1961 Ferrari Sharknose - 1/20 Double Build: Superdetailed Chassis & Complete car

[Plastheniker]

Hi,

One of the few iconic (if not the iconic) post-war F1 cars was the 1961 Ferrari Tipo 156.
What made it so unforgettable?

• It was the first F1 mid-engine Ferrari ever (except the unsuccesful experimental 246 mot. post. that appeared only once at Monaco in 1960) .
• A unique nose cone with two openings led to the nickname "Sharknose". Many enthusiasts think the 156 was the most beautiful racing car ever.
• Its dramatic history: Ferrari's rising star Graf Berghe von Trips needed only one point in the last two 1961 races to become Germany's first post-war F1 champion. He died, however, during the first of these two races after a collision with Jim Clark. His friend and stable mate Phil Hill won this race at Monza and became America's first F1 champion.
• Almost the complete team of engineers involved in the development of the 156 left Ferrari at the end of 1961. Enzo Ferrari was so angry that he finally scrapped all 156s (All vehicles shown today are replicas!). It is said that Mrs. Ferrari became so infuriated that she even slapped one of these renegades.

As usual the basis of my models were two 1/20 Casadio-Revival metal kits. You can find general information about Casadio-Revival kits here: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul....php?t=1140971

Besides the 1939 Mercedes W154 M163 (pictures will follow later) the 156 kits were the crudest of all my Casadio kits. Built OOB they would have looked unacceptable. Again correcting, completing and detailing was like falling into quicksand. This pair required probably most time of all, i.e. approximately 1300 hours.

Before I built my models in 2003/2004 I found amazingly few printed reference pictures of the chassis, but then with access to the web Google really turned out to be modeler's best friend.

BTW MFH made a perfect kit of the 156. To my knowledge, however, it is OOP for years, and it cost almost thrice as much.

[da_ashman]

Amazing!!! nice work!

[Emilssi]

Wow! Absolutely fantastic and simply ausgezeichnet!

[Beakster]

Fantastic work and great pictures!

[Kjenjak]

Fantastic work, both cars look amazing! Nice way to show both the form of the complete car and all the detail that is hidden under the covers.

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Fantastic models!

[michel1973]

very, very, very nice!!!

[CifeNet]

The model is beautiful and the pictures are also wonderful! Excellent job!

[Greg23]

Great job!

[jmtomservo]

Hi Jürgen,

Awesome build of a beautiful car! Great idea to build 2 kits (but a lot of work, I'm sure) to show off the body and the frame.

BTW MFH made a perfect kit of the 156. To my knowledge, however, it is OOP for years, and it cost almost thrice as much.

I just started to build the MFH version and you can follow my WIP thread at http://www.f1m.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23542

Don't worry, the MFH kit is far from perfect. I can see many things on your Revival kits that are much more accurate than the MFH parts. As you mentioned, reference photos are very hard to find for the sharknose, so it's always good to find other builders who may be able to help figure out details.

Cheers!

[Plastheniker]

With some delay thanks for all comments!

My next pair (1957 Maserati 250F) will follow as soon as possible.

Thanks again!

[jano11]

Great build! Looks impressive.

[gtziaf]

Excellent!

[baracca]

Fantastic!!

[Vric]

You did an awesome job with the kit!