Bengalensis

Always happy to have you there Andy!

It just keeps getting better. When details are looking as good on close up photos as they do on yours, then they are really good.

You're most welcome Peter!

They sure drew and built lovely cars back then. It's quite interesting with the Alfa Romeo Carabo that debuted very much at the same time as the P5 in 1968 but with a completely different angular design, not a curve or radius in sight, Yet in 1969, a year later, the Alfa Romeo 33 Speciale was shown using the older curvy P5 body shape. In my eyes way more beatiful. Yet as we know the straight Carabo lines became very much the norm for future show cars and super cars. I will actually prefer driving an Allegro, Marina or Avenger in comparison to many current crazy cars. Luckily there are still other choices available...

Not this time no.

As usual I start working on the body shell, cleaning up mould lines and imperfections and doing various test fitting of parts. The front light parts needed some trimming to slot in place. The lower nose section glued in place and filler applied inside and outside. An hour later sanded to shape.

Good to have you along Vesa! Yes I think I want to save the Apollo kit a little longer. Haha, you might want to look through the first post again 😎 I think you may like it 😁 You're most welcome Keith, I hope you will enjoy! I'll be most happy to assist bringing it back Steve!

Always good to have you following Trevor! There is a lot of confusion about exactly which Ferrari chassis was used for the P5 and what happened to the body shell in relation to the yellow Alfa Romeo 33 Speciale that followed a year later. Indeed some sources claim a P4 chassis, while I think most have claimed Dino 206 S chassis 020 that was later renumbered 0862 and used as the 212 E hillclimb car in 1969. But I have seen resent sources that says the chassis never left Pininfarina after the shows in 1968 and was just stored away until it was rebuilt/reconstructed a number of years ago. I have no idea what is correct... I think the rebuilt/reconstructed 250/P5 today resides in Japan, or at least did some years ago. After the Geneva show 1968 the P5 went back to Pininfarina and was repainted white for the Turin show late 1968. Many sources claim this body was then separated from the Ferrari chassis and was modified (quite a lot of work if so with the different front and rear) and placed on the Alfa Romeo 33 chassis to create the yellow Alfa Romeo 33 Speciale for the Paris show in 1969, but again other sources says that the Alfa Romeo was built from new panels made in the same set of basic moulds used for the P5. Again I don't know what is correct, if it was new or rebuilt/modified. It's a very fascinating story! Yes there are. You're most welcome! Thanks a lot, always good to have you along!

It may well be about 50 years since I built a Ferrari model last time, and back then it was exactly the same subject as it will be this time; the fantastic looking Ferrari 250/P5 by Pininfarina, as it appeared in red for the first time at the Geneva International Motor Show in 1968. Sadly the P5 was only a show car, not a running car, but one can always dream... This time I will build it from the 1/24 scale resin kit by SMP 24 of Japan. My fascination for this car started when as a kid, I must have been about 10 or 11, I bought this 1/20 scale kit by Apollo Model of Japan. It had been sitting on the top local shop shelf for quite some time and was really out of reach for my pocket money sums, but the kind old lady who owned the shop put it aside for me while I saved money for a long time, definitely more than a month, so it was a very long time... I remember it as an awesome kit with details like spring suspension, electric motor and working front lights! A number of years ago I wanted to find the same kit again. I didn't remember the maker and it turned out to be difficult to find out as Apollo Model are virtually unheard of and the kits are quite rare. But finally I found a nice condition kit in Germany and bought it with the full intention of building it. Opening the box it was just as I remembered it and I fully appreciated why the 10 year old me was so fascinated. But having now understood the relative rarity of the kit I began having second thoughts about building it right away... Now knowing exactly what the kit was I realised that it had been reissued twice by Nitto in 1973 and 1976, without the working front lights this time, only motorised, and I soon found a 1976 issue in a tatty box, perfect for a current build. Why they did the box art yellow in 1976 is beyond me... Scalemates lists the 1973 Nitto issue as a new tool, but it can seen on the trees if looking carefully that the tools where altered from "Apollo Model" to "Nitto Kagaku" and the instructions are re-touched to remove the light bulb installation and wiring. So building the later Nitto issue became the plan. Now 1/20 isn't my favourite scale and it would be difficult to not make the build too serious for the old tools, meaning a lot of correction work... Well, soon after my Nitto purchase SMP 24 would save my day with the announcement that he would release the 250/P5 in 1/24 scale resin. My reservation was made via Keystone Model Shop in Japan as soon as possible. When opening the newly arrived box it was just as exciting to the old man as the Apollo kit was to the young boy 50 years ago... Very nice and smooth resin body shell and chassis. More nice resin parts. I can't find any fault at least as this point. The tyres are also resin which is very good, though they have raised lettering that I'm not yet sure about. Clear resin parts for the lights, metal wires and some small decals. We also have two sets of vac forms and two sheets of photo etch. One of them is marked to be used as spare, I haven't found what may be the fault with it. Three pages of instructions. I'd better start working before I change my mind again...

