Italeri Lamborghini Diablo (3685) 1:24

[Mike]

Lamborghini Diablo (3685)

1:24 Italeri via Wonderland Models

 

 

After the success of the Countach, Lamborghini developed its replacement in the mid-80s with a design brief that it should be capable of getting close to 200mph, which it later managed to surpass.  A mid-project redesign took away some of the sharper lines that resulted in a sleek, streamlined design that was a huge improvement on the already gorgeous Countach, all in my humble opinion of course.  It reached the market at the beginning of the 90s with a 5.7L fuel-injected V12 engine mounted in the centre of the chassis, driving the rear wheels, continuing the long tradition of Lamborghini cars that appear totally insane and want to kill you.  Awesome!  Later versions gained ABS, electric windows and other modern features that we now see as an absolute minimum standard for even the cheapest car.  That cheap car may have better rear vision, but it doesn’t look or perform like a Diablo though.

 

A roadster variant made its debut in ’92, and the later VT model introduced all-wheel drive, which has stayed as one of Lambo’s preferred features that makes their cars a lot less murderous of their drivers thanks to the extra grip.  The car got a facelift at the end of the ‘90s, replacing the pop-up lights with fixed units, cosmetic additions and some of the more successful mechanical upgrades that had been tried out over the previous years.  Various special editions and upgrades were unleashed during the rest of its time on the market, including a bored-out 6L engine and some special editions, some of which were designed with the racetrack in mind.  Following a number of attempts to create its successor that finished in dead-ends, the Murciélago was developed as the Diablo’s eventual replacement, hitting the forecourts just after the turn of the millennium.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of the original 1990 tooling from Italeri in the de facto vehicle scale of 1:24.  The kit arrives in a top-opening box with two sprues in black styrene, one sprue plus the bodyshell in red plastic, a chromed sprue containing the hubs and some small parts, four flexible black tyres in their own bag, a clear sprue, a small decal sheet and trifold A5 instruction booklet in black and white.  While this isn’t a brand-new tooling, it does have some solid detail in the engine bay and the suspension area, with the interior compartment represented by a large number of parts that should result in a good replica.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the front suspension wishbones and steering components, which are covered by an insert with more structure to hold the hubs in place.  The brake discs are added to the keyed stub-axles, and the discs have a concentric ring pattern moulded-in, which seems at variance with most disc brakes I’ve seen.  There are also ejector-pin marks on one side, so it would probably be best to remove all the surface detail before fitting unless I’m totally wrong about the veracity of the grooves.  The same task is carried out at the rear, adding the underside of the transmission block, then the chassis tray is put to one side while the interior is made up.

 

The Diablo is a two-seater, and the cab is commensurately short to which the two seats, door cards, the dashboard with separate instrument binnacle that has decals for the instruments are added.  The steering wheel is left-hand drive, and comes with a separate column that has the stalks moulded-in, a central gear-shift, handbrake on the left side for you to snag on when you exit the vehicle, and a grab-handle on the right side of the dash so that the co-pilot doesn’t end up in the driver’s lap during spirited cornering.  Paint call-outs are included for everything in black circles, including the switch-gear on the door cards, and the tiny rear window is fixed to the back of the interior once internal painting is complete.  The cab assembly is dropped into the lower bodyshell along with the floor of the engine compartment, which is detailed further by adding the top of the cylinder blocks and their respective air intakes, and what looks like the fuel injection rail in the recess between the blocks, again with more paint call-outs.  The four wheels and their push-on tyres are added to the stub-axles using two small parts to complete the axles per wheel, then the assembly is put to the side to focus upon the topside.

 

The bodyshell leaves the box with many of the panels moulded together as one part, but some sections are separate parts through necessity to achieve the complex shapes around the body.  The prominent intakes behind the side glazing are one such insert, and at the rear there is a sink-mark on each one that should be filled before it is installed to make the task easier.  The rear is also separate and made from three parts including splitters, which has the clear light parts and number plates added, with the same task completed for the front air dam.  The glazing for the cab is one part that includes both the windscreen and side windows and is fitted with a rear-view mirror at the front, although anyone looking for the headlining will see through the hole in the glazing to the roof above.  The exhaust tips under the rear valance are chromed for your ease, and each of the four parts attach to paired styrene pipes that disappear into the engine bay.  Wing mirrors with chromed glazing are fixed to the doors, a single large windscreen wiper with separate blade are added to the windscreen/scuttle area, then the cover for the engine bay is made up of the main louvred section with a “wing” at the front, plus two small hinges that should allow you to pose it open if you wish.

 

Markings

You can paint your Diablo any colour you like, although the red on the box top looks appealing to my eyes.  You get a choice of three styles of number plate decal, the afore mentioned instrument dials for the interior, some angry bull motifs for the hubs, and some badges for the sides, front and rear of the vehicle.  The final decal is a D overseas badge for Germany that doesn’t appear on the line-drawn decal instructions.

 

 

Decals are by Zanchetti (which I’ve just found out I’ve been misspelling for years), which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

The Diablo is a fine example of 90s excess, and this kit captures the lines well, has a decent amount of detail, pre-chromed parts and a reasonable price tag that recommends it further.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of