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Countach - Another Italian Wedge


Spiny

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10 hours ago, gamblor916 said:

Aoshima Countachs are great fitting kits. There are only 2 areas of concern I think. One is fitting the functioning doors and lights gimmick which I fixed by just gluing them shut. Fitting the narrow body over the chassis might be worrying but I fixed that by leaving the cabin loose. Just drill out the locating points a tad for a little wiggle room. The fit is fine with no glue.

That's what I'm finding too - quite a few occasions so far in this build where I've put the pieces together and could have left them as they are so I've been able to just run a bit of Extra Thin onto them without having to hold in position. I've heard a bit about the body being a paint too - let's just say I'm very glad that the sills are separate items! Hadn't heard about issues with the doors and lights before - definitely something I will bear in mind as the lights in particular are coming up very soon.

6 hours ago, Mpfiend said:

If you have some Tamiya extra thin or another similar "hot" extra thin glue, you might be able to soften the joint by running some of this around the two parts then separating them with a scapel or hobby knife.

 

Regards 

Keith

Thanks for the advice, I must admit that my next step was to try the Extra Thin so good to hear it would have been a success, But happily, before I came on here, I took the radiator out of the freezer and tried putting a blade down the back of the grille. It took a bit of work, and at one stage I put the blade straight through the grille (fortunately no major damage) but eventually I got it free :)

 

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You can see where I put the blade through on the grille, but it looks worse on the camera. As Codger correctly pointed out, it's not a particularly visible part, and being symmetrical I'll turn the grille around when I refix it so that bit is towards the bottom and more out of sight still. Fingers crossed I may have got away with this one.

3 minutes ago, mustang1989 said:

I've never built one of these exotic cars before but I like what I'm seeing here and it may inspire me to take one of these on.

If you are fancying a bit of exotica, from my experience so far the Aoshima Countach has lived up to all the praise I've read about it. It looks a bit daunting out of the box, but is really well engineered. From the builds I've seen of yours, I think you'll more than do it justice.

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This was one of those weekend where you feel you've made more progress than you probably have done. Happily, last week's woes with the radiators appear to have been fixes, which means that I can report a completed engine bay with all bits in place :) The grille in the foreground is the one I damaged so I'm quite pleased that it doesn't look too bad, even on camera.

 

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Of course, with that finished I had to get the chassis made up since 'all' that's left is the body. Hard to believe looking at this that it will be covered over by the wedgy Countach body - hope the fitting isn't too tricky when the time comes...

 

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First job is the headlights. This is one I made up (5 parts in this one little unit) and, after some consideration I've decided to go with the headlights raised. That decision was reaffirmed when I tried to fit it in the down position - it does go but is a very tight fit due to the painting. The first one has been made up, and for some reason when I saw this pic I thought of Jonny 5

 

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That's all for this week, feels like it's been quite a productive one.

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Great work on the engine looks very smart. For what it's worth I think this car will look much better with the headlights in the up position 👍Shame a lot of your work will be covered by the shell but at least you have the pics for future reference. 

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4 hours ago, mustang1989 said:

Movin' right along here  Glad you got past the radiator ordeal. 5 pieces to the headlights???!!! Wow!!

Unfortunately so - two headlights, reflector, black trim and body-coloured top on each.

 

The keen eyed amongst you may have noticed that the top in the photo above didn't quite line up with the rest of the light - turned out that at some stage since last summer the left and right top pieces had got transposed. So I've parted the top from the rest of the unit and fitted the correct piece - looks better now and will fit properly when I come to add it to the body.

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  • 2 weeks later...

With the rotten weather this weekend, I got a decent go on the table (in between leaks :( ).

 

First up was getting those front lights sorted out - a little bit fiddly but nothing that some curved tweezers couldn't sort out. A bit of tube glue to tack in place, then once that had set some Tamiya Extra Thin to secure them, and all was ready (apart from the indicator/sidelight lenses which will come later.

