In Progress: Tamiya Ferrari Mythos

I've started Tamiya's Ferrari/Pininfarina Mythos.

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/5703/mythos00013cc.jpg

Well, really I've re-started it. I originally started this kit some years ago. I did a bit of work on the engine, painted the air intake plenums, didn't like the results, decided to strip them, and destroyed them. So, I shelved it. It got packed away a couple of years later for a move, and was recently unearthed as I started the F40. As I've been figuring out how to machine parts for the F40, I've been making trial parts for the Mythos, too. So, why not give it the same full light of day as it's stablemate? I stripped everything (safely this time) and am starting again from the ground up. This will be another full detail build, of course with machined extras and the like. As with the F50 and F40, I'll go into as much detail on my techniques as I can.

The car itself was a concept car built by Ferrari and Pininfarina for auto shows in 1989. Pininfarina has of course been designing bodywork for Ferrari's for decades. The Mythos was built in part as a celebration of their long collaboration, and also as a technology demonstrator for full CF bodywork. The car is mechanically an '88 Testarossa, with a shorter exhaust system- as the rear overhang of the Testarossa body was virtually eliminated. The bodywork seems to have been designed by someone at Pininfarina who believed the Testarossa was too luxuriously appointed, and not nearly wedge shaped enough. Unneccesary nicities such as rear view mirrors, turn signals, all storage space, and any form of roof were eliminated. Maybe it never rains in Maranello. It does at least have a windshield wiper. Aparently, two of these show cars were built, but there are rumors of one collector who simply could not take no for an answer, and commisioned for one to be built for himself. I wonder if that one had turn signals....

The Mythos is really Tamiya's forgotten Ferrari kit. Most parts are from the Testarossa kit (another Tamiya classic), as you would expect. It of course has the full Testarossa engine and suspension. This was always a rather inexpensive kit- while it was in production, it always seemed to be about 2/3 the price of the Testarossa kit. It was undoubtably cheap for Tamiya to produce. But, it seems that the strange, unfamiliar body styling kept sales down.

So, here's the strange, unfamiliar body being primed.

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/7745/mythos00028xt.jpg

I must admit, I do like not having to mess with painting wing mirrors! As the bodywork slowly progresses, onto the engine.


The Testarossa's great big 5 liter, 12 cyl boxer,

http://img342.imageshack.us/img342/6607/11212782df.jpg

painted, and...

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5144/11212867dp.jpg

...washed. If you're curious about the steps in between, check out my wash tutorial (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=441493). Should look kinda familiar.


The cylinder heads are painted with the same red crackle finish that gave the Testarossa it's name. However, the heads each have two double 'chrome' stripes on them. The kit instructions helpfully point them out- but I wouldn't care to try painting them with X11. So, break out the BMF.

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/34/mythos00030oh.jpg

Here, matte aluminum strips of bare metal foil are applied to the unpainted part. I used a scalpel and sharpened toothpick to trim and burnish the BMF in place. Then, I painted them. Note the spark plugs are drilled out for ignition wire. To simulate the rough 'crackle' finish, I sprayed flat red MM acryl, thinned with 99% isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol evaporates in the spray stream, leaving a grainy finish. It's subtle (but so is the real finsh), and looks the part pretty well. Just remember to clean your airbrush thuroughly afterwards.


http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/6947/mythos00047hz.jpg

After the paint dries (I give it overnight), the BMF stripes are revealed by scraping the paint off of them with a toothpick soaked in MM Acryl cleaner (or 99% isopropyl). this is actually pretty similar to how the stripes are done on the actual engine. The sripes start out as raised ridges on the alloy castings, the castings are painted with the crackle finish, and their then mounted on a mill, which grinds the top of the ridges off, revealing the alloy below.


http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/2438/mythos00058kf.jpg

The camshaft ends are painted, and ignition wires are added- fine copper wire painted with red acrylic ink. The rubber spark plug boots are simulated with a bit of white glue, painted black.


http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/7859/mythos00067ck.jpg

The cylinder heads on the engine block.


Lots more to come (obviously).

Enjoy!

Never liked the looks of the Mythos but it looks like another masterpiece in the making..

MPWR,

Where can I get the copper wire and acrylic ink from?

And is the F40 about finished?

Awesome, your detail work is amazing.

I don't like the Mythos though, for some reason it doesn't look like a Ferrari... I had that same opinion when I first saw the Enzo. Maybe they're both a bit too futuristic...

great work! can't wait to see more! was/is this actually a real car?

You really know how to wire an engine.. Looks great. I remember this kit from years ago, and I did have one. But, along with nearly all my older kits, it got lost..! I never built it, and I thought the car was very odd looking. Even more so considering the badge it wore.

