Michele Conti
(Italy)

One of the best of the old guard of model makers. In the early 1950’s Conti gained his full scale training as an apprentice at the well known body manufacturer, Stabilimenti Farina, which employed craftsmen who created shapes principally by hand. His father was also employed there as a specialist in assembling doors, hoods, and trunks of cars. When Stabilimenti Farina closed their doors in 1953, Michele along with his father was immediately hired by Pininfarina. It was at this juncture, during his free time and evenings, that he started what would eventually become his future full time career of building custom, scale automobile models.

Because of his reputation, craftsmanship, and dedication to realism, many of the auto manufacturers entrusted Michele with actual factory drawings from which to build his creations.

His early models were made from wood, which then evolved into aluminum, and then copper and brass. Some models were curbside only, while others were fully detailed. Typically all had flat bottoms with no chassis detail….but…. There were just a few of his classic car models with detailed chassis, one of these rarities was his Mercedes-Benz SSKL.  Conti built his models in two different scales, 1:12 and 1:10. There is no explanation as to why the two scales. Many of his creations were one-off’s, though he also built two(2) to four(4) of each of certain cars.