Colnago Mexico 1982

Here, the biggest flaw of the kit: too long wheelbase. The only way to shorten it, is just cutting out a segment from the chainstay. I hope it won't affect the rest of the geometry too much. 

Imitation of 'Cromovelato' finish: Tamiya clear red on a high-polish diecast surface 

Cromovelato is a combination of hard chroming and a coloured translucent varnish. It was a nice touch among great Italian framebuilders with almost trademark colours: red was Colnago, copper brown was Wilier (Ramato), Gios and Pinarello shared blue shades... flip-flop version finish of Bianchi (Celeste) turquise came later in the 90's. 

bar tape of the original was too rigid and adhesive evaporated: here a stripe from Leukosilk bandaid did the job right. 

My biggest concern was the state of the Letraset-type-rub-over decals: of course their release layer was fully dead. I have had to peel them off with an extra-sharp cutter and stick them with acrylic clear paint. And do it quick, as paint solved the screenprinted layer! So I have omitted the "Mexico" lettering, anyway it neither appears on every original bike. 

Another rear view. The original rubberband cable guides were useless, I painted black 0,5 mm copper wire instead. Derailleur cables running without housing I have also omitted, as in this scale ~0,1 mm wire would have been needed. I thought any wire would have been an exaggeration. 

Finished with the base and compliments to the former racer friend's birthday 

finished, from rear. A copper plate touch on the saddle makes a Selle San Marco 'Rolls' ot of it: on the original it meant to be a 'Concor Special' but again, the mould is miles far away from it. The seatpost much worse: neither the size nor the shape let alone the clamping mechanism are not resembling anything like a Campagonolo Super Record. So I have made a scratchbuilt one out of a sprue frame and turning the clamps inside out.Finally, it resembles a Nuovo Record, which is correct for the era (BTW a better adjustable seatpost than the Super Record) 

though, wheelbase is shortened, the gap between seatstay and rear wheel is still too wide. Overall geometry is OK, I was afraid that further shortening would have tilted the bike too much to its front 

The drivetrain, meant to be a Campagnolo Super Record but again: spindle locking pegs have to be grinded off the cranks as it's a tapered square locking! I think just remained from the old Bianchi/Legnano moulds of Protar... bottle cage is scratchbuilt from copper wire, along the lines of the plastic one.