[P A D]

After @StratosWRC sent me a link showing the HWE 250 GT Lusso he used to own, I decided to add one to my modest collection. I found this one on Ebay for a reasonable price and took the plunge. It's one of HW's early Elite models which I believe is just the base model with more detail including PE parts and wire wheels. The model came unboxed and apart from a touched up chip on the right rear wing is in excellent condition. The paint chip is no bother as I don't like the colour and as with the SWB, I'll be repainting it in red. Here's how it came.

The interior has flocked carpets and the dashboard is nicely done. Shame about the dog leg door hinge

The engine is not up to the same standard as the SWB version but is a good starting point for upgrading. PE air filter surround a wipers, plus the identification plate which is out of sight on the left wall of the engine bay. The grill on the bonnet vent is woven mesh. The bonnet hinges are very chunky and I will consider thinning them down with the file.

The lights are quite good although the tabs are visible and the separate front indicators are painted white for some reason as are the separate tear drop indicators on the wings.

The underside is quite basic although better than the base 250 GTO and 25O LM and the sump has straight sides rather than being stepped out as it should be.

The boot interior is much reduced compared to the real thing and does not include a spare as there is no room. Note the fuel filler inside the boot! A car manufacturer would never get away with that these days.

It has the Pininfarina badge and jacking point covers in PE along with the rear number plate.

Note the touch up on the rear wing at this side.

The wire wheels have a turned Al rims on the outside and PE spoke. The hubs and inside rims are moulded in plastic as are the ear spinners. The loose wheel is from the 250 SWB and whilst not bad for a plastic moulding is much inferior. On the down side the spinners are not handed as they don't have the sloping ears, although probably better in size then those on the SWB which I think are a little over scale.

What I completely missed when looking at images of this model in reviews etc before I purchased, is the larger and wider rear tyre! I paid a little bit more than I wanted to for this model despite haggling with the seller, but in the end I though at least I won't need to fork out for some BBR wheels as on the SWB. Sometimes you look but you dont see!

However, I've come up with an alternative solution to purchasing another set of BBRs and in any case I can't find any with the 3 ear spinners. First I decided to replace the spinners with the ones from the SWB. A little modification is needed to add a tab to the spinners to locate in the wheel hub, but this is what you get. SWB wheel on the left, Lusso wheels as it comes centre and Lusso wheels with SWB spinner on the right.

I also have a set of tyres that are almost identical to the front set on the Lusso. They have the same tread pattern and sidewall profile but are a harder less rubber like compound compared to those on the Lusso. This is how it looks with them in place. As expected, the ride height is now too low at the rear. There's a 4mm difference in the diameter of these tyres compared to the original rear tyre, so I need increase the ride height by 2mm to get it back to where it was. That said, I think it looks better already having front and rear tyres the same size.

Here is is after inreasing the ride height.

The front track is almost spot on but the rear was 4mm less than it should be, no doubt to accommodate the larger wider tyres. Therefore, I have also increased the rear track width by 4mm. Not a perfect solution as the tyres are slightly too small, but better than how it came in opinion. The better but more expensive option (about 40 quid including postage from Italy) would be a set of PO2 BBR wheels.

I'll show how I did it in the next post.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

Removing 8 screws on the underside allows the body and chassis to be separated. The interior, dash and engine bay are a loose fit in the body and the chassis is glued to it at the front of the engine bay via a tab. That needs a little work with a chisel blade after the screws are removed to free the chassis.

Heres a view of the engine while still on the chassis. As mentioned earlier it's nowhere near as good as the 250 SWB engine, but still has potential.

To remove the engine there are two screws, one in the gearbox and one in the centre carb under the air filter box. The box is glued to the carbs via two tabs and needs to be prised off. As is often case, the tabs broke and will need to be replaced. Moulded cables on the distributors - Urgh!

The interior is easily removed from the body after the doors are opened to move the dog legs clear of the dashboard. Note the PE identification plate on the left wall of the bay. The tops of shockers will need some work to improve them.

