Lancia D50 Grand Prix 1954 Test Car by CDW - Model Factory Hiro - 1:43 Scale

[CDW]

Lancia D50 Grand Prix 1954 Test Car, driven by A. Ascari

This will be my first attempt at building a Model Factory Hiro kit, in the tiny 1:43 scale. As is common with any MFH kit, the first order of business will be to check all parts content against the instructions for completeness and deformed/damaged parts (hopefully none). It's common for the fragile little white metal parts to be bent out of shape, but now and then a part may be "short shot". 

For a small model, there are a lot of parts and detail.

As I sort and check the parts, I'll be organizing them into a plastic organizer box after the white metal parts have been run through the magnetic tumbler.

More photos to follow after the parts have been accounted for, cleaned up, and sorted into logical assembly groups. 

[yvesvidal]

WOW...putting together an engine at that scale is pure torture.... an expensive one on top of that 🙂

 

That Lancia is a great car and a very rare model.

 

Yves

[DocRob]

I never put together a 1/20 MFH kit, but plan to do so in near future, but 1/43 . I´ll wait for you to put on your magic, until I may venture that way.
 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

Sorry my original photos came out so blurry. Here are new photos after the parts ran through the tumbler.

[Old Collingwood]

Holly smokes  Craig  -  your eyesight must be  A1   -  looking forward to this one.

 

OC.

[CDW]

I've watched a ton of MFH build videos while trying to pick up helpful hints, tips, and tricks on how to tackle these kits. One of my favorite modelers to watch has a methodical approach to starting each kit that includes unboxing, examination, parts count, cleaning/preparing parts and organization steps. Comparing each part to the plans has revealed a couple of missing/damaged parts.

On the front suspension assembly, part number M58, circled (by me) in red, was short-shot. Half of the part was gone, either as a casting malfunction or broken and lost in the manufacturing and shipping process. A major part in the rear suspension was missing. Again, the missing part is circled in red for reference. Oddly, it has no part number associated with it that I could find on the plans.

I found small part organizer boxes on Walmart's website for a few dollars each. The part boxes have adjustable compartment panels which allow for a neat and tidy organization of the parts by assembly sequence. Starting from the left bottom compartment are all the engine and gearbox parts, moving to the right are all the frame parts, and so on. This greatly helps in checking the kit parts contents and keeping everything in order as the parts cleanup and preparation stage begins next.

Last night I sat down and wrote a note to MFH in Japan with the attachments as shown here, asking for help to replace the missing/broken parts. I was shocked when I woke up this morning to find a notification and tracking number from Fedex that the missing, broken parts have already been shipped out to me! Talk about great customer service, wow. Never have seen anything like it. On a similar note, I ordered another new kit from MFH a couple of days earlier, and that kit was mailed out the same day I paid for it. It is scheduled for delivery to me tomorrow. I can't get service faster than this from dealers in the USA except for maybe Amazon. MFH is really on top of their game for customer service, I can attest to that.

 

[DocRob]

I can only confirm your approach as well as the ultra rapid and thorough customer service by MFH.
I always check all the parts after cleaning, when they are left to dry against the manual and sort them into similar kind of boxes, like you did.
When I start a step, I identify all parts needed and more important all parts, which need to be added later. This is immensely important for larger steps like the chassis and the body parts, where there are subassemblies added from nearly all steps of the manual.
Next I look for how the individual parts are connected and measure the diameters for drilling ALL needed holes. This, I check twice, as it is sometimes impossible to reach areas with a drill bit, when assembled.

Until now, I never had issues with missing or badly casted parts, but lost some parts (my fault) of my Crocker motorcycle, which were immediately sent by MFH. When I bought a kit from them, it took no more than six days to reach my doorstep, faster than parcels even from the Spanish mainland.

Cheers Rob

[Egilman]

Glad to hear that MFH is one of the few companies in this business that take CS seriously...

 

Excellent to hear... Hopefully some of the others will take heed....

[CDW]

46 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Glad to hear that MFH is one of the few companies in this business that take CS seriously...

 

Excellent to hear... Hopefully some of the others will take heed....

I think it’s part of the culture in Japan. They seem to conduct themselves at a much higher standard than most. That’s my impression of it.

[Javlin]

1 hour ago, CDW said:

I think it’s part of the culture in Japan. They seem to conduct themselves at a much higher standard than most. That’s my impression of it.

My Son says much respect is put forth between individuals firstly.Interesting subject matter Craig the early 50's cool.

[CDW]

11 hours ago, DocRob said:

I can only confirm your approach as well as the ultra rapid and thorough customer service by MFH.
I always check all the parts after cleaning, when they are left to dry against the manual and sort them into similar kind of boxes, like you did.
When I start a step, I identify all parts needed and more important all parts, which need to be added later. This is immensely important for larger steps like the chassis and the body parts, where there are subassemblies added from nearly all steps of the manual.
Next I look for how the individual parts are connected and measure the diameters for drilling ALL needed holes. This, I check twice, as it is sometimes impossible to reach areas with a drill bit, when assembled.

Until now, I never had issues with missing or badly casted parts, but lost some parts (my fault) of my Crocker motorcycle, which were immediately sent by MFH. When I bought a kit from them, it took no more than six days to reach my doorstep, faster than parcels even from the Spanish mainland.

Cheers Rob

Rob

Have you been using solder to assemble your white metal parts? I'm going to practice on some MFH scrap pieces before I try it on the real parts. Would rather be safe than sorry. 

With this tiny kit, it's my intention to build it on top of a small, flat, presentation board. This way I can properly space everything out, keep it square and leveled so that all four wheels touch the surface with no awkward stagger or misalignment. I plan to first assemble the kit with thin CA glue for the initial fit then soak it all in acetone to remove the CA and disassemble it all once I am satisfied it fits together properly. By then I hopefully will know the correct build sequence to follow and details that need close attention. After that, would like to solder the white metal pieces if possible. I have heard good modelers who prefer CA or epoxy, then others who prefer solder but I have been warned about the MFH white metal low melting temperature. 

How does one stay informed about the kits MFH plans to release or rerelease in the future? I don't see that information on the MFH website. I get the impression that all their releases are first-come, first-served. Buying directly from them is the most cost-effective way to go but often times the only way to acquire a kit not currently in production is to pay a "middleman" a higher cost. This last kit I bought from them directly was substantially less cost than from any shop who stocked the same kit.

[gsdpic]

2 hours ago, CDW said:

How does one stay informed about the kits MFH plans to release or rerelease in the future?

That's a good question.  I have seen on the spotmodel.com web site indications of MFH kits to be released soon but as you noted, there does not appear to be such info on the MFH web site.  The particular example I am thinking of is the McLaren F1 GTR '95 LeMans winner.  Apparently MFH released it originally in 2020 but it still just shows as "out of stock" on their web site, but spotmodel.com indicates that it will be rereleased and available again soon.