Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta ;Complete (#22 for 2020)

Another one done. I am reaching a stage with these MFH kits of being comfortable enough to power through one without major issues.



What a gorgeous little car! And the photo-etched plaque is a wonderful addition to the kit. I'll have to make a base for this and the Berlinetta.



This is a replica of car #22, Ferrari serial #0008M, as driven by Luigi Chinetti to a win at Le Mans in 1949. (His copilot was ill and only drove about 90 minutes of the 24 hours.) Hence the full-size folding windscreen and little Brooklands screens behind it, the added fog lamp and the white stripe around the grille. For a road car I would have deleted all that, and built a wrap-around windscreen.



The radiator was mounted too low. In spite of the upper radiator hose no longer fitting, I reversed the forward radiator mounting arms to bring the radiator up and back. I had to grind out the resin body to fit the radiator in its new position, but the radiator cap is now visible.



Lovely cockpit. Only one problematic decal.



The matching Berlinetta is equally gorgeous. This pair has been on my wish list since I saw a feature on the matching pair owned by Road & Track publishers John and Elaine Bond in the late '60s. Carrozzeria Touring had a winning shape in this one, and some of the cues turned up in a lot of different places, such as the AC Ace (predecessor of the Cobra) and even, in the grille, various iterations of the Chrysler 300.




So having completed these two iconic Ferraris as well as the Alfa Stradale, the drool-worthy list is shrinking. What's up next? Not sure. Stay tuned!

Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta: Engine and chassis

The engine and chassis are about done.



The V12 has distributors at the front, mounted vertically, unlike the Berlinetta where they are mounted horizontally. This time I put wires in the heads, not the distributors, as the spark plugs, located on the inlet side of the heads, are essentially inaccessible once the carburettors are in.




I ran the wires without the little tube that Ferrari uses to keep them tidy, as I don't see how it can be done to scale even with 0.014" wires as supplied in the kit.



The chassis is a simple ladder frame with leaf springs front and rear. Up front it's a single transverse unit running under the chassis, while the rear has a solid axle on semi-elliptics. The springs are assembled from photoetched parts which ought to be painted, but I like leaving them as is to show the assembly.



Steering is a worm and sector or equivalent. Overall the chassis is pretty standard for the day, and the Le Mans win was due to the power and reliability of the modern motor with essential equal bore and stroke. This compares well with the competition, largely made up of pre-war long stroke devices.



Primer is on the body, so stay tuned.

Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta: Overview

Possibly the most important Ferrari ever, Ferrari serial #0008M was driven to a win at the 1949 Le Mans by Luigi Chinetti; it will sit next to the coupe version (Berlinetta) already built.



I've wanted one of each (Berlinetta and Barchetta) ever since I saw pictures of them in Road & Track in the late 1960's, but since they tend to sell for tens of millions (dollars, euros, sterling, whatever) each on the rare occasions they do come up for sale, I'm going to have to settle for the 1/24 scale models which are rare enough.



What gorgeous little cars! Stay tuned. 

Lincoln Continental Roadster: Complete (#21 for 2020)

This barge has some bits taken from the '62 Thunderbird kit. 

First is the 390 Tri-Power engine, with added distributor, wires and fuel line. Next is the tonneau cover with integrated headrests. This required a lot of filling, sanding, priming, repeat.

The kit itself is one of the older ones, with a one-piece molded chassis and steel axles that push through the engine block. Of course this makes it easy to lower it.

Stance looks decent with the large whitewalls from the parts bin, but the final build will have a smaller set on the front to give it a bit of a nose down attitude.

Paint is Tamiya TS-40 Metallic Black over AS-12 Bare Metal Silver. The silver base may not have been critical but it can't hurt.

The interior was done in Tamiya TS-39 Mica Red and X-27 Clear Red. 

The dashboard is well defined with molded speedometer numbers; panel line accent colour filled in the background nicely.

Turned out well, I think. 

A quick build, except for the bodywork. What's next? Hard to say. Stay tuned!

BMW 2002 tii Estate: Complete (#20 for 2020)

A bit of a fight here but I like how it turned out. Just missing door handles and mirrors in the pictures.

Resin estate body from ARM, fenders and wheel-tire sets from Scale Productions, engine from USCP, decals from Gofer, all based on the Hasegawa 2002 tii.

The stance could have been a bit lower, admittedly.

Fat pipe hints at what's under the hood... hopefully passengers won't get burns on their calves when entering or exiting.

The brace across the shock towers was scratch built from brass rod, painted with Tamiya clear red paint over bare brass.

What's next? Well, the Big Ol' Shelf O' Doom is getting low, maybe it's time to start something new. Stay tuned! 

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ: Complete (#19 for 2020)

Another one done; not one of my best but pretty decent.

The novelty was opening up the door and hinging it.

Very subtle grilles. The paint scheme is that for the #34 car, driven by Giancarlo Sala and Romolo Rossi, that dropped out of the 1963 Le Mans after 155 laps due to gearbox failure.

The SZ was not as successful as the TZ that followed, but the progression is obvious. The motor here is is the 1570 cc four with 4 spark plugs. The TZ had the twin-plug head (8 spark plugs all together) as well as the tubular chassis (Tubolare, hence the 'T').

The Profil 24 and Model Factory Hiro kits represent two different visions of resin or multi-media kits.

The TZ finished 13th overall, 1st in the GT 1.6 category in 1964.

Stay tuned for more!

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ: Driver's door hinge

This Profil 24 kit comes with doors molded into the body and with inner door panels. It also comes with a pair of doors, however.

So I got carried away and cut out the driver's door, using the tools in the picture.

The hinge was fabricated from 1 mm brass rod and narrow-wall 2 mm brass tube.

The bent 1 mm rod is inserted into the door panel into holes drilled for that purpose. (The broken fragment of door panel at the lower forward edge will be glued back in prior to paint).

The tube will be epoxied to the body when the time comes (after paint and so on).

A fair amount of bending and fiddling was required. 

Here is the situation after paint, but before the hinge got glued in.

View through the right side door at the hinge, still with no epoxy to hold the hinge in. Next will be to source some 5-minute epoxy. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: I got brave and mixed up some epoxy, being careful to keep it off the hinge pin or the door. I also shimmed up the tube with some 0.030" styrene to get it all to fit. You can see where the resin of the door had to be carved away to allow it to clear the fender.

The door might not open as wide as I might have liked but it will do.

The only real flaw is that I glued the window and frame in just a little too far forward. The glue being CA, I don't want to use acetone to dislodge it as that will damage the paint as well.

All in all I am not unhappy with this. Next will be the interior door panel trim. Stay tuned!