Ferrari 250GT Barn Find!

[jaymcminn]

This is the uber rare Italeri 250GT SWB Berlinetta. I've had this kit for ten years or so and have worked on it in fits and starts while trying to come up with a "vision" for it. Will it be a lovely Rosso Corsa concours queen? Maybe a privateer racer in USA white with blue? I've never been able to make up my mind... until now. 

I've been very into the concept of mechanically restored "Barn Find" sports/racing cars lately. There's a growing preservationist movement in vintage car circles to leave the age and patina in place as part of the car's history. A great example of this was the Baillon Collection Maserati A6C, which was found in a French barn several years ago. The car was restored mechanically but the patina and missing paint on the alloy body was celebrated and left alone other than cleaning and conservation. The result was fantastic.

So that's the idea for the Fezza. The backstory of the car is a Florida barn find Ferrari 250. The "Competizione" cars had an alloy body, and I will be using a salt weathering technique to expose the aluminum underneath the dull and faded paint. Racing roundels and numbers will be painted on and cracked and weathered. The interior will be cracked and distressed as well. 

First pics show the salt weathering going on. A base coat of Vallejo flat aluminum has already been applied. Areas of the bodywork are then moistened with water and a little dish detergent and salt is sprinkled onto the lightly moistened surface. Once everything is dry you're ready to paint.

Next apply your top coat, in this case Tamiya Maroon lacquer. Once the lacquer has dried you scrub the salt off the body to expose the layer underneath.

After a coat of flat clear and a polish with Meguiar's Ultimate Polish to bring a low gloss back, I used my trusty Amazon circle cutter to mask the roundels.

After painting the roundels with Vallejo flat white I used a scribing tool and a flat toothpick to add cracking to the paint. 

 

This is where it stands as of now, next I'm going to mask off and dry brush a nice easy number "7" in the roundels and foil the trim on the body. Once that's done it's time to crack on with the chassis and the beautiful Jack's Modeling 3D printed Borrani wheels!

[1959scudetto]

Very interesting approach to this highly appreciated Ferrari icon, Jay - I am surely going to follow this  WIP.

[jaymcminn]

The numbers have been painted onto the roundels by dry brushing slightly thinned black acrylic for a patchy, faded look. I then added Cavallinos to the fenders. I applied BMF to the trim as well, which I'll dull slightly with a Vallejo wash before adding the glass. I'm starting to feel a bit better about the direction this build is taking now...

[Bainford]

I am loving the idea behind this project, and it's looking fantastic. Very convincing aging of the finish. This is going to be cool. 
 

I have always liked the idea of mechanical restoration to a fully functional standard while preserving the age and patina of its years. So much more interesting than a full resto trailer queen. And regardless of their rarity or value, they should be driven, and I mean properly driven, not just puttering out to cars & coffee or chauffeuring the homecoming queen in the Founder's Day parade. 

[Matt Bacon]

This looks great... what a brilliant idea. If you haven't seen it, this article has some great pictures of the award-winning "half and half" restoration by Corrado Lopresto of an Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ Coda Tronca, which gives a real sense of how an "as found" car compares to a restored beauty...

https://apex.custodian.club/duccio-lopresto/

Looking forward to seeing more. You will of course need 1/24 mice in nests in the seats...

best,

M.

Edited August 1, 2024 by Matt Bacon

[Pierre Rivard]

Very interesting technique. Now I see it. Do you target a cleaned up barn find or plan to the just found in the barn look? Adding washes and dry pigments could do that. What a great build to follow.

[jaymcminn]

12 hours ago, Bainford said:

I am loving the idea behind this project, and it's looking fantastic. Very convincing aging of the finish. This is going to be cool. 
 

I have always liked the idea of mechanical restoration to a fully functional standard while preserving the age and patina of its years. So much more interesting than a full resto trailer queen. And regardless of their rarity or value, they should be driven, and I mean properly driven, not just puttering out to cars & coffee or chauffeuring the homecoming queen in the Founder's Day parade. 

