Fiat 508 "Balilla"

[Tonino]

A mutual friend of ours (guess who...?) sent me a beautiful Christmas present... a long-lost cardmodel of an old italian car that was very popular in the years between 1932 and 1937 (when production ceased), the Fiat 508, best known here as "Balilla".

He didn't know that this car has a special meaning for me as it is one of the first cars my father ever drove.
I'm still looking for a photo (that I remember to have seen somewhere in my old house) depicting this particular car, because, obviously, I want to build my model as close as possible to the original one.

As the textures was pretty "basic" I decided to start reworking all the graphics of the original model to personalize it to my purposes. I traced all the shapes in CorelDraw and now I'm repainting and detailing everything prior to start the build.


Here are my works in progress:

The upper details show the original graphics, the lower ones my repaint.


Colors and details are not definitive as I'm still doing researches in my "archives" and on the web.
Soon I'll be ready to print the customized templates....

 

[DanBKing]

I have a feeling this is gonna be a goooooood thread .........

 

[zathros]

I am looking forward to seeing you build this. Who would have known you have such a connection!

 

[Tonino]

You know: I have many friends in high places!

 

[zathros]

I love the recoloring you did. You brought it to life!!

 

[Tonino]

And wait to see this one!!!

I love dashboards, instruments gauges and all the stuff like this. Usually I put the the great part of my effort in models I build to realize the cockpit (or driving place or whatever else according to the kind of model I'm making).
So today I played a lot with this single detail of the car. It would be barely visible at the end but I enjoyed a lot drawing it

This was the original dashboard


This is my revised dashboard.


And this is the real one.


The main element of the dashboard deserves special attention.


And so I carefully redraw every little bit of the original.
Just in cas someone would like to upscale the model in 1:1!

Another piece I'm very proud of is the radiator grille


This is the original texture


An this is mine.

I cannot wait to put my scissors on this...!

 

[DanBKing]

Bloody fantastic!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

This looks like a really good project.
I am looking forward to seeing how it will turn out!

 

[Tonino]

FOUND THEM!
I knew they had to be there, somewhere.
Here are the photos taken on the original family car.


The two on the car are my aunts.




This is interesting. The white strips on fenders and engine hood, as well as the headlights covers, were imposed during war time.
I can imagine the headlight covers was intended to be less visible from aicraft at night, but I cannot figure the reason for painting white all car edges...

 

[Tonino]

Digital work is almost complete. Some tweak still to do here and there but the great part is done.
Printer test OK.
Now I can start with the actual build.
It will be mainly a "test fit run" because I traced all the parts over a scan and I'm not sure all will fit at the first try.
I took many measurements to be sure all the pieces are perfectly in scale but, you know, you can never say it's all OK until you see it in use...
And probably, as for the Klipstein's law "Tolerances will accumulate unidirectionally toward maximum difficulty of assembly." (Murphy's law - Arthur Bloch - 1988)...

 

[zathros]

The white lines break the edges of the vehicle from light shining, making the outline very difficult to see. It kind of worked, though not that well. Many techniques to change the outline of ships and vehicles were tried, at speed, if you can confuse a pilot for 5 seconds, he's already flown past you, and you've escaped!

That gauge is absolutely beautiful. I loves gauges like that, one look and you know what's going on. Must have been one helluva project to fix! Probably worth a fortune if found. You have made this models yours by retexturing it. This much work makes it a new model. The overall shape does not matter much as that is derivative of the real vehicle, what you have done with that shape, makes this the "Balilla", by "Tonino". Having those family pictures is priceless!! I did't know why your name popped into my head when I found this, now I do. Strange, eh?

 

[DanBKing]

To have a history behind your motivation for this build, makes it very special.
This will be a model you will cherish.

 

[Revell-Fan]

Holy - this is fantastic! Your enhancements will surely bring this model to a new level.

 

[zathros]

Actually, his changes incorporate by percentage a new model. This model is by Tonino now. It's not just a repaint by a complete redo of the details, and is enhanced far more that the original. Almost all paper models are made from some one else's work or a group of people's work. When you tke a model and bring it to a new level of authenticity, it would by the height of hypocrisy for someone to say, "Hey, I made a (i.e.) "A Piper Cub before you did, and you made one in the same scale, and the parts look the same!". Well no kidding, There are models where people change parts because one company makes a more detailed part, and the wing will fit right into the fuselage. If you write an original story, make up new vehicles and such, and there are a few people on this forum that fall into that category, then you have original work, and everything changes. Otherwise, the work is derivative. The U.S. government cannot tax a U.S. citizen for making a model of anything used in the military because our taxes paid for it. That does not hold for non U.S. citizens though I can't imagine the U.S. stomping on such a great propaganda tool. (Then again?)

 

[Tonino]

Thanks Zathros for your appreciation, it has a great value to me.
Anyway I had already decided that this model, when completed and completely test-built and after any fix it would prove to be necessary, will be shared in Resource center to became a Zealot-exclusive heritage!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

I really like this model and I especially like what all you are doing with it!
Once it is ready (and I have the time), I will look at making it!
I do have one question though. Will you have it (the chassis) available in other colours (like black or grey)?

 

[bgt01]

This is great work! You know me, I love a good re-do!

 

[Tonino]

Will you have it (the chassis) available in other colours (like black or grey)?

When I decided to realize my old family car I didn't had find the photo yet so I had to arbitrarily decide how to color the car. I've seen many photo of restored Balillas and liked most one of the classic liveries: black fenders and a particular brownish red - called in italian "amaranto" - for the main body. Then I found the photo and seen the car should be all black (as many of them was originally produced). I decided to leave my car this red instead of black because I like it more so. Now, as it's only a matter of minutes changing the filling of the involved parts, I think I will draw at least an all-black version. Any other request can be considered though. Just ask how you would like your one!

You know me, I love a good re-do!

yes! definitely! Even if, sometimes, I think it could be even faster to start over from scratch... But where would be the enjoying?

 

[zathros]

A white version would be nice, just of the body though, so making a custom paint job would be possible. super custom paint job on. I love these little cars. They came in so many flavors. The red one below is in Enzo Ferrari's personal museum. I would love to have any of these as daily drivers. There are so many engines you could put into them to bring them up to modern standards, and make them safe, 100 mph cars (Top End) cars. Which means basically, a highway capable car, and living in a state where there are barely any roads that exceed 35 mph in limit, this car would fit right it. On some of the roads around me, there are very few cars that could go 35 mph through those roads, especially as you have no idea what's on the other end of the curve, many blind turns.

I think the "Copa_de"Oro" could be made from your model (second picture, blue car). If you get into a fit issue, let me know, and I will trace the models in a CAD program. I should have done that first for you, I did not know what software you had, sorry!

The fastback custom job is a beauty!!! The last picture shows what we call a "boat tail" rear end, for the body work, as it looks like the bow of a boat upside down, this fits this car perfectly. It must be worth a fortune! Click on the thumbnail, the picture is huge!

 

[Tonino]

Wow! They all are very nice variations on the theme! If I only had the time to learn a little more 3D editing... Here I only did a repaint work to existing parts, but tracing all new shapes would need a 3D model to work on.
If you can pick up 2D traced pieces and recreate the structure of this model, starting on the unfolded parts and doing the reverse work on the cardmodel making process, perhaps we can easily realize all the variations with little work.