Ferrari 1512 - John Surtees #8 Italian GP (1:12 By MFH)

[FridayAgain]

 

I enjoy nice things, and after staring for months at the gorgeous 1.5 litre V12 Ferrari driven by the legend John Surtees on the Model Factory Hiro website, I decided to part ways with a large sum of my money and have one sent over here. After spending 30 minutes signing up to various photo sharing services and uploading the pictures about a thousand times, I finally figured out how to get them on the website, which I'd wager is harder than anything I'll do building this model 🤣🤣🤣

 

 

The box is rather pretty, and weighs about 5 pounds, its really no joke. I really enjoy looking at it, as you just know something beautiful and special is waiting inside.

I'm aiming to make my car the number 8 from the Italian GP driven by John Surtees, I don't really have any particular reason for this other than the fact that I like the number 8.

 

I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures BEFORE I do things, so there will be some weird gaps here and there, but I started by polishing all the metal for the internal structure, which is a huge pain of a job, but gives a rather satisfying result that you wouldnt get with paint. 

 

 

I did this with a bunch of sandpaper , 180 - 400 - 600 - 1000 - 2000 - 4000 - 6000 - 12000 then followed up with polishing compound coarse, fine, and finish, then hit with a coat of Tamiya gloss clear. The metal pieces came with a lot of scarring and marks that I couldn't fully remove, so the final product still looks a bit roughed up.

 

Assembling the metal tub requires the gauges be built and attached at the same time, so thats where my building took me next. Hiro does a really great job at making a realistic dash and I'm very pleased with how the final product turned out. 

 

 

The metal framework itself is just one solid piece with a thin photoetch part glued on top of it, pretty simple - painted in Tamiya Nato Black as I find it gives a better flat black appearance than say Matte Black or Semi Gloss black. I cleaned up some of the flaws in the paint and then created the gauges, its hard to see them fully but they come as these really clean turned aluminum parts which you attach these backs to, but unfortunately the gauges are black on the real car, so that great metallic finish gets covered up. 

 

The next part was to create the details for the gauges, which is difficult but extremely cool in my opinion, maybe I'm just easily impressed though 🤣 

You are provided with a tiny little photoetch gauge arm, a tiny little rivet for said arm, and then of course the decals and little glass covers for the gauges themselves.

 

 

Remember that part where I said I tend to jump ahead without taking photos..?

 

 

I'm really quite pleased with the finished dash, 12,000 RPM from a 1.5L flat 12 must've been a blast.

 

Next piece of the puzzle was the seat.

 

 

I again forgot to take a picture of what it looked like BEFORE, but it started out as a white chunk of resin. I primed it and sprayed it in black, which ended up being quite the task as the odd shape of the seat means overspray loves to pool up at the bottom, which I had to clean and fix and respray --- what a joy. The next part was the red trim, which was a huge headache to do, I've seen someone build one of these where they started by painting the whole seat red, and then masking the trip with tape and painting black, but I hate masking so I decided to do the more difficult option and paint it by hand. I think it turned out alright, there are some spots where you can tell its not perfect/wasnt sprayed, but overall, I think it looks good.

 

There it is put together - dash - tub - seat. That's pretty much where I'm at so far, I've got lots more to do, so I'll post more on this project when I've actually done it!!! -

 

I'm completely new to posting projects so if I've screwed something up with this post just let me know.

 

Edited Tuesday at 08:46 PM by FridayAgain

[Vesa Jussila]

Something impressive coming together.

[SnøMotion]

Those gauges are amazing! Great work 👌

[keefr22]

That all looks really good - excellent start to the build!

 

Keith

 

PS to the forums

[mdesaxe]

3 hours ago, FridayAgain said:

I'm really quite pleased with the finished dash, 12,000 RPM from a 1.5L flat 12 must've been a blast

That dashboard is a truly beautiful piece of work. Your comment rather reminds me of my Lancia Fulvia 1600 Zagato. There was no red line on the tachometer but there was instead a note tucked away in the owner's manual reminding the driver not to change down at over 9,000 revs.

 

Maurice

[klubman01]

What a great start to the build.  I suspect that the small gauge needles would "ping" off into the carpet monster if I was putting it together.  Do they provide spares?

The one and a half litre Formula 1 cars were little jewels, the Ferrari 1512 being especially tidy.

Good luck with the rest of the build.  The result will be wonderful if these early pics are anything to go by.

Trevor

[othertales]

What a great start to this build project! It’s coming really well and I already can’t wait for the next update. With or without photos 😉

[Malc2]

You have my full attention!

I started to scratch build one of these in 1/12, but my attention drifted........., so when MFH announced their release I had to buy one.

I love the origami crane Kyoko sends with each model.

Malc.

 

[HK-500]

ouch ! just starting and already knocked us out with all these details 😍 maybe I'll prep another pop-corn bucket

[FridayAgain]

10 hours ago, klubman01 said:

What a great start to the build.  I suspect that the small gauge needles would "ping" off into the carpet monster if I was putting it together.  Do they provide spares?

