1964 Ferrari 250 LM Road Car (Reworked 1/24 Sunny/Academy/Minicraft Kit)

[Plastheniker]

Hi,

Though the Ferrari 250 LM was the mid-engine successor of the often kitted 250 GTO there were only two 1/24 styrene kits of the Ferrari 250 LM. The first was a terrible Esci kit. The second kit was made by Sunny/Academy/Minicraft. It was released more than 30 years ago and has been reissued several times.

Only few modelers seem to be happy with the Sunny/Academy/Minicraft kit. I built my model maybe 20 years ago, and I found it not that bad, particularly considering its low price. Achieving a presentable model, however, requires some extra work.

 

I remember the following major problems:

• All panel lines are not very deep and not clearly defined, i. e. the panel lines do not have sharp (90°) edges. Instead the edges are strikingly round. By this  the panel lines look very wide, and their width seems to vary. This would spoil any finished model. As a remedy I scribed all panel lines considerably deeper and sanded the body until all edges looked satisfactory.
• All grilles are molded plastic. The front grille is acceptable because it is recessed and because it is black on the 1:1 car. The 3 molded-in rear grilles, however, are flush and painted in body colour on the 1:1 car. Since I found no way to make them look realistic I replaced them by segments of a generic PE fret.
• The interior is quite simple and needs some detailing.
• The plastic “wire” wheels of the kit are really crude. Since the 1:1 car has strikingly different wheel sizes front and rear the model wheels attract the attention even more than usual. Using PE wire wheels  will be a bad and expensive compromise if this specific feature of the car is not replicated. The web shows examples where wrong rim/tyre sizes make good models look odd.  As always I made my own wires, so I didn‘t have to compromise.

 

Provided that you tackle its shortcomings the kit can make an interesting and attractive model particularly as one of the few street legal LMs. For me it became one of my favourite Ferrari models.

 

[JeroenS]

Once again you've posted a stunning model. Beautiful interior and you're right: the wheels do attract attention 🙂 

[Spad]

Not the prettiest Ferrari in my opinion but that's a beautiful model. The wheels are superb and the grilles look most effective

Nice!

[Pete in Lincs]

Add me to the list of admirers, Jurgen.

A lovely build of a very smart car.

[stevehnz]

That is a stunning model you have there. I've long enjoyed these after seeing one compete in my youth, it looked great & sounded better & your build has brought back those great memories. 👍

Steve.

[Pascal]

Beautiful !

 

What PE set did you use for the wire wheels ?

[F-32]

A wonderful build of a rare beast

[Plastheniker]

Thanks for the response!

 

On 5/13/2018 at 12:51 PM, Pascal said:

Beautiful !

 

What PE set did you use for the wire wheels ?

Almost all my wire wheels are hand-laced using my own technique.

 

A revised tutorial can be found here (without pictures thanks to Photo Bucket)

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234952686-making-real-wire-wheels-in-all-scales/

 

My original tutorial (still with pictures) can be found here

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77554

[Terry1954]

Very nice Ferrari, and especially impressed with the  home made spokes!

 

Cheers

 

Terry