Italeri Fiat Mephisto

Having fun with this Italeri Fiat kit. I hope to finish it as well as many others have? Not sure I’ll be happy with just painting the body the usual
‘smooth’ finish: Which imho will not accurately represent the beautiful ‘rough’ natural finish of the real Fiat’s panels?
I know or will assume that the optimal way is to make a wooden buck and form brass sheets over it. In lieu of that,
I am wondering if I can ‘abuse’ the surface of the plastic contours to represent the ‘imperfections’ (nuances?) of the panels properly?
Or at least be an improvement? The two hood parts would also need to be reduced in thickness, and a seam cut where the current raised lines are? I do plan either way to drill out and add real domed head rivets. All the subtle aesthetic elements like adjoining panels not being perfect….don’t know if I can
make that happen? The issue with making the two part hood done is reproducing the louvers on each side? A real piano hinge would not be too difficult. I guess I’m not channeling my Gerald Wingrove very confidently? The brass signature radiator shell on the actual car features very rounded contours, nothing like the kit part? Not trying to upgrade the entire model, just assessing what can be done to improve it within ‘reason’? As if reason has anything to do with it:))) Comments and suggestions appreciated.
Thanks. Clarence



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Hi Clarence - always enjoy your work and this one looks interesting… perhaps overlaying the kit parts with thin material that you can malform - aluminum HVAC tape maybe? … or lead foil or wine bottle foil ? … :thinking:
Good luck .
RT

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I’ve seen some modelers carving up the plastic using rotary tools (Dremel/Proxon etc) and small burrs to represent the “oil-canning” effect on aircraft, you could try the same technique here. It would look terrible at first but not much work to sand and smooth out the dents and dings to get the look you are after.

Great project, looking forward to progress reports coming through.

Cheers, D

Clarence,
Replicating the body shell imperfections from hand forming over a buck in 1/12 scale is certainly going to be a challenge. I’m just not so sure that they will scale all that well. I’m thinking that some type of rounded metal smallish tool heated and banged against the shell should create indentations.

joel