 

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After that it was the turn of the back end, and it took most of the weekend to get the small reflectors in the middle of the reversing lights painted with enough layers to look ok. Fortunately, the rest of the red and orange glass came as coloured plastic so that was easy. Or so I thought... but there was a valuable lesson learned - when removing a part from the sprue, always cut the bit nearest the fat bit first if it's held on my many joints, especially if it's clear plastic which tends to be a bit more brittle :doh:

 

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The rear lights have a chromed reflector piece which needs fitting first, then it's the turn of the glass. Following trials with the Stratos, I went with the infra-red setting clear resin, which I ran around the edge of the recess before installing the 'glass'. Fortunately, with a little trimming, I was able to get the red surround glass fitted and looking something like ok - you can't tell on the real thing so please believe me when I say this picture shows it as bad as it gets.

 

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The fit around the lenses is tight - you could possibly get away with just clicking them in place, but I'd rather have a bit more security than that. Good job I went with the resin - I had a bit of transfer via my finger onto the paint when I was trying to press the orange and clear lenses into place, but unlike normal glue could wipe it down before using the IR torch to set it. I'm liking this stuff more and more.

 

Anyway, after this weekend, this is where I am. The number plate decal will wait until the body is on the chassis just in case...

 

49544516516_70f79bbfb8_c.jpg

 

 

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15 hours ago, Spiny said:

I went with the infra-red setting clear resin

Hi Spiny,

 

Sounds like interesting stuff.

Where did you get it from, if I may ask?

 

Cheers,

Alan.

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23 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Nice save on that rear light

 

   Roger

Definitely a relief to get it sorted - you can probably imagine my reaction when it shattered.

8 hours ago, Alan R said:

Hi Spiny,

 

Sounds like interesting stuff.

Where did you get it from, if I may ask?

 

Cheers,

Alan.

Good old Amazon for it. This is the one I bought, but I'm sure others are available. You'll also want to buy a cheap UV torch if you haven't got one already, unless you're content to go for a slow cure on the windowsill and let the sun do itswork.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B076RHF9NG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

To apply, I just use a cocktail stick, exactly the same process as with Clearfix when it comes to application. Then, once you have the part in place and have made sure you haven't got any resin sitting when you don't want it (like on the windscreen of the Stratos I did), shine the UV torch on itfor 30s to a minute and it should be solid enough. I only got this end of September, so I'm not sure if it will be harder to work with under the summer sun.

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That’s looking really great. Excellent job. I have the same kit and some lurid purple paint to build Simon Kidston’s car, so I’m watching It go together with interest. If you have any remaining issues with the engine cover not settling as you’d like it, you could always invest a few quid in some teeny tiny “rare earth” magnets on eBay, and either put them top and bottom (very strong grip) or magnets on one piece and some thin steel from a can on the other (easier to open).

best,

M.

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Thanks everyone.

 

Matthew - that sounds like a good tip with the magnets. I'm hoping that this one will settle ok once I have the engine cover fitted properly, otherwise that tip is likely to be used. I suspect at sometime in the future there will be a kit where that will be needed - I've been quite lucky so far. And I'm looking forward to your purple machine - I've seen you produce great results from kits very inferior to this one so it should be a good one for us to watch (and I'm sure you'll enjoy this kit too).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Didn't get chance to do anything last week, but got to spend a bit of time on the Lambo this time around. Unfortunately, it was mostly small bits so not masses of visual progress.

 

First up was getting the lenses into the lights - an easy job as they'd been painted last time I was on the bench. I also had to fit the side indicator repeater lights, which barely show up against the orange paint. They are tiny - approx 1mmx1mm so I was paranoid about losing one. To get the cut edge smooth, I ended up laying the sanding stick on the bench, then holding the lens in tweezers and dragging that across the stick. Slow going, but got there without losing anything. The front bumber is relatively easy, just paint the bumper, add reflectors from behind and lenses from in front and all is well. Just got the number plate to fit now, but that's pretty much ready to go.

 

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Next job is the doors. First thing to do was to test fit to see how it went, initial impressions are good so fingers crossed the same will be true when all the bits are added.

