Maserati 3500GT -- Monogram 1/25

[Matt Bacon]

Yep... there are a few out there with the "raised eyebrow" windscreen, but they are far from common. Actually, if you look at loads of pictures, as I now have, you can see a fair degree of variation in the windscreen line. I think it must have changed subtly over different "model years".

Anyway... Boy, am I glad to get THIS done:

Obviously, now I "just" need to sort out the badge, grille itself and the chrome effect. Easy!

One thing I have noticed is that it looks from the instructions like it will be impossible to get the chassis in with the rear underbody in place. Can anyone who has built the kit confirm that is really so?

If it is the case, my inclination is to tack the part in position, prime, paint and clearcoat as normal, then remove it by cutting through the Clear with a VERY sharp knife. Hopefully, then I can put the chassis in and fit the part back in place, and once it's set just polish over the join if needed. It won't _quite_ disappear, but most of it's behind the rear bumper. I do NOT want to be filling sanding and repainting and revarnishing a seam right at the end of the build!

Anyone got any better suggestions?

bestest,

M.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Matt Bacon

[John Goschke]

Very impressive work on this old kit!

[sjordan2]

perhaps they used the windscreen specs from this 3500

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rexgray/4637648604/

That's a Vignale-designed coupe, known mostly as a Maserati Sebring Series 1, or 3500 GTiS. Different car, body-wise. Less than 400 made between 1962 and 1965.

PS: Matt, I'm waiting with bated breath to see how you solve the rear valance issue, especially since you're using metallic paint. On non-metallic, the fit is close enough that it isn't too obvious.

Edited February 26, 2013 by sjordan2

[sjordan2]

General note: simonr did a fantastic build of the Aston DB5, which is a sister kit to the Maserati -- many of the same issues, including fixing the hood scoops. Might check it out. It's somewhere on this forum.

About the valances: The tricky part about mounting the body, as you slide it on from the front, is making sure that the front fender liners (attached to firewall and front of chassis) tuck inside the fender tops. It's tight, and I highly recommend that you do a test fit here.

As you mentioned, the rear valance leaves a big seam along the rear quarter panels. That type of seam is typical of every XKE model. Here's one approach to covering it up after assembly on the 1/8 E-Type, using a masking/feathering paint technique...

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64075

PS: As you build the grille, I wonder if photo-etched mesh for the '57 Chevy would work?

Edited February 26, 2013 by sjordan2

[Matt Bacon]

That's a relief! I thought you were saying the body wouldn't go on the chassis with the front valance in place... Certainly on my Monogram instructions, it's glued in position well before the body is attached to the chassis. I'll have a look at the instructions -- I wonder if there's any mileage in fitting the fender liners and firewall in place inside the body before fitting the whole chassis...

bestest,

M.

[sjordan2]

That's a relief! I thought you were saying the body wouldn't go on the chassis with the front valance in place... Certainly on my Monogram instructions, it's glued in position well before the body is attached to the chassis. I'll have a look at the instructions -- I wonder if there's any mileage in fitting the fender liners and firewall in place inside the body before fitting the whole chassis...

bestest,

M.

I had similar ideas about the fender liners, but you'll have to consider how they fit against the firewall and chassis. Maybe you could cut off the notches.

PS: I was finishing some edits to my prior post, probably before you saw them. Might look again.

Edited February 26, 2013 by sjordan2

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks, Skip... are you thinking something like this (55 Bel Air from The Model Car Garage)

bestest,

M.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Matt Bacon

[sjordan2]

Like that, but the mesh may be too open. I take stuff like that and reduce it to scale width, then print it out and look at it.

I had another thought about dealing with the fender liners. Go back and look at the engine bay shots on page 1. You'll see that the driver's side has sort of a wide aluminum "shelf" at the hood opening, and the passenger side has a deep retaining lip that goes downward. These could hide any gaps in the fender liners.

[sjordan2]

As long as you're doing the bodywork, and in my annoying quest to add considerations to the build, you might want to think about adding a small louver in front of the inaccurate side vents.

[blunc]

I have 3 of these kits, I was surprised to see yours in white plastic since the one I have opened is molded with red plastic.

I have see a separate grill offering from Detail Master SKU: dm2585, in case you don't want to buy a whole detail set just for a grill.

I haven't opened my kit of this for a while but you might be able to resolve the rear valance problem by separating some of the parts from the chassis (that make it impossible to get the chassis in with the valance attached) and attaching them to the body.

this kit looks like it may have been an produced by aurora originally, I have a DB4 that has many of the same build/assembly features.

[blunc]

if you don't mind a little extra work at this point, I suggest attaching the boot and doors with removable pins at this point so you can get them properly aligned and sanded so they match the surrounding panels.

