Maserati 3500GT -- Monogram 1/25

[Matt Bacon]

This is the ancient Aurora kit, re-issued by Monogram in the 90s. It's actually pretty good plastic, with plenty of detail to work with. The opening doors, bonnet and boot bring their own issues, but the end result is rather nice compared to today's buttoned-up kerbside kits with aerodynamic under trays.

As you can see, there's a fair bit of work to fine-tune the kit into a more accurate representation of the original classic, which is a truly beautiful, and very purposeful looking GT car. The windscreen is still not right -- it should be more upright, and the base is much more semi-circular, not the large rectangular cut-out Aurora gave us. Personally, I think all the shape issues in this area come from placing the firewall to make room for the operating door hinges, which mean that it's too far forward. The engine is nice, and a bit of time with wiring pays big dividends.

Many thanks to Skip Jordan who has been nudging me to give this a try for a couple of years, provided invaluable reference resources, and acted as chief cheerleader along the way.

I'm now going to go away and build something from a state of the art kit, out of the box, before I even THINK about tackling the Singer 911 kit-bash...

bestest,

M.

[Paul H]

Fantastic to see this finished! Brilliant work, and will be a great inspiration when I get around to completing mine

[Austin T]

Looks great! I loved the workbench thread for this one,I have been casually doing the same thing to the monogram reissue of the Aston Martin DB4.Where did you get the wire wheels from?

Edited May 3, 2013 by Austin T

[cobraman]

Very nice job !

[Blown03SVT]

I saw your build thread for this model. What a great result. Research and patience paid huge dividends

[jaymcminn]

Beautiful work, Matt. I've been following the progress of this build and the results definitely justify the work you've put in! I like the idea of doing a nice box-stock "palate cleanser" build after a tough one like this... any ideas yet?

[sjordan2]

Bravo. I've been doing research on the 1:1 and looking at built models for a few years now, and I have never seen a model of this car that is so authentic, so detailed and so well executed. Worth every minute of the effort.

[cruz]

Great job, very cool!!

[WizPorsche944]

Wow I followed your build thread on this car. It came out great !!!

[ChrisR]

Great work!

[GeeBee]

Brilliant build Matt, you put a lot of work into this build and the results show, well done ....

[Monty]

I've always liked the real car, so I was delighted to see that Matt was going to be building this kit. I'd built one in '78 and have a few waiting on the shelves, so I figured it'd be worth my while to follow this project to see what could be done to improve it. If you've been reading Matt's WIP thread, you've seen how that he raised the bar significantly with diligent research and skillful scratchbuilding abilities.

It's probably the understatement of the year to say that this turned out exceptionally nicely. Well done, Matt! Sweating the details pays off again.

[doggie427]

Very very beautiful !!

[Rob Hall]

Beautiful build..turned out great.

[Porscheman]

Excellent job. I had the original as a kid and I screwed it up so bad, my dad threw it away.

[Silver Foxx]

Not a real easy kit to build , you have made a beautiful model , great detail work.

[Paul H]

As you can see, there's a fair bit of work to fine-tune the kit into a more accurate representation of the original classic, which is a truly beautiful, and very purposeful looking GT car. The windscreen is still not right -- it should be more upright, and the base is much more semi-circular, not the large rectangular cut-out Aurora gave us. Personally, I think all the shape issues in this area come from placing the firewall to make room for the operating door hinges, which mean that it's too far forward.

Btw, before you corrected the top, the whole front screen is a dead ringer for that on a Facel Vega II. When I took my Volvo Amazon to my restoration guru for a few things before the MOT last month, there was a Facel II next to it in his workshop - it took me a while to realise where it was that I'd seen that screen shape recently.

[Helix]

Very nice work Matt

[bondo bill]

wow -impressive

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks for all the positive comments, everyone. It was worth the extra effort to do justice to the lines of this lovely (and if Leno is to be believed, undervalued) classic car. This is no contest winner, but I might put it on a few tables just so other people can see what you can do with some of these "classic kits" as a starting point.

I've picked up a Mondo 1/24 diecast of the 2009 Maserati Gran Turismo very cheaply, which is in the paint stripper as we speak. I shall finish that in the same colours as this one, as a companion.

And I think it'll probably be a 240Z OOB next -- the body has been painted for a while, and it's a nice, straightforward Hasegawa build...

Thanks again for your support!

bestest,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks for all the positive comments, everyone. It was worth the extra effort to do justice to the lines of this lovely (and if Leno is to be believed, undervalued) classic car. This is no contest winner, but I might put it on a few tables just so other people can see what you can do with some of these "classic kits" as a starting point.

I've picked up a Mondo 1/24 diecast of the 2009 Maserati Gran Turismo very cheaply, which is in the paint stripper as we speak. I shall finish that in the same colours as this one, as a companion.

And I think it'll probably be a 240Z OOB next -- the body has been painted for a while, and it's a nice, straightforward Hasegawa build...

Thanks again for your support!

bestest,

M.

[lazlow]

Great work

laz