Lancia Stratos

[Scale-Master]

This is an Esci kit from about 30 years ago, fortunately it is from one of the earlier production runs, so the molds were not too worn at the of it being made. But it still has some issues with flash, sink marks and unevenly molded parts and poor engraving. (Some of the parts are short shots, but luckily they’re not ones I need.) It also appears to have been intended to be issued as a motorized version at some point too, so the interior and engine detail is lacking. So I’ll build it essentially as a curbside.


rst I went about cleaning it up with sandpaper and a scriber. I was able to sand out some of the sink marks, but about a half dozen were too deep to just sand away.

Then it was on to filler to take care of the deeper sink marks. First round of priming shows some decent progress, and where I need more filler. I also had to cut open the rear quarter vents in the engine cover since one side had screen engraving and the other didn’t, and they were not symmetrical.


I cut the hood louver panel out because the detail was really soft and uneven. I made this one out of sheet styrene.

[sprite46cfk]

The hood louver panel is outstanding. Could you explain how you achieved such a consistent and aligned look to the openings?

[corvettekid_7684]

I'm also dying to know They look really great!

[Scale-Master]

I made the panel fit the hole I cut in the hood the old fashioned way, knife, file and sandpaper.
Then I milled the louvers on my mill. Only took a couple hours of measuring to figure the equation to cut and the somewhat boring task of then cutting them.
Once they were milled, I bowed the sheet plastic to match the slight bow of the body.

[Scale-Master]

I thought another coat was needed since it did not dry as glossy as I hoped. So late yesterday I color sanded it with 1200 wet, and then airbrushed another 2 coats of the same TS-44.
After drying overnight, it looks like this.

While it is dry enough to safely handle, now it will sit for a while to cure.

[ianc911]

Outstanding work on the grill, as others have said. I would like to see some more detail of that fabrication process. Can you post some pics of the mill and your setup and talk a bit more about the use of the mill? While you wait for the paint to cure that is.

Watching this one,

ianc

[Scale-Master]

I didn't take any photos while I was making the panel, so there really is nothing to show besides what I already have. I use a Sherline mill if that helps.
It was mostly a matter of figuring the spacing of the louvers to get them to fit in the panel I had already made to fit the hood. That was done by good old fashioned measuring and dividing, you know, math.
I used a 1/32 inch diameter end mill and cut about 0.055 deep into the .060 thick sheet plastic. Then I sanded the back side to open the slots all the way through.
I hope that helps...

[corvettekid_7684]

I hadn't thought of a mill nice work, paint looks great too

[ianc911]

OK, thanks for the info; very interesting,

ianc

[Scale-Master]

It needed seatbelts, but I didn’t want to put something in that would make the rest of the weaker details look even worse. So I made these decals, and I made them purposely thick so they would not conform as well to the seat ribbing, so they would look more like they had some substance, even though they are still two dimensional.
First round of experimenting, I think I’m on to something for those cases where it isn’t worth the extra work to weave up a full set of harnesses… But they are a tad bit time consuming to cut out. You can see I also have “built” the “engine”. It is pretty much two dimensional too…

[Scale-Master]

OK, so I let the body dry (cure) for a while (little over a week, it has been warm here) and then gave it a once over polish/waxing. I decided to skip any clear coat and just use the paint as the final surface. I added lines for the headlights I filled in before painting. Brush painted the window frames with flat black.

The louvers, back of the spoiler and recess of the deck were masked off and sprayed flat black. I masked off the Stratos lettering for the blue to show through.

The front lower grille was pretty weak as it was molded, so I formed a new one from brass screen.

[ianc911]

Nice work, particularly on the Stratos lettering!

I see you are in CA; where are you getting that brass screen? Thanks,

ianc

[Scale-Master]

Thanks Ianc. The lettering was a last minute idea, I had already masked off to paint the black when I thought, what if...?
I think I got the screen from a hardware store back in the 80's. It was in my stash of raw materials.