ferrari 250 gto realising a dream

[henryk001]

I think this is a better picture. Thanks for the positive comments also as mentioined the cars from MFH are pricey but i feel worth it. If only once for the detail and quality of the materials supplied.I do have to say though this is testing my patience but im enjoying this project

Edited by henryk001 on Wednesday 20th June 12:19

[henryk001]

I do realise that unless i win the lottery im not going to get to owning a real 250 GTO. However i decided to buy the most detailed assembly kit of the car and try and put my modelling skills to good use. If i succeed to finish the car to a reasonable quality at least i can admire at any time what as far as im concearned is the most stunning car in the world of that era. The Factory Hiro 1/12 car is to say the least challenging and i had to buy the engine and gearbox as seperately knowing that once the body goes on a lot of engine detail will be lost.
February this year locked me in for a couple of days due to the white stuff, so i decided to start the car, i had already completed the engine last year, took 3 months to build which has moving engine internals, crank, pistons, camshafts.
So i started what i thought was the most mundane part. The Borani wheels which had to be made up on a jig 72 nickel silver spokes cut and bent per wheel and ferrals
connected to turned polished aluminium rims. The first one took 4 days, but then as everything in life, once you get into doing something repeatidly it gets easier and the last wheel took about 8 hours.I thought i would fall at the 1st hurdle with this car but now im devoting a lot of "bad weather staying indoors time" to completing this project. At the moment ive got to a rolling chassis stage showing fuel lines, copper brake lines ignition wiring etc and am weathering the chassis to show rust here and there, not too much though.
Heres a photo of where i am with it at the moment. Please excuse the poor photo quality

Edited by henryk001 on Wednesday 20th June 12:21

[henryk001]

250 gto engine and gearbox

[henryk001]

Yes sorry, i tried to make some changes and it went wrong so i had to put the threads on again.
I havent been on here for some time. sorry for any confusion.
posting more pics soon if anyones interested

[henryk001]

Ha Ha you can claim ownnership if you like but i own the car. I was scared about the cost of purchase but ive been building tamiya for years and
would say its similar in technique other than having to use superglue a lot, epoxy as well, the car is becoming heavy and fragile as there are a lot of metal parts.In stages i have to prop up the chassis similar to if you were building the real thing. I know that if you lose a part or break anything you can e-mail MFH and they will send the part to you.
Heres a pic of the internals, you can also see a engine turning over on youtube which got my attention

[henryk001]

Here a idea of the size of the engine,

[henryk001]

Thankyou Bertie, being over middle aged, this hobby allows me to keep the fingers working but im sure its not doing my eyes any good.
Once again thankyou for the nice comments . im going to put more pictures on as i go.I have lots of pictures at stages of build but dont want to swamp this thread to much .
Its a shame, the details will be lost soon as im at the point where im starting to cover over the detail with bulkhead and floor, interior components.
Just glad i took a lot of photographs to look at when ive finished. Regards

[henryk001]

Ok then Chaps and if there are any Chapeses. Lets start at start at the begining.
Static engine build 1st (semi half transparant cranckcase full detail engine and gearbox). . . . . . . .

Quite a lot of filing,drilling went on to fitting these parts, crank turns and later mated to gears that drive the cams and rockers.
I will put some more on when i can. Regards

[henryk001]

Some more here. As mentioned at the begining took aboput 3 months to build the engine and gearbox complete. Drilled my fingers a couple of times"didnt feel a thing". Smallest drill used was 0.25mm, smaller than a hypo needle. Hope you all enjoy the pictures of my toils. Will add some more promise. . . . . . . . . . .

[henryk001]

Heres a continuation of the standalone engine/gearbox build,it was a bit dissapionting that the gearbox didnt have any moving parts so i made my own gearstick so that it would work through the gate, also added rocker cover gaskets cut from leather and made my own jubilee clips using aluminium foil and watchmakers screws, hope you like the rest of the pictures and i will start the car build picture thread later at some point, thanks for looking.

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Finished in 2017, then i had to do it all over again for the car build. Im glad i did as mentioned previously a lot of detail would be lost in the car. This engine will sit next to the car when i ve finished,hopefully sooner than later. I have to say that i really enjoy this degree of building as i find i can get lost in time and empty my mind of the day to day demands on business. I recommend this to anyone who has either previously had a modelling hobby and would like to take it up again and some skill in assembly work. theres loads of articles, photos etc on line to use as a reference.

[henryk001]

Hi! all, ive completed the engine build photos see the 2nd page.
So heres the start of the car build thread, hope you like them, any comments positive or negative appreciated.

