1/24 Ferrari Testarossa [Academy]

[Emilssi]

Hello,
It's been a while since I posted a WIP. My new project was supposed to be a quick (and as much as possible OOB) build... but as always it turned out to be the opposite
Anyway, the kit is an old Italeri kit reboxed by Academy. Much to my surprise, the kit seems to be better than the Tamiya one (in some areas). The major letdown though are the tyres, which are absolutelly awfull Fortunately I was lucky enough to get a semi-finnished Tamiya kit from my mate's spare box, which is great especially that the Tami tyres fit well the italeri rims. Another problem was that, perhaps due to licencing issues, the kit is missing all ferrari badges and logos. It's pretty convenient when it comes to the Ferrari logo at the rear as it would be replaced by metal transfer anyway but in the engine bay it is a major problem as it just looks ridiculous. So... I decided to combine Tamiya and Academy/Italeri kits and this is how it became a hybrid

Here are some pictures of what I've done so far.
I cut headrests from Academy seats, as they are incorect and replaced them with tami.



I started detailng engine block with some rivets and plug wire


Camcovers were replaced with Tamiya parts as well


I removed this nasty chrome from Academy parts and compared them to tamiya. They seemed to be about a scale inch smaller than Tamiya so I took some basic measurements... and it turned out that Tami are too big
Moreover, Academy ones come with a chrome center hub as a separate piece, which saves me anoying and rather tricky masking operation.


Body was painted with Finishers pure red and sanded


I haven't managed to polish the whole thing yet, but I'll post some pictures of what I've done so far






Polishing should be finished tomorrow so I'll hopefully post some more photos then.

Your C&C are more than welcome

Cheers
Emil

[endac]

Looks great so far, nice work on the engine and great shine off the paint

[702VegasLife]

Looks good so far, like the polish!

[Emilssi]

At last, after four days and countless hours of polishing it's finished!!!!!






All black bits on the body should be painted this weekend. In the meantime I shall move on to detailing the engine bay

[Drift F.C]

The shine on the paint is amazing, this will look really good with the black parts painted!

[360spider]

Shiny!

[Emilssi]

Thanks for your replies guys
Here's what i've done today:
I've made fuel lines from 0.3mm wire. Obviously it proverd to be much more tricky than expected and most of it is hardly visible when the engine is in the car, but it still makes for a nice detail. I also added a braided hose from Ka models, but it seems a bit too shiny so I might wanna tone it down a bit later. Although I'm not sure if it's a good idea to clear cote flexible parts due to risk of cracking - anyone has any experience in this field perhaps?.




Until the next update

Cheers

[Emilssi]

Saturday night... Time for an update then
I've got some major disasters (of course ) to report but also some minor successes. Well, last night after taking the mask off after painting black trim around side windows I spotted a paint chip Easy to fix I thought and this morning I masked it and spray some red. Unfortunatelly I forgot to take masking tape before I put it to the dehydrator... It ruined the paintjob so badly that I thought it was beyond repair but I didn't give up and started polishing (AGAIN!!!!!!!!). It's not perfect but acceptable I guess. Also I hadn't been planing on using Ferrari badges on the sides but I was forced at the end to hide some of the marks of the mess-up. It looks OK now as I got used to it

On the positive side masking on the engine cover turned out PERFECT!!!!! By far my best masking job ever

Also, while I completely destroyed Italeri's real grill while attempting to open it (the black plastic in the kit seems to be soft and weird, feels like it's melting in your hands) I cut the tamiya one from its one piece body and I was shocked to see that not only does it look awesome but also fits like a glove (on the pic it's only dryfitted though)


I almost finished from bumper. The only thing left to be add is a litle metal transfer to make this rather ugly front grill (and tami one didn't fit) a bit more interesting

And it's starting to look like a Testarossa

We're getting there, slowly but surely

[countach79]

wow!! really good job so far!!

engine detail is superb

paint is perfect!

[blackf40]

Wow, some very clean work here. In what ways are this kit better than the Tamiya one?

[Emilssi]

Thanks for the replies guys

Originally Posted by blackf40

Wow, some very clean work here. In what ways are this kit better than the Tamiya one?

The main are where Italeri wins are the wheels: they are correct size and have a center hub as separate element, which makes it 1000 times easier to paint. The seats look slightly better to me (but not the headrests!!!). Also under the air intake in engine compartment there is supposed to be large plate, which is missing in Tamiya kit. I also feel that Italeri's body looks a bit nicer, especially panel lines. But again, Tami is better in many areas, especially tyres, which are beautifull. Italeri's tyres are absolutely useless. So I guess it's best to make one model from two kits

[Martin S]

I know the frustration when you mess up a perfect paintjob with masking tape...
Takes some extra motivation to go back and touch up and repolish it. Good job. To me it looks perfect now in the pictures.

[Emilssi]

Thanks Martin,
Thankfuly I managed to save it pretty well this time. Remainings of a mishap are only visible on the bonnet, but only if one looks very closely, so it's not a big deal. The worst thing is I'll probably always spot it every time I look at the model

[Emilssi]

OK, another important step completed - engine wiring and plumbing



And importantly, she is officially a Testarossa


Collectors are mixture of Italeri and Tami, while gold fittings on the sides are borrowed from Italeri and other fittings are scratch-built

My plan is to have it finished by the end of the week, which would be great but I'm not gonna rush it.

Your C&C are more than welcome

Emil

[youngkia1]

What polish did you use? I like it. Good job so far dude, hope you will post more photos of this one