Lamborghini Countach LP400 - Up Periscopio!

[Mr Mansfield]

Thank you all for being so welcoming on here. Time to add my current Work in Progress. This is almost complete, but here's where I am so far. Sorry for a lot of images, but I have been building this for quite a while now

After starting this, I've discovered that the kit is no where near as good as the Aoshima one, but that didn't stop me from giving it my all

 

I've had the Tamiya Lamborghini Countach and "Orancio California" paint sitting in my cupboard for way too long, so this is my next kit:

I bought some yellow wire for the HT leads & sticky back suede effect cloth for the dashboard, but not sure if it will work, or be too thick to give the look of the real Countach dashboard:

Unboxed:

Not impressed with the decals, the's no decals for the badges on the back or the Bertone badge on the side

 

 

Starting off I thought I'd test fit the bottom & interior. Hopefully, any issues should show up here, but everything slotted in quite nicely:

Then although there are probably more important things to start with, I wanted to address my favourite little quirk on the LP400. Which is the "Periscope" Window in the roof. Apparently, the original concept was to use a periscope mirror instead of a conventional rear view mirror, but they found it too distracting when used on the concept car & went with a regular mirror instead. But the designers liked the detail on the roof so much, they left it in anyway!

 On the kit, this was just a moulded shape:

So with a bit of cutting, cutting again, filing & sanding, I managed to open it up:

UP PERISCOPIO!

Then on to de-chroming the engine & wheels, using my favourite cleaning liquid which hasn't failed yet in removing the chrome without damaging the plastic in any way (what ever you do, don't use this on chrome taps! :shock: 😞

As always, worked a trick:

Next up, I'll start on the body to get rid of mould lines & imperfections

 

 

 

I sprayed some of the parts before moving on the body:

Then, as the Zero paints had been sitting for about a year, I spent a good half hour shaking & stirring. Then set up ready for paint:

2 coats fully covered, but it still didn't have the depth I wanted:

Needed to keep stirring the paint as the gold flake kept settling at the bottom. Not sure if you see in this picture:

Then, I kept going with another 3 heavy coats. Now it looks really orange:

But it did use alot of the paint:

Now I'm happy with the body, I was going to move on the decals, but when I soaked the Lambo badge, instead of lifting off the backing, it started to disintergrate!

I can only assume this kit has been sitting on a shelf for alot of years before I bought it. Lambo badge decals orderd from Ebay

I shook all my paint tins vigorously, added thinners  & then added more detail to the dash. Including the different colour buttons under the binnacle. The dash board itself is painted with Tamiya tyre paint, but it gives a good replication of the suede in the real car:

Then I had to address the ignition wires. I had cut the wires a little too short to play with & connect the other end. So easiest solution was to cut the distributor caps off, glue in the wires, then add some styrene rod get them re-attached. It's still alot of wires into a very small space!:

Then I painted the centre console with some Vallejo black metal & silver and used black flocking for the carpet. Even though I wanted a black interior, I wanted as many different textures & shades as I could get away with:

Then in went the seats, seat belts & seat belt sockets on the sides of the seats. Gear stick & door handles finish it off:

Engine now dried & all back in. It's not quite as neat as I would like, but I'm happy with how it's come together:

 

The interior is now done. (That's stage 3 in the instruction book!) All seems to fit together still:

I'm really happy with the Tamiya Tyre Grey colour on the dash. It looks more like suede than if I'd used the suede fabric I bought at the start. The top of the seatbelts are a bit of a glue bomb, but you won't see that when it's all together:

 

Firstly, I cleared the body with Zero pre-thinned clear coat:

Painted the black bits with Tamiya semi-gloss black & window trims with Vallejo black for a more matt finish:

Quite happy with the results:

Then, with a very small brush, tooth picks and cotton buds soaked in thinners, I carefully painted the badges on the back:

Gave up on using the decal for the tint, all the decals in this kits have disintegrated upon hitting water. This one had a coat of liquid decal film, but still failed!:

Decided not to use the decals for the rear lights either & thought I would get a better result by hand painting:

 

Thanks for looking. Comments & tips greatly appreciated

 

Cheers,
Paul
 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Mr Mansfield

[Schwarz-Brot]

Very good start and mighty clean paintwork. I love it! Great attention to detail in the cockpit. While it will be hidden it is great to see all the different materials come together. I tend to spend way too much time in doing that, but it's good to know it is there, even it it won't be seen later.

You might try scanning the remaining decals and reprinting them on decal paper? I always scan the instructions and decals before I start any work in case something goes wrong.

 

 

[Mikey-1980]

Looks fantastic so far!

 

thanks for the tip on the de-chroming as well..is it freely available from most stores?

 

 

There are some nasty chromes wheels and light clusters on the DMC12 I'm building that need dealing with.

[Mr Mansfield]

1 hour ago, Schwarz-Brot said:

Very good start and mighty clean paintwork. I love it! Great attention to detail in the cockpit. While it will be hidden it is great to see all the different materials come together. I tend to spend way too much time in doing that, but it's good to know it is there, even it it won't be seen later.

You might try scanning the remaining decals and reprinting them on decal paper? I always scan the instructions and decals before I start any work in case something goes wrong.

 

 

Thanks @Schwarz-Brot I am really pleased with the cockpit. I think I’ll leave the window tint decal, so you can see the interior better 

1 hour ago, Mikey-1980 said:

Looks fantastic so far!

 

thanks for the tip on the de-chroming as well..is it freely available from most stores?

 

 

There are some nasty chromes wheels and light clusters on the DMC12 I'm building that need dealing with.