Thanks a lot, glad you like!

Thank you very much Matt! I'm trying to come to terms with that new photo cube, I have a learning curve still... Thank you very much Malc! Thank you very much Trevor! No problem at all, really not. Especially as you also have a gentleman's approach, I appreciate that. It gave me another opportunity to sit back and consider where I'm going. Can I motivate why I'm doing certain things? Should I reconsider what I do? Can I honestly tell myself that I'm confident in my decisions to continue my way? That's what brings us forward and improve. Sometimes it means a push in a slightly different direction that will have its benefits, sometimes it means reassuring the current direction that will have its benefits. Thank you very much Jeroen!

A few lines of rope, and of course a number of small attachments for them, really makes a lot of difference. As you say the volume and appearance became quite different.

Thank you all who enjoyed following this build and offered comments and opinions. It's always interesting to share and discuss different approaches and philosophies in model building. I have just uploaded a few photos in the RFI-section.

Right, you will get away with it then 😎😁 Thanks a lot Roger, you are most kind! Thanks a lot Trevor! On a curbside model like this it's an easy fix to get away with.

This is Hasegawa’s 1/24 scale ‘68 Mazda Cosmo Sport, the first Wankel engined Mazda sports car, Yes I dare to label it a sports car. It’s over all a very nice kit but it’s let down by too thick and distorting glass parts. I could accept the front and rear screens and the door windows were easily replaced. The light covers were plainly awful though, and more difficult to fix. I cut some new at least descent looking covers from some scrap vac formed blister pack. Apart from that and the licence plates it’s very much built straight from the box. There is a build thread to be found over here in the WIP-section.

Thanks a lot Chris! Yes, the styling is fantastic. Thank you very much! Glad you have enjoyed. Thanks a lot Keith! Doing the tyres shouldn't be that dramatic... Wheels need to be glued securely of course. Dremel speed somewhere in medium range or higher, too slow is less good. Very little force applied, let the sanding disc do the work, but a firm grip. Then what sanding discs are you using? If you suspect them I can send you a sample of mine for a try.

This is very interesting. I have for a few weeks been quite intrigued by Pavel Nikitin's Viking ship - Drakkar - kit, even more so during the last week or two when following @Bertie McBoatface "Le Renard" build, tempting me for some wood work put perhaps a lesser amounts of ropes for a start. This evening I wondered why I had found Pavel Nikitin's shop some weeks ago, that I had never heard of before, and right now I realise it was your post in the "Made in Ukraine" thread in the latter part of September that made me put a bookmark on the site. Circle closed. I suspect I will have to part with some more money soon, unless I'm strongly convinced not to do so... Will follow your build here with interest!

This morning the headlight cover gluing was finished. They are far from the best head light covers I’ve done, but much better than the kit parts. The front bumper was also fitted. And I changed the MOT-sticker to a yellow for due year 1971. The cut for the month is too small for my decals, so who knows... With the chassis fitted some unwanted “see-through” problems appeared. I fixed them simply with some pieces of doubled up black electrical tape glued in place. First a strip on each side to stop seeing into the interior. Then a piece cut to shape on each side to block seeing from the grill opening out through the front wheel well, or vice verse. The rear wheels thankfully ended up placed well enough, and the front wheels were glued in place well aligned with no drama. And now there is this thing with the tyres... The Mazda Cosmo Sport weighs around 950 kg as it stands, but this car standing “up on its toes” looks to me like it has a weight of no more than some 25 kg, or is fitted with massive rock solid tyres. 950 kg on 165x15 standard profile tyres with ordinary tyre pressure gives a deflection of roughly 2 cm in height. Yes, I’ve done measurements on a few different tyre and car types... 😎 The kit tyres are perfect in outer diameter. A rough calculation gives that flats with a length of 8-9 mm are needed to create the desired deflection. In an ideal world I would also want to create a slight bulge at the bottom of the tyre, but that’s out of my abilities, so the compromise is creating flats to introduce the weight and tyre to ground contact area. The Dremel with a sanding disc was put to work, and now I’m much happier with the look. That would be the finished Mazda Cosmo Sport I think. Some RFI-photos will appear.

