Fiat Abarth 695SS – Review

The review of the Fiat Abarth 695SS from Italeri.

As promised, I would do a review of building this model. I have mixed things about this model. Don’t get me wrong, I liked building this mode. But there were so many things “wrong” with it and I would like the share my thoughts.

Almost two years ago, I restarted my hobby and started with building the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Roadster from Italeri. This was a very nice model to build. Of course, each model has it’s things wrong with it, but I was really happy with how the Alfa Romeo build went.

I had positive thoughts about this model. But before I started to build it, I already had read some comments that people were having issues with the chassis. But on the box, it said now “New Molds”. Hoping that they would have fixed all the problems.

Several times, part numbers were not correct. Just wrong numbers or instructions. Okay, this can happen. But for a high-priced kit like this, you should do better. You also should place tubes in several locations. For this, they point to pins on parts were you should slide the tube on. Many times, the pins were not there. Okay, maybe a different location, but no. They were just missing. All the pins were too short and too thin. When you placed the tube on it and moved to tube in any direction, it came of the pin. The only way was to glue the tube to the pin. Not the easiest thing, because you had to wait a long time before the glue was set. Also, holes where you should push a tube through were missing. You had to improvise a lot.

The chassis was okay, but there were so many other things. In the instructions, you start with building one part. But this part will not be used until step 22. Why already so early build this part and wait for so long. Why not put it together at step 21? There should be some logic behind it, but I don’t see it.

On the box, it shows a red line going along the waistline of the car. But during the build, you already had to place the door handles on the door. Only when you reach the instructions for where to place the decals, you will find out that the door handle is in the way. The best way was, to place the decal first, and then the door handle. It is something small, but it matters.

On the box, it also says, working suspension. This is partly true. Only the rear suspension is working. The front suspension is connected to solid parts and is not working. At all. On the box it is also saying, working steering. This is partly true. While building the steering box and linkage, it all looks like it is working. But as soon as is it placed in/on the chassis, things don’t work as much as you think. The linkage for the steering is very fragile. Put too much force on it and it would snap. The best thing is, just put it in one position and don’t touch it anymore.

Turning wheels. Well, I don’t know how they were able to get the wheels turning, but I was not able to do it. The places or locations to place the wheels, and the pins were too small or too short. I only saw one solution for it. Glue it solid.

To build the Fiat Abarth 695 Assetto Corsa, you had to remove the wheel fenders of the body. In the instruction it is saying to cut it at the line on the body. I looked everywhere, but I was not able to find any cut line, where I had to cut the fenders. I left it the way it was, and just placed some skinny tires. I also did not placed the fender extensions, because else the tires looked to skinny.

My final thoughts? For me, it looked like they were in a hurry or rush to get this model out. They did not paid attention to the instructions, and molds. Maybe for some one with much more experience, they can do it better, but for the beginner, I would say, just skip this model.