Fujimi 1993 Ferrari F40 LM

[Hemi Killer]

I thought for sure that was the 1/16 kit. Amazing skills!

[tifosi16]

Hi all,

Thank you very much for your kind words. As you would've realised by now I am a rather slow builder...

Time for an update though:

After completing the interior, I turned my attention to the chassis.

All very much straight forward. I added CF to the rear wheel wells, as well as the missing metal supports



On the front, the chassis is fine for the standard road F40, but because the LM body is wider, I had to add 2mm each side of the wheel wells to make the chassis sit flush with the body. The wheel wells also don't have tops. I added thin plastic card that will bend over and conform to the right shape once the body is in place.



Next I turned my attention to the brakes. The front brakes were fine and the kit PE faces added. The rear brakes however had park brakes moulded in. Not even road F40's had these MR Fujimi... Anyway, I sanded them off and modified PE faces from the Hobby Design F40 kit to fit. Brembo logos from the spares box were added



Next up was the suspension. The kit parts were painted up and detailed using various PE nuts, bolts and screws





Now onto my favourite part of the build, that mighty V8!

I started playing around with the intercoolers. The road F40 intercoolers were supplied, but waaayyyy too narrow to represent an LM's. I had resin F40 GTE coolers, but they were too wide for the LM. So out came the plastic card and my saw, 2mm strips later we had the right width



Here is a comparison between modified and supplied intercooler



I sanded off all the details



And added some brackets





I then grew tired of intercoolers, so I went onto the oil filter. Again in the kit is is represented by a large plastic blob...

I made a base plate using card and BMF



And modified a Tamiya filter



The decal came from the spares box. Only afterwards when I Googled "OHLINS" did I learn they make shocks and not oil filters. Lesson, 2AM is not the best time to get creative....

There is a gap between the kit engine and gearbox. This was filled with plastic card, detailed with sprue



The filter installed





Next the turbos were plumbed and the blocked wired in such a manner as to hide the fact that there is only half an engine there. (So this is where Tamiya got the stupid idea for half an engine from...)









Small electrical boxes etc were scratch built using reference photos and installed





The missing shocks were made from wire, aliminium tubing and plastic and were installed





The missing "box" in the back was made using a KA models PE part, detailed with rivets and some stretched sprue, again using my photos for reference





Sitting back and comparing, I think its coming together from the old Fujimi kit...



Next I'll revisit those intercoolers.

Thanks for looking!

Francois

[ales]

Good stuff!

[countach79]

absolutely stunning!!

[dieteufel]

Great work. Go on!!!

[360spider]

Excellent work!

[F1Tommy]

Very nice. That Fujimi kit really is simple.

Tom Tanner/Scale Designs/Ferrari Expo 2012-Chicago March 2012

[DerXL]

Fantastic build.
Lots of scratchbuilding going on. Very impressive.

I like all the details you're adding. It's just spot on. Looking forward to the next update.

Oh, and to qualify as a slow builder, you'll need to take at least 2 years finishing a build...

[tifosi16]

Hi guys

Time for a quick update:

The Fujimi kit includes, as per the norm by now, the standard exhaust pipe for a road F40. The LM however had no resinators or a catalytic converter. It only had 3 pipes straight from the turbo's right out the back...

Out came various pieces of Evergreen styrene, my reference photos, lots of CA and plenty swearing. PE brackets were added, tips are from the Tamiya Ferrari F40 MonteShell. Note the PE clamps behind the tips, courtesy from Top Studio.





Installed onto the engine



Next up was the dump valve for the turbo's. Compared to the road version, the valve was almost double in size and had a very specific shape and shiny polished finished. I tried using different pieces of aliminium tubing and styrene, but gave up after the millionth attempt, not happy with the results.

In the interim I added the tension springs to the piping using 0.3mm wire. One Monday morning, walking through the hardware store, I found the PERFECT dumpvalve... Take a guess where its from? A BMF band with wire detail was added.



The valve came from a 50 cent fuse



Installed onto the engine





Back to the intercoolers. They were painted up with Tamiya lacquers, received nuts and bolts from Hobby Design. radiator mesh is from Finishers, a must have product for every modeler's spares box!





The intake plenum was adapted in size to fit the intercoolers. Bolts again from Hobby Design. BMF and red electrical tape finished it off







Things are really coming together now.

Some wiring and plumbing left around the engine, then I can start the body.

Thanks for looking!

Francois

[dieteufel]

Hi

Good idea with the fuse.
Your work 1A.

[auw12]

You're pushing a Fujimi kit to MFH level of detail mate! Fabulous work!

[rx7king]

simply beautiful, im glad i found this prior to it getting finished, good job man

[Hemi Killer]

I have this same kit. Until now i never thought it could be built into high detail like this . Amazing work. I will definitely steal your fuse trick.

[Souplaman]

Amazing detailing and build!

Keep Up

[tifosi16]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for the kind comments, it really helps to keep me motivated!

Ok, so some progress shots:

The engine has been mated to the chassis and the cockpit. Small details added and the wiring and plumbing tidied up.







The kit wheels were stripped from their chrome and repainted silver. OZ decals were added (thanks Gerhard!) as well as valves and the center lock pin made from thin wire.

Tyres were spun on a drill to scuff them up.

Now I need some advice... I painted on the Pirelli logos on the tyres, but I am not convinced by their look. The car, although a racing car in essence, won't carry any liveries when finished, only a Rosso Corsa paintjob... Do I keep the logos or do I remove them?





Now this is where the fun starts.

The body of the F40LM shares more panels with the full on racing GTE's than with a normal F40.

In my honest opinion, NONE of the kits on the market accurately carry the right shape. The Tamiya kit is too long, the Fujimi kit is too fat, the Italeri kit is a toy. Again, my opinion. The Hiro kit and the Studio 27 kit of the GTE is probably the most accurate, but not without their flaws. I have all of the above kits, and it is quite interesting to place all the bodies next to each other and compare.

Now back to the Fujimi body. It is about 4mm to short in front, the nose slants a little bit too much. Also, the roof is about 2mm too wide (doesn't sound like much, but makes a big difference). This I can all live with. The major issue for me however was all at the front.

The front arches flare so much, that they actually protrude the rear ones, the front intake is completely wrong for all 19 LM's built (bar the prototype, which was a completely different car) and it is missing the NACA duct.

This is where I had to go back to my original concept, correct what I can without giving up the fun aspect and driving myself nuts in the process. This is what I did:

I started by correcting the lip on the front intake using plastic card. The NACA duct was grafted on from a Tamiya 350 Nismo













The next photo shows the differences between the nearly correct body of the Studio 27 GTE and the Fujimi body. Note the width of the roof as well as the width of the front intake (already opened wider here in the Fujimi body. Lastly I had to cut out 2mm of the fenders to flatten them, they were way too curvy! Here, the right hand side fender on the Fujimi body has been done.







Next up was the shape of the front wheel arches, they were too straight, again compared to the Studio 27 body. This was corrected with plastic card.





The vents around the body were all opened up



The back end of the Fujimi body is very accurate imo.

There is still a lot of work to be done, primer to be sprayed and little mistakes to be fixed. The rear windows need to be reshaped to be accurate and most of the glass replaced by acetate sheet.

Still a long way to go probably, but I can start smelling the thinners of the final paint job in the air!

Thanks for looking as always,

Regards,

Francois