In Progress: Revell AG Lancia Stratos Monte Carlo

[generationx]

This is my first ever "In Progress" thread, now I have worked out remote image sharing from Photobucket!

My new project is the Revell 1/24th Lancia Stratos 1977 Monte Carlo Winner, to which I'm going to add some Studio27 photo-etch, Studio27 aluminium wheels, and some proper seat belts.
This is the Revell re-box of the Hasegawa kit and seems to be very good quality. The kit wheels, though, are very poor so I got the ally ones from Scale Race Cars (good service):


(Photo taken with old camera - poor quality!)
The book is great, has around twenty pages of full colour photos on each of a few cars including the Stratos, 037, Delta S4 and Integral, Fulvia, Grp5 Monte Carlo and others. I picked it up in a discount bookshop while on holiday in Milan for 20 Euros - bargain.

Firstly I assembled the rear spoiler and wheel-arches to the body (really good fit), shaved off the moulded-in body clips to be replaced later on, and sprayed using Halfords white plastic primer followed by Tamiya TS Pure White.




then handpainted the window surrounds, door handle and black sill panels using Tamiya X/XF paints.



And check out the p/e air filter in the rear



The S27 wheels are beautifully machined, it almost seemed a shame to paint them, but they were sprayed TS-16 yellow and the spare wheel panel detail painted.



The chassis was part assembled, then sprayed Tamiya TS Semigloss black. The seatbelts are the Studio27 1/24th set and quite nice to work with, being self-adhesive.



Then the suspension was assembled exactly as the instructions say, and photo-etched pedals and navigators footrest added.



I also hand-painted the rear numberplate from the S27 kit which has raised letters just like the original 1977 plates. I thinned down some Tamiya X18 and flowed it onto the surface. It looks a little rough here, but bear in mind that the plate is around 20mm across and the camera sees far more than the eye (hopefully) will!




So that is progress so far. It seems like I've done loads at once but this has been over a long period as I have little modelling time at home. Updates should be about once a week, now I have the camera and image host to help me.

Comments are welcome!

[freakray]

Red X's

[winstona]

All Red X's here too. I am building this kit as well so I really would like to see how you are buildling it!

Winston

[generationx]

I think I've fixed the pictures?

[freakray]

Glad you fixed the pics, they're worth seeing!
Excellent work so far.

[freakmech]

Very nice work so far, though with all that reference, you could cram some more detail in there Good start... looks promising!

[godfather23]

Originally Posted by freakmech

Very nice work so far, though with all that reference, you could cram some more detail in there Good start... looks promising!

Don´t be that guy....

That progress is looking very interesting. Seems like you really enjoying your progress! Congrats on this beautiful job. Especially the license plate is a stunner!

[puffyrs]

Hi great build.
But what I would say is.
I'm building this model at the moment.
Before you put the decals on check the body fits on the base.
This is very tight.
As I will not be showing the bottom of the car i'm thinking of trimming the sides of the base to get the fit right.
Some poeple cut the engine cover so that the body fits better.
I hope this helps.

[joelwideqvist]

Interesting progress so far. Body looks very nice, will be great to see that one decalled up!
My best regards
Joel

[generationx]

Thanks for the advice Puffyrs - after I get the glass and dash in, the body is going on the chassis probably this weekend, I'm a bit worried as I'd read before that this is tricky. Ah well, who dares...

[migper]

Hi all
Im building this model too, and like Puffyrs said, its difficult to fix the cover to the body. Maybe i will cut the cover engine.
I will follow this building with very attention.
Keep the good work.

Miguel Pereira (Portugal)

[Exotics_Builder]

GREAT job so far. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

It's a shame, though that Revell AG appears to have reboxed the Hasegawa kit as they had their own detailed Lancia Stratos in the late 70's with engine (one in my collection). Not quite as detailed as the Fujimi Stratos, but reasonably good for it's time.

KEEP UP the GREAT WORK.

[generationx]

Dash board done, with (totally impossible to see) p/e stopwatches! Also p/e steering wheel spokes. Dials are decals which I then covered with MicroScale Kristal Klear which gives the effect of having glass faces without obscuring detail - the first time I've tried this and it looks nice.
The white strip I think represents a bank of relays, gave a bit of detail with a grey Gundam marker. The bronze vertical lines are fuses I reckon.



Next this goes in the bodyshell, I cross my fingers and get the thing assembled to the chassis.

[generationx]

Having read various horror-stories about getting the body on the chassis of this model, I took my time.

Firstly I made sure everything inside the bodyshell, such as door faces, dashboard and glass were firmly fixed, running liquid glue around all the hidden joins and letting it dry for 48 hours.
Then the big moment came.
PHEW! It was nerve-wracking (spelling?) - you have to spread the bottom of the body sides quite a long way to get the chassis in as it sits inside, the body curves quite severely at the bottom of the doors. Fortunately nothing broke or came adrift, the technique is to get the nose in first then work the chassis along towrads the rear. Finally the rear body mounts slipped on to the dimples on the inner back panel and it was on.



Then the wheels went on - starting to look like a real car now.



The indents for the fog lights and indicators need painting green (first coat here) as the decals aren't provided for this area.

The rear wheels sit a bit far forward in the rear arches, don't think I did anything wrong, but it's too late now. It would need fairly major surgery, and I'm not taking that body off again!



Front lights on (fixed in the raised position on this car)



All rear lights, plus mudflaps made out of thin styrene and their brackets from the photoetch set.



Looking really good now, next are the decals before final details. Just waiting for a new pot of MicroSet to arrive, mine has gone all thick over the winter...?

[RallyFanatic]

It looks really good!
My Hasegawa Stratos had the same rear wheels problem, and i remember the decals were hell to put on, there was always a thin white gap between them. Eventually i just painted the lines.