Finally together, after 7 years ...

This model has been along time coming ... It started out as just an old chassis I bought locally within Australia (Sept 2005). I was never really happy about, as it the metal was heavily tarnished.
I then tracked down a Countach Body set, and the model stayed this way for about 7 years.
During this time, I managed to get hold of some NIP Duplo tyres, and a NIP Black front bumper. Approx. 2 months ago, I saw a NIP chassis plate set on ebay, and it was this purchase that got the project started. I went through some old tamiya kit F1 RC boxes, I found an original 'CS' decal sheet in my old Ligier CS kit box, and thought I'd make good use of these. After spending many nights, gluing all the body parts together, it slowly came to life. I then carefully painted the body detail (front lights/surrounds, front indicators, rear lights, rear badges and driver figure. I also had some 935 static water-slide decals leftover from a recent 935 restoration, so I put them to good use on the Countach Dash board (see photo). The white pin-strip decals are hard to get right, and I spent an hour doing each side. Each side is made up of 3 separate decals (from front bumper, to rear corner). The trick is to apply them on with window cleaner, so they can be pushed around on the body. You need to be able to move all 3 around at the same time to ensure they are all in the right place, and remember not to move the front one much, as it is supposed to mirror the one on the other side of the bonnet. Anyway, by taking your time, you can do a good job. I then spent a few evening building the chassis from the NIP parts. The vintage 540 motor was sourced from an old Cheetah (same era). I cleaned-up the front steering knuckles the best I could, so they matched the ‘new look’ of the NIP parts of the chassis. I then wanted to fit the original MSC, and yet still manage to install a modern ESC. It all fitted with a little thinking. I then converted a vintage 6v battery into a 2-cell Lipo battery, which fitted the CS chassis perfectly.

The old foam wheels don't give much grip these days. It's still great (after all the hard work) to sit back and drive the model around the house. I just don't know how people had the 'nerve' back in the day, to race these expensive/fragile models.