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firefoxussr

M04L Lancia Rally aka Abarth 037

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As many of you have guessed, I'm a lover of all things Lancia.   I've owned two Lancias.  In high school I had a Lancia Beta Coupe *cue rust jokes*.  And during college I bought and drove a Lancia Scorpion aka Montecarlo.   The Coupe was fun, and I still tell the story about its rust nearly causing an accident.  The Montecarlo was my true love, still to date my favorite car owned.   I drove it for nearly a decade, eventually selling it as I needed air conditioning and it needed a proper repainting.   I've been in love with all things Montecarlo since I saw the Lancia Rally stradale in the Bayless Fiat-Lancia parts catalog.  From that I'd read many articles about the car.  So as a Lancia fan, it's odd to say but the Stratos always comes second in my mind in spite of its accomplishments. I've owned more than a few 1/43 scale 037s, a few 1/24 scale Hasegawa, a pair of 1/24 Polisil models, and a 1/18th Kyosho.  But the Tamiya 037 is the most interesting.  Plus you can actually use it.
blessing_garage_6-15.jpg
My family was huge into Fiats and Lancia.  Still is to a degree.  Clockwise from bottom left: My 1976 Lancia Scorpion,  Fiat 124 Coupe, my father's 77 Scorpion, 81 Beta Zagato (Spider),  '80 Fiat 124 Spider ITB racecar, and another 124 Spider project car.
scorpawcfta.jpg


 

So for me getting into RC in early 2013, it was quite timely that Tamiya should re-release the body in 2014.  Unfortunately there is a bit of hunting required to piece together a working car.   I did buy a TA03R, bought the new production belt from Germany and a R-S tub, built it... crashed it (minus bodyshell), rebuilt it.  Then it annoyed me that the axles were always a little too wide in front.  And the belt kept falling off on the back.   The decision was made that I would sell the TA03R-S with the 911 GT1 shell I had that was useless because it was already cut... making duplication a daunting task.  
YoI7Eb9.jpg
Then came the TA05.  Originally you guessed it, it was for the Lancia 037 shell.  Using the Porsche 911 GT2 body re-release instructions, I shortened the chassis.   Again... front track way too wide even with extra thin hexes.
AzEdn51.jpg


If you've read this far, I think you know why I've decided on an M04 as the basis for this project.   Additionally the supplied 037 wheels are simply too large in diameter for the body.   This isn't surprising.  Bearing in mind the body was originally designed for the ORV then redesigned to fit the TA03R-S.   The reality is I'm grateful Tamiya made the re-releases.  I now own enough bodies bought at a reasonable enough price, that I don't have to treat all of them as shelf queens.

More to follow :-D

The more you know factoid: Lancia Rally was the car's official designation.   The 037 portion is an Abarth project number.   And yes, the Group B  Lancia Delta S4 is the Abarth 038.

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Recommendations anyone for a good filling material for this type of body?  

Assuming I use some sort of putty or body filler and back it with fiberglass.  

I want to eliminate the body post holes, I will be doing stealth-mounts for this car.

 

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I used this on my Sand Scorcher to fill in the sunroof and front nose cone.

1967D566-C4B3-436F-8E81-DC7F0EE7E33D_zps

very good to use and easy to work with. Not sure if it is available worldwide though 

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12 hours ago, firefoxussr said:

Recommendations anyone for a good filling material for this type of body?  

Assuming I use some sort of putty or body filler and back it with fiberglass.  

I want to eliminate the body post holes, I will be doing stealth-mounts for this car.

some pro model lees swear by Bondo red & there's dozens of modelkit brandname filler putty for styrene modeling... but I hate any 1-tube type, they've always kept shrinking long after - even when I wait weeks before painting, dimples still appear where postholes were :( I only go for 2-part putty these days, Milliput is most commonly found.

