Ferrari 250GT Barn Find!

[David G.]

Fabulous weathering effects, very convincing!

David G.

[MarkJ]

Wonderful weathering of this model and looks exactly like it should knowing the body that is underneath the paint and how the interior would have degraded in a barn for so many years. My question is, who in their right mind would put a Ferrari in a barn to have this happen to it?  Unless the guy did it, had no family to tell them it was in the barn, or friends for that matter, and he passed away without any one even knowing the car was in the barn. Such a horrible thing to happen to a Ferrari. As you can tell I make my vehicles into actual living beings and even give them names and talk to them like they have actual souls. Gotta go check Maddy, my new Mazda CX-5 in the garage, and see how she is doing today.

[Pierre Rivard]

Best weathered interior I have ever, ever seen, period!

[1959scudetto]

This neglected interior looks so real, Jason - simply unbelievable : especially the worn leather seats!

[jaymcminn]

Thanks all! The interior is something I'm especially happy about and the techniques I came up with here will definitely be used for future projects (looking at you, Revell 427 Cobra!). The engine bay is as done as it's going to get. I took a swing at Ferrari's trademark yellow fuel lines by wrapping thin wire around 30awg yellow wire. The kit coils were enormous and crude so I scratched new ones. The battery was a parts box addition. I cut down the kit's air box tray a bit and foiled it. The black "foam" around the edges is 1/32 Chartpak tape. 

The bad news is the lack of radiator hoses... Italeri doesn't provide them and I was going to swipe the part from the Fujimi 250GTO kit but I discovered in the innumerable test fittings that the radiator needed to be moved back by about 3/16 of an inch to avoid fouling the hood hinges. Ferrari 250 radiator hoses are actually an extremely complicated assembly and if I tried to adapt the Fujimi part it wouldn't have looked right. At this point I decided you have to draw the line somewhere.

On to pics!

You can see the shims I added to the engine compartment sides to raise the body a bit and provide a better gluing surface during final assembly. Next the body and chassis go together and final details will be added, including the lovely 3d printed Borrani wheels. More to come soon!

[David G.]

I'm really enjoy seeing all the delightful work you're doing Jason. Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.

David G.

[Cliff W]

On 8/24/2024 at 5:52 PM, jaymcminn said:

Why not come over for their Cars and Coffee in November when they announce it?

FYI Opening day is October 22nd - Cars and Coffee on November 9th. 

Revs Institute - Preserving the Future of the Past

[jaymcminn]

Getting ready for some proper "under glass" pics, but I wanted to do a quick plug for Warbird Decals' California license plate decals. You get sets for 1963-2013, both front and rear plates. It's VERY fiddly getting the separate characters onto the main plate, but the result is fantastic. Here they're applied to aluminum printer's plate, for reasons which will become obvious...

[jaymcminn]

I broke out the DSLR for "under glass" pics, here are a few to close out this build. Final notes... the exhaust tips are "SNAP" exhausts, an aftermarket/homologation exhaust that was popular on racing Ferraris. These came from the Fujimi 250GTO kit. The windshield decals came from VRM's "Number Circles and Things" and speak to quite a history for this car... it was sanctioned by the Palermo Auto Club (for the Targa Florio), the SCCA, and ran the 12 hours of Sebring in 1964 and 1965. I'm picturing a car that would have been imported in about 1963 or so and raced until the late 60's at which point it wound up under a tarp in a barn. 

Final weathering was done with the usual Vallejo washes and Tamiya pastels. 

Honestly, this kit was a bit of a pain. I was expecting an easy build... I've built the other iterations of the Italeri 250 and never had a problem, but there were some changes and challenges in this final release that made it a bit tough. Of course this was probably exacerbated by the changes I insisted on making to the interior, the new wheels, etc. 

Anyway, here are a few pics... more to come in the "Under Glass" thread probably tomorrow!

[David G.]

It was a fun and informative WIP Jason, thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

The results are spectacular, I'm looking forward to seeing the final photos in the Under Glass section.

David G.

[Pierre Rivard]

What an incredible build Jason, and a tutorial on weathering techniques.

[kensar]

Great looking results.  The wheels look a bit 'unstressed' for the rest of the build, though.

[jaymcminn]

1 hour ago, kensar said:

Great looking results.  The wheels look a bit 'unstressed' for the rest of the build, though.

Every restoration has to start somewhere, right? I actually might hit them with another wash. They're a bit shinier in pics than in real life, though.

2 hours ago, David G. said:

It was a fun and informative WIP Jason, thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

The results are spectacular, I'm looking forward to seeing the final photos in the Under Glass section.

David G.

 

2 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

What an incredible build Jason, and a tutorial on weathering techniques.

Thanks guys, it was a fun build overall. I lurk on some primarily military forums and enjoy the techniques the military guys use. It's always interesting to pick up those techniques and apply them to the subject matter I love.  I've gotten into the habit of alternating shiny and weathered builds, so the next build will definitely be something shiny!

[1959scudetto]

Excellent, Jason - the aluminium back of the license plates enables you to show off bent or damaged plates.