AMT Ferrari 250 GT SWB - 09-09 Update

[Bernard Kron]

This project constitutes a first for me, or maybe a couple of firsts. After nearly 10 years back into auto modeling this is the first non hot rod/custom/straightline racing subject I have started. It may also be the first Ferrari I've ever done, unless you count a Merit Lancia-Ferrari D50 when I was a kid. I was fairly conscious about what model to pick for my First Cavalino. I had scored a Hasegawa 250 TR incredibly cheaply on eBay by being essentially the only bidder but, frankly, that was way too nice a kit to cut my teeth on. Then one of the dreaded ESCI/ERTL/AMT 250 Berlinetta SWBs popped up for cheap and I thought I'd start with that one. It promised to be less intricate and perhaps would look OK with less finesse than the Testa Rossa.

Building iconic cars that are well known to everyone is not what I normally do. I build hot rods, lakes cars, customs and drag machines strictly from imagination. I'm a hard-core kit basher and I almost never have built a replica. In fact except for a few months as a child I've actually never built an airplane or ship model or gotten into model railroading. So even this relatively straghtforward project is quite a departure for me. My plan is to build a street Gran Turismo Berlinetta as opposed to the Competitizione variant, so it'll have bumpers. One reason for this is because the little vent nacels on the corners of the front valence of a bumperless SWB are not on the ESCI molding and I couldn't figure out how to model them. So bumpers it is. I'll try to detail it as best I can within the limits of my abilities, but you can be sure that it won't be up to the standards I've seen for many a museum-quality full-detail Ferrari build (Alex Kustov for example). So clean and simple but with enough detail to be somewhat convincing will be considered an overwhelming success by this humble hobby builder.

The kit isn't quite the horror-show that many led me to believe. It's got plenty of parts and detail to work with. But I can see the deficiencies in the body shape. I tried to re-contour the areas around the grill opening where they meet up with the ends of the fenders so it didn't look quite so flat faced. It seems to have helped a little. Other than that I cut open the hood and the roof vent but forgot to do the same for the rear fender vents. It's small and dark enough in there that hopefully it won't be noticed. I went with a metallic silver color to emphasize the voluptuous contours of this extraordinary design (the paint is Duplpiocolor Silver over dark gray primer). It happens also to be a classic Gran Turismo color for these cars. I made Italian Tri-colore decal stripes that extend from the grille to the edge of the rear pan. The whole thing is sealed in 4 coats of clear. I'm going to let it harden thoroughly before any polishing.

The kit is engineered so I can set the body aside and install it on the chassis and interior at the very end of final assembly, so now I'll focus on motor, chassis and interior detailing and paint colors. I'm resigned to having to spend real money on decent tires and wheels, too. But I'm no die-hard Ferraristi so I'm sure there will be plenty of mistakes. Nonetheless, I've been around these cars all my life so hopefully I've picked up a few things that will aid me in making a respectable effort. In the meantime here's where I'm at thus far.

Thanx for lookin',
B.

[fordrodnkustom]

Looks god to me B ! Nice work on the paint, I know silver isn't easy to make look good.

[harron68]

Considering the foreign car models I've seen, I'm not sure I ever saw that one. I'll surely be watching. What ever you build, they're each gems to me!

[Bernard Kron]

Rhanx guys!

Progress is being made, mainly in areas that are proving to be pretty straightforward.


When I was doing the bodywork and paint I had planned on using the kit prancing horse shield decals that go on the fenders between the leading of the doors and the side vents near the top of the denders. But it turned out they were pretty vague in detail, printed on clear stock so that the underlying paint affected the final colors, and were visibly undersized. Other than that they were perfect! So I got a nice sharp image of the classic Ferrari shield and made my own version in a slightly larger size and printed them on white decal stock. While I was at it I scanned the instrument dials from the kit decals and made additional copies. And finally I found a properly proportioned actual vintage license plate from Modena, Italy (home of Ferrari) and made front and rear license plate decals. One of the nice things bout printing your own decals is you can cheaply and quickly make spares. I new that cutting out the shields accurately would properly be hit or miss, and that for sure the tiny gauge faces would give me trouble, so, after making the decal art I printed evrything out in triplicate. It turned out to be a wise move! Here's the decal art I made:



Model kit chrome often bugs me because it has a tendency to make parts look overly thick and heavy. On the ESCI/AMT 250GT SWB this is especially true of the egg crate grill. It's actually a very nicely done piece, but the reflectivity of the kit chrome makes the grill look far too thick. Along with the flat nose this is one of the things about this kit that attracts criticism. The actual Ferrari grill I believe is polished aluminum and not as shiny as the kit piece. But before going all the way to stripping and refinish the kit grill I thought I would apply a coat of Testors Aluminum Plate Metalizer to the egg crate portion of the grill. I'm inclined to preserve the chromed grill surround because it offers a nice contrast to the silver body color. My hope was that refinishing just the interior of the grill might thin and lighten its appearance. I think it might do the trick. Below is a comparison of the grill with the all chrome original (A) and the refinished grill bars (B). The prancing horse shield can be seen as well.




And lastly the interior bits have been painted. I used my usual trick of using Testors Acryl acrylic paint which I cross-hatch with my paint brush as it dries. Combined with a light coating of black or dark brown wash it creates a reasonable facsimile of a distressed leather-like surface. The interior surfaces of the roof and cab have also been finished in this color.

