Alfa Romeo Finished and onwards with the Lotus 49

I had some fun spraying the Alfa with the Jaegermeister orange. These Zero paints are brilliant, so long as you don't have to touch up anything as they will not brush paint. I had to paint around all the window surrounds in black - to simulate the rubber - and a few bits ran over the orange. Luckily, I had a bottle of Vallejo flat orange which is nearly the same shade, so I used that. I have asked Zero/Hiroboy for some advice but nothing has come back yet.

Anyway, the rest of the car went together beautifully. I did have one little bit where I kicked myself for my disbelief in Tamiya parts fitting. When putting the roll cage together there was on strut the went from the top back to the chassis. This has a pin on it but there was no attendant hole in the chassis. I thought for a few seconds and then cut the pin off. In the past I have told my wife "if something doesn't fit on a Tamiya kit it is because I have done something wrong!" On scanning the instructions just making sure that I had fitted everything, I came across one more strut for the roll cage. This fits in low down into the same slot as the part mentioned above. Guess what. It had one flat side and ---- a hole for a pin to go into!

One last surprise was the little radio aerial on the roof. Rather then moulding one, they tell you to use stretch sprue. Now, if you haven't come across this idea before, this is what you need.

You light the candle with the cigarette lighter. Then you cut off a piece of the unwanted sprue and hold it, gently, over the flame. When it begins to soften - and don't let it get too soft - pull easily apart and you end up with some really thin plastic rod. Once I had done this, I had to cut it to 10mm, glue it in place and paint it black. Why didn't they mould one?

With that sorted, I got on with the decals. There are plenty of them and, unlike the BMW recently, they went on like a dream. One final coat of 2 Pack Gloss and it was ready for showtime.

One thing is wrong - isn't there always one thing? I didn't put the aluminium protection above the exhaust pipes. They supply a small square of self adhesive aluminium sheet which you cut to size and the cut the slot for the towing ring. It looked like something I would screw up so it was safer to leave them off. If the bonnet (hood) looks a bit out of place, that is because I haven't glued it to the rest of the body as, this way, I can take the body off to show the interior. I am very pleased with this.

I have a BWM 635CSi (like the one I finished recently) in Jaegermeister colours. I am hoping to get a Tamiya Porsche 934 in the same colours for Christmas. It seems that Revell make a VW van in Jaegermeister colours as well, so I will try and add that.

So, now I am back on the 1:12thLotus 49. I have put the fiddly front suspension together and painted - and decalled - the dashboard. 

The kit comes with etched instruments but they are all solid nickel silver colour and didn't look right so I went with the decals. I think that they look just the part. Now, I have the rear suspension to fit together. Not a lot left to do, actually. I am quite surprised at that.