Maserati Boomerang - restoration of my 90's build

[Tommy124]

Hi folks,

around 1990 I built the Maserati Boomerang kit by Heller (1/24 scale) and painted it silver. Which is "historically correct" as there is only one prototype in that color. The kit took all those decades of storage pretty well, but I wanted to restore it and give it another color - metallic brown being the color of choice. What the kit (i.e. it's plastic) did not take so well was several chemical baths for stripping the paint. There are very thin horizontal bars in the doors, separating the upper from the lower door window, and those broke in the process of paint-stripping. They were replaced using thin Evergreen strips but those broke again several times in the process of polishing the paint and fitting in the crooked glass pieces. So although this is a very simple kit with only a few parts, this whole restoration process got kind of "annoying" in the end. Happy to have it completed now.

The result is not too much to my liking, but it's a rare kit painted in a (possibly) never seen before color, so I'd like to show a few images anyway...

[GerN]

Thanks for sharing - that is distinctive.

[Deathgoblin]

Looks great!    Always liked this design.

[Ich_Will]

What a crazy design! Like a door stop with wheels. Something you can point to if someone says a Lamborghini is too angular. You did a great job on it. I’ll have to look at it on my PC later to enjoy it better. 

[Modelbuilder Mark]

 Very cool.  My all time fave name plate.  Good looking model

[Tommy124]

On 19.11.2018 at 3:40 PM, GerN said:

Thanks for sharing - that is distinctive.

Thanks Gerald, I agree - it is!

On 19.11.2018 at 5:00 PM, Deathgoblin said:

Looks great!    Always liked this design.

Thanks Brian. Yes, so did I. The Boomerang - along with the Monteverdi Hai and the Alfa Romeo Carabo - was my favourite play toy (die-cast) car already when I was a kid. Matchbox and the others really did a lot of cool cars back then. Such as one-off concept and rare exotic cars...

12 hours ago, Ich_Will said:

What a crazy design! Like a door stop with wheels. Something you can point to if someone says a Lamborghini is too angular. You did a great job on it. I’ll have to look at it on my PC later to enjoy it better.

Thanks Will! Being presented in 1972, this was even before the introduction of the Countach! Parts of the Boomerang's design later were to be found in other cars designed by Giugiaro, mostly in the Lotus Esprit (yes, that 70's Bond car!) and the DeLorean DMC-12...

7 hours ago, Modelbuilder Mark said:

Very cool.  My all time fave name plate.  Good looking model

Thanks Mark, appreciated.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Tommy124

[cobraman]

That is one wild car.

[Yahshu]

That reminds me of the car from the tv show "Automan", very nice. 

[Tommy124]

Thanks Ray and Phil!

3 hours ago, Yahshu said:

That reminds me of the car from the tv show "Automan", very nice. 

Yes, it appears so but that was actually a modified Countach...

[89AKurt]

I've considered hunting one of these down, but after seeing a Russian model forum where someone was correcting everything, and then stopped several years ago, I dropped the idea.  You did great restoring it.

[Dominik]

On 19.11.2018 at 3:40 PM, GerN said:

Thanks for sharing - that is distinctive.

x2. never saw one built

[Scalper]

Interesting build.. kinda like a lambo kit car  gone wrong.

[Jonathan]

Wow, that's excellent work!  The first of these I've actually seen built.  Nostalgic super cars and concept cars are so cool. 

[Bainford]

I think the brown colour suits it very well. Gives it a cool, period vibe. I never knew a kit of this car was made. Yours looks nice, and the door/window bar repair turned out fine. Thanks for posting this most interesting model.

[Funkychiken]

That is a kool kar, looks straight out of a Michael Jackson video! love the brown too!

[Cpt Tuttle]

Now this is something you don't see every day, nice resto.

[Tommy124]

Thanks for your comments, guys! Like the car or not, I think we agree that this is a bit out of the ordinary...

Edited November 26, 2018 by Tommy124

[Italianhorses]

This is such a cool shape - love the wedges!

Too bad about the glass - it does look a bit recessed. Wonderful build.

[Tommy124]

23 hours ago, Italianhorses said:

This is such a cool shape - love the wedges!

Too bad about the glass - it does look a bit recessed. Wonderful build.

Thanks. You're right about the glass, although this recess is probably due to the body being paint-stripped once too often... I thought about replacing all glass parts by transparent sheet for a minute and the roof and windscreen glass wouldn't have been a problem at all. However, the 2 contorted glass parts per each door window would have been a problem, especially given the issues with the horizontal door bar which I mentioned earlier on. So I accepted the compromise and as this is rather a rare kit nowadays (worth saving), I'm basically fine with that.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Tommy124

[Ace-Garageguy]

Nice work. I had no idea that one was ever kitted.

Giorgetto Giugiaro, the master designer at Ital, did quite a few cars in his (at the time) signature lotsa-straight-lines-and-angles style, the first VW Rabbit/Golf, the Fiat X1/9, and the DeLorean being very well known production cars.

Much criticized at the time for this style (which his incessantly-parroting detractors said was due to an inability to draw in perspective), all anyone has to do to see the true measure of his talent is to look at other cars he did, some notables being the DeTomaso Mangusta, Iso Grifo, and Maserati Ghibli.

[Tommy124]

22 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Nice work. I had no idea that one was ever kitted.

Thanks Bill and I agree with you about the work of Giugiaro.

The car was actually kitted by several companies, such as Heller and Airfix (identical kit in 1/24 scale) plus Aoshima and Revell (identical kit in 1/16 scale). Whereas the 1/24 kit maybe has some 40 parts, the 1/16 is rather detailed with around 150 parts.

[Dann Tier]

BEAUTIFUL restoration, bud!!!, and tat kolor suits it PERFECTLY!!….you know me, I rarely paint anything how its "suppose" to be...lol     -i'm gonna get one of these kits!!!   -thanks for sharing!!

[djflyer]

Excellent !  The brown is a great color also, very suited to the design.  I have been a long-time fan of Giugiaro, whether its straight lines or curves, his designs have been some of my favorites.  Its too bad some of his best work has never been kitted properly.

Now that I think about it I might, I might have one or two in the stash and should do something with them.

[Dann Tier]

7 hours ago, djflyer said:

Excellent !  The brown is a great color also, very suited to the design.  I have been a long-time fan of Giugiaro, whether its straight lines or curves, his designs have been some of my favorites.  Its too bad some of his best work has never been kitted properly.

Now that I think about it I might, I might have one or two in the stash and should do something with them.

let me know if you'd feel like parting with one!

[djflyer]

Will do ( I have to find them first).  They're both the 1/24 Airfix release.

16 minutes ago, Dann Tier said:

let me know if you'd feel like parting with one!