Fiat Mefistofele | Italeri 1:12

After 38 years I return to model making. Children raised, so maybe the grandchildren will be able to vaccinate something. The choice fell on not easy for someone like me, the Fiat Mefistofele model in 1:12 scale from Italeri. What!? How to fall off a big horse.
At the outset, I will not discover America, but I must point out that... nothing is the same as it used to be. I still read and absorb modeling knowledge like a sponge. Admittedly, access to information during the internet is excellent. Descriptions and unboxing of this model can be found everywhere. Let me just mention that this is a total of the rebranded Protar model from the 1970s. The main change, in addition to the box, is to replace the plastic parts of the body by metal ones. So presses from years ago. Files already sharpen teeth!

The real car itself is a disposable copy. He broke the world speed record in 1924 reaching over 230 km/h (146.0 mph) driven by Enrnest Arthur Douglas Eldridge. Anyway, the record lasted only one day.

The car became known as Mefistofele because of the infernal noise emitted by its powerful 6 cylinder in line aircraft engine Fiat A.12.
The engine has no muffler, with a capacity of over 20 liters. This car during its racing history has undergone many modifications and modifications, and on the basis of scarce documentation it is difficult to grasp the 100% compliance of the model proposed by Italeri with any version of the original.

Reading the history of the car I felt blood... This is just something for me! A model on which I will be able to work for hours, enter the dead ends of new modeling techniques for me and not be accused of lack of purism :) The more that I do not have an airbrush.

Source: italeri.com

And here is a tutorial on my construction.

Chassis and suspension components
After cleaning the parts and washing in the dishwashing liquid, I painted them with Tamiya spraycan primer. The frame and most of the elements were painted Tamiya black, pre-weathering was done with Tamiya flat black applied with a sponge and brush and Tamiya gray Panel Line Accent Color. I did the same with springs but as a basic painting flat aluminum was mixed with brown Tamiya acrylic. At the end of the spring I painted with Tamiya matt varnish.

Wheels
Each rim consists of 5 elements bolted together. This was not a problem. I just cleaned them slightly and did not paint. I made signs of tire wear with AMMO Mig Oilbrusher.

Wooden elements
Included were plastic panels imitating wood. I made the floor and the partition between the engine and the cabin from ice cream sticks stuck on plastic 0.5 mm. In addition, I riveted with 1 mm rivets. Corks come from the set and have been cut out of plastic panels. The wood was painted three times with supermarket stain and weathering using Tamiya smoke black and Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color brown and gray.

Body
The car was black while Eldridge was breaking its speed record. I also decided to make a model in this version. A number of reinforcements and rivets compatible with the original were added. The interior was left in a gray Tamiya foundation. Outside, Tamiya black was painted, and after applying the decal and weathering, both sides were sprayed with Model Master semi gloss 1959. The decal was aged with the tip of sandpaper, pencil and Tamiya smoke black.

Radiator cover
Heatsink holes enlarged to 1 mm diameter. It took a while... Painted in black flat. Brass housing for Tamiya titanium gold and a lot, a lot of polishing :)

Interior of the cabin
I covered the dashboard with aluminum self adhesive foil from the supermarket. I added switches with RB Motion and wrapped the steering wheel with 2 mm Tamiya masking tape. The tape was then painted Tamiya black. The chair is painted Tamiya flat black using a crecked medium and leather from an old wallet has been added to the seat.

Engine
This is the most interesting task of making this model. Oil pan painted with Tamiya gloss aluminum spraycan. Weathering Tamiya smoke black, panel line black and brown. Tamiya flat black cylinders. It was difficult to mask the bases of the cylinders, because they are half light bright, half black. I used masking tape 1 mm. Spark plugs (32 pieces!) Is an add on with RB Motion. I made the pipe collecting ignition cables from plastic with a diameter of 3 mm. The one from Italeri was a weak imitation. All the electric wires were included, but I liked the ones from my old fax better, because I could make loops to attach them to the spark plugs :) A bit of trouble for me was the connection of the wires to the caps at the 4 ignition distributors. I'm not entirely satisfied. Finally, I wrapped everything in black insulating tape, i.e. a medical patch cut to 1.5 mm width and painted black Tamiya flat black.
I replaced the valve springs (Knupfer), because those from the set were terribly thin. I have enriched the intake manifolds with imitation welds made with the help of plastic cards and the Molotow marker pen. I added cable ties from the Czech Truck Model. The exhaust manifold is painted only with a primer. For this I glued filings from my wife's file (lol) and sprayed a colorless mat from Hobby Paint.

Finally, imitation of Tamiya powder blows. The exhaust pipe is wrapped with string from the kit.

The drive chain
Two chains are made of kit components according to the instructions. It is not difficult, but it requires a lot of patience. I do not personally know any impatient modeler :)

Finishing
Finally, I made some scratches and abrasions, dirt and dusted the car with AMMO Mig Oilbrusher. The stand is "abandoned race track".

To sum up, it took me 3 months to make a model, on average 2 hours a day. I realize that this is not a model for the exhibition, but its implementation brought me a lot of fun. Considering my modeling level, I am very pleased with this work and encouraged to the next challenges.

Author | Tomasz Zamiara

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