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Fujimi Ferrari 250 GTO


injidup

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While I wait for the carbon decals for the Lotus 88 I'm moving on to my second interim build. The Lancia 037 has had its gloss coat done and is on the home stretch, so I've decided to start on the Fujimi 1/24 Ferrari 250 GTO.

I'm going to try and make a replica of Nick Mason's car as it's the only GTO I've seen in the flesh, albeit about 25 or more years ago at Goodwood.

I have bought the Hobby Design p-e kit and also the KA set for the Revell cat as it has the right size wire wheels. I also bought the Fujimi Borrani wheels set but the rims are too wide, designed for a GT40 or Ferrari Daytona.

First order of business is to remove the (small) seams from the body and add a third vent in the front wings. The kit has two vents but Nick's car has three each side. I notice that Nick's car has more rounded vents than the kit.

I have the Haynes manual for the car, and it fortunately has many photos of the car.

First photos...

New vent marked out:

image_zpsjrhtbh5s.jpeg

And the first one cut out:

image_zps6fjfbwzg.jpeg

Will need some smoothing.

Here's a comparison of the KA-Models metal wheel and the kit plastic wheel:

image_zpsyscbgwem.jpeg

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Hmm I'll watch along with this one too if you don't mind. I have the revell (ex Protar) kit and have always wondered if I should have got the Fujimi instead lol.

I think with a black wash the kit wheels would come up a lot better. Although the KA ones centre hub is miles better. Carry on...

Ashley

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Hmm I'll watch along with this one too if you don't mind. I have the revell (ex Protar) kit and have always wondered if I should have got the Fujimi instead lol.

Ashley

Ashley, if you can find the Italeri one (also boxed by Revell long before the Protar one) I think's it better than the Fujimi one. Just a personal opinion, having got both.

Rich

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Ashley, if you can find the Italeri one (also boxed by Revell long before the Protar one) I think's it better than the Fujimi one. Just a personal opinion, having got both.

Rich

Hmm interesting. I have seen the Italeri ones around but always assumed they too were the old Protar one. What with being Italian too and Revell's likeness to share with them lol. I'll try to find a build online. I have a feeling I ended up with the dud of the 3 lol

EDIT: apparently the Protar body is only correct for the one car they based it on. Which was restored after a crash. Badly by the sounds of it as the whole rear end from the doors back is subtly different on various planes and axis. Someone eluded to using the Italeri body on the Protar chassis to get the best GTO save for buying the Gunze Hi tech kit. They didn't mention their thoughts on the Fujimi one though, but they certainly said to stay away from the Aurora kit and it's Matchbox reboxing lol

Ashley

Edited by MetroRacing
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No pressure then!

Some differences I've noticed between the detail kits (Hobby Design for the Fujimi and KA-Models for the Revell) - The wheel spindles are much smaller on the Revell so the KA-Model wheels won't fit. I'll need to make new spindles (axles).

Some of the PE parts for the Revell kit are much larger than the Fujimi - the instrument panel and gear shift gate in particular.

The panel on the underneath of the chassis is a completely different shape, as are the inner door panels. Shame about the instrument panel as the Revell one is correct for Nick Mason's car as far as instrument count goes. The Fujimi has one more gauge that's not on Nick's car. Will have to see if I can get the Revell one to fit. Also, the headlamp trims are slightly different shapes, shame as the Revell set has a chrome sticker that would work better than the PE parts for the Fujimi, which have to be fixed with teeny rivets (provided).

I guess in some ways I have a big choice of add-on parts! The Hobby Design set comes with lots of teeny parts for the dashboard switches and they will definitely test my eyesight and finger dexterity!

Edited by injidup
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One of the gills/vents I made is a little too,wide,at,the top so I'm filling it with a little sliver of polystyrene from a store card!

image_zps5upxf5v6.jpeg

And here's a comparison between the Hobby Design detail kit for Fujimi and the KA-Models for Revell. I'll be using the KA dash panel as it has the right number of instruments. Notice the difference in door panels and also how big the KA gear change gate is compared to the HD. The KA kit came with wheels and the HD also has some really tiny switch toggles. These will really tax my poor eyes!

KA is the top fret, HD the bottom ones.

image_zpsdc0k9put.jpeg

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A bit more work done today. Got the chassis primed and sprayed in semi-gloss black, fuel and oil tanks in AK Interactive dark aluminium. Added a wire for the oil pump.

image_zpsqd4icdtb.jpeg

Photo-etch parts fitted to radiator.

image_zpsdpkb8kmx.jpeg

Started assembling the engine and gearbox. The pulleys are a bit poor, so I had to cut out the filler inside the drive belt.

From this...

image_zpsuhdmqmof.jpeg

To this...

image_zpswxzua0d9.jpeg

I also noticed some excellent detail on the tires. The front and rear tyres actually have different sizes on them! 225/65 R15 on the rear and 215/70 R15 on the front.

image_zps9xryjyk2.jpeg

Edited by injidup
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I have to work out how to make the front spring look a bit better than this cone thing that is in the kit. It should just be a spring and a seat. The seat is the widest part of this bit, so I need to either replace the spring seat with a suitable piece of tube or cut this part up carefully and use a ball-point pen spring.

image_zps8hyep3r0.jpeg

Should look something like this

image_zpsml3rmgee.jpeg

Couldn't resist a quick test fit...

image_zpsgmgzqhon.jpeg

image_zpsgnd3lq3k.jpeg

Edited by injidup
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So Fujimi got the size difference on the tires right, even though all four are the same size, and got the upgrade metal wheels the right size, wider back but won't fit the kits tires.

