1959 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Corto Passo (SWB)

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

1959 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Corto Passo

This is my first Ferrari build since my return to car modeling 9 years ago. Even though I know a fair amount about sports cars and road racing, up to now I’ve focused entirely on hot rods, dry lakes and drag racing subjects, and customs. To get started in this area I thought it would be advisable to avoid building a high dollar kit and was fortunate to be able to obtain a copy of the much-maligned ESCI/AMT/ERTL version of the iconic Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta quite cheaply on eBay. It’s an odd kit, criticized for its inaccurate body shape and sometimes poor detail. Certainly the body is not accurate, and the wheels and tires are just plain horrible, but the chassis and motor are quite nicely detailed and with some TLC can be made to look quite presentable. But, despite the full detail motor you need to cut open the hood which is molded in place and the kit is missing some odd details like a battery, despite the full detail motor, and coolant hoses. The intake stacks on the carbs are pitifully small and out of scale, and some parts that you thought would be chromed, like the knockoff spinners (despite the fact that the wheels are chromed), fender mirror and the exhaust tips, are bare plastic. But overall parts fit is excellent, instructions quite clear with only a few minor errors and, with some attention to detail, can be built into a pretty fair version of this famous classic.

My approach was to stick to the instructions wherever possible and keep the project as straightforward as I could with minimal modifications to the kit. But correcting the more glaring faults, like the terrible rolling stock, the un-chromed trim parts, and, with the hood cut open, doing something about those wimpy intake trumpets, required some extra work. The wheels and tires were replaced with a set of exquisite hand-laced Borranni wire wheels and correct tires from Fernando Pinto, a Portuguese master modeler who sells his wares on eBay under the name crazycar19. They were expensive but the improvement to the look of the model is well worth it IMHO. The intake stacks were replaced with a set of aluminum Weber stacks from Detail Master. I wired the motor using a pair of Morgan Auto Detail pre-wired magneto caps to represent the Marelli distributor caps, and I made my own ignition wire guides from plastic rod. Unfortunately all that work is hidden under the big aluminum cold air box on top of the carbs!

Paint is Duplicolor Silver Acrylic Lacquer sealed under three coats of Duplicolor clear. The Italian tre-colore racing stripe, the Cavalino shields on the fenders, and the Modena license plates were all done with homemade decals. The chroming chores were handled using Molotow Liquid Chrome, which I must say is quite impressive stuff.

Overall it came out better than I had thought it would and was sufficiently satisfying to convince me to try my hand at some other classic Ferraris in the not too distant future. I hope you all like it.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[KRAZY RICK]

Looks good Bernard, building something out of ones comfort zone once in a while keeps things interesting

[BRITBOY]

Got to love a classic Ferrari! What process does the Molotow Liquid Chrome use? It looks very convincing in the photos.

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

Thanks Rick. I actually know a whole lot about sports cars but I've put off building a Ferrari until I felt I had sufficient chops to take one on - it makes no sense to do one half-assed, it just doesn't suit the subject matter. And most kits are too expensive just to see if you're up to it. That's why I did the AMT kit for starters.

Oct 10, 2017 14:14:25 GMT -4 BRITBOY said:

Got to love a classic Ferrari! What process does the Molotow Liquid Chrome use? It looks very convincing in the photos.

Thanx!

The Molotow Liquid Chrome pen system (see www.molotow.com/magazine/molotow-liquid-chrometm/ ) is a paint pen, a lot like gel pens I have used before, but the chrome is incredibly convincing, and once set seems to be fairly rugged. It seems to take 15-30 minutes to get hard enough to handle. I usually give it at least an hour, but it's certainly not an overnight thing. For small areas it could be used where you might have foiled otherwise, it's that good. On the Ferrari I used it on the wind wings and winshield wipers, for example. It's evolving into a whole system with replacement points and even refills. There are 3 points, 4 mm, 2 mm and 1 mm. I've only used 1 mm so far and the stuff smooths out so well that I was able to do the knockoffs, gas cap and rear view mirrors (inside and out) with it. At 4 mm I suspect you could do whole bumpers with it. I recently saw a model by a French modeler that was a re-do of one of his older builds and he said he did the bumpers with Molotow. I asked him if he decanted it and airbrushed it but haven't gotten an answer. It certainly looked at least as good or better than any Allclad II I've seen. If it's done with a pen then I'll be all over the 4 mm like a cheap suit. I'll probably land up trying it anyway.

The pens having been getting the heavy hype since last summer. They are not cheap, costing about $13.00 USD where I am. I suspect they may be cheaper in Europe where the company is based (they are German). I'm on my 2nd pen. My first one clogged up after only a couple of weeks and I haven't been able to revive it. I think I may have emptied it trying to. It's a problem I have frequently had with paint and gel pens. It's often discussed by users and appears to be quite common with most brands, although I haven't seen it discussed regarding the Molotow. But it's so impressive I've gone and bought another one. A national hobby chain here, Hobby Lobby, offers a 40% off coupon so they actually cost me around $9.00 USD but if they habitually last just a few weeks it will be a problem...

[BRITBOY]

Thanks Bernard. I'm a bit closer to Germany than you are so hopefully it shouldn't be too hard to track down.

[KRAZY RICK]

Nice avatar Harley