A Pair of Ferraris 50 years apart (458 Italia and 250SWB)

[mattbacon]

I decided it might be a fun "compare and contrast" to build two of the Ferraris that have been in the stash for longer than they should have been: the Revell 458 Italia, and the Gunze Sangyo 250SWB Berlinetta. The 458 Italia is going to be in a yellow-ish colour scheme; the 250SWB, hopefully, in the dark blue Rob Walker racing colours driven by Stirling Moss. However, I might cheat and NOT try to switch the car from LH to RH drive, because unlike the GTO, the subtly curved dash of the 250 SWB will be pretty hard to flip!


Here's the starting line! The 250SWB doesn't look TOO small by comparison...

There is one thing I've been dreading with the 250SWB, which is one of the reasons why it has lingered in the stash for as long it has. The distinctive "egg-crate" grille is built up out of 17 individual interlocking pieces of photo-etch. It's a bit of a "make or break" element for this build, and since it's a standalone assembly, I thought I'd get it out of the way first, to face my demons and remove the scary influence it was having on me...


I read a few online reviews and builds (few and far between, I must say) and one thing I took away was that the instructions are unhelpful and the slats don't fit in the sequence suggested. To hold the parts as I assembled them, I stuck some Tamiya masking tape tacky side up onto a piece of perspex with double sided tape. Then, I drew around the interior of the grille frame (a chromed part) so I could see the "square hole" that the "round peg" was going to have to fit into. I placed the central verticals either side of the centreline. BE WARNED: the places where you bend the slats at 90 degrees are marked at one end with a slot, and at the other with two holes. The "two-hole" ends MUST go at the BOTTOM of the grille. The folded ends also all fold toward the centreline.

It's pretty clear looking at the shape, where the LONGEST slats need to fit. The fold-up ends on the slightly shorter one needed to be adjusted slightly so it fitted below the longer one.



The etch-mate/hold n fold (I can't remember which one it is) doesn't come out very often these days, but when it does, it's invaluable. It'd be VERY hard to do all these 90 degree bends in pretty hard etch with out something like it. I'm glad I remembered I'd got one!



The shortest slat is clearly at the bottom. Then it's a matter of trial and error with the other three to get as close as you can to the outline of the hole. I know already it's not going to fit first time, but, since I was stripping the chrome anyway, I'd rather slightly reshape the interior of the grille frame until it fits than mess around trying to trim and re-bend the metal parts.



When all the horizontals were in place, I applied medium viscosity superglue to the joins with a pin, and once it had set, VERY carefully, lifting by the verticals (which are UNDER the horizontals at every join), I eased the whole thing up and flipped it over back onto the tape. Then I applied the rest of the verticals, a pair at a time, working outwards, and gluing each one as it was put in place. DON'T FORGET: the two hole bends go at the bottom and the bent tabs go toward the centre. (I'm saying it twice 'cos it's a pain in the **** if you get it wrong. If you look carefully at the photos above, you can see that I started with the centre verticals the wrong way up. Thank goodness for debonder). I did it by bending the first of each pair and putting it in the place where it fitted (the first one you bend will always go on one side or the other), and then working out carefully which way the second one would have to bend to go in the remaining slot...

Finally, I eased the whole assemble gently off the tape with my flat Stanley-knife blade from the bending kit, and that horrible job is mostly done (I won't count it finished until I have adapted the frame and got the grille to sit nicely inside it...)

Apologies for the length of this post, but I couldn't find any assembly sequence for this beastie online, so I hope it will help others. Thanks to the various people who offered advice before I started -- even if I didn't take it all on board, it was all helpful to get me thinking about how best to do it!

bestest,
M.

[BVC500]

Awesome work on the grill, and you're so right that its very distinctive and the kit doesn't do it justice! I suspect that detail sets for this kit will come out when the Revell reissue is released. I'm holding off on my build until then.

**edit: i just realized this is the Gunze Sangyo, not Revell, kit you're building.

[Veyron]

Great work so far....and what a contrast between the two cars.

