Alfa Romeo 158/9

Built this one from the old SMER kit, which I understand dates from the 1950s and may have originally been a Merit kit.
Detail was very basic, so I did an unbelievable amount of work to ge it up to standard.
Among lots of things I did:
Hand laced the wire wheels
Hand cut tyre treads
Added lots of engine detail
Opened up all the louvres (and there are lots of them)
Extra ribs in the seat, and a scratch built frame under the seat
Extra fuel tank on each side if the cabin
etc etc

Looks great! If you have some more detail photos they certainly would be appreciated. I would like to get a close look at your handiwork.

Will upload some more photos tomorrow, once I figure the best way to get detailed clear photos onto this forum.

That's a cool racer.

Great work
yes more photos please

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Id really like to see some up-close pics of this one, it looks great!

You've certainly done an amazing job with this. Interested to know how you did your wire wheels.
Have got a couple of these Merit kits, every now and again I have a look at them then put them back in the stash. maybe if I could do something similar with the wheels I'd have a go at them.

NICE!!!
I too wanna see some closer shots of you're exceptional handiwork.
"Hand laced the wire wheels
Hand cut tyre treads"

I've been crook, so haven't had the motivation to spend the time posting, but here goes:



Rear wheel. The brake drum was very carefully seperated from the rim, which is on two parts, with the tyres moulded in. The hub is scratchbuilt, and fitted to the brake drum. The brake drum was drilled out with the cooling holes. The hub has grooves to retain the spoke lacing. The knock off is part of the kit. I drilled 48 equally spaced holes in the wheel rim with a no.78 bit. The holes are in two slightly offset lots of 24 each to allow the spokes to sit properly without bending. I then rigged it so I could lace it with a single length of 0.20 mm fishing line. I worked out a pattern to follow to give a correct look. The two wheel halves were then glued together. After sanding the joint in the middle of the tyre I lost most of the tread, so I had to recut the tread by hand with a filed down razor saw blade. The brake drum was painted with aluminium metalizer. It was masked with a piece of paper, and the wheel and spokes were airbrushed with gloss aluminium Alclad II. The tyres were handpainted.



Right side of engine showing the scratchbuilt ignition wiring tube.



You'll notice the additional fuel tanks on the sides of the footwell. Seat also has a couple of extra ribs added to make it the proper width. The seat also sits on a scratch built frame, you can see a small part of it in the photo.
The gearshift gate is scratchbuilt.



The rear of the front wheel and brake drum. It has scratchbuilt vents, brake and hydraulic lines. Steering tie rods are scratchbuilt.



The left side of the engine. Carburettor was improved, and the supercharger intake was scratcbuilt. Supercharger was improved and the drive shaft added. You can also see one of the two scratchbuilt magnetos on the front of the camshaft cover. There is another on the right side. Sparkplug boots added.



Front wheel showing brake drum detail, and the handcut tyre tread.



Inside of engine cover. It was thinned down with my Dremel, files and sanding, then the louvres laboriously opened with the back of a hobby blade. All louvres were done the same way.

There is no explanation for my obsessive madness, other than a determination to make a silk purse out of a pretty basic pig's ear.
There's quite a lot of reference material on the net, but I also had a booklet on the cars which kevjoh sold me years ago at an IPMS meeting! These cars changed quite a lot over the years, so mine may not be totally accurate, and is somewhat of a composite of how it raced over its last two seasons.

very impressive!

"Obsessive madness"....... nah mate it's dedication
The finished product is well worth the effort, it's very satisfying to make something so well finished and detailed out of a very ordinary kit.
Nice work

Absolutely impressive...even more so when considering the quality of the kit you started with. Wowsers!!!

Absolutely impressive work, just dragged my Alfa down to check it out again, ---------- maybe one day.

Next time you're down for an IPMS meeting bring it with you. The way you have done the spokes is definitely the work of a genius.

Thanks all for your comments.

Kev, we plan to be living in Newcastle by the end of the year, and I intend to hop on the train and come to the IPMS meetings, so yes, you will get to see the car!

Cheers, Rob

VERY VERY Impressive, exceptionally detailed build , Awsome job!

awesome detail work

That is very well done, love the attention to detail.

I bought this kit and the other blue car that Smer made. I know how basic this kit is and you have certainly done this model justice. Love your detail, awesome build.

Real nice detail work on this , looks great.

Very nice model!

Good job, love the wheels