I’m pretty sure it is. I borrowed/stole this from my wife, just pop the parts in and leave for about an hour. Give it a stir & the chrome disappears 

[CrazyCrank]

Very clean and nice job, and an astonishing result at the moment

 

[Spiny]

Looks like you're going very well here... and on course for the 3rd orange Countach completion of 2020 on here Excellent job on the masking too.

 

I'll look forward to seeing how this one comes out

[JCH]

13 hours ago, Mr Mansfield said:

de-chroming the engine & wheels, using my favourite cleaning liquid

Dettol and Lysol (for us folks in the States) are made by the same company.  The active ingredient in Dettol is Benzalkonium Chloride which appears also appears in the Lysol All Purpose Cleaner.  This may be in short supply these days but if I can get a bottle, I'll test and let you know. 

 

Thanks!!!

[Mr Mansfield]

10 hours ago, JCH said:

Dettol and Lysol (for us folks in the States) are made by the same company.  The active ingredient in Dettol is Benzalkonium Chloride which appears also appears in the Lysol All Purpose Cleaner.  This may be in short supply these days but if I can get a bottle, I'll test and let you know. 

 

Thanks!!!

The one I use is only 1% active ingredient & 99% soapy water, but it doesn’t damage the plastic. Definitely test first, in case the whole thing disintegrates! 

[Mr Mansfield]

16 hours ago, Spiny said:

Looks like you're going very well here... and on course for the 3rd orange Countach completion of 2020 on here Excellent job on the masking too.

 

I'll look forward to seeing how this one comes out

Thanks @Spiny , I did look at your build, there’s some very nice details that I don’t have on my kit, especially the doors and engine cover. I didn’t know there was a third!

[Andy J]

Very nice work again these orange Lambos are very popular on here atm. It's quite usual for the zero paints to take multiple layers for correct coverage I put twelve coats on one of my Ferraris 🙂 I have found through experience that a black primer on colours such as orange can reduce the amount of coats required and darken slightly the final result. However yours looks great to me keep up the good work 👍

[Codger]

1 hour ago, Mr Mansfield said:

Thanks @Spiny , I did look at your build, there’s some very nice details that I don’t have on my kit, especially the doors and engine cover. I didn’t know there was a third!

IF there's any value for you that would be this one here:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235070087-a-big-countach/

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235070709-big-countach-31-years-in-the-making/

 

[Mr Mansfield]

3 hours ago, Andy J said:

Very nice work again these orange Lambos are very popular on here atm. It's quite usual for the zero paints to take multiple layers for correct coverage I put twelve coats on one of my Ferraris 🙂 I have found through experience that a black primer on colours such as orange can reduce the amount of coats required and darken slightly the final result. However yours looks great to me keep up the good work 👍

Thanks, this is only my second time using Zero paints, the first was more of grey colour & covered easily. I would say 12 coats seems a lot, until I used most of the bottle on my car!

[Mr Mansfield]

3 hours ago, Codger said:

IF there's any value for you that would be this one here:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235070087-a-big-countach/

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235070709-big-countach-31-years-in-the-making/

 

And there’s the other one! Very nice build and on a huge scale!!

 

I had no idea how unoriginal I am 

[Spiny]

7 hours ago, Mr Mansfield said:

Thanks @Spiny , I did look at your build, there’s some very nice details that I don’t have on my kit, especially the doors and engine cover. I didn’t know there was a third!

The Aoshima kit is probably the best kit I've done to date, although Revell's Trabant (of all things) isn't that far behind. But it is relatively new (2009 I think) while the Tamiya version is one of (may even be the) first car models they did. Nothing wrong with joining the orange Countach group either - it's a colour which really does suit the car and absolutely screams 1970s.

[JCH]

20 hours ago, JCH said:

Lysol (for us folks in the States)

Tested Lysol All Purpose cleaner.  Sprayed enough to cover a couple test parts.  Took about 30-45 minutes and they came out clean as a whistle with no obvious issue.  

[Mr Mansfield]

15 hours ago, Spiny said:

The Aoshima kit is probably the best kit I've done to date, although Revell's Trabant (of all things) isn't that far behind. But it is relatively new (2009 I think) while the Tamiya version is one of (may even be the) first car models they did. Nothing wrong with joining the orange Countach group either - it's a colour which really does suit the car and absolutely screams 1970s.

I do seem to have a habit of choosing bad kits, but the challenge is still fun.

 

Happy to join the orange Countach Group! 

[Mr Mansfield]

12 hours ago, JCH said:

Tested Lysol All Purpose cleaner.  Sprayed enough to cover a couple test parts.  Took about 30-45 minutes and they came out clean as a whistle with no obvious issue.  

That’s great @JCH I swear by the stuff, but it does need a really good clean after or the paint doesn’t stick (learnt the hard way!)

[pau10wen]

Great work Paul, very clean. Love the orange 😍 and that interior looks excellent mate 👍

[Mr Mansfield]

2 hours ago, pau10wen said:

Great work Paul, very clean. Love the orange 😍 and that interior looks excellent mate 👍

Arancio California is the only way to go! Thanks for the kind words 

Edited May 16, 2020 by Mr Mansfield

[ElectricLightAndy]

This... looks... amazing!

 

Andy

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Finally found your build, will follow it.

 

Dennis

[Mr Mansfield]

Thanks for the kind comments. A nice bit of motivation to get this finished!

 

Only the last few part to do now. Having done a bit of research, I've seen these with black mirrors and body coloured mirrors. I decided body colour looks better. There are no mirror pieces in the kit, so I filled it with clear & let it dry:

 

Then using some CA glue, stuck on the painted parts, inserted the lights and added some Citadel Nuln Oil in the panel gaps to add a bit of depth

 

And now finished. I'll post some pics in the ready for inspection section shortly

 

 

Thanks for looking. All comments and criticisms very welcome

 

Cheers,

Paul