1/24 [Italeri] Renault R5 Alpine

[Cuba_13]

Good afternoon, friends, with all the past holidays.

Here is my new build - "baby" Renault R5 Alpine. In fact, I started building back in November. But something is all business, business, the build moved very slowly.

First, an overview of the contents of the box.

Tires come first.

Glasses sprue.

Blue sprue.

As you can see, the sprues have details from the Rally version.

White sprue.

Big black sprue.

Body.

The strange decision was to make the headlights absolutely flat dies. Ugly.

Therefore, thanks to one of our colleagues, I got such wonderful headlights with mounts, printed on a 3D printer.

Decals.

Manual.

I decided not to cover the processing of parts, because there is nothing interesting, minor improvements were made to the engine compartment, I will show it already assembled and painted.

This is what the default headlights looked like.

Terrible. Now for a little plastic surgery and voila.

Well, all the parts are prepared and washed, tomorrow I will go to priming.

That's all for now, thanks for your attention.

[fredo84]

I will follow !! As I'm starting it as well

Strange things ,my is light blue and you're is dark blue ....?

Head light buckets looks good !!

[peteski]

Ah, it was sold in USA as Renault LeCar.  Looks like it will be a fun build.

One thing that jumped at me is those kit tires. They look way too "sporty" (wide tread and low-profile) for this little inexpensive pedestrian car.  Even the color drawings of the car in the instructions seem to show narrow tires.

[89AKurt]

I'll lurk for this one.  Cool that a pet peeve of mine is already solved with the 3D parts.  And you have lenses for other projects.

[Hans1971]

1 hour ago, peteski said:

Ah, it was sold in USA as Renault LeCar.  Looks like it will be a fun build.

One thing that jumped at me is those kit tires. They look way too "sporty" (wide tread and low-profile) for this little inexpensive pedestrian car.  Even the color drawings of the car in the instructions seem to show narrow tires.

A pedestrian car ???? Hey, for Americans this car might look a bit silly, but in Europe this was the ultimate car for a young adult.
In the eighties, it was part of a range of cars we describe as 'hot hatchback'. Among them also the Golf GTI, Peugeot 205 GTI, Opel Kadett GTE and many others...
Small, handy cars but with lots of HP under the bonnet.

[peteski]

In USA, it was considered a low-end commuter car, and was never very popular. As I recall, it actually had bad reputation for reliability and rusting.  I don't think that even the Turbo version was sold in large numbers.

 

1 hour ago, 89AKurt said:

Cool that a pet peeve of mine is already solved with the 3D parts.  And you have lenses for other projects.

From what I see in the photos, the 3D parts are just the reflectors -- it still uses the kit's clear lenses.

[Hans1971]

2 hours ago, peteski said:

In USA, it was considered a low-end commuter car, and was never very popular. As I recall, it actually had bad reputation for reliability and rusting.  I don't think that even the Turbo version was sold in large numbers.

 

From what I see in the photos, the 3D parts are just the reflectors -- it still uses the kit's clear lenses.

Indeed, the USA has never been a market for Renault. Though Renault is very popular in Europe, it's reputation is not like German cars. Rust an reliability as you mentioned.

[stitchdup]

1 hour ago, Hans1971 said:

Indeed, the USA has never been a market for Renault. Though Renault is very popular in Europe, it's reputation is not like German cars. Rust an reliability as you mentioned.

and electrics (if you thought lucas electrrics were bad...) stupid ways of mounting things so you have to remove body panels to change a lightbulb (laguna) remove engine parts or suspension parts to get to the alternator (again laguna) putting the engine computer right where all the road spray gathers (most renaults) oh, and the computers in most renaults wont speak to even renaults diagnostic computers without a large (multi hour) update for every car, every engine size and it really wouldn't surprise me if you needed an update for every colour too. I used to work in a renault dealership, and nobody that worked there owned a reno, even the boss owned a toyota. The only renault that was any good was the kangoo van

[89AKurt]

9 hours ago, peteski said:

In USA, it was considered a low-end commuter car, and was never very popular. As I recall, it actually had bad reputation for reliability and rusting.  I don't think that even the Turbo version was sold in large numbers.

 

From what I see in the photos, the 3D parts are just the reflectors -- it still uses the kit's clear lenses.

Yes, these were in the league of the Yugo, and Citroen was not far behind with their Plumber's Nightmare.  The Turbo was not certified for the US market, if one was to import it required massive paperwork and modification, but now that it's past 25 years old, they are under collectible status.

I know that.  I've modified kits that have flat reflectors but use the lens.

[1972coronet]

That R5 looks like it is nicely executed , headlamps not-with-standing. 

The Alpine did not make it to the United States;  we only received the Le Car. Perhaps if the sporty Alpine has found its way here, sales would have been better. 

The R5 Turbo [et alia] was considered  to be a Grey Market import (in es. , a legally-imported model) , with a handful of Black Market (illegally-imported and sold -- no emissions equipment; "small" bumpers; metric measurement / foreign language interior instruments; no side marker lamps; and headlamps which were European-spec) models were around, and mostly were street operated.

The Peugeot 205 GTI is a fine vehicle ! My friend has a "1985" / "1986" model . It's one-of-two Grey Market 205's imported to the U.S. when the model was new. 

However, I digress...

I am quite looking forward to observing the progress which you will make with this Alpine R5.

[peteski]

1 hour ago, 89AKurt said:

I know that.  I've modified kits that have flat reflectors but use the lens.

Your earlier response "And you have lenses for other projects." seemed to imply that the kit's lenses are not used, and could be saved for other projects.

[rightrudder]

We also got the Fuego in the U.S., and the Alliance, which everyone called the "Appliance"!  Briefly, there was a spec racing series with the latter car.

[bisc63]

Never minding the real car, the kit looks to be nicely done. Very odd how they simplified the headlights, when so many more intricate parts were addressed quite well. Looks like Rally-car-only tires are included? It will be fun to see what you make of this! Following...

[89AKurt]

10 hours ago, peteski said:

Your earlier response "And you have lenses for other projects." seemed to imply that the kit's lenses are not used, and could be saved for other projects.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.  I was looking at the round lenses, which would be used for the rally lights.

[beeRS]

Looks like a reasonable kit. Thanks for sharing such a detailed spread of pictures of the individual sprues. I like what you've done with the headlamps.

[Justin Porter]

Such a small improvement with those headlight buckets but they really pay dividends. Really keen to see how this project develops. 

[Bainford]

I'll be watching this one. It seems a much better kit then I thought it would be. Certainly reasonable detail, and I love those tires. Decent 13" tires are so hard to find, and I'm always on the look-out for them.

[Spottedlaurel]

I look forward to seeing it progress. Haven't seen too many of these being built.

I have a couple in the stash, nenver noticed the headlights before - your conversion there looks really good. Will have to think how to do something on mine.

My mum had one when I was 13-15, so I have a little bit of a soft spot for them even though I wouldn't want to own one at 1:1.

[Cuba_13]

Good afternoon friends. Small final update.

The body is varnished and waiting for polishing.

Complete interior.

And complete undercarriage.

The model is done, wait in the under the glass topic.

Thank you for your attention.