Ferrari 250 SWB 'Berlinetta'

[IJ001]

Day one:

The usual box & contents shot - The Esci plastic dates back to the mid 1980's and is quite soft, massive mould seams running along the top of the wings, then along the roof gutters down the middle of the C-pillar across the top of the rear wings and through the middle of the tail-light bezels. What a PitA 

But not as much a pain as the integrally moulded bonnet that you need to cut from the body and that frankly awful thick lip on the bonnet scoop - that will be thinned right down. 

I built-up the engine & trans which sensibly goes together exactly the same way as a Revell or MPC car kit. Interior is multi-part as is the engine bay. I also assaulted the poor wee thing with a coat of Tamiya grey primer straight from the rattle-can ready for some serious seam-removal.

More in a min...

Ian.

 

[IJ001]

Day One continued...
Rubbed down the offending seams and polished the plastic with successive grades of Micro-Mesh cloths.

 

Once I was happy the seams were completely gone, I shot a second primer coat and waited for four hours for it to be dry enough to work on. I then polished the primer coat with 4k - 8k Micro-Mesh cloths. As this is written the car body is as smooth as glass with no flaws at all in the paintwork. A good couple of sessions today and very pleased with the result.

 

 

If it all goes well, hopefully it will look a little like this one when I'm done.

 

Please feel free to make any comments or ask any questions. More tomorrow

Ian.

[Bennyg]

Very nice body work.

 

Ben

[Bernard Kron]

I'll follow this with interest. I recently bought the AMT release of this kit to build in the not to distant future. I'm enjoying your thorough approach to body prep and look forward to seeing your approach to the kit's motor and interior details.

[om617]

Nice bodywork. Will be interesting to follow this,beautiful cars.

[Dann Tier]

Very nice work so far!! -I will definitely be following along as I plan to do my Italeri version of this car. Always wanted to see the inside of this Esci kit, thanks for sharing!!

[superbike-shaun]

Ian,nice appreciation to Detail,,,,I hve,gathered a few iterations,of this kit,.i must say that it looks like you know how to deal w the  different problems that are inherent,in the building up of this one. They look soo beautiful  when they are handled by an experienced  builder.

[IJ001]

Ian,nice appreciation to Detail,,,,I hve,gathered a few iterations,of this kit,.i must say that it looks like you know how to deal w the  different problems that are inherent,in the building up of this one. They look soo beautiful  when they are handled by an experienced  builder.

Thanks Shaun (et al) it isn't the easiest of kits but it will be worth the effort. Interesting isn't it that the Esci kit does come-up from time-to-time on eBay but the superior Italeri one almost never... Similarly with their 'Racing' 365 Daytona - I'd sell one of my legs for one of those !!.

Today was a relatively dull day at the bench, hence no pics. Got the chassis/pan & engine bay sub-assembly sprayed my own mix of 'iron black'. Fuel cell sprayed dark aluminium, sump guard is now flat aluminium as is the transmission. The headlining and inside of the c pillars was sprayed Tamiya 'Deck Tan'. Also matt blacked the instrument shroud, rocker covers and some other wee bits'n pieces.

Tomorrow I'll spray the block, diff etc. Hope to make a start on the interior aswell. Going for classic black like these:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking-in.

AFN

 

Ian.

 

[drodg]

I am interested in seeing how this build goes.    

[MrObsessive]

I'm definitely tuned in! You're right----the Italeri version of this car seldom if ever shows up on the 'Bay as I wanted another one a while back, and I ended up getting one off of Yahoo Japan's auction.

What kills me though is that the Esci one does turn up IMO rather frequently, and some try to pass it off as an Italeri. Some get sucked in by that but those in the know can see the differences between the two. The Esci one you're doing isn't super terrible, but it does have some "off" points about the body which aren't too bad to deal with.

Keep up the great work........as you said, it can be a bit fiddly to deal with, but with time and patience can be built into a very nice replica.

[Phildaupho]

Always one of my favorite cars and recon if I ever build one it will be the AMT in my stash as any other alternative is too expensive. Was disappointed when Revell of D did not materialize. I am sure I will learn a thing or two from your thread.

[JerseyRed]

This is a beautiful car! Looks like you're having a good go at it!

[Snake45]

I've had this kit for over 20 years. Every so often I get the urge to build it, then I take it out and look at the parts for a few minutes and the mood passes.

I'll be watching this build with interest. Inspire me--I dare you!

[IJ001]

Day Two.

Luvvin' the feedback chaps, keep it coming !! - So y'all are enjoying this and that's great. Right here's some self-explanatory progress pics:

 

 

 

At this stage the block is a WiP. Because I want to build this one exactly as it comes from the box for a competition further down the line, there's be no wiring and plumbing this time. Tamiya Flat Aluminium for the trans and AK's 'Xtreme Metal' aluminium for the bock - I'm a recent convert to this product and trust me it's bl**dy superb !!

I couldn't face wrestling with the interior this afternoon so masked-up the interior (Tamiya 'Deck Tan') and broke-out the Tamiya 'Italian Red' rattle can. Warmed it in a bowl of boiled water then shot two coats and left it in the spring sunshine for 30 mins.

 

 

So next I'll force myself to finish the interior and then start on the suspension such as it is. Have a great weekend everyone, see you on Monday.

Ian.

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by IJ001

[Dann Tier]

This is looking FANTASTIC!!!

[IJ001]

Day Three & Four

Wrestled the suspension and steering rack in to submission this morning, followed closely by the poorly fitting pipes... Ughhh, can't wait to start a Fujimi or Revell kit sometime very soon !!

 

Stay tuned folks more soon.

Ian.

 

 

[IJ001]

Day Five & Six:

Four coats of Tamiyas 'Italian Red' with two coats of Tamiya clear varnish sitting on top to keep it safe and give it depth. 

 

 

 

N

 

 

Next I'll leave it to cure, not just dry, at least a week, then start with the 6/8/12k Micro Mesh cloths followed by some auto polish. Thanks for taking the time to look and/or comment. More late next week.

Ian.

[IJ001]

Day seven thru eleven:

Most of the last few days have been taken-up with polishing and buffing the body, final assembly and painting the 'shiny bits' - unfortunately somewhere in the past I'd dulled down my only bottle of Alclad 'Polished Aluminium' and of course I'd forgotten until after I started spraying so I'll have to go buy another bottle (not easy here in New Zealand) and start again !!. Also BMF'd the sills which hasn't gone at all well, partly because I was having an 'off day' and partly because the sills are so poorly defined on the kit.

 

 

 

I'll not give-up, I'm so close to finishing but having to go-out and buy a new bottle of Alclad just to finish the bumpers and headlights is a real PitA, ahhhh well, good job it's only a hobby, eh ?

AFN

Ian.

[Snake45]

Looking good! The wheels look especially sharp, and you achieved a really nice red finish.

[superbike-shaun]

Wow,Ian,looking superb,my freind,the details really POP!

[superbike-shaun]

AWESOMELY AWESOME work Ian, loving the skills,my freind!

[IJ001]

Call this a 'non-update'

I mentioned that I need to respray the bumpers in 'proper' polished aluminium, well it turns-out that the AK 'Extreme Metals' paints that I now use are less than half the price in UK than they are here, so I'll load-up on them when I'm home in a couple of weeks, then finish the Ferrari when I get back here to NZ.

AFN

Ian.