My biggest fear is always the dreaded abyss that consumes my precious little detail parts, I've lost many good men to that void. The image I showed is the 2 you get, only the middle gauge is big enough for an etched needle so you only have to do it once, the other one is your backup, so you better hope you don't make 2 mistakes!! Thank you for the kind words and well wishes for the project, I love the older F1 cars and its really been a treat to build so far.

[FridayAgain]

3 hours ago, Malc2 said:

I love the origami crane Kyoko sends with each model.

I'm such a fan of the people at MFH, Kyoko is really very kind with the responses and products. In the photo where I'm holding the seat you can see my stack of handwritten thank you cards resting against the lamp, it's such a nice touch to receive them. Their customer service is just top notch as well, when I needed replacement decals they were on it right away, and I assume the same goes for any spare parts. I usually send a note with my product orders and receive a kind response, its nice to have those personal touches of a smaller company, really makes you feel appreciated.

As for when they released this kit... I was hesitant to buy it (it is a lot of money!) and they sold out on reservation, when it came back in stock for June, I knew I had to hop on board, the cars from this era are gorgeous and carry so many good stories with so many heroic drivers like John Surtees.

[FridayAgain]

Additionally, I'd like to say thanks for all the kind words so far, everyone has been very encouraging and its nice to be able to share the fun with everyone. I'm excited to bring you guys some more photos of the project soon.

[Malc2]

12 hours ago, klubman01 said:

What a great start to the build.  I suspect that the small gauge needles would "ping" off into the carpet monster if I was putting it together.  Do they provide spares?

We were discussing this at the model club tonight and a tip was suggested thats so simple it's stupid. Put the PE in a poly bag thats big enough for your hand(s) and cut the PE inside the bag.

When the part makes a bid for the carpet via the stratosphere the bag contains it! I am certainly going to try this.

The other tip I have, is never use tweezers on small parts, use a cocktail stick with blutack on the end to pick up and place small PE. I believe you can now get a special tacky pencil that does the same job.

Malc.

[RR F1]

Great job. I really like the gauges and the needle actually shows up in the pictures as well. It gives me an idea for my Agora 917K build.

Thanks for sharing.

[FridayAgain]

I have returned bringing gifts of painted bodywork. No mechanical progress has been made on the car but all of the body is painted. I hate having unpainted bodywork looming over a good project like a threat, saying "if you don't get this right, all of your mechanical work will be dulled by ugly bodywork" so I got it done right away. 

 

I don't know the science for getting good paint, I just sort of use a collection of advice I've gotten from the internet mixed with my own experience. Took the plain white resin body and sanded it till it was clean, then soaked the body in soapy water overnight, gave it a good scrub, then primed it. I painted the body using a couple coats of Tamiya bright red, polished it up, cleared it, put the decals down, cleared it again, and gave it a good final polish. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

 

Some will notice the car has turned into the number 7 car, I've always been quite fond of the number 7 and when I cracked open the decal sheet and saw it on there, I had a change of heart. So it is now the #7 car from the German GP instead, still driven by John Surtees of course.

 

 

Origami credits go to Kyoko Hiro, of course 🧐

 

A couple other notes regarding the car, the windshield is extremely difficult to put on, MFH uses these vacuum molded parts that require them to be cut out from a big bubble by hand, which is of course very difficult and stressful, as a wrong move could screw up your windshield. The application of windshield to car is always difficult as well, with lots of tiny little rivets being used to secure it in place, with only an exact amount provided,  so you'd better hope you don't lose any. The other thing is the placement of the mirrors. There isn't a guide hole or any suggested spot for the mirrors on this car, and reference images seem to have them in a different spot each time, so I just sort of took a good guess and drilled 2 holes into the bodywork and called it a day.

 

I appreciate everyone leaving comments, I really enjoy being able to share this kit. Stay tuned for more mechanical parts next.

 

Edited November 12 by FridayAgain

[klubman01]

That looks so good.  Lovely paint finish.  Good luck with the rest of the build.

Trevor

[pg265]

Hi,

 

Greeeaaat!

Beautiful job so far.

I have the 158 in the stash and will follow your build with great interest!

 

Pascal

[keefr22]

That paintjob is just spectacular, really lovely work (and I think Enzo might have actually been a little jealous of it - bet the real thing's paint wasn't nearly as good!!)

 

Keith

 

 

[FridayAgain]

I really appreciate all the kind words on the build, always nice to have the encouragement and know that others have the same passion for this as I do. I've been getting a lot done and should have some good progress to share soon, what I consider "phase 1" of the project is coming to a close.

[FridayAgain]

I have returned with a large amount of progress made on the 1512, completing what I consider to be "Phase #1" of the project. To me this project has 3 phases, the first being the bodywork and main chassis / front structure construction. The second phase is the engine and transmission, and the third phase is joining the first two phases, adding the rear suspension, and putting the wheels on. Today I have finished Phase #1.

The first part of this was to assemble the front suspension and pedals, and then join them to the front of the car.

