Tamiya Ferrari F40 1/24

[Gary30]

Well this is my dream car and THE car i had posters of on my wall when I was a young boy in the 80's, if my lottery numbers came up I would go out and buy a 1:1 version the next day, but for now I'll have to make do with building a 1/24 replica!

This was the rival to the Porsche 959 I've already built for the GB, so it is a perfect second entry for me and I think they will look great together, I will build OOB and will be painting it in the only colour a Ferrari should be!

So here is the box, sprue photos and build to progress over the next few days

[jchrisf]

Nice.. My favorite in the 80s was a Testarossa.

[Gary30]

My friend's Dad had a Testarossa back in the 80s he was absolutely loaded, I never got to go for a ride in it though, still can't believe I never did

Anyway, here are the sprues of the kit:





Thinking about stripping the chrome parts, but they are pretty good, we'll see





Nice looking body, but there are a fair few seams to sort


Tyres and a prop to keep the engine cover open if you choose to display it that way


Made a start cutting out all the parts , and I've begun sanding back the seams on the body

[Hawkmoon]

Nice start on her and will be following

[jchrisf]

Tamiya's plastic is the best. I'll be following also!

[Gary30]

Started to rub back the body ready for primer, I think the rear engine cover may have taken a whack in transit, it doesn’t sit perfectly and I’m not sure how I can rectify it?? It may have forced my hand to display the model with the engine cover open when it’s finished, it does ‘fit’ with a bit of pressure applied in different places, but I don’t think I will be able to warm it up and manipulate it well enough with hot water, I will probably make it worse as it is such a compound of curves to get right so that they all line up perfectly....mildly frustrating!

[Miiqqula]

It's a this kit main issue. you can make it fit.You have to sand the roof with file.



What i remember those holes are the problem

[Miiqqula]

Well. You also need sand enginecover. a lot

[Gary30]

Thanks for the advice! I have been having a good fiddle and I'm not sure I can ever get it to fit perfectly (above my pay grade!) but I don't think it's too bad now, I will probably display it with the cover open anyway to show off the nice engine detail, and for photographic purposes I can probably use some strategically placed masking tape to hold the cover in the exact position I need to get a decent photo

It's ready for primer now, and I've begun building up the engine block and prepping a few chassis parts. I'll get some photos asap.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Watching

[Gary30]

Primer has gone down and base coat is now done, not 100% happy with the base coat, it’s a wee bit rough, not really sure why, I was spraying in direct sunlight so maybe the levelling thinner didn’t have enough time to do its thing, I don’t know! Quietly confident the 2K will cover it though. That will be tomorrow probably.

[MrBowcat]

Nice progress so far Gary.

With regards to the wheels, I recently built the Tamiya F50. I normally strip chrome and paint, but with the F50 I left the chrome alone and went over it with some Tamiya smoke. They came out really well. I can post pics if you like.

[Gary30]

Nice progress so far Gary.

With regards to the wheels, I recently built the Tamiya F50. I normally strip chrome and paint, but with the F50 I left the chrome alone and went over it with some Tamiya smoke. They came out really well. I can post pics if you like.

Thanks buddy, but I fear it may be too late, I stripped the chrome over the weekend, so the wheels are black now and ready for paint! The intercoolers were also chrome but needed a lot of cleanup so it made sense to strip the whole sprue and paint it again!

Base coat down:

[ForbesHutton]

If I win the lottery there's a F40 coming my way.
Two interesting things about the F40:
-it was the last Ferrari approved by Enzo, he died not long after it went into production
-it was only available in red, if you see one in any other color, it's a repaint.

[Gary30]

If I win the lottery there's a F40 coming my way.
Two interesting things about the F40:
-it was the last Ferrari approved by Enzo, he died not long after it went into production
-it was only available in red, if you see one in any other color, it's a repaint.

And you could see the carbon weave of the body underneath that red paint as the paint was so thin to keep the weight down, so I'm hoping my shoddy finish will replicate that once the 2K is on

[Hawkmoon]

Looking good Gary and nice job on the paint

[barryf1fan]

Oh man!! Looking good Gary! One of my fav Ferrari road cars.

That paint and color look spot on. WooHoo!! Ferrari RED

[Gary30]

Well the 2K has gone down, not my finest work, I'm not really sure where I went wrong, I think laying the basecoat down in direct sunlight was where it all began to unwind, my first time spraying a body with Tamiya LP paint as well, so wasn't 100% sure about thinning and pressures.....anyway, with a wet sand and a polish yesterday, it has turned out 'ok', I'm really happy with the shade of red, and this sounds like a cop out, but I actually think a slightly less than perfect finish almost adds to the realism as the F40 was known for extremely thin paint with the weave texture visible underneath, I'll live with it!




