FIAT 500 Hachette 1:7

Hi friends, I'm new to this forum and this is my first thread here. As some of you could have already noticed there is a Fiat 500 in the home page this week. That model is my dear 500, the car I loved most in my life.
I tell you the story from the beginning...

At the beginning of 2019 BC (.... is for "before covid) I saw in the newsstand the first issue of Hachette's "costruisci la tua 500" (build your own 500). I searched for some building thread in the web (it was the second edition so someone should have already finished it) and found that it was a very detailed model, although with several mistakes and things to fix, but a good starting model for a superdetail work. I usually prefer to build models that have something to do with my personal life and this was a perfect subject for this purpose. The Fiat 500 is the car I learned to drive with (many years ago...) and, even if the original car is unfortunately lost (sell it was one of the worst mistake I can think of) I remember perfectly every single bolt of my little lost car. And so my objective was clear: I would have built the perfect replica of MY OLD 500 with all the details I would have able to put in it...




This thread will describe all the ways which I tried to add details and upgrades to Hachette's original model.

Let's start with the detail I like most in any of my models: instrumentation, gauges, panels, dashboards .... etc

I didn't like at all the instrumentation provided by Hachette. It's flat and has errors in the labels.



I duplicated the piece in resin and printed a new instrumentation background on different planes













This way the instrumentation is much better and recalls the original one very well.





The model has leds to simulate the instrumentaion lighting and my new panel is good also with lights on.

Welcome here and have much fun building this lovely little oldie !! I´m very interested to see your progress in building.

Best regards
Stephan

This already looks very promising, I am curious how it goes on...

Hi Tonino and thank you very much for showing us the making of your wonderful model.
Even though we already know the final result it is very interesting to learn about the details and your decisions to build the ultimate model of this wonderful little car.
There was a lot to do and you definitely did a perfect job. You can be very proud!

Greetings
Michael

Thanks all my friends! And now comes a chapter where my carmodeler skills were widely used.
In my car was installed an old radio (it was OLD in '80, now it would be a museum piece) that was removed from my dad's car when he changed his old Ford Taunus for a new (!) FIAT 125 special.
That radio was built before transistor era, so it worked with valves. A real piece of ancient technology. I remember very well that radio with all the black buttons to recall stations (strictly on medium waveband) that once pushed produced a loud "click" moving the little dial behind the front window.
I found a lot of photos of the real radio and decided to build one from scratch (obviously it wasn't provided in the model).


This is the original radio: an Autovox directly from 1962 (just my age!)



I drew the main parts on CorelDraw and printed on cardboard.



Buttons, knobs, the window and some plates was made in plastic.



The assembly still unpainted.



Then, as I found the paper parts to appear not enough "metallic", I printed the body parts on silver autoadhesive foil.



Here are all the painted parts and the new "metallic" body.



And here is the final assembly. Really identical to the original. I'm very proud of this little model in the model!



This shall be its final collocation.

Well done - Gut gemacht!
I like it very much. - Gefällt mir sehr gut.

Gruß Ulrich

Wow

Unbelievable, Tonino! A perfect job! Very impressive!

Greetings
Michael

I think, how I assess you, this little radio is functionable too

Awesome

Sehr schön ...


Gruß - Jörg -

Hi friends, let's continue with interiors...

The seats.

The springs under front seats were a distinctive feature well visible when you reclined the front seat to reach rear places.
The Hachette model represent springs with an ugly printed surface. Didn't like it very much.



I realized a wooden tool to create the typical "S" springs from a brass wire





The lower frame was properly detailed (with the unlocking lever) and provided of the right "rusty" appearance



The new springs were added to the upper frame







... and there is the revised seat! Almost identical to the original  

Ciao Tonino, mi piace quello che stai costruendo qui  Buona fortuna continua...

I wanted to have all the collection completed before dealing with the bigger challenges (chassis repainting, engine, suspensions...) so I worked on little internal details while I was waiting for the issues to come.

Now I'll talk you about the key slot. The one provided by Hachette was very far from the real one:



Was easy to replace it with a new one realized with old sprue remains.



This one is far better



Now that I had the slot an insane idea took place in my mind: why souldn't I put the keys in the slot?

The original user manual provides a good image of the complete key set:



So with a lot of patience and very little files I realized an almost perfect copy of them in 1:7



Then (and here you can see my complete madness) I drawn and printed on trasparent autoadhesive foil the writings and patterns of the keys and placed them on the faces of the silver painted microkeys...





And here is the complete bunch of key. The most difficult thing (believe it or not) was putting them in the ring...

Excellent

But surely you know, modelbuilders are often a little bit crazy

...and this kind of craziness makes our hobby and us so remarkable.
The keys are very special and so are you. Congratulations!

Greetings
Michael

Speechless

Penso che sia bello quando i modellisti sono un po' matti Tonino  

(ich finde es gut wenn modellbauer etwas verrückt sind Tonino)

Thanks all... I feel I am between friends!

Let's continue with the interior detailing...

The 500 had a distinctive heating system with two openings right under the dashboard that was only roughly sketched in the Hachette model. I remember very well those two knobs over the knees, very useful in winter mornings.


This is the part before the treatment...


I opened the heat aperture


and reconstructed the shutter mechanism.


This is the final result.


Another strange feature was a manual throttle command placed in the front lower part of the cabin. An early precursor of modern cruise control. This part was also pretty roughly defined.


The original appearance


And the new one done with plastic and brass wire


The throttle command is done

The last piece I want to show you today is the nice manual pump for the windshield washer. Another distinctive detail that any 500 owner wants to find in a decent scale reproduction...





Some words about my usual method for creating new parts. I draw the single components in a vectorial draw software (I use Corel Draw) and print the file on adhesive paper. I attach the paper on a piece of plasticard of the proper thickness and cut it with modellers blade or other suitable device (punch or little scissors...depending on the shape in use). Here you see the printed paper and the parts ready to assemble.


This is the little rubber pump just painted


I recreate the water tubes with nylon fishing line.


And this is the pump in its final collocation under the dashboard...

That's all for today
See you soon friends!

Model-building in perfection, Tonino! Congratulations again. I own a manual about this car.
I should read it again in order to understand the function of the details better...

Greetings
Michael