Fiat Mefistofele- 1/12 Italeri (Ex-Protar)

[jaymcminn]

This is Italeri's 1/12 scale Fiat Mefistofele. The kit was originally released by Protar in the mid 70s with a metal body, and was retooled and released by Italeri several years ago in plastic. It's an impressive kit that I've been eyeing for a few years now before finally deciding to bite the bullet and buy it. 

The detail is excellent, but there's a lot of weirdness involved which I'm chalking up to the kit's Protar origins. Sprue attachment points, even on small and delicate parts, are MASSIVE. There's a lot of caution and cleanup required. Way too much of this kit goes together with screws as well. Pushing screws through three or four layers of delicate plastic parts while trying to keep everything aligned and trying to keep the jeweler's screwdriver from camming out gets old really quick. There's detail where it shouldn't be and none where it should. And the instructions... well, if the instructions were perfect, or even reasonably useful, that would make life way too easy. So all in all, we're looking at the sort of challenge that makes for a great story and a fun project.

Whenever I start off on a build like this I look at the modifications and corrections that will make the biggest difference to the finished model. Pictures online are a big help... what stands out most when looking at the car? In the case of Mefistofele there are many things that immediately come to mind. The wood bulkheads and floors, the patina of old copper and brass, the rivets and the stains of oil and soot that make it look like the fire-breathing demon that inspired its name.

I decided to tackle the wood first. Wood played a big part in the construction of this car... the cabin floor, rear bulkhead, firewall and interface between the chassis and bonnet are all wood. THese bits are molded in unconvincing tan plastic (except for the rear bulkhead, which is just missing altogether). I'll often paint plastic to resemble wood in  1/24, but in 1/12 it's just not easy to do that in a convincing fashion. I used 1/32 basswood for the planks and 1/8 basswood for the long pieces that go between the bonnet and chassis. For the planked floor and firewall I laid the planks over the kit plastic. For the rear bulkhead I cut a piece from thin plastic sheet and used it as a template and base for the planking. Stain is Minwax Ipswitch Pine (I had it laying around) and the weathering/graining was done in Model Master black weathering stain. The soot stain on the firewall was done with Tamiya weathering pastel.

 

[jaymcminn]

Next was the bodywork. Molded rivets always look like little blobs on the plastic. They disappear under paint and don't take weathering and washes well. On my Alfa Romeo build last year I used .040 plastic rivets from Tichy Train Group to great effect to replace the molded rivets so I decided I needed to do the same with the Fiat. The Alfa had some 30 or so rivets. The Fiat has... hundreds. Each one was drilled out and the new rivet inserted and glued in with Tamiya cement. The job could be more even, but closeup pics of the 1:1 show that the rivets on that aren't exactly perfect either. While I was at it, I scribed the raised panel lines on the bodywork. Additionally, the belly pan was lacking in detail and reinforcements that show pretty clearly in pictures. I added them in with sheet styrene and still more rivets. I primed with Tamiya red oxide primer and painted with Tamiya Italian Red. The bodywork is currently awaiting a stencil set from Orlee in Switzerland for the Fiat lettering and number plates. The cabin floor is just mocked up in the last pic... I'm not that far along yet!

[jaymcminn]

Other little details so far... the driver's seat needed some cosmetic surgery. It has a molded button-tuft pattern on the seat but nothing on the seat back when it should be the opposite. I filled the seat with Tamiya putty and sculpted the pattern on the seatback with pin vise, files and sanding sticks. The buttons are .050 rivets and the piping is wrapping wire. 

Speaking of wrapping... the 1:1, like many racing cars of the day, had its leaf springs wrapped in cord for protection. I used cotton quilting thread for my wrapping (I used white because it's what I had lying around). I then painted the thread with thinned Tamiya deck tan and applied a thin dark grey wash. I think the results are pretty decent. Total time for all four springs was about 5 hours. Tedious? Yes. Worth it? Oh yeah. 

[Bainford]

Excellent work. Very interesting subject, and kit. The detailing is superb, especially the wood treatment. Looking forward to seeing more.

[Kingslug]

This is great..I'm building the same one and just finished the spring wrapping. I bought bolts from Model motor cars to replace all the screws and they are working out great. Also plan on doing same with the wood parts you are doing. The body rivets...well..thats a lot. The seat looks great..guess I'll copy that as I could definitely do no better. Waiting on supplies has held me up. Brass tubing  and various paints. I'm going to try the metal finishes from AK interactive but the brass is held up until the end of the month..Going to try their gold with some black oil paint mixed in..That or some Vallego brass I have. Wondering how to paint the body..They used brushes back then..not sure how that will come out. Using Testors black for the frame has worked out well..its gloppy enough to look like the glop they used back then. 

