Ferrari FXX

Started by Richard Mcstay · 74 · 7 years ago
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    George Williams said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    I guess the battery's there to aid weight distribution? Simon's right, those C/F decals do look really good, and I love that V12 engine!

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    Richard Mcstay said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    I suppose it would George, good thinking. The decals are great, definitely a worth while investment. I've got them for the Laferrari as well.

    The instructions call for the air box to be added later on in the build, but I couldn't wait till then and painted it today and dry fitted it just incase there's a reason it's been left till later. The air box is slightly different to the Enzo's carbon fibre one. There was a lot of masking involved to get the red stripes right, but I struggled on rather than attempting to dry brush them later. They are fairly close together so I just done two at a time.

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Richard Mcstay said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    The metal transfers for the Ferrari logo's included in the kit are a nice little touch. That's where that fifty quid went!

    The dash and centre console gets the carbon fibre treatment also in no less than twenty eight different decals! There was even decals for the paddle shifters. The cockpit is definitely a lot more basic and stripped out compared to the luxurious leather interior of the Enzo.

    The build is starting to come together a bit now but unfortunately I'm away back to the wind farms tomorrow, and there's not much left that I can do away from the spray booth. I'll see if I can get a bit more done in the morning before I go for the train.

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    Simon Whitney said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    Looks very neat and tidy Richard.
    You are doing a grand job mate.

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    George Williams said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    Very neat work, Richard, although I'm still not convinced about c/f decals in general, to my tired old eyes they often look a bit "overscale", but, maybe, that's just me, with my head stuck in the sand! Whatever, I'm sure it'll look great. I've just bought a couple of classic Tamiya Le Mans cars, the Toyota GT-one and the Nissan, I love the looks of the Toyota. Our friend Oliver Rive posted his Toyota here a while ago but didn't show any of the engine detail...

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    Richard Mcstay said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    Cheers Simon, much appreciated, thanks very much.

    I think your right George about some of the weave being a bit out of scale in certain places, but I think in 1/24 it will need to be a bit exaggerated in order for it to stand out. The Tamiya car kits are fantastic, I've got the Toyota GT One and the Nissan R89C as well. I just wish I could spend more time building them! Which Nissan have you got?

    Right, last little bit before I go to work. I've started working on the actual interior now. I would have liked to have painted the roll cage in a cool metal effect, but I'm being disciplined here and not messing about with it. The seats are just fabric on the FXX instead of a designer leather but get the carbon fibre treatment as well. I've still got a lot of work to do on the seats as the belts are provided in the Tamiya after market photo etch set.

    I spent a bit of time earlier painting all the little small parts for the engine bay and cabin. They are all installed now but I'll have to leave it there till next time. See you in three weeks!

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    Simon Whitney said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    That`s looking quite sweet Richard.
    The weave maybe a bit "large" but once it is all buttoned up , a lot of it will be subdued.

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    George Williams said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    I've got the Nissan R390 GT1 in black and red livery as entered in the 1997 Le Mans race. I've also found a kit of the Porsche 907/908 in long tailed form by a company called Union, they seem to be French, but I don't know anything about them, have you heard of them? It's a beautiful looking car (at least I think so!), but I'm a bit wary of buying something unknown. They also do the 917 and Ferraris 512S and P4, but these are all covered by Fujimi.

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    Richard Mcstay said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    I know the kit actually, I nearly bought it once but lost in the ebay bidding. I've never heard of Union, I'll have to have a look. There's a good website I use called scalemates.com. It's a big kit database so they might have some reviews on there.

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    Richard Mcstay said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    I'm back home and back on the Ferrari! The fans are done for the front nose of the car and test fitted perfectly. I really wanted to paint the wheels in a dark metal colour. I've seen a couple of examples with silver alloy wheels, but the vast majority of the FXX's in the reference pics all have gloss black wheels. I'm still being disciplined and sticking to the original car so I went with the black. I'll save my imagination for the La'ferrari I think!

    I just need to assemble the photo etch race harnesses and I can start fixing a lot of this build together, as most of it is still in bits all over my work bench and has only been 'dry' built for the benefit of the work in progress pics. I've been putting the belts off for a while now as they are one of my least favourite parts of the build. Very fiddly and frustrating!

    Going slightly off topic, I've just bought my first house and it has quite a decent sized man cave! Instead of a glass cabinet I am going to fix a series of display cases on the walls using brackets. I've bought my first case from a company called Striking Displays for a very competitive price. I've had this one custom built and is sized to house my 1/12 bikes. I've got lots of smaller builds in there at the minute staying dust free, but eventually I plan to have a different case for cars, one for tanks, one for 1/32 aircraft etc. In the end it will probably still cost the same as a large cabinet, but it won't take up any floor space and I don't have to pay a few grand in one go!

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    Simon Whitney said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    Good progress made Richard, now for the fiddley bits.
    Nice display case ate.

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    George Williams said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    That 907/908 kit is an old Heller issue, I'm not sure about splashing out that much money on such an old kit... thanks for the Scalemates tip.
    I've one big display case at the moment, but I've just filled it up!
    It'll be good to see all those small pieces installed in the cabin, it sure looks more like a track car than a road car.

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    Richard Mcstay said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    Cheers Simon, thank you. It's a good website George, It's very handy also for seeing which aftermarket parts are available for each kit, and it also shows you all suppliers on the internet that currently have them in stock.

    I've been at this all day now and think it's time for a break! The windows seem to have came out well using the masks provided in the kit. The decals included for the sun visor on the front windscreen also went on well. The door interior panels also got the carbon fibre treatment.

    I managed to get through my least favourite job which is the photo etch seat belts! This was included in the Tamiya PE aftermarket set and had a sheet of material to cut the belts from. This took absolutely ages mind! With the belts done, the interior could then be fixed inside the chassis along with the dash board. The instructions don't call for the wheels to be added till the end, but they go on with the plastic poly caps so they can still be removed if need be.

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    Simon Whitney said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    Not too bad a job you have done there Richard.
    Well worth the fiddling with the seat belts .

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    Richard Mcstay said 7 years, 9 months ago:

    Cheers Simon, they were worth it in the end but it was a tedious affair as always! When I have a repetitive or fiddly part of the build like that I normally put a film on as well to keep my mind occupied!

    The front windscreen has test fitted in well, just a few drops of PVA needed here and there when the time is right to fix it in place. The door sills also get a carbon fibre decal.

    I decided it was best to paint all of the different panels Ferrari red at the same time to make sure that the tone was even. I checked my can of TS-8 that has been sat there for a few years but I'm not confident that there will be enough in there to do the lot. I'll have to wait on the post now to get my new can, which I think I will decant and airbrush on. I've never actually decanted a spray paint can before so I will wear some older clothes and stand outside I think!

    I had already removed the parts from the sprues when I was away on the boat so it was just a case of priming them white. The interior panels have got a coat of either semi gloss or gloss black, the latter to receive even more carbon fibre decals.

    3 additional images. Click to enlarge.