Onwards with the engine and interior now, thanks for looking!

[Gary30]

Things are moving now, engine is slowly coming together, most things have been painted now, just adding details and subtle weathering here and there, lots of construction still to be done and final touch ups etc, maybe another weeks work in this one to get it finished.

[jchrisf]

Beautiful work! What color did you use for silver on the transmission and engine?

[Gary30]

Beautiful work! What color did you use for silver on the transmission and engine?

Cheers. It's my new favourite paint, Tamiya LP48 Sparkling Silver, it goes down so nice, coverage is also amazing!

The engine and gearbox has also had a light wash using Black panel liner, but the silver colour really does shine.

Also, I should say that's with no primer whatsoever, straight onto bare plastic.

[jchrisf]

Beautiful work! What color did you use for silver on the transmission and engine?

Cheers. It's my new favourite paint, Tamiya LP48 Sparkling Silver, it goes down so nice, coverage is also amazing!

The engine and gearbox has also had a light wash using Black panel liner, but the silver colour really does shine.

Also, I should say that's with no primer whatsoever, straight onto bare plastic.

Thanks Gary! It looks great!

[Tankboy76]

Beautiful work! What color did you use for silver on the transmission and engine?

Cheers. It's my new favourite paint, Tamiya LP48 Sparkling Silver, it goes down so nice, coverage is also amazing!

The engine and gearbox has also had a light wash using Black panel liner, but the silver colour really does shine.

Also, I should say that's with no primer whatsoever, straight onto bare plastic.

It does look real good. LPs aren’t out in the US yet, but I hope the can of TS mica silver I have coming looks similar.

[Gary30]

Thanks everyone, this is always the most satisfying part of the build, watching everything come together...

Wheels are done, pictures may not show it, but the wheels centres are matt aluminium and the outers are silver, I didn't want the effect too pronounced as I think it looks out of scale



And I've been working some more on the engine this evening....In progress...


Pretty much done now, just the hubs and driveshafts to go on, but I think I'll mount the engine in the chassis before I do that so I can ensure everything lines up properly, happy with this:

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looking good

[jchrisf]

Beautiful!

[Gary30]

And a quick mock up of the interior tub, bit of work left to do on this yet but it’s getting there

[Hawkmoon]

All looking good and nice work

[Homerlovesbeer]

Wow this looks sweet! Your engine work is really good, very realistic.

[Gary30]

Chassis is pretty much done now, just got to mount the wheels and some little fiddly radiators in the back end, so all that’s left to do is finish the body and do the clear parts (my arch nemesis!)




I particularly like the interior floor and the seams in the carbon composite material, I just ran a very thin bead of Revell contacta glue over the top of the paint where the seams were, it dries glossy and gives a nice contrast I think, not perfect, but through glass it will look quite convincing I think.

The F40 isn’t known for its creature comforts, a bare carbon floor!! Here is the 1:1 for reference:

[jchrisf]

Wow! That was quick.. It looks great!

[Gary30]

Just beavering away putting the final touches to the body now, pretty happy with how the black stripe turned out I have to admit, lots of masking for a very thin line but I think the effort is worth it as it sets off the whole car, just the front light pods and lower front lip to paint next....more masking! I used Tamiya X18 for the black, thinned a fair bit with X20A and at a low pressure, with barely any pull back on the AB trigger, it gives a nice rubbery, semi gloss tone, same for the window rubbers.

[jchrisf]

Looking good!

[Gary30]

Clear parts all masked up and ready for paint, A LOT of work gone in there I can tell you, masking isn’t my forte but I’m quietly confident I’ve done an ok job there I think, paint first thing in the morning after checking all the edges again and then I guess the proof will be when I peel all the tape off and see how it looks....



This kit takes a lot more work than the 959, hoping it will pay off!

[CygnusX1]

Really cracking on with this. I think it looks great.

[Gary30]

This is pretty much complete now, just needs a quick going over with the Ultimate detail spray and it’ll be ready for some proper photos, the glazing was really fiddly and very difficult to do cleanly, I’m not 100% happy with it but it’s not too bad overall. Looking forward to getting some proper photos of it and putting it next to the Porsche 959 for some ultimate 80’s top trumps!

Thanks for looking.

[jchrisf]

Looks great! Can't wait to see more pics

[Gary30]

Final reveal pics HERE

I really enjoyed building the two cars for this GB, thanks all for reading, and all the other amazing builds on here