Lancia Stratos HF "Alitalia"

[galaxyg]

The final item to do before I unite the chassis and the body - some drilled holes and wiring the catches.

 

 

Body and Chassis united. This is a tricky operation, it's tight and there's a lot of stretching to do. You'd not want to do it more than once. Unless like me you forget to install the rear view mirror and have to take it all off again, and on again.  Photo shows the undertray now glued in place.

 

 

Having tried the wheels on the assembled body-chassis, I can see the entire car does look quite toy-like. Mainly I think because of the bright shiny-plastic looking yellow wheels but also the bright colours on the body.  I'm not entirely convinced that Alitalia green should be as bright as it is. I was half way to thinking of weathering this build anyway and that toy-appearance sealed it. I've started weathering with the tyres and wheels. The Hasegawa tyres themselves needed attention anyway as they're a bit more shiny and Revell-like than the usual offerings. What you can see below is two complete, two yet to be done. The rims are dabbed with coal dust and the tyres with European earth weathering pigments.

 

 

These are the products I've used.

 

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, galaxyg said:

some drilled holes and wiring the catches.

 

Those look excellent  and nice work on the wheels too!

 

1 hour ago, galaxyg said:

I'm not entirely convinced that Alitalia green should be as bright as it is.

 

I wonder if there are different Alitalia greens, or if it is just a difficult colour for decal makers to get 'right'. I also build airliners, and decals for early ones seem to have a brighter green while later jets have a darker, more olive green. And the airliner sheets I have all differ from the Hase Stratos sheet! 

 

Keith

[mbdesignart]

22 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I wonder if there are different Alitalia greens, or if it is just a difficult colour for decal makers to get 'right'. I also build airliners, and decals for early ones seem to have a brighter green while later jets have a darker, more olive green. And the airliner sheets I have all differ from the Hase Stratos sheet! 

Keith

INFO HERE

The usual what is the correct colour conundrum. As can be seen from the link Alitalia used several greens due to branding updates. Then there's the did the printer follow the colour specs issue? Not to mention colour differences between paints and inks and the Friday afternoon 'oh, that'll do mate' mix.🤔😄

 

edit. If you are happy with the build that's all that matters. Great work, it is an impressive scheme.

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by mbdesignart
extra info

[Andy J]

Well regardless of the Green debate your build looks excellent 👌 Stunning work my friend looks fantastic 👏 👌 

[klubman01]

Great work on the wheels and tyres.  Makes all the difference.

Trevor

[galaxyg]

For weathering the underside/sides I've brought out my cheap, cheerful and seldom used airbrush. In fact this is the first time I've ever used it on anything other than practice. It runs off a can of compressed air and is the bottle type. It's a bit spattery but in this circumstance that's no issue. The paint is Tamiya Acrylic Flat Earth thinned down quite a bit. Once dried, on top of that and as shown in the two images below is a coat of My Hobby Flat Matt from a rattle can - by far the best matting agent I've found. There will be a tiny bit more weathering to come by a different method, but not a lot, it'll be just sufficient to make the car look heavy and grounded.

 

 

Rear lights by marker pen.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by galaxyg
corrected typo

[Toftdale]

I'm no expert in rally cars, but you're weathering looks spot on to me - Andy 

[galaxyg]

Supplied in the kit box - a square of mud-flap rubber and a template to cut them from. Nice!  Also comes with a suggestion to use "metal glue", which I've taken as superglue.

 

 

By crudely mixing two shades of the weathering pigment with Testor's Dullcoat, I can get something fairly opaque, gritty and guaranteed matt.

 

 

And then apply it around/near the wheel arches and the newly installed mudflaps.

 

 

Completed underside.

 

 

Rear wheels on.

 

 

Rear lights on. The left one wasn't straight when I took the photo but the glue wasn't dry either, so  corrected it later.

 

 

At this point all that's left are a few pieces on the bodywork and some decals around the back and front number plate, so this'll be the last WIP image. See you in the RFI section.

 

 

[klubman01]

Looks to me that the weathering is just right - not too heavy, just sufficiently subtle. 

Great workmanship throughout the build.

Trevor

[keefr22]

Lovely job, I agree with Trevor about the weathering, looks very good!

 

Keith

[Spiny]

Another one agreeing that the weathering looks good - not too much and about right for a dusty rally.

[Windy37]

Not a fan of weathering , but done subtly like you have done is fine . 

 Gary  .

[PatW]

Superb! I remember these on the forest stages in the day as I was a rally marshal. A close friend, and neighbour, who travelled with us marshals, was given the job of trying to stop spectators standing on the out of the bends, was posted about 20 yards yards away, was all of a sudden faced with the rear of one of these sideways-on into the corner. He very quickly jumped over a wire fence into the next field, avoiding being clouted by the said rear end. We dashed to the spot only to find him climbing back over the fence, none the worse for his escape!