Bugatti 100P... this time the Hard Way! 1980 Projekt Model Co. 1/72nd injected kit

 

 

Bugatti 100P, the Hard Way:

After buying the newly released Special Hobby Bugatti 100P

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/07/bugatti-100p-special-hobby-172nd.html

I thought "Hey, there was this old kit, I should get one". And so I did. Because no kit should be left behind!

I have a soft spot for the scale model cottage industry. Against all odds, with very limited resources, and a lot of love and will they produce some kits that surely will never make them rich, or in some cases even pay for the expenses. I love their drive, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. I don't love all they produce, but I love that they produce it. Exceptional talent and beautiful products are found made by Matías Hagen's from Argentina ( 72topia https://www.facebook.com/72topiaScaleModelKits ), and Lars Opland from Alaska ( Khee-Kha Art Products https://www.opland-freeman.com/khee-kha/ ), among many others. This blog has many models built from their kits, as well as many from Mike Herrill's Execuform, and the late Gordon Stevens' RarePlane. I have also used myriad of parts and accessories from the late Fred Hultberg's Photocut and John Adam's Aeroclub. Long live Cottage Industry, as they produce -or produced- what mainstream won't. 

Cottage industry can offer superb products, or some that are a bit challenging but help you to hone those modelling skills, or some that are plain or a bit Spartan, some that are incredibly detailed and well produced, and some that may provoke some head-scratching.

So here it is this Projekt Models Co. Bugatti, released by some intrepid gentlemen, according to the instructions, in 1980 (42 years ago to date) at the "Guano Model and Zeppelin Works"! It already sounds like so much fun! The kit is from the Seattle/Washington area. I believe a Greenbank Castle Ryan M-1 1/72 kit I built and posted here time ago came from the same area, not sure if there is a connection, other than the irresistible urge of producing home-made kits in Seattle!

 Contents:

 The smallish bits will need cleaning up and some refinement, but are there. Heck, have you ever built a Dujin kit, or (heaven forfend) a Merlin kit?

Flying surfaces rendered in halves (see all the sprues in a photo above), so no sink marks here:

The shapes I believe are there, but careful removal and ulterior refining are mandatory:

Crystal clear vac canopy:

Literature, diagrams, plans, instructions, photos, the Whole 9 Yards!:

Very detailed guide to face the building challenge:

Even erratas to warn of a few missteps!:

All parts removed from the sprues and gates cleaned up. Yes, the gates are a bit invasive, and have to be approached carefully. I cut the parts off the sprues with plenty of gate material left, and then little by little shaved them off, and ended with a very light sanding. Some parts will require more care than others, and a few adjustments pointed out in the instructions:

You can tell when a manufacturer put love and care in a kit, and this is definitively the case. The parts once cleaned are good, the engineering sound. The propeller blades are super thin and with the proper washout, the landing gear covers are commendably thin, and not the thick pancakes you get even in kits released today. The landing gear legs are well depicted, but they may benefit from substituting the struts with two sliding sections of metal tube. The seat is wonderfully rendered, again, as it should be, and not the indifferent slabs that come in some contemporary kits. All in all, I am very happy I bought this vintage kit, it's a delight, even requiring of course a lot of care.
 

I started to glue some of the parts. The fit is very good, which is really remarkable for what it is basically a home-made kit made in 1980. In fact, the fit is much better than many "new" kits I have built in the past years. Of note are especially the interior parts, which fit like a glove, instead of the usual oversized parts -that force you to sand everything down- that you get in most kits. The clever trick of sandwiching the louvers between the tail parts works perfectly:

The only parts you may discard. The exhaust stacks were indeed there, but covered with a shroud that only left visible their mouths. Replacements will be fabricated:

The landing gear legs are replaced by metal tube:

The holes for the axis and propeller blades are drilled. Notice that there is a set of short blades that go on the aft part of the spinner, and a long pair that go at the front. Follow the instructions to give the blades their proper angles:

The exhaust stub shrouds are fabricated:

Painting of some elements started:

The fuselage halves are joined. I made the two bottles that go at the front of the cockpit and the rudder pedals:

Wings and tail are glued. There are recesses for them, but you have to work quite a bit on the fit of the mating surfaces nonetheless, and then there would filler in your future:

I made some joysticks to replace the one in this kit and the Special Hobby one:

After much filling and sanding, the model is ready for a first coat of primer. At this stage I prepared the vacuformed canopy. As with any vac canopy, do the initial cut leaving plenty of surplus material, and then gradually adjust to size. The cut lines are very faint, and the canopy is very thin, so be careful. I managed to finally trim it to size, but the fit as one would expect is not perfect, if fair:

Primed:

Nothing more exciting than two Bugatti 100P flying low and inverted over the building board.

Foreground Special Hobby, background Projekt Models Guano Works:

I just got in touch again with Stuart Clark, who build a very nice model with this kit. He cunningly added for diorama effect an aftermarket 1/72nd 3D-printed Bugatti Atlantic car, so I will take a page from his book and try to track that item. Thanks, Stuart!
 

A gloss white base is applied, and other parts are painted:

The two Bugattis receive some paint:

Without forgetting the spinner and landing gear legs:
 

The cockpit interior parts are starting to be added. A few parts (bottles at the front of the cockpit, pedals, a replacement joystick, etc.) that were not provided in the kit were fabricated:

Now for some notes on the canopy: the original had some arcs of the same plexiglass material from inside at the front section of the canopy, these were translucent and whitish due to the glue. This effect can be replicated using Scotch "magic tape", which is also translucent and whitish, from the inside, as in the original, not as external frames. Then there are metal flanges at the base of that top section, and other metal flanges surrounding the aft section and at two hinging points running lengthwise. Summarizing: there is no blue on the canopy. Here below is the kit's canopy, that comes with no frames, and that will need a bit of work to look good:

Since we are at details, the spinner had a little hole at the very tip, and that's present on this old kit, but absent from the new kit.

And here it is, almost ready:

  To be continued...