1965 Ferrari 206P Dino - Forgotten Prototipo

[Italianhorses]

Ferrari 206P Dino Salone di Parigi, 1965
ABC Brianza, 1/24th

Kit Review here:
http://italianhorses.net/Reviews/ABC%20Dino%20206%20Salone%20di%20Parigi/206PDinoParigi.htm

Yes, its has been a long time fellas. Due to various reasons, I have not been building for a good 9-10 years now. Its time to put an end to this.

This will be a box-stock+, minimal changes planned. I wanted to have this car built before I got injured, and all these years of building it in my head, really want to put this on the shelf now.

Couple of real-deal photos to wet the appetite:

There is absolutely zero meaningful detail in the kit itself, so I will try to add some eye-candy if possible. Since the kit is super-plain, I decided to put my best effort into finishing the body right, even though proportions are not exactly 100%. No desire to fix the flaws at this point.

Despite my initial impression about the kit being quality (or maybe my perception of quality have changed over time, likely the later), there was a lot of flaws/bubbles/you name it on the main body piece.

I have re-shaped the engine air intake a but, put on little PE mesh, re-scribed the panel lines. Honestly, it sucks to scribe when you don't feel a darn thing. Not the best job, but I'm done making excuses

Filled all bubbles and imperfections on the bottom, made sure opening fro the engine bay vent fits the vent:

Rear vent was emulated with this PE mesh, would have been a prime candidate to open up if I were to build this full detail, but as such, I had no desire to remove a bunch of resin just to make it see-through - will wash with flat black once painted.

And finally some primer - still lots of little flaws to fix, but its a start.

Next I was messing with the wheels - they are ok as they come in the kit (sorta), but the holes in them are somewhat wrong shape, and the tires are god awful truck tires so typical of Italian-made artisan kits from that period.

Tire problem was solved rather quickly, as I has a set of tires from Ferrari 275 GTB/4 kit in my spares box, they looked much better, with correct shape and proper thread.

But wheels turned out to be much tougher problem. Originally I decided I'm just going to copy the wheels that came with Fujimi Dino 206S Competizione kit, so I made few resin copies of these tires. But as some of you know, they are too big even for that kit, so in the end, while the shape was right, the size was not, so I scrapped that idea.

Next, the Dino got painted. Used a really old bottle of Zero Paints Rosso Corsa over gray primer, the paint was still surprisingly fresh, and I'm pleased with the color.

Cleared with Dupont 2K, polished with 3M compounds. Not the best paint job I've done, let's be honest, I have not painted in 10 years and I can't feel the BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH thing when I'm painting.

Painted the underside as well, didn't mask, cause you can't see it once built - yes I'm lazy, but baby steps here.

Made a few bits for the wheels. Decided to go with the kit rims, made washers from, well, washers, and copied Fujimi knock-offs cause they were infinitely better than PE ones from the kit. The little round bits are tops for the knock-offs.

Headlights are given as a PE part with some engraving and a drop of clear epoxy on top - so very 90's I almost shed a tear. Well, sentimental as it may be, I didn't like the look, so I found this Modeler's set in my spares and decided to use these lenses for the headlights. Made bezel surrounds from the thin solder wire.

Tail lights are same sad story here, so I made pieces from clear plastic and painted them, but not sure if I'm using this or some other solution for the tails just yet. I guess I'm not 100% sold on this. Rearview mirror is also from the spares box to replace kit PE 2D rendition.

Finally I finished the glazing - what a freaking pain to glue PE frames to clear plastic, and then bend them to shape. Reminded me my I used to like Tamiya kits. Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out, but PE itself is not 100% conforms to the body, so there will be some fiddling while putting this on the body.

Dash was slightly wrong shape, but hte thing that bothered me the most was the fact that instrument binnacles were flat, while real car has gauges sort of embedded into the dash. Had to drill the gauge pods out. Now, the PE gauges do not fit in, but I will think of something later.

Wheels were painted with aluminum metalizer, assembled, put on axles. Have not black-washed yet. Possibly will still add balance weights and stem valves. Overall, happy with how these turned out even though they are not exactly correct.

