Tamiya 1/24th Scale Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA

[mikevillena]

I was thoroughly unhappy with the paintjob on the engine with all of the experimenting so I soaked it in oven cleaner overnight. Oddly enough, the magnesium Metalizer was a lot more tenacious and actually turned a very dark colour (must have reacted with the lye).

I also added a few more details and will be respraying the engine shortly.

I also experimented with adding the folded and welded seams using my very thick filler/primer paint. The "seam" is actually painted on with a very fine pointed sable brush. I built up the height much like a potter uses coils of clay to make a pot. What's interesting is that I can shape and clean using my brush moistened with lacquer thinner. It looks very rough at this point but I will be cleaning and blending things:

I wil be using the same technique for the roll cage and custom headers.

[mikevillena]

Added a little more detail to the engine assembly. I also restored the vale cover to stock but deleted the oil breather port and will move it to the oil filler cap.

After spraying the engine with oxidized aluminum, I added several thin washes using acrylic artist's black diluted with Aztek acrylic thinner. They appear very dark in the pictures but are actually subtle:

I had to start the plumbing now because the attachment points will get buried as the build progresses:

Edited May 14, 2014 by mikevillena

[mikevillena]

Painted and wired up the starter:

Decided to fabricate the plug wire boots out of a short lenght of 1/32 plastic rod. I must be crazy to try and drill through:

Took forever to do so but was very welcome practice. I would rather not try this again:

Got the double ignition coil wires installed and painted. I had to do these first because they will get buried when the 8 plug wires get installed. Twin plug heads...... geeze, the Ferrari mechanics of the 60's must have been cursing a lot when they had to change the plugs on a 12 cylinder engine with two plugs per cylinder. Not to mention the fact that they used to start the cars with one type of plug and then swap all of them out to another type when the enginehas warmed up!

[superbike-shaun]

WOOW Mike, super work here! I don't know too much(actually 0) about these cars,but I do know about detail and you sure are Killi'n it!!!!! shaun.s

[mikevillena]

WOOW Mike, super work here! I don't know too much(actually 0) about these cars,but I do know about detail and you sure are Killi'n it!!!!! shaun.s

Thanks Shaun!

[mikevillena]

Did some more of the bodywork this morning. Took a lot of work to minimize the gap between the lower trunk lid and the trunk opening:

Chassis detail added. I also thinned down the kit's rear engine mounting bracket.

Did a quick check of engine bay clearances:

Started with the rearmost plug wire. Turned out the solder I used for the plug wires was a little too thin. I had to coat it several times with filler/primer to build up the diameter.

It looks like I'm going to have to do this one plug wire at a time because the wires are really fragile. I'm going to have to pre-shape the wire, coat and detail paint it before I nudge it into it's final position:

Edited May 15, 2014 by mikevillena

[mikevillena]

Recoated and smoothed out the plug wires and re-painted. Glued the plug boot on No. 2 forward:

The build is taking a lot longer but I'm learning a lot.

[Jaguar man 21]

Looking amazing keep it up

[TFchronos]

The engine is outstanding, along with the rest of this build. Amazing work!

[mikevillena]

Looking amazing keep it up

Thank you very much Jeremy.

The engine is outstanding, along with the rest of this build. Amazing work!

And thank you too, Jonathan.

[mikevillena]

Overall, I'm still not very happy with my build quality as some details are relatively crude. I guess it takes a while to gain competency and the crispness that I aspire to. I've cleaned up the plug wire details and I've set the engine aside for a while. Meantime, I did more work on the fuel cell:

I tried to model the very small welds on the tank seams using tiny dabs of filler/primer:

I got impatient and gave the tank two coats of Metalizer. I must have waited too long before buffing as the surface was somewhat grainy:

The tank will be pushed further forward in final assembly to allow clearance for the trunk lid hinge.

I might sand, prime and re-shoot the tank.

Edited May 17, 2014 by mikevillena

[mikevillena]

Plug wires installed. I'll have to do some touch up once the CA has fully cured:

Sanded and re-sprayed the tank. Dropped the pressure and used q-tips and facial tissue instead of an old t-shirt to buff out the Metalizer. Paint was still fragile and managed to scratch it in a few places:

[Erik Smith]

This is the type of WIP I love to see. Worth every step.

Thanks for posting all the work.

[mikevillena]

This is the type of WIP I love to see. Worth every step.

Thanks for posting all the work.

Thank you Erik. It's very much a learning process for me so there will be a lot of one step forward, two steps back. Thanks to all for their patience and continued interest.

[mikevillena]

Some progress. Experimented with paint effects on the exhaust headers:

Started the daunting task of scratchbuilding the hydraulically driven super charger by fabricating the plenum. It's a very tight fit. I also ground off the a part of the hood opening because there was a large gap between the bodyshell's hood opening and the firewall. I will be scratchbuilding all of the structures around the opening and the area underneath the vents to show the wiper linkage arms and motor.

For the superchargers, I am trying out an old trick that I used to fabricate the turbos in my 1/10th scale 4AGE project:

As always, everything looks very rough at this stage but I will be refining and adding details as I go.

[mikevillena]

Cut out the glove box and fabricated a new cover. It will be hinged.

As a prelude to building the rollcage I tacked on the dashboard:

Also finished the plenum:

Edited May 20, 2014 by mikevillena

[fitforbattle]

Headers came out good. Like the idea with the hinged glove compartment. Crazy in a good way.

[mcandela]

Man, this is amazing!!!! Great tutorial!!

[mikevillena]

Headers came out good. Like the idea with the hinged glove compartment. Crazy in a good way.

Thank you very much Robin. I'm still not liking the headers as it looks more like a two stroke. I owned an RS125 so I am heavily biased! I think I need to use more burnt metal/purple glazes. I was initially going to leave the glove box as just a hole to say weight but I thought "what the heck"

Man, this is amazing!!!! Great tutorial!!

Thanks Mike. I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm learning and having a lot of fun!

[mikevillena]

Building the roll cage structures. I used various diameters of Evergreen styrene solid rods and steam bent them. All of the joints are mitered as I have been doing for a long time.

[superbike-shaun]

Mike, woowwwwwwwwwwww again, I have a ? for you, how'd you create the markings on the plug wires, they look so authentic! Shaun.S

[mikevillena]

Mike, woowwwwwwwwwwww again, I have a ? for you, how'd you create the markings on the plug wires, they look so authentic! Shaun.S

Hi Shaun. I used Maimeri artist's acrylic titanium white thinned with Aztek Acrylic Thinner and applied using the tip of my 5/0 brush. It's actually a series of dot and dashes. Hope this helps.

[mikevillena]

Finshed the roll cage:

I wasn't satisfied with it overall as there was an appreciable gap between the rollcage and the underside of the roof so I built another one "in situ". Formed the main hoop:

I taped the bodyshell in place and built the rest of the cage. I also modifed the design slightly:

With the main hoop and forward elements in place, I took off the bodyshell and added the final segments:

I just need to add some gussets.

[crazyrichard]

whouw thats stunning work !!

[mikevillena]

whouw thats stunning work !!

Dank u Richard