Bburago 1/18 Alfa

[Plumdragon]

Hello All I do dabble in other media besides card and paper, and here's my rendition of one of those very toy-like big scale metal bodied cars. Frankly, they're a bit nasty out of the box (at least, this model was!), but this was picked up dirt cheap as I wanted to try my hand at replicating some real life weathering, so it didn't matter if I messed up too much!
The real racing machines were brush painted and cleaned with an oily rag, so this model has the same brushed finish, which has been polished with a toothbrush and my finger ends (the grease burnishes up matt paint something lovely!) and then automotive 'black wax' - the stuff you put on your car's plastic bits. The exhaust burns were made with the wax and by literally burning the paint with a smouldering incense stick. Rust was added using, naturally, real rust scraped off some old garden shears.
Lots of details were added, and the seats made up from an old leather purse. There are dress-making pins, sequins, sewing thread, hemming elastic, metal garden twine, bits of fuse wire, old USB cable wire and parts of old pens and a disposable lighter in there as well, just for variety. I'll use anything if it fits the bill, and preferably comes out someone else's rubbish bin! The dashboard and the racing 'passed' stickers in the cockpit I did in Photoshop, so it does have some concessions to paper modeling
Hope you like it!
Plumdragon

[rockpaperscissor]

Ooh, that is nice. Your enhancements really make this one museum quality. Is it a Pocher (sp?) kit? What is the scale?

[rockpaperscissor]

Wait, Bhurago, 1/18 scale. D'oh!

[elliott]

I'd say your weathering skills are more than adequate - like, professional maybe.

[magrava]

Very well done, this model grows in the eyes, and the image was very close to a real car, I liked it.

[richkat]

I LOVE IT!!!! I have a thing for early racing cars and this one is fantastic.........Rich

[fleetsailor1981]

Great job on it. now you just need a paper one

[LMSC]

un modelo muy bonito, me encantó y la construcción y los detalles es otra cosa aparte, un armado fenomenal, más fotos por favor, saludos

Very nice model, loved, construction and detail is something other, a pin assembly, more photos please Greetings

[Plumdragon]

A great big Thank You to all for your comments :D It has been about 10 years since I did anything like this, a couple of aircraft apart, because I was engrossed in the paper, although that 10 years was preceded by 30 more fiddling about with plastic and metal and such. I wish I still had all the money I spent down the years :D
I have a couple of other Bburago's waiting in the wings, a Bugatti 59 (which will need new wheels!) and an SSKL Mercedes. The Merc would be a good model to make in paper, as it has basically straight lines, and naturally I would do a paper model in 1/18 scale, by simply wrapping the Bburago car in paper templates! Total cheat!!

[Plumdragon]

For those who asked, a few more pictures The engine shows those USB lead wires, used for plug leads; the lead carrier is aluminium tube and the distributor cap from part of an old biro pen case and scraps of metal foil. The radiator (there was none on my model!) is built from plastic card and covered in a scrap of material that looked like rad core. The cockpit hopefully might show the seats better. I'm not convinced it was worth the effort making them from old leather; clever painting might've been just as good. You might be able to see some of those paper labels more clearly too; these are as seen on a real Alfa and make the thing look thoroughly 'used' The friction shock absorbers (also missing!) were made mostly from sequins and scraps of plastic, and they're held in place with sewing pins; they aren't 100% accurate, but being a Bburago, niether is anything else! And lastly, two of my favourite pictures, taken outside in the car park Hope I haven't bored you too much and thanks for taking an interest! If anyone wants to know about any specific detailing/painting techniques used on this model, ask away and I'll do my best to answer!
Plumdragon