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Grastens Builds (and Runs) the Lancia 037 Rally (TA-02S)

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Wow, you're really plowing through this build!

I was thinking about ways to replace that wire between the two steering cranks, and if there's enough room then maybe the 5mm ball connectors could be replaced with ones with longer threaded shafts.  I think you can find them in both 5mm and 9mm thread lengths.  With the 9mm thread lengths installed, then some ball nuts could be installed on the top side allowing the use of adjusters and a turnbuckle (if there's enough space by the front gearbox).

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21 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

Wow, you're really plowing through this build!

I was thinking about ways to replace that wire between the two steering cranks, and if there's enough room then maybe the 5mm ball connectors could be replaced with ones with longer threaded shafts.  I think you can find them in both 5mm and 9mm thread lengths.  With the 9mm thread lengths installed, then some ball nuts could be installed on the top side allowing the use of adjusters and a turnbuckle (if there's enough space by the front gearbox).

What can I say? I had been waiting a while to build a new kit :D

Examining the chassis again, I see that it will indeed be a tight fit for such a hop-up beneath the front gearbox, and the steering bell cranks themselves do not leave a lot of room for ball nuts. I also see that a number of aftermarket companies have filled the niche by issuing their own steering sets, complete with bell cranks, turnbuckles, and ball bearings; many of these are in alloy. If the steering gets astonishingly bad, I will look into it.

As an additional note: I drilled the bottom two holes on the rear body posts, all while worrying that I would not be able to find a new set. It turns out that the parts are near-identical to Tamiya part 50482 - the Skyline body mount set. The Skyline set even has the bottom holes drilled out! Now I know.

Meanwhile, the weather was gorgeous for a few hours. I cut short everything I was doing and booked it outside to get some painting in!

Previously, I had washed the relevant parts:

n5i68.jpg

I was going to paint them together because, well, they need paint!

The can of TS-8 Italian Red beckoned me:

29vf7td.jpg

The weather held up longer than I expected. Perhaps it was foolish of me to jump in on my classic Lancia Rally, but a single can of TS-26 Pure White on the outside left only a little bit of yellowing plastic underneath on the rear, and allowed me to paint all the accessories for that car - and a few for the new Lancia, too:

dvjxap.jpg

At this point, I had one can each of TS-26 Pure White and TS-8 Italian Red... Plenty of great 037s had a white finish, but some really nice ones were also in red. I was seriously considering the 4WD-H project.

In the end, I needed some more time to think this over:

34rdqgx.jpg

 A can of primer bought me time.

I painted the inside of the roof with the primer as well. 037 interiors seem to be either black or grey, and until I figure out/decide which, the primer sits. I could go back and paint it black before throwing on the exterior colour, though if that colour is white, masking is probably sensible.

However, as I will be installing lighting in this car, I will likely end up painting the entire interior of the shell in black anyway.

I discovered two more cans of TS-14 Black in my storage, so I painted the interior piece, too:

v8fvxt.jpg

One can was enough to eliminate light bleed for all but the smallest crevices. Sitting inside a bodyshell, however, that is not likely to make a difference. I do intend to paint the driver figure suits white, reasoning that few driver suits I have seen have been a brilliant white. This coincided with a discovery of a jar of Tamiya XF-2 Flat White.

The chassis could do with removal of the internal damper spacers, but I do not have enough damper oil to explore such a task. For now, the chassis stays.

The box of sprues, as before, is for the eventual construction of a type of roll cage. It will be visible through the rear end, but the cage is reasonably well-hidden in the interior, from the outside. The nice thing is that I would only need to construct one for the pillars and roof, instead of a full one like some spectacular SRB projects.

The body accessories sprues look particularly attractive for this task, featuring particularly long sections of ABS that cannot be found in the others.

I was trying to remember how I painted my first Lancia Rally shell. I probably painted in white first, and then masked the outside off for the black parts. I will be sure to let the paint cure in that case, and not a moment too soon as the weather is looking unfavourable for the next few days. It should be easy to leave the shell alone.

... Having just realized I was referring to the original Lancia shell, I plan to meditate on paint colour for this one. I downloaded InkScape, and will be experimenting with it over the next few days. The primer will probably cure, after which I will mask off the outside and spray the interior in black. If I can successfully use the software, I think I will be working on a 4WD-H tribute ;)

Painted in red, that car will require surprisingly few specialized decals:

1.jpg

All the decals on the spoiler are in text, making the job even easier. Until then, I wait.

