mrm

Great looking model. Love the color. Whatever it is that you used on this build, it represents the nasty carpet in the back of the real thing perfectly.

It's an amazing build so far. A true feast for the eyes.

Man, that paint looks perfect! What kit is that based on?

I also thought it was a real car at the first photo. Those wheels look like real, so we know they did not come in the kit for sure. You put a lot of effort into the body and it definitely shows. Your model has better fitment than the real cars now. Awesome job, Erik.

I'll second that. Actually I use more BMF for masking than for using the actual foil.

Pretty cool. I never realized how many cool little extra details were in this model. I love the intake the most. Last year my younger son had a school project about Egypt. We looked everywhere for Pharaoh stuff without success. Looking at your model now, I 'm thinking "who would've thought? I could save myself a lot of grief with one visit to ebay". The model looks great. At first I was thinking "Why so much red?", but now that you add all the artifact details is actually a really nice background color.

Thank you, David. I appreciate the encouragement. I am definitely soldiering on.

Oh, boy! I did not realize until now where you are. A whole different ball game. Try these two reputable sites: Modelcargarage.com Detailmaster.com Also just search on ebay for "prewired distributor". There are quite few companies who make them. Parts by Parks is what I use a lot of times. Our days there are some cool stuff you can get 3D printed from Shapeways too.

Well, that's different...

Good news / Bad news...... Good news is that I clear coated my body panels together with my Maranello, which was the plan. The doors came out perfect. I am fine with the front bumper, altho I forgot I wanted to install the fog lights, which fit in the horizontal blade, before clear coat, so it can seal them. No biggie... Blue carbon looks cool. I am really happy with the rear. However it makes me think, how funny things work. On both pictures you can see the ghost lines of where the masking tape scored the previous clear coat. In person however, those lines are simply not there. I guess the camera lens catches light braking different than our eyes. Bad news: The front hood continues to fight me and to create drama. As I was spraying it, it snapped from it's mount and bounced off the floor. Luckily it landed clear coat up, but picked up trash on top of one fender. So I will have to attempt to buff the debris out, which may or may not require a new coat of pearl white. Keeping fingers crossed. Thanks for looking and stay tuned...

Rosso Barchetta it is. And the first clear coat is down. It has few little dust fairies here and there, but I think it will buff out just fine and probably will not need another coat.

Very nice. I always had very mixed feelings about MFH. It is absolutely mind boggling the level of inaccuracies in some high end model makers, whether in kits or finished models. Some things I just scratch my head and for the life of me can’t find a reason why they would have done some things. What model is this supposed to represent? Just Ferrari 166 is rather vague. Does it specify on the box? I’m asking, because most Barchettas with that five instrument dash have a shifter placed more forward with the unique triangular knob.

Yes, it is. And thank you.

Very nice and clean. Colors are perfect.

I was never a fan of that grille, with the bar in the middle, but I have to say that this is the first time I see a rod that actually pulls it off and looks really good with it. I am also pretty sure this is a 3 window coupe, but this is probably a typo. I love the over all look of this hot rod. It has the right attitude.

Looking really good so far. I love vintage F1.

Aside from the materials used, I think it is very important to go in stages. Start small and simple. Worst thing to do is bite more than you can chew, go after the "looks-authentic-even-under-microscope-look" and then get frustrated and pushed away from it because it didn't quite work out. Besides a lot of time Less is more. Start with just wired distributors and radiator hoses. Then add the plug wire boots. those will test your commitment. And honestly, a set of prewired distributor, turned aluminum coil and sparkplug boot material is like $5 or $6 in a variety of colors. It is not worth the gas looking for stuff to substitute it with. For fuel lines, brake lines or various supply or cooling lines under the hood or chassis I love using different thickness solder. Main reason why is because it is very soft and easy to cut and bend and correct if necessary. Besides it polishes to a very realistic finish. Very important tip! Get extras of all the tiny micro drill bits you are going to need. They brake when you just look at them the wrong way.

Welcome to the forum, Daryl.

Hello Doyle, welcome to the board. I am in neighboring Tennessee. Perhaps in near future we can get together and visit a show or two.

Looking really good. The color is really nice and it suits the car. Very BMWish. I like your interior and I think cutting the side glass was a cool choice. One suggestion if I may. Paint the rear headrests grey like the rest of the seats, it would look way better IMO. This model has surprisingly good detail on th interior doors for a Fujimi from that era.

Mattel made this model in their Elite series in black also. The black ones still can be found for reasonable prices and look gorgeous. I would highly recommend getting one if that's your type of car. The cream interior on the black paint looks delish. FERRARI 550 BARCHETTA - Mattel Elite

Let's add the factory hot rod Diablo to the mix.... LAMBVORGHINI DIABLO Super Veloce - AutoART

Thank you, Paul. Yes, They are BBS LMs. That is what Koenig used on his earlier cars, before he had his own design wheels made for him. I actually do have the BBS decals to go in the center caps, which should be black, but I decided to leave them silver, as the black centers are pretty retro. I may change that in the future, but it's staying silver for now.

Ryan, Ray, Bruce, Doyle, Larry and Carl, thank you guys! Appreciate it.

Thank you, Thomas. I mostly agree with you about everything you say. This series of Fujimi kits are not all that great in general. They have almost no engine detail and chassis detail is minimal. And this Porsche is not exactly Koenig Specials best looker either. However, Fujimi have nailed the body and proportions perfectly and have included some detail specific to this car. It's not their fault it was an "ugly duckling". I tried to soften some of the eye sores on it to make it a little easy on the eyes. Most obvious is the paint, which as I have mentioned is actually a very modern Lamborghini tri-coat. All the real cars were red, black or dark blue metallics with one even painted two tone with red bottom and black on top, which makes it look even more hideous. All of which were typical choices for the period the cars came out. What nobody probably noticed is, that I have mounted the rear lights upside down, locating the back up lights on the bottom instead of on top. To do that I also painted the entire light assembly red, instead of red on the bottom with orange upper half, which would have placed it square in the late '80s, early '90s. Also I chose to paint the door handles body color instead of the actual plastic black on the real car. All these are minute details, but they make a big difference visually. About the license plate, you are 100% right and I am well aware of it. But first off, all the Euro plates I had were from kits that were reading something associated with the model they came from, like 599 or 612 from the the corresponding Ferrari kits or R8 whatever from the Audi one. This plate was the only random one and it actually had 930, which is supposedly what this Porsche was based on. Besides if I had the means living on the French riviera and and driving and maintaining this crazy creation, I am pretty sure I would get away with it and afford the ticket. ?