Building The Countach

Finishing the engine was a great achievement as it was the first stage to completing the full kit. The first time I built this model I did not pay enough attention to the engine details and made a great deal of mistakes. This time around I spent a lot of time preparing all the pieces and painting them correctly before assembling. The finished product was well worth the extra patience as it looks very realistic when examined in the models engine bay. The only disappointing part about the engine is that a lot of the finer work is actually hidden inside the engine bay. When the car is finished you can only see about 25% of the entire engine’s details.

The suspension on this model is very intricate with springs and movable wishbones. I made such a mess of this in the first model years ago that I was adamant that I got it right in this one. It took several days to prep, glue, and fit all the suspension components and to check the drying and if the car was sitting straight. All four wheels move and swing up and down holding the car flat and allowing for realistic spring up and down when pushing on it. The finished chassis was almost worth displaying as is and assembling the body separately. The details that Doyusha put into this model was excellent but a lot of it becomes hidden behind body panels. I had at one point thought about buying a second one if I could find it and creating a custom cut-away version to show the body and the internal details as well. Might save that for a retirement hobby.

The finished paint job was much better than I had expected. With some minor polishing the body colour had a light gloss finish which matched the original car colour perfectly. The first time I made the model years back I painted the body so heavily that almost all the lines had disappeared under layers of paint and orange peel. This time around I took the time to prepare the surfaces correctly with primer and fine sanding then applying the paint in nearly a dozen separate layers of light sprays. The finished car shows no orange-peeling or runs and the colour even reflects the ambient light as would the real thing.. no smudges, fingerprints, glue bleed, paint runs, or any other blemishes that a young enthusiastic model maker might inadvertently make. ;p

The finished model was much better than I thought it would be. With more patience and time to prepare the model prior to assembly I was happily surprised to find this is actually an extremely good model kit to build. The car itself is still taking pride of place on my model shelf and will remain there for many years to come. I was very happy that I had the chance to build this model again. It was a great challenge and somewhat of a cathartic experience after the total cock-up I made of it the first time.