Matt Bacon

Thanks, guys! OK... not shiny and red. I decided it was definitely better to get everything fitting properly BEFORE I painted it! The bonnet and boot have some issues -- the boot at the sides, and the bonnet at the windscreen end. And there's some serious gappage around the doors at the "shoulder". I also decided that the rear lights as provided in the kit are pretty irredeemable. There's an entirely different style with a one-piece coloured plastic light unit which has a chrome "hood". It seems quite common, so I'll go for that instead -- I made a similar set-up for the DB4GT, so I know that it can be done, and how... Time to break out the plastic card. I think for problems like this, plastic card and liquid cement is the best answer -- any kind of filler will just fall off, and the styrene is exactly as hard as the plastic of the kit part for easier sanding. Some time later... I fixed the hinge parts to be a little more realistic (not perfect scale, but not a toy, either). In case you were wondering about the colour, here it is in sunlight: There 's a fine, light, metal flake in there, which isn't so obvious behind the dust and reflections in this pic, mind... And finally, here's where I am this evening: I have test fitted the doors, boot etc before committing to primer. There are a couple of bit son the boot and one door that will need cleaning up, filling, and re-priming, but I think that'll be about it. bestest, M.

...and as if by magic... Yep... that's the colour I'm aiming for. Sorry it's been a while since the last update -- I've been travelling away from the bench all week... Anyway... I finished a few details, and have got to the stage when I can try a first coat of primer to see how it looks (and what needs fixing...) There's obviously some filling, sanding and repriming to do here and there, but overall, I'm pretty happy. As you can see, I've fitted the rear valance. I figured out that you can get the interior in and then fit the chassis in at the front and finally join the two, which means that you don't need to put the whole thing in as a unit and fit the valance last. I think I can get a much better finish on the back end by doing it this way, with the valance seamlessly blended before painting. Not quite seamless yet, obviously, but getting there. The other main details are proper "scoops" over the engine bay vents, the windscreen trim, and fixing some odd damage at the rear lights. Not the best picture, but you get the idea. I added a thin strip of plastic card to the moulded ridge, and then built up and blended it using superglue + micro balloons, because I thought it would be structurally tougher than plastic putty, but still easy to sand and shape. It'll need a smear of regular putty to deal with a few imperfections, but you can see that there's now a decent, and thin, lip for the grille to hide behind. Skip pointed out earlier that there's actually a gap between the windscreen and door chrome trim on the A-pillar, so I scribed and sanded one to give me something to work on with the BMF. I think that minimising the "weight" of the chrome on the kit will be key to achieving the elegant look of the real thing, especially on the door windows. And finally, an odd one. On my kit, the outside lower edge of the rear light "oval" was misshaped on both sides -- almost as though it was "torn" outward. It's near the worst mould seam on the kit, between the light clusters and the boot opening, so I suspect it's something to do with the way the mould opens to eject the body... Anyway, once again out with the microballoons and superglue. Still not perfect, but much improved. Next task is to hit those areas that these photos have highlighted as needing some more attention with the plastic putty, as well as a few more I haven't shown you (mostly front end seams...). I'm hopeful that she'll be shiny and red by the end of the weekend... bestest, M.

Did you guys have "Top Trumps" in the US? Card game where you had a deck of 40 or so cards in a category (eg Star Wars, Military Aircraft, Top Gear Supercars...) and you had to pick one of six characteristics (eg Maximum Speed, or Payload) and if your friend's card was lower or slower or had less Magical Power, you took it and had the next go? The supercar guys are either selling to brand loyalists... in which case "fastest ever round Fiorano" matters, or they're in a game of Top Trumps with million dollar stakes... Just LOOK at the press releases for the LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Lambo Veneno. They've got that old Veyron dinosaur in their sights and they're hunting him down. Neutral drivers at the 'Ring... It's the only solution... Bestest, M.

Read the press release... It's CFD'd and wind tunnel tested to the same degree as the F1 cars, (and those guys worry about the effect of tar splatter and the placement of sponsor decals on airflow), and the designers worked completely hand in hand with the aero engineers to fine tune the shape. At worst, I imagine every aesthetic line has zero negative impact on drag, downforce, cooling airflow etc. Can you imagine the conversation...? "You want to add 0.3 seconds to our Fiorano lap time because you want a crease in the fender?" When I did the fluid mechanics courses during my engineering degree, I was still writing Fortran IV, and the Silicon Graphics workstations had to be booked out in 10 minute slots. I imagine things have moved on since then, and there's NO excuse for not knowing EXACTLY what your neat-looking curve on the drawing board will do to the fuel consumption or on-limit road-holding... Bestest, M.

I think the point is that there are NO "pointless" creases. It's all aero... bestest, M.

