My old "500"

Tonino · Jun 4, 2019

The battery: my intention was to redo every little detail of my old car based on my memory, but there are some things I just cannot remember. One of them is the battery. It was a component subject to be substituted so there wasn't really THE battery, the only and one to represent. So for this detail I turned again on the web and choose a model suitable for installation on a Fiat 500 even if this is not necessarily the one installed on my car when I drove it.

Anyway the basic, and somewhat implausible shape provided by Hachette, didn't seem appropriate to me

So I started cutting away the upper section (the body shape is, after all, acceptable) and replacing the "cap" with pieces of plasticard.

The most difficult part was to recover the cable connectors (that I liked) from the cutted section.

Once added the last details, battery is ready for painting

Drawn the various labels on computer and printed them on glossy self-adhesive plastic sheet, the new battery is ready for installation.

Revell-Fan · Jun 4, 2019

Are the squares on your cutting mat 1 x 1 cm or inch? I guess it is the first... How is it that your prints come out so sharp?

Tonino · Jun 4, 2019

Yes squares are 1x1 cm. I used an ordinary inkjet printer (HP Photosmart C4400) on a very good media (this one) printing at max resolution (I'm not really sure what real resolution is. The dialog box has only three setting: low normal and high).

Papa Mashy · Jun 4, 2019

WOW!
That is all.
Thanks for sharing and inspiring.

zathros · Jun 4, 2019

Tonino said:
The battery: my intention was to redo every little detail of my old car based on my memory, but there are some things I just cannot remember. One of them is the battery. It was a component subject to be substituted so there wasn't really THE battery, the only and one to represent. So for this detail I turned again on the web and choose a model suitable for installation on a Fiat 500 even if this is not necessarily the one installed on my car when I drove it.

Anyway the basic, and somewhat implausible shape provided by Hachette, didn't seem appropriate to me
View attachment 172078

So I started cutting away the upper section (the body shape is, after all, acceptable) and replacing the "cap" with pieces of plasticard.

View attachment 172079 View attachment 172080

The most difficult part was to recover the cable connectors (that I liked) from the cutted section.

View attachment 172081

Once added the last details, battery is ready for painting

View attachment 172082

Drawn the various labels on computer and printed them on glossy self-adhesive plastic sheet, the new battery is ready for installation.

View attachment 172083

Geeze! That battery is awesome!!

Tonino · Aug 14, 2019

An update in this long-term project (still waiting to have all parts in hand... now at 90%)

This time I made some sewing... I'm not a tailor but have some friends...

My old 500 had an ugly set of red seat covers. Since my objective is to add as much details as I'm able to remember I couldn't avoid this.

I started with some prototypes measured directly over the seats.

A first "dress fitting"

After some corrections I realized a real paper pattern (it's available if someone of you would like to test it on another 1:7 model car)

The squares was traced directly on the fabric with an ink pen

Here comes the friend: I cannot sew with good results (see photos above) so I asked to my colleague Marisa (she is very clever with needle and thread) some help. The result was truly remarkable.

In some spots I helped myself with double sided adhesive tape to keep fabric in place without folds

Anterior seat covers was held in place by elastic bands and I reproduced also this detail.

...and this is the result

Absolutely similar to the original. I'm very pleased with my seats.

See you soon!

T.

xaero892 · Aug 14, 2019

That is amazing @Tonino. You're doing a fantastic job on this. The seat covers look brilliant (kudos to Marisa) and that radio is absolutely mind blowing. :Bravo:

zathros · Aug 14, 2019

Your adding some excellent touches to this model. At that scale, they will really show, and make your model unique.. Very nice!! :Bravo:

Rhaven Blaack · Aug 14, 2019

You are really taking this model to a whole new level!!!

Revell-Fan · Aug 15, 2019

Absolutely fabulous!

Thank you for re-uploading the pictures. I have deleted the orphaned links, now everything looks smooth and clean again.

Tonino · Aug 15, 2019

Revell-Fan said:
Absolutely fabulous! Thank you for re-uploading the pictures. I have deleted the orphaned links, now everything looks smooth and clean again.