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Another vote for Red :)

Keep up the the good work it’s coming on great. 

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Thank you! The case for the 4WD-H just keeps building every day...

... unlike me, today. I was doing more of the opposite after these arrived:

54ja80.jpg

Six 1150 and six 850 ball bearings were used when I built up this chassis, so I decided to replace them. I would also replace another two 1150 bearings, in the interests of returning them to the car I pilfered them from :P

I am about to find out how maintenance-friendly/intensive a TA-02S can be:

123ws9d.jpg

The rear differential is excellent. Four screws on an easily-accessible hatch are the only obstacles to the part in question. Matters were helped by the fact that I also omitted the rear bumper on the chassis.

wjz6rr.jpg

The differential just slides right out. I substituted the 1150 rubber-sealed bearings for metal-shielded ones; as spares are in plentiful supply now, I do not mind the more frequent replacements that can ensue. Returning it is a matter of sliding it back into the gearbox with drive shafts in position, which is not the easiest thing to do, but still not that difficult.

The dampers are disconnected from the lower arms in the picture, but that was unrelated to the differential.

Just three accessible screws secure the top cover:

25jfgjd.jpg

Out went two 1150s and three 850s, replaced by new counterparts.

The front is similarly simple:

2u8f6uv.jpg

One well-worn 1150 and three 850s here.

The front differential needed some attention to extract:

2e1breh.jpg

Since the lower suspension attachment points on the gearbox is moulded on the hatch cover, the front bumper must be removed before undoing the four screws that hold the door in place. Removing the U-shaped shaft that holds the front arms in place is optional, but recommended.

I did not even end up removing the 1150 ball bearings here, for they were rubber-sealed and new. At least I know how it comes apart and together... It is one thing to be building these various assemblies in isolation as you construct the car, but another thing to then disassemble them once everything is a unit.

The dampers were removed today because I found my stock of damper oils, meaning I could rebuild the dampers. This was a good thing, for they were showing signs of leakage owing to improper construction.

I ended up removing the larger of the two internal spacers in each damper, and refilled them with Team Losi 32.5 wt. silicone damper oil. For some reason, it was easier to expel the air from this oil than the Tamiya offering, so the rebuild went quickly.

There is a good reason why I would not do this, though: I had forgotten completely about the length of the damper springs, and ended up needing more pre-load spacers to take up the extra room on the damper body.

I finished up by putting the shorter damper eyelet on each one. Below, you can see the difference between the way I rebuilt them (left) and the way I initially assembled them (right):

9iwq4m.jpg

However, the front end would be able to use some negative pre-load, as it otherwise goes to positive camber under no weight:

xcljxy.jpg

Once running, it should look like this:

15zfd3.jpg

That was the reason why I left a pre-load spacer off each of the front dampers, compared to the rears. There ended up being some wisdom behind the whole thing, though I would have rebuilt the dampers anyway due to what was later determined to be insufficiently-tightened damper body parts.

Under full compression, then:

e8smch.jpg

The presence of negative camber is more expected, and the front chassis bottoms out. I had previously appreciated the lack of the latter until I realized that it transfers stress to the damper tower and lower suspension mounts on the gearbox, so I am content with this current state.

The rear hardly changed:

2ql60e1.jpg

Under compression, the chassis does not bottom out here, but is much closer than previous:

30clqwx.jpg

On the setup I built out of the box, the drive shafts never angled upwards from the gearbox to the wheels. This one is more conventional, and should allow the tires to wear less on the outer shoulders. My Buggy Champ taught me what that was like...

I was questioning the merit of setting up the chassis to bottom out at maximum suspension compression, given that my regular driving does not include jumps, until I remembered that I was working on a rally car here ;)

My biggest doubts, though, pertained to the wheels' relationship to the wheel arches, and therefore, the body. I found my answers here:

t8w713.jpg

That looks more like a proper 037 stance, I think!