Unfortunately there will be no reissue of the 250 SWB etc. from Revell, those Italeri plans were recently killed.

[BVC500]

Originally Posted by Veyron

Unfortunately there will be no reissue of the 250 SWB etc. from Revell, those Italeri plans were recently killed.

Why??

[RonCla]

That grille certainly looked like it was a challenge but you nailed it successfully.

I've got a Hold & Fold for working with P/E to and wouldn't be without it. It makes working with P/E so much easier

[countach79]

subscibed!

[mattbacon]

I think I may be going to have some issues with clear parts:



These 250 SWB windows have clearly been rattling about in the bag through several owners and international journeys! I have Micromesh and Novus polish, though, so I'm sure they are fixable!



This, however, is going to be more of a challenge. I've spoken to a nice lady in Revell Germany's UK office, and she's taken my details and promised that a replacement clear tree will be with me in 4-6 weeks. Fortunately, on this kit, the 458 windscreen drops in from outside, late in the build, so it shouldn't stop me doing anything except attaching the windscreen wipers...

Still, both things I could do without!

bestest,
M.

[mattbacon]

This makes me feel a whole lot more comfortable with this build!



Grille frame painted with Humbrol Acrylic spray Metalcote Polished Aluminium over Tamiya Fine Surface Primer. There's a little more tidying up to do, but I'm happy that the part that I was most worried about is now there or thereabouts. I'm sure there's lots of other things to mess up, but I'm reasonably confident that the grille won't derail the rest of the build now!

bestest,
M.

[corvettekid_7684]

Incredible! Grill is fantastic!

[mattbacon]

Windows cleaned up nicely:



Light sanding with my finest grade sanding sponge, and then Novus polish, working through all three grades.




Body sprayed with Tamiya Dark Blue. It's hard to see the colour clearly, but it IS blue, honest. I'll be leaving that to cure in the airing cupboard until next weekend before polishing it. You can probably just about see that I opened up the bonnet scoop - I can't find many pictures of 250SWBs with the mesh screen that Gunze provides, and lots, including the Rob Walker car, which just have an open intake.



This is the dash in progress. It too is dark blue, with black leather on the top. The etched instruments are beautifully done - sprayed black and then lightly sanded to take the paint off the raised detail, and they look superb. Unfortunately, they are ever so slightly too big! Hence the blu-tak supporting them in their bezels. I'll use white glue to fix them and then Klear to add the "glass". One of the little swine has pinged into the distance, as well, which means I'll have to make one...

And finally...


I _have_ been working on the 458 as well. This has had the mould seam removed (and a broken A-pillar remedied, which I now notice you CAN see in that first photo in the thread, though I missed it at the time! It hadn't cracked quite right through, but it clearly been crushed at the top. This box must be over-filled, with both this and the windscreen damaged...) This is in white primer. I'd hoped to get the yellow on this weekend, but ran out of time.

bestest,
M.

[jano11]

Great job on the grille and on the windshield save!
Looks like a great WIP to watch.

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Originally Posted by BVC500

Why??

Dunno; I was told by Ed Sexton a while back that it just didn't work out. Most likely on the Italeri end and licensing. Who knows, maybe you'll see it done by Academy for the Korean market w/o any Ferrari name, much like the California. They're pretty reasonably priced, shipped to the US, via Ebay sellers in Korea.

[ale-o]

Looks very good so far revell threads their customers very well and you should get a windshield for free without problem but like you said, it takes some time

[CrateCruncher]

Nice work on the dash and gauges. I hope your windshield fits to the body better than mine. I had to heat mine to get the twist out of it.

[mattbacon]

I've done a test fit on the 250SWB glass, and I think it's fine... but thanks for the warning!

It's been a long time.... I've been travelling, but with a long weekend and half-term break in prospect, I can actually get back to the bench occasionally...



Unfortunately, I've just discovered that my Zero 2K hardener has, well, hardened, so this bodyshell is going no further until urgent supplies arrive from Hiroboy!

Time to crack on with the interior, I reckon...

bestest,
M.