The rear wheels are a push/glued fit on the metal rod axle and need to be carefully twisted to remove without damaging. Removing the wheels allows the discs to come off the short hubs on the leaf springs. Note the discs have caliper detail on the inner faces but not the outer and there is no handbrake caliper either. As can be seen, the differential is attached to the chassis frame and the inner face of the springs via a moulded half axle.

First I cut off the differential at the inner faces of the frames. Lowering the axle will mean cutting through the centre of the frames, so before doing that I reinforced them with some 2.5mm brass rod epoxied into the frame recesses. 2.5mm brass rod is quite hard to bend, so I first annealed it in a gas flame to soften before bending. It rehardens quite quickly after cooling so you need to bend it as soon as it cools.

Then I separated the springs from the frame and the remainder of the axle and cut out centre portion of the frame.

Then to lower the springs/axle and thus increase the ride height, I added laminates of styrene strip to each end of the springs, with an extension at the top. After marking the position on the cross frames to get the correct track width, the springs were glued to the frames to give this.

Because the track has been widened the metal axle needs replacing with a longer one and a small gap needs to be filed in the bottom of the reinforcing rods in the frame for the axle to clear.

Of course the styrene strip fastening the springs to the frames does not give a very robust joint and would likely fail with the weight of the body on them. However, as can be seen here the new axle (2.5mm brass) rests in the recesses in the frame reinforcing and the weight is born by the frames not the leaf springs.

I still need to fill the gaps between the ends of the springs and the frames and reinstate the differential with a new half axle from styrene tube.

And viewed from the rear.

Additional suspension details will of course be added such as the tie rods and Watts Linkage that I've discovered were on these cars.

I've also made a start on improving the engine. The air filter box has a nice PE surround but is just glued to a solid moulding behind, when you should be able to make out the three separate filters. I had already started modifying the moulding when I took this image, hence the two saw cuts.

I cut 2 X 3mm gaps each side to represent the spaces between the filters. Heres the moulding after opening up the first gap.

When all 4 gaps were opened I chamfered the edges at about 45 degrees. Here's what it looks like with the grill on. HW had glued this in place but I've fastened it at the ends with twisted fine steel wire. I'll put this end towards the firewall to hide the wire. Fixing tabs reinstated from styrene rod.

And the right way up. I can slide the mesh off to paint the "filters" and when back in place it should look much better.

Compared to the engine on the 250 GT SWB, this one is much more compromised. This is the sump as ig comes.

And my modified version. I've still to add the fixing bolts but my brother has borrowed my bolt head punch tool so I'll do that later.

This is how the rocker covers and distributors look as they come.

And after hacking off the moulded detail and drilling holes to fit separate HT leads in the distributor and reinstating the throttle from brass hand rail knobs and NS wire. I'm also replacing the oil filters which look too small in diameter to me so they have also gone.

Here's the part after repainting.

And a dry run with the engine parts assembled.

Lots more to do but looking better already methinks.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[stevenmweiner]

Some nice work you're doing there. You're quite an engineer! 🛠

 

[P A D]

Thank you Steven for the kind words. Me an engineer? Only in my dreams!

The front suspension is very much simplified compared to the real car and that on the HWE 250 SWB. I haven't quite decided how much I'm going to do here other than add a representation of the shockers, but in the meantime I've removed the two cross bars between the lower wishbones. The cross beam on the chassis frame is prototypical but not accurately done so that will have some attention as well.

At the rear I've reinstated the drive shafts removed with the differential when increasing the ride height. I had some styrene tube of the correct diameter so after cutting a length to fit between the inner faces of the axle mounts, I filed two gaps with a round file to clear the reinforcing rods in the frame. The 'U' shaped gap in the diff was opened up to the diameter of the styrene rod so it would slot in place.

Like this.

I then glued the rod in place using the metal axle to line it up. Excuse the debris on the epoxy. I accidentally brushed some plastic fillings onto the resin before it had set. Luckily it won't be visible so the best thing was to leave it alone.

