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Old 06-06-2011, 08:31 PM
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Darwin Darwin is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Eastern Idaho
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Prudensio Alpha Romeo

Seeing as how none of the rest of the half-dozen or so of you playing in this sandbox has stepped up to the plate, someone really should tackle the Zio puzzles sans instructions, so I guess it will be me. Having successfully managed my way through one of his 1:24 hotrods in the past, I have a little familiarity with the methods behind Zio's madness on these designs, so maybe there is a chance the model will make it all the way without becoming a labor-intensive spitwad. This will not be a pretty build, but maybe liberal use of touch-up paint will keep it from breaking mirrors....I figure I'm going to do well enough just figuring out where the bits go, much less make them pretty.

Prudensio Alpha Romeo-44.jpgPrudensio Alpha Romeo-45.jpgPrudensio Alpha Romeo-46.jpgPrudensio Alpha Romeo-47.jpg

When assembling the frame pieces....red goes on the top and the outsides, dark grey on the bottom and insides of the frame rails. The frame seems to be built around the rear axle/differential, so build that first. Fold and glue together the frame side rails. Like most Zio models, cut the half of the part without tabs to the part outline before folding and gluing. While they are drying, cut out the top piece of the framework and fold the tabs on the part sides upwards (valley fold). Attach one of the siderails to the frame top piece. My own thought is that the bent-up tab at the front of the frame top piece should align with the front of the frame side rail, so that the leaf-spring attachment bracket (the little oval fiddly bit) lies behind the tab. I had best my best result attaching the side rails by starting at the front of the frame, and working toward the rear. When the first frame rail is glued on, insert the rear axle assembly into the cutout on the rear leaf spring (but don't glue it yet), then glue on the second of the side rails. Carefully check and recheck that the position of the side rails respective to the forward tab on the frame top is the same on both sides, or your model will suffer from a "sprung frame" as does mine. Next, cut out, U-fold, and glue the frame crossmember that will serve as the transmission attachment. When dry, cut out and glue on the frame bottom piece. The tabs on the frame bottom look like they are intended to be wrapped around the corresponding crossmember on the upper frame piece....based on the hotrod build, this likely serves as the base for the radiator assembly. I'm not sure yet which way the tab is supposed to be positioned, so don't glue it to anything yet. When this is dry, position the rear axle assemby so the same amount pokes out on both sides of the frame, and the attachment location for the drive shaft faces to the front, and superglue the little sucker into place, keeping the frame as straight as possible while the glue cures. Now glue the front and rear leafspring parts in place, and if you haven't done so yet, glue on the pieces that hide the tabs on the inside front of the frame rails (this is the little part that hasn't been cut out yet in the above pics). To finish up the framework, cut out and assemble the front axle. I found it worked well to superglue the edges of the tabs together...this held the piece from trying to pretzl when gluing on the tops and bottoms of the axles. I found that the little gray bit that was among the white tabs on the edge of the axle are also tabs...they are the ones that attach the assembly onto the front leaf springs. When dry, glue the front axle assembly onto the front leaf springs.

This is as far as I've gotten. I'm now going to build me a jig that will hopefully keep the frame straight until enough of the drive train is in place to stabilize the structure. Also, I opened my big mouth to have a paper-modeling session for the activity portion of my wife's church's girls youth organization....finding girl-appropriate model subjects is much more of a pain than for the boys groups. I guess some of the cutesy animals from Canon and maybe the dollhouse furniture freebie from bestpapermodels....wish me luck, guys...I'm going into the lion's den tomorrow evening.
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