Thanks Trevor, for me that's kind of the "sweet spot" as well. 

8 hours ago, Matt Bacon said:

This looks great... what a brilliant idea. If you haven't seen it, this article has some great pictures of the award-winning "half and half" restoration by Corrado Lopresto of an Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ Coda Tronca, which gives a real sense of how an "as found" car compares to a restored beauty...

https://apex.custodian.club/duccio-lopresto/

Looking forward to seeing more. You will of course need 1/24 mice in nests in the seats...

best,

M.

Thanks Matt! That's a great article, I love how they show the stabilization of the original paint finish. Referring to it as a "fine art restoration" is spot on. 

 

4 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Very interesting technique. Now I see it. Do you target a cleaned up barn find or plan to the just found in the barn look? Adding washes and dry pigments could do that. What a great build to follow.

It's going to be cleaned-up, but not too clean. There will be some washes and pastels added in a few strategic areas... the chrome needs dulling down, for example, but I don't want to tackle that until I'm in the home stretch. 

I have a few days off coming up, the next steps will be priming and painting the 3d printed Borranis from Jack's Modeling and modifying a set of parts box seats into passable representations of the stock racing buckets for the interior. More to come soon!

[jaymcminn]

Busy week, but I managed to get some work done. The wheels and tires are 3d printed units from Jack Modeling and they are exceptional. The wheels were painted in Vallejo Metal Color Flat Aluminum with an application of Vallejo dark grey wash. Valve stems are just 30awg wire. The tires were painted in Tamiya Rubber Black with Tamiya oil stain pastel around the treads. Correct wheels for a factory 250gt would be the smaller front wheels all around but I'm going for a bit of a "tough" look with the weathering so I decided to go with the 250GTO big/littles. 

Seats were tough. The kit seats, in addition to just plain being wrong, look like they're in 1/32 scale! After scouring my parts bins for something that I could modify into a close facsimile of the stock racing buckets I finally hit upon a set of Revell 427 Cobra seats. First pic shows the first seat in the process of being modified with Tamiya 2 part putty.

Both seats modified, with a coat of Tamiya Sand lacquer. This won't be the interior color, it's the base coat for my attempt to replicate cracked and scuffed leather. The interior color will be a businesslike dark blue/grey. The piping is 30awg wire again. 

Finally a few pics of the exterior with the roundels "dirtied up" a bit with Tamiya pastels. Also visible is a 3D Ferrari badge from Hobby Design. I think I just picked up the only set of these still available in the universe.

 

Next up will be my attempt at reproducing wear on the leather seats, as well as the rest of the interior. The challenge of building a "barn find" car is that you need to pay attention to every aspect of the build and how it all relates to the whole. It's a good challenge and a lot of fun!

[NOBLNG]

Wow! Fabulous work Jason. I’ve rarely ventured into this section of the forum, but I think I’ll have to keep an eye on it with fantastic builds like this going on.?

[Matt Bacon]

3 hours ago, jaymcminn said:

you need to pay attention to every aspect of the build and how it all relates to the whole

Great work, Jay… it looks fabulous! Are you going to make the requisite 1/24 scale $8m. and change it will take to buy this barn find when it’s discovered? 
best,

M.

Edited August 9, 2024 by Matt Bacon

[Pierre Rivard]

I love how the body has been weathered and the work on the seats is top notch. Can't wait to see how you will age them. Learning a lot here.

[jaymcminn]

A lot of research went into the best way to represent the cracked and faded seats. Ferraris of the era used Connolly "Vaumol" leather, which was a vegetable dye painted onto the surface of the hides. As the seat wore the dye would wear down, revealing the light brown leather underneath. Cracking would show up as light brown or tan as well. First, the seats were painted in Tamiya Field Blue. I hit them with Vallejo black wash and then used a sharpened toothpick to open up the cracks in the "leather" to expose the tan underneath. I then added some brown wash to some of the cracks with a 10/0 liner brush to represent different ages of damage. Finally I used Tamiya orange rust pastels on the seat squabs and side bolsters to represent the leather wearing through the dye. I really like the finished effect.  It might be a little over the top but in the interior of a closed car it will add a lot of visual interest. The center console and door cards won't receive nearly as much weathering, probably just a wash and a bit of pastel to represent dye loss, but the dash top and rear shelf might get a bit more. 