I'd avoid fibreglassing... no guarantee it'll stick to styrene, the glassing might get hot enough to warp styrene

if you've got plenty of time & and want to DO IT RIGHT go buy some sheet styrene. Get some thin sheets, weld (=styrene cement) patches to the underside... welding is not glueing, it becomes one with the body. 

Measure how thick the body is at the holes then buy some sheet styrene closest in thickness... carefully trace & cut out little ovals size of the holes, when they're a perfect fit weld those in onto the patches. The better you craft these, the less filler you need afterwards.

As you're not adding a different material to the styrene, it'll also fill/sand/work the same as rest of body... real PITA when your glue or different plastic is different in hardness to the styrene you've glued it into, I find it impossible to sand everything smooth afterwards.

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Thank you for the insight everyone!   I am very excited to post my progress in this build B)

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Thanks @VagabondStarJXF for the work on the wheel design, the revisions, and generally believing in my idea. 

pdfkLg2.jpg

The rims will be painted silver when finished.  They are so beautiful in any color really.  

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21 minutes ago, firefoxussr said:

Thanks @VagabondStarJXF for the work on the wheel design, the revisions, and generally believing in my idea.  

You're Welcome!

 

21 minutes ago, firefoxussr said:

IMG_20170418_172224798_zpsutw88dge.jpg

The rims will be painted silver when finished.  They are so beautiful in any color really.  

Wow. These wheels turned out really great too! I can't wait to see how the whole project turns out. Seeing your Stratos and now this... Makes me think about doing one of each for myself too. Good job! (Now if only I could find a cheap 037 body set! :D )

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On 4/18/2017 at 6:07 PM, VagabondStarJXF said:

You're Welcome!
Wow. These wheels turned out really great too! I can't wait to see how the whole project turns out. Seeing your Stratos and now this... Makes me think about doing one of each for myself too. Good job! (Now if only I could find a cheap 037 body set! :D )

:-D

 

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Yes, following this one keenly!

I love my ORV Lancia Rally, but have always wondered what it would be like to own and drive the more scale-looking re-release. The experience might have had me looking towards a solution like this...

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On 5/12/2017 at 8:18 AM, VagabondStarJXF said:

How goes your Lancia 037 project?

Off project for now, focused on a push for my next pilot rating.

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Nearly two years later... my my has it been that long.  I have accomplished the pilot rating stated above.  It looks like the next one will go quite quickly as I just did the written exam this week :-D

As a reward to myself after some thought last week, i've decided to make this used shell a stradale car while I finish up the Totip decals for another sell (I have 5).  I may request @VagabondStarJXF allow me to put some of his custom vents/grilles/louvers.  But the primary thing for me is to remove the spoiler as I think the road car looks so much prettier without the spoiler.  I was just revisiting this thread for putty recommendations, as I removed a bit too much!!

xrOuQM1.jpg
 

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Congratulations! I am glad you are able to make the time for RC after your achievement :) Welcome back!

While there are no doubt more sophisticated recommendations, I see nothing wrong with the standard Tamiya White Modelling Putty - sands well and shrinks less than a few other putties I have tried, except for maybe Squadron Green Putty. Good luck!

Will you be considering a custom front or rear panel for the stradale? Though it would be difficult to sort out 1982 stradale lights...

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Congrats on your pilot rating!

4 hours ago, firefoxussr said:

I was just revisiting this thread for putty recommendations, as I removed a bit too much!!

I did the same thing when I removed the wing on mine. I also recommend the same as Grastens. Tamiya White Putty and Squadron Green Putty are both really good. Unfortunately for me, I didn't use either of them as much as I thought I would and both of my tubes went rock hard. Funny thing is that I bought the Squadron Green after my Tamiya White solidified. lol

Do you have a rotary tool/Dremel? You could do what I did on my 037 and get some styrene rod, put a 1.5" length in the chuck, set to the slowest speed you can, the use friction to 'weld' new material into place. There's also the styrene/ABS 'slurry' that you can make with bits of left over tree/sprues that has been left to 'melt' in some acetone or EMA Plastic Weld (which is the stuff I use). (EMA Plastic weld is Methylene Chloride so it might be available under different names.) The slurry can be made up to the desired viscosity and then can be applied like putty. It has the bonus of chemisally welding itself to the body shell. The only drawback is that it can dry out a bit too fast as you're working so excess stuff needs to be in a decently sealed container or you'll just end up having to use up loads of acetone or EMA to keep the slurry in a workable consistency.