But still, I'm sure you will do this model car a great justice, looks forward to seeing some more..

Lookin fantastic! Keep up the great work!

Frank X.

Haha, this car's an old fave of mine--glad to see someone building it (cuz i don't have the time)...and such a sweet build at that! Yeah, the proportions are a caricature of late 80's supercars, but i actually really like the design.

i like the overall basic shape of the car, though i think it could use a few more lines and be made as a coupe.

WOW Looking sexy...

Hey MPWR, as always, I m very keen on following your builds, lotsa interesting techniques in there for me to suck up like a sponge.
Great historic review too, love to read that stuff too, and superb progress.

IIRC, the mythos built for a collector is for the Sultan of Brunei.


Oli

You certainly like to have a few kits on the go at the same time!

Thanks, guys!

tturbozx66- I got the enameled copper wire at an electronics supply store (Radio Shack). It came with two other spools of different diameter wire. These three sizes cover everything from ignition wire to damper spring coils to fire supression system plumbing for me. The ink I got in an artist supply store.

The F40 is still coming along, maybe half done. I'm going to build them both in parallel.

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/2048/11212663qc.jpg

tturbozx66, KTem, mickbench- Yeah, I was never too sure about the aesthetics of this one- I've always thought it looked a bit too much like a Lamborghini to be a Ferrari. I never liked it in Rosso Corsa- but as this was the only color it was made in, I'm going to take some liberty with this build. :rolleyes:

g00eY- Real car, at least as real as any concept car is. Not a production car.

bigfrit- Yeah, the Sultan of Brunei was my recollection, too, except I think it may have been his brother. A major Ferrari freak, apperently (at least I still seem to be able to satisfy myself with small plastic replicas, for the time being.... :sly: ).

Looks like we see another masterpiece in the making. I´m curious about your experience with bare metal foil. Is it self adhesive, so you can put into place and then basically cut around it, let´s say... like masking tape??

bump! :):):):)

great start! now where's the rest? ;)

Oh, all right. I've been pretty busy lately working to finish up my commercial license- but hopefully I will get some free time this weekend, and can post some more pics....

great progress!

Nice start, i will be keeping both eyes on this one, the whethering looks great!!

Simply superb, you are now one of my favourite Ferrari builders. Most of you know the other one. Excellent work.

Simply superb, you are now one of my favourite Ferrari builders. Most of you know the other one. Excellent work.

Enzo?

j/k alex :lol2:

Another great start. Keep the updates coming.

Nice start! I'm looking forward to updates on this one!

Looking good :bigthumb:

Nice start!!

Painted! (Finally...)

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/6140/11313918er.jpg

CobraColors Ferrari Nero Daytona Metallico. Pretty spectacular looking stuff. Actually it was painted a couple of months ago, and I've been slowly polishing it out since. The weather at this latitude has turned cold and nasty, so no more body painting until March or so. Time to get back to the engine and interior.

I braved the cold nasty weather for a few outdoor shots. Enjoy!

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/1053/11414494ma.jpg

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/9097/11414515sh.jpg

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/2979/11414477ge.jpg

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/4863/11414530nk.jpg

Now, where did I put that engine....

Nice Paint!!!

Smooth work on the finish. A little elbow grease goes a long way with a polishing kit.

You don't like your Ferraris red do you? Paint looks awesome, and the color is nice.

Smooth work on the finish. A little elbow grease goes a long way with a polishing kit.

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 :screwy: ) 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)

Wow! You weren't kidding when you said that Nero was spectacular. Very beautiful paintjob, MPWR, wonderful work!

Wow! Nice...
And another color I want from Leon!

awesome work, just beautiful. thanks for all the links and tutorials also. i never had success with washes before and thats why i rarely apply them but im gonna try it your way. i love the idea of scraping the paint off the BMF, never woulda thought of that in a million years. cant wait to see the next update.
cheers.

Wow looking good...

Man, I'm gona need some cobra colors!:)

That looks so good!
Great colour, great polishing job :bigthumb:
I do hope you find that engine somewhere, though ;)

Christmas kind of came early for me this year- or more accurately, my birthday was Monday. My wife gave into my endless cajoling, and got for me the rotary table I've been wanting for years. Thanks love!

http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/9981/11414632sx.jpg

I also finally managed to finish my commercial helicopter license last week :bigthumb: :ylsuper: http://forums.infoprosjoint.net/images/smilies/helicopter.gif
-and now I have a bit more time to build. So, I've been amusing myself by machining tiny little odds and ends for the Mythos.