Dr Cranky.... do you have any decent link or title for the "New" Pat Covert book? It sounds great if it combines stuff from his previous hard to find and expensive books, but I can't find anything on Amazon UK or Com, and I can't even find a web site for Motor Books International to look in their "Forthcoming Titles" section... ? bestest, M.

Surely if that's what they're after it should be "la Ferrarissima"... ;-P Seriously, what happens in five years time when the next ultimate expression of Ferrari-ness comes along? Or maybe that range-topping model is ALWAYS LaFerrari now... Personally, I think the cylinders/capacity number thing is part of Ferraris DNA, and they mess with it at their peril! Bestest, M.

So... LaFerrari (I really HATE the name), P1 or Veneno for YOUR garage? (Though I guess if you can afford a Veneno, you can bag one each of the other two as well...) I'd like to see a Top Gear group test to see if any of these knock the Veyron off its perch... ;-) From a design point of view, I'd say the Veyron was drawn for Gulf princelings, whereas this generation appeals to the aesthetics of young Chinese nouveau riche... Bestest, M. (And before you start, Skip, I'm 250 miles from the Maserati, so I'm ALLOWED to procrastinate! ;-P)

Nope, but I'd pay $60 for a Aoshima kit of one and it'd go straight to the top of the build pile... that is one awesome piece of kit. YMMV, obviously... Take the motor and put it in a Mustang? That's like strapping Seabiscuit to a Conestoga... ;-P bestets, M.

Well, I'll certainly be watching this one, as well. I've wanted to see how this Revell kit builds (I think it's back again this year, IIRC). I'm not sure whether it's originally Protar or Italeri plastic, but I've built kits of the same vintage from both, and they're not bad at all. Personally, I think Rosso Corsa is the best choice for a GTO, thought the Swedish blue and yellow car and the David Piper pale green are nice alternatives. Have fun! Of, course, you realise that you'll have to do a 288GTO after this to complete the set...? ;-P bestest, M.

I've been thinking about the rear valance and the chassis/body build up. The main issue is the boot liner, at the back of the cabin moulding. Looking at it, though, and trying a quick test fit, I think it should be possible to slot the cabin interior in place and THEN plug in the chassis frame below it. I think you can get the cabin up into the body and slide it back, and then sneak the rear frame onto its mounts under the rear skirt. With the opening doors and boot lid, you've got plenty of access for fiddling the two big assemblies to align them... you could even add the front seats from outside afterwards, if needed... bestest, M.

BTW... have you seen the JayLenosGarage 3500 GT "barn find" restoration blogs? I've watched the first one, but some glitch is taking me to a Daimler Sp250 Dart restoration for the other two... bestest, M.

...actually, Skip... the steering wheel. Is the kit part a really bulky attempt at a Nardi, or did some of them really have that much more 3D triangular hub and spoke set up...? And do any of your pics show the firewall equipment without the engine in the way? bestest, M.

Decisions, decisions... Skip's favorite 3500GT above has rectangular auxiliary lights below the headlights, just like the kit. Most of the pictures I have looked at so far (see above for examples) show a different layout with a larger circular lamp and a separate smaller indicator. Just building the kit would obviously be rather easier... Skip, do you know if both were reasonably common? Any ideas on when/why it changed -- is it a model year thing or a European spec versus US spec thing, maybe? Or just a mystery, like the chrome micro-fins on the rear wings...? bestest, M.

Thanks for that, Skip! As you say, the liners will be black, and there are those details at the top to hide the joins... The seats are seriously anemic, and they'll certainly need those BIG metal side braces/hinges as well as bulking up the bolsters and backs. I'm still looking at wheels. I also have somewhere a spare set of the steel racing wheels from an E-type Jag, which are being replaced by the wires from a Tamiya Mk 2 Jag (the best plastic "wires" I've ever seen). If I can find them, they might work, with some hubcaps, to look like the ones in your gunmetal grey example... I decided to take a bit of a break from bodywork, and progress elsewhere for a bit. Here are lots of parts that used to be chromed. Five minutes in some carefully handled caustic soda solution, and they're clean. You can see the varnish is still there, but glue does work... There are some sink marks in the bumpers which prompted stripping them, and obviously the chromed engine parts are just daft. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the level of detail supplied for the engine -- separate alternator, starter motor and distributor, belts etc. As you can see from the engine pic at the bottom left, this is clearly a car with the fuel injection engine rather than carbs. The decals are in a parlous state. I can see several cracks across the number plates. I've painted the logos and instruments with liquid decal film to try and save them, but I've also made a scan just in case I need to make my own. Anyone know of an aftermarket silver-ink decal sheet of Maserati logos...? ;-P I've ordered some rectangular mesh from Detail Master -- we'll see how that looks. With some measuring and counting, it needs to be 1mm spacing vertically and 2mm horizontally (or a bit bigger than 1/32" x 1/16") bestest, M.