The dash panel top on the 1:1's is generally the same black crackle finish as the cam covers, with the lower portion of the dash finished in body color. That's what I did here as well. The foot well assembly is part of the firewall in this kit and mounts to the fender liners and raditor assembly, so I'll wait until chassis assembly time to mount the firewall and dash to the rest of the interior bucket. Here's where I at so far:



Thanx for lookin',
B.

[Smokin Models]

Looks good !!

[harron68]

Full speed ahead! Looking fine so far. It's smart to tone down the shiny leather look with a little "wash" to add texture and molded-in detail.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks guys!

The parts I ordered from Portugal and China arrived and are in the process of being used. I thought I'd post this brief update showing what I got.

I ordered some miniature metal transers from vendor globaltoy on eBay (see www.ebay.com/itm/1-18-1-12-1-24-1-20-1-43-chrome-metal-decals-Ferrari-B-2077-/182741002250?hash=item2a8c36680a ). They were shipped from China and are stick-on metal transfers of the Ferrari Logo and the "cavallino" prancing horse. The sheet includes various sizes for 1/18, 1/12, 1/24, 1/20 and 1/43 scale. They will be used on the rear deck, valve covers and grill center. They took about 2 weeks to get to me in the USA.

I also ordered some beautiful hand-laced Borrani wire wheels and tires from Fernando Pinto at FPP Modelos. They are drop dead gorgeous and fit the model without any modifications. They can be ordered either through eBay at www.ebay.com/usr/crazycar19 or by contacting him through the FPP Modelos website ( fppmodels.wixsite.com/fppmodelos ). They took about 2-3 weeks to get to me.

Lastly, I also did some minor modifications to the intakes, adding some Detail Master Weber stacks to replace the pitifully wimpy plastic tubes that come in the kit.

The transfers have been installed and the engine is being modified to add more detail to hopefully bring it more in line with the awesome FPP wheels and tires. I'll post an update in the next few days. Hopefully I'm not too far from final assembly now.

Thanx for lookin',
B.


The metal transfer sheet from eBay vendor globaltoy:


The FPP Modelos hand-laced 1/24th scale Borranis:


The Detail Master Weber stacks modification:

[mustang1989]

Say................................that's a nice build right there! Details and paint are looking stellar!!!

[harron68]

It costs to "upgrade," but it can be worth it. Your choices in carb stacks and wire wheels get around the weakest parts of many a kit. Were the wheels costly?

[Bernard Kron]

Sept 8, 2017 11:31:13 GMT -5 harron68 said:

It costs to "upgrade," but it can be worth it. Your choices in carb stacks and wire wheels get around the weakest parts of many a kit. Were the wheels costly?

Were the wheels costly? In the general scheme of things, which is to say relative to other alternatives, not particularly. In more absolute terms, relative to the underlying cost of the kit with the idea that, ideally, it should be entirely self-contained with the only the costs of paint and glue to add to your capital costs, then, yes they were expensive.

Here are the specifics. First off, the wheels that come in the kit are undeniably bad - wrong size, thick plastic spokes, and with tires that belong on a 70's muscle car. They hurt the overall appearance of the completed model model mightily. Here's a photo of a totally out-of-box build that illustrates what they do to the appearance of the model:



So, what are the alternatives? They are few. You could pinch a set of wheels and tires from another kit, like the various Fujimi and Revell 250 GTO kits, but then you would have to replace them. And they are still plastic and, while infinitely superior to the AMT kit item, in the end they don't hold a candle to true-wires, or even photo-etch. The best looking and most accurate alternative is a set of Fujimi #11018 p/e wire wheels and tires, available mostly from non-USA vendors with an all-in cost including shipping of $40.00-$55.00 USD. Mostly they are out-of-stock but can be found from someone if you look diligently. Also, be careful not to order #11017 which is far more available. This is wheels and rims only... And of course they are photo-etch and not true hand-laced wires, with a somewhat flat-spoked appearance.

So how much were the Pinto wires? $63.00 USD delivered. Not chopped liver but hopefully the rest of my build will stand up to the standard they set.

Fujimi #11018 photo-etch wire wheels with tires:

[harron68]

Pricey, to me, YES. Still, as you say, there are few alternatives. I've seen wire wheels almost always one-piece or one piece with a front half that's open with a few spokes. Only custom ones in a kit came from one of the '60s models, re-released in the late '70s(?) kit from AMT of one of these, the '63 Riviera or maybe the '65 Pontiac G.P. Thanx for the info. It's a good reference for the future.

[Bernard Kron]

The motor and chassis are complete. Below are pics of the motor and the rolling chassis. The wheels aren't glued in place. Despite this kits' less than stellar reputation you can see that the chassis is quite nicely detailed and that the motor, with a little care, can be made to look quite nice. The tiny metal foil Ferrari stickers on the valve covers help things, as does adding ignition wiring and the aluminum carb stacks. Those FPP Modelo wire wheels don't hurt either!



Left to do are the final assembly of the interior and engine compartment tinwork. The way the kit is structured these assemblies are glued to the chassis so that virtually the entire car is ready for a simple final assembly. What will be left will be foiling, window glass, bumpers, lights and attaching the body to the chassis and interior. This is the critical time where, if the build is going to go south on me, I'll typically find ways to do. So careful does it for my first Ferrari build...

Thanx for lookin',
B.

[harron68]

There are strengths in the kit, as I can see. The chassis looks quite good, similar to the (now very old) Ferrari 275(?) made in the early to mid '60s by the AURORA Company. On the Aurora kit I remember having trouble with the lower front half of the grille support piece. It was warped a bit and the seam where it mated to the top piece never looked good. Best to you, superb thus far.