Ferrari 250 GTO - old and older (Monogram and Italeri)

[1959scudetto]

Here are 2 old builts from the 80’s: Monogram’s 1/25 Ferrari GTO (ex-Aurora) and Revell AG’s 1/24 GTO from 1988 (= Italeri reissue). In those pre-Internet days my only references were some car books, model kit catalogs and modeling magazines.

I was in a modeling hurry back then and rushed through building kits: from 1982 up to 1991, I built around 170 – 180 kits (mainly American cars and trucks, and some sports and race cars in between) – I often did not even paint parts that are hard to see, so I left floors and some engine and/or interior parts unpainted.

Recently, I picked up some of them and tried a little more detailing (with a car library of about 200 books and hundreds of magazines + Internet I am able to  finally lift some secrets):

The Monogram GTO was dressed up as a fictitious historic racer (80’s style) and got a clear coat over the bare red plastic – the ugly headlights were hidden under protective covers  whereas you can’t hide the steeply sloping front and rear body panels without major surgery. So I swapped the too narrow wheels with those of Revell’s Austin Healey 100-Six (H-1202, this one will undergo a complete restoration) and called it a day.

The Revell/Italeri GTO should represent the yellow car from the 1965 Spa-Francorchamps 500 km (DNF). Now I know what is wrong: the body should only have 2 instead of 3 slots behind the front wheels – I cut these back in the day, so I left it. The elongated air scoop was made new from very thin aluminium sheet, the chromed wheels got a respray from the can (rim silver from a car shop), I added a rear license plate and handwrote the letters directly onto the body in the front (found a pic from the race in the net!) – the car had yellow headlight covers in the beginning of the race, but I’m not sure about the # 31 on the trunk (no model has it, and the real car pics do not show this perspective) – the side exhaust maybe wrong also, but I will leave it as is; I fabricated some leather straps for the hood from wire and black duct tape - the stance of the car has already been lowered in 1988 (it looked too high for a racer)

I still have a Protar, a Fujimi, a Gunze and 2 Italeri GTOs in my stash…

[PappyD340]

Those are some fantastic models!

[1959scudetto]

9 hours ago, PappyD340 said:

Those are some fantastic models!

Thanks, Larry, but they are just average quality builds (especially when you look at the models of other board members here)

[Gramps46]

You did a super job with those.  I never would have guessed the Monogram was the same old Aurora kit.  Thanks for sharing these.

[TonyK]

Those are pretty darn nice! I have an old Protar 250 GTO that I've never built because I don't think I have the talent to make it as great as I want it to be. It's one of my favorite cars of all time so want to do it right. I really should try though.

[1959scudetto]

3 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

You did a super job with those.  I never would have guessed the Monogram was the same old Aurora kit.  Thanks for sharing these.

Thanks Gary, while the Monogram GTO (ex-Aurora) has a totally wrong body, the kit went together very easily - in spite of all the openings - I had a lot more trouble building the old Union/IMC Ford Mk IV.

[1959scudetto]

1 hour ago, TonyK said:

Those are pretty darn nice! I have an old Protar 250 GTO that I've never built because I don't think I have the talent to make it as great as I want it to be. It's one of my favorite cars of all time so want to do it right. I really should try though.

Thanks, Tony! Just build your Protar GTO - kits are meant to be built and not collected (well said, but I have to admit I have about 300 unbuilts left)

[JohnnyK]

Really nice looking models. I love vintage kits.

[1959scudetto]

1 hour ago, JohnnyK said:

Really nice looking models. I love vintage kits.

Thanks, John!

[Rich Chernosky]

It takes some real talent to bring those early molds to life as a decent model. You did a great job, 

[1959scudetto]

2 hours ago, Rich Chernosky said:

It takes some real talent to bring those early molds to life as a decent model. You did a great job, 

Thanks, Rich, for the kind words - but that was nothing special.

[talfarlow]

Hi! I wonder which version is that one by Monogram (which I also had long ago), with only two -closed- vents on the hood, over the grille, instead of the usual -open- 3. Did this car really exist ot it was a slip by Monogram? If so, how to tell it from the others? Thank you very much.