Oil filter and oil/fuel filler caps.

http://img282.imageshack.us/img282/5271/11414591co.jpg

I've also been working on the brakes.

Here's the kit part:



Certainly not bad, but room for improvement.

http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/4733/11414561rv.jpg

I turned replacements out of aluminum, and did the lug nut holes and recesses on the rotary table.

http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/9229/11414576qc.jpg

The back will fit a poly cap, just like the kit part.

http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/5799/11414585oo.jpg

I cut a slot 0.020" wide in the edge of the disk. Bits of 0.020" x 0.020" styrene strip fit in rather nicely. They're glued in place for ventilation vanes, and trimmed and sanded to length.

Now all I need is some calipers....

The kit calipers are decent looking- if rather attatched to the kit rotors.

http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/8868/11414607mc.jpg

Nothing a bit of sawing, drilling, and filing can't fix. The inside of the caliper was also hollowed out so it would fit onto the turned rotor.

http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/1184/castcalipers6mn.jpg

I then made an RTV mold, and cast some copies.

And here they are painted up-

http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/5378/11414629qp.jpg

I used Tamiya clear smoke to darken the rotors some, to look more like steel and less like aluminum.

http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/4938/11414615mv.jpg

I did manage to find the engine....:rolleyes:

http://img431.imageshack.us/img431/640/11414645yw.jpg

Now I just wish the wheels on the Mythos were a bit more open, to show them off!

Wow!! Great job on thoe machined brakes!

great machined brakes!

nice brakes :eek: .

Hi,

S U P E R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just "some" room for improvement? You never cease to amaze me.

Awesome machining!! :sunglasse

Beautiful work!!!! :bigthumb:

1. Bloody Awsome!!!
2. I just threw my oil filter away out of embarasment
3. Your rotors sem to have a textured efect after painting. What paint did you use to achieve that? It doesn't look like just Smoke (or is it?)
4. Bloody awsome!!
5. Glad you found the engine - I forgot how great it looks!

Now I just wish the wheels on the Mythos were a bit more open, to show them off!

Do a "flat tire" diorama with the Mythos up on a jack so you can see the brakes :evillol:

Amazed, stunned, ashamed of not having the courage to detail builds that much... I´m confused and envy your work...

Please allow me to just hate you a little... just a little... :evillol:

The work on the brakes is marvelous. Hammerhart!

Thanks for all the comments, everyone!

Had more time to build over the holidays, so time for another update. Hope you all don't mind a bunch of pics....

I've been working on the exhaust train. The kit includes four separate manifolds, each for three cylanders. But injection molding geometry being what it is, from underneith they look rather alot like lumps of plastic. Even after cleaning up the mold lines and push pins, I wasn't very happy with them. So, off to the electronics store to find a suitably sized roll of solder. My trusty dial calipers indicated that the pipes should be 0.062" in diameter- happily, 1/16" solder was easy to find. :p

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/8172/soldermanflds6gl.jpg

The bending is of course mostly trial and error. I cut the correlators off of the kit parts and stuck them on to the new ones. So far, a relatively simple plug and play operation.

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/3923/11414732vz.jpg

I added heat shrink tubing (also from the electronics store) around the lower ends, to better simulate the correlators. Then, after looking at pics of Testarossa exhausts, I decided I really wasn't happy with the connecting flanges. The kit part seems to suggest a three bolt pattern (triangular), but every pic I've found of Testarossa exhausts show a two bolt pattern (diamond shaped). Time to come up with a replacement.

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/1111/11414722tu.jpg

I love having a machine shop. These all started as 1/4" aluminum rod. I used the rotary table to cut the diamond shape, and the lathe to center drill them and cut the gaps.

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/7730/11414916ld.jpg

Better now.

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/2608/11414922af.jpg

A nice improvement, I think. Ready to be painted.

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/7773/11515027rf.jpg

I painted them by my usual method- a base of Tamiya Metallic Grey, followed by an overspray mixed up of various Tamiya clear colors. I mixed a light orangy brown for the lower sections, and a bluer color for the hotter upper sections.

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/3953/11515033ys.jpg

Then, I added bolts into the connecting flanges. Fine brass rod inserted into the small holes, capped with a piece of 0.030" styrene hex rod. Should look great with a wash on it.

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/165/11515041xl.jpg

Ready for installation!

While I was doing final detailing on the engine before mounting the exhausts and the frame, I noticed that Tamiya only put bolts halfway around the oil pan (the horror! :shakehead ).

