Maserati Merak (Airfix 1/24)

[Tommy124]

Hi folks,

I just finished this one. First non-US car model I built in almost 3 years. The kit itself is horrible as was the building and painting process itself. Anyone who wants to see the lengths I had to go to to make this turn out a halfway reasonable result, see my WIP here: 

 

This is the way it ended up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a group shot with his "rare" brother, the Boomerang...

 

 

 

[Brizio]

Very nice job! I just saw your wip. Now I know why not a lot of people build it!  The Boomerang too loos great!

[Justin Porter]

You didn't just put lipstick on the pig, you gave it a full spa treatment. Very nicely done.

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[Hard_2_Handle_454]

I hear ya.  I got the Bora kit and ran into the same problems.  Your model looks good though. 

[Rob Hall]

Sweet...I built the Revell Bora kit as a kid, never got the Merak kit. 

[Bainford]

Nice work, especially given the rudimentary kit you started with. Looks nice posed with the Boomerang, too. It's good to see these Maseratis built. 

[Classicgas]

Beautiful. 

[PappyD340]

Very nice build!

[Aurora]

Wow, a built Airfix Merak! Probably rarer than the real car. Great job!

[YBlock292]

Congratulations! You've done justice to this kit. Rare Italian car & kit.

Regards

Ludwig

 

[kruleworld]

You rocked this. looks fabulous

[David G.]

Excellent work on both of them!

David G.

[Spottedlaurel]

Well done for persevering with it, the finished result looks excellent.

[Tom Geiger]

Wow! I just went through your build thread and that was a lotta work!  I’m glad you didn’t give up and won in the end! Great results!

[89AKurt]

That was like shoving a wet noodle up a Bobcat's *** while in a phone booth!  Came out great, considering the low quality of the kit.

I *had to* get the Boomerang kit recently, just because, despite knowing it's also bad.   I have a Russian forum bookmarked, a builder stopped posting about half way, so much needed to be fixed.  Yours came out very nice, is there another topic of it?

[Tommy124]

Many thanks guys, I appreciate it!

19 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

I *had to* get the Boomerang kit recently, just because, despite knowing it's also bad.   I have a Russian forum bookmarked, a builder stopped posting about half way, so much needed to be fixed.  Yours came out very nice, is there another topic of it?

Thanks Kurt, and congrats on getting a Boomerang kit! They are very hard and expensive to come by, especially in 1/24 scale (the 1/16 scale Revell kit is easier to find but not cheap either). I remember the WIP on the Russian forum you mentioned, that guy practically cut the whole body into pieces in order to correct the shape and make a Bora V8 fit in. He also intended to 3D-print better wheels but I guess that is where the WIP ended... years ago. The Boomerang can be made into a nice kit box-stock. My build is a resto of a kit I build many years ago. I showed it on this forum back then (although the images are not great):

 

[89AKurt]

DUH, I posted a comment on that thread.  ?  Must be why I hunted one down.

[ATHU]

Excellent build!! I've got the Matchbox Bora kit hidden away somewhere in my stash. One day I'll give it a try...

[slusher]

Very sharp car..

[Tommy124]

Thanks a lot, Anders and Carl!

[ea0863]

Absolutely beautiful Tom. If it's of any interest to you, the two Testors Maserati Merak's I've done both had very good bodies and none of the problems you ran into. One easy way to tell them apart is the front fenders have holes for forward mounted sideview mirrors on the Testors models. Also, due to a battery compartment built into the floorboard, the Testors models only have two front seats. I recently finished refurbishing one I did with my son, and all we did was clearcoat the bare plastic. In case you want to see a Merak without any bodywork done to it, check mine out.