[Nuvolare]

Hallo,
Here's my new project a 1:32 Alfa Romeo P2 1924 driven by Antonio Ascari.
I've started with a resin body, ninco gear and state of the art rims provided by Peter Sussex, where I want to thank him for his advice and supply.
I've just finished the chassis made of brass and I hat to alter Peter's front rims a bit, by building ball bearings into them, because I could not use a strait axle, as you can see why on the photo of the real thing.
I still have to alter the resin body a bit because there are some details that could do better.
Anyway this is what the project looks like at the moment:

 

[zagato]

Splendid!

Graham.

 

[Ecurie Martini]

Great start - whose body casting? - Also - have you checked the front track against the prototype specifications? - Looks a little wide to me.

EM

 

[ferraif40]

Looks like a great start, whats the plan for the front grile?

 

[Slotrace.dk]

Will the guide be behind the front axle?

 

[Bigblock]

great project .

One P2 was issued a few years ago by Pierre Yves Lebeau , with aresin body too . Impossible to find one today ....

 

[PeterSussex]

This body I would guess is one from a French chap, Jerome, who sells on eBay at various times.

Here's a listing.

http://buyeng.ebay.com.hk/buying/hk/displa...resin-body-kit-

Yes, a lot of work to do.

This is Pierre Yves' car on Mark Gussins site.

http://home.freeuk.net/mgussin/Pierre-yves/Pierre-yves.htm

..and here's a real one at Goodwood last year.

Track should be about 51.5" which should be about 41mm.

I did wonder about ball bearings at the front, there is a good 3.5mm width to accomodate a bearing. I was going to go for a large diameter one to reduce the play. I'll wait to see now though!

I look forward to watching the thread.

Peter

 

[Nuvolare]

@Ecurie Martini: there's a French guy who sells them on E-bay. I got the impression that he sells one every month together with some other special models.
And indeed it looks and it is slightly wider than it should bee

but it's very difficult to bent pipe in such a small scale where every millimeter counts. I hope to find a better solution, tips are always welcome.
@ferraif40: for the front grill, I've got a real scratchbuilt solution, something the British really are going to love "tea bags". Most bags are cotton like, these are suitable for imitation of asbestos insulation you sometimes find around exhaust pipes. But there are also tea bags made of very fine netting (LIPTON) ideal to imitate radiator grills. And because tea backs are made from nylon or polyester you can use them first to make your tea, it will not be affected by heat or discoloration. So you got a full win win recycling item. I love scratchbuilding

cheers
@Slotrace.dk: The guide will be with it's front right under axle

Original Alfa P2

PS @peter: the ball bearings are alreaddy build in and the space between the to rims is at the moment 37mm, so I think it's not so bad. Thanks for the photo this is a vieuw that I was looking for.

 

[SplitRim]

Wonderful this promises to be an instructive project!

 

[conti_rowland]

I really like how you think through your solutions - keep it up!

 

[Nuvolare]

Progress on the Alfa P2...
While waiting for the tires to arrive, I've done very little to the chassis. The only thing I've done is detailing the front Axel bit, by imitating the spring and the steering part.
What really got my attention was the exhaust. I've build it with molding sprue from plastic models you normally throw away. Good tip, never throw them away. You can heat them up to bend, stretch and sculpted all sorts of things. As I mentioned before, I used an old tea bag to imitate insulation around the exhaust pipe on the place where the drivers get in, as seen on the real thing.

What also is undergoing my intention, is the resin body. There are a number of things that I'm not pleased with. Like over riveting and air bubbles in the cast. These are filed with putty from Tamiya, left to dry and sanded smooth with water sanding paper first nr.600 and than nr.1200. It's very important that you use water sanding paper and water to get it smooth. Sometimes the procedure has to be repeated to get it perfect.

I've also done some Milling by hand such as the slit where the exhaust gets in to the body, and sculpting the dashboard and seats.