Under full compression:

30xadj4.jpg

Quite favourable. As long as I am not turning the car when it lands, all four wheels still rotate freely under maximum compression. This should make for a more forgiving car, and one that can tilt more like the real thing:

ajou10.jpg

So, in short: thank you, @ThunderDragonCy, for the tip :D

And then I took this picture because I love 037s:

fbdsgw.jpg

The front of the shell has been raised back to its stock position, but the rear is still dropped down by 5 mm from box stock. Ground clearance is now "only" 20 mm at the lowest point of the chassis, down from a whopping 21 mm :P It seems, then, that I have found a good-looking setup, even if how it drives might be another thing.

The Tamiya does look quite attractive without the front bumper... Maybe if I did run it once or twice, it might not be so bad-

33tldmb.jpg

That was the picture I was thinking about when I mentioned Henri Toivonen and his Lancia! To be fair, though, at this particular rally there were indeed roadworks on the route, and all Henri was doing was avoiding them... The bumper will go back on!

I could replace the U-shaped shaft with screw pins, but read that the U-shaped shaft is less prone to tearing out the front gearbox suspension mounts than those screw pins do. In any case, what's a bit of snowplowing when it means keeping the bodywork in a recognizable car shape?

As yesterday, I will be experimenting with Inkscape to get some decals going. I have been measuring up the shell to get an idea of proportions. I may even part with the rear bumper on it if I decide to get really committed to the 4WD-H theme; until then, I might leave it on and call mine a "tribute" - giving me room for error if I do make mistakes :P

Right now, those large diverging stripes on the rear half of the car are proving tricky to model, since they cover the air scoops and continue onto the rear pillars, too. If somebody would be interested in picking up on this part of the project, I would be happy to collaborate ;) I have dimensions for almost all of the decals themselves; I just need to find a way to put them into the program.

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On the topic of decals and taking a break from the 4WD-H for a moment: I found some images of decal sheets I turned up during my search for other liveries. Of them, these three intrigue me the most:

5ufjgl.jpg

Above are some decals for Lancia 037s that ran in the 1984 Tour de Corse. Markku Alen/Ilka Kivimaki won that event in TO W67785, number 5, while Attilio Bettega/Sergio Cresto took 7th in TO W67783, number 1. A decal sheet like this would have been perfect to supplement the excellent box-stock Martini Racing decals, and as such would have been an easy build.

One set appeared online, and then sold out. It is still available somewhere, but paired with a polycarbonate shell.

The second set were by a graphic designer, initially for the Rally Legends Lancia 037 body:

mmx469.jpg

These would depict the 1983 Rallye Deutschland car that Walter Rohrl/Christian Geistdorfer took to victory. It was a Wurth-sponsored car, like the European series 037s that Fabrizio Tabaton/Luciano Tedeschini and Franco Cunico/Ergy Bartolich campaigned.

I saw a set on a Rally Legends 037 and it looked fine; general proportions could mean it would fit Tamiya's 037 with minimal issues. I have contacted the designer, but whether or not he gets back to me is another thing entirely. This project would mean white/black paint work.

And, of course, the Totip car:

40761d1327565054-neue-rally-karosserien-

The stripes that were not an issue with the 1984 Tour de Corse decals become one here, since the shells are quite different. With paint, though - if I figure out which shades are correct - it could be done. TC member EddScott has a Tamiya shell with the Totip stripes painted.

I have attempted to scale up the two sheets here on Inkscape; however, the Tour de Corse set is difficult to get correctly-proportioned, and the Rallye Deutschland set is too low-resolution for them to be useful as 1:10 scale decals.

As I get better at Inkscape, though, perhaps these will no longer be issues if I could reproduce them from scratch ;)

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Glad the idea worked out. See how it drives, but i suspect you need the idea of some turnbuckles to replace the top arms in your back pocket to combat that front camber. I think @Effigy3 did a tt02 rally build and had some tips on removing movement restrictions on the wishbones. 

Looks great. I really hope you can get the red livery to work. It looks mega. Maybe do your own homage with red but use the martini stripes? Have MCI Racing got any other options for the 037?

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Thanks for all of the details of this build.

The TA02 chassis looks like a really well designed option. I have always preferred shaft vs belt driven but did not realise how good this chassis is. It seems simple, balanced, robust, easy to maintain and with the ability to swap in TA01 / DF01 and CC01 parts, easy to tweak and also easy to find spares. For such an old design it seems to be really good.

I am also really impressed with the stance you have got on it. The body seems to sit better on the TA02 than it did on the TA03RS. Could you take a photo from directly above? I am keen to see how the wheels sit under the arches.

