Review - Hobby Design Transkit - Hamann Ferrari California

[360spider]

Ramon, your work is always so inspiring. I know its mostly prep stuff so far, but your attention to detail makes is a must-read. Looks super so far!

[lovegt40]

a real pleasure to read and look. thank u Ramon

[tonioseven]

Simply fantastic! I don't really care for the California but seeing your review of the transkit makes me want to get it.

[MidMazar]

Originally Posted by tonioseven

Simply fantastic! I don't really care for the California but seeing your review of the transkit makes me want to get it.

But the 599 gto will be first.

BTW This is WIP worthy!

[agamo]

Ok, I'm back with the last installment...

Thank you Alex, Paolo, Antonio and Mark for your nice comments, I really appreciate them!

And well, it is time for the resin parts of the kit, the wheels were reviewed already so it is turn for the aerodynamic kit and I'll start with the front of the vehicle, the front spoiler, at first sight the molding looks right, the top side present no sink holes or mold marks, it is symmetrical, the center section should be a little smaller as in the actual car, but anyway it looks right...


The underside shows some molding marks that can be easily removed with some 500 grit sanding, the mold filling part is easily removed too and no deformation is present...


When trying to fix it to the underbody of the vehicle it just doesn't fix, it requires some modifications...


Also the part is not long enough to reach the border of the wheel housing, so it will require adding some plastic to the ends; this problem is present in both sides...


When looking at the part from the underside, the interference against the chassis is evident...


Removing this interference in the resin part is very easy, this will help the part to sit better against the body and chassis...


And now the fitting is very good, the two center reinforcements require some sanding too, but this is easily done...


The final look is very good! Some carbon decal will bring this part to life...


To help fitting this part to the chassis it is recommended to add four dowels distributed as follows, so they are not visible from the front of the vehicle, the dowels are made with 0.91 mm diam Evergreen plastic rod...


Then is turn for the side sills, the shape of this parts is very good, they really got the look of these parts, the problem, as you can see, is that the parts are almost 2 mm shorter than the body, so they will require some plastic extensions...


The parts conform perfectly to the body shape; no modifications are required at all to make these parts fit...



Three dowels are added to ensure and ease fitting to the body/chassis...


To fix the length problem, small plastic sections are added to both ends...


The resulting parts... (This same procedure was applied to the front spoiler)


Some cutting and sanding to blend the extensions into the side sills...


Now the rear diffuser, in the actual car this part is divided in three sections, two rear/side sills and one center diffuser that is adjustable through two tensors (PE parts previously reviewed) at first sight this part doesn't present any fitting problem, but, the shape is not entirely correct since the center section should be bigger and extended to the rear, I mean, to the border of the side sections, but this is easily fixed separating the resin part in the three actual sections, which will make it look much better also...


Some minimal corrections are required to the shape of the side sections, which by the way don't have the problem of the front spoiler; this part reaches the wheel arches perfectly, so no extensions will be required here...


Before separating the resin part as mentioned before, some dowels are also added to ensure the position and to ease latter assembly, the separation of the parts will be made in the future WIP of the car not now...


And the last resin part to review is the rear spoiler, the general shape does not entirely convince me, it conforms to the rear border shape of the car but even so I don't feel it entirely correct, but this may be only my perception, and well, to be honest, I don't really like this part in the real car...


Viewed from the rear, the spoiler looks flat, in the actual car this spoiler should be curved conforming to the trunk shape, so it will require some careful bending or curving to make it look right...


I soaked the resin part in hot water for a few seconds, this softens the resin a little and avoids breaking while bending it, doing it slowly and carefully you get the spoiler matching the trunk shape, now it looks a little better, but still not convincing...


The spoiler supports are completely straight at their bases and do not fit correctly in the trunk, so they require some sanding to make them fit...


After some careful sanding, the part fits perfectly, some dowels will be added latter to fit this part to the trunk, I won't add the dowels now since I have not decided if I will use this part, I have seen the car without this spoiler and from my point of view it looks much better...


Well this is all for this review, and now into the final comments...

Generally speaking I consider this transkit a great kit to work with; the PE parts mostly all of them fit perfectly into the designed areas with minimal adjustment, as in every kit there are some parts that won't be used and it also contains some optional extra parts and badges that may be used in future projects.

I really had fun working with this transkit, at the beginning I had some doubts about the resin parts, but I must say that at the end it was really easy to work with them, no big problem at all to make them fit; the only downside of this transkit are the tires, they have to be discarded and replaced if you want a correct replica, other than that, it is a very good kit.

Thank you for your attention and until the next one...

[360spider]

Just goes to show that nothing is impossible when you know what you are doing, and also that that transkit is FAR from being a good one... :-) Great stuff Ramon.

[andybmw7272]

Okay, so now when are you going to post your actual build for the WIP on this sucker?

I have read your 599 build WIP countless times and am ready for this one!
Andy

[robrex]

Great review! I agree we need a full WIP for this one

[MidMazar]

It seems like getting a t-kit from hobby design that fits is hard to find. They really need to change their resin. But even with all the flaws you overcame it with no problems! I like the dowel technique, might have to borrow it sometime.

[andybmw7272]

Maybe a little more reference help.
There are some great pics in here, but I cant save them.

http://www.drivingemotions.com/INVEN...5/Default.aspx

Cant wait to see this WIP Ramon!

[r33nz]

Nice review, transkit looks well worth the money