Ferrari 250GT SWB Fresh from the Barn!

[jaymcminn]

I've recently gotten interested in the idea of preserved, as opposed to restored, vintage sports and racing cars. It's a fascinating topic discussed at length in Miles Collier's book "The Archaeological Automobile" and is probably most succinctly summed up by the phrase "It's only original once". I've become more interested in modeling this aspect of the collector car hobby lately. I still enjoy building shiny things but it's fun to shake things up once in a while!

This is the rare Italeri Ferrari 250GT SWB kit. It's a later development of their 250 series kits (the 250GTO and SWB California kits came first and have been rereleased several times) and is a pretty decent representation of the shape of a later SWB. There are glaring inaccuracies in other areas of the kit, though. The seats are atrocious, being incorrect in shape and detail as well as being closer to 1/32 scale in size. The engine bay is okay, but short of detail. The chassis is good and the stance out of the box is excellent, however. It's not modern Tamiya, but it's not bad at all.

Certain elements will always make or break a build. The kit wire wheels are acceptable but there are better alternatives out there. PE wires are an improvement but the latest generation of 3d-printed wire wheels are a game-changer. The units here are big & little Borranis with Dunlop racing tires by Jack Modelling. They fit the kit's spindles perfectly with just some spacers needed between the brake disc and wheel back to push the wheels out a bit. The seats are Revell Shelby Cobra units modified to represent stock racing buckets with Tamiya 2-part putty and wire. 

I've said it before but the thing when you take a build like this on is that you can't have a weathered body and a pristine interior and chassis. When you start down that path prepare to walk it until the end. So you're not just painting every part... you're painting, then applying a wash, then dry-brushing and maybe even applying pastels to basically every single part. Lots of work, but it's a lot of fun. 

The weathering technique on the body work is a combination of many things. Salt weathering was used to expose the aluminum under the paint. Basically you apply your base color (Vallejo Model Air Aluminum) and then moisten the surface and sprinkle with kosher salt. Once that is dry it forms a fragile mask. Apply your top color (Tamiya Maroon) and once that's dry, brush the body to reveal the bare aluminum underneath. I then masked and painted the roundels and numbers, and scratched cracks into the white paint using a dull X-acto blade.  I then applied Vallejo washes to the panel lines and to tone down some of the too-shiny exposed aluminum.

The interior, unfortunately, doesn't show well in the finished pics. I used a combination of washes, pastels and scratching through to a base coat to represent worn and faded leather. THe quilted area behind the seats behind the seats is thin leather I had on hand from a previous project. The quilting was added using a pizza cutter, which was perfect for embossing the pattern into the leather. See below WIP pics...

I added a fair amount of detail to the engine bay but ran out of room to add the radiator hoses Italeri forgot. THe most annoying fit issue I had was that the radiator fouled the hood hinges and needed to be moved back quite a bit, leaving no room for the radiator hose unit I was going to adapt from the Fujimi 250GTO kit. It looks pretty good though...

The chassis is appropriately rough and ready as well.

And some more pics...

The final details: License plates are decals from Warbird from their California license plate set. I mounted them to aluminum printer's plate so I could bend up the front plate. Pastel weathering on the body is Tamiya soot and oil stain Weathering Master pastels. The exhausts are "SNAP" exhausts from the Fujimi 250GTO kit. They were a popular period aftermarket exhaust for racing Ferraris. The windshield decals are from VRM's "Number Circles and Things" sheet and tell the fictitious story of the early life of this car. It was raced in the Targa Florio in 1962, imported into the US and ran the 12 hours of Sebring in 1964 and 1965.

As always, any questions or comments are welcome!

[Jim B]

That's one well weathered Ferrari.  Very well done.

[Roger U]

A really nice build. Many steps involved in the weathering but it turned out looking great.

[Dave B]

That's a great build, all the more so for the time you must have spent doing extremely accurate weathering. I couldn't do it, I'll stay the easy route and do shiny!!

Dave B

[bondo bill]

Wow great work

[1959scudetto]

First class model, Jason - though I was a bit worried about it when I read the start informations of your WIP, I must admit the result is outstanding. I will keep your techniques for altering models for future reference.

Edited September 22, 2024 by 1959scudetto

[James2]

Outstanding weathering and detail, thanks for sharing.

[jaymcminn]

14 hours ago, Dave B said:

That's a great build, all the more so for the time you must have spent doing extremely accurate weathering. I couldn't do it, I'll stay the easy route and do shiny!!

Dave B

Thanks Dave! My next build will definitely be shiny!

 

1 hour ago, 1959scudetto said:

First class model, Jason - though I was a bit worried about it when I read the start informations of your WIP, I must admit the result is outstanding. I will keep your techniques for altering models for futllure reference.

Oh, I was worried about it too. I was about 50/50 on stripping and redoing the body without the salt chipping at the beginning. Once I foiled the trim I realized that the more detail went into it the more the abused paint became part of a whole and decided to stick with the original plan.

[Funkychiken]

The interior weathering looks amazing, overall an excellent  build!

[Pierre Rivard]

Such a wonderful build Jason, and the WIP journey provided so much learning, thanks to you sharing all your techniques and materials. The end result is an amazing barn find with extremely realistic exterior and mind boggling weathered interior.

Incredible achievement sir!

[David G.]

After following along with the WIP, it's nice seeing this one in the Under Glass section Jason.

The final photos are fabulous and really show off the excellent work you building and weathering this kit.

David G.

[jaymcminn]

On 9/24/2024 at 7:48 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

Such a wonderful build Jason, and the WIP journey provided so much learning, thanks to you sharing all your techniques and materials. The end result is an amazing barn find with extremely realistic exterior and mind boggling weathered interior.

Incredible achievement sir!

Thanks Pierre! Coming from you that means a lot!

On 9/24/2024 at 7:58 AM, David G. said:

After following along with the WIP, it's nice seeing this one in the Under Glass section Jason.

The final photos are fabulous and really show off the excellent work you building and weathering this kit.

David G.

Thanks David! I like to break out the DSLR and fancy lighting setup for the 'Under Glass" pics. These came out maybe a little dark, I should have added a bit more overhead lightng. Weathering is all about recognizing that you need to surrender yourself to the element of randomness that comes with applying imprecise techniques to what is often a very precise hobby.  What the military guys do with it is amazing!

[Phildaupho]

Well done top to bottom, inside and out. The interior looks amazing. Preservation has become so significant in the collector car world that this year's Best of Show at Pebble Beach was an unrestored car.

[jaymcminn]

1 hour ago, Phildaupho said:

Well done top to bottom, inside and out. The interior looks amazing. Preservation has become so significant in the collector car world that this year's Best of Show at Pebble Beach was an unrestored car.

That Type 59 is an impossibly pretty little car. 

[slusher]

Great detail and weathering!

[Mattilacken]

Super cool build!

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[BVC500]

I usually don't visit this sub forum, but I'm glad I did because I saw this...love it!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yup, very very nice.