Very interested in the research you have done on the decals and the work you are doing on the 4WD ones. I think I would probably try to paint the stripes on rather than use decals, but would love to buy a set off you if you make them.

 

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Looks amazing, I think I’ll treat myself to one of these later in the year for my birthday.

Do you know if it takes standard length prop shafts (155mm)? With it being the S it may be different, possibly? I was looking at that wire shaft and I think the Yeah Racing upgraded one might be good to replace it with!

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8 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Glad the idea worked out. See how it drives, but i suspect you need the idea of some turnbuckles to replace the top arms in your back pocket to combat that front camber. I think @Effigy3 did a tt02 rally build and had some tips on removing movement restrictions on the wishbones. 

Looks great. I really hope you can get the red livery to work. It looks mega. Maybe do your own homage with red but use the martini stripes? Have MCI Racing got any other options for the 037?

Another good tip. Thanks!

It would be easy to do a red Martini Racing version, and MCI Racing would allow me to order a set in white to show up against the red. I might do that if it means I could focus on finishing the shell and working on the interior. In any case, I think the colour of the shell will be decided ;)

6 hours ago, njmlondon said:

Thanks for all of the details of this build.

The TA02 chassis looks like a really well designed option. I have always preferred shaft vs belt driven but did not realise how good this chassis is. It seems simple, balanced, robust, easy to maintain and with the ability to swap in TA01 / DF01 and CC01 parts, easy to tweak and also easy to find spares. For such an old design it seems to be really good.

I am also really impressed with the stance you have got on it. The body seems to sit better on the TA02 than it did on the TA03RS. Could you take a photo from directly above? I am keen to see how the wheels sit under the arches.

Very interested in the research you have done on the decals and the work you are doing on the 4WD ones. I think I would probably try to paint the stripes on rather than use decals, but would love to buy a set off you if you make them.

 

Even having no experience with the TA-01, DF-01, or CC-01, I could appreciate the engineering on this chassis, so I think it is a good sign. Sometimes, it is worth seeing the same parts over and over again!

The following photo is from directly above:

2ljmkr8.jpg

This photo may be of more use to you, since it shows the wheel arches more clearly:

241qzb4.jpg

The rear wheels tuck neatly under the shell, while the fronts stick out only slightly. Under compression in this setup, though, the front wheels actually still rotate. I believe the reason the rear track looks visibly narrower than the front has to do with the built-in toe-in on the rear uprights - that, and the shell is wider at the rear than the front while the track apparently remains the same both front and rear.

46 minutes ago, dc-arena said:

Looks amazing, I think I’ll treat myself to one of these later in the year for my birthday.

Do you know if it takes standard length prop shafts (155mm)? With it being the S it may be different, possibly? I was looking at that wire shaft and I think the Yeah Racing upgraded one might be good to replace it with!

I took the propeller shaft out (because it was that easy to access it!) and measured it. Yes, it does come in at 155 mm. I suspect the short wheelbase of the chassis has largely to do with the rear arms, then, as the drive shafts out the rear gearbox have a pronounced forward sweep to them.

So, I look forward to seeing your Lancia finished up ;)

On the topic of paint: I will make the 4WD-H car my first priority, and will look into painting the stripes compared to decals. The masking will be tedious, but at least I know how to do that with my current skill set! I do need to figure out which shades of blue are used for the stripes, however, and what Tamiya paints they correspond to. For the rear half of the car, though, paint could simplify things.

And I still need to figure out the interior, including that roll cage and proposed engine detail... I could probably do that once the shell is a little further along.

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1 hour ago, Grastens said:

Another good tip. Thanks!

It would be easy to do a red Martini Racing version, and MCI Racing would allow me to order a set in white to show up against the red. I might do that if it means I could focus on finishing the shell and working on the interior. In any case, I think the colour of the shell will be decided ;)

Even having no experience with the TA-01, DF-01, or CC-01, I could appreciate the engineering on this chassis, so I think it is a good sign. Sometimes, it is worth seeing the same parts over and over again!

The following photo is from directly above:

2ljmkr8.jpg

This photo may be of more use to you, since it shows the wheel arches more clearly:

241qzb4.jpg

The rear wheels tuck neatly under the shell, while the fronts stick out only slightly. Under compression in this setup, though, the front wheels actually still rotate. I believe the reason the rear track looks visibly narrower than the front has to do with the built-in toe-in on the rear uprights - that, and the shell is wider at the rear than the front while the track apparently remains the same both front and rear.

