A Pair of Ferraris 50 years apart -- 458 Italia and 250 SWB **DONE**

[Matt Bacon]

Finally... here's the 250 SWB:

... and these are what I call "people-shaped" which give a better idea of the proportions and what you'd expect to see with a real car than the close-ups above...

bestest,

M.

[W-Machine]

Looks real nice! Thumbs up.

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks, Craig!

...and now the 458 Italia:

Now a few "people-shaped" ones:

... you can see that it's not as "voluptuous" in these shots, and definitely looks sleeker!

bestest,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

And last of all, a few comparison shots:

...and that's it!

bestest,

M.

[Jim N]

Those are beautiful!! You did a great job.

[bryan_m]

beautiful work!! i like the black one the most, the old ones are extra cool!

cheers

bryan

[W-409]

That 250 SWB is one of my favorite Ferrari-cars, ever produced. Your build looks super clean, and very well finished. Paint job is excellent. Are those wheel Photo Etched parts, they look like it?

Good job with the new Ferrari too, but to me that 250 SWB just pops out.

[ShawnS]

Awesome 250. In fact both models are superb. You did a top job Matt.

[Webb]

Beautiful to both! I especially like the SWB. Is that the Hiro kit?

Chris

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yes indeed, very very beautiful both.

[stevehansen]

Well Done

[Harold]

Decisions, decisions. Love 'em both.

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks very much, guys! Since it was meant as a double build compare and contrast, here are a few thoughts on the cars, and the kits...

The 458 just emphasises how much aerodynamics has come to the fore in super cars over the last few years. Sure, there have been dramatic-looking cars before now (like the Countach), but the aero has been a bit hit and miss, to say the least! The 458 and the Mclaren MP4-12C are both showing the way with aerodynamic packages that are at least as sophisticated as, if less extreme, than you get in F1 today. And the results are pretty curvaceous as well, though not to everyone's taste. One of the things that surprised me about the 458 when I saw a couple in the flesh over the last month is that although the lines are very elegant and complex, it looks a lot more chunky and powerful in real life as well. That back end is an engine room, not just a sculpted wing! In terms of proportions, it actually looks much more like a 430 than you'd expect from the lines.

The 250 SWB just looks right. As you can see from the later pictures, there's a real sense of power waiting to spring in the back end, which is emphasised in many of the photos you can find of the real thing, taken as the car accelerates hard out of a corner with the nose lifting on the suspension. In the end, though, for all that Top Gear reckons the 458 is the best sports car of the last five year, the 250 is the more complete car. You really could drive it comfortably from your house in Kent to Spa, win a 1000KM race, and drive it back home again. The 458 would probably be even more fun on the journey, but the fact is that these days, it wouldn't win a top class race, eclipsed by GT3s, GT2s etc. The 250 SWB was a road legal grand tourer which was also a best in class race-winner, as I saw at Donington Historics this year when Jackie Oliver drove his lurid yellow 250 to victory over a field of E-types (lightweight and otherwise), DB4GTs... and several other 250SWBs, which were all up at the head of the pack.

So I'd take the 250, myself -- though as my son pointed out, "If you have enough money to buy and race a 250 SWB, then the price of a 458 is pocket change, so you might as well have one of those as well"

For the kits:

The 250 SWB is a Gunze Sangyo kit from the 1980s. I think it may have come in a "high-tech" version with an engine as well (and there's always the Replicas and Miniatures masterpiece to put under the hood if you didn't get that version). I was lucky -- I got mine for a very reasonable price on US eBay because the box had been cut up slightly, so it was no longer collectable. Which was OK, because I wanted to build it. The chassis is white metal, which is surprisingly brittle, and which needs to be cut to fit the body shell, since the same chassis part is used for both the SWB and GTO. There's not a whole lot of detail parts, but the ones that there are are excellent. The etched wheels go together extremely easily, and really make to final look of the car, and the etched dials are easy to paint to look superb. There are white metal bumpers for a street version, though obviously I didn't use them. The decals for the Stirling Moss Goodwood car (it's dark blue for Rob Walker racing, BTW.... not black) came from a fellow modeller (thanks, Bernard!), though you can see that I didn't modify the car to RH drive, as I should have (It's a lot harder on this curved dash than it is on a GTO!) The fit of the chassis into the body is tricky (you really need to carve away the "parcel shelf", you need to cut it still shorter by 3mm than the instructions tell you to, and it REALLY is a one shot deal, so you need to be sure that you have it right!) The wheelbase is marginally too long -- if you look closely you can see that the front wheels would have a job turning. Ideally, the front wheels would be a couple of mm further back, and perhaps it could "ride higher" by a couple of mm as well. The white metal suspension has no really positive locations, so it's a matter of copy the diagram in the instructions as best you can.