. . . . . .
This did test my patience to do 4 wheels. 4 rows of 72 spokes and ferruls had to be cut and bent and inserted, glued into the hub and rim on a jig supplied with the kit + assembling the 5th spare wheel which was all white metal parts, at the end. Felt like i acheived something and put me in a positive frame of mind to proceed with the car build. Brakes coming up soon

[henryk001]

Here are some pictured of the disk brakes with a bity of patina. I had to drill out the uprights and insert brass rods instead as i new the white metal wouldnt stand up to the growing weight of the car . . . . . I did a mod on the hubshafts as the instructions showed the wheels turning but not the disks on all corners which i thought that considering the detail so far deminished the operation of the wheels, Drilled out the stub shafts by hand 2mm drill and screwed the shaft to the disk allowing the disks to rotate. . . . . . .Copper wire was used for brake pipes running to all calipers and black flexible wire used for the caliper flex pipe and handbrake cables .The disks were finally cleaned up of excess paint once fitted. Next lot of photos coming soon. Thanks for looking.

[henryk001]

Zippee said:

Amazing skills - you must have the patience if a saint

Thank you. I’ve been lucky that I got involved in engineering, love cars and have competed in racing events. I was going to get involved in building a racing Tvr chimera, but sold it to Neil Garner due work commitments, then almost got to building a gt40, now realising age isn’t on my side I decided to build models instead.im trying to get as much detail into this build as possible just for the fun and enjoyment of it. Cheers

[henryk001]

generationx said:

Beautiful work.

Thank you very much. Just hope I can do the bodywork justice, fingers crossed.im a few stages away from that and doing the interior, dissapointed there were no lap belts to make so I’ve made them. I’m leaving the interior naked (aluminium) as I’m finishing it as a race car. The next run of photos will just show a progression of the build. Thank you to you and all who have encouraged me to show this model off.

[henryk001]

Thanks very much. Some more of the progression. .
Brakes pipes to all corners made from copper coated wire also added a removable oil dipstick. . . . . . . . . . . .
Thanks for looking more to follow, im ahead of photos posted so it shouldnt be long before i put some more up. Cheers

[henryk001]

lufbramatt said:

Not sure how I've missed this one! Amazing work, can't wait to see more!

I've built a couple of Pocher kits but this is just another level and makes them look like toys.

Yes i agree, i built the Alfa Romeo, more than 10 years ago and was a bit dissapointed at costong over £300.00, probably because the model was to big and found the metal parts to be a bit tinny. On the upside i kept a lot of parts back and used the leather for rocker cover gaskets for the Ferrari

[henryk001]

Resolutionary said:

I see what you mean about it being sad that the engine detail will be hidden under the chassis eventually - phenomenal stuff. As echoed above, this must take some real patience and devotion, I'm impressed.

Thankyou for the encouraging comments, the detail is truly starting to dissapear but at least i know its all there and the photos have memorialised the build.
Ive taken a break briefly, but i just had to do a little more.I decided to make up the ignition keys (two keys , a fob and the enamel badges that went on both sides). Didnt even know they were there till i looked at the photo etched sheet. A nice touch i thought.
. . .

Uploading some more mid week if time allows.
Cheers

Edited by henryk001 on Monday 6th August 17:56

[henryk001]

NDA said:

I don't think my eyesight would be up to some of the smaller assemblies.... amazing.

I know what you mean, even at x3 magnification my eyes run a bit after a couple of hours. Well the interior goes in now and theres a lot of test fitting , body on and off to check the fit.coolant pipes , coils and wiring, finishing off the clutch and brake pipes. Ferrari chassis plate is clear and crisp.
. . . . . . Thanks for looking

Edited by henryk001 on Tuesday 14th August 00:41

[henryk001]

Boxbrownie said:

Speechless........

Wow! Thankyou. Its coming on now but as said before the detail is dissapearing. Heres the dashboard build. I managed to get the dash semi-black textured by stippling using a sponge after about 10 minutes of drying, warning lights were put on using clear and i decided to print my own decals after downloading them and shrinking them to size onto waterslide paper because i didnt like the fit of the ones supplied, although they were clear i found them to be a bit on the small side, so i took them off and fitted my own. I have to thank my wife for allowing me to steal her Basecoat and top coat she uses for her nails. sealed the decals perfectly and also alowed them to stay flexible. . . . . . .
Made the gear stick fitted the knob, chromed the gate plate and made it movable through the gates.Thankyou for the encouraging comments. More to follow.Finished dashboard. Seats and lapbelts next. Cheers.
.

Edited by henryk001 on Tuesday 14th August 00:43

Edited by henryk001 on Tuesday 14th August 00:47

[henryk001]

mike74 said:

Amazing.

I had no idea such intricately and minutely detailed model kits existed.

Although I would have thought the consumer demand for them would be so low that the tooling and production costs wouldn't be commercially viable?

Must be viable as model factory hiro in Japan has a large following worldwide, although i would say the cost wouldnt appeal to the masses, however if you breakdown the cost over time to build, ive done approximatly 200 hours so far and am around 2/3rds of the way to completing. the expense can be justified and patience with determination and some skill reaps benefits to create something just a bit more special than mass produced ready built models.Hope you enjoy some more of the build photos.