In Progress: Tamiya Ferrari Mythos

[gionc]

Originally Posted by MPWR

Well, you're in luck- it's still in progress! If you're patient, sooner or later you may catch me updating it. (Or the F40. Or the 360....)

the 360? another Freudian lapsus? ah ah

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by gionc

the 360? another Freudian lapsus? ah ah

And I wasn't go to say anything!

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by gionc

the 360? another Freudian lapsus? ah ah

360? Did I say 360? I don't know what I was thinking, I'm sure!

[Jamme]

Just dicoverde your wip now.
Beautifuel job on your engine.



Jamme

[gundam1969]

Originally Posted by gionc

re: Mythos: oohh, fantastic. Shiny, deep and clean finish. I saw this beast at Venice (yes, strange but in Venice, they done a transportation by water ) during a design show, when I come in they're moving from the canal boat, the noise from exaust was simply music (strange: pretty different from the testarossa noise to me, it should have a custom exaust system).Mine is red.

re: Cobra: do someone sell those stuff overseas? (from your site seem not due to hazard transportations)

Ferrari Nero Daytona is available from:

www.modelcolourworx.co.uk

Cheers,

Paul

[MPWR]

And now, finally, the intake system!

I've been stuck on this for years- literally. As I mentioned when I started this thread, waaaaay back when I initially started this kit, I painted the intake plenums, didn't like the results, stripped them in something I shouldn't have, ruined them, and shelved the kit. Yes, I suppose that at any point, I could have called up Tamiya USA and had them send me a set of replacement parts (Tamiya USA had just recently come into being, to give some of you a time reference on on when I first started this kit)- but for some reason, I never did. Eventually I got to thinking that when I did get back to this one, I wanted to do something a bit different with it. A new set of plenums would do nicely.

It turns out I'm really not very keen on the tuned, modified or (gasp) "kustom" look- at least not where Ferrari's are concerned. Sure there are some cars it looks good on, but I've always considered a "kustomized" Ferrari to be a detrimental tampering with perfection. So, whatever I came up with to replace the plenums, I wanted them to look like they actually could have been made by the Maranello factory- perhaps not as production parts, but at least something that could have been made at Ferrari for a one-off show car or the like. Anything aftermarket looking just wasn't going to do. So, what could I do to modify the appearence of the engine, yet keep it with a reasonably factory original look? This is one I pondered for quite some time.

I decided on machining some replacements. My original though was to make a set of CF plenums. It kind of kept with the theme of the Mythos as a concept demonstration for CF bodywork, just carying the theme to the engine bay as well. It's certainly a direction Ferrari has gone in- the F50 and Enzo both have CF airboxes. So I milled up a couple of blocks out of acrylic (acrylic machines incredibly easily, once you get tool speeds figured out), to be covered with CF decals.



And so I covered them with CF. I tried several different patterns- stripes and dots of various colors. I couldn't find anything I was happy with. I turned a dozen aluminum rods to mount them on, and trial fit them on the engine, but found nothing I liked.



Here they are with some dot pattern or other. Either way, they didn't look right. I decided to try for something that at least would echo the look of the Testarossa plenums that they would replace.



So, back to the mill.

I started with aluminum this time. I made up two rectangular blocks, that I drilled out in a pattern to match the inlet ports on the engine.



Next, I wanted to cut some parallel fins into the tops. I used a slitting saw and a creative setup on the mill.



Notice the homemade slitting saw holder? I made it on the lathe. I love having machine tools!!

The results:



If I ever need to make an amplifier for a 1/24 car stereo, this is how I'll do it!

Next, more milling. I used a tiny little end mill to remove the outer fins, and make cut ins on either end of the plenums.



Getting there! Just need to round the corners a bit, and they're done.



I wanted these to look like cast parts, coming straight out of Ferrari's own foundry. So, I dipped them in degreaser, and coated them in primer. Cobracolors Moon Mud, used without any additional thinner. It builds up a nice textured appearence quickly and easily.