 

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And speaking of those bits, a fair bit of time was spent getting them painted up. Still some detailing to do to the glass and door card, but getting there. These are all (but one) of the bits which go into one of the doors, haven't started on the driver's door yet. There's a small piece stuck to the back of the door card - haven't figured what it does yet but assume it's to hold the door strut if it's modelled with the doors open.

 

49606370127_ddea38cdba_c.jpg

 

And that's it for this update. Thanks for watching.

 

 

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Not a lot to show this weekend, all the work has been on the doors apart from a little bit of decalling. So here it is - one door finished apart from the wing mirror needing fitting, and one door painted awaiting assembly.

 

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I'd love to give some interesting new on the work done, but this has just been one of those weekends where the time gets sucked into detailing and getting a load of bits ready. The fit between the door card and door skin isn't quite as tight as I'd have liked, but I think it will be ok once fitted. And I need to add a bit more resin around the edges of the windows too - at the moment they're only stuck to the inside frames and I would like to strengthen it a bit. Hopefully I'll have more to show next week.

 

Thanks for looking.

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A good weekend this time, or at least it feels like I've made some progress.

 

First up, some unfinished business from the last couple of weeks - the doors are finally completed. I ran some resin around the inside edge of the windows and the feel more solid now than they did. A test fit suggests that they fit just as well as they did before - fingers crossed that's still the case at the end of the build.

 

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After that, it was onto the engine cover. Aoshima give you a mesh sheet to cut to size for the openings on each side of the engine cover - it gives a nice effect but keeps trying to move when you install it. In the end, I tacked it in place at one end with the clear resin, set it, then put some down at the other end, set that and finally ran some more resin right the way around so it's all set and tight. Doesn't look the best from inside, but looks good from outside - this is the not-so-pretty inside photo:

 

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The three-quarter windows and vent behind are all moulded in one piece of clear plastic. Fortunately, Aoshima give you a masking sticker so painting the part is relatively straightforward. This piece also acts to hold the hinges in place for the engine cover, a nice piece of design which is a bit fiddly at first, but once in the right place almost clicks in position - you can get it set in position then run around with Tamiya Extra Thin to seal the deal. This is also where the engine air intake in the flank is fitted.

 

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The inside of the roof won't stay like that - I think next week should be when I get that painted and hopefully the windscreen fitted. But for this week, the last bits were fitting all the remaining vents around the engine bay. The body-coloured cowls were sprayed last summer and have been waiting to be installed, the grilles are fresh this weekend. Finally, it's not very clear in the photo, but there is a piece across the leading edge of the engine cover. On the real thing, this should be all part of once piece making up the lid. Unfortunately, when painting I misread the instructions and thought it fixed to the main body. Fortunately the fit is good so it's not very noticeable, but if anyone else is building this I'd suggest gluing Part 80 to the engine cover before painting rather than at the late stage I've done it. Anyway, this is where I am now - starting to look more Countachy with every week.

 

49662862483_b4fe1dacaa_c.jpg

 

Thanks for watching.

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22 hours ago, Alan R said:

Hi Spiny,

What is the resin you are using to cement the windows in place. Is thet UV sensitive stuff?

 

Cheers,

Alan.

It certainly is the UV sensitive stuff, I'm still impressed with it. When it runs out, think I'll get hold of the 60ml bottle as it seems to give better value for money. If you're thinking of getting some, make sure you get the crystal clear sort for windows (and it is very clear - you can just about see it if you zoom in on the mesh photo above). About the time I got it, I found an old photographic film container, so decant a small amount at a time into the lid then apply from there to the model using a cocktail stick. It's worth getting rid of everything from the lid before adding more, as it seems to semi-dissolve itself when you add more making the next decanted amount thicker and harder to work with. Clean the top before decanting, and you'll be fine.

 

As an added benefit, not only is it easier to work with than Clearfix, it also seems to set stronger too :)

[I have no affiliation nor receive any payment from whichever company it is which makes the stuff, just pleased to have found a product which works well for me!]

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