'57 Ferrari Pontoon Fender TR250

[Scale-Master]

This is an older 1/43^rd scale kit from late 1980 or sometime in 1981.  I know the date because I have a personal attachment to this kit for a few reasons. 

Primarily because I cast all the white metal parts in this kit when I was the head caster at Precision Miniatures back then.  The parts were mastered and the molds were made by Lloyd Asbury.  The box art was drawn by my late friend Dale King.

The decals were drawn by my father, Lloyd S. Jones of Scale-Master Decals.  These look a bit rough due to their age of 42 years, but this will be built as an alternate version so I only need a few of the ones on this sheet.

This is the raw body (and chassis) casting straight out of the box.  It's pretty clean even compared to more modern kits, but still requiring some clean-up. 

Interestingly, to mold the front grille opening as part of the body (instead of a separate piece), they were spin cast in a unique three part mold.  (Actually four parts since each mold made two bodies.)  A separate plug for each body had to be sandwiched between the main halves and carefully extracted from the metal body after each cast.  Lloyd was quite the innovator… 

The rest of the parts include PE wire wheels, semi-soft tires, vacuum formed windshield and headlight covers, chrome parts and a good amount individual parts for decent detail of the time.  

[Len Woodruff]

Kool. Lots of history here Mark.

[Rich Chernosky]

Some really great background  information there Mark.  I can see why this kit is so special to you.  Will be following.  And yes...I miss my friend Dale too. 

[absmiami]

You were the master guy for precision mini’s.  ???

Got something to post  - gotta dig it out- shouldn’t take

too long …

[absmiami]

Correction - you were the caster ??

still impressed …

very

[absmiami]

What year was this little beast cast ???

[absmiami]

Unmolested 

the decals lool pretty good

it appears to have had box art - ive had mine for overnthirty years - dont think i ever had the box art …. 

[absmiami]

Close up of one of your Dad’s decal sheets …

well done !

[absmiami]

I think i could do something with this …

[absmiami]

These kits  - you and your dad’s kits - were pioneers - it was years before the small scale kit makers caught up with this level of SCALE detail …

[absmiami]

Better

[absmiami]

Take a bow, Mr Jones …

[Scale-Master]

The Wildcat, (and Coyote, McLaren and Eagle) were being cast by PM in the late '70s  before I started working there. 

The Eagle was originally done by IMRA but had different decals, and the others share some parts.   

But I cast more than I could count of all of them during my time there.

My Wildcat has a label, but no picture.  Maybe it's faded off?

My McLaren doesn't even have a label.

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Scale-Master

[Gramps46]

Mark, I really appreciate you starting this post with the background.  As Rich said we miss Dale so much.

Gary 

[Scale-Master]

The first thing I did was to solder the rear valance onto the body.  Cement would work fine, but solder makes a great truly permanent bond and fills the seam at the same time.

The same amount of work sanding as if it were cemented yields this result.

[drodg]

This is so exciting to see.  Back in the 80's when I first started building 1:43 kits PM was a main stay for me.  I built the Ferrari you are building, the Porsche Speedster, and the Shelby GT350.  I think I still have them all but are a little worse for wear.  

[absmiami]

What’s your recommended solder for wh metal ?

[Scale-Master]

The lower temperature solders work the best, especially the thinner diameters. 

I used 60/40 rosin core, 0.032 diameter with some soldering paste.

The lead free stuff doesn't work well since white metal is mostly lead.

[Scale-Master]

Instead of painting the brake drums, I wire brushed the raw metal.  The ones on the left are how they looked before brushing.

[Scale-Master]

The tires are injection molded and the ones in this kit had a shift that left a good sized mismatch.   

 

Rather than totally obliterate the tread to sand out the offset, I pulled a set from my private stock and replaced them.

The PE spokes for the wire wheels are very delicate, but not really that difficult to assemble if you use a light touch. 

Turns out the real car does not have tire lettering so the kit provided Englebert decals were not needed.

[Phildaupho]

Great project. Enjoyed reading the background and your connection to this very impressive kit. I know it will be immaculate when you perform your magic on it.

[Scale-Master]

The knock offs were missing from the kit, but fortunately I had a set I could donate to the project.  They will be installed after the wheels are set up with the body/chassis.

[drodg]

Will be watching

[Scale-Master]

I filed the ends of the steel axles down to narrow the track.  The front wheels are where I want them; the rears still have to come inward a bit more at this point by about 0.050.

[Scale-Master]

The seats were used to align the transmission tunnel and side panels but they were not cemented in at this time. 

From the provided reference this car has an all black interior (except for the red seats) as opposed to the bare metal areas some had.  I sprayed the chassis, tunnel and side panels satin black to start.

The floor and front section of the tunnel were brush painted flat black.