Kit:

Gunze Sangyo Alfa Romeo 2000 GTAm

Pros:

Small number of parts simplifies assembly. Good engraving, nice wheels, soft tires (huge mold lines though), and correct body. Good parts fit and chrome plating. Easy to follow instructions.

Cons:

Glass is too thick, front and rear fascias molded separately from the main body shell and require some sanding and puttying after assembly. Interior parts are made from vinyl, and it makes it hard to put together (they flex). CA glue is a must for gluing vinyl parts. Curbside. Decals are not very opaque and bleed through. Some small details are on the heavy side - especially hood pins and wipers.

Verdict:

This is a very simple model, but represents the car well. Despite its drawbacks the finished kit looks good, however not exactly correct. Will be a good project for a beginner modeler or a base for a super-detail project for more advanced builder.

This is a very simple, but very finely detailed kit. Once the body was assembled, I sprayed light coat of primer and 3 mist coats of Tamiya TS-8 Italian Red straight from the can.

The rear axle is a one piece, and it was painted with Testors aluminum metalizer and detailed with black wash. You just slide a metal rod through it to attach rear wheels. There is no brake detail provided in the kit.

After mist coats were dry, I continued with two more "wet" coats. It is true that red paint looks good on almost all Italian cars!

It is a curbside model, the engine details are molded on the underside. Exhaust headers and muffler are separate pieces though, and have very good fit. I painted them with Testors Burnt Metal.

Body was polished with 3M compound, waxed with Last Detail wax, foiled with Bare Metal Foil and decaled. Window trim has a very tricky shape, and it took a long time to apply BMF without tearing it.

All interior parts are made from vinyl, and a bit tricky to handle. It is hard to sand vinyl parts, and they flex all the time. I left the seat unpainted, but flocked the package shelf with DM black flocking.

In fact, I had to scrap my BMF job 3 times before I got it right. Finally I installed grille, headlights, and glass. Another shot of completed, BMF-ed, decaled, and polished body.

This is the picture of completed chassis. It is missing only the exhaust tip. Very simple, but looks good.

Dashboard was cleaned, primed and sprayed with flat black. I tried to create "crackle black" finish by spraying paint from the distance, and it turned quite good.

Finally, I glued front and rear seats to the chassis, and fitted door panels, decorated with window cranks and door handles. Then I installed the shifter and a hand brake and interior was done.

The dashboard is very simple in this kit, but again, it was very simple in the real car too. Visible insides were painted with Testors Aluminum metalizer to simulate aluminum body. You can also see mesh pieces that I added to the grille openings.

Tires were put on the rims and wheels attached to the chassis. All four wheels lined up perfectly and "rolling" chassis was ready to be installed into the body.

Chrome plating on the wheels was too shiny, so I sprayed them with Testors aluminum metalizer, and weathered with black wash (no weathering applied in the picture).

This is the underside of the model. The exhaust tip was supplied as a chromed part, but it was too thick so I replaced it with a polished aluminum tube.

The chassis is also very simple, but has good details. I painted it satin black and applied some black Detail Master flocking on the floor.

Assembled front suspension does look good, even though a bit simplified. Note the fat racing tires. They are molded in very soft rubber, and were tricky to sand for that "worn" look.