Jabba
SMF Supporter
Good evening gentlemen.
I have recently been working my way through the Italeri Lancia delta HF 1/12 scale. Its a kit I've had my eye on for some time and looked really good from all I could glean from the internet. I haven't completed it yet , but I was wondering if any of you had, and if so did you encounter the same problems as I have.
Don't get me wrong, this is a great kit which I am really enjoying, but it has similar qualities to the full size Italian cars I've worked on in the past, i.e. Very clever and accurate engineering in places, but surrounded by some very poor and bizarre choices elsewhere that let it down. (I think if you gave Italian car manufacturers €1,000,000 to create a car they would spend €999,000 of it on the engine and patch the rest together with the leftovers...)
For example - the seat belts. The red ribbon supplied was much too wide, and the slots in the PE belt buckles were of varying widths, all too narrow to get the ribbon through. I ended up ordering a reel of 5mm red ribbon off of the internet and making my own, but even then you can see that the slots are really too wide for the belt in places.
I
I
nterestingly , in the instructions for the belts there is a Correction Sheet which still managed to give the wrong lengths, but advises the builder to use a little diluted white glue (I used some PVA) on the belts to help them sit better. Good idea! It worked well. (you may remeber my first post about the problems I had with the belts on the Tamiya Ferrari 312 T4)
Also, when it comes to mounting the engine assembly , it has to mount to the driveshaft to the rear axle and the exhaust downpipe, both of which are glued in position at an earlier stage and give no 'wiggle room' . No problem you would think , and sure enough, it does mount to them, but this is all the engine sits on! where you would think there should be two more engine mount to the front crossmember there is just a gap. I was sure I must be doing something wrong here, but I went back over the instructions several times and there is no other way.
I suppose I could fabricate something to fit the gap, but I cant guarantee accuracy of course.
I also had to shorten the driveshafts for the rear axle slightly otherwise the uprights could not be screwed in place and the geometry would have been wildly out.
Despite these niggles - which may be my incompetence anyway - it is a really great kit which is going to look impressive when done (I hope) although I have painted in in red as I was thinking of buying the San Remo rally decal set to do that version, but I might just leave it as a 'Street' version.
I would value your comments
See what you think
I have recently been working my way through the Italeri Lancia delta HF 1/12 scale. Its a kit I've had my eye on for some time and looked really good from all I could glean from the internet. I haven't completed it yet , but I was wondering if any of you had, and if so did you encounter the same problems as I have.
Don't get me wrong, this is a great kit which I am really enjoying, but it has similar qualities to the full size Italian cars I've worked on in the past, i.e. Very clever and accurate engineering in places, but surrounded by some very poor and bizarre choices elsewhere that let it down. (I think if you gave Italian car manufacturers €1,000,000 to create a car they would spend €999,000 of it on the engine and patch the rest together with the leftovers...)
For example - the seat belts. The red ribbon supplied was much too wide, and the slots in the PE belt buckles were of varying widths, all too narrow to get the ribbon through. I ended up ordering a reel of 5mm red ribbon off of the internet and making my own, but even then you can see that the slots are really too wide for the belt in places.
I
I
nterestingly , in the instructions for the belts there is a Correction Sheet which still managed to give the wrong lengths, but advises the builder to use a little diluted white glue (I used some PVA) on the belts to help them sit better. Good idea! It worked well. (you may remeber my first post about the problems I had with the belts on the Tamiya Ferrari 312 T4)Also, when it comes to mounting the engine assembly , it has to mount to the driveshaft to the rear axle and the exhaust downpipe, both of which are glued in position at an earlier stage and give no 'wiggle room' . No problem you would think , and sure enough, it does mount to them, but this is all the engine sits on! where you would think there should be two more engine mount to the front crossmember there is just a gap. I was sure I must be doing something wrong here, but I went back over the instructions several times and there is no other way.
I suppose I could fabricate something to fit the gap, but I cant guarantee accuracy of course.
I also had to shorten the driveshafts for the rear axle slightly otherwise the uprights could not be screwed in place and the geometry would have been wildly out.
Despite these niggles - which may be my incompetence anyway - it is a really great kit which is going to look impressive when done (I hope) although I have painted in in red as I was thinking of buying the San Remo rally decal set to do that version, but I might just leave it as a 'Street' version.
I would value your comments
See what you think
