After a period of futzing around with a lot of WIPS and getting nowhere, I pulled this kit off the shelf and got started.
Desperate to keep up with the 4.5 litre Maserati 450S in 1957, Ferrari got to work on expanding the 3.5 litre 290 MM, first to 3.8 litres (315 S), then to 4 litres (335 S). The engines were 4 cam units with twin plugs per cylinder. Sadly Alfonso de Portago crashed his 335 S in the Mille Miglia, killing himself, his navigator and 10 spectators; as a result, this was the last Mille Miglia, and the sports car rules for 1958 limited displacement to 3 litres.
None of the other 4 litre cars did well in 1957; but Piero Taruffi won the Mille Miglia in a 315 S, with Wolfgang von Trips second in another 315 S. Maserati entered a couple of 350S models, neither of which finished; Jean Behra crashed his 450S in practice and didn't start. (I have an unbuilt kit of the 450S which didn't finish at Le Mans, from Profil 24).
The Model Factory Hiro kit is one of the newer ones from MFH and is thus particularly well detailed. This is the 1/24 scale kit, but is also available in 1/12 at huge cost.
First step as always was to soak resin parts in isopropyl alcohol. Locally it has been possible to find this at 99%, but other jurisdictions limit it to 91%. (The 70% concentration isn't really effective). White metal parts get an acetone bath. All parts were then washed in Dawn dish soap in warm water (hot water for white metal).
The engine includes spark plugs (24 white metal parts, painted red in the photos) and throttle linkages (9 photoetched pieces and a length of 0.4 mm nickel steel wire). Needless to say this all required the 4X desk magnifier. Carbs are done, next is distributors and wiring looms.
As the list of Works In Progress is large and growing, I need to finish something soon... not sure if this will be the one, but things are moving ahead nicely. Stay tuned!
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