Originally Posted by fred cook (Post 10831205)

Here are a couple of 1/8 scale models that I built years ago (1978-9!). Fortunately, I decided to put them in display cases to protect them. They are two of the Pocher Alfa Romeo 8C3200 cars from the 1930s. The Monza (race car) was the least complicated and it had over 2,000 parts! The Spyder (street car) has over 2500 parts! Door handles work, upholstery is leather, brake shoes expand when the brake pedal is pressed, on the Spyder putting the key in the ignition switch turns on the headlights, turn the engine crank and the pistons go up and down, the steering works as do the hood latches. On the Monza, the brakes work, steering works, the knockoffs for the wheels work and allow removing the wheel and brake drum, the steering wheel is leather wrapped and the exhaust is wrapped to protect the drivers arm. The wheels were assembled and painted and then disassembled and the spokes and spoke nipples installed. Each wheel has about 150 parts! The hood emblem is painted and has 7 colors like the original and I made a head gasket for the engine by using the bottom of the cylinder head and an ink pad. Once the ink dried, I cut out the circles to match the tops of the cylinders. I had some screws left over so I drilled out the plastic spark plugs, put a tiny screw through the head and added a small piece of white wire insulation. Makes for some very real looking spark plugs!

Originally Posted by madcorgi (Post 10959256)

Fred--

I have the Alfa Monza kit--just pulled it out of storage today. I started it about 15 years ago, assembled the wheels, and then life intervened. Would you explain more about assembling them, painting them, then taking them apart? I'm baffled by this sequence.


Thx!

Originally Posted by fred cook (Post 10959315)

Sorry for the confusion! What I did was to assemble the hubs and rims without any spokes. Then I painted the hubs and rims red to match the car and let them dry. Once dry, I disassembled the rims and hubs and rebuilt them with the spokes and spoke nipples. The end result was a set of wheels that really stood out, part painted, chrome spokes and the brass spoke nipples. Lots of extra work, but worth the effort. I hope this clears up the process!

Fred C.

Originally Posted by madcorgi (Post 10960531)

Where did you get the nipples?
I googled "model + nipples" and got distracted.

Originally Posted by fred cook (Post 10960559)

I bet you did (get distracted)! Anyway, the little brass spoke nipples came in the model kit. Of course, I bought my two kits in 1978 when Kmart apparently had bought out the US distributor of the Pocher models at a huge discount. I think I paid $25 for the Monza and about $30 for the Spyder kits! Keep in mind that these models had a list price of $250-$300 then! $300 was a LOT of $$$ 42 years ago! If your model was purchased more recently, Pocher may have simplified the wheels and eliminated the spoke nipple parts. Some of the cars even did away with the wire wheels and came with molded plastic wheels! That could have been either to make the kits less expensive or because the wheels were a royal pain to assemble correctly! Please pardon the cell phone picture. It was taken 8-10 years ago before the cell phone cameras were improved.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1595670723.jpg

Originally Posted by Otter74 (Post 10960813)

I had a Pocher Testarossa kit sitting around for years and years, but I always wanted one of the "real" Pocher kits. The Testarossa was simplified considerably as a model. I bought it at a discount when I was a teenager, sat on it for 20+ years and sold it for I think a few hundred more than I paid. I love really complex kits like this. Could have bought one of the pre-war car kits at a discount too, but didn't!

Originally Posted by fred cook (Post 10960870)

Here are a couple more closeup pictures that are sharper than the others.

Close up of the painted wheel hub and rim:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1595695295.jpg

Exhaust pipe showing discoloration from heat! Before being assembled, I heated it with a torch. The "asbestos" wrap is more of the first aid tape.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1595695313.jpg

Leather wrapped steering wheel. Actually the wrap is white first aid tape stained brown.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1595695333.jpg

Originally Posted by Otter74 (Post 10961109)

Some examples of Gerald Wingrove's work:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1595708514.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1595708532.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1595708546.jpg

Originally Posted by madcorgi (Post 10961149)

Fred--

Taking another look at your Monza wheels vs mine, mine had chrome rims and yours were painted. Or did you paint over the kit's chrome rims for authenticity? Whatever--I'm not disassembling my wheels!

Pretty interesting the differences among the kits. They were amazing pieces of engineering. I would love to have a Typo 35 Bugatti to accompany the Monza.

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC (Post 10961505)

At a hobbyshop in Atlanta they had a Shelby Cobra about 2 ft long. Everything worked including the motor, transmission, even door handles. It had all the R/C stuff hidden. You could start it up and drive it around. It even clutched and shifted through the gears.