Fujimi 1/24 Abarth 500 & 695 Tributo Ferrari

[hirofkd]

I started working on these kits early this year, hoping to finish them by April, but I completely missed the intended deadline.
Anyway, these are Fujimi's recent kits, so they are fairly decent, but there are some issues, most noticeably the undersized wheels.

I took two approaches to correct the problem; one was to lower the ride height as much as possible, and the other was to enlarge the wheel diameter.

Lowering the ride height is straightforward. For the front, I cut a portion of the struts, and added a washer-shaped plastic piece to the lower A arms. The rear was lowered by shortening the spring parts.

695's wheels were made by removing the rim, as shown in the picture below. Then the wheel insert was glued to Aoshima's 17 inch rim.


The rest of the Abarth 500 is pretty much unmodified. The 695 kit has some inaccuracies, such as headlights and exhaust pipes, so they were corrected with aluminum pipes.

Abarth 500 was painted with Tamiya spray Pearl White, finished with Gaianotes EX Clear. The 695 model is in orangish/goldish-pearl red of the prototype (production version's red is rosso corsa). I used Finisher's Mica Red, but the pearl was not noticeable enough, so I ended up adding Pearl Ex gold powder.

At the request of my wife, I omitted some of the exterior decals to give a clean look.




695's red almost looks solid, but...




Depending on the lighting, orange/gold glow shows, and that's the effect I wanted.

And the same paint was used on my still-in-progress Scuderia model.

You can see two different approaches to correct the tire/wheel issue. If I had thinner 17" tires, the 695 could sit a bit lower.


Overall, the kit was easy to build (except for the window part which was too tight and needed careful test fitting), and I like the way how those models turned out. Now I have to hurry and finish my Scuderia model.

Added on 9/1
>ales
Tach was added, but it's just a cylindrical object with a scanned image applied on the face, so it looks primitive. Steering wheel was modified a bit just to give the flat area at the bottom, but not accurate at all, but I reshaped the area where the thumbs are placed. Decals are from the kit. I also added buttons on the shifter control panel and applied Hasegawa's CF sticker on the dashboard.

[gionc]

Ok Hiroaki, this is spaghetti stuff and I'll express my happyness in my own lang!

FIGATA ATOMICA!

(ok no way to translate.... it sounds near atomic' cool.... )

If I would do the asshole rivetcounter, well I honestly don'y like at 100% the white cub's rims, or better there's something strange on their finishing, but may be just a pictures issue, alll the rest is great.

[ales]

Thanks for showing us how you dealt with the wheels - I thought of doing the same with the 695.

Can't see really clearly but it seems you decided not to add the tachs to the dashes, correct? Did you modify the steering wheels and other interior details?

[ales]

Thanks for showing us how you dealt with the wheels - I thought of doing the same with the 695.

Can't see really clearly but it seems you decided not to add the tachs to the dashes, correct? Did you modify the steering wheels and other interior details?

[BVC500]

Nice job, Hiro!

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Nice work

Somewhere I've seen some diecast 500's that have wheels that are far superior to Fujimi's. I ended up using some of the optional wheels from an Acura RSX kit on my 695 once the review photos of the OOB parts were complete.

[deedlit]

I like them both, good job

[auw12]

Lovely twins Hiroaki! Inspiring works on the wheels, I'll try that when I build mine, thanks for sharing!