Yep... thanks for the pictures, Paul. I think it probably could be done, but you'd have to reshape the windscreen "master" a lot to remove a good chunk of the lower corners, sanding through to the Milliput and well into it, to get the smoother curve along the bottom edge instead of the rectangular shape. Compared to that, adding some styrene to fill in the corners of the aperture in the body and rebuilding the "lip" would be almost trivial! Looking at the instructions on mine, the problem with getting a chassis you can test seems to be that there are four sections that have to be assembled before you have something you can test fit -- the back end with interior, the main chassis with front frame, the suspension assembly which sits on the end of that frame, and the extreme front frame which attaches to the axle assembly. I don't know how positive the mounting locations are, either. I'd like to use the chassis as a jig to assemble the firewall and engine bay sides (fender liners) on their mount points, and then remove them and attach them to the body interior, if that works. My worry is, though, that they are essential bracing to support the front frame assembly! Also, does anyone who has built this kit know for sure whether the engine bay sides sit at right angles to the firewall, or taper in toward the front to follow the line of the bonnet cut-out? The instructions are very unclear, and the fit into the slots isn't positive enough to tell one way or the other! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! This is precisely the right time for "a bit more work" suggestions -- I can actually do them! There's nothing worse than posts AFTER the body is painted and cleared saying "did you think about...?" when I obviously didn't ;-P Skip... don't worry, suggestions are always welcome... as you can see: I was probably going to get to this at some time -- I already did it on my Astons -- but it was a worthwhile reminder. I scribed a line along the front face of the "scoop" with a P-Cutter, used flat -- ie parallel with the bonnet. Once that was reasonably deep, I scraped away under the bonnet, and alternated both until I had a narrow slot cut through. Then I used a "Flexi-File" - thin strips of abrasive on a plastic backing held in a U-shaped handle. I threaded the strip through the slot before attaching it to the handle, and then used it to widen the slot at both sides. I also used a fresh #11 blade to carve away a bit on the inside of the scoop as well, to get the sort of "W" cross section. Finally I sanded the upper corners of the scoop a bit, which are too square on the kit... ...best part of an hour to make a small hole. Who'd'a thunk it? ;-P bestest, M.

Thanks, Skip... are you thinking something like this (55 Bel Air from The Model Car Garage) bestest, M.

That's a relief! I thought you were saying the body wouldn't go on the chassis with the front valance in place... Certainly on my Monogram instructions, it's glued in position well before the body is attached to the chassis. I'll have a look at the instructions -- I wonder if there's any mileage in fitting the fender liners and firewall in place inside the body before fitting the whole chassis... bestest, M.

Yep... there are a few out there with the "raised eyebrow" windscreen, but they are far from common. Actually, if you look at loads of pictures, as I now have, you can see a fair degree of variation in the windscreen line. I think it must have changed subtly over different "model years". Anyway... Boy, am I glad to get THIS done: Obviously, now I "just" need to sort out the badge, grille itself and the chrome effect. Easy! One thing I have noticed is that it looks from the instructions like it will be impossible to get the chassis in with the rear underbody in place. Can anyone who has built the kit confirm that is really so? If it is the case, my inclination is to tack the part in position, prime, paint and clearcoat as normal, then remove it by cutting through the Clear with a VERY sharp knife. Hopefully, then I can put the chassis in and fit the part back in place, and once it's set just polish over the join if needed. It won't _quite_ disappear, but most of it's behind the rear bumper. I do NOT want to be filling sanding and repainting and revarnishing a seam right at the end of the build! Anyone got any better suggestions? bestest, M.

You're right, of course. I need to have a look at how the chrome on the door parts work, but it looks to me as though I need to scribe down the pillar (that thin, fragile pillar), and also carve the windscreen lower corner trim up into a curve to meet the vertical. And I can see, now Paul mentions it, that the base of the windscreen is too rectangular, But I'me really not going to try to fix that! bestest, M.