Thanks RF! It will be a long and tedious work to restore every image in all old threads but, a little bit at a time, it needs to be done. We have here a big treasure to preserve and I feel it's my duty, as a thread owner, to restore all the contents I still have on my disks for the people to come. Thanks to your precious advices the task is easier than expected so... Like you said in a recent post, there's no hurry, available time is little, other people need our presence in the world out there, but, with some patience, we are going to have back ALL our Zealot as before... No... not AS before... Much BETTER than before!

Revell-Fan · Aug 15, 2019

That's the spirit, mate! I know how much work it is; I still have to tackle many of my older threads, too. I'd love to see the Shuttle thread restored - and this time I will save everything immediately!!!

Tonino · Aug 10, 2020

Hi all my friends... COVID lockdown didn't raise the time to work on my model, au contraire... as I work in hospital (precisely in our hospital clinical lab) I was VERY busy doing COVID tests instead of being locked in my house building my 500 during last months.
Anyway I wasn't stopped at all, I realized several little details but I hadn't the time for share my progress here with you.
Here is some news from my desk covering the work done since my last building update.

This is a perfect copy of the original San Marino registration document directly from 80's

And those are the insurance and tax labels on the windscreen.

This is the driver external rear mirror (that was not provided by model manufacturer)

This is the tool box (a really nice detail, I remember very well the original one)

...the jack, detailed and wheatered...

Rhaven Blaack · Aug 10, 2020

OUTSTANDING WORK and CRAFTSMANSHIP!!!

Tonino · Aug 10, 2020

The tension regulator, a detail for the engine hood that was not provided at all.

And the keys! This is a real madness... I reproduced the exact details on every key taking the drawings from the original FIAT user's manual and printing on transparent autoadhesive plastic foil.

Now it's the time to start thinking to paint the car in the real color it was mine: dark blue.

Paint the metallic chassis was a real nightmare (it's a strange metal alloy that doesn't retain any kind of paint. I had to try several different primers before finding one who doesn't fall away from the metal at any little touch).

Now the car is going to look like the real one every day a little more...

Still to be polished...

Tonino · Aug 10, 2020

One thing I would like to point is that many of the skills I've learned from cardmodeling now are translated in plastic and make a great result... Paper rules!!!

mijob · Aug 10, 2020

Cant find any word this is really next level :bowdown:

zathros · Aug 11, 2020

Tonino said:
Hi all my friends... COVID lockdown didn't raise the time to work on my model, au contraire... as I work in hospital (precisely in our hospital clinical lab) I was VERY busy doing COVID tests instead of being locked in my house building my 500 during last months.
Anyway I wasn't stopped at all, I realized several little details but I hadn't the time for share my progress here with you.
Here is some news from my desk covering the work done since my last building update.

View attachment 187173 View attachment 187174
This is a perfect copy of the original San Marino registration document directly from 80's

View attachment 187175
And those are the insurance and tax labels on the windscreen.

View attachment 187176 View attachment 187177 View attachment 187179 View attachment 187178
This is the driver external rear mirror (that was not provided by model manufacturer)

View attachment 187180
This is the tool box (a really nice detail, I remember very well the original one)

View attachment 187181
View attachment 187182

...the jack, detailed and wheatered...

I have 4 of those exact jacks, also two Mercedes Benz versions. A great way to lift a car fully in the air. My M.G. Midget is 50/50 balanced on the jack points. I had the car in the air for 6 months, just to see if anything would bend, fortunately nothing did. Didn't have the same luck on my 450Sl, the jack hole mount was rusted one one side, on the inner frame (of the outer rail).

Tonino · Feb 20, 2022

Here I am again! After a long pause in my reports the work continued, slowly, very slowly, but now it's done, and, in my opinion, this is the most complex building I've done so far. I put in to it all my love for the original car and the result is great...
But I have to make a step back and restart from the point where my thread stopped... in the far august 2020 BC (before COVID).

Last photos were the chassis. The big challenge that followed was ... the engine! A real model into the model...

Here are some of the steps...

THE ENGINE: