Hi everyone! I am new to this forum so please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dave and I live in the beautiful Seattle, Washington. I’ve been making models for 30+ years, since I was 7-8 years old. For many years I’ve been assembling plastic models, mostly aircraft, ships, a few tanks and HO scale houses. Growing up in the former USSR didn’t give me too many options; there were maybe three dozen various domestically produced models with very few imports, mostly from Eastern Germany.

I emigrated to the USA as a teenager in the late 1980s when USSR had started to fall apart… a timely move on the part of my family. I continued building models while finishing up high school and then after college. After getting married and having two kids I had to take a break from modeling and for many years haven’t really done much. When the kids grew up a bit and I had more time (and space), I did build a few multimedia (mostly wood/metal) dioramas: a British sailing ship’s gun deck, a Spanish sailboat workshop, and an English 1960s farm house with an illegal moonshine still (my largest model by far, abt. 2.5 x 2 x 1.5 feet), I’ll try to post some pics later. I also build several older Pocher models and a Tamiya’s Super Seven Caterham, all later sold to collector.

I’ve discovered DeAgostini Model Space and partworks in general just about a year ago and fell in love with the quality of models (and being able to buy them in installments is also very nice!). I am currently building the three bikes (Suzuki Hayabusa, HD Fat Boy & Honda CB750) and just started on Wolf’s Lamborghini Countach a couple of months ago).

In this thread I will do my best to show my progress on this superb model.

Stage 02. The hood (bonnet to our British friends) was perfect, no scratches, so I just gave it a quick polish with carnauba wax compound.

The tire is superbly cast! After cleaning them thoroughly with soap & water using an old toothbrush I gave a spray of ArmorAll Extreme Tire Shine and buffed it with a lint-free cloth. Now it looks like it just came out of a detailing shop!

Pack 02.

Stage 04. It was quite straightforward, no special detailing. I did dip fog lamp lenses in Johnson Wax Pledge Floor Care Multi Surface Finish (formerly Future Floor Polish) and let them air dry for 24 hours. The self-leveling coating imparted by this amazing product so beloved by model builders make them look more glass-like.

Stage 05. Same treatment of tire as it Stage 02.

Stage 06. Front spoiler - straightforward assembly, no special detailing.

Stage 07. A/C compressor - straightforward assembly, no special detailing.

Pack 03.

Stage 08. Engine assembly continues apace and it’s looking very nice. I used gold & silver paint to touch up bolts & screws on the carburetor casings to make them match engine pictures (p. 53).

Stage 09. As can be seen on the engine picture on p. 53 (and on p. 19 of the very first instruction booklet) there are some details missing from the model. Here’s what I added.

(1) Using a mini drill bit (diameter 0.8 mm ~ 1/32 in) I drilled six holes in each high-tension leads end block (the brown plastic part), two holes on the front surface and four holes behind each of the four “leads” coming out of the read part of the end block. Then I superglued tiny (abt. 2 mm ~ 1/12 in long) slotted screws from the set I purchased on Amazon (they are so tiny they come in a little plastic thimble, and I lost a couple in the process but fortunately there were plenty spares). Now the end blocks look like the real thing!

(2) I used a thin (00) paint brush and flat black paint to simulate rubber gasket by painting the raised ridge of distributor part B (x 2).

(3) I got rid of all the rubber rings on the high-tension leads and replaced them with rubber grommets 6 mm ~ 1/4 in diameter (a pack of 100 purchased for $10 from http://www.mscdirect.com/, MSC item No. 32828097). They perfectly match HT lead rubber holders as pictured. I also bought a pack of sub miniature Panduit cable ties PLT.6SM-C0 (pack of 100 for $15 from Allied Electronics http://www.alliedelec.co...it-plt-6sm-c0/70043833/). They are very closer in scale to the actual zip ties used in the real car.

(4) The white rings in the HT leads (probably with lead numbers) I’ve cut from a de-cored white iPhone charging cable (abt. $6 on Amazon); once you remove the wire core, you can cut off 2 mm (~1/12 in) wide rings using a sharp X-Acto blade. I think you will need 15 such rings (and make some spares as they are easy to lose).

