Alpine A110 - Monte

[Spiny]

I probably won't get into this fully until next year as I think I'll struggle to get it fully painted before winter hits. But hopefully I can make some good progress with the paint so I'll be about ready to build when the time comes rather than having to wait until I can spray the paint on.

 

This one is Tamiya's Monte Carlo Alpine A110 kits which seems to get released in small numbers every few years. It's one of those kits which on first glance doesn't appear to have much to it, but looking at the instructions (and some other builds on here) I'm pretty certain it will be quite a detailed car once done.  I've not decided whether to do the #22 or #28 car yet, still got a bit of time to decide on that. But to start with, here's the contents:

 

 

As I said, it doesn't look much with just the two sprues, plus clear, chrome and bodyshell. But in true Tamiya style those sprues have made good use of the real estate available with quite a few parts on them.

 

First job has been to get primer on the wheels and bumpers as they will be sprayed silver - if I go with the Silver Leaf that has quite a long curing time so I want that to have as much time as possible before the weather turns. No photo as it's only the pieces in primer. I've also removed the rear grilles from the chrome sprue. The instructions would have you paint the body colour in the grooves between the chrome grille bars (yeah, right!, like that's going to happen with a rattle can) so I've stripped the chrome. These will be painted body colour then when the time comes I plan to go over the grille bars with BMF - I'm hoping this will be much the easier method.

 

And then it was onto the body, Last weekend I gave it a quick blow over with primer just so that any mould lines would show up better. There are faint lines which run along the top of the front and rear wings, then as is typical much stronger lines in the hard to reach places such as at the back of the windows and around the front of the body which were a particular pain to sand without losing any detail. This is the end result after sanding the lines back:

 

 

Today it got put into primer. No mould lines reappearing apart from a very faint bit which should be behind the bumper, and no new lines appeared either so at this stage I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

 

 

That's it for now, I'd love to make some more progress but next weekend I'm likely to be focussing more on the 300SL I think as that one NEEDS to be painted before winter. Thanks for looking.

[Neddy]

Great, an unusual Tamiya car model kit.  I look forward to seeing it take shape.  OK if I tag along?

[Redstaff]

Gonna tag along as well Spiny, I got one of the re releases earlier this year. I built one of the Heller ones a while back and it was crap as most Heller kits are, so I had to get a Tamiya one as I've always thought they were a great looking car 😁

Ian 

[Mark_C]

What a nice coincidence!  I was just looking to buy one of these, but didn't know how the build would go.  Now I get to see.  😄

[galaxyg]

Great stuff, I'll be following along. I wish someone would do a kit of the new Alpine car.

[Spiny]

I'm pleased you're all looking forward to this build, always nice to think that something I'm doing generates a bit of interest. However, I feel I should warn you that the only reason this has come up now is that I'm trying to get at least some paint done before winter sets in. With the VW still to finish, and the 300SL to build first, I would estimate at the rate I build it's likely to be somewhere around next July when I get this finished, and it almost certainly won't get any bits of plastic stuck together until next spring. If you're happy to wait, I'd be honoured to think it's worth watching.

 

21 hours ago, Mark_C said:

What a nice coincidence!  I was just looking to buy one of these, but didn't know how the build would go.  Now I get to see.  😄

 

If you like the subject, I would get one while you have the chance. From what I've seen of other builds on here it will build up pretty nicely with no real horrors. And frofm the look of the sprues it certainly looks as though it will be a nice detailed kit which doesn't need an excessive clean up of the parts.

 

12 hours ago, galaxyg said:

Great stuff, I'll be following along. I wish someone would do a kit of the new Alpine car.

 

I don't! I think the new Alpine looks great so that would be another temptation to join all the other temptations just begging to join the stash😆I've not seen many of these around, but the first two were quite interesting spots. The first was a pre-production model beign taken around Le Mans just after it was announced. And the second was in NW Scotland tucked right up behind a black Range Rover with the boot open (I nearly missed it) - I still haven't come across whatever programme was filiming it.

[Neddy]

No worries @Spiny, I'm in no hurry.  I'm retired so nothing gets done in a rush - see my current Mustang build f'rinstance!  I enjoy the journey more than the destination when it comes to model building.

[Mark]

This is easily my favourite Tamiya 1/24 car kit. I have no idea why! But the contours of tge original, the detail of the kit and the subject itself all just really gel.

 

You’re doing a great job so far and if I may, here’s mine:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234994879-second-one-finished-this-year-tamiya-124-alpine-a110/

Does anyone do a 1/24 of the new Alpine?

[mbdesignart]

I've got the Heller vesion to build as an East African Safari car. Your build will make an interesting comparrison when I get around to it.

[bigbadbadge]

Nice looking kit, the car looks full of character and makes an interesting modelling subject.  

Will tag along too.

Chris

[Spiny]

20 hours ago, Mark said:

This is easily my favourite Tamiya 1/24 car kit. I have no idea why! But the contours of tge original, the detail of the kit and the subject itself all just really gel.

 

You’re doing a great job so far and if I may, here’s mine:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234994879-second-one-finished-this-year-tamiya-124-alpine-a110/

Does anyone do a 1/24 of the new Alpine?

 

You may indeed post it up It's a very nice looking build. I'd not seen yours before, although I know there is another pink one on here too. I don't suppose you did a build thread as well did you?

[johnlambert]

I've built the street version of this kit.  The body is quite tight over the interior, so make sure you assemble the door cards and dashboard correctly.  But it's nicely detailed and I'm sure you'll produce a great model.

