Daves DeAgostini 1:8 Lamborghini Countach LP500s

[davetwin]

Hi Dave! Seems Im going to be a bit behind with my build as Im getting my bits a couple of weeks behind you! Still I might as well carry on. Parts looking good so far Dave. I see two of the belts are used in this part! Looking at the HT leads they look a bit bright. I might replace them if its easy enough to do or at least tone down the colouring a bit! Are the end chrome pipes for the exhaust plastic or metal?

Thanks R2D2

I dont think the HT leads are too bad, they look a bit bright in the picture because of the flash.
The end chrome pipes are metal which is a nice little detail. I am finding the quality of the parts with this, right down to the screws are much better than the GR-R

[R2D2]

I agree Dave. So far the parts seem a much better quality even than the Aston Martin DB5 which although was a nice model when finished had quite a few quality issues! I hope this keeps till the end of the build!

[Andrewyzfr6]

Dave, i noticed this cost nearly £1200. Is this worth buying at the price and is the quality good enough to justify the extra cost over the GTR/DB5?

[davetwin]

I cant really comment on the DB5 as I do not have this. I can say that in my opinon the parts are of a muh better quality than the GTR even down to the small things like the quality of screws and how they fit.

I think it is worth the money however there are others that probably dont.

You may not be aware but there is a sale on at DeAgostini at the moment, its the perfect opportunity to try this out with the first issue for only £1, need to be quick though as I think it ends at the end of this week. You really cant go wrong

[baby_astons]

quality issues on the db5?? - it was terrible wherever you looked, I once said on my build there are more mistakes to correct than parts delivered,

so if we take the db5 price as given the lambo is surely worth it's price, after all we don't need the price discussion again and again and again -
we all know a partworks model car will cost around 1000 euros, we also know not many of us would afford to buy even one of these if we had to buy it as a kit -
spread over 2 years does the game...

and one last: something that might be worth 1200 quid for me needn't necessarily be worth 500 for another guy...

[R2D2]

Hi there all! I can vouch for the quality of the parts so farfor the Lamborghini as I have built the Eaglemoss Aston Martin DB5 and also four Pocher 1/8th scale car kits! The quality is as said very good so far! The Aston Martin although was a very nice model when finished was a pain to build! I have just built one for a friend and had the same problems as far as fitting the front section and the fitting of the ejector seat as mine did! The Pocher models are really wonderful when finished but as for the fit of parts and the instructions leave a lot to be desired. Also most of the major body parts are molded in plastic and suffered some times from warping! Although as said the Aton and the pocher kits could have done with being better they were a challenge and added to the enjoyment of building such large and complex models! I am also at the moment building the Deagostini Mellinium Falcon the same as Dave! So far the parts are very good but in my opinion could do with added super detailing such as fitting fibre optics to the inside cockpit and painting other details! You can't expect manufacturers to mass produce every single detail as they are trying to make a profit but I think this adds to the enjoyment of building a model and adding your own personal detailing! This is only my own opinion so it would be interesting to hear what other model builders think!

[Andrewyzfr6]

thanks for this, im going to order it. I dont have an issue with affording it, but i dont want to waste money, i can understand that to a lot of people £1200 is a serious amount of money. I am the one who spent ££££ on a 1/6 tiger tank which is collecting dust.........

[R2D2]

Hi Andrew! As you said some people may think this model is expensive but compared to other models of this size its not to badly priced! Your 1/6th scale tank must have cost quite a lot and 1/8th scale cars from Amalgam cost thousands of pounds! Just go on thier site and see thier prices (although the models are quite superb). Pocher models can cost up to £1400 for certain models! So all in all its not to bad and as its spread over two years shouldn't be to hard on the pocket.

[baby_astons]

hear hear -
and aside of all said, most amalgam models don't feature a thing apart from being really nicely made -
so if you compare, even their testarossa kit price is beyond comprehension,
I suspect they priced it accordingly so customers would rather buy a finished as that's only a premium of around 10% over the kit...

