Topless Trio: 365GTS/4 Daytona

[klutz_100]

This thread is part of a joint venture with Gionc and MPWR (no, we are not trading in cannabis!) so please check out their “topless” threads too!

My first impression of this Fujimi Enthusiast kit when I opened the box was WOW!!!
It’s a very detailed kit with about 6 million pieces. My favorite tree in the box is the one with about 20 1/24 scale tools including screw drivers, wheel jack and oil filter wrench – those are going to be hell to paint!

You can click on the thumbnail to see a high res image of the box contents:


Closer inspection has shown that there are a few fit issues that will need sorting and a few parts that will need to be re-shaped. None the less, this is still one heck of a kit and the guy who made the master put in a lot of effort IMHO.

While doing some web research for this car (big thanks to Ales for some great images ) I was surprised that I couldn’t find a Enthusiast build thread anywhere on the web so I’m having to go with this (my 6th model) pretty much solo

I have no fixed idea yet about the colour other than it won’t be red. I will probably go for something in the blues- maybe dark blue?

In our common “Topless Trio” thread we agreed to start with the engines.
This is about the only place where I will have any kind of a head start on Gionc and MPWR as I have 12 cylinders to their 8

The 365 engine is made up of over 36 parts and they seem to be very well modeled after the original.







For the rocker cover scripts I decided to try the BMF “paint ‘n scrape” technique.

First I applied a small strip of BMF over the lettering and put it into place with a dulled toothpick.



Then this was sprayed with a mix of Tamiya flat black and dark grey with a lot of thinner to give it a rough finish.



The paint was then gently scraped off of the BMF with a toothpick.





Everything was painted first with various Alclad2 metalizers.
The carburetors were painted with A2 Pale Gold – this is not accurate but I wanted some colour variation in the engine block.



About the only thing in the engine that I could find that I didn’t like were the distributors – specifically the caps which are not shaped at all like the originals.
You can see here the difference between the two “F”s (Ferrari and Fujimi):



If I left it like that, the wiring would look like a fountain from Versailles so I tried to create a more correct distributor cap.
I was inspired a lot in this by our friend, “Spruemaster” quadzero who has proved that you can make anything out of sprue!

I used 2,4mm sprue for the base and 3 pieces of 0,8mm glued together for the upper connectors.



The upper connectors were then glued, trimmed and sanded to shape



and then painted with a mix of X-18 and XF Dark Grey



Because I have a couple of 365 GTB/4s and 275s in my stash, si I made an RTV mold and cast some resin copies for future use.
Thanks hirofkd for the idea



Another thing I wanted to try out for the first time was adding fuel rails(?)
This was actually pretty easy to do.

For the pipes I used 0,5mm steel rod and the hose was made out of wire insulation.
To fix the rails to the carb housing I used hex rod which I drilled to allow the rod to pass through.



Fun from doing this - 100%; Results not too bad -90%; Visibility of scratcbuilt part after assembly – 15%!!



Time to wire the plus and distributors. I’ve only done this twice before and both times it looked a bit mediocre – this time I’ve 14 of the buggers to do and have to keep it all pretty much symmetrical !!

I cut off Fujimi’s distributor caps and fixed on mine and then working in pairs I started adding each HT lead making sure I had 2 identical cables before fixing in place with CA glue (first into cylinder head and then into distributor)



I test fitted after each cable to make sure it all fits



and so on and os on. I think it worked just fine though.





Next to do alternators, pulleys, starters etc.

Thanks for looking in and please check out MPWR’s 360 and Gionc’s 348ts

[freakmech]

You guys stole my post name!!! Bastards!!! oh well, see you MPWR at NNL anyhow, bitches........ thiefs.... Topless....... i hate you i love you...(Dead Milkmen song)

[AmazonSprite]

Wow! Looks like an amazing kit, and with the way you're building it, will be a fantastic model when finished. Makes me want to build my Fujimi Enthusiast Porsche 356 Speedster as my next project!

[sjelic]

You got to love that kit, I mean I love each and every model from enthusiast series (in 24 of course )
Well done for improving perfection

[joelwideqvist]

Wow, great work. Inspiring.
Thanks
Joel

[gionc]

Congrats Steve: great job! I love distributors and that beauty of fuel line
and super job with BMF!!!

[auw12]

oh just incredible,awesome details!i just ordered my daytona gtb from hlj,really nice the FUJIMI enthusiast kits!

[sportracer02]

Great job so far, this will turn out great !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[willimo]

Gorgeous. Engine detail is magnificent so far.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

That looks sweet as hell. The engine has great detail and the wiring looks absolutely amazing.

[MPWR]

Beautifully done as ever, Stevenski. I wish I could have built like that on my sixth model.

This will be another kit I'll need to aquire sooner or later.

Clever that idea with the BMF!

[mike@af]

Superb scratch work on those distributors, I hade to do a double take as I was unsure if those were kit parts or rebuilt.

[agamo]

Great Start!!

Go on, and let us see more!!!!

Cheers!! great job!!

[D_LaMz]

nice idea with the BMF!

[eph2]

Wonderfull Work!!