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks, guys! This is precisely the right time for "a bit more work" suggestions -- I can actually do them! There's nothing worse than posts AFTER the body is painted and cleared saying "did you think about...?" when I obviously didn't ;-P

Skip... don't worry, suggestions are always welcome... as you can see:

I was probably going to get to this at some time -- I already did it on my Astons -- but it was a worthwhile reminder. I scribed a line along the front face of the "scoop" with a P-Cutter, used flat -- ie parallel with the bonnet. Once that was reasonably deep, I scraped away under the bonnet, and alternated both until I had a narrow slot cut through. Then I used a "Flexi-File" - thin strips of abrasive on a plastic backing held in a U-shaped handle. I threaded the strip through the slot before attaching it to the handle, and then used it to widen the slot at both sides. I also used a fresh #11 blade to carve away a bit on the inside of the scoop as well, to get the sort of "W" cross section. Finally I sanded the upper corners of the scoop a bit, which are too square on the kit...

...best part of an hour to make a small hole. Who'd'a thunk it? ;-P

bestest,

M.

[sjordan2]

The scoops are great (the inside of the hood has sort of a tray that runs underneath them). Some survivors have a very thin strip of chrome trim on the front edges of the scoops, some don't, but I think the chrome looks cool (I think that's because some restorers simply can't find the trim). Likewise, one thing I've never figured out is why some cars have a triangular piece of chrome running along the top of the rear fenders and why some don't.

Edited February 26, 2013 by sjordan2

[Paul H]

Regarding the rear valance, it looks possible to install the body with the valance attached. I'd got as far as checking this as a dry assembly with it taped in place, but that's without a lot of other interior & engine bay parts fitted.... I will try to find my kit, and have a closer look.

Don't blame you for not wanting to modify the screen as per the pics I emailed - looks rather daunting! However I may well borrow your screen moulding technique for some screens I need to make for a Air Trax resin Volvo 1800 model I'm also building.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Paul H

[Matt Bacon]

Yep... thanks for the pictures, Paul. I think it probably could be done, but you'd have to reshape the windscreen "master" a lot to remove a good chunk of the lower corners, sanding through to the Milliput and well into it, to get the smoother curve along the bottom edge instead of the rectangular shape. Compared to that, adding some styrene to fill in the corners of the aperture in the body and rebuilding the "lip" would be almost trivial!

Looking at the instructions on mine, the problem with getting a chassis you can test seems to be that there are four sections that have to be assembled before you have something you can test fit -- the back end with interior, the main chassis with front frame, the suspension assembly which sits on the end of that frame, and the extreme front frame which attaches to the axle assembly. I don't know how positive the mounting locations are, either. I'd like to use the chassis as a jig to assemble the firewall and engine bay sides (fender liners) on their mount points, and then remove them and attach them to the body interior, if that works. My worry is, though, that they are essential bracing to support the front frame assembly!

Also, does anyone who has built this kit know for sure whether the engine bay sides sit at right angles to the firewall, or taper in toward the front to follow the line of the bonnet cut-out? The instructions are very unclear, and the fit into the slots isn't positive enough to tell one way or the other!

bestest,

M.

[sjordan2]

As you guessed, the fender liners narrow a bit from the firewall to the horizontal bar at the front of the frame (the taper basically follows the lines of the hood opening); the liners have a notch at the bottom front, which fits onto the bar on either side of the radiator and is glued down.

It looks like the fender liners really need to be assembled according to the instructions for structural stability.

I'll try to get some pictures later.

[sjordan2]

Just a little preview of what's coming up with the kit interior (I'll also get shots of that from my built-up reference model), the kit's steering wheel projects out too far from the dash at a straight angle, and the seat backs and bottoms are about half as thick as they need to be, which looks very odd.

Door jambs on the body and on the doors need to be chrome. Speaking of doors, the hinge arms will snap off easily, simply by looking at them.

PS: it's not just the door hinges that can snap, this is an old kit with VERY brittle pieces and cannot stand an ounce of pressure anywhere, trying to line things up. You can also easily snap off the wheels. NOTHING can be forced.

Edited February 27, 2013 by sjordan2

[sjordan2]

Here are some shots from the built-up kit I got on eBay (click to enlarge). These show the fender liner issue I described, which MAY NOT really be an issue -- just this particular kit and the way it was built. You'll see that the liner on the passenger side is just fine, but there's a big gap on the driver side. In picture 2, you can see how the liner mounts to the front of the frame. In any case, the fender liners and insides of the body should be matte black, so nothing will be too obvious.

Also study the interior, which requires adding a seat base and a bit of repositioning of the steering wheel. (Like many kits of the era, there is no steering that goes into the engine bay). I think the seats need to slide back more.

Let me know if you need other detail shots.

PS: I don't know the exact dimensions, but I thought this MCG PE set for the 57 Chevy would be suitable for the grille mesh. Don't know if it's big enough, but it looks close.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MODEL-CAR-GARAGE-2087-1957-CHEVY-BEL-AIR-DETAIL-SET-AMT-KIT-/281055877495

Just got this info from the seller of the PE parts: The OD of the entire piece is 3" and the OD of just the grille piece is 2.5" The original kit grille piece is 1.5" wide, so a little sizing of the art should tell you if it's suitable for the Maserati. The main difference is that the horizontal bars of the Maserati are more prominent, and the vertical bars of the Chevy are more prominent. But the spacing looks good.