 

[jaymcminn]

10 hours ago, Kingslug said:

This is great..I'm building the same one and just finished the spring wrapping. I bought bolts from Model motor cars to replace all the screws and they are working out great. Also plan on doing same with the wood parts you are doing. The body rivets...well..thats a lot. The seat looks great..guess I'll copy that as I could definitely do no better. Waiting on supplies has held me up. Brass tubing  and various paints. I'm going to try the metal finishes from AK interactive but the brass is held up until the end of the month..Going to try their gold with some black oil paint mixed in..That or some Vallego brass I have. Wondering how to paint the body..They used brushes back then..not sure how that will come out. Using Testors black for the frame has worked out well..its gloppy enough to look like the glop they used back then. 

 

Thanks man! I decided to punt on the body paint and just go with the lightly-polished Tamiya. I experimented with brushed texture under airbrushed paint and, while the effect worked, it seemed to be out of scale. I'm just too used to smooth shiny paint to go totally the opposite direction. Pics soon of my radiator shell, which I airbrushed with the AK Xtreme Metal Brass. It looks really good. I feel you about waiting for supplies... the masks for the side lettering and registration number are coming from Orlee in Switzerland and are taking forever to get here. I don't mind the wait, it's better than using the kit decals. I'm kind of wishing I'd gone with the bolts. Those kit screws are a nightmare and much worse than the screws and bolts on the Alfa. 

It's funny that we have two builds of this kit, which is pretty uncommon, going on at the same time. I'm enjoying watching your interpretation of this great car on your thread as well!

[jaymcminn]

The radiator shell was painted in AK Interactive Xtreme Metal Brass, which does a nice job of replicating lightly patinated brass. I would have liked a more polished brass finish but this turned out really well. The paint laid down beautifully over the base coat, which was Tamiya semi-gloss black polished out with 2500 grit. I then applied Tamiya chrome silver over the letters (I think they're nickel brazed onto the brass tank on the 1:1) and on the sides of the tank where the sides of the radiator shell are prominently soldered to the tank on the 1:1. An acrylic wash brings out the detail on the letters. 

For the texture on the chassis, I started off with a base coat of Tamiya TS-29 semi-gloss black right from the can. I then used Model Master acrylic semi-gloss black brush paint applied with a large brush. I stippled the paint on and continued stippling the same area until the paint started to develop texture and then I stopped to let it dry. The acrylic's tendency to self-level smoothed out out the texture just a little and produced a finish that's dead-perfect compared with pics of the 1:1. I'm really pleased with how this turned out. 

Finally some mockups of the chassis, body and belly pan. In the last pic you can see the finish on the interior, which is a wash of faded primer red with a dark grey wash in the crevices.  I'm liking how this build is progressing so far but there's a big chunk of this big boy that hasn't even been started yet other than some initial clean up. More pics to follow!

[Kingslug]

Wow..really moving along. I like the idea about the chassis paint..I ordered some semi gloss and will give a third coat as you did..it looks like real metal. As far as the decals..I have some Tamiya stenciling sheets with the grids on it..I'm going to use that and make stencils from the decals and brush it on as was done with the real car..Except for the script Mefistofele..that one will have to be a decal.

The rivets look great..I'm tempted...and the radiator  came out great..I read a build diary where they remodded it to look more like the real on..said this one is not quite the right shape..but I'm not going there...

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by Kingslug

[jaymcminn]

Update time... I got the pre-cut stencils from Orlee for the "FIAT" scripts. On the 1:1 the scripts are cracked with age. It's one of those textural details that I wanted to reproduce. I thought about using crackle medium under the white paint (unpredictable), drawing the cracks on with a technical pencil (smudgy) and finally decided to, umm, grab an X-Acto blade and start scratching up the fresh white paint I just laid down. Well, it could have been a disaster but it turned out to be exactly the effect I was going for...the cracks are in-scale and, just like the 1:1, you don't notice them until you get close. I installed the kit "Mefistofele" decals as well. 

