60 Red Years: Ferrari 288 GTO

[Thegs]

Introduction

For this little 60 Red Years Project, I'm going to build the Revell kit in scale 1:24. As an extra detailbooster I'm adding Studio27 PhotoEtch-set. First a little introduction on the 288 GTO.
The Ferrari 288 GTO was developed to compete in the new Group B rallyseries. To compete in this rallyseries Ferrari designed the GTO, a low supersportscar, with a biturbo V8! This biturbo engine developed 400hp at the stagering 7000rpm. To compete in this series, the car must be homologated, which again explaines the name GTO (Gran Turismo Omologata, the numbers 288 explain the engine volume and the number of cilindres, which means a 2.8 liter with 8 cilinders).
To get a homologation for this car Ferrari had to build 200 GTO´s, but they produced 272. Unfortunatly they never priduced the rally version, it wouldn´t have helped them because the Group B was stopped a year after the introdcution of the GTO. Lucky we got ourselfs a very beautifull Ferrari with super performance!

Preview

Well, after my little introduction on this 288 GTO, I´m giving a preview of the box, contents and other stuff I´m using. For this build I´m using Revell scale 1:24 kit which looks quite promising. Well, not really Revell who produces this nice looking kit, it was Italeri who produced it originaly and Revell reproduces it. (source: Alex Kustov, Italianhorses.net).
This box contains some rather good looking sprue's, and dispite the low number of parts (90 parts to be precise) it all looks nicely detailed.
The first and most important, a sharp looking body with all opened vents (like it should). An optional opening bonnet, but the hinges are missing.
There are two big sprue's in black and grey which contain all engine and interior parts. The sprue's look quite nice, not to much flash and moldlines, but still detailed. There a some more sinkmarks, but they are not to hard to remove or fill.
To sum it up, ther is a not so good chrome sprue and some clearparts. As always, Revells clearparts are very thick, but I will figure it out.
To detail it up more I will use Studio27 PhotoEtch-set and man that is hot. Wonderfull grilles, nicely detailes buttons and plates for the interior and very shapr logo's. I also planned using Crazy Modelers Metal Transfers here and there and a beautifull E-jan emblem in front.
This 288 GTO will be painted in Ferrari Rossa Corsa, made bij Zero Custom Paints.







Ideas

There will be one clear goal in this build: Full Detail! I will use some of the following points and more will come during the build:
* Using Studio27 PhotoEtch-set, I can use all of you're help because it is my first PhotoEtch-set.
* Using several carbonfibre and kevlar composite decals where nessacery, I have plenty of reference available.
* A fully openable body, at the moment only the bonnet opens (but it isn;t hinged), but I have my saw by hand.
* Nice and detailed engine, scratchbuild some parts and use some lines and hoses.
* Nice and detailed interior, using flocking and seatbelt sets.
* Make the suspension and wheels detailed, it needs some modification I think, but I will figure that out by the way I build.
* More I want to use some special paints like Zero Custom Paints: Rossa Corsa and several Alclad II lackers.

For now, that was what I have to say and introduce tho this build. Please excuse me for my english (I'm am a Dutchie) and please leave comments and tips during this build!

Gerwin

[auw12]

Well, this is a textbook of the great WIP thread. I'll just take a seat and learn!

[godfather23]

I think that the biggest challenge you will be facing is the wheels and rims. They look awefully uncorrect to me. And what I have seen from other Italeri/Revell-builds the yjust look wrong in comparison to the delicate body of the 288 GTO. You might want to try to get your hands on wheels from the Fujimi-kit or even try F40-wheels. Besides that I sure will watch your detailing of this lovely Ferrari. Good luck with all of your modifications.

Robert

[tonioseven]

Dang, I found this kit at a thrift store about 7 years ago for $2 and later got rid of it! Oh well, now I get to see it built the way it should be done!!

[MPWR]

Yay, one of my all time favorite autos. Good color choice, too. Generally I feel that red is very overused on Ferraris- but there are certain models that just shouldn't be anything else, and the 288 is one of them.

As for group B specification, I've been under the impression that FIA introduced groups A, B, C, and N for both the rally and for road touring championships. Porsche developed the 959 and Ferrari developed the 288/F40 with the aim to compete them in the road touring championship, and that niether had much interest in rally at the time. Group B never gained much popularity in touring, and then was canceled alltogether about the time that the 288 and 959 would have started racing. I could well be wrong, but I've long been curious if Ferrari did develop the 288 with rally in mind. (Porsche obviously did rally the 959 in Dakar.)

As for the photoetch, my advice is to carefully consider what parts you use. Many of the parts on the S27 set are not an improvement over the kit plastic parts- and you have to decide in each case which is better. On S27 sets I've used, I've found that more than half of what they include is useless crap. It can be fun to play will PE, but often it doesn't improve the model at all, and some things it will definately make worse. Also, fit can be very poor, so be careful.

[klutz_100]

Will happily follow this !

If you use different wheels for this build, can I have yours? I am the pround owner of a GTO kit minus wheels (must learn to read ebay descriptons more thoroughly )

[Martsmodels]

Good luck with it - seems a nice project and should be interesting to see how you get on.

BTW - the wheels are the same as the Italeri F40 ones

don't know whether the Fujimi or Tamiya (F40) are better though.

Cheers

[mikemechanic]

Cool. I have the Fujimi GTO and it looks like Revell's is pretty nice too. I think I have a Fujimi F40 I'll never finish, I'll see if I can find the wheels for it, maybe if they are the same you could use them? (sounds like that would help out Klutzski.

Mike.

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by mikemechanic

(sounds like that would help out Klutzski.

It certainly does

[NissanSkylineGTR98]

I'll definately follow this thread to see how it results.

[CeeElle]

Originally Posted by godfather23

I think that the biggest challenge you will be facing is the wheels and rims. They look awefully uncorrect to me. And what I have seen from other Italeri/Revell-builds the yjust look wrong in comparison to the delicate body of the 288 GTO. You might want to try to get your hands on wheels from the Fujimi-kit or even try F40-wheels. Besides that I sure will watch your detailing of this lovely Ferrari. Good luck with all of your modifications.

Robert

watch the exhaust, too - it doesn't fit; mine got hung up when i assembled the engine to the chassis and the chassis to the body. you're gonna have to tweak it, so test fit everything as you assemble it. as for the wheels, i stripped the chrome off and painted them with rustoleum "stainless steel" color spraypaint, which gave a decent finish.

i love the 288 GTO... i think the 308-era body is just gorgeous, and the 288 is the pinnacle of that design. lean and aggressive without the cartoonish strakes and dimensions of the testarossa, which to me just screams "1980s."

[drunken monkey]

little tip:
don't fix on the exhaust part to the gearbox until you've tested the location of the turbos and intercoolers.
small errors here will make it harder when you fit on the top part of the rear subframe.

[Purpura Delujo]

Looks very similar to my Fujimi Enthusiast 288 GTO, even the trees are molded the same colours. I am also using the S27 PE kit, but haven't got it in the mail yet.
I asked Alex Kustov before I bought my 288 to see which kit was the best to go with, the Fujimi kit has 250 pieces, it's quite a pain now that I've started it but it will look great, just like yours will aswell! I can't wait to see the open doors on this, I was sthinking about doing the same but the body is too brittle. Good luck with it!