Edited February 28, 2013 by sjordan2

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks for that, Skip! As you say, the liners will be black, and there are those details at the top to hide the joins... The seats are seriously anemic, and they'll certainly need those BIG metal side braces/hinges as well as bulking up the bolsters and backs. I'm still looking at wheels. I also have somewhere a spare set of the steel racing wheels from an E-type Jag, which are being replaced by the wires from a Tamiya Mk 2 Jag (the best plastic "wires" I've ever seen). If I can find them, they might work, with some hubcaps, to look like the ones in your gunmetal grey example...

I decided to take a bit of a break from bodywork, and progress elsewhere for a bit.

Here are lots of parts that used to be chromed. Five minutes in some carefully handled caustic soda solution, and they're clean. You can see the varnish is still there, but glue does work... There are some sink marks in the bumpers which prompted stripping them, and obviously the chromed engine parts are just daft.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the level of detail supplied for the engine -- separate alternator, starter motor and distributor, belts etc. As you can see from the engine pic at the bottom left, this is clearly a car with the fuel injection engine rather than carbs.

The decals are in a parlous state. I can see several cracks across the number plates. I've painted the logos and instruments with liquid decal film to try and save them, but I've also made a scan just in case I need to make my own. Anyone know of an aftermarket silver-ink decal sheet of Maserati logos...? ;-P I've ordered some rectangular mesh from Detail Master -- we'll see how that looks. With some measuring and counting, it needs to be 1mm spacing vertically and 2mm horizontally (or a bit bigger than 1/32" x 1/16")

bestest,

M.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Matt Bacon

[Paul H]

Door jambs on the body and on the doors need to be chrome.

Based on that pic, more likely to be polished aluminium - that's what is used on the Superleggera bodied Astons.

The seats are seriously anemic, and they'll certainly need those BIG metal side braces/hinges as well as bulking up the bolsters and backs.

They look like the Keiper / early Recaro recliners as fitted to quite a few European cars in the '60s such as Ferraris, and even Volvos, so depending on what level of detail you want to add, they could be made functional....

[sjordan2]

Based on that pic, more likely to be polished aluminium - that's what is used on the Superleggera bodied Astons.

They look like the Keiper / early Recaro recliners as fitted to quite a few European cars in the '60s such as Ferraris, and even Volvos, so depending on what level of detail you want to add, they could be made functional....

- Polished aluminum in the real world, chrome in the model world.

- I have pictures of all the Jaeger gauges, but the kit is so small, I don't know how you'd use them. Let me know what you need. I have the Aurora and Monogram kits but no decals.

This is the most typical seat hinge design, which can be either on the outsides only or both inside and outside of both seats. Just flop the design.

Edited March 1, 2013 by sjordan2

[Matt Bacon]

Decisions, decisions...

Skip's favorite 3500GT above has rectangular auxiliary lights below the headlights, just like the kit. Most of the pictures I have looked at so far (see above for examples) show a different layout with a larger circular lamp and a separate smaller indicator. Just building the kit would obviously be rather easier... Skip, do you know if both were reasonably common? Any ideas on when/why it changed -- is it a model year thing or a European spec versus US spec thing, maybe? Or just a mystery, like the chrome micro-fins on the rear wings...?

bestest,

M.

[Paul H]

They're hand built cars, and this sort of thing isn't unusual. I wouldn't get too bogged down with that sort of difference, unless there is a specific car that you are trying to replicate.

- Polished aluminum in the real world, chrome in the model world.

What I forgot (& meant) to say is imho that pic looks over polished compared to the likely factory finish. Sadly many classic cars end up being heavily over restored, so it is difficult to know what is actually the correct factory finish, as truly accurate reference data can be hard to find. If I ever complete my kit of this car, I'll be using the BMF ally finish foil to create a softer, shine there, which will then contrast with the chrome elsewhere. Perhaps not strictly accurate, but it will look more correct to my eye than if it were gleaming chrome.

Also, if those Keiper Recaro mechanisms are the same type as all the ones I have seen, they would have identical (aside from the operating lever) brackets on each sides of the seat.

[sjordan2]

The round driving lights were on the 3500GT with the Weber carbs. Rectangular turn lights were mostly on the GTi with Lucas injection. By the way, so many owners despised the Lucas injection enough that they retrofitted their cars with the carburetors (shown at the bottom right of your pictures with a Ferrari-style air filter).

[Paul H]

The round driving lights were on the 3500GT with the Weber carbs. Rectangular turn lights were mostly on the GTi with Lucas injection.

Didn't know that this was the reason - cheers for the info

Edited March 1, 2013 by Paul H