I took the propeller shaft out (because it was that easy to access it!) and measured it. Yes, it does come in at 155 mm. I suspect the short wheelbase of the chassis has largely to do with the rear arms, then, as the drive shafts out the rear gearbox have a pronounced forward sweep to them.

So, I look forward to seeing your Lancia finished up ;)

On the topic of paint: I will make the 4WD-H car my first priority, and will look into painting the stripes compared to decals. The masking will be tedious, but at least I know how to do that with my current skill set! I do need to figure out which shades of blue are used for the stripes, however, and what Tamiya paints they correspond to. For the rear half of the car, though, paint could simplify things.

And I still need to figure out the interior, including that roll cage and proposed engine detail... I could probably do that once the shell is a little further along.

Perfect, thanks!! :) It won’t be for a while yet as my birthday is in August. Maybe I’ll get it sooner! 😝

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I love Lancia 037.

You have made a very nice work.
I follow with interest :D

 

 

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17 minutes ago, dc-arena said:

Perfect, thanks!! :) It won’t be for a while yet as my birthday is in August. Maybe I’ll get it sooner! 😝

I think 5pm today is a good time for a "Martini," so do get on it! :P

Besides, at its current price, it could be a good "just because" purchase, too!

7 minutes ago, Ciano67 said:

I love Lancia 037.

You have made a very nice work.
I follow with interest :D

Coming from the talented builder of a special 037, that means a lot to me ;) I have been following your build quite keenly, and note that yours is definitely the higher-quality chassis between your work and this TA-02S! I hope to do this build justice.

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8 minutes ago, Grastens said:

Coming from the talented builder of a special 037, that means a lot to me ;) I have been following your build quite keenly, and note that yours is definitely the higher-quality chassis between your work and this TA-02S! I hope to do this build justice.

Hi Grastens,

thank you for your kind words.

I await updates on your build
:):ph34r:.

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You got it!

It is amazing to think I was so close to acquiring the skill set I needed to make these decals. Today's progress so far:

5y1jl.jpg

Still lots of work to do; the decals come off the page while I figure out some of the finer skills in Inkscape. This screencap was taken in Outline Mode, since I am working on decals that will be white, primarily the text/sponsor labels you see here.

I am making some good progress, especially compared to yesterday :)

Edit: Even more progress!

sw4m8p.jpg

The red text will be in white; I put it in red here to highlight it against the white background. I think all I need are some italtecnica logos, which are not immediately available on .svg, and then it can be ready! I already sorted out layers, grouping most of it by colour.

Further research shows that the 037 4WD-H's livery varied from each event, whether it wore more oerlikon graziano decals or Mattoni script, as well as some event-specific stickers. I have modelled many of the decals after the car in this form:

037-4wdh-1.jpg

037-4wdh-2.jpg

I am not excited for a more intensive editing process with MCI Racing, but am excited that the decals are quite a ways there!

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I have finished the decals and have them ordered! Now, I will wait to see if the printer can do anything with my first-ever Inkscape project :P

As previous, all text in red will be printed white, plus the white mesh Volta which is a white decal with a black screen cover:

ff23ae.jpg

I had it down to five colours and a standard 8.5" x 11" sheet, per the printer's recommendation. I ended up using Bauhaus 93 font for the italtecnica script to acquire a similar stylistic feel while getting the first print finished to test. In the end, I could not find the exact font or a basis to use, and making the shapes would have taken another full day or two...

In a previous version, I had two few small Martini stripes - hopefully, the printer got the revision which you see here!

I broke up the Martini stripes in sections, with the long diverging sections going on the rear half of the car. The truncated diverging sections will be used for the side scoops on the car, leaving the longer pieces available for proper coverage of the rear fenders.

If I have finished the paint by the time the order arrives, I will test these decals and change the shapes accordingly. I anticipate a lot of excess material on the stripes to cut away once they are on the shell.

I have had good experiences with this group, so I hope their fine work and patience extend to my project.

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I like what you've done here!

Are you going to remove the lower valence on the rear?  

I know I am on my Totip build.

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12 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Awesome work! Can't wait to see the result.

