Ferrari 330 P4 Spyder 1/24 - In memory of Ing. M. Zambelli 1936-2016

[lovegt40]

This build i am gonna make will be didicated to the memory of a great engeneer, and family friend Martino Zambelli, sadly recently passed away and never forget.

Zambelli has been the chief engeneer at Osca Maserati and later at Campagnolo, and was specialized in the magnesium casting parts of all the main italian racers of the 60s.
Yes, he was the one projecting casting and selling the amazing campagnolo wheels all over the world.
He was a great family friend and very close colleague to ing. Mauro Forghieri, that everybody knows. During the 40 yrs I knew him I loved to listen to all his incredible tales about that heroical era of Motorsport, and when years ago I asked him which has been his favourite work, he mentioned the 330p4, the car he made the wheels to be winner at Daytona in that super famous picture...
Too many remindings and too many feelings. personal ones. deeply personal...
We will miss you dear Martino.

So the model I am converting now is the fujimi p4.
Time ago i asked in car modeling section about the main differences from the closed version. George pointed out with a simple picture the way to proceed.
I never made the fujimi p4 before, had it on my stash for decades being also in my opinion the nicest ferrari ever existed, together with her little sister Dino 206s, that I produced by myside in resin 2 yrs ago.

The main modifications are around the front single naca duct and the rear hatch. The cutting of the roof is probably the easiest part of the conversion...
Looking closely some pics around is easy to make mess. For example i was looking as reference Jim Glickehaus mighty p4 (chassis 846) , here at pabble beach


that according to what I know (and plz correct me if I am mistaken..) is reported as the scrapped chassis of chris amon p4 destroyed at le mans 1967 and sold as it was to jim before his amazing restoration of the vehicle..
Amon car at le mans had one duct..



but also david piper car has 2 ones...


so dunno really...
Just looking at period pictures i think p4s had single duct only, probably the 2 ones were for 412P cars..



and here my model...

[tw78911sc]

One of the most beautiful cars ever designed:

https://goo.gl/photos/ZtbJEnViaBfcihUx8

[lovegt40]

Originally Posted by tw78911sc

One of the most beautiful cars ever designed:

https://goo.gl/photos/ZtbJEnViaBfcihUx8

yes, thats Jim car, chassis 846. Time ago he posted in gt40s.com forum a very interesting pdf with all the documentation of the reborn of this amazing car.
Very often he is in Italy and he is always available to explain his cars and talk to people.


Here I found online a portrait of Martino Zambelli during his career at Tecnomagnesio, another company that he made great and competitive, as well as Fondmetal. If I am not mistaken his last works were the wheels for the first Dallara Indy cars. He really loved his job and was a real funny guy, despite the first very serious appeal when people dunno him


source: http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it...MI160-0010916/



and here my progress on P4:
The rear hatch must be modified and is probably the hardest part of this conversion. Not extremely hard but neither so easy as it looks. I also decide to remark all the micro nuts and bolts present on this amazing full aluminium handmade body.





original fujimi part is this way, correct for a closed p4

[afxracing]

Excellent start Paolo.

[BVC500]

Awesome! Can't wait to see more. Wish Fujimi had done the spyder, since it was featured on the box art for the Daytona kit.

[indy1977tx]

Wow, looking forward to this WIP.

Jordan

[Borjacho]

For sure this work will be more than interesting... and maybe expensive from a "nuts and bolt" point of view

[Veyron]

Looking excellent!

[lovegt40]

thanks all guys.
Also I was sure Fujimi should produce a spyder version, but suspect after they look closely at the many little differences to the closed body they had basically to make a different model at all, specially the body.
Differences are easy, but are many.

Also this kit is really "strange" let me say: it seems like if something went wrond at the moment of royaltees or whatever cause basically is really welldone at all. Much better than any fujimi of the period (think this mould is more than 15yrs old).
Also the engine bay seems just waiting "that sprue" with all the parts to make it as a real enthusiast serie kit...tha never been.

However remains an excellent kit with a lot of details, including the real nice PE parts. Hope in the fiuture they reconsider to do something with it as spyder or 412P cars, with a very larger range of liveries available other than the 4 official cars.

After modify a little the lower rear vent I coated with Pink paint as base for the italian red. The p4 looks like Penelope pitstop vehicle right now...











Think this wip can be quite quick. I just would like to leave in the forum some easy infos on how to convert the closed version into spyder car, in my opinion much nicer ..

[afxracing]

Historic Racing Miniatures does make an engine kit for the P4.

http://redfroghobbies.com/productDet...0P4_Engine_kit

[gtziaf]

Nice conversion Paolo!
Also the reason for this is built is an extra inspiration.
Good luck mate...

[lovegt40]

little update:

red coat applied.
For the first time i suspect it can be a little too glossy compared to the paint of the period. Paints were meant for a racer and polymer of the 60s over alu were not so shiny as today colors as well as the restored cars today (they look amazing but u see the repaint makes it all..)
however think is a "modelling common idea" to make theme mirror shiny...and since i got the trick to do..lets proceed..









as u can clearly see my way to gloss theme is just make many many thin layers of gloss coat and polish it. the car shown here has 4 passages this way and i think it looks quite ok.



I still dont know if I should go for the big white roundels for race number or leave it totally red. what do you think guys?

[BVC500]

Nice! Go with the roundels.

[corrrado]

Really great build Paolo! This is one of the nicest Ferrari, and you are making this model a real beauty!!!

[lovegt40]

grazie mille corrado. e´rarissimo ricevere complimenti da altri modellisti italiani.

here again with p4.
time to detail a little bit the cockpit. fujimi also here provides very good details





and then the wheels. Martino´s masterpieces




One of nicest Martino´s tales in front of a nice italian dinner with plenty redwine was the remindings of the wheels test done in Monza on the oval track, to setup all the new parts for Daytona.The tester for this shakedown was Chris Amon and every 3 laps the wheel bolt unscrew itself becoming loose, running at over 350 kmts/hours on the ovale.
Amon had the feeling directly on his hands of and was able every time to return and made mechanic fix it before a serious crash. It was a problem of magnesium casting around the wheel bolt he said.
Martino always will remeber the face of this man racing a Ferrari at such speed on a superspeedy oval with unscrewed wheels...

So I decided this car MUST been driven only by that great Kiwi pilot. Amon is also one of my favourite pilots of that period.
Whoelse should be there driving my P4 ??



head comes from a slotcar dummy, to take the helmet only





and time is up also for the side windows made in thin acethate plastic