Ferrari 250LM
This is the Airfix 1/32 kit of the Ferrari 250LM - the recent 'reprint' in grey plastic, rather than the original which was red plastic. It's going to be merged with parts of the chassis of the MRRC slot car version of the same car, plus a section of Scalectrix chassis with a sidewinder motor - which allows space for a full detailed interior. Mods to the body in this shot - wheel arches have been reprofiled, roof flattened, side window frames added, panel lines cleaned up, and detail added e.g. the small air scoop in front of the rear wheel arch, panel release handles.
The front valance / lower nose has been extensively remodelled - made deeper and reprofiled, brake air cooling ducts added, a new radiator, new sidelights cut out, filled with a chunk of shaped & polished clear sprue, framed with 5 thou plastic sheet. The original headlamps & sockets were undersized, too small, poorly detailed - the aperture has been drilled through with a 5mm drill to make it bigger & rounder, then rebacked, better headlamps scavenged from a cheap diecast have been added, clear covers from a suitably profiled chunk of plastic bottle, and 5 thou frames again. The windscreen has been framed with plastic rod. The original moulded-on bonnet straps and the original airscoops on the bonnet have been removed. The airscoops have been replaced with clear ones, cut from some spare headlamp covers, glued on to black plastic blocks, which then fit in to holes cut in the bonnet.
The main work here was opening up and thinning the window tunnel in the rear of the roof, and, particularly, rebuilding the rear panel. This had to have the bottom edge straightened - on the kit it was curved like the top. I had to hack out the rear plate to do this, so this was replaced with 10 thou plastic card, and I took the opportunity to also redo the 2 black grills, giving them better proportions & rounded corners. I also added the strip of plastic just below the air dam between the grills, which is a badge strip / rear number plate light fitting I believe.
Chassis / interior - the MRRC chassis is basically a flat plate that attaches inside the body, and has hanging off it mounting posts / clips for front suspension, motor, rear wheels. Oh, and a driver's head ( only ) stuck on top. Here I've stripped off everything underneath bar the front mounting posts, punched out the top of the flat plate to make a cockpit, added the Airfix kit cockpit bucket, dashboard, steering wheels, seats and gearlever. The driver is various bits from the spares box, detailed up a bit.
The motor pack is a section from a Scalextric 'New Beetle'. The rear axle has been narrowed ( to the absolute minimum ) and the MRRC wheels added, detailed as in previous pic.
I used the kit glass - the moulded-on windscreen wiper was carefully scraped & polished off, the white anti-glare strip painted inside the glass, side windows scored inside & out to represent the sliding windows, black plastic card frame added to rear window. There's also a rear-view mirror, hidden behind the anti-glare strip.
Test assembly to ensure stuff like wheel position looks right.
Motor plate held in place with a 'hook' off the rear valance, plastic strips down the side of the body, a couple of plastic pins behind the front wheels, and a single screw through in to a block of plastic attached to the bottom of the cockpit bucket. Ackermann steering visible; wiring and braids still to be finished.
Finishing off..... The shell was keyed with fine sandpaper ( 1000-grade ), degreased. given a couple of coats of matt white enamel as an undercoat, topped with 3 or 4 coats of yellow acrylic ( no, NOT Ferrari red - I'm fed up with that colour ), then one coat of Klear floor polish to stabilise the paint.
Visible here is the black grill inside the roof tunnel ( carb air intake ). Also one of the fuel caps on the rear wing, painted with chrome paint to simulate alloy.
Here you get a bit of a view of the driver....
A reasonable shot of the inside of the cockpit, showing, I think, that the work here has paid off in terms of appearance. Note also scratch-built windscreen wiper.