Next, paint them with something agreeably flat and grainy, to give a cast alloy look. Tamiya flat aluminum.



A little bit of detailing and they'll be there.

The S27 PE set I got for the F50 had plenty of leftovers. Among them were two miniature Ferrari logos, intended for the F50's valve covers. The kit didn't need them (like so much else on this set), but it would be a shame to let them go to waste, right? I blackened them with Blacken-It, and then gently sanded the tops of the logos until they were bare metal again.



Meanwhile, the slots between the fins on the plenums were handpainted in black, and the top edges of the fins were sanded off. With the photoetch logos added, I think they look the part.





Now, to actually put them on the engine....

[nugundam93]

omg that was some great work!

[Nutsforcars]

You just raised the bar so high ... it's unbelievable.

[Zlaja_]

Wow! This is great motivation for a unexperienced modeler like me to just keep on practicing and one day to become as skilled as you! Beautiful work man, keep it up!

[D_LaMz]

wow love the machining work!

[robrex]

fantastic! Glad to see some progress on this build!

[deltableh]

Holy bloody crap!

[klutz_100]

Well, in terms of "alternator" therapy that should be just the ticket!

Really brilliant stuff and I sure hope you took some resin casts on those before you painted 'em up?!?!? Wanna trade for some daytona carbs?

[KTem]

Wow, you're an artist, man! Great work once again.

[MPWR]

Thanks everyone!

Now that I had decided what the plenums would actually look like, I had to come up with some way to mount them and connect them to the cylinder inlet ports. I've had a number of different ideas as I've considered it. Originally, the CF plenums would have been supported with CF tubes, either curved like on the Testarossa or straight. I then came up with staight turned aluminum tubes, and figured they'd look pretty good- like a bunch of straight intake trumpets. But I quickly noticed that if they were going to be straight, something had to be done about the fuel injection system. In the Testarossa, the curved intake tubes hide the fuel injectors pretty well (at least in 1/24), but if they were straight, it was going to be pretty obvious if they weren't there. I thought for a while and tried to come up with an injector rail, but again nothing looked right. I seriously considered skipping the whole fuel injection system all together, and instead mounting the plenums atop a half dozen Weber carbs. I even found carbs to fit- the ones in Tamiya's Lotus 7 were perfect. But as I thought about it more, it didn't seem right not to model the fuel injetcion system. The Bosch Jetronic system was a major design feature of the Testarossa, and so should be on the Mythos, too. So I decided to go with the straight aluminum trumpet style tubes, but to put an injector port on the inside of each one. Back to the mill!

This is what I finally came up with.



I turned a dozen straight tubes, and then I milled a slot in each to take an additional tube for an injector. In the center are the tubes with the slots milled in them, and on the right are the tubes with injector tubes installed. I decided to leave them in a bare, brushed aluminum finish. On the left are some of the mounting flanges to be fitted to the top of the inlet ports on the engine.

Here are the mounting flanges on the engine. As the tubes would be bare aluminum, I figured the flanges should be, too.



Each flange gets two PE bolt heads, to hold them in place. Here, just the first two are in place.



And now to show what a back and forth process designing all of this has been, I decided that the plenums were missing vacuum ports. So, I machined some disks for where the ports would go, and stripped the plenums to mount them (fortunately, aluminum strips easily- didn't ruin them this time! ). The two larger parts are for the cold start injectors- they will get fitted to the holes already drilled in the sides of the plenums.



The vacuum ports in place, one on each end. Now, finally they can be repainted and assembled.



And here they are fully assembled. Including the cold start injectors not jet installed, there are a total of 44 individual machined parts between the two plenum assemblies. Whew.... (Now why didn't I just reorder the replacement parts from Tamiya to start with...?)



And this is what they will look like in place!







I think I'm happy with that! (finally....) Next, I get to plumb the fuel system- and for those of you unfamiliar with the Bosch Jetronic system, that's no small task....