With lots of cursing, I glued in the windows. The problem with PE framed windows, is that you don't even get a chance to make sure they fit just right, simply because they always flex, and even thought it seems they fit fine, they never do. Turned out ok, not perfect, but I'm not redoing it.

Also glued in headlights, the size is just right, and looks much better than flat PE ones.

Also attached the front plexiglass cowl. The cowl itself is of poor quality, not 100% transparent and slightly cloudy. But the only way to fix this is to make a buck and vacuuform a new one, and I wasn't about to start this adventure.

Interior tub was painted, along with the chairs and the dash. Detail as such is completely absent here, and none provided in the kit, so I had to improvise. Shifter was made from bobby pin, shifter gate was stolen from some other kit and modified to fit. There is a reverse lock on the gate in real life, but it was too small to replicate correctly.

Steering wheel is given as a PE part with two halves of the rim made in plastic. The problem is, in a typical manner for Italian kit makers of the end of last century, the rim is quite a bit larger than the spokes part. Umm...how?

So, I had to fashion the rim out of thin wire. Also made new door pockets from tiny pieces of leather. Sourced pedals from the spares box. Next I need to make window cranks, door handles, floor mats, and detail the dash. 

Interior was assembled, I added some scratched door handles, cranks, pedals, floormats.

Dashboard was detailed with a few switches, lamps, and gauges. I added small rings to the clocks, and of course, Pininfarina badge.

Completed interior tub:

Then interior was glued into the body, wheels attached and chassis plate installed. Not a lot of detail to talk about there.

Blinkers were made with photoetched frame, and some BMF, and then I used Microscale window maker to make the actual lens.

Taillights were assembled:

And then back end was put together – taillights, exhausts, plate frame, plate light. The DINO letters were stolen from one of self-adhesive Ferrari sets made by hObby DesIgN.

Door handles and Pininfarina badges:

Added air valves and some weights to the wheels:

Wiper and wiper arm were assembled from spare parts, I also added some PE quick-release fasteners and DINO emblem from Model Factory Hiro sticker set.

And that concludes this build. A few quick photos next to my house, will do a proper photoshoot soon and post completed thread in the gallery!

[mustang1989]

Very shiny and very cool build!!! Despite some of the kit shortcomings this is a spectacular outcome.

[FabbricaP]

Welcome back Alex. Awesome build as always, looks beautiful.

Btw, Italianhorses.net, in addition to providing great inspiration, has taught me so much and helped me improve my builds drastically. Thanks!

[Jantrix]

Very impressive. 

[Codi]

You make Ferrari proud.  Congratulations on such a fine build.  cheers, tim

[Justin Porter]

Definitely a great build of a questionable kit of a fantastically obscure Ferrari. The added touches and the finish really make the silk purse.

[Curt]

Glad to see you posting, Alex.  You made a very nice piece out of a not-so-great kit. 

[Richard Bartrop]

Nice!  Gotta love those 60s concept cars.

[Italianhorses]

Thanks guys, great to be back. I certainly missed building.

Not quite 100% yet, so limited in what I can do, but this is definitely a step forward, and I already started another kit - will post WIP of that soon as well.

[Dentz]

Superb! what a car, what a build.

[ismaelg]

ALEX!   

Welcome back!   

Great way to get back on the saddle!  

[Ron Hamilton]

Wow!!!!!!

[89AKurt]

Don't think WOW is a strong enough word!  I can only image the work, not just the actual building, but the motivation to get back into it after a decade.  I've had dry spells, but usually started with something easy.  Love the subject too!

[Italianhorses]

Ismael - good to be back! Glad you are still here too!

I have received several messages and instead of replying with the same thing to everyone, decided to post here.

The reason I have taken a hiatus for some 10 years is actually quite simple - I was in a car accident in 2008 and hurt my wrist and palm or my right hand. While my fingers are not completely paralyzed, I have lost about 90% of feeling in my right hand. I can move, but can't feel. Which obviously made it impossible to build anything, especially not at the level I was back then.

I was hoping that with time it will get better, the feeling will return or I'll get used to it, but it never did. And meanwhile I completely lost interest, got into 1:1 cars, and didn't look back. I thought my model building days were over, and was planning on selling off my collection to finance another 1:1 car project.