Thank you! Neither can I ;)

51 minutes ago, firefoxussr said:

I like what you've done here!

Are you going to remove the lower valence on the rear?  

I know I am on my Totip build.

Thanks! I am happy to hear the Totip build is coming along, and anticipate its big reveal...

I am undecided on the rear bumper: on one hand, it is more correct, spares painting those vents on the bumper, and fulfills the intended purpose of reducing bodywork for mud to collect on, but on the other hand I am not sure if I like the rear of the chassis enough to expose so much of it. My current planned detail work is a rudimentary engine bay behind the seats, and a chopped rear bumper might necessitate more details like an exhaust, mudflaps, etc.. It is something I have been mulling over the past few days, especially as I have already removed one bumper successfully - that was on the Wheelie Rally some time ago:

2w25753.jpg

Even then, it was only because the bumper interfered with the large tires. I hacked that bumper to pieces, and it was something of an ordeal... A decision will be made before final paint!

Edit: That did get me thinking if some gearbox detail might be easier than I think:

344p0g4.jpg

The part you see here is from Tamiya's Ferrari 312T3, which was made available as a re-release in the 2000s. The Z-parts tree where this is found can still be had. Work would need to be done to make it more accurate, of course, but it can be a good basis.

Revisiting one of my reference pictures from the Volta website has me contemplating some layered cuts of card stock bolted on the back of the chassis - I even removed the chassis' rear bumper to get the body to sit lower, leaving some open screw holes - to recreate some of the gearbox components:

037-4wdh-2.jpg

Yes, plenty to think about here...

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I did not intend to work on the car today, but that is what happened. This time, I cut the interior piece, and revisited why one should cut and prepare the interior before painting. I also learned that I am not very good at it:

b806c9.jpg

That did not stop me, though. Besides, I have a lot of black paint - or at least enough to touch up the affected areas.

My initial plan for an engine bay entailed detailing a sheet of plastic and putting it over the back half of the interior piece. Then, I studied this picture more closely:

img1274_07052003191920_5.jpg

It appears that this example had its interior piece behind the seats removed entirely, and substituted for the same sheet of plastic. This was from the Lancia 037 Rally prepared by TC member fastfordrc, which inspired me to take a similar approach to preparing an engine.

A sheet of 1 mm styrene was at my disposal, which made it simple to cut pieces quickly. I took some quick measurements and cut out the interior behind the seats, and then cut out a piece of plastic to fill in and a rear bulkhead:

rlhndf.jpg

The bulkhead is not entirely accurate - fastfordrc's Lancia has one that looks much more like the one on the actual car. I am persisting with this one for now, though, at least for modelling purposes.

It had been my plan to build a roll cage out of the otherwise-discarded sprues from the kit. I cut some to use, and mocked them up roughly here:

30xh5vr.jpg

I have several reference photos of Lancia 037 engine bays for research, but am also using the fastfordrc Lancia design as a basis, since it has already captured pertinent details in 1:10 scale. The sprue you see spanning the width of the interior piece at the back will not be in the final design; it is there to keep the other sprues in position.

The longest sprues from the kit are in the body accessories:

261dkyd.jpg

I have the added bonus of having a similar sprue from my original Lancia Rally body set. They are thinner and likely more malleable than the metallic grey sprues, so I will see if I can heat them up gently and bend them to conform to the Lancia interior roof. The sprues will also provide cross-members.

Research shows me that the Lancia 037 does not have an oversized roll cage in the cockpit, which makes sense when considering that the original car was built up by joining tube-frame front and rear subsections to a Montecarlo central section. This is to say that there is a roll cage, but the tubing diameters do not seem that aggressive. With the interior piece, I have the advantage of being able to build the roll cage only from the bottom of the windows up, which is why - despite my inexperience - I feel confident I can still construct one. It might even be fun...

Mocked up with just the cut pieces and no additional preparation, this is where each segment will go:

xglms.jpg

Eventually, I will figure out how to sand down the sprues, join them, and keep them together in what will be a runner. Once assembled, the cage will likely be painted in the same (or a similar) metallic and/or grey colour that the rear bulkhead will have, as in the 037 4WD-H. I will have to make sure the cage fits under the body with the glass equipped.

