Brendan Posted December 3, 2008 Share Posted December 3, 2008 (edited) Started on Studio 27 F430 kit. The car is the #87 from Le Mans 2007. I decided to get this version of the car instead of the Risi car because I figured more people would have that version built. This one I like because it has the Scottish flag. First impressions...the kit is very nicely casted. Minimal flashing with some small pinholes on the bottom. There are only 3 resin pieces out of the entire kit. The rest is pewter. I've already spent several hours cleaning and prepping the body and pewter pieces. Here are some pictures of what I've done so far. Here are some pictures of the pewter parts and primer. Here's a picture of the roll cage put together from four pieces. Some tweaking has to be done to make it fit the body and the chassis correctly. Also a picture of the dashboard which is a little disappointing since there is not a lot of detail. I hope to add detail later. Will get more up as I go along. Edited January 10, 2009 by Brendan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy Posted December 3, 2008 Share Posted December 3, 2008 Brendan keep us updated. I look forward to seeing you build and complete this. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick F40 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 OH BOY! ......ahhh you already know my story I LOVE this version, i'm surprised that you wanted to do it, I like the Risi ones but the others are cool and everybody, like you said, will most likely build that version. I like the different ones you don't really hear or know about, like in the FIA GT. I love the Scottish flag. Keep us updated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Creative Explorer Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I will keep watching this, those S27's are so nice, but just way out of my league Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 4, 2008 Author Share Posted December 4, 2008 If anybody has any photos of the interior or engine bay of the car, would really appreciate it. All the cars are essentially the same on the interior. Right now the only thing I really don't like about the kit is that I have to fill in five huge holes on the front of the car. They give you plugs for the holes but the plugs don't fit that well. I know the reason why they did it. It maximizes the use out of the body. But the cars that ran with those openings are from 2008. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick F40 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Hereyou go, some interior shots didn't have and can't really find engine bay shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 5, 2008 Author Share Posted December 5, 2008 Thanks for the photos. Now do you have any of the two electronic boxes on the rear fire wall on the passenger side? These instructions are terrible for giving what color things are supposed to be. I have found only one picture of the engine bay and that was from the Team's Web Site. And it didn't show much. Spent the last 3 hours airbrushing. Everything on this car is some shade of aluminum. Will get pictures up hopefully by tomorrow. I haven't even touched the body yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHDrew Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Here's a link to my Fotki pics. I uploaded the engine shots that I have collected for the same car. Hope this helps. Ferrari F430GT at Jim Drews Fotki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 5, 2008 Author Share Posted December 5, 2008 Here's a link to my Fotki pics. I uploaded the engine shots that I have collected for the same car. Hope this helps. Ferrari F430GT at Jim Drews Fotki Thanks for the pictures. I'll put them to good use. From the pictures you have of the electronic boxes, Studio 27 has incorrectly sized them for the kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 7, 2008 Author Share Posted December 7, 2008 This is what I've done this weekend. From the reference pictures people have sent me, the interior of this car is completely wrong. I'm not going to do too much to it. Most of the modifications that I'm going to do are to the roll cage and to the pedal arrangements. But a lot of the stuff you're not going to be able to see so I don't plan to bother with it. The big hangup right now is the body. The plugs they give to fill in the holes do not fit very well. And in some cases are too shallow so I'll have to use a lot of filler. Rims are in Alclad Polished Aluminum and fire bottle in Alclad Chrome. I finished painting the roll cage and noticed that I needed a bar for the seat belt attachments so I need to repaint the roll cage. The disc brakes I modified with photoetch for the rotor surface that I had in my parts bin. They decided to not have a photoetch piece in the kit which makes no sense to me. Here are a couple of pictures of the rest of the parts I had painted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 11, 2008 Author Share Posted December 11, 2008 Got quite a bit more work done. Still haven't done much to the body, which is backwards for me since I usually start on the body first. Started to see some more small issues that usually pop up with the Studio 27 kits. Missing decals for the dashboard, completely incorrect engine bay compartment/layout, little things that people wouldn't notice unless they have reference pictures. Of course, I have pictures so it makes it stand out to me. Here's dashboard and steering wheel column. I added some switches to the top of the dashboard and also to the main pamel of the dashboard to make it more correct. Also added wires to the electronic boxes. The decals on the electronic boxes are from my spare decal bin. Fixed the roll cage. Added a bar across for the seat belts and a diagonal bar for the roof with some spare aluminum tubing that I had. I did detailed photoetch to the air box from Crazy Modelers...their Ferrari Script Set. The Studio 27 photoetch left out the prancing horse and the scrip they give you is not the right size. Also added bare metal foil for the clamps. Detailed the exhaust with different shades of Alclad. Also drilled them out as well. Added homemade seatbelts to the seat. Another mistake that I caught in the kit is that they want you to put Michelin stickers onto the tires which the car clearly didn't run as there's a large sticker of a Pirelli on the side of the car. Luckily I had a Pirelli stencil that I used on the tires and yes, the stencil is supposed to be white and not yellow. Took me a while to find a good picture of the tires with the white on them. Should have the chassis painted by tonight and will get pictures up as soon as I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick F40 Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Amazing but you'd think if it'd be $200 they would get it right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 12, 2008 Author Share Posted December 12, 2008 Amazing but you'd think if it'd be $200 they would get it right! Well, I guess I'm lucky. I didn't pay anywhere close to that amount even with shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 12, 2008 Author Share Posted December 12, 2008 Got the chassis painted. Used Tamiya's TS-17 (aluminum) and TS-29 (semi-gloss black). Also ended up scratch building the accelerator pedal. They gave a piece in the photoetch but I lost it. Ended up taking some tin, drilling, then bending it to shape. Seems to look pretty close to the pictures I have of the actual car without the nuts and bolts. Custom made pedal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Looking good Brendan! I absolutely love your pedal though. I'm going to bet it's better than the P.E. supplied piece was! Keep the updates coming. You are certainly moving along on this one! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 12, 2008 Author Share Posted December 12, 2008 Looking good Brendan! I absolutely love your pedal though. I'm going to bet it's better than the P.E. supplied piece was! Keep the updates coming. You are certainly moving along on this one! Chris You don't want to know how many times I screwed up on that. I figured I spent at least 6 hours trying to fiddle with it. I made it as a 3-piece unit. The bottom piece and the middle piece were easy but the actual pedal itself was not fun. I wish I hadn't lost the photoetch piece that was in the kit. It definitely would have looked better. With my luck, I'll find it after I've glued the body to the chassis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 Got the chassis all put together. Kind of upset with myself...spent so much time on the pedal and where it's going to sit, you don't even see it. Didn't have any fit issues with anything. Just some small tweaking on the roll cage and the roll cage in the engine bay. That was mainly due to the parts being pewter. Painted the valve covers flat red and detailed with different shades of black. Put bare metal foil on firewall to represent heat shielding. All the internal componants put into place. Test fitting to see where pedal is going to sit in comparison to the dashboard. Placing seat and roll cage into place and attaching seat belts to the roll cage. There's a tight fit between the roll cage and the dashboard but it will fit. Also added a metallic blue electronics box behind the seat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris coller Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Very interested in building this car in the future. What you have accomplished so far looks awesome. Any way you passing along the info on not having to pay the $180 retail price? Keep up the good work cant wait to see this finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHDrew Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Real, real nice! I can't wait to see the body and decals. Man, I wish I had some free time. Thanks, as always, for sharing. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollover Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Very very nice. Just the right amount of detail. I can't wait to see more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick F40 Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Nice This is coming along very nicely. I love the pedal, it is kind of a shame but at least you know it's there and we do! I also can't wait for the body. Chris, I'm wanting the same thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 Thanks for everyone's comments. As for the body, it's probably going to take me a little while. I still need to fill in the holes and with the cold weather front that's come in, it's going to be a while before getting any paint on it. As for the price of the kit, I believe it was around $150. I had ordered it before all the prices jumped up. I ordered two kits through M & S Hobbies. I just looked and the prices are around $200 now...which is a bit much for these kits. All the places that I've looked now for the kits are around $200. I guess I won't be buying Studio 27 for a while. There's a couple of kits from Profil24 and LeMans Miniatures that I'm looking at now. I think Model Factory Hero is producing an RS Porsche that would be nice to have. I'll get pictures up as soon as I can of the body. Will say this...it's extremely clean and looks pretty dead on to the race car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris coller Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Thanks for the info. I bought the Lark McClaren a few years back for around $140. Although i did like the kit for that price I would have figured it would have been a little nicer. Biggest complaint is the tires. Whats with the extra rubber. Are the newer Studio 27 kits the same way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 Thanks for the info. I bought the Lark McClaren a few years back for around $140. Although i did like the kit for that price I would have figured it would have been a little nicer. Biggest complaint is the tires. Whats with the extra rubber. Are the newer Studio 27 kits the same way? The tires are still the same but they are a little softer. What I do is I cut the extra off and sand them with a sanding stick and use that as the part that's going to sit on the ground so the tire looks a little squat. I bought the short tailed version of the McClaren, which turned out to be the ex-Modeler's kit. It turned out to be the biggest hunk of junk that I'd ever built. But I know that the ones that Studio 27 made were very nice. What I don't like now about the kits is that they used to give you machined aluminum rims and now they're giving you pewter cast rims which don't have as much detail. But when they show the mock ups on their site, they show them all with aluminum rims. That's only been in the past 2 or 3 years that they started doing it. I will say this about them. Their bodies are much cleaner and more to scale than what they used to be. Makes them a lot easier to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris coller Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Yeah I know what you mean. I wanted to do a pretty detailed build with the Lark car, but there was alot of work to do. Man oh man jusst to cut out the vents was a nightmare. The body was cast so clean and then you flip it over chassisi to body fit was atrocious. The one other thing I was most disappointed with was the decal fit. Would have been nice if the made the decals a bit larger to allow for overlap. Had gaps in the decals and had to touch it up with Tamiya Light Gunmetal. Close in color but not an exact match. So over all with the trashing I just did I was for the most part happy with thse final result as to how the car turned out. The one thing I can say about the Studio 27 kits is it's nice to see the types of cars they do produce. I like to build all types of cars. Studio 27 and Model Factory Hiro has some awesome kits. Sometimes I thing I cant justify the cost, but in turn the amount of aftermarket goodies I put in my latest buils it might balance out. Have you built any M.F.H kits? Better quality or about the same as Studio 27? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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