[Matt Bacon]

Those look great! I supect they'll need re-covering in the workshop, rather than just "preserving" Seriously, for display, have you considered using a set of the Fujumi "Mechanics" figures representing the restoration team starting to get to grips with what they need to do, and dismantling the car? The "Classic Cars" magazine I subscribe to has an "Epic Restoration" feature every month documenting, and illustrating, every stage of the barn-find --> Concours winner process for an interesting car...

best,

M.

[jaymcminn]

12 minutes ago, Matt Bacon said:

Those look great! I supect they'll need re-covering in the workshop, rather than just "preserving" Seriously, for display, have you considered using a set of the Fujumi "Mechanics" figures representing the restoration team starting to get to grips with what they need to do, and dismantling the car? The "Classic Cars" magazine I subscribe to has an "Epic Restoration" feature every month documenting, and illustrating, every stage of the barn-find --> Concours winner process for an interesting car...

best,

M.

I actually rather like that idea. I'm starting to get a bit invested in this project and it probably isn't going into the case with the rest of the 1/24 stuff anyway, so it might be the basis for a pretty interesting shop diorama. In fact I have pics for the perfect shop handy...

This is the restoration shop at Revs Institute here in Naples. It looks too pretty to be an actual functional shop, but they maintain, restore and conserve a large fleet of functional classic sports and racing cars in this spotless white space. 

[Bainford]

Those seats look fantastic. Very nice work here.

[1959scudetto]

Jason, these seats are superb looking !

[Zippi]

Just ran into this build and I gotta say Jason, I'm really diggin the barn find build you have going on.  The weathering on the body and seats looks pretty kewl dude.

[David G.]

Wow!

Absolutely stunning work on this one Jason! ? 

Everything looks as one would expect it to for such a barn find.

Thanks for taking the time to share your techniques with us too.

I can't wait to see more.

David G.

[absmiami]

So - when are we meeting at Revs ??  They re-open in late Oct - after the peak hurricane season … 

[jaymcminn]

On 8/15/2024 at 1:39 PM, absmiami said:

So - when are we meeting at Revs ??  They re-open in late Oct - after the peak hurricane season … 

Why not come over for their Cars and Coffee in November when they announce it?

[absmiami]

Yes - as long as its not thanksgiving week …

[absmiami]

I’m a turkey … 

[jaymcminn]

It's been a while since I posted on this build. Generally when I post a lot on a WIP it's because I'm having fun with the build and I hit lots of good "stopping points". This isn't one of those builds! It's been an uphill battle the entire way. Italeri didn't do a lot of engineering to update the old GTO chassis to the SWB body, and it shows. Now that I have everything test-fitted, shimmed and triangulated to within an inch of its life I can do a photo dump and an update, so here goes...

Dash foiled, painted and decaled. Gauge lenses are Bondic UV resin.

Dash added to firewall/engine compartment unit. The little visible carpeting on the interior is black embossing powder.

The door panels and console/rear bulkhead. The quilted part is thin bookbinder's leather with the diamond quilting done using a straightedge and pizza cutter to emboss it. As with the seats, Tamiya weathering master pastels were used to represent dust and dye loss.

Finally, the completed interior with seat belts in place. Barely visible are the rubber floor mats made from Evergreen styrene. 

The chassis is done and sits square and the engine bay is about 3/4 there at this point. The radiator fouls the hood hinges and will be relocated a bit further back. The carb tray has been foiled but I haven't done anything yet to weather it. More pics coming soon now that I'm on the final straight!

[Matt Bacon]

That looks fantastic, Jason. Brilliant work, and the distressed effects are to die for. Bookbinders leather and a pizza cutter, eh? I shall have to file THAT one away in the back of my mind...

best,

M.

[kensar]

Excellent weathering effects.