1979 Ferrari 312 T4 - 1/12 - 60th Ann. Group Build

[ferraripaul]

Hi all - especially Ferrari addicts,

After long considerations and studying the current contender list, I decided to contribute this one.

Some remarks to the original car:

It is - in my opinion - quite important for Ferrari's history for some reasons:

• It is the successful peak of developing aspirated, 3 litre, 12 cylinder flats. This car was winning the 1979 World Championship titles. The driver's for Jody Scheckter and the constructor's for Ferrari. If we don't count the successor T5, the C 126 started development of turbo engines in F1 for Ferrari afterwards.
• The legendary Gilles Villeneuve showed not only brave driving in this car, but mature skills and sportsmanship in less flying, more winning, and finally supporting his team mate winning the title.
• And because opinions about the looks of it are extremly different. I'm one of the kind who like the flat, wide, functional design. Some others regard it as one of the ugliest cars ever made by Ferrari.

As I will have a busy year in working life this build will be a slow one. Please be patient with me, thanks

Paul

[ferraripaul]

Now regarding the kit: It's the 1:12 of Tamiya which is sometimes to be found - but quite expensive. I'v got mine for only $60 because the previous owner already started to paint some of the small parts. No big deal to strip the paint again and to start from scratch. I'm also not collecting boxes, so I will survive the messed-up box as well.



The rest is still in it's original bags and complete.




Fortunately, I found some wire mesh covers for the intake trumpets in the battered box. And I ordered a PE Acousticon set for the car at HLJ. Detailing the brakes, wheels, radiators, and wings will be fun.



Considering the age of the kit I'm even more impressed by the quality and level of detail.

I hope I will blend into the majority of 1/24 and 1/20 models. Thanks for looking,
Paul

[Jamme]

Hello Paul,
Nice you wil do a WIP of that "ugly" F1.....I'm kidding of course!
I will follow this WIP with very much interest, as I have this car "in stock" to build in one of my numerous lifes........

Waiting for your start.
I wish you great succes!

Jamme

[Decs0105]

Oh great subject, i love this car. And I hope to build it someday

[auw12]

I need to see the pics!!!!!

[ferraripaul]

@ Jamme & Thesaint111:

Nice to be in such competent company. I was following your builds which were really hooking me.

Paul

[mikemechanic]

Looks good Paul. I picked one of those up about a year or so ago. I was always curious about the photoetch, how does it look I've never used Acustion before, does it look like it will fit ok? I will be following along.

Mike.

[auw12]

Fortunately the surrogate works! Great write up and very interesting project. I believe it'll be some epic build. Can't wait to see the parts going out of the bags! Will definitely follow this thread!

[ferraripaul]

@mikemechanic: I will keep you posted how the PE parts are coming off
@auw12: What a relief to have provided the pictures. A WIP without pictures would be useless I think

Thanks for encouraging me; I will try to justify your expectations ...

[auw12]

Well Paul it's ok now, I can see the pics with the surrogate. Don't use it often but it works.

[deltableh]

This will be a fun build to watch!

[gotcha313]

Hallo Paul,

I know what to expect if your are starting a WIP. So I will follow this one as close as possible.

Good luck
Thomas

[robrex]

I'll look forward to watching this. It's nice to see another of these 1/12 kits getting built.

[OrangeR]

I too will follow this.
Can't wait until the build starts.

[ferraripaul]

OK - it's slow but at least started. I'm not the type to follow instructions, so I started with the engine. As you may have noted in the pictures at the beginning of this post, the previous owner coated the engine parts with some sort of thick & sticky flesh-coloured substance.

Maybe because at production date of the kit the appropriate colours were unavailable. The instructions ask for a mix of Aluminium & Orange in 3:1 - could end up in some ugly 'flesh'.

Anyway, I removed this coat of sticky glub by bathing the parts in good old oven cleaner. It took one complete day but everything finally came off.

The main block came together easily and I coated it with Testor's Metalizer Titanium (crank case) and Tamiya Titanium Gold (valve covers, front and end plates).



The brackets for the injection valves gave me a first and difficult decision. Apparently these are made from resin reinforced with aluminium. Instructions propose the 'flesh' mixture, my reference pictures show different versions. I briefly considered robrex' idea of making copies in resin, but I was scared off by doing this in the above mix of materials. I ended up in painting the main body with Metalizer Magnesium and the reinforced mounting struts in aluminium. Looks nice enough for me.



The pictures above show the parts in the process of drying when I also fitted the mounting plate for the ignition / injection assembly with the generator already painted & fitted.