Thanks, Skip, Paul! Skip.... it's going to be Ferrari Rosso Rubino, which has a very light, fine gold flake. It's not quite a Maserati colour, but close enough to their version for, and available on my shelf in a Hiroboy paint! Tan interior, I think. For your one, how about getting a pearl white, and adding drops of black (and maybe a drop or two of dark blue) until you get the grey you want? It worked very well for the "Silver Birch" on my James Bond DB6... Paul... thanks.... I think. I think I'm committed now, since I'm not reworking the windscreen master! However, it'd be interesting to know what I'm missing! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys. Skip... I think I have your full set... that's what started this madness! I can't afford expensive aftermarket wheels, so I'm looking to the spares box. Aoshima 1/24 MGB wires look good at the moment... The last major cosmetic change is to reshape the grille. The kit grille is pretty much oval, whereas you can see that the real thing is more like a round-cornered rectangle. The "snout" also sticks out further than the kit's effort. I started by filing out the corners and reshaping the hole in the kit, and then adding a band of plastic card around the inside of the reshaped hole. I sanded the plastic strip to an even 1.5mm or so outside the hole in the body, and then I built up the surround with Milliput (two-part epoxy putty). When it's set good and hard, there'll be a fair bit of sanding and shaping to do... I'm aiming to sand it back until the plastic core is just showing through, and blend the snout smoothly in, in a slightly squarer shape than the original curve. Of course, it means building a new grille, because the kit part no longer fits, but I'll take the emblem from the original and use mesh for the grille itself. Wish me luck! bestest, M.

... a "golden oldie", which I believe started life with Aurora, back in 1964. By popular vote, this is to be next on my bench. (And many thanks to Skip J, who has been awaiting this for some time.... since he sent me a TONNE of great reference) Job #1 is to fix a significant shape issue with the kit, which changes the look significantly. The top line of the windscreen is too high. I think there's maybe one car where the roofline is like that on the kit, but most of the photos I've found show a much lower line, continuing the gutters above the doors horizontally, parallel to the ground. The kit has a "wide-eyed" look, because the windscreen top heads upward over the roof at 45 degrees to the level. It's taken me a while to figure out how to do this! What I decided to do is cut the top section off the windscreen and glue it to the body, and then make a new windscreen. Here's the top part of the clear part stuck in place, and filled. ...and here it is sanded. You can see where the original roofline goes. The clear piece is backed up with Milliput just in case the sanding makes it a bit thin! It also needs a "trim" to continue the chrome above the doors. This is just a thin strip of plastic card, applied slowly, a bit at a time, with liquid cement. ...and here it is with a bit of primer to see where the imperfections are... Of course... this means we need a new windscreen. Apologies if this is familiar, but people often ask me what "plunge moulding is", so here we are. The original windscreen is backed with Milliput (it cracked as I was cutting it ;-() I cut a hole in a piece of hardboard from a chocolate box to make the outer "mould". The plastic is packaging from some Sennheiser headphones. Basically, any of those "clamshell" packs that you have to cut your way into, and avoid being cut by the packaging afterwards, make good material for this kind of thing... ... I made quite a few. This is to allow for my incompetence while I try to trim and fit them... This one looks like it might be a long haul, but it'll be a rarity on the shelf! bestest, M

Thank you all, gentlemen. This seems to be a "Marmite" car (those of you with a UK connection will know what I mean... for everyone else it's a "love it or hate it"). It's either the worst excesses of modern Ferrari, or a supercool supercar. Me, I think it's sculpture. Cars don't do "if it looks right, it'll fly right" these days, and for modern supercar markets (the Gulf, Russia, Singapore and China) a bit of excess seem to be the way to go. The F12 is not my favorite Fezza on the shelf, but I do think it's the front-engined Ferrari turned up to 11. As for the kit, personally, I think Fujimi have done a great job. There are some detail compromises, and some strange choices, but overall, I found it fitted well, looks the part, and was a straightforward build. The upsides: The main body elements (front bumper, body, bonnet "blades", doors, chassis, fitted superbly. There is NO trimming, sanding etc in what you see above. The dash etc. details were great for painting Excellent decals Despite criticism, the wheels and tyres are bang on scale sizes Those PE Scud shields are great if you want to do carbon effect versions! The "just OK" The pedals and seats are moulded with the tub. Not "state of the art", but, honestly, can you tell by looking at the photos here or in the WIP? The grilles in the body fit _perfectly_. So well, in fact, that if you prime, paint and clear the body shell, they don't any more. I'd mask the holes next time. The suspension is very simplified. Again, can you tell? The opening doors can be made multiposition, if not hinged and operating. Why not engineer them that way in the first place? Engine looks great in situ The "not so good" Those blinking exhaust manifolds. Why bother making something so complex and hard to assemble that you just can't see? Too much chrome. The grill ain't chrome on the real thing. The exhausts only have chrome tips. Give us some mesh in case we don't want to use the moulded parts The PE is mostly useless (the brake disks don't add much and are hard to use, and a lot of the rest is invisible) Why not offer a few more colour schemes in the instructions (Tamiya does, see the LFA)? And have the alternative decals needed (eg brake callipers, wheel centre cavallinos, dash instruments and markings, seat embellishments) in the box, a la Revell. Overall, though: buy with confidence my friends.... and seek out some "Rosso Maranello" or "Blu Abu Dhabi" from your local paint experts! Thanks, again... bestest, M.