Ferrari F40 GTE, MFH 1/24

[ssasho0]

Hello and good day to you,

with the recent passing of Mr. Hiro, I decided to build one of the most iconic cars he ever created a kit of.
The kit itself is sitting in my stash for years. I got it when I saw @360spider build of the two IGOL cars, but never started it. It is just a bit intimidating to build an MFH F40 after Alex's amazing build.
Now I decided to finally pull the trigger, and yes, I will be shamelessly stealing ideas from the IGOL duo build !
Unlike Alex though, I will be building the "Brummel" car, not the IGOL ones.
Now to the build itself, the kit is different from my other 1/24 from Hiro. It seems like extra attention was put to this one. I just kind of feel, that this was a special one for Mr. Hiro. The PE is exquisite, the parts are put in two boxes, the resin is better than usual it is visible that they loved creating it.
The instruction booklet starts with the engine and that is where I started too. Just as usual the metal parts really require quite a lot of attention, sanding and prepping, but the end result is excellent.
Next I moved to the chassis, It consists of few white metal parts, the were all painted matt black and then carbon fiber decalled. Afterwards I covered the decals with acrylic gloss clear from Tamiya. Unfortunately turns out MFH did not supplied the heat protection metal foiling. I ordered some but it will arrive mid/end september so I had to move forward to another step.
Here Alex's build came to rescue and I decided to paint,decal and gloss the body. I carefully checked the pictures of the particular car, and it seems like there is no panel gap between the engine cover and the rear spoiler (unlike the IGOL cars), so the built in gap should be filled. I also got some low temp melting soldering tin and it was the best time to try it out. I soldered the spoiler "supports" and then filed them flush. It worked like a charm!
I usually prefer to paint the body instead of laying down the green decals. It just looks better if painted in my opinion and then things with decals may always go wrong...especially old ones.
First I used Mr. Surfacer, then white Mr. Prime Surfacer 1500 and finally, after masking the white straps Tamiya LP-21 Italian red and X-28 Park Green. Turned out quite nicely, unfortunately the front peeled off, so I need to strip the paint and repaint it.
There are couple of places where the white paint needs a touch up, but that is easily fixable. Then the red/green needs a entle 3k sponge sanding to smooth and get rid of any imperfections before decals and gloss.
Any advice, questions or suggestions are always welcome!

[Deathtrap]

Nice project. But from the pictures it looks like the paint came of to be bare resin. You might need to give it a more thorough clean as resin can be greasy or contain residue from the mold release. Also make sue to lightly sand the resin surface so your primer grips a bit better. That should hopefully give you a perfect second attempt.

[willimo]

This ^

What horror, though, oh man I can feel that pain. Scrolling to the last picture, my stomach dropped as though I was taking the tape off myself. I'm so sorry. I often feel like I've been OVERLY thorough cleaning resin just to be surprised with something like this and it's such a bummer.

[bbsawasa]

#Nuclear Wastewater Why do European and American countries respond flatly to the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water by the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan? The fact is that the media in European and American countries are all silent and do not broadcast it at all. Interviewed 20 people, but only the little brother from South Korea knew about it and strongly resisted it.

[ssasho0]

long delayed update, but I finally got inspiration to take couple of photos. This kit is kind of a nightmare, individual parts does not fit to each other, different assembly steps does not fit with each other, every part is a small issue, every step is a bigger issue and the kit is a whole enormous issue. With that being said, I have immense fun working on it and finding solutions for all the different problems.
PS: special thanks to 360Spider, as I am liberally following his Ferrari F40 build and learning so much!

[ssasho0]

Its done, not my best model, but it is probably the hardest model I have ever built. Nothing fits, everything needs extreme test-fitting steps ahead and if you misalign something 5 steps back it will bit you in the ass later on. Considering all this, I am happy with the end result!

[potsie]

Wow! Simply stunning.