N5-C207 695 SS Blue

695 SS Blue from the Number Five automotive line

A blue named after the Abarth 695 SS. Carlo Abarth's Turin workshop took the production Fiat 500, enlarged its engine to just under seven hundred cubic centimeters and added cooling, brakes and suspension. The result was a tiny car that beat considerably more powerful rivals on circuits and in hillclimbs. Its mark of recognition became the propped-open rear engine lid, which let air flow to the power unit, and the scorpion in its badge.

How the tone works on a model

Blue on a small body looks different than on a long coupe. The surfaces are short and heavily curved, so the tone passes quickly between light and shadow on them and lighter blues look finer than a builder estimates from the bottle. That is exactly why with Italian miniatures it pays to reach for a color derived from a particular subject instead of a universal blue from an ordinary set.

Typical use

• bodies of the Fiat 500 in Abarth form in the larger scales
• historic racing machines of Italian production of the 1960s
• blue items of the interiors and accessories of small European cars
• collector display cases devoted to the small displacement classes

Who it will serve

Builders of historic car models who want an exact tone on an Italian classic, and collectors of the small cars of postwar Europe. It will also serve well anyone building a run of street racers who wants to tell the individual tuners apart by color. The subject is the particular Abarth 695 SS of the 1960s rather than Italian blue in general.