4 hours ago, firefoxussr said:

I may request @VagabondStarJXF allow me to put some of his custom vents/grilles/louvers.

Those bits are actually on my 'To Redo' list. Whilst everything looked good upon arrival, fitting showed a few things that needed tweaking. This is pretty much the reason why my 037 project has stalled for almost a year. That, and the fact that my 3D printer isn't ready to print out anything in ABS yet. I really should get on and fix that! :D 

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1 hour ago, VagabondStarJXF said:

Congrats on your pilot rating!

Do you have a rotary tool/Dremel? You could do what I did on my 037 and get some styrene rod, put a 1.5" length in the chuck, set to the slowest speed you can, the use friction to 'weld' new material into place. There's also the styrene/ABS 'slurry' that you can make with bits of left over tree/sprues that has been left to 'melt' in some acetone or EMA Plastic Weld

Those bits are actually on my 'To Redo' list. Whilst everything looked good upon arrival, fitting showed a few things that needed tweaking. This is pretty much the reason why my 037 project has stalled for almost a year. That, and the fact that my 3D printer isn't ready to print out anything in ABS yet. I really should get on and fix that! :D 

Thank you!  I'm quite pleased. B)

I do have a dremel, I might use that method, it's only one side where some plastic snapped away that was unintentional.

And regarding the 3d pieces, how big was the tweak needed?  I'm considering drawing up a proper set of stradale-sized headlamps too.  I think it would be rather easy to fill in the cutout for the larger competition headlamps, the missing section of the front grille (where the extra headlamps attach), and the shutline for the cabin air intake with putty. 

Then all that is left is designing a front grille.   If I recall correctly; you designed a rear grille, rear lights, and the air exit grill on the front clamshell.   I suppose if we are really particular we could design some stradale wing mirrors and the foglamp/turn indicator.

Those are all of the differences in body panels between the stradale and competition car that come to mind.

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I'd like to see you do up a full Stradale version. Although it's not entirely the look I want for my project I think it'd be cool.

TBH I wasn't going for a full conversion with mine because I really wasn't keen on the front end of the Stradale. I'd decided to keep the Rally front end but put in a lot of the elements of the Stradale to make it more to my liking. To that end I'd done up some front vents for the bumper and I was in the middle of filling in the remaining space before the project stalled. The next step would've been cutting off the rally indicators/fog lights and the 'hole' that's right next to them, then fill those so that they're flat, then cut out the space for the Stradale style indicators and fogs. The front grille... I made the mistake of cutting out the back before I 'completed' the shape of the brightwork so I ended up having to cut everything out from there. That meant I needed to redraw the whole lot.

I hate to admit it but pretty much all the parts I'd had printed ended up needing a rework of some sort. Everything I'd had printed out of the High Detail Resin has cracked or broken completely. Only the SLS Nylon stuff seems to have held but then they're not quite 'right' and also need a bit of reworking. I also didn't like having to use CA glue to fix the Nylon parts to the bodyshell but that's my personal preference, I don't like using CA glue in general but that's all I had at the time that would hold the two different types of plastic together.

I didn't like the Stradale wing mirrors in the beginning but they're kinda growing on me so I might need a set of those. Aside from that I can't think of any other bits. Anyways, now that I've gotten a bit of practice on Fusion 360, I'm hoping that I'll be able to redo all the bits I'd done before to correct all the little bits that weren't quite right with all those print offs. It's an expensive way to learn, printing stuff via Shapeways to not be happy and have to redo everything, but it is what it is, isn't it?