[jaymcminn]

The instrument panel received a wash of thinned grey detail wash stippled on to give some of the turned texture of the 1:1. Paint is Tamiya Flat Aluminum, Gold Leaf, and Rubber Black. I  installed the finished panel in the body, then installed the floor after which I was able to finally mount the body to the chassis. The last pic shows where I am right now... the wheels assemble from four layers of spokes, a hub piece (all of the hubs needed sink marks filled) and, sigh, 6 fiddly screws. The spokes are incredibly thin and were warped on all of my wheels, but when installed and aligned correctly the warp disappears. They're exceptionally nice plastic wire wheels, even better than the ones in the new-tool Alfa 8c. I painted them in Tamiya Semi-Gloss black and weathered them lightly with Tamiya weathering pastels. The belly pans and radiator grille are just there for looks right now. Unfortunately there's something BIG (21.7 litres, to be exact) missing... more to come! As always, questions or comments are welcome!

 

[Kingslug]

This is great..really moving along..sadly my time is limited but I can see what your doing to check im moving in the right direction. I messed up and wrapped the springs fully..now I can find the locating hole..guess once I try to put it on it will align right..

I'm going to try to make my own stencil and just...copy what you did!

[jaymcminn]

On 9/10/2021 at 5:13 PM, Kingslug said:

This is great..really moving along..sadly my time is limited but I can see what your doing to check im moving in the right direction. I messed up and wrapped the springs fully..now I can find the locating hole..guess once I try to put it on it will align right..

I'm going to try to make my own stencil and just...copy what you did!

I don't think the actual screw attachment between the spring and axle mount is necessary for proper alignment. It seems to me that once everything is in place it should all align itself where it needs to be.

I took a chance on the cracking of the letters and got lucky that it worked out exactly how I saw it in my head. Ordinarily I would try a test piece to make sure I wasn't going to do potential damage to a $200+ model I already have 100-ish hours sunk into, but I just kind of jumped in. I will say, if you try this at home, to use light pressure with the back of a used #11 blade. Also study pics of how paint cracks... there is almost a pattern to it that instinctively feels "right" when you see it. And don't do what I did, spray some test panels using your body color and the paint you're going to use for the lettering and practice on that first. What worked for me using Model Master Acryl flat white (I'll miss that stuff, best white paint in the world) might not work as well with something else. 

I've just gotten primer on all the engine bits and will probably sit down with the airbrush tomorrow before work and apply the aluminum, copper and brass finishes to the myriad of complex parts that make up the steampunk heart of this mighty beast. More updates soon!

Edited September 13, 2021 by jaymcminn

[lucky 130]

WOW, just WOW!

 

[Kingslug]

I read a build diary that stated that the motor went in from the bottom...not sure why though..check it out.

[jaymcminn]

3 hours ago, Kingslug said:

I read a build diary that stated that the motor went in from the bottom...not sure why though..check it out.

I found this out while test-fitting the motor and exhaust system. The steering box fouls the rear motor mount if you try to go in from above.   Pics and an update soon, there's been a lot of progress!

[Kingslug]

Your having aa better time with it than me...takes so long to do a few things. 

Oh..and it looks like the directions for the rear suspension are wrong about a few things..The tension shocks are upside down..the 3 spring goes on the bottom...not worth removing as no one..but us will know. Found that in another build diary. Apparently Italeri issued corrections in a later run of the model. 

[Kingslug]

[TimKustom]

Superb attention to detail in your typical fashion. Love the wood! Keep it going.

 

[jaymcminn]

3 hours ago, TimKustom said:

Superb attention to detail in your typical fashion. Love the wood! Keep it going.

 

Thanks Tim! 

I've definitely kept it going... lots of building, some picture-taking, and now an update. The massive engine was a 316bhp, 21.7 litre Fiat aircraft engine purchased to replace the blown original by the builder, Ernest Eldridge. The detail on the kit's parts is extremely nice, but the execution is often a little lacking. Sink marks were filled and everything was airbrushed in Tamiya acrylics and AK Interactive Extreme Metal enamels. 

 

Next was the assembly of the cylinder barrels and the cam/rocker unit. Italeri provides springs, which I chose to use after applying primer and a coat of Tamiya chrome silver to add some thickness to the kit springs. At this point it looks good but there's much more to come!

 

Italeri's ignition wiring is awful. The wires are insanely thick, and the attachment method involves stripping the ends off the wires, winding them around posts on the distributor cap, and then stripping the insulation off the other end and cramming the stripped ends into a too-small hole in the wire tubes on the sides of the motor. (yes, there are four distributors... 4 plugs for each of the 6 cylinders!) I built one up and decided it was awful and didn't look anything like the elegant original arrangement. Pic of the built-up distributor as Italeri would have you do it...

 

 

 

 

...And what the 1:1 distributors look like.

