Rich Chernosky

Andy....can't thank you enough. Been all over the web and there is plenty on this car but nothing as good as what you\ have posted. Thanks again...this will be a great help.

Thank you Pierre. You are not kidding. I must have looked at this up-grade kit a half dozen times and said I am not ready for this. But eventually it had to be done so I jumped in. I have learned a few new techniques along the way. The 641/2 WAS a beautiful car and had some success in 1990. Then all those ugly aerodynamics started to take over and they fell behind.

More progress. Started in on the rear suspension and shock assembly. Lots of tiny fabrication. Thgis is what I am up against. All this just to fabricate the shock/spring assembly. Lots of drilling and grinding to get them to look right. All the pieces ready, machined and painted for final assembly. This took the better half of a couple of days.

Nice job on this one Mike. Dan would have loved it.

Jason.......this is one of Tamiya's better kits. Everything will fit nicely and it can be a great finished piece. Your paint is ready to go and looks great. The interior choice will also go great and I think its a good fit. Look forward to the finished piece. I 'm sure you will do well.

Peter...that is a great tip. Yah...the urethane foam is a little messy. Only good thing about it, is it fills the interior to the exact shape.

Progress report. Took a break from all the tiny nuts and bolts and deviated from the instructions. I actually like doing some of this stuff so it was a little bit of a refresher. Technical details under the pictures. This was a necessity. Filled the hollow tires with urethane foam. In this case Gorilla glue. Took a few applications and then had to be carved so the wheels fit. In the past I have had these tires cave in over a period of time. In one case they went entirely flat and cracked badly. That was on my Tamiya Ferrari 312T. Was lucky to find replacement tires for most of the bad ones. This is now standard procedure for all hollow rubber tires. The foam dries hard and the tires keep their shape. The hweels are painted Tamiya X-18 over gold. The semi black was just thin ebough for a little of the gold to poke through. Looks different than all black. Sprayed and detail painted all the brake and hub assemblies. These will get brake lines before going on the model. Now this was fun. Fabric covering came from the kit. Didn't follow the advice on the instructions and cut some of it too short. Luckily it pieces together seamlessly. Seatbelt fabric was from the kit but the hardware is PE from the Perfect Parts pack. Shoulder harness fastens to the chassis and will be installed when the seat goes in. Did a little on the brakes cylinder assembly. Will also get brake lines later.

Before you buy a good paint brush learn how to use it and clean it. I sold art supplies and then hobby paints and brushes. I did countless paint demo's and was apalled at how many people did not know this. Some were very skilled and had been painting for years and still didn't know this. Sable and camel hair are good for solvent base paints. Acrylics are a little stiffer and are better for water base. Not uncommon for a good brush to cost $6-7 or more. A good brush can last a very long time if taken care of properly.

More progress to report. Lots of nuts and bolts and fitting. Most of the really small work on the engine is done. A big hurdle was the valve covers as there was a ;lot of detailing. Spark plug boots and fasteners and all the bolts and brackets holding the covers in place. See more info in the pictures. About halfway through the process. All the exhaust ports done, brackets from the kit installed, replacement half shaft support and PE , oil hose and fitting fabricated. other side of the engine and just as much work. This consumed about 20hrs. Valve covers and some accessories installed. Valve covers were sprayed a semi gloss metallic black. The chrome letters were bare metal foiled before painting and then exposed with a q-tip and thinner when the paint was semi dry. A great trick I use a lot. Wires are heavy thread coated with craft glue. There are 12 PE covers over the plugs and each has a nut bolt washer assembly holding it on. The 1:1 car often has a cover over this area and the kit has this. But sometimes they don't use it and I like the detail exposed.

Welcome aboard Johan. I feel that this forum is all about exchanging ideas and showcasing techniques. That being said...what are some of your interests and current projects. I am into exotics and racecars, mostly road racing and F-1. I do all scales.

Aaahh!... a fellow sufferer. Good to know I am not alone. Thanks for the encouragement.

You're on. I have to finish my WIP on the 1/12 Ferrari 641 first and that may take a while. I guess everyone, now, knows who I traded with. I really did start that kit ...ya know.

Matt...thank you for putting this one up. I have this kit that I traded a fellow modeler for, many years ago. I have struggled with it on and off since then. I know it can be built as I have seen several done. But you are the first to show us how. Look forward to seeing your efforts.

