Any scale modelers out there?

[madcorgi]

Originally Posted by fred cook

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!

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!

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

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!

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.

[madcorgi]

Originally Posted by fred cook

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.

Wow--you are a maniac, sir!

[madcorgi]

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

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

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

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.

[Otter74]

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!

[fred cook]

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

Close up of the painted wheel hub and rim:


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.


Leather wrapped steering wheel. Actually the wrap is white first aid tape stained brown.

[madcorgi]

Originally Posted by fred cook

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.

Yup--I bought my first Alfa kit in 1976 at a Kmart in Kearney Nebraska. It was about that same price.

Originally Posted by Otter74

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!

The later Pochers were far less detailed. I had their 993, but the detail was disappointing.

Originally Posted by fred cook

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

Close up of the painted wheel hub and rim:


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.


Leather wrapped steering wheel. Actually the wrap is white first aid tape stained brown.

Remarkable work, Fred. You inspired me to find my kit in the closet. I assembled the wheels and started on the engine before life intervened. You've inspired me to continue.






And . . . I see nipples!

[madcorgi]

If you like geeking out watching a master at work, check out this guy:




He also does cars:



Kind of a charming guy, too.

[Otter74]

Some examples of Gerald Wingrove's work:

[javadog]

Gerald Wingrove's work is in another category altogether, given that he scratch builds his models from scratch, after first measuring the real cars and making his own scale drawings. His books are worth a read.

[madcorgi]

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.

[madcorgi]

Originally Posted by Otter74

Some examples of Gerald Wingrove's work:

That's just unfair!

[javadog]

What’s really unfair is that he handmade every single piece on those cars, most of it from metal.

[madcorgi]

Fred--

OK, I pulled mine out and looked at the instructions. Apparently mine had nipples too! It's just not like me to forget something like that! But is was 15 yeas ago when I built the wheels.

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

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.

I painted the wheels and hubs to make the spokes and spoke nipples stand out more. Plus, every picture that I have of this generation racing car has painted wheels! Tomorrow I will try to get some good pictures of the head gasket and the spark plugs. Good luck on your kit assembly!

[RKDinOKC]

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.

[look 171]

I (pre teen) grew up building Tamiya 35 scale nazi war machine and solders. I have one rare 16 scale steel nazi officer I built sitting on a stand somewhere under my parent's home in a box somewhere. I had every solder 35th scale solder made by them, even merican' stuff, believe it or not. One day, few years ago, we went up Cambria and nearby coastal towns to spend a bit of quiet time for a week. I stumble across this shop upstairs call the Eastern Front Gallery. Ok, my interest is peaked. It was this wonderful model place. I was up there for a couple hours while wife and kids had lunch down below in the restaurant. They come up and rolled their eyes. I don't expect them to appreciated any of it. Of course I can't paint and build like that due to my young age. Often I think about building them again just to relive my youth. Check this out the Eastern Front

I did built their 24 scale 911 turbo about 10 years ago when my kids were smaller. I gotta to finish it. Want it on a canyon road with wheels opposite locked next to a guard rail. Putting that on my desk. One day.

[Otter74]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

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.

What was that hobby shop? I grew up in Atlanta from age 8 until 23.

[astrochex]

Pulled the trigger on the Silver City Models 1/25 scale 1990 March Porsche 90P. Decals were also purchased separately from Indycals.net.

Looking forward to my first model build in decades.