1/43 Ferrari 290MM winner of the 1956 Mille Miglia race

[ismaelg]

Hello,

I'm happy this ordeal is finished  ? 
Did my best but the kit was quite crude and basic.  Ended up creating my own decals after countless attempts of creating a stencil for airbrushing. It was simply too small.  Ended up making quite a few sets until the final one (probably the 6th or so attempt) worked.

You can see the build thread here:https://race-car-models.proboards.com/thread/3147/finished-43-1956-ferrari-290

Anyways,

1956 Mille Miglia

The Mille Miglia (Italian for thousand miles) was an Italian race on the open roads. It was held between 1927 and 1957. By the 1950's it was a loop between Brescia in the north, down the east coast, west to Rome, north back to Brescia thru central Italy. A little over 1,000 miles.  

Been a very prestigious race, the 1950s saw intense battles between Ferrari, Mercedes, Lancia and many others. 

For 1956, Ferrari entered two Ferrari 290 MM (Mille Miglia as these cars were specifically designed for this race) and two Ferrari 860 Monzas. Privateers also entered a few other Ferraris.
The numbers of the cars represented the starting time, as they were released 1 minute apart. Juan Manuel Fangio's car was number 600, meaning he started at 6AM.  Eugenio Castelloti's car was 548, meaning he started his race at 5:48AM.
Eugenio Castelloti won the race in an astonishing 11 hours, 37 minutes and 10 seconds averaging over 85MPH thru torrential rains on public roads!  (What a maniac! ? )

This is the car we are representing today.

By the way, Ferrari finished 1,2,3,4 and 5. Total sweep!

Castelloti-Ferrari 290 MM
Collins-Ferrari 860 Monza
Musso-Ferrari 869 Monza
Fangio-Ferrari 290 MM
Gendebien-Ferrari 250 GT LWB Scaglietti
 
Race stats: 426 cars entered, 365 actually started the race, 182 finished.

This is my first 1/43 serious model, but the kit, probably been half a century old, was very crude.  It required a lot of effort as you can see in this build thread: https://race-car-models.proboards.com/thread/3147/finished-43-1956-ferrari-290

Except for the body, steering wheel and tires, which required massive amounts of work, pretty much everything else was scratchbuilt.
Here is the end result:




































I was able to find reference pictures of the race.  I had converted the following images to black and white (remember photography is my other hobby) to represent those press images from 1956.








to put it in perspective:

I hope you like and approve.  Your comments are appreciated.

Thanks,
Ismael

Edited December 11, 2023 by ismaelg

[Jim B]

Great looking little Ferrari.  Really well done.

[slusher]

1 hour ago, Jim B said:

Great looking little Ferrari.  Really well done.

X2

[Roger U]

Cool little model. Small but very nicely detailed

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[Yeah Nah]

Great small scale work on this little gem Ismael. Thanks for the history too!

[ismaelg]

Thank you everybody!  

Always appreciate your comments and feedback.

For some weird reason I have never been able to like or "react" to comments in this forum. Must be a setting somewhere.

Thanks,
Ismael

[Yeah Nah]

19 hours ago, ismaelg said:

For some weird reason I have never been able to like or "react" to comments in this forum. Must be a setting somewhere.

Could possibly be the device you're using. The tablet I use at work has the same problem but when I'm on here at home it's fine. 

[ismaelg]

19 hours ago, Yeah Nah said:

Could possibly be the device you're using. The tablet I use at work has the same problem but when I'm on here at home it's fine. 

I don't think so. I gave up over a year ago after trying every possible laptop, desktop, home or office, different OS , tablets, apple/android phones, etc.

Thanks,
Ismael