Update. Started to replace a lot of the nuts bolts and washers. This is mostly photo etch work and very time consuming. Details on how some of this is accomplished are in the picture captions. Heres what I am up against. All of the nuts, bolts, washers are 3 piece assemblies. The bolt is .020 piano wire. This does the best job simulating the bolt but it cannot be cut with iwre cutters and leave a sharp edge. This has to be done with a moto-tool cut-off wheel . Wait til you see how many have to be made. Note how small the nut and washer are...that's .50mm. Very tiney. The work area for doing phot etch. Note the total absence of clutter. This is absolutely necessary for me. Once a tiny piece of PE slips out of the tweezers amid clutter it is gone forever. At least with this much space I "have" a chance of finding it. I have to remind myself to do thgis because there are times I have forgotten to clear the work area and paid the price. Da tools. Left to right. Plastic tweezers...not a lot of grip but necessary for moving tiny pieces of PE. They are definetly non-magnetic. Hand made super glue applicator. This is a small piece of copper wire bent over and squashed flat. The hole in the end hold the tiniest amount of super glue. Its mounted in a bamboo skewer. A pair of Boley style tweezers from Micro Mart. Stainless steel with a lot of grip right down to the tip. The only thing that will get the tiny washers and nuts off the sprue. Stainless steel is supposed to be non-magnetic but don't believe it...the PE still sticks to it and you need the plastic tweezers to get them onot the black poster board. Some poster tack wrapped on a bambooskewer. This is how you really pick up the tiny pieces of PE and get them to the model without losing them. Lastly the magnet. Wave this over your work area to find those tiny pieces. They escape and go way farther than you would imagine. The micro drill with a #76 (.020) tungsten carbide bit installed. This is the best $30 I have ever spent on a tool. It holds the drill bit arrow straight with no wobble. Hold it like a pencil and you can drill the smallest of holes with incredible precision. Its lowest speed is perfect for plastic and will stall and turn off if the drill bit catches in soft material. This is important for tungsten carbide bits because the slightest wobble or catch can snap them in a heartbeat. But those bits are wickedly sharp. The #76 bit drills the perfect fit for the .020 rod. They are also $5 apiece so I don't like to break them. The seeing eye devices. At 76yrs old they are a fact of life. I remember a day when I could do all this without them. If I had anything back from my youth it would be my eyesight. There are a couple of other things I would like but can't really mention them here. Some of the work completed so far. PE exhaust clamps installed with .020 brass rod and some of the nuts and washers attached. I initially thought I would use brass rod because you can snip it with a pair of nail clippers. It gave a fairly clean cut but still left the tiniest of burrs and the nut and washers wouldn't fit over them easily. I had to take a diamond grinder in a low speed moto- tool to remove this burr. There are 7 pieces to each exhaust port and 12 exhaust ports. That is 84 pieces total...whew!

More than likely ...no. However the fit of this panel is very good and the glue attachment points won't show if you are careful. For painting purposes you can attach this with craft glue and remove it after painting. It is a well engineered piece. Here is a link to my build and there is a good photo of this area: 2022 C8 Corvette Z51 coupe - Model Cars - Model Cars Magazine Forum

Matt...very well done and well researched. Really like all the extra information you provided. Good post.

Thank you Mathias. I am well into now. Enthusiasm is high.

More progress. Paint has now really hit plastic. Spent most of the day with the airbrush and paint booth. Got the majority of spray work done. All the parts have been cleaned and over 16 colors sprayed. Details and more info in the picture captions. Everything is dry and back in the bags. Usually at this stage is when detail brush painting and final assembly starts. But this will be delayed as the myriad of photo etch parts will be installed and from the looks of it, it will be slow going. Still this is a major step. Of note are the wings and chassis panels. These were sprayed a mixture of LP-1 gloss black (50%) LP-5 Semi Black (50%) and about 10 drops of LP62 Titanium gold. I call this color hi-shine semi black and it matches most of the photos I have seen. The added gold, although very subtle , makes it just a little different from all the other blacks. The fropnt wing was assembled a long time ago with no thought given for this step. It had to be carefully masked. An example of one of the bags. The SM line of AK paints sprays very nice and has a nice sheen that is different from other metallics. A good shot of the compled exhaust all sprayed with Alclad. Can't wait to do the heat stain.

Sharing is what this forum is all about. I have been on here since 2018 and figured it was about time to do a WIP. Your help,friendship, and encouragement when I first started here were invaluable. I understand slowing down (I'm 76) just never quit.

Progress report. Paint has hit plastic. That means this project is really under way. Some other preliminary construction has also been done. More info in the picture captions. Fiurst thing I always do are the body pieces. Upper cowl has been fitted with tabs to seccure it tightly to the side body panels. Panels were given a good scrub down with a soft toothbrush and scouring powder. This removes all the oils and dulls the finish slightly. Put a new liner in the paint booth and gave it a good cleaning. Then some masking tape to the panels to remove allthe dust and fine particles. Four light coats of Tamiya LP21 Italian Red with each coat getting heavier and thinned out until the final wet coat. I was a little surprised at how much I had to thin ( MR Color leveling thinner) the LP21. Mine must have thickened up in the bottle. I have sprayed the LP line straight from the bottle with little or no thinning. I will let this cure for about 10 days and then polish. Paint came out nice and smooth. Scraped the seams and assembled the exhaust. There were 16 seperate pieces. Tamiya was thoughtful to include the yellow piece which is a jig to locate this assembly to the pan. It is not used in the kit. This has to sit overnight for the glue to get nice and tight. The engineering on this was fantastic. This will later be sprayed Alclad polished aluminum and then heat stained.

Helmut...thank you for the correction and extra information. OH MY....that is one gorgeous piece of automotive sculpture. Almost sorry I painted mine silver with black accents.

Ken....that's about what I paid for mine when it came out. Price hasn't gone up all that much since. I see them for around $170-$200. Like you, I thought at the time that $100 for a kit was something I was never going to do. But as a 1/12 and Ferrari fan....it was a gotta have.