(5) The red-colored HT lead wrappers were cut from a de-cored red-colored iPhone charging cable, also abt. $6 on Amazon or in electronics stores. I had to experiment with lengths to fit the model’s engine to match pictures. I think I used 9 such pieces of varied length, from abt. 15 mm (2/3 in) to abt. 30 mm (1 1/5 in).

(6) Six rubber gaskets attaching HT lead bundles to camshaft cover bolts were attached to the bolts by abt. 25 mm (1 in) long pieces of flattened (with a file) copper wire extracted from a thin insulated phone wire. I created small loops on one end, superglued the loop under the silver-colored bolts on the camshaft covers, and then bend them (using needle-nose pliers) to fit in the grooves of rubber gaskets. Very finicky work, particularly when fitting six HT leads through the first gaskets as the fit was very tight. I had to watch engine pictures carefully to properly place white rings, zip ties, rubber gaskets and red wrappers on the HT leads.

(7) The protruding parts of camshaft covers are being held in place by small back metal squares with a nut & bolt (see p. 53, near the left HT lead bundle where it touches the camshaft covers). I used two small rectangular metal contacts (with pre-drilled holes which I had to expand just a bit using a round jeweler’s file) from a disassembled old kid’s rotary toothbrush and painted them black. I inserted into the holes spare bracket bolts from stage 06 and superglued these assemblies in place on the two leftmost and two rightmost camshaft covers, in proper places as per pictures.

8) A long bent bracket attaching to the first inside bolt of the left middle camshaft cover was made from an elongated contact from the same toothbrush; I drilled a small hole in one end to fit the simulated bolt head and painted the bracket black. Then superglued it to the camshaft cover and inserted the bolt head.

After a couple of hours of painstaking work the top part of the engine has now taken shape, and the results are quite a bit better than stock assembly!

I’ll be happy to answer any questions if you’d like to replicate these results.

Stage 10. Assembled and attached A/C compressor. The top part of the engine is now complete!

Welcome to the forum Dave

You've certainly picked a fantastic model and looks like you've got off to a great start loving all the mods you are doing, look forward to seeing more

Lovely build and some very nice mods, keep it coming!

Steve

That engine looks stunning, .

Great work and congratulations on your "Blue Medal".

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

With little time remaining before the holidays and all attendant family events, Pack 04 arrived just in time.

Stage 11. I used the wiring diagram and pictures of the actual engine to complete HT lead placement, along with micro zip ties, 1/8” rubber gaskets and pieces of white & red de-cored iPhone charging cables. Blow-by gas hoses A, B & C, although quite flexible, had a very plasticky shine and feel, so painted them with a couple of layers of black-colored Performix Brand Plasti-Dip Multipurpose Rubber Coating (abt. $6 for an 11 oz spray can at a local home improvement store). It can be sprayed on or painted on using a soft brush. It dries very fast and gives a real rubber feel and dull look to the parts (can’t see it too well in pictures). I was thinking about using actual 1/8” rubber hoses but couldn’t find any small pieces, only came in large and fairly expensive rolls. But the hoses do look almost as good with the rubber coating. I also added photoetched hose clamps by Autograph (just received a set purchased in eBay) with miniature screws, and the end results looks really good!

Stage 12. Straightforward alternator assembly with no modifications. Now comes the hard part – throttle linkage installation.

The central T-shaped part is painted gold for some reason although all engine pictures of WW’s Countach show that it’s black, so I gave mine a go-over with fine grit sandpaper and painted I with a couple of layers of semi-gloss black by Tamiya.

I also attached Autograph hose clamps (of somewhat smaller width than for blow-back hoses) with 1/6” screws. Slow and painful work, took me more than two hours to install 10 clamps but they do add that extra touch of realism!

Carefully installed the linkage, fortunately nothing broke! The top part of the engine is now complete and looks very good, if I may say so myself 

Nice work Dave, happy holidays to you today