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2551/11212879jw.jpg

Guess I missed them when I was washing the engine. Leaving it until now is really a bit late to correct it (and it is dangerously close to rivet-counting :disappoin ), but once I found it, it was just going to continue to bother me. Better now than when it's mounted in the body, I guess....

http://img445.imageshack.us/img445/9546/11515083ft.jpg

I drilled out pilot holes where the new bolts should go.

http://img445.imageshack.us/img445/5795/11515109bq.jpg

Then I added more bits of styrene hex rod, and trimmed them to size.

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/9031/11515121hh.jpg

Done. Now hopefully the oil pan won't leak. Where was I? Oh yeah- pipes.

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/5328/11515146kj.jpg

I used the frame and resonaters as a jig to hold the new manifolds in place while I glued them. CA glue was inserted on a toothpick point onto the tops of the solder bits.

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/7025/11515155cf.jpg

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/8452/11515160bw.jpg

Now, time to smeer the tops of the cylander heads with gasket sealer, and mount the valve covers for real.

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/8987/11515173pt.jpg

The drive shafts were painted up, and strips of BMF were used for CV boot retainer clamps. Yes, one leg is shorter than the other....

http://img445.imageshack.us/img445/9473/11515111fv.jpg

Finally, the engine goes into the frame.

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/5237/11515181fq.jpg

The drive shafts were somewhat tricky to place (because I previously mounted the uprights, before painting the frame), but went in after some convincing.

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/3350/11515204bt.jpg

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/8779/11515194jy.jpg

Next, onto the accessory drive, and the intake system. Thanks for looking!

Just sensational work! I love the exhausts!
How much do I want a milling machine now!!!!!

Nice work dude, Lovin it.

"Now I just wish the wheels on the Mythos were a bit more open, to show them off!"

Sounds like a great way to make use of that new rotary table!!! - Perhaps some custom designed wheels??! I love reading the threads where people show the stuff they've machined! Makes me want to go out and buy a lathe or mill!!

Sad to admit that I haven't read this thread until today because I'm not particulary a big fan of the mythos itself. But you're doing a beautiful job on this car. Very nice work!

That paint is amazing. Sort looks like black-chrome! Really catchy.

Murray

You my friend have an imense amount of talent building models!!!!

This is coming along very well!!:sunglasse

man that looks great!

Son of a gun! :eek2:

Don't know how you do it MPWR. Everytime I think you can't possibly find yet another way to surprise us - then you go and do just that and what's more you do it in spades!! :) :worshippy

You just drive me nuts :evillol: The only thing I can do with your level of perfection is lose parts of my kits :rolleyes:

Really fantastic stuff!

Holy crap, that engine looks so good! Have you done anything on your F40 lately?

Amazing!

Thanks everyone!

"Now I just wish the wheels on the Mythos were a bit more open, to show them off!"

Sounds like a great way to make use of that new rotary table!!! - Perhaps some custom designed wheels??! I love reading the threads where people show the stuff they've machined! Makes me want to go out and buy a lathe or mill!!

Sad to admit that I haven't read this thread until today because I'm not particulary a big fan of the mythos itself. But you're doing a beautiful job on this car. Very nice work!

That paint is amazing. Sort looks like black-chrome! Really catchy.

Murray

Yeah, I've thought of machining wheels, or even swapping them for 360 wheels- but the low profile, big brake, open wheel look didn't catch on until several years after the Mythos (notice the 'little' non-drilled rotors). The Mythos's styling looks kind of dated to me, and I'm not sure open wheels work well. (But I do have a project picked out to machine some wheels for!) Still considering, but I may stay with the kit wheels, done in chrome and gunmetal to go with the bodywork. Fortunately, the wheels can easily be taken off!

I've never been entirely enamoured with the looks of the Mythos- but it does make a fun build.


Just sensational work! I love the exhausts!
How much do I want a milling machine now!!!!!


Yeah, I think I still regard machine tools as the ultimate unnecissary extravagance for car modeling- but I love having them!


Holy crap, that engine looks so good! Have you done anything on your F40 lately?

The F40 has seen a little work, too. I'm trying to get the engines completed about the same time- figure they'll look cool together. I'll try to update it also in the next week or so.


Don't know how you do it MPWR. Everytime I think you can't possibly find yet another way to surprise us - then you go and do just that and what's more you do it in spades!! :) :worshippy

You just drive me nuts :evillol:

Now let's see- what shall I do for the intakes....

Stay tuned!

very beautiful! where have i been when this was in progress?

very beautiful! where have i been when this was in progress?

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

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

Well, I'll surely follow your threads from here on. I think they're great and very informative.

Keep those details in and please, If you have your own site and tutorials please let us know. Im sure there will be a lot to learn... especially the milling part. You make things look easy... and thats a compliment! :grinyes:

Can't wait to see it finished!! Great build!