In Progress: Tamiya Fiat 500

[Gridgirl]

I recently started Tamiya's 1/24 Fiat 500



I was really happy that they rereleased it this year (together with the Citroen 2CV!). I'd been looking for both for a while.

Here's the body, ready to paint:



Small and cute- a total chick car. It's about half the length of the 911 Speedster I built.



Here's the engine started.

Someone I know with a lathe was nice enough to make me a new set of pulleys for the alternator and cooling fan drive.



And here they are on the engine-



-and painted, with a new belt.



The pulleys have a groove cut in their edges, and the belt is done with sewing thread and white glue.

Next I'm working on painting the body and the exhaust. Thanks for looking!

[blubaja]

Lookin really good so far! Keep up the awsome progress!

[SteveK2003]

That looks awesome. I love the 500, keep the pics coming.

[gionc]

Originally Posted by SteveK2003

That looks awesome. I love the 500, keep the pics coming.

great job, keep update, I also love 500 so much

[Dean23]

cool looking pulleys, very good craftsmanship. keep up the good work

[quadzero]

i'm sooooooo jealous, really want this kit bigtime. excellent work on the engine and great idea for the belt. looks very convincing and i have been on the lookout for ideas on making belts as i cant stand the molded on ones. thanks for the tip! cant wait to see more of this beauty.

[pirata12]

I love this car! I'll be watching your progress before I start mine! I just finished the Gunze 500D but it was more an experiment for me.

[klutz_100]

Great start on a great car! Looking forward to this.

Originally Posted by Gridgirl

Small and cute- a total chick car. It's about half the length of the 911 Speedster I built.

I can't agree with such sexist attitude! j/k
I used to drive one of these I have the Arbarth version waiting for me in my pile to do when I finish my 2CV

Must be great having a friend with a lathe - especially as they seem to know how to use it - which is more than I do

[Gridgirl]

Thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by quadzero

i'm sooooooo jealous, really want this kit bigtime.

It was a limited rerelease, so the time is right to get it! A lot of on-line places still seem to have it (hobbylinc or the like) if you can't get it locally. Try here

Originally Posted by klutz_100

I used to drive one of these

Now it's me being jealous. You're welcome to the ideas here when you build yours, so the trade's on!

With the glorious time off for the holidays, I've finished the engine, I hope y'all don't mind a bunch of pics.

My machining friend made me an oil filler cap:



Here it is installed (and with a wash on the engine):





I used Tamiya acrylics to paint the exhaust train. I did the whole thing with Metallic Grey, then I overcoated it with a blend of clear red, clear orange, smoke, and a bit of clear blue.



Here it is installed:





Finally, I added the air intake system and some plug wires. For the intake I used bare metal foil (love that stuff) for the hose clamps. I painted the intake hose with a mix of tan and grey to give it a khaki look. It's such a big dramatic part that I wanted it to stand out better than it would have if I had painted it with semi-gloss black as the instructions suggested. The hose had a push pin mark at the top on the side closest to the engine, I filled that with Tamiya putty, and then carved corrugation ridges into it. After I was satisfied with the way it looked I installed it and gave the whole thing a wash. Here are the final results:







Next weekend is a long one, so more's coming! (Hopefully)

[Alfa 147]

Nice looking engine you got there, looks great

[quadzero]

WOW, that engine is an jewel. amazing skills you have, im really gonna be looking forward to more of this!

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by Gridgirl

Now THAT'S what I call an oil filler cap

but more than that, this engine....



looks outstanding!!!
A great detailing job and really well weathered - now I know what to aim for with Monsieur J-P

EDIT: P.S. - great tip on filling the ejector pin hole

[skoda_norman]

that engine rocks! :O

it's superb

[Gridgirl]

See, Stevenski-



I told you it was a chick car!

Now the engine is ready to mount onto the chassis.







After mounting the engine onto the chassis, I installed the suspension components. The front leaf spring is metallic gray, and the rest of the suspension components are light black. Then I used titanium gold to detail paint the bolts holding it all together (This is really my first full engine build, so I'm enjoying doing all the bolts and other details). The front shock absorbers are painted red. Everything was given a wash of raw umber, to blend it all together and give it a little road grime. For anybody else planning on building this kit be careful, the steering linkage is so tiny that it's very delicate..... (luckily, nothing some superglue can't take care of though).




Now that I have the suspension done, on to the next logical step. I don't really like kit chroming. I think it somehow looks very out of scale, and it's hard to remove from the sprue without leaving funny marks around the edge. I stripped the chrome off of the hubcaps with some degreaser, and then painted the wheels (hubcaps and all) chrome silver. I washed this with black to bring out some of the detail.



Then I installed the wheels onto the chassis.





The body is painted and I'm waiting for it to cure in order to polish it. In the meantime, I'm working on the interior. Hopefully I'll be able to update on that soon.

[Whumbachumba]

Wow. That is nice looking. Can you get a quick snap of this next to another model for size comparison?