Fiat 500F from Ichiyama

**sparrowhawk** · #1 07-21-2016, 12:57 AM

In the past days, I built the Fiat 500F from japanese designer Ichiyama. Link to his homepage: Home of Ichiyama
Ichiyama has constructed a great range of classic cars in 1:30, mostly of European origin.
So far, I have built several of them. All of them are very neatly and thoughtfully constructed, parts fit is excellent. Most of them are available in several different colours, some of them also as rallye cars.
I have scaled the Fiat up to 1:24, so it fits well into my collection of cars. As the body of this model is really finely sculpted it still looks excellent.
No snags with this little cutie, building just flows along.
Here come the 1st pictures:

**sparrowhawk** · #2 07-21-2016, 12:59 AM

Next pictures:

**sparrowhawk** · #3 07-21-2016, 01:06 AM

More pix. A hallmark of Ichiyama is his ingenious use of a "box chassis", which is built separately from the bodywork. Because it is open on the top side, this chassis distorts easily. Thus, I like to add a cover of heavier cardboard.
About the wheels: to get them perfectly round, I like to cut discs with a circular cutter that fit just inside the tires, then I glue those discs on the inside.

**sparrowhawk** · #4 07-21-2016, 01:15 AM

In order to have the cars stand on all 4 wheels, Ichiyama has provided his kits with a kind of a temporary "car jack" which consists of a triangular prism. made from a narrow strip of cardboard. You place the middle part of the car on top of it, then you glue the wheels inside the wheel housings. Perfect.

**sparrowhawk** · #5 07-21-2016, 01:19 AM

Last pics: Finished.
If the scaling is true, the Fiat 500 was even smaller than the Morris Mini Minor.
Building this little model was an absolute pleasure. More models by him to come.
Ichiyama is an ace, period.

Cheers, Martin

**eatcrow2** · #6 07-21-2016, 06:14 AM

Very nice!!

**whulsey** · #7 07-21-2016, 10:21 AM

Nice job, those were tiny cars.

Did one of his Bugatti's T35 scaled up to 25th. Was pretty good until I screwed it up trying to make louvers.

**sparrowhawk** · #8 07-22-2016, 02:03 AM

Thanks for your friendly comments, mates!
@whulsey: I once tried to imitate the corrugated sheet metal of a Citroen HY and messed up the model by doing this: Similar to the cooling louvers. Normal cardboard stock is just too hard for this. I guess the only way to do this is by using normal typewriter paper and glue it as a 2nd layer on top of the base.

**rockpaperscissor** · #9 07-22-2016, 07:03 AM

Very neat, clean work. I've always been intrigued by Ichiyama's models. Have downloaded a few, but haven't built any yet.

**whulsey** · #10 07-22-2016, 11:02 AM

Sparrowhawk, that's what I finally figured out on the Ursus tractor I'm been working on forever. Fortunately it only has about 8 louvers on an access door, not the 100 or so a T35 has.