I'm also not pleased with the louvres and I'm going probably to mill them away and scratch build my own. I've got some good tips from MAF, thanks for that.
I'm also looking ahead for the colour, I bought some Humbrol Nr. 19 Gloss Bright red but din't test it yet.
Has somebody got experience with this color for Alfa? What's you advice on this?
Anyway this is what the model looks like at the moment

 

[Spa67]

I'm enjoying this build. Great to see the progress.

 

[PeterSussex]

Hi Danny.

I would guess that the colours are pretty open unless a nice sample of original Alfa red exists.

The No. 19 in my opinion is a bit bright, I have the No. 220 Ferrari red on order, but also think this is a bit bright? I'll let you know when it comes.

The front axle looks good, indeed it all looks good!

Keep it up, Peter

 

[David Lawson]

This a very interesting thread and I'm enjoying watching the progress of the car. I love some of the scrap materials you use.

David

 

[ClubSpecial]

I believe Alfas, like Masers were a blood red.

Martin

 

[PeterSussex]

Ah, but do you mean the blood when you simply cut your finger, or the blood when you injure yourself properly, deep red.

Peter

 

[Nuvolare]

A fruitful day in scratch building the Alfa P2...
Today I cut out the old louvre and replaced them with ones I self made with Epoxy Putty.
Yesterday I took a plastic sheet, you have to make sure that the epoxy putty don't bond with it. Than I cut out 2 strips of +/- 5mm from a lead sheet 1mm think, the ones you can but in a DIY store for fixing the roof. Put double sticking tape to the lead strip and stick it on the plastic sheet, making a track with the 2 lead strips, with an inner space of +/- 2cm. Than mix your putty well and make a role with it. Press this role between the 2 lead tracks make the surface a little bit wet and role it nice flat with a old wine bottle. Than I took a lid of a bottle that has got a louvre pattern, and press in a rolling movement, the pattern into the Putty and leave it to dry. A good tip, if your louvre needs to be with a rounding, you can put your plastic sheet in that form and let the putty dry that way.

After the hole was cut out in the resin body and the dry epoxy putty cut out to fit, it was glued in with supper glue ad the remaining gaps filled up with Tamiya putty. The Tamiya putty is thinned with a Special thinner so it really can run into the gaps.
Next step was to engrave some missing lines into the body. Again I use lead strips to do this, they act as a ruler to make strait lines in form of the body.

And last step of the day, is to make the radiator. Here fore I took an old tea bag, not a cotton one but one wit a small netting structure, cut it into shape and glued it on.
Next thing I did is, take some old sprue moulding from a plastic model hat it up with a torch and when its soft enough stretch it to make a thin line. Than you shape it an glue it to the body. Finely fill the gaps up with again thinned Tamiya putty.
And this is the final result for the day...

 

[Datto]

Nice work! How easy or hard is it to engrave into the resin?

 

[Nuvolare]

@ Dato: Resin is quite soft, so very easy to engrave.

Alfa P2 is finished...
This morning I've finished the P2. I made some tutorial photo's how I made my Antonio ascari figure for the car.
I started with a Tamiya soldier figure, re cut it to fit and shaping missing parts with putty:

Than I airbrushed it black with Humbrol 33 Matt black, this is the base primer to work on.

Next thing to do, take some art acrylic paint and shortcut paint brushes.
Start to build up the colors layer on layer by dry brushing. The idea is to leave the folds dark and the highlights bright.

Finally you accent the buckles and goggles, imitate inscription, in my case they had Alfa Romeo written on there clothes. It mustn't be readable but you should get the feeling that it's there.
And finely put it into the car.

And finely the car got all it's accessory's like motor hood belts, lids, front window and decals. All these accessories where scratch build from materials we trow away everyday.
The chassis and instruments:

And finely the finished model:

I hope You've enjoyed the making of the P2 as much as I have, with special thanks to Jérôme for the body and Peter Sussex for the rims and all the people who gave advice on the topic about figures.

Cheers,
Danny

 

[zagato]

And very nice too!

G.