But I have a 12-year old son Michael,  who recently was looking through my old builds, and found some old magazine articles, and said he wants to try building a model. He did put together some snap-tites and occasional glue plane kit when he was younger, but then computers and games took over.

I told him that I could teach him, but can't really show. And while we started building together, the spark lit the flame again, I didn't realize how much I was missing it. So I decided - screw it, I will just build at the level and pace I can in my current situation, and just enjoy the hobby for what it is. So I picked up this Dino kit, since it was the last thing I worked on before the accident, and decided it was finally a time to put this on the shelf.

And what you see here in this thread is a result. Its not perfect, and I'm super rusty and simply not capable of doing a lot of things, but it doesn't really matter anymore. The main thing is that I'm back with exacto in one hand and airbrush in the other! Cheers fellas.

[ismaelg]

Hi Alex,

     Curiously, I was away almost a decade as well and recently started again. But in my case I was just too busy with family, work and life in general.  Sad to hear about the accident but glad to see you are back.   Something I learned years ago is that I build for myself and if others like it, even better.  So enjoy it for what it is!   Now, be careful with that Xacto knife especially around your right hand. You won't feel it if you get cut and the blood can ruin a nice paint job

Cheers and I hope to see more from you!

Thanks,

 

[Russell C]

Quite nice work!

[Funkychiken]

Alex, like everyone else says, glad to have you back! Ive used your website a lot for reference over the past 10 years, so thanks for that! Sorry to hear about the accident, but it's great that you are beating it, as your cars are fantastic... Maybe you can also post done of your 1 to 1s here!

[MrObsessive]

Alex! So good to see you back! I had no idea that happened to you and I'm very sorry!

I've been dealing with health issues too in the last couple years...........mainly vision troubles among other things so I get where you're coming from. Still it's good to see you posting again, and that Ferrari is simply GOREOUS!!

I've never seen that model Ferrari before until today, and it's a real beaut!

Like others have said, your site has been of inspiration to me, and while I'm not as prolific a builder as I used to be, it's still nice to go back and have that site for reference. Take care, and please do post more often when you can!  

[afx]

Beautiful work.

[Dann Tier]

Welcome back, Alex!!, I've always admired your work!....sorry to hear about your situation. I hope you do get better. I struggle with issues that have almost made me get rid of everything as well. You did an EXCELLENT job on this build!!

[Anglia105E]

What a wonderfully inspiring story Alex, and how you have managed to build this Ferrari to this high standard is just incredible. The kit itself is clearly a challenge to the best scale model car builders and you have put the whole thing together extremely well. I like the paintwork and all the detailing mods.... the car itself is a beauty. Your accident and the prolonged injury to your right hand has obviously had a huge impact on your ability to carry out this type of manual work so the fact that you have overcome all of this to produce this very special Ferrari is simply breathtaking. Thanks for posting your work in progress Alex, and I shall stop complaining when I am struggling with some minor aspect of my own builds !

David

[Gramps46]

Alex, so good to have you back again.  You have been an inspiration to many of us over the years.  The Dino is spectacular!

 

[oldnslow]

Beautiful car , glad you're back in the saddle .

[Belugawrx]

Beautiful work !

The paint and detail work is remarkable, then to know you cant feel in one hand ...? amazing

Cheers

[Italianhorses]

Guys, thanks for the feedback, praise, and well wishes. Truly thankful, and glad to be back. Also, good to hear that my website is still being used! I really need to dust off my web-building skills and post some updates, including couple of the builds that I have never managed to compile and publish back then.

Ismael – still holding my tools in my right hand, so the only hand that need to be on a look out for a random xacto slicing is my left hand!

Bill, health comes first, so sorry to hear you have been having issues, and hope you’ll get better soon as well. It is no fun. This Dino never made it to production, in fact, this is the only one they have built for the Paris show in 1965, and this one didn’t even run. Beautiful car though, I agree. Served as a base for 206 Dino, and later 246 Dino production cars.

David, thank you. The kit 4 knockoffs short of a dumpster fire, but during the past few years I have built it so many times in my head, it would have been a shame to toss it. It turned out great in the end and will serve as a reminder that certain things are meant to be.

Everyone, thanks again, will try to post as much as time allows and contribute as well!