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21 hours ago, firefoxussr said:

Nearly two years later... my my has it been that long.  I have accomplished the pilot rating stated above.  It looks like the next one will go quite quickly as I just did the written exam this week :-D

As a reward to myself after some thought last week, i've decided to make this used shell a stradale car while I finish up the Totip decals for another sell (I have 5).  I may request @VagabondStarJXF allow me to put some of his custom vents/grilles/louvers.  But the primary thing for me is to remove the spoiler as I think the road car looks so much prettier without the spoiler.  I was just revisiting this thread for putty recommendations, as I removed a bit too much!!

xrOuQM1.jpg
 

If you are happy to hack shells about a bit, there are other options. Just saying.

34594413_LanciaBetaMonecarloGr5.thumb.jpg.feb58c954de1c31b1f84d4efe443247a.jpg

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I'll be following this build! 

Is your user name a reference to the Clint Eastwood movie?

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On 2/13/2019 at 6:25 AM, Yalson said:

If you are happy to hack shells about a bit, there are other options. Just saying.

34594413_LanciaBetaMonecarloGr5.thumb.jpg.feb58c954de1c31b1f84d4efe443247a.jpg

Hmm... modifying one of my 037s to be this Montecarlo Turbo.  the Killerbody shell released a couple years ago is disappointing as all of the proportions are noticeably off.   I think at some point the Montecarlo Turbo is too panel different to the 037, I have followed a thread of a very carefully designed-in-CAD Montecarlo in 1/12th scale.  Perhaps with some sweet talking they would allow me to use their CAD files and create a 1/10th version.  

lancia_158.jpg

https://www.mezzo-mix-models.de/gallery-bilder/lancia-beta-montecarlo-turbo-gr-5-in-1-12-scale/

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1144511&page=3


 

 

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On 2/14/2019 at 12:21 PM, 78Triumph said:

I'll be following this build! 

Is your user name a reference to the Clint Eastwood movie?

Thanks!  & Ha you are the second person in two weeks to pick up on that, a fellow pilot on Reddit put worked it out too.   This is after years of telling people... no not the browser.  I use Chrome anyway.

I'm a huge fan of the Firefox 'MiG-31' from the film.  One of my RC builds will be a scratchbuilt flying EDF model.  And if I have the money, time and inclination a twin turbine version too.... someday.

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On 2/12/2019 at 5:01 PM, VagabondStarJXF said:

 It's an expensive way to learn, printing stuff via Shapeways to not be happy and have to redo everything, but it is what it is, isn't it?

Worth every penny.  As stated both of my brothers have 3D printers who just print anything for free to me.  I've had them print tablet stands, a phone holder design of mine for my car, and a few other things.

So if you want something inexpensively prototyped and test fit.... 

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Thanks for the offer but that's exactly the reason why I bought myself a 3D printer. It's just a shame that I've not been great with it. I'm working on it though. ;)

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1 hour ago, firefoxussr said:

Thanks!  & Ha you are the second person in two weeks to pick up on that, a fellow pilot on Reddit put worked it out too.   This is after years of telling people... no not the browser.  I use Chrome anyway.

I'm a huge fan of the Firefox 'MiG-31' from the film.  One of my RC builds will be a scratchbuilt flying EDF model.  And if I have the money, time and inclination a twin turbine version too.... someday.

I haven't seen the film in years but always remember enjoying it! 

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On 2/15/2019 at 4:07 PM, 78Triumph said:

I haven't seen the film in years but always remember enjoying it! 

The film has its appeal.  I'm just in love with the design of the plane they made up for the film, what a beautiful prop.  I understand that some of the models were flying RC planes too.

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I like the Firefox plane too. If I had the space (and the funds) I'd have to 3D print a 1:10 scale version to have alongside my 1:10 runways & gymkana arena. Ah... the dream of RC dreams!

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