97 Ferrari F310B

[ferrari87]

Evening Gents! 

It's been awhile since I've been at the workbench but I've finally started my Ferrari collection. I'm a very big Formula One fan so what better way to start off an F1 collection than with the car that was the bedrock for the juggernaut that grew in Maranello with Brawn, Byrne, and Shumacher. Initially designed by John Barnard and further refined by Rory Byrne into the succeeding F300 and F399, ultimately evolving into the dominant F2000-F2004's. It is, the F310B. I am still waiting on getting the proper photoetch in to represent the car driven in Melbourne. The car OOB is designed for the Japanese GP, lacking Marlboro decals and a particular rear wing end-plate set up. I do have a few goodies, a Studio 27 carbon fiber set fresh from SpotModel in Spain and the aforementioned Marlboro decals. Anyway, while waiting for all the parts to come in, I've begun work on the engine. There's an excellent F310B on modelersite.com and for a nominal fee, an excellent PDF can be downloaded to help understand parts of the car that frankly, I have no idea about. There are also several pictures out there of the car Schumacher used in practice at Spa and later raced by Irvine in Monza. I will be modelling an F310B driven by Irvine in Australia, although he retired on the first lap with a puncture. I have an F2000 and F20001 that will be modeled after Schumacher driven vehicles. I'm also currently working on a Ferrari F60 piloted by Felipe Massa that will be in the Under Glass section next week. So enough talk, here are some pictures...

The folks over at SpotModel in Spain are awesome! 

I added the coolant piping that for some reason, isn't included with the kit. Perhaps Tamiya keeps things like this out to give us something to scratch build but with the quality of their kits, you'd think details like this would be included. Anyway, i used aluminum rods. I still need to add two pipes close to the firewall. 

I may assemble the model in this method, first placing the engine onto the floor, then placing the firewall/radiator assembly so that the piping goes onto the engine rather than the engine and piping going into the radiators. If that makes sense. 

These crappy suspension bits molded onto the transmission casing need to go!

Then these suspension bits needed to be modified to receive the aluminum rod used to replace the molded bit. 

With a little Tamiya White Putty laid down (and not yet sanded) I placed the rods to give myself an idea of what we're looking at. 

that's the progress so far...

 

[ferrari87]

Made some small progress over the weekend. The P.E. set arrived so I set about constructing the wing ends. I'm currently wrapping up my Ferrari F60 and I realized how much of a chaotic mess constructing the rear wing is so I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and bought some balsa wood and made a jig. Theoretically, this should make construction of the rear wing a bit easier. I also added the PE lift point in the rear. 

[Gt fan]

That's a great start. Can't wait to see it finished.

[ferrari87]

Thanks Tim, glad to have you following along!