And with the wheels and differential in place.

The main drive shaft looks a bit emaciated and will be beefed up with suitable tube.

I decided the laminates used to lower the springs were on the long side and cut them back with saw and file and then gave this area a spray with matt black to see how it was looking.

I also filled the gaps at the ends of the springs before spraying.

Back on the engine, I've added bolt head detail to the revised sump.

I have also extended the dynamo, replaced the oil filters with ones made from styrene tube/rod and increased the height of the distributors which were too short.

Time to add the cables. I've seen some of these cars with red HT leads which look pretty nice and add a it more colour, so I've gone with that. The engine block has been resprayed and the oil filters brush painted with a mix of Tamiya gloss orange with a little gloss red to adjust the shade. Fuel feed added to the carbs from NS rod and Al tube at the ends to locate the fuel lines.

The conduits on the rocker covers are just big enough to drill 1.2mm which allows 4 of the leads to be located. The other two can then be threaded into the bunch and glued in place. The 7th lead of course runs to the coil, or will do when I've made them.

The fuel lines were made from yellow cable with fine steel wire coiled around to represent the reinforcing. The wire is coiled around a length of brass rod held in a pin vice.

After removing the wire coil from the rod, it is stretched to create gaps.

And then the cable is threaded through to give this.

Here are some views with all the cable in place.

The air filters have been painted off white.

And a quick check in the engine bay with the body on to ensure it all fits back OK and nothing catches.

Job's a good un! Lots more to do in there yet but so, far so good.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[slartibartfast229]

Great stuff!
Could I ask where did you get the mesh used on the air filter?
Apologies if I missed it in the text.

 

[P A D]

Morning Slarti,
The air filter mesh comes with the model.
Cheers,
Peter

 

[slartibartfast229]

Morning Slarti,
The air filter mesh comes with the model.
Cheers,
Peter

Ah OK, I always try to keep a lookout for additional enhancing pieces.
It's a quite impressive upgrade you have going there, and I am enjoying the process.
For the brass rod you used for the rear suspension I would be inclined to use scrap 2.5 electric cable, which is strong and easier to bend to shape.
What's more - I tend to get hold of scrap ends which cost little or nothing.
I would not use it for axles though, brass rod is the best option there.

 

[P A D]

I agree. 2.5mm copper wire would have been my 1st option, but my stash of copper wire runs out at 1.8mm, so it had to be brass. Once it's annealed it's as easy to work as copper, but you do of course need a suitable heat source. My Solderpro gas burner on full whack just had enough heat to do it.

Glad you are enjoying the upgrades.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

This is the radiator as it comes. The grill pattern at the front is nicely moulded but incorrect.

As is the PE insert at the rear. Also the overhang at the top rear extends down the sides. Again, this is wrong.

This is the real thing.

So I added PE radiator mesh from Spot Model to the front along with the filler spout.

And added PE mesh to the rear, removed the side parts and repainted black. I still need to make the filler cap and paint the hose clips.

Most of the changes to radiator won't be seen when in place, but what the heck. Here you can see the scratch built fixing brackets for the tops of the shocks, made from brass section, NS rod and styrene tube. They are just placed for the photo and and are still to be painted.

The prop shaft is too spindly so I covered it with a length of styrene tube. The tube was slightly too big in diameter so I sawed down it's length and then glued and closed the gap in the vice.

It also lacked the 'doughnut' coupling at the rear of the shaft so I made one from plasticard, using brass rivets to represent the bolts. To trim the rivets to the same length, I first place a suitable thickness of plasticard over the rivet then press down tightly with the side cutters before snipping.

And with both parts in place.

I scratched up some shocks for the rear from styrene tube, rod and copper wire. It should have a piston at the top but the upper end won't be visible so I've kept it simple.

And the outside face of the calipers has been added from plasticard.

Most of the central portion of the chassis frame has a cover plate which I've made from plasticard and brass sheet. I will fasten it to the frame with brass rivets.

