2003 Lamborghini Gallardo - Replica of my former 1:1

[Plastheniker]

 

Hi,

 

usually I have little interest in modeling modern cars unless I want a replica of one of my own (former) 1:1 cars.

Soon after its German market introduction I bought this Gallardo in 2003 and kept it until 2008:

 

 

 

The corresponding Fujimi kit was rather nice but I remember 3 shortcomings:

 

-     The hexagonal plastic mesh of the numerous apertures of the original car was replicated by massive clear plastic parts with faint raised hexagonal lines. IMO in a kit that expensive (as far as I remember about 10 years ago I paid 60 € instead of 20 € for usual ROG or Italeri kits) PE parts can be expected. Today PE aftermarket parts are available.

-     Inserting the side windows was difficult because there was almost no contact between glass parts and body. Every time I bent the lower sides of the body outwards to join body and chassis these fragile joints broke.

-     OOB stance and track width were unrealistic.

 

Nevertheless IMO the finished model looks rather convincing.

 

[JeroenS]

Yes, rather convincing indeed Jürgen... Quite the understatement, that 🙂

[stevehnz]

Nice job, super paint finish. AWESOME motorcar.

Steve.

[BeastieBoy73]

The Gallardo is my favourite super car from the last 20 years.

 

Hats off to you for the quality of your build but big hats off for owning a real one!

[spruecutter]

Beautiful build! A fine replica.

[KonaDawg]

Beautiful.  One day I will own an hurican performante 😊

[Nick Belbin]

Agree with all of the above.

 

Two queries if I may. Why did you sell the original car? Do you not accentuate door/bonnet(hood)/boot(trunk) lines?

 

Nick

[Plastheniker]

Thanks for the comments!

 

On 8/18/2018 at 2:05 AM, Nick Belbin said:

Agree with all of the above.

 

Two queries if I may. Why did you sell the original car? Do you not accentuate door/bonnet(hood)/boot(trunk) lines?

 

Nick

 

IMO accentuated panel lines don't look realistic. From my point of view there are two main reasons:

 

-      On real cars panel lines (f. e. door gaps) are usually not wider than 4mm. Thus panel lines on 1/24 models should be less than 0.2mm wide, but actually they are much wider. Filling them with dark paint makes this difference salient. Even worse panel line edges on models are more or less roundish, what makes accentuated panel lines look even wider (and sometimes varying).

-      In reality panel lines disappear when viewed from sharper angles. Accentuated panel lines, however, remain visible because they are very shallow.

 

IMO the best way to rework panel lines (if necessary) is scribing them considerably deeper and sanding the body until their edges are really sharp.

 

 

 

 

 

Admittedly my Gallardo was hard to beat on a German Autobahn, traction and roadholding were fantastic, and it looked spectacular, but nevertheless I was not really happy with it because IMO it had little to do with the term "sports car" (the same is true for most modern cars).

Its extremely poor visibility, its width and the huge turning circle of the early Gallardos made it a nightmare on narrow streets, in cities and worst of all in hotel garages. No usable luggage space, most terrible seats, the impossibility to change into second gear (unless the gearbox was hot) and last but not least continuously minor technical troubles but no reasonable service network made my decision to sell this car rather easy.

By comparison my successor car ( 2008 facelift Viper convertible), though undriveable on slippery roads, turned out to be a much better (fun) car for less money.

 

[TommyOneTwoFour]

Hello Jürgen,

 

congrats, another fine model from you.

 

One thing I noticed is that the stance is rather low compared to the original car.

 

I basically agree with you on the procedure for creating realistic-looking panel lines.

However I have to agree with Nick that the panel lines on this model appear to be rather "inconspicuous ".

 

Surely the optical effect that panel lines have on the viewer depends on several factors such as the shape of the lines aswell as the colour of the car body, I suppose.

So maybe it's due to one of those factors that the panel lines appear to be weak.

 

I may add that imho using a darkened shade of the body colour (so in this case yellow darkened with a tiny bit of black) in order to accentuate may be an alternative option without creating the above mentioned unwanted effect while creating "black panel lines".