Amazing! Building a model like this really is a very major project... I can see how it provides satisfaction for every rope that is added.

Thanks a lot Trevor! But I will disagree about panel lines (as I'm sure you knew I would ). Although I agree about some aircraft and military modellers, but then we are all different. On a general note: As I see panel lines on real cars (some purpose built race cars are an exception) they are gaps between the separate panels, creating deep (varying) recesses with larger (again varying) empty spaces behind the panel surfaces, where the paint on those inner surfaces are indeed shadowed (mostly no light reaches in there), which make them stand out as considerably darker lines (again with some variation depending on light conditions and viewing angle) or even quite black lines. I think that my goal with a finished car model, of the type I'm building here, is to make it look like the real car I see in photos roughly the same size as I see the model in a normal viewing distance, or when looking at the real car at a distance similar to the model size. This sounds way more pretentious than it really is... On pretty much every good photo of a real white Mazda Cosmo Sport most panel gaps are very visible as darker lines, and the kit body shell just painted white just don't look like that - to my eyes. So I must bring in some method to replicate what I see in the photos or when viewing the real car as best my available skills allow me to. It's a compromise, and sometimes I make it better and sometimes less so. I have the same reasoning behind my tyres with flats to give the illusion of weight and the relation between the real tyre and the ground surface - which is another thing many fellow car modellers don't like - and probably some other methods I use, or stay away from. Just to give some background as to why I have arrived where I am right now in my model building "career". Thanks a lot Keith! I think we have similar thoughts on panel lines. But as you say, the important thing is for the modeller to enjoy his work and the result. There can be no firm rules of right or wrong when it comes to interpretations and philosophy in model building. Thanks a lot! Again I think we have similar views on panel lines. It's a difficult call, but I think I would prefer even somewhat overdone panel lines from doing nothing, but there will of course be a limit somewhere. Yes, it's been about a month since I started this one, so fairly quick, and with some other builds in parallel. I blame an unexpected relaxed work period right now, and inability to focus on perhaps more important things 😎 Thanks a lot Matt! I sometimes use a darker version of the base colours, perhaps on something like red or yellow cars. As with everything my success varies a bit, but it's a philosophy I agree with. It's an interesting idea to darken the lines before spraying the main colour, it's something I will have to try.

As always a superbly neat and clean work, will be a pleasure to follow!

Awesome! Super work, both in the CAD and on the work bench!

I've used Alclad a lot, on Humbrol gloss black enamel and sometimes other enamels, since late 90's and never had that problem. No idea what could be the cause. Having said this; I do find that lately the quality of newer Alclad bottles can very quite a lot, which has been disappointing, so who knows? Good to see that you have made a recovery 👍

Things progressed quite well first. Windows going in, a bit of pressure applied to push the corners all the way out while glue sets. The little MOT sticker that was used 1965-75 was applied to vent window. The red one would place this 1968 car in 1969-70. Possibly I should change it to a yellow for a year later now that I think again. Then things became more problematic. I somewhere knew it would happen. The kit light covers are horrible. They are thick and worse the thickness is very uneven which makes them work as a magnifying glass, which might had helped the slightly small lights if it wasn’t for the heavy distortions they gave from almost every angle, made even worse by what happened to the vent slots. This wouldn’t do... I couldn’t really squeeze in any larger lights and decided to live with them, but the covers would need to be replaced. So there went the better part of the day, first searching my three large bags of saved scrap clear plastic vac formed packaging (of which I will probably never use even 1%), then trying to cut and trim something useful from some possibly suitable objects. In the end I got two reasonably fitting covers, from the backside of some computer mouse pack I think. The first sections are here glued with Kristal Kleer while the covers are taped in place. While trimming light covers I also fitted some smaller details like door handles, roof vents and mirrors. The rear end was also finished. The door cards and dash board where glued to the body shell. Then I had to do some touching up of the black on the inside. This will dry overnight, so no finish today then. Well after the light cover time waste that was probably of reach anyway... Test fitting the chassis into the body shell during the day also revealed it would be impossible to fit the rear wheels later. I hate it, but I had to glue them in place already at this stage. At least the test fitting showed they should end up correctly positioned, so hopefully it won’t be a problem.

Thanks a lot! Next I must finish the Cosmo Sport, today or tomorrow, then I have to think...