The 458 is pretty typical of today's Revell Germany state of the art. Nicely detailed (if crude in a few places -- the brake discs for example) in a relatively "soft" style, and really well engineered to fit. That's the biggest difference with the Gunze 250 kit -- everything in the 458 fits perfectly. Mine had a broken windscreen because of the way the tree is engineered, and I hate to think how much worse that's likely to be in one of your teeny-tiny Revell US boxes. There aren't too many parts, but the ones there are paint up nicely to give the impression of being more complex than they are. Wheels are still an Achilles' heel - Revell will insist on building them with both front and BACK spokes, which just aren't there on the real thing, and the tyres are too thick. These are Pegasus Michelin Pilots. I have the Fujimi kit as well, which is "finer" in terms of moulding, but some of the engine parts look distinctly "thin" compared to the real thing. With a black cockpit like this one I think the one-piece tub approach wouldn't be a problem, though I enjoyed building the more traditional Revell cockpit. There really are NO "gotchas" in this kit, which is what Revell Germany is all about these days. Roll on the 599 GTO!

Apologies for the lengthy post -- just wanted to get those comparisons and contrasts down, since that was one reason for embarking on this build in the first place. What next, I wonder?

bestest,

M.

[Cato]

Matt-your work is superb.

Seeing them together like that is dramatic. To my eye, the 458 looks like a Black & Decker futuristic Dustbuster. The 250 is, of course 'just right' as you put it.

Beautiful builds.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Cato

[Rob Hall]

Beautiful pair of Ferraris. Love the color choices and detailing.

[jaymcminn]

Building these two together really illustrates the difference fifty years has made in the automotive world- the 458 looks like something out of science fiction when put next to the 250. Great job on both builds- I built that GTO many years ago (wish I still had it now!) and can definitely relate to the difficulties involved. Your 458 build has me chomping at the bit to start on mine!

[TheCat]

Those are some awesome looking Ferraris. You did a great job on both of them.

[iBorg]

Thanks for the long post. I would much rather have a real build review than some magazine reviewers (consider the few negatives expressed in another model magazine) who rarely find much negative to say about most kits. I'm now on a lookout for the Revell kit. It sounds like a great kit to share with me son and hopefully get him started building.

Mike

[Phildaupho]

YEAH BABY!! Two beautiful Ferraris. I was sure bummed when I learnt Revell of Germany decided not to release the former Gunze 250SWB which is on my top ten list of all time favorite cars.

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks some more guys! There's nothing better than to go modelling with your kids, though it's actually my daughter who's the car builder in the family! (She started with the Tamiya Caterham, and is now working her way through a Heller "Blower" Bentley). Just in case they ever do sort the licensing out, Revell were going to re-release the Italeri 250SWB, not this one. It's all plastic, for starters, and has a lot in common with the same company's 250 California Spider and GTO kits. italianhorses.net rates the kit pretty well, and it's certainly light years ahead of the AMT/Esci version... so here's hoping it does finally see the light of day. It ticks me off that Italeri won't release those kits again, though the California Spider is available in an Academy box (billed as a "European Classic Sports Car" to avoid licensing issues) from Korean sellers on eBay at a very reasonable price (less than £20 shipped for me), so if you actually want to build one, don't get fooled into paying collector prices for the original kit!

bestest,

M.