Italeri Alfa 2300 FINISHED

[paddy]

Its not a washer, its a flange thats part of the head like a skirt.
From the pictures its about 1/4" square or call it 6mm so to scale its 0.5mm square..( with a hole through it for the wire) It will have to a compromise on size, I'm just trying to get it as small as poss

 

[moon puppy]

This would be tedious but, .5mm square rod stock, cut a slot on top and thread the wire, CA to close it up? flange could be round stock.

 

[paddy]

I dont have the ability to do that TBH. I find that square and hex plastic at that size is basically round and brass and steel would be difficult to hold and cut square. I'm waiting on some 16ba washers but even they might be hard to handle as they are so small.
i will sort it -)

 

[paddy]

OK so this is where i am now

still way too big but if you dont see the original along side then its kinda looks passable.
I'm going to have to drill about 100 holes in this model, made a start on the tail above but its a bit nerve wracking
I'm tempted to leave these brass and let them discolour with age, there is a danger at this size that a small amount of paint could turn these into a blob

 

[moon puppy]

BAM! What is that?

 

[paddy]

Its the tail cone standing on end

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Looking good Paddy!

 

[moon puppy]

Its the tail cone standing on end

I know that...What's the rivet detail you're using?

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I know that...What's the rivet detail you're using?

 

[paddy]

Ah sorry
these are just brass screws, 16BA cheese head slotted, they will have to be fitted with the slots in line to take the wire, Screw thread is about 0.016" dia so these are as small as i can handle with my fat fingers

Lots of holes to be drilled like these along a lot of the seams and mostly through 2 parts so getting them all lined up is criticl.

 

[paddy]

I put the chassis together just to see if i had the colour right really. the base colour is Hull Red and i have the option of leaving it flat, semi gloss or gloss to give a little contrast.
for example the chassis is semi gloss and the leaf springs are flat, doesnt show to well in the photo's

The shocks are the old friction dampers. On the Airfix Bentley i built they were a one piece moulding which made detailing hard. On this Alfa they are made up of 56 parts and 10x better but then there are 50 years between the airfix Bentley and Italeri alfa

A lot of the parts are held together with chrome slotted screws which i will give a coat of gun metal later which will age them appropriately

 

[Rhino]

I look forward to the Assembly! I envy you, Sir!

 

[moon puppy]

Don't think I've ever seen such suspension.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I built a 1/8 scale Pocher kit years ago and it had these type shock absorbers. Looking really good Paddy!

 

[paddy]

They were pretty common on motorcycles of the time as well. this is a 1936 Guzzi

 

[moon puppy]

Yep, I'm sure I've never seen suspension like this.

 

[paddy]

Its basically a damper rather than a shock absorber. The arms can pivot on the top and bottom mount, there is a friction material on the centre coupling which can be tightened with the lever in the middle to adjust the amount of effort needed to move the two arms in a scissor action. It just takes the bounce out of the springs.

 

[paddy]

This is about as far as you can go o the chassis at this early stage. Rear suspension is pretty much complete

The assembly is pretty tricky. It all fits well in fact its excellent however you are working with 1.4mm nuts and threads in confined spaces and with delicate parts, Some of the screws cut their own threads in to the plastic which can be tricky because the screwdriver slots are very small.

The instructions say engine next so who an i to argue ?

 

[moon puppy]

Lovin' it!

 

[jeaton01]

Neat, Paddy. US cars used a Houdaille rotary vane hydraulic unit of somewhat similar configuration to the friction type before they figured out the telescopic type. But you probably already know that since it was used on the MGB But the one on your Fiat takes the prize for most complicated!