It took a long time to build this kit. 1/12 scale kits contain a lot of details, and this kit contained about 290 parts. Most of these parts required hand painting and hand weathering. I would imagine that when the original car was built in the early 1930's most roads were gravel roads. I added a lot of weathering to the model to simulate dust and dirt.
This is a really big model. It is sitting next to a Revell 1/25 scale Willys.
The car is painted Tamyia Mica Red. I added a lot of weathering to the tires and wheels to simulate dirt and mud. The model comes with a leather strap that holds the hood in place. The problem is that if the strap is installed the hood can't be opened to show the engine. I did not install the strap.
I didn't like the plastic exhaust pipe that was included in the kit, so I substituted an aluminum tube instead.
The seat is covered in faux leather and the steering wheel is wrapped in black masking tape. The kit's instructions indicated that the PE windscreen brackets are to be glued to the cowling. I didn't think that that would work so I used some brass pins to secure the brackets to the cowling.
The hood is in three parts. The three parts of the hood are supposed to fold via hinges. I just couldn't get the hinge leaves to stick to the hood panels. I used all kinds of glue but the hinge leaves always fell off, so I just glued the three hood panels together as a single part. The hood can be easily removed to display the engine.
The engine is very nicely detailed. The cooling fins are well done. Spark plugs are included with the kit. I didn't like the look of the spark plug wires that came with the kit so I purchased a set of wires from Model Motorcars.
The kit includes a really nice PE grill and Alfa script. The suspension is nicely detailed and the suspension parts are held together by steel screws. A nice touch. The fenders are held in place by very thin plastic brackets. The brackets are very fragile. I broke one of them when I was adding weathering with a brush. This is the kind of kit that needs to be placed on a shelf and never touched. The camera's lens makes the front wheels look knock-kneed. In reality, they are not.
Here is the Alfa sitting next to a modern Ferrari. My, how car designs change over time.
If I had to do it again, would I buy this model? It has a nicely detailed engine, frame and suspension. The louvers are very clean with no flash. The PE parts, metal screws and rubber tubing are nice. The kit has some nagging problems, mainly the mounting of the windscreen brackets, the poorly designed hood hinges and the fragile fender brackets. It takes a lot of patience and ability to deal with frustration in order to build this kit. However, the finished product is very nice looking.