 

I drilled holes just inside of the caps for thinner black wrapping wire and enlarged the holes in the wire tubes so the wiring would actually fit into the tubes. Much better!

 

Next was the plugs and leads... with the thinner wrapping wire I was able to drill into the tubes so I could insert the ends of the leads into the tubes. Ignition system is a go!

[jaymcminn]

Next was the intake and exhaust... the 1:1's copper intake manifolds are pretty distinctive, with patched areas and visible solder joins. To represent that, I applied patches of extremely thin sheet styrene and textured the surface with Tamiya copper before applying a top coat of AK copper. Solder joins were done in thinned Tamiya flat aluminum. The exhaust manifold has visible and distinctive soot staining, that was reproduced with Tamiya Weathering Master soot.

The cooling pipes on the passenger side were done with kit tubing and PE clamps. I would actually not glue this assembly at this point, since it will probably need tweaking to clear the frame rail after install. 

More pics soon, and any questions/comments as always are welcome!

 

 

[Kingslug]

This is great..was wondering about the wiring as it looked pretty strange the way they want you to do it..so..I get to copy you again..LOL

looks great..I'm going to try to make my own springs..that should be fun. How are you going to do the piping..I'm going with brass rod and tube.

 

[jaymcminn]

2 hours ago, Kingslug said:

This is great..was wondering about the wiring as it looked pretty strange the way they want you to do it..so..I get to copy you again..LOL

looks great..I'm going to try to make my own springs..that should be fun. How are you going to do the piping..I'm going with brass rod and tube.

 

I'm actually a little ahead of these pics at this point. I wound up using brass rod for the piping instead of the copper stuff Italeri includes. I used the plastic t-junctions and the clear tube from the kit for the joins, but painted the clear tubing with acrylic brass after everything was together. The flexibility of the tubing at the joins was pretty helpful at times but I was sorely tempted to go with 1/16 tube for the joins. The kit instructions are truly woeful when it comes to this step, as you can imagine. I wound up just using photo references as much as possible. I did do all of the piping before installing the engine, I think it would have been much more difficult doing it once the engine was mounted.

[Kingslug]

I'm going to try to make the tee fittings with brass tube and nuts..going to try to solder it up. Waiting for a book on how to work with brass but I can solder plumbing pretty well. Ordered aluminum spark plugs from RB Motion..expensive but what the hell..

The hose clamps look great. And the wiring is perfect.And the copper came out perfect as well!

[jaymcminn]

Getting closer... I didn't get pics of installing the tubing on the engine or the install. To be honest, installing the tubing around the engine, and then the throttle/ignition linkages after the engine was installed, were fairly frustrating jobs that I wasn't really wanting to interrupt to bust out my phone. I will say that Italeri has you install the wood parts on the frame rails before installing the linkages, which makes it much more difficult to get down in there and install the tricky linkages. Top tip... install the linkages first and then the wood parts. The engine looks the part, and some washes and weathering pastels go a long way. 

 

I wrapped the exhaust pipe in cotton cord rather than the garden twine Italeri provides.

 

 

Next came getting this beast up on its wheels. The first thing I did on this kit was the drive chains for the rear wheels. The chains build up from four layers of parts mounted on frames. the frames align together and then the layers are heat-welded together. The chains are cut loose from the frames producing realistic, flexible chains. This was tedious work but wasn't especially difficult. Before the install I brush-painted the chains with gunmetal Metalizer. I used Shin-Etsu silicon grease on the large bolts that mount the wheels and sprockets to help them go in a little easier. 

 

The exposed screw head on the front sprocket was unacceptable. I found some #72 bolts, nuts and washers from an old project and fabbed up a more realistic solution...

 

 

Up on its wheels and being checked out by my harshest critic...

 

 

After installing the hood sides, I went ahead and tried my hand at a little leatherwork on the hood straps. I used extremely thin lambskin which I washed in dark grey to weather it up. Rather than the fragile kit mounts I bent brass rod to shape. THe straps were secured around the mounts with CA glue and a stitch to be on the safe side. They turned out really well and work great!

 

Finally (for this post) my "driver" figure. A 1:12 version of my buddy Bandit, curled up exactly where he'd be on the real thing. Final update coming soon!

Edited October 3, 2021 by jaymcminn

[Bugatti Fan]

I have seen some lovely models made from this kit in shows here in England. This particular model will be up there with the very best that I have seen so far. Congratulations on this superb build being shared on here. Nice to see older classics featured on this site.

Maybe one day apart from MFH's very expensive Bugatti T35 we might see one by Italeri that would be more affordable for most of us.