Of all the models I currently have in storage, this is one of the oldest. I bought this kid as a kid when I lived in Germany in the early 90's. It contains two Lamborghini Countach models in 1/24 scale - one LP500S and one 5000S. And a hat. I'm not sure where the hat is now though.
I haven't opened this box in years - I'm not sure what prompted me to get to it this week but I felt a need to fiddle with it.
Instructions for each kit, boxed with the parts. Although I think I had them switched here. Plans are in black and white and surprisingly few steps. They packed a ton of stuff into each step, making the plans a little tougher to follow.
The 500S was airbrushed blue many years ago. I like the color and will probably keep it but it will need to be repainted. This is all that had ever been done to it.
I decided to work on the 500S since I had already started it.
I started with the chassis and suspension. I also built the engine at the same time, but I will be displaying the engine on the included stand, not in the car. I have not decided how to build the 5000S yet.
The front suspension detail is very impressive, and the working steering is very well done. It's very solid and smooth. I usually glue working steering in place because they are often too loose or delicate but this one works very well. There are a lot of individual components here but assembly was actually pretty easy as long as I followed the steps.
The engine is also nicely detailed, and I will be including some wiring and plumbing in the finished kit. The model includes a clear plastic display stand for the engine and transmission.
The chassis and interior tub went together pretty well but I am fighting the rear of the chassis which has a nasty twist at the back end. I'm hoping that it will straighten out once I glue on the body but I may try something else later to straighten it.
The door mechanisms are well designed and sturdy. With the steel tension rods included the doors function very well.
I am in the minority but I always preferred the Countach without the rear wing. I will have to leave it off until the model is painted anyway but I don't think I will add it to this kit. I will probably put it on the other one though.
Here you can see the steel tension rods used for the door mechanism. It's very simple but very sturdy. The rods fit into a pocket in the doorframe and slide into the front edge of the door, into a sleeve molded to the inside of the door panel. They have just enough room to bend a tiny bit, which stiffens up the doors enough to hold them open. It took a few tries to get them just right but the doors open and close perfectly.
Hey, remember how I was talking about how carefully one should read instructions when dealing with a complex build? Guess who managed to not follow his own advice....
So here's what happened. I must have switched the parts trees for the body accents for the two kits somehow. All the stuff I glued to the blue body should have gone on the white one. The blue body 5000s has a smooth roof, and should have gotten the more angular flares and such. I didn't spot it until I had already glued everything together, and it's not coming off without destroying it.
So at this point I have three options - keep going and hope nobody else notices, surgically remove the roof of each car and swap them, or leave the flares off the other car. I'm leaning toward the former. I really don't want to go cutting these up too much. The plastic is thin and wouldn't be too hard to cut but it's a fix that will be very hard to hide. Some of these cars didn't have flares so that would actually save me some work. Here is a 5000s with no body accents, and it looks pretty good.
The more I think about it though I think I'm just going to keep on as I have been. I don't think most people will notice the difference, and I don't personally know any Lambo purists so I think I'm ok. The cars will both look good.
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