I have another set of shorter sprues from the kit, many in different sizes, to use for the engine bay:

5nt6on.jpg

The rest of the engine will probably be constructed using card stock, and I intend to attempt plumbing.

The oval holes in the rear of the interior piece were fuel cell details that the manual advised to remove. One made it out largely intact. Perhaps my earlier ruminations about gearbox detailing could come to something... 

I do not expect to build the best engine block to go into a Tamiya Lancia 037 Rally, but I intend to build one!

Edit: I am either assisted or hindered by these photos I just found of the 037 4WD-H's engine:

1A5086C03A2C507BE0CD27507BDBD3.jpg

235086C02826507BE0B527507BDBC1.jpg

I foresee some challenges for someone of my limited scratchbuilding skill, such as the carbon-fibre supercharger inlet and devising hoses. I am a little curious as to how I could devise the larger cylindrical items like said supercharger, unless I actually go out and find raw materials. That could be part of a trip to find more red paint...

Another challenge will be limiting the focus of this part while keeping a somewhat-detailed area. Like the Tamiya 037 project I have referenced, I do not intend to build below the rear cross-member, so that could keep it feasible.

The cage and rear bulkhead will take priority while I figure out this stage. I heard spray-can coats takes a week to fully cure, so by Wednesday I should be able to handle the shell properly, unless primer takes less time.

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Cool idea with the sprues for roll cage. If you are looking for engine detail have a search on Shapeways. There are quite a few engine on there. You might find a 4 cylinder head you get to stick on the platform you have made behind the bulkhead.

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Loving where you are going with this Grastens. When will you have the decals printed out? Very keen to see how they look, particularly the white ones. Do you have any idea how thick they will be.

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10 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Cool idea with the sprues for roll cage. If you are looking for engine detail have a search on Shapeways. There are quite a few engine on there. You might find a 4 cylinder head you get to stick on the platform you have made behind the bulkhead.

No kidding! Thanks again for reminding me. I did not find a suitable part there, but it did lead me to something else I will be trying out ;)

4 hours ago, njmlondon said:

Loving where you are going with this Grastens. When will you have the decals printed out? Very keen to see how they look, particularly the white ones. Do you have any idea how thick they will be.

Just as you asked that, I got an e-mail saying they were shipped! Looks like we can find out any day now... I have another few of their sheets, and thickness looks fine; they are quite thin. Of course, photos will follow once they make it here!

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No decals yet, but I wanted to keep at the:

3090it4.jpg

So I took it out today and ended up working on it again. The weather is not particularly good for painting at this time, so I tackled some of the other tasks.

I have been ruminating on the various elements that I will be using/needing to construct the engine. Recall this photo:

2yufv60.jpg

The air intake/filter box on the left superficially comprises a shaped funnel-type assembly and a large cylinder. I can replicate the former with sheet styrene (if maybe not the exact shape), but how could I build the latter?

The first thing I thought of was the Konghead air cleaner assemblies, as I was flipping through my RC catalogue:

konghead.jpg

tamiya-19000972-1.jpg

However, I would be spending over $25 to use two pieces that I will be chopping up and painting over, anyway. What was the point?

Then, I realized I might have a few of these bottles lying around:

tamiya_damper_oil_1470064423_844a0b06.jp

It has a usable diameter, can be painted, and is already here. I can even plumb the other end with a big styrene cylinder. Once I find/make an empty one, I think I will have my supercharger body!

I alluded to a discarded piece from the cockpit set earlier. This is said piece, lined up at the rear gearbox:

ngaqc.jpg

On many other cars, this could be the start of a convincing transaxle, but it did not seem correct when referencing Lancia photos.

I had measured the rear bulkhead, and it fit well under the roof of the body. However, I had not fitted the glass yet. Despite my intention to leave it in the packaging to minimize the chance of scratches and scuffs, I needed to fit it to the shell and refine my measurements for the bulkhead:

otitnc.jpg

This picture suggests the bulkhead is too close to the seat backs, which irks me:

216788.jpg

One actual centimetre towards the back would do it... But I thought it was close enough, and I could not replace the material I already slashed away behind the seats. Hence, it stays. The bulkhead corners were chopped in iterations until it sat under the glass at the desired height. I may need to find a way to seal it properly to the roof, though this is a low priority for me since the rear section of the body will not be removable.