For the cover to sit flush I had to file the gearbox and cut down the bell housing. I've also cut back the front of the sump cover which was too long and added a more realistic representation of the cross member between the wishbones.

And with the cover plate in place. To clear the widened sump, I've had to move the fixing holes for the exhaust outwards by about 2mm. The exhaust run and the boxes are not accurate but I'm keeping them. Spacing them out has also corrected their position at the rear where they were set too close together.

Adding the cross member at the front interfered with the fitting of the exhausts so I cut off the front pipe which allows the exhausts to be reinserted. The removed pipes have been glued into the engine block and when inserted, the rest of the exhausts just butt up against them.

Here's a side view showing the brake calipers after adding the extension for the hand brake to the rear ones. After I fitted the front ones I realised that HW had wrongly added them behind the axle when they should be at the front. I removed and refitted them but cannot add the rear faces as there is no room between the steering crank and the rear of the disc. I filed off the calipers inside the disc to the rear.

The petrol tank is too short and has been extended forward by adding an overlay cut from brass sheet. This is how it comes, albeit with the detail filed smooth to accept the overlay. It should reach further forward nearer to the differential. This image also shows the tie rods and brackets made from brass.

Dry run with the overlay. Note the unsightly gap at the front of the differential. I cut off about 2mm of the diff and replaced it with styrene tube to eliminate the gap.

And after painting. Note that the Watts linkage has now been added to the rear of the diff.

Back tracking a little, this shows the full chassis in the car before some of the mods mentioned above had been made. The tank extension should be wider but the frames on the model are set too low and prevent a wider cover being added.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[StratosWRC]

Wowza really good stuff, love the metal work

 

[P A D]

Thank you Stratos.

Literally, straight after I made the last post, I decided that I couldn't live with the narrow extension to the petrol tank. This is how it looks on the real car.

Once I'd figured out how I could do it better, I peeled off the origin overlay from version 1. I then added an extension to the bottom of the frames from 2mm plasticard. I filed a slope at each end to match the slope of the frames so it would sit flush with the front edge of the existing tank.

And then added another piece of plasticard to the back of the extension between the frames.

Then cut, riveted and shaped the new overlay cut from brass sheet.

I didn't make the overlay quite as wide as the existing tank as the edges are sloped and that would have entailed curving it at the sides as well as the front and back. It's possible to do it via some mini panel beating over a former, but time consuming and the edges can't be seen when the exhausts are on.

So this was version 1.

And version 2. I didn't extend it quite as far as version 1 which I felt was too long. Another reason why it had to go. Much better methinks! While I was repainting the rear end of the chassis after reworking it, I painted the cover panel as well. I still need to paint the cross beam between the front wishbones as that is attached to the sump not the frames. It has to be that way so that the sump and drive shaft can be fitted.

I'm still waiting for some better weather so I can paint the 250 SWB and I'll be stripping and respraying this one as well. I don't mind spraying a little primer and matt black in less than perfect conditions, but I'm not risking doing the bodywork.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

I got the shocks painted and made a pair for the front. The front ones are chamfered on the inside as they need to slop inwards towards the top.

Dry run with the rear shocks.

The front ones are glued to the outside of the engine bay walls. I taped the interior structure to the chassis so the upper wishbones were in the right place to allow the shocks to be correctly located. They are not fixed to the wishbones just butted up against the edge.

I have now resprayed the interior to a beige/tan shade. I didnt mask the flocking as I wanted to adjust the shade to better compliment the beige "leather " areas. It didn't give a very good result so I brush painted it with a dilute mix of Tamiya acrylic and thinners matched to the spray paint. This gave an acceptable contrast to the upholstered areas.

As can be seen, the shocks don't line up with the mounts inside the engine bay, but once the car is back together it won't show.

