank you, Alan. 

I was on another thread asking where to get issue 226 of the magazine and someone suggested Spotlight Hobbies. So I went on there to order it and I saw they actually offer chrome plating service. So there is a very good chance this whole intake piece together with some other parts to be sent to them after I'm done modifying the pieces. 

[Bugatti Fan]

Interesting build. The newer Hornby/Airfix Pocher brand is in a different place quality wise compared to those old Rivarossi Pochers from back in the 70's and 80's.

Surprised to learn that there is no printed set of instructions. When you buy kits costing that sort of money I would expect a set of printed instructions to be included. It was mentioned that there was little out there with regard to reviews and so forth, but this is probably because the kit is pretty new right now. More will come to light as time goes on I guess.