Ferrari 488 Spider

[harti20]

Hi all

 

Initially I wanted to continue with Tamiya's Ferrari FXX-K after finishing my Lamborghini Sesto Elemento. But considering the fact that I wasn't that happy with the outcome of my last few builds and that the FXX-K (together with the detail up set by Hobby Design) seems to be not the easiest kit I decided to put it aside and start something else. So I took my first Alpha Model kit off the shelf.

First I was quite shocked by the fit of the interior parts. The inner door panels are way to short for the openings in the passenger compartment

But if you mount the door panels to the inside of the body shell and slip in the passenger compartment afterwards, everything looks fine. The gaps are all hidden by other parts.

Shortly after that I tried the fit of the undercarriage which should be attached by screws to the body. If you line up the three holes in the front than the holes in the undercarriage at the back of the car are where the black dots are. Quite some offset to the pre-drilled holes in the bodyshell... The diffusor should be screwed to the body as well. But if you hold the diffusor to the body and look where it should be attached, there is only air beyond... ?  I sincerley hope that the rest of the build will have less stumbling blocks...

After priming everything with Zero Paint's 2K Etch and resin primer I painted the bodyparts in pink primer and afterwards in Rosso Corsa. When the paint was dry I masked everything off and added some Jet Black. Afterwards the first few carbon decals have been applied. Unfortunately they didn't cover everything in the recesses next to the rear lights. Maybe I'll try to repair them next week or I'll just cover it with some black paint after clearcoating the body.

Finally the door panels got some paint. In this picture there are still some parts missing, but the engineering of the parts is quite well thought.

That's how far I am right now. Hope you enjoy following me on this journey and wish you a nice sunday

Urs

[Dann Tier]

This is coming along Nicely!!!   one of these days i'd like to try one of these kits. Looking forward to more!!!

[schultz84]

?

[Nacho Z]

It is looking great so far!  I’m looking forward to seeing more progress pics!

[bisc63]

Ooooh, that is SEXY!

[harti20]

Hi all

Thank you for all your kind comments.

This week I made only small progress but that took quite some time.

First of all the diffusor got its carbon decals. I only saw all the hollows after having attached the decals. But as they are on the underside of the car, I'll leave them as they are, but keep in mind for further builds of any Alpha Model kits that I have to better control the surfaces of the parts.

The seats are ready for final assembly. The white stuff between seat and the backrest is only some blue tac that I used for temporary assembly. After temporary assembly I recognized that I'll have to add some more carbon decals on the sides.

The lower part of the dashboard got some detail painting

The rims were painted with Alclad Gun Metal and will get some clear once I clear coat the body

Today the brake discs were assembled. Maybe I'll do some slight wash on them, but I'm not quite sure yet.

And finally the body got its decals and metal transfers. I everything comes together the way I'm planning it, it will time for clear coating on thursday.

That's how far I got for now. Before continuing I should now finally start with the PE parts, but somehow I'm lacking motivation to fiddle around with these parts. So maybe I'll dive in another project I've already started beside my Ferrari. If I will do so, I'll open a new WIP here

Urs

[Italianhorses]

Looks good.

You can cut excess CF decals with a brand new exacto blade right after application and peel these off - will look cleaner that way. Its pretty easy, especially if you have a panel line there.

[harti20]

Hi all

On 12/15/2020 at 6:47 AM, Italianhorses said:

Looks good.

You can cut excess CF decals with a brand new exacto blade right after application and peel these off - will look cleaner that way. Its pretty easy, especially if you have a panel line there.

Thank you and thanks for the tip with the exacto blade.

This week's thursday was clear coat day. Unfortunately I wasn't happy at all with the result. In some spots I might have applied to thin, so that I got a quite rough surface and in some other spots the airbrush spit large drops of clear on the body (that was definitivley caused by my own stupidity). But after a few hours of sanding and polishing I think the clear turned out quite acceptable.

The door cards in their first version haven't had enough contrast between the different black parts, so I decided to mask off the lower part and repaint the rest with some charcoal textured paint. In real it looks much better now, even if I had to notice that in the pictures there's still hardly any difference visible.

The rims got some clear coat as well. After clear had dried, I painted the nuts. Now all that's missing are the air valves. I know, on the real car the cavallino rampante is also visible on the cap of the air valves, but I think, my 488 will have to do without

That's all for this week. I wish all of you a merry christmas.

Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

Welcome to another update to my Ferrari 488 Spider. This week the calipers have been finished und mounted to the wheel suspension (or at least what Alpha Model provides as suspension in this kit)

The steering wheel has been completed and assembled and is now awaiting final assembly as does the center console which got its last carbon piece. The labeling of the buttons has once again been botched up by Giuseppe. Some people think that Giuseppe is on the pay roll of another company based in Sant' Agata Bolognese, but that's only a vague suspicion...

Finally the body received its first few PE parts. Also the tailpipes and the diffusor could be attached. The prancing horse on the back unfortunately got wiped off by the first gentle wipe when sanding and polishing the body after clear coating. Now it sits on my cutting mat waiting to be reapplied. Good luck it doesn't seem to be damaged too much. But to be sure, I will have to take a closer look. Luckily the wiped off part was a Metal Transfer sticker while there is also one prancing horse on one of the PE frets. So if it should be damaged or can't be reapplied, I can still use the PE part instead

That's all for today. I wish all of you a calm last week of the year and a happy and healthy 2021

Urs

[doggie427]

Very nice Urs. 

[beeRS]

Beautiful job. 

[Funkychiken]

Looking really sharp!

[Italianhorses]

Brake calipers look terrific!

[harti20]

Hi all

Thank you very much for all your kind comments  and welcome to the first update in 2021. Maybe it will also be the second to last update in this WIP.

First of all the door cards got their last few pe parts, once I finally remembered to paint them a second time.

The wheels have been assembled as well. There I had to notice that the screws provided by Alpha Model didn't fit at all. On one hand the drill hole inside the rims, which is meant to meet with the screw was way too large so that the screw just fell inside. On the other hand they are about 3 mm too long for the front wheels. As I didn't have any matching screws at hand, I just half filled the holes in the rims with some gemstone glue, put the breakdiscs on top of the wheel suspension, put the rims on, turned everything around and just put the screw in and let the glue dry.

Then I flocked the interior and assembled the pedals along with the footrest

Finally the body got its last few pe parts. Today I also attached the windshield, which was quite some struggle because the tension was so high, that the part had to be fixed until the glue completley dried. On top I could use some clamps to hold the parts together, but in the lower corners I had to hold them together by hand. To have some entertainment during these rather long periods of time, I once again watched "Die Another Day" on my surround system  The windshield still has its protection sheet on it, that's why it doesn't look that great yet.

That's all for the moment.

Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

Although I had vacation last week I couldn't do as much as intended, so the Ferrari is not completely done yet. Most of the parts found their place, but for the remaining work I couldn't find the tranquility I'd need to finish. First of all there's the splitter which needs to be installed and is und quite some tension. Once this is installed, I will have to assemble the wipers, one thing I always mess up when dealing with Hobby Design PE parts. Usually I can then just use the wipers that came with the original kit, but here the PE parts unfortunately are the wipers that came with the original kit, so I will have to find a way to cope with the assembly. But at least I can show you the current state.

Nonetheless I think this will be the last update in this WIP. Pictures of the finished model will be published in the RFI section once I managed to install the last parts and take it to the studio.

Urs