I decided against painting or polishing the pedals of the car, as I felt they looked quite real straight out of the box. 

 

 

A common occurrence with this build is polishing metal, which I've been doing a lot of. It takes quite a lot of work, I don't own any fancy polishing tools (though I probably should) so I just end up sitting there sanding everything down with 200 grit, then 400 grit, then 600 grit, then 1000 grit... and well you get the idea, all the way up to 12,000. It takes a lot of work but the results really end up showing, and I'm quite pleased with it. My only issue is sometimes the metal parts come with scars I find impossible to remove, however I know very little about working with metal, so this could be user error.

 

There you can see a good portion of the front put together before going on the car, the bottom paint got a bit scraggly but I'm not too concerned as it will be completely covered when I join this front piece to the car. It was a bit tricky to get it all put together so everything lined up, but in the end I got it pretty well sorted out.

Next order of business was the brakes, which were pleasantly easy to put together compared to the rest of the things I've been doing recently.

 

Forgot to take a picture of the brakes facing upwards before installing them, oops.  Quite pleased with how they turned out though, I really like the little rivets Hiro includes, such a good added detail for the kit.
 

With all the parts prepared, its time to start putting the structure together. 

 

 

The only additional things added here are a couple of little details to the front, and the polished up steering rack. I'll be honest it was rather hard to get everything to fit together flush and smooth, there are a lot of locating pins, which are both helpful and unhelpful. My parts ended up being a couple of millimetres off, so I had to sand down some of the posts where I saw fit. After making that adjustment, it all fell into place. 

 

This leaves only a couple of details left before phase #1 is finished, those being the wheel and shifter, as well as the front radiator and some pipes. 

 

 

Each little pipe needs a couple of things, firstly I hand polished them down up to 2000 grit, just enough so they aren't painfully flat and dull, but not so much so that they shine like the sun. I think this gives a good balance for a mechanical part. Next is applying the heat shrink tubing to the ends of them, and then using some photoetched clamps around them. I'm not sure if anyone has any advice for getting those clamps on tight, because my current method is rather difficult and takes a lot of effort. I bend them into a round shape around an old brush handle, and then put them around the tube where I want it. After this I pull like hell with some tweezers and try and get them to tighten up, this tweezer step is the part that really gets me, as I sit there pulling on the end of the metal strand like mad and hope it gets tight enough, and it really starts to hurt my hands by the end. Alas, I got them all done.

 

 

After completing the madness, I decided to finish off some interior parts, as the gated shifter kept calling my name.

 

 

I forgot to include a picture of the steering wheel before I put it on the car, but I don't think it makes much difference anyway. The final job was to bring it all together.

 

So I present to you... it all brought together.

 

 

 

I've also got some photos with the bodywork on, it's supposed to be removable but I found it so difficult to get it on and sitting flat that I'm not sure I want to take it off ever again. I'll probably break this rule when I post the final pictures of the completed build.

 

 

 

 

So there it all is. The next step is going to be building that brilliant 1.5 litre flat 12 engine, which ought to be a good bit of fun. I appreciate everyone following along and leaving positive comments, it really adds to the experience when you can share your work for others to enjoy, not just yourself. I'm not sure when the next update will happen, I suppose it depends how much trouble the engine ends up giving me, but I don't mind a bit of that building a model. Wouldn't be as fun to me if it all went together like LEGO. 🧐

 

[klubman01]

Some more great workmanship on show.  The effort that you put into preparing the parts has paid off.  All looking really neat and tidy thus far.  Good luck with the remainder of the build.

Trevor

[Noel Smith]

Gorgeous model taking shape here.

On the odd occasion it is gratifying to obtain something that is both satisfying to build and a bit of an expensive indulgence.

 

Looking at this model taking shape reminds me of a plastic model I built from Bandai back in the 60's of a Ferrari Flat 12.

[FridayAgain]

On 11/24/2024 at 3:54 AM, Noel Smith said:

 

On the odd occasion it is gratifying to obtain something that is both satisfying to build and a bit of an expensive indulgence.

In a weird sort of way, I find the kits kind of viable in price, simply for the mileage and time you get out of them. 4-5 months on a kit is pretty good value when I find others take me about a week (if its 1/24th or Tamiya). Especially given how gorgeous they are, and how Hiro likes to make kits of cars that nobody else does. You find yourself stacking up boxes from them pretty quickly! My current issue is I can buy them faster than I can build them, I usually find something catching my eye once every 2-3 months, so I've started to get a backlog. There will certainly be more Hiro projects coming after this 😉

I appreciate the kind words on the project, I'd say this is the best one of these kits has gone for me in terms of the fact that I haven't had anything really fight me so far, and no paint disasters on the bodywork.

Edited Tuesday at 08:29 PM by FridayAgain

[mral47]

Following this in great interest. Coming nicely together and cracking work done already.

I got -64 Ferrari from MFH when it and this was published. Was wondering long between this car and Ferrari 158, but ended buying the V8 car.