... That is for a future Lancia :P

With little else I could do, I finally elected to build the vaunted roll cage! Here is a start:

359eftf.jpg

In a perfect world, I would have a heat gun, some good cutting tools, and have built a jig. Instead, I had a cheap soldering iron, a hobby knife and some side cutters, and dead reckoning to go with my makeshift aligning methods.

My perfect world would also have a better way to smooth out the sprues than clamping them in a drill and running it while holding sandpaper over the protuberances, but such is life! It was actually quite effective...

I used the soldering iron to heat the ends that were to be attached, and then fused them together. Afterwards, I filled in gaps with excess styrene sprue. The ABS sprues are much more compliant than the gearbox sprues I used for the rear cage, so the ABS was used to fill gaps. Said plastic also did not require the drill to sand down, instead responding well to regular hand-sanding.

The lengths of each sprue available to me meant I built the front of the cage out of ABS and the rear out of the gearbox plastic.

This method would be a little tricky, though for some reason I never expected the worst. It would be difficult to line up the pieces precisely without any purpose-built jigs or alignment tools, but I have a history of winging things. A similar method was used with mixed success on my Wheelie Rally build, though that was because I was attempting to join bodywork; here, it was much-smaller sprues.

I was surprised by how well everything ended up going together:

2zr0v3q.jpg

The front cage was deformed and took a few tries, but I bent each of the main tubes by holding it very close to my soldering iron (while wearing gloves!) for a few seconds and then bending the plastic in small sections, lining it up with the body's interior with glass fitted for the primary shape. Exposing the iron to the plastic while sitting inside the shell would have been a grave mistake I nearly thought about making :ph34r:

The cage came out twisted, but more heating and adjustment of the tubes solved that. For a crude first effort, I am actually surprised by how it all turned out:

iymtdz.jpg

I have the two lined up and propping up the rear bulkhead, as this will be the point of reference for the cage alignment:

24o7m37.jpg

When set up properly to the designated points, it is astonishingly close to the targets.

 Next, I intend to smooth out the joins and do some test-fitting before spraying the cage in TS-42 Light Gun Metal. The bulkhead will probably get the same colour, and I may experiment with washes to differentiate the shades on each.

Even if the build already has a few deviations from the real thing, I am proud of how it has progressed so far - essentially all of the modifications represent my first time trying them :)

At the moment, I am waiting for painting weather, decals, and some mailed parts before making more meaningful progress. Those mailed parts comprise the bulk of the engine...

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Decals arrived today!

t6v47s.jpg

It is clear I made a few mistakes, but the most glaring one is the failure to match the light blues:

j8093m.jpg

At least they did send me an extra set of broad stripes, possibly because one of them was marred on the original sheet.

The errors I can see, in summary:

- I suspect I needed to put a white layer between the light blue and dark blue on the Martini stripes in order to obtain a hue closer to the original.

- I made a mistake measuring the windshield banner, leaving it a bit short on my decal sheet.

- I also referenced the wrong Lancia logo from the re-release decal sheet - I needed one for the front grille.

- Lastly, my driver and co-driver labels had lowercase characters, which they usually do not.

All of this has since been edited in the main files.

Otherwise, the quality is good, and everything else is at the size I want it:

2gtw5jb.jpg

I am not sure if I can justify spending another $40 for a second sheet, though... A reprint comes down to whether or not I am correct in thinking that backing the light blue layer with white against the dark blue layer will produce the correct shade. I specified "Intense Blue" and "Cyan Blue" in my order, as the catalogue's other Martini Racing schemes use these two colours for the stripes - and yet, theirs are much closer to the original hues.

In the meantime, I will look for some extra black decal to fill out the gaps in the windshield banner, perhaps use the Lancia decal from the re-release sheet, and work with what I have.

For a first attempt at decal design, I still think I did well, though I can only confirm that once they are being fitted!

Edit: Has anybody actually had Martini Racing stripes printed from MCI Racing? The more I look at their decal sheets, the more I am convinced that this really is the closest blue they have...

Also: What the-

N0Y0NjMwQTE3MTdERDQ1OTk5NUQ6ZWY5MjQyOTQ2

Searching through their catalogue, I found these! I have seen this car before:

bijor9.jpg

Courtesy of one Otaka0706.

29256132192_688515fd8b_b.jpg

Looks like we do get our alternative Lancia 037 scheme - but why stop there?

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