Ferrari 360 Spider - Fully Open

[nicecar]

Hey guys!
Long time no see - and no build!

I have finished one model recently but i'm too ashamed of the poor build i did that there are no pics on the web of it!

Anyways, i've been inspired by a fantastic build thread by mrawl (of which im sure you clearly remember) of his fully open 360 modena. I personally love the spider version of the 360, and thought it would be great fun to try and match (i did say try!) the build quality that mrawl got.

So, having arrived today i made short work of unpackaging it and taking pics.

I'll take everything nice and slow and pay insane attention to detail - this time it WONT go wrong for me.

Anywhoo here are some pictures to keep you glued to the thread!

I might paint the rear light panel flat/satin black, i've seen them like that before and they looked great.


I love the glass quality on this kit!

Hmm, very fine flocking for the roof maybe?

The door panels have a glue-on handle (passenger side) unlike in mrawl's build. Tamiya have improved their kit maybe?









It's based on my uncles kit build, i wanted one but can't afford it (yet)

The other model is a Mitsubishi Delica L300 Super Exceed - My dad had one.

[AustinMartin]

Looking forward to this one! Is your uncles 360 a real one? The description is a bit confusing.

[nicecar]

Originally Posted by AustinMartin

Looking forward to this one! Is your uncles 360 a real one? The description is a bit confusing.

Nope, should have cleared that up a bit more:

He built a DNA 3Sixty kit, based off a mk3 MR2. It took him about a year and it looked absolutly fantastic! The only things that gave it away were that at the time there was black GRP where the engine usually goes (under the glass, no fake engine kit was available then) and how the engine cover opens.

The back of a 360 spider normally splits in two, the rear half opening forwards for engine acess and the front half opening backwards for the hood, instead with his car the whole deck opened up backwards.

It was a fantastic car though!

Hope that makes things clear

[mrawl]

This ought to be good, it really is a fabulous kit. Tamiya seem to think so too, having basically doubled the price in the last 2 years. Ok, ok, they did put it in a nice new box... Good luck with it!

[nicecar]

Thanks, i think i've actually just sat here for a few hours going "wooow", it's the best quality kit ive ever bought by far!

And it was worth the £30 (including shipping) i paid for it!!

[AustinMartin]

Originally Posted by nicecar

Nope, should have cleared that up a bit more:

He built a DNA 3Sixty kit, based off a mk3 MR2. It took him about a year and it looked absolutly fantastic! The only things that gave it away were that at the time there was black GRP where the engine usually goes (under the glass, no fake engine kit was available then) and how the engine cover opens.

The back of a 360 spider normally splits in two, the rear half opening forwards for engine acess and the front half opening backwards for the hood, instead with his car the whole deck opened up backwards.

It was a fantastic car though!

Hope that makes things clear

Really good MR2 kit! I believe Top Gear Live used a similar kit for there shows.

[nicecar]

Originally Posted by AustinMartin

Really good MR2 kit! I believe Top Gear Live used a similar kit for there shows.

You know topgear actually used 3 of them (the very same kit) but with the camry engine (V6) in them, converted by woodsport i believe. One of the producers (or crew, not sure) of topgear bought my uncles kit when he sold it (priced at around £31k)

[MPWR]

Should be fun. It is a terrific kit, I enjoyed building mine. No real problems with it, and the only real frustrating bit is how little of the internals can be seen. When it's assembled, the suspension and engine block are virtually invisible- so there is very little point in adding fuel rails, an oil filter, plug coil wires, damper springs, etc. They completely disappear. Ferrari's trendy little clear engine window lets you see the intake plenums, and if you open the lid you can see the exhaust resonator. Otherwise, it all gets covered. (Wish I had realized this when I was planing mine. )

Out of curiosity, why would you open the doors on a convertible build? It doesn't let you see anything more than leaving the top down. The way Tamiya designed the body, if you cut open the doors there is nothing that rigidly aligns the front of the body with the back- and that is going to give you real trouble when you finally put the body on the chassis. Having built this one, I would definitely advise leaving the doors alone.

[nicecar]

i wanted to add the doors as more of a display feature, and rigidity would be in the sills fabricated, i've had the same issure with a polycarbonate bodyshell. Absolutely 0 rigidity in the body when doors were removed, but i taped a pencil in place where the side skirts go and voila! Pretty much the same rigidity i got from having the doors there.

I'll take into consideration what you have told me, and consider it wisely.

I'll still cut the boot/trunk open though.

Stay tuned folks!

[MPWR]

If you want to learn to open doors, do not do it on this kit. It's too expensive, too complicated, and too cool. Do it on a cheap, simple kit of a hard top car you don't care much about. That way (hopefully) you'll do the work, finish it, and not worry too much about if it is perfect. After you've done two or three like that and you're really confident that you can do it well and finish a build that way, then it's time to do it on a car you really dig. But the 360 Spyder is unnecessarily difficult for this kind of mod- if you start it, you may never finish it. And that would be a shame- it would be a really cool model to have finished in your display case.

Same thing with the boot. The 360 doesn't have anything really cool to see under the boot. It's like opening the glove box- even if it opens, it's not terribly interesting. It's really just a good way of making it harder than it needs to be. I expect you would enjoy this build much more if you do it in a way that you will actually finish it- instead of getting hung up on some difficult trick and having it lying set aside and unfinished for years and years.

Just sayin'.

[AustinMartin]

I agree with MPWR on this one.

[nicecar]

Ok, i guess you have a point, i thought at least opening doors would add to the realism but im pretty sure i don't need them anyway, it's going to be sat among other cars, diecast and plastic. I have a cool circular mirror stand for it though.

Progress later when i get home from college

[Martsmodels]

Some good advice there I would say, but good luck with it and keep us posted.

Regards to sunny(?) Blackpool!

[CrateCruncher]

Originally Posted by MPWR

If you want to learn to open doors, do not do it on this kit. It's too expensive, too complicated, and too cool. Do it on a cheap, simple kit of a hard top car you don't care much about. That way (hopefully) you'll do the work, finish it, and not worry too much about if it is perfect. After you've done two or three like that and you're really confident that you can do it well and finish a build that way, then it's time to do it on a car you really dig. But the 360 Spyder is unnecessarily difficult for this kind of mod- if you start it, you may never finish it. And that would be a shame- it would be a really cool model to have finished in your display case.

Same thing with the boot. The 360 doesn't have anything really cool to see under the boot. It's like opening the glove box- even if it opens, it's not terribly interesting. It's really just a good way of making it harder than it needs to be. I expect you would enjoy this build much more if you do it in a way that you will actually finish it- instead of getting hung up on some difficult trick and having it lying set aside and unfinished for years and years.

Just sayin'.

Remarkable post! I think this "detail planning" stuff deserves a thread in the general forum MPWR. You've touched on several interesting themes: build duration, time budgeting, motivation, detail visibility, execution, experience level.

[nicecar]

Back from college and the build is looking good.

Not much to update, just got rid of those rather big mould lines, and got most of the body panels prepared for painting. Also includes my oth`er model i came across looking for some files.

Side skirts have a nice fit. I might remove the wheel wells though.


Dear lord look at those lines!


Test fitting the engine 'hatch'. Nice curves!


Mirrors look gooood.

As do the light pods.

A few shots of this beautiful body





Here it is agains the 911 GT1 i've almost finished. Paint on that isnt too bad.




Ambitious?



Gluing on the front ventswill make painting easier, at least i think so.



This is what i'm using to smoothe out those vents that have molding defects around their edges. It's a circular file.

Lookin' good.

And finally some more "pc background" shots.







There will be more content from now on