[R2D2]

Hi baby-astons. Amalgam models did do a 1/8th scale Aston Martin DB5 before Eaglemoss released theirs and although it was radio controled was over £2,500! It had no opening parts or operating features but was quite well made!

[baby_astons]

sorry to correct you, that was diamond models of germany, and you can still have the model - even the more expensive with the RC option...

amalgam only did the db9, the dbr9 and the new vanquish...

[R2D2]

Thanks for the update! You are right! My mistake! It still shows that the Lamborghini is still not to bad for the money.

[R2D2]

Just looked on the Amalgam site and they make a 1/8th scale Lamborghini Countach! It looks really nice but its £5050! Thats £3850 more than the DeAgostini model it makes our model cheap in comparison!

[Andrewyzfr6]

i see your points BA. I have ordered the countach anyway, but the first 4 packs have been delivered and im going to get the 1st one soon, is there a way i can contct Deag to " catch up with the latest published pack of parts?( i emailed them before subscribing asking if i could start with all published parts, which they said i could, but i want to phone them to pay for the extra stuff adn i cant find a number)
hope that made sense.....

[davetwin]

i see your points BA. I have ordered the countach anyway, but the first 4 packs have been delivered and im going to get the 1st one soon, is there a way i can contct Deag to " catch up with the latest published pack of parts?( i emailed them before subscribing asking if i could start with all published parts, which they said i could, but i want to phone them to pay for the extra stuff adn i cant find a number)
hope that made sense.....

Here you go Andrew 0844 493 5401

Good luck, there call centre is based in South Africa, I have always struggled to hear them when I have phoned in the past

[davetwin]

Next pack arrived today.

Started with stage 11, rather than jumping in cracking on with this pack I took some time to flick through the instructions.

My first task was to remove the throttle linkage from the top of the engine and prime the plastic ready for Vallejo metallic black.

I then trimmed the lumps off the end of the gas blow back pipes and primed these ready for 'rubberising' using Tamiya black rubber paint. The lumps are where I will attach the PE cable clips

Next was to add some Mr Hobby Metal primer to the ends of the exhaust tips in preperation to apply the decals. These were cleaned with IPA whilst wearing rubber gloves to stop getting any finger prints on them

Finally I 'rubberised' the rubber pipes on the fuel rail? part. Due to the difficulty posed with masking this up I decided just to paint this by hand, need to make sure you still thin the Tamiya paint otherwise it brushes horrendously, this is just one coat, at least one more needed.










With flash to show the rubber effect better

[R2D2]

Looking good so far Dave! I like the detailing your doing! I wonder how difficult it would be to make the throttle linkages to actualy work! As I haven't yet recieved my parts yet would the parts be big enough or are they to small to replicate Dave?

[davetwin]

Thanks R2D2

I think that it would be possible to make the linkages actually work, probably a bit beyond my abilities but I'm sure it could be done

[R2D2]

I will have to wait till I get my bits to see if it can be done!

[davetwin]

While I waited for the paint to try on the painted parts I carried on with Issue 11.

The next stage was putting the HT leads in there relevant holes. The instructions advises that the configuration of the leads bundle are not accurate and gives detailed instructions for rearranging them should you wish to do so. I decided that I would, it was rather fiddly but fun at the same time.

All numbered ready to slot into there relevant holes




The end result




Issue 12 builds the alternator using a part from a previous issue, you also get another rear wheel, the tyre is in issue 13.




Alternator completed




I decided that I was going to use detailing products that I use on my real car on this model so set about dressing the tyres. First job was to clean them with a degreaser to ensure they were clean. I then used Auto Brite Trim and Tyre gel.

The right one is dressed and the left as supplied




All currently issued wheels dressed




The engine had come to a halt now as I am awaiting some Photo Etch hose clips from Germany