Rebuild - Countach LP500S

Many, many years ago, my parents bought me a Tamiya LP500s as a present. I didn't have the skills to paint it correctly, so I just assembled it. I assumed that later on, I'd have the ability and the equipment to paint it. So, after nearly 15 years of being stored and getting battered in a box I've decided to take on the task of rebuilding this beautiful model. This is only supposed to be a quick build, so i'm not massively bothered about injection marks in relatively hidden areas or absolute accuracy. Apologies for the poor quality photos. I took most of them in very poor light so the camera struggled a bit.

This is how I found the model. The assembly is very poor (how much glue did I use!?) but luckilly there's not much paint to remove. The rear wing is damaged, most of the decals have fallen off and one wing mirror is missing, but otherwise it seems pretty much complete.
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/4377/10122010056.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/3737/10122010057.jpg

Here are the parts layed out after disassembly
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/1034/10122010061.jpg

The first thing to fix was the chassis. Over time it seems to have sagged in the middle. Copious amounts of heat from a hair dryer and some brave 'tweeks' fixed this.
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6704/23012011134.jpg
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/982/23012011135.jpg

The lone surviving decal was on the boot. Sticky tape was applied over it. When the tape was removed, the decal came with it. The decal has been attached to a sheet of acetate ready for when it needs to be reapplied.There's probably better ways to do this, but this was the best i could come up with at the time.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6143/23012011140.jpg
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/1968/23012011143.jpg

And so the painting begins. I have airbrushed all interior surfaces with a mix of revell brown and white. I will paint a darker shade of this colour into the creases on the seat to give it some depth. You may also have noticed the moulded carpet. This was made with velour which was glued in place with PVA(white glue).
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7121/23012011145.jpg

I don't have any other pictures, but i have glued the rear wing back together, started to remove flash from the body and i've started to paint the dash.

Nice looking restoration. Look forward to seeing how it turns out

nice start on the resto!

i'm just starting a mini resto on an 1/12 countach

the owner before me used tube super glue!!:banghead:

good luck with yours! :tongue:

A little bit of progress on this...

Started to paint the underneath. I'm not particularly worried about this as long as it's neat.
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/3146/04022011159.jpg

The interior is coming along nicely. I'm disapointed that the 'real' carpet is pretty much hidden though!
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/1645/04022011160.jpg

The rear wing has been fixed with polycement and lots of sanding.
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/9716/04022011161.jpg

The first layer of primer revealed two things. 1, I'd run out of primer and 2, the bumper panel gap is full of glue. I had hoped to remove the bumper before painting, but that wasn't possible, so I'll just have to re-cut the panel line with a craft knife.
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8758/04022011169.jpg

The primer is now cut-back ready for the next layer from a brand new can of primer.
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/1286/13022011188.jpg


Next steps will be finishing off the interior, applying a perfect primer coat and figuring out how I'm going to deal with the scratches on the glass!

Its great reliving a bit of ones youth when you rebuild a kit from a long time ago, and you are getting it spot on.

One method you can try with the scratche dglass is by using a product called "MicroMesh", that was designed for repairing aircraft canopies so a model cars windows should be no problem with this stuff.

Its a shame about that great hulking gear wheel underneath, it might be less intrusive if you painted it black, just my opinion there you understand.



gpz900ra7.

Your doing a really good job on this rebuild. I look forward to seeing when its finished.

With regard to the scratches not only can you use micromesh but i believe polishing compound may work as well. I have used the micromesh method so i know this works but have yet to try polishing compounds.

Regards

Hartford :)

"figuring out how I'm going to deal with the scratches on the glass!"


just replace all that thick kit clear plastic with sheet acetate : )

Polishing compounds work great on "plastic glass" (personally I used Tamiya with great success).

Sloooow progress on this.

Thanks for the advice and comments, guys. I'll try some polishing compound on the glass and see how it comes out. I've just had a practice sanding and polishing a considerably damaged glass section from a Tamiya XJ220 model. I thought it was beyond repair so I didn't mind trying a few things out on it. It came out quite well in my opinion.

I've sorted the primer layer on the Countach and layed down the first coat of Tamia red (X7 IIRC). I've airbrushed the colour, but still ended up getting some texture. I'll add another layer or two before cutting it back and clear coating.


http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2760/31082011540.jpg

Nice interior. I think this is the best carpet I have ever seen - it looks real, much better than flocking.

Thanks Eugene!

Made a bit more progress yesterday. Well, I say progress, I think I've actually gone backwards!

The texture I had on the paint wasn't the result of bad airbrushing, but it seems to be the primer that was a bit rough. When the can of primer was running out it applied a horrible texture to the car which I thought I'd been able to cut back. Clearly not! I've now effectively used the first colour coat as a levelling coat. I've cut it back to the primer in places. Looks like I'll be needing some more paint...

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/4051/01092011555.jpg

Wow - what a trip, I remember struggling with this kit as a kid in the late 70's. Very cool.

Small update. After getting annoyed about having to cut back the colour coat again I left this kit for a while. Recently I've been inspired so I attacked it with some 800 grit sand paper and repainted. I'm happy with the quality of base coat, so I'll be sorting out the other bits of body trim and clear coating. the finish is in sight!

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5097/020820121697.jpg

good to see your going to finish!

looks good in red

cant wait to see her done