LANCIA STRATOS HF Doyusha 1:12 Alitalia

[jochen kieslich]

Dear community,

after spending another 6 months at my beloved modeling desk let me introduce you my latest finished project.

It’s the impressive 1-12 scale Lancia Stratos HF from Doyusha in that typical and well-known Alitalia-livery as driven at the Monte Carlo Rally. The kit itself is really impressive at first sight, no doubt, but when it comes to modeling……….lots of improvements, cleaning, scratching etc…..business as usual, you know. And in that special case all body parts should be movable at every time.

And in the very end, FOR SURE, as you might imagine, the subject calls for a realistic and demanding weathering job.
Forgive me, I must sound like a priest for telling that a thousand times, but that mud and dirt makes cars (of all scales!!!) so much more lively and interesting.
Here we go.

under construction:











Prior to finishing, various clear parts are masked to prevent mistakes by overdoing. Once the colour fog is applied......you know......



The first finishing step:
A mixture of flat earth, buff and light grey (Tamiya Acryls) is slightly sprayed on. The effect is that the glossy decals and areas are flatened and the complete surface is kind of "melt together":



The wheels:
To achieve that kind of psycadelic ocre-yellow a colour was mixed from flat yellow and yellow green. The result is quite satisfying. Then a wash was applied with artist oils to obtain depth.




......and then the finishing steps are done.
Another coat of the colours mentioned above BUT this time darkened with flat black. This second mixture was then carefully brought on at selected areas only. It's very useful to have good reference pictures of the depending subject, e.g. here the surface behind the wheels and the especially the back was chosen. Then, to achieve real mud and slurry, a mixture of fine structural paste, acryls and grinded pastel chalks was made and brought on the surface as follows. Dip an old pencil in that mixture, hold it in front of the depending area of the miniature and then give air blasts from your airbrush direct onto the brush. That will "throw" the mixture right onto the surface, as in real!! Was that a somehow good explanation????





















Close up:






VERY short summary: The kit is demanding, nevertheless a good base for an impressive miniature. The decals are a true nightmare, like parchment, thick and inflexible. So the whole front "grill" between the windshield and the extra frontlights was masked and spray-painted. The masking itself took me 2 days..........the dashboard was upgraded with lettering, the seatbelts were given an extra detailling and the BRITAX-logos were handwritten. And always an eye or two on the functionality of the doors, the front lid and the engine hood.

It is always a thin line between too less and too much when it comes to weathering. It is important to keep the scale in mind and how much mud a miniature can "tolerate". I wanted the car to show the result of a hard, rough and cold but dry stage of the Monte-Carlo rallye. The surface of the tyres are relatively "clean" and carefully highlighted because i like the profile of the Pirellis a lot and the dirt was thrown off of them in the final stage of the leg. So this is my interpretation of a Stratos in use, one of the (if not THE) most impressive mud monsters ever!!!

I hope you like the Stratos and i appreciate all your comments and critics!!

And , Oh, right, ALL THE BEST FOR 2012 TO ALL OF YOU!!!
Keep on glueing those funny little plastic parts together............

Yours
Jochen

[MarcoSaupe]

wow, that is awesome!

[gpz900ra7]

Without doubt, a thing of beauty and an excellent rendition of this iconic car.



gpz900ra7.

[rallymaster]

It's a superb model and superb build !!
nevertheless to me the ride height really seems too high for a Monte Carlo rally, I firstly thought the car depicted the RAC rally and had to look at the rally plate to be sure !!

[Jenner]

Great work, well done. This is really a very convincing weathering.

[Emilssi]

Wow! Fantastic job - the weathering makes the model look super realistic

[sjelic]

Fantastic model Jochen, I was always wondering how this model looks built properly. Now I must get one
I must admit that Phil is right...it sit just a bit to high, is suspension workable?

[rallymaster]

One last detail I'm thinking about looking again at the pics which you should easily be able to add regarding the scale is the little chains holding the rear mug guards, they are missing for the moment on your model, don't know if you expect to add them or forgot/missed them but I'm almost 100% sure they used some in Monte Carlo, even if the Stratos was used not to bring back all their mud guards at the rally finish

[Helico]

Very very nice.

@rallymaster: Could you show a picture of the chains you were preferring? I am curious to know.

[cinqster]

I agree with you Phil about the chains and I'm sure a have a photo of them filed away somewhere!? I found some small chain years back in a jewellery making shop, which I've saved for this very model.

Now, I am no rally expert, but I found a few things that need changing when researching the '77 Monte car. The seats were a light/mid grey and the bulkhead behind the seats was grey on some days and what appears white, on other days, I believe it was a quilted heat shield material. I think it also ran the rounded bare fibreglass airbox and possibly the exhaust outlets with the Porsche type radial splitters/fins. My main critisism of the kit is the Alitalia logos for the rear wings which are far too small, though they are correct for the '76 Monte, IIRC.

Having said that, you have done an absolutely fantastic job Jochen - the weathering is superb and at least you have finished it, (unlike mine, which is awaiting me redrawing the decals one distant day)!

Your photos are ace too!



Here you go, just found this:

[rallymaster]

Originally Posted by Helico

@rallymaster: Could you show a picture of the chains you were preferring? I am curious to know.

I don't know if I have a close-up pic somewhere in my books, checked my hard drive and haven't it already downloaded, so I tried a quick google search...

Not perfect pics but we show those famous thin chains

[corvettekid_7684]

Superb model!! Weathering is fantastic!!

[brabham79]

absurd amount of scale accuracy. im saving these pics as reference for my next builds.
especially the acrylic wheel wash look. i think will work well for the lotus 72E gold wheels

[jochen kieslich]

Hi all,
thanks a lot for your time, your kind words and especially your constructive comments!
I must admit that these chains took me quite some hours to think about while building the rear……due to the lack of good and proper reference pictures I decided to do it without them. BUT by now and with your kind help and pictural support I will complement them. Also the rear “sun-blind “ area will be redone with coloring to improve the bad decals which were way to small and ugly and as I mentioned before.
The color of the interior and seats………believe it or not, I had the seats in a kind of medium grey and the bulkhead in a flat / dirty white BUT the look (IN SCALE!!) was that ugly that I decided to give it a neutral anthracit tone. I’m fine with it, the decision was final when gluing the coachwork to the chassis.
About the stand. Mhhhh……, on one hand, it is the quality of the kit (although the suspension IS WORKABLE!) the car “won’t come down” more. I help myself with the following explanation: When the car is “in heavy use” and the suspension is working and has temperature, the car sinks down a bit and lowers. Once when movement and shocks are over the suspension relaxes and the car comes up a bit more. Look at these massive rear tires. Don’t they need space and room for compression?
I know a lot of you are true fanatics and know a lot about rally cars, more than I do, no doubt. I appreciate your inputs and that even widens my horizon! I will go back to my shelf today……..once when done, I let you know.
Yours
Jochen

[LeeABC]

Fantastic model Jochen, congratulations.

Lee.