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LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO SUPERLEGGERA - NERO NOCTIS/METALLIC BLACK

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Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 Special Tuned Version

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Lamborghini Gallardo Superlekker ja

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FORD SHELBY GR-1 CONCEPT - ALUMINIUM CASTING

Autoart is entering into a new standard by launching it first 1:18 polish aluminum body die cast model of Ford Shelby GR-1 concept car. The goal of producing this model is to achieve the same finishing of the polished aluminum body of the actual concept car.

Die cast model cars are usually cast by zinc alloy, a material which is user-friendly with low melting point and easy to cast. The mold used to cast zinc alloy can easily survive a million shots. Aluminum alloy, on the other hand, has a higher melting point and the molten material will attack the mold during casting thus the mold life is shortened 20 to 50 times as compared to the casting of zinc alloy.

Very few model makers have ever tried to cast aluminum alloy and manually polished to achieve the high glossy surface finish. What they would normally do was to chrome plate the zinc cast body to simulate the finish. However, chrom plated surface is far too bright, it would never have the same surface texture as compared to actual polish aluminum finish. Some makers would polish the zinc casting body to achieve more or less the same glossy finish of polished aluminum, but zinc is sensitive to air and humidity, the surface will easily oxidized even under indoor condition and therefore, a clear coat must be applied to protect it from oxidation. When a clear coating is applied, the zinc polished surface is very obvious that it is wrapped by a thick clear layer which looks unreal to the actual finish of the real car. Moreover, the clear coating can become sightly yellowish under sunlight.

In order to replicate the polished aluminum finish of the real car, actual aluminum alloy must be used to cast the scale model body. The casting will then require more than 130 minutes of trained manual labor to polish the whole body including the panels until they reached the glossy finish. The most challenging part is the matching contour between the main body and the attached panels (bumper. bonnets and doors) after polishing. Any slight over polishing of the bonnet and door edges will make the connecting surface of the main body become uneven thus the parts will need to be scrapped. Even with trained manual workers, the scrap rate is well over 50%. When labor cost is getting higher everyday in China, the cost of producing a polished aluminum body is 5 ~ 6 times of the usual painted body cast in zinc alloy.

The finished polish aluminum body is purposely not coated with clear protective layer in order to simulate the real aluminum texture of the concept car. Same as the real car, the surface will oxidize at a very slow rate under indoor condition and the shininess will decrease gradually after a few months or a year. However, the glossy finish can be restored easily by simple hand buffing using metal polishing compound such as Brasso, Autosol, Pennibrite or mag-wheel polishing cream. Like any precious sterling silverware. It requires occasional maintenances to retain its glossy texture.
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