Wonder if that's why they brought out another set if Borrani wheels and tires complete, well I hope that sets ok as I've ordered a set :lol:

Your builds looking great :goodjob:

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Those tyres are a bit modern for for this car aren't they? Though I suppose they're cheaper than modern original spec ones lol

Nice work so far.

Ashley

The tread pattern looks fine. I'm sure they would be running more modern tyres these days! I wouldn't want 1962 technology tyres on my £20m car! I run nice new R-spec tyres on my car and it's almost 20 years old.

Edited by injidup
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So Fujimi got the size difference on the tires right, even though all four are the same size, and got the upgrade metal wheels the right size, wider back but won't fit the kits tires.

Wonder if that's why they brought out another set if Borrani wheels and tires complete, well I hope that sets ok as I've ordered a set :lol:

Your builds looking great :goodjob:

The kit tyres and rims are slightly different sizes - just. The difference in real life is only 10mm (according to the markings)

I found out last night that the KA-model rims won't fit over the brake calipers :-( so some remedial work to do there, as well as working out how to mount them to the hubs.

Edited by injidup
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The tread pattern looks fine. I'm sure they would be running more modern tyres these days! I wouldn't want 1962 technology tyres on my £20m car! I run nice new R-spec tyres on my car and it's almost 20 years old.

Not sure what you mean by R spec tyres?

The Ferrari 250GTO's would have ran with Crossply tyres originally. And you can still buy new full modern tech period correct crossply ones for old cars as fitting Radial tyres, as Fujimi has given the kit actually devalues a car if they aren't OE.

Crossply and Radial are both equally good types of tyre. But Radial gives more rigidity to the side walls and so won out over crossply's in the 60's I believe. Tyre tech hasn't really progressed since then either. Just Rubber compounds for different conditions and tread patterns ect. My car is 23 this year and the only difference the new tyres I brought for the standard wheels over the OE ones it still had lol, was a higher speed rating. Obvs different make, tread pattern etc but that's it lol.

Ashley

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Ha! I doubt it's possible to devalue a 250 GTO, tyres certainly wouldn't! Might make a difference in historic racing, I guess?

R-spec tyres I have are Yokohama A050, which are not available in the UK - only Japan and Australia I believe. You can get the older version, the A048.

They are basically a track-day tyre that's road legal. Not a huge amount of grooves, so can be a handful in the wet, but in the dry they are fantastic. Don't last long - maybe 3000km of road and track use.

Yokohama-Advan-A050.jpg

http://www.yokohama.com.au/Tyres/ADVAN-A050-R-Spec.aspx

Edited by injidup
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Maybe devalue was the wrong word. But it certainly has an affect on cars, probably more so without pedigree in the eyes of collectors. They're real sticklers for originality lol.

Ahh tyres like that are classed as A1 tyres in the UK. The MSA has a list of tyres from different manufacturers categorised into A1, A2 and I think B as well. Then every class of Motorsport that follows MSA regs states which class of tyres are eligible and if it's not on the list. You're screwed lol.

I've seen in the past someone spending £600 on a set of tyres at the end of a season only for the next year's regs to exclude them :(

Ashley

Edited by MetroRacing
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Nick Mason's GTO has had many modifications over the years; oil cooler for the diff, bonnet louvres, brake and clutch master cylinders moved, etc.

I could believe some cars might lose value if not 100% original, but not all, especially those that are raced. I sure some of the owners don't give a stuff about originality if they perform better or are "their" car because they made changes to them. Mine certainly is unique because of the changes I've made, but it's no longer all original and I don't care! I have a friend with an E-type and he won't make any changes unless they are reversible!

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Yeah cars with history or race pedigree are likely to retain the value when modified past OE spec. But that probably because the mods were either made for performance gains or but someone famous.

But if you got a 1964 Mini Cooper and it was perfect un-restored condition. It'd be worth more than one that'd been lightly restored or even tastefully modified. Classic cars are a weird Web of contradictions lol

Ashley

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Did some more work on the front spring.

Used a hacksaw blade to cut most of the way through the awful cone thing that is supposed to be a spring and spring seat. Must get a proper modelling saw!

image_zpstkwnfmcv.jpeg

Finished off the cut with a knife, then used a 3mm drill to clean out the centre of the seat.

image_zpssvlnxbnf.jpeg

image_zpsn0lcgkls.jpeg

Cleaned out the seat with a round file to make it wide enough to take a cut-down spring from a ball pen. I've not been impressed with hand-wound springs, the coils never seem to look evenly spaced. Here's the mod next to the original.

image_zps4bm4rlxu.jpeg

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Todays progress: a coat of white primer (will need at least one more before the red)

IMG_8485_zpsrmktgtd8.jpg

IMG_8484_zpskel0bor8.jpg

 

Put another coat of semi-gloss black on the cam covers, sprayed from a couple of feet away to try and get a crinkle finish, and sprayed the gearbox with AK Interactive dark aluminium.

 

IMG_8486_zps07ctwfg8.jpg

 

I've also started drilling the distributors for ignition leads - 14 of them!

Edited by injidup
New website messed up formatting
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Well, either iOS10 or the new website have made adding photos impossible :-(

 

New website doesn't work work well on an iPad. Square brackets from a web photo link do not translate properly - comes out as %5B and %5D

 

Edited by injidup
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That car body paint looks smooooooooooth. Lookin' good.

 

I hear you on the changed format. Model Car Magazine went to this last year and it was fairly difficult at first and you're right about the photo posting. I'm surprised it took this long for Britmodeler to change and even more surprised that IPMS hasn't changed at all yet. I'm on several sites so I usually just copy and paste my updates from other places and that works fine. Bummer though, you're dead on about that.

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