Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm, Gunze Sanyo, 1:24
It's easy to forget that before there was Ferrari there was Alfa Romeo, which has one of the greatest motor sport competition histories.
This the ancient Gunze Sangyo 1/24 kit.
It's quite a basic kit, with a rubber/vinyl interior, which while being quite successful needed a bit of trimming to get the body to sit properly.
The car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro at the age of 17 when he first entered the Bertone studio, and is rightly thought of as a classic.
It was powered by a 4 cylinder DOHC engine, which remained in production from 1963 to 1994. The car was tremendously advanced for its time.
While British sports cars of the period looked like overgrown bicycles and drove like tractors, Porsches still resembled VW Beetles, and Ferraris were still quite crude, the Alfa Romeo Giulia boasted a twin cam engine, 5 speed transmission, and four wheel disc brakes.
Who doesn't love a side exhaust?
In its ultimate lightened form the GTAm had tremendous success in touring car racing in the 1960s and 1970s, taking the European Championship in 1966, 67, and 69. It even beat the big displacement American cars at Sebring when driven by F1 star Jochen Rindt.
Here's the frontal view. The design had excellent visibility from the wrap round windscreen.
The full width front is a classic Alfa Romeo design.
The model is finished with Tamiya's TS-8 Italian Red and gloss aluminium wheels.
A real classic, I hope you agree. Thank you for looking and commenting, and happy modelling.
Looks great, George @chinesegeorge. Very nice, glossy finish on that paint job.
Thank you, Robert @robgenev665, all down to Tamiya’s range of products.
A beauty, George!
Congratulations!
Thanks as always, Spiros @fiveten.
Such a wonderful Alpha, George @chinesegeorge
Never heard about Gunze Sangyo as a brand for models.
Thanks, @johnb, I was lucky enough to own one briefly in the early 70s, unfortunately it had a rather dodgy history and a cracked cylinder head, so I passed it on quite quickly. Gunze produced quite a range of kits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you can check them out on Scalemates.com. Some of them are attracting inflated prices these days.
What a beauty that is George @chinesegeorge. It makes me eager to work on the Gunze Sangyo Volkswagen Karmann Ghia I have in my stash.
Love to see your Ghia built. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a completed build of one, Harm.
Thank you, Harm @hptiggelaar, the Karmann Ghia was a beautiful car, looking forward to seeing it built.
Wow! Didn’t know Gunze produced models. What vintage is the kit? Good looking Alfa, George @chinesegeorge.
Hi Eric @eb801, Gunze produced quite a range of models in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which is when this kit was originally released. If you have time you can check them out on Scalemates.com. Thanks for looking.
Nice one George.
Cheers, Allan, @kalamazoo.
That’s really well done, George. Flawless paintwork.
Ditto, on the paint work. It looks like water or liquid in its reflection of light. George (@chinesegeorge), how did you get such a perfect finish?
Thank you very much, Steven. No secrets really, just good preparation in sanding the body before painting, and sanding again between coats of primer, colour, and clear coats, followed by applicatiion of Tamiya three part polishing compounds. I think it’s important to let the various layers dry properly, I allow at least 24 hours between coats. Thanks again for your interest.
I have seen some excellent paint finishes on model cars. However, they looked like good paint finishes on models. George, I would categorize your painting as a scale finish. That replicates the finish on 1/1 subject.
Thank you for your generous comments, Stephen @stephen-w-towle, but I agree there’s a fine line between a “scale gloss” finish and a much too polished one, one has to bear in mind the age of the prototype as well, this Alfa Romeo is from the 1960s when paint technology was quite different to today’s showroom models.
Nice work, George (@chinesegeorge). I can safely say I have never heard of the real automobile or the model, but you created a winner. Well done.
Thanks for taking the time to look, George @gblair, we’ll make a petrol-head of you yet.