[Paolo Tarantino]

Ciao great kit I made it a couple of years ago and I enjoy a lot.

 

ciao Paolo

[Paolo Tarantino]

And this is mine:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235081276-renault-alpine-a110/&do=findComment&comment=3845883

[Spiny]

22 hours ago, johnlambert said:

I've built the street version of this kit.  The body is quite tight over the interior, so make sure you assemble the door cards and dashboard correctly.  But it's nicely detailed and I'm sure you'll produce a great model.

 

I think yours was one of the ones which I remember - the yellow one if memory serves? Thanks for the heads up about the interior and fitting the body; that's usually the part of the build where it all goes wrong for me so I'll have to be extra careful when I get to that stage.

 

14 minutes ago, Paolo Tarantino said:

And this is mine:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235081276-renault-alpine-a110/&do=findComment&comment=3845883

 

Good build, especially since from the looks of your build it was your first car. You should build more cars.

[Paolo Tarantino]

19 minutes ago, Spiny said:

 

I think yours was one of the ones which I remember - the yellow one if memory serves? Thanks for the heads up about the interior and fitting the body; that's usually the part of the build where it all goes wrong for me so I'll have to be extra careful when I get to that stage.

 

 

Good build, especially since from the looks of your build it was your first car. You should build more cars.

Yes I made the fiat 131 Abarth:

 

and now  I’m building the Toyota Celica Gt4 

 

[JeroenS]

Great choice Spiny. Say... are you indulging in no less than 3 active WIP's?? The world is going crazy.

[johnlambert]

9 hours ago, Spiny said:

 

I think yours was one of the ones which I remember - the yellow one if memory serves? Thanks for the heads up about the interior and fitting the body; that's usually the part of the build where it all goes wrong for me so I'll have to be extra careful when I get to that stage.

 

 

 

Well remembered.

 

Here it is.

[Spiny]

14 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Great choice Spiny. Say... are you indulging in no less than 3 active WIP's?? The world is going crazy.

 

I guess you could say that, although only one is on the bench. Do the other two count as active WIPs since they're only in the paint booth?

[JeroenS]

9 hours ago, Spiny said:

 

I guess you could say that, although only one is on the bench. Do the other two count as active WIPs since they're only in the paint booth?

It counts if there's a thread 🙂 

[Spiny]

The main jobs on this over the weekend were 1) to get the rest of the sprayed pieces off the sprue and ready for spraying, and 2) to get the silver parts sprayed. There is a bit of a hurry-up on the silver as I'm doing them in what remains of Tamiya's TS-30 Silver Leaf, and it's a funny paint which doesn't like to be touched until fully cured, and I've read that that can take up to 6 weeks so a long wait until I clear coat it. So wheels and bumpers are silver now.

 

 

The wheels will be clear-coated, but looking at the bumpers I've got a bit of a quandry. To my eyes, the colour here seems pretty close to the photos I can find on the web of the rally cars which appear to have unchromed bumpers, presumably becuase they won't last long enough to rust through. So I'd like to keep them as bare TS-30.

 

Now the question is, has anyone used this and does anyone know if it will be robust enough to survive me fitting the bumpers? Thanks for any advice.

[Mark_C]

This video may be helpful, particularly if you skip to 28:45, where you're shown TS-30 after it has dried on a spoon,  The video maker seems to be handling the plastic with no particular problems with adhesion.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eofcKmO1L9k

[Bengalensis]

10 hours ago, Spiny said:

The wheels will be clear-coated, but looking at the bumpers I've got a bit of a quandry. To my eyes, the colour here seems pretty close to the photos I can find on the web of the rally cars which appear to have unchromed bumpers, presumably becuase they won't last long enough to rust through. So I'd like to keep them as bare TS-30.

 

The works A110's in those years (those that even used any bumpers) had thin fibreglass bumpers in a greyish colour.

[Spiny]

13 hours ago, Bengalensis said:

 

The works A110's in those years (those that even used any bumpers) had thin fibreglass bumpers in a greyish colour.

 

Thanks, being fibreglass is something I hadn't realised but explains an awful lot. From the few images I could find I was struggling to work out what was going on as they seemed like a dullish metal colour, but I wasn't totally sure and it's not easy to find pictures of the real car on a Google search amongst all the pictures of models and from computer games. What you've said has pretty much convinced me to clearcoat the bumpers too - I know how this will turn out as that's the colour I did the XJ220 in and from your description I won't be too far off.

 

Good to see that the TS-30 is robust too, that's something to store in the memory bank. The reason I was concerned is that I had to do the Jag twice as fingerprints on the TS-30 came through onto the clear too. Knowing that it can withstand handling is a big plus.

[Bengalensis]

5 hours ago, Spiny said:

Thanks, being fibreglass is something I hadn't realised but explains an awful lot. From the few images I could find I was struggling to work out what was going on as they seemed like a dullish metal colour, but I wasn't totally sure and it's not easy to find pictures of the real car on a Google search amongst all the pictures of models and from computer games. What you've said has pretty much convinced me to clearcoat the bumpers too - I know how this will turn out as that's the colour I did the XJ220 in and from your description I won't be too far off.

 

The greyish colour on those light weight bumper parts do vary over the years, batches of prepared cars and/or events, I have seen them painted as "silver-grey", much like steel wheels of the day, and plain flat grey of various shades, some just grey gelcoat. The bullet pieces of the front bumper are also found in one-piece mouldings with the "rubber" section painted black.

 

You can always go over the parts with a semi-gloss or flat varnish if you find them too glossy.