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A Pair of Ferraris 50 years apart (458 and 250SWB)


Matt Bacon

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It'll be alright on the night.... is what I'm thinking!

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250 SWB chassis making progress. Getting the back end together is not trivial...

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I took several photos because the instructions aren't entirely clear! Your best bet for locating the axle is the springs, which fit solidly onto pins at each end. Do NOT glue the torsion bars in pace at the end of the chassis. The springs are a push fit, which may come in useful... I fitted one side spring, then slipped the torsion bars in place and located the end of the axle in the spring. The torsion bars need to be more or less in place, or else you can't rotate them into position. But don't glue anything yet! Finally, I pushed the other spring into place, which hold it all nicely. If the torsion bars won't just "fall" into place, the you'll have to pull a spring off and do it again -- don't ask me how I know. The props haft can slide within the differential, so I located last of all. Once everything is snugly press-fitted, and sits nicely, use thin superglue to set it all in place...

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And here's two chassis at more or less the same stage...

bestest,

M.

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I wonder if resistance soldering on the grille would work?

Sounds like it would be an interesting one to try.

Thoughts?

I have used the resistance soldering on photoetched rear wings before, nothing since then.

Time to get that article going.

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Thanks guys! Gregg -- I have no idea what resistance soldering is, so you'd better do that article!

458 chassis going together:

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And a test fit with the body, which snaps into place beautifully!

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More time at the workbench this weekend... and many thanks to a fellow car modeller for the donation of one set of Stirling Moss markings from the out of print VRM sheet!

bestest,

M.

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Thanks, guys! I've been making progress on the 250SWB this afternoon:

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The front suspension is also a little tricky, but with the help of gel superglue and "Serious Glue", which give you rather more time to get it finally in position, here we are.

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These are the exhaust tips. The middle two have been polished in this picture, by chucking them in my Dremel and spinning them using fine wire wool.

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And here's the exhaust system in place. It'll need some final adjustment when the body is on to make sure the tips float in the right place. The white metal is surprisingly brittle, I discover! ;-(

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Finally for today, the two chassis moving along nicely in parallel...

bestest,

M.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It seems like an awful long time since the last update. Partly finding it hard to get to the bench with lots of travelling, but partly I seem to have spent a lot of time painting bits in various shades and layers of black and grey, but making very little visible progress!

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The engine bay is done. Not many parts, just some basic detail painting, but it looks pretty convincing, I reckon, especially under the rear cover....

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I've gone for a "carbon driver zone" and charcoal grey leather. Just the OOB parts with some detail painting. I used Citadel Chaos Black, Vallejo German Grey and the carbon fibre technique for details on the dash and console, the flappy-paddle, and the seat backs.

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The 250 SWB from a similar angle, for compare and contrast purposes.

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The two chassis for comparison (The 458 parts are only dropped into place, not fixed -- the engine bay goes into the body shell when it's assembled properly...)

bestest,

M.

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Thanks, guys! Progress on both the 458 and 250SWB this weekend:

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Once again, this is just taped up and dropped in place. This one DOES fit together painlessly...

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This one does not! I've had one got at fitting the interior in to see how it goes, and it's not going back until final assembly! It doesn't fit, trimmed accordion to the instructions -- or at least it goes in, but getting it out again demolished on half of the front suspension and knocked off a back wheel, so some further adjustments (about 3mm off the far end of the nose frame) have been made. The BMF goes on painlessly, though there's some more cleaning up of the paintwork to do to remove adhesive, and the shut lines need emphasising gently...

Next, glazing. OK for the 250, but I'm not looking forward to doing the black window surrounds on the 458, without ready made masks (you do get spoiled by Tamiya, don't you?!)

bestest,

M.

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I think I'm on the home straight now:

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This was NOT easy. The chassis doesn't fit if cut according to the instructions. I had to shorten it further, and brig the radiator in about 3mm more than instructed. The door windows were a mess. No matte how much I polished them, I couldn't get rid of some "scratches" On closer inspection, I reckon they were actually "tidemarks" where the flowing plastic met, inside the mould. In the end, I cut them off and replace the window with acetate, which is much thinner and clearer. This meant some uncertainty about the door panel fit, but I got them as close as I could to where they would have been with the windows still attached. It still took a bit of fiddling to get them to fit when I closed the body up...

The 458 was a lot easier...

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The various modules fit nicely into the body shell, and there are no real gotchas. I replaced the decal over transparent plastic "mesh" with real black mesh instead.

And finally, for tonight:

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Lots of decals for the 250 tomorrow, and bits n bobs for the 458...

bestest,

M.

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Thanks, Chuck... you're right. There are only three parts in that engine bay, if you include the bay itself! But they are nicely moulded and easy to detail paint. It's a shame there's really nowhere you can see the rather nice full engine that's underneath the induction manifold and air box!

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Details, details... mirrors on, indicators and lights well under way. Next job, which I'm not looking forward to, is the black tinted surround on the windscreen. After that it's just tidying up...

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These decals are great. They are really well-printed, with no show-through on the white at all. They take a little while to settle down, but respond well to decal solution.

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I discovered :blush: that I'd made my flip-up fuel cap out of one of the spotlights on the chromed sprue -- got confused between the SWB and GTO tree. Fortunately, I found another kit to steal a pair from! Lots of lights to do on here as well.

Finishing touches for both of them are the wipers.... can't be far away now!

bestest,

M.

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The 458 is now fully assembled and decalled:

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I'm going to live with the £30 fine for not having a proper front number plate! Now it needs a good clean to get rid of the dust and greasy fingerprints, and then I need to figure out if, and how, I'm going to highlight the panels and shut lines...

bestest,

M.

Edited by Matt Bacon
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