International Scale Modeller

Hasegawa Lancia 037 - 1984 Rally of Corsica

I'm waiting for some stuff to arrive before I can finish of my Monte Carlo Mini and the Alpine Renault A110, so in the mean time I decided to crack open this box:





I haven't had this kit in my stash for very long, but the moment I bought it I knew it wouldn't take too long before I attempted to build this model. Having said that, I've never build a Hasegawa kit in my life, so fingers crossed. Hopefully there are no major fit issues.

There are a few things I immediately noticed when opening the box though. First off is the amount of flash... This kit was released in 2000, yet I have some kits in my stash that are far older than that and that show almost no flash. So there will be a lot of cleanup to do. Secondly is the amount of parts. The box is listing 146 of them spead over 6 sprues. This is about double of what I'm used to of a Tamiya or Revell kit within the same price range (I paid about 30 Euro's for the Lancia):



Yes that's flash running down the middle of the sprue... The parts aren't as bad, but there is still a fair bit of flash on them.











With so much flash on the sprues, I'd had expected to find some nasty mould lines on the body work. The weird part is that there were only two little ones on the sides of the bonnet that took only about a minute to remove. The rest of the bodywork is flawless and needs almost no prep before priming.







Quite a lot of decals which is good, cause I love decalling... It's always the part that brings a rally car to life.



There's also an instruction sheet in the box (lucky me) but I din't take any pictures of that.

OOO nice build, ill be watching this one

a nice rally monster for sure
there is something about the old lancia's that where used for the rally championships
whether it is a Stratos , Delta or this one they are all cool to look at

the sprues look a bit flashy though but as long as the parts are clean i don't see a problem with that
good luck nd have fun with the build

So, building has already started. Before opening the instruction booklet, I decided to do something about those awful tires. They were a terrible eyesore and needed some (understatement) cleanup:





Not exactly tires you want to put on your model, so out came the sanding sticks and buffer. All tires were pulled over their respective wheels to provide some more grip (pun intended), and after about 45 minutes of sanding, I managed to get rid of the ugly mold line running down the middle. They don't look so new anymore but at least they have that nice rough look as if they have been scraped over asphalt for a while:





Next up I opened the instruction booklet and to my surprise, I found that although other kit manufacturers like to start the build with the engine, this one starts with the interior. I had a sneak-peek in some of the other boxes in my stash and it turns out Hasegawa generally likes to start the build of a model with the interior. So I scrounged the interweb for some pictures of the interior of the Lancia 037 Rally. I wasn't able to find very many, but I did manage to find one I like a lot. So I decided to use this pic as a guideline for building the interior:





The first part to tackle was the interior tub. A lot of cleanup needed to be done. As per the above picture, I also decided to drill a few extra holes. So after a fair bit of work, I went from this... (apologies for the blurry pic):



to this:





Once the handbrake and gear stick were in place, I decided to add a few cables as per the above picture. I also liked the texture in the foot well, so out came the Mr. Surfacer 1000 and a old brush to add some more texture:





Next up were the seats. These also needed quite a fair bit of work.

Before:



After:





I also decided to add some Mr. Surfacer to the back of the seats to approximate the texture in the reference pic:





Nothing more can be done on the seats for now. The order I'm waiting for also contains the flocking powder I need to finish them off. Luckily there's a lot more to be done on this kit. The roll cage came next, and once I prepped the dashboard and the window separating the interior from the rear mounted engine, I decided to do a dry-fit of all the parts to see if there would be any fitting issues. Dry-fitting isn't something I did when building my previous models and I think I could have avoided a lot of issues with those builds if I'd taken the time to check if parts actually fit together properly before taking the glue out:

Roll-cage:





And some pics of the interior "mock-up":






Next is priming the whole shebang.

Nice start mate...should look a beaut when she's done

great start, will be watching this one closely as I have one in the stash somewhere. Keep up the good work

regards Ian D

Great start Looking good , just finished my hasegawa jag didn't have any problems with building the kit only thing I had a few problems with was the the large decals put it was a old kit.

Great choice , still remember them in Portugal Rallye in Sintra , always like this car , or you like it or you hate it ...they do not give a chance in tarmac stages , and remeber the 'fight' in Portugal 1984 ( i think ...) Rallye till last stage between Allen and Mikolla , only seconds between Allen and the victory ... those were the days .

Nice build , seeing this reminds me that I have my 131 Abarth 1/20 from Tamiya to finish , and my other Tamiya Rallye cars , must go and have a try so not to see so many planes and tanks as lately !

To follow ! Great Job so far !

Love these cars, you have been making some beauties.
Been impressed with Fujimi and Hasegawa kits, they seem close to the Tamiya and have a wide subject range.
I made the Tamiya motorized Lancia Stratos when I was a kid...that kit is pricey now, but I will get it again.
I have 5 F1 cars and 2 road cars waiting to build; for now they have to wait in the cue as spare times at a premium and Vietnam build is first priority.
and I have self imposed kit purchasing ban...see how long that lasts.
Cheers, and thanks for posting the auto builds

MarkVerploeg wrote:a nice rally monster for sure
there is something about the old lancia's that where used for the rally championships
whether it is a Stratos , Delta or this one they are all cool to look at

Maybe because Lancia wasn’t afraid to knock on the door of some of the greatest car designers. People like Marcello Gandini who designed the Labmorghini Countach for instance was responsible for the stratos. Giorgetto Giugiaro who designed the Aston Martin DB4, the DeLorean DMC, the Lotus Esprit S1 and the VW Golf I (just to name a few), also designed the Fiat Ritmo which later became the basis for the Delta. And Pininfarina was called upon for the design of the 037. Those aren’t exactly small names as far as car design goes.

rodrant wrote: Great choice, still remember them in Portugal Rallye in Sintra , always like this car , or you like it or you hate it ...they do not give a chance in tarmac stages , and remeber the 'fight' in Portugal 1984 ( i think ...) Rallye till last stage between Allen and Mikolla , only seconds between Allen and the victory ... those were the days .

I don’t really remember that rally, so I had to look it up. Only 27 seconds difference after 684km spread over 45 stages. 7:35:32 for Mikkola versus 7:35:59 for Alén. Incidentally, Attilio Bettega took 3rd place in that rally, driving the 2nd works Lancia 037.

Thing is though, although Audi won the constructors title in 1982 and 1984, each time Lancia took 2nd place. In 1983, when Lancia won the constructors championship, Audi were the only ones capable of challenging them. Just shows how well Lancia designed the 037. It was the only 2WD car that could keep up with Audi's 4WD monster. The rest of the manufacturers didn't even come close. If not for the Audi Quattro, the Lancia 037 would probably have taken it's place as one of the most memorable cars of the WRC, right alongside the Stratos and the Delta. As it stands though, it’s being treated as just a little footnote by WRC historians who think it doen't deserve the same attention as other cars of it's era.

Anyway, thanks for looking and for all the comments everyone. I’ll try not to dissapoint with the build updates on this one.

We need an update on this!!!
How did it finish up

Desertfish wrote:Hasegawa Lancia 037 - 1984 Rally of Corsica
I've never build a Hasegawa kit in my life, so fingers crossed. Hopefully there are no major fit issues.

Funny guy today !