I removed the combined horn and compressor moulding, separated the compressor and then modified the horns to look more like the real thing. The shafts are overly thick compared to the elegant shape of the real thing, but I can live with it.
I fixed the horns to the side wall but put the compressor back on the shelf where it was. With hindsight it should also be on the wall but it looks OK. It can't be seen but I bifurcated the the air line as on the real thing to give separate feeds to the horns. The air duct needed some modification to the mountings to get it to sit tight against the side and firewalls.

Still more detail to add to this side, but the fuel filter is made and fixed to the sidewall. Shocker fixing brackets now painted.

And a couple of views showing how it looks with the engine in place. I've now made the radiator cap and added the breather tube to the filler pipe.

I forgot to place the battery in the last image. I've modified it to include the fixing plate on top which I've painted black, and I've hacked off the moulded cables ready for replacing. I wasn't happy with the placement of the fuel feed pipe at the side of the carbs so I've removed it to adjust. Still more to add but its looking more business like now.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

The split pins I ordered to reposition the fuel feed to the carbs arrive, so I got to work replacing the feed pipe. The 'hole' at the end of the pins is too large and needs to be reduced by squeezing the pin with a pair of pliers around a suitable sized drill shank. I annealed the ends of the pins to soften the metal before doing that.

I used a new piece of NS rod and transferred the flexible pipes from the old one.

The fule feed is now bracketed off the carbs as it should be.

The engine bay is now completed and reassemble. I've added the coils, brake fluid reservoir, the mounting hooks and tube feed to the screen wash bladder, connected the feeds to the fuel filter and added the heater hoses to the cabin.

The underside is now finished with the relevant brake and fuel lines added.

I could add the anti roll bar at the front, but the wishbone assembly are so simplified I have decided to leave it.

The interior. I've kept the original steering wheel for now but have thinned the rim by spinning in the mini drill and sanding and I've painted the spokes and centre with chrome ink, but have yet to add the prancing horse badge.

And the wheels have had air valves added. The wheels are very good as they come but it's a shame HW didn't use better spinners (these are from the discarded SWB wheels) and better tyres. These tyres are from my spares box and I think they are the front ones from my HW 250 LM and 250 GTO. Both those models had the wheels replaced with the excellent BBR Borranis.

There are one ot two bits and pieces still to be done on the chassis/interior but I'm putting it aside for now until the weather on the sinking island improves and I can strip and repaint the body in rosso corsa. In the meantime I've reassembled it.

It looks a whole lot better with the same size tyres front and rear!

The paint pot/tool organiser came from a small manufacturer near Ferrybridge in East Yorkshire, with their name being a play on words. I keep my most frequently used tools in the centre drawers, with the side drawers for further paint storage. The small Tamiya paint jars just fit in.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[StratosWRC]

the wheels alone make a huge difference, engine looks great as well now

 

[X-Filer]

The Lusso was one of my first "in-depth" jobs. It's my all-time favourite Ferrari and aside from the insanely detailed (and insanely expensive) Amalgam, I never saw the Elite as worthy so I had to do it. I ended up using two separate cars to complete mine, started up with a Foundation to which I added a Tremonia kit (I actually fint the Foundation a better starting point for it has less paint to get you distracted but other than that it's like you said, they're exactly the same mould and parts are easilly interchangeable. But one thing I couldn't get to what I thought the model deserved were the window frames which in the Elite include the rubber seals around the windshield so I actually got an Elite just to swap the bodywork, since I already had done all the work on the engine, chassis and interior. When I put them side-to-side, I actually like the Foundation interior better, it has chromed trim instead of silver and the seats aren't painted so they have a better texture in my eyes.

I tried to remove the wheels from my Elite but I started to feel the rim rotating around the spokes instead of the hub so I thought it was better not to force it further and take the risk of damaging the wheels (ended up selling the "Frankenstein" I did with the spares from the two models, which helped paying for the Automobilia steering wheel, BBR wheels and Tremonia kit which, overall, were more expensive than the Foundation I started working on. I like the solution you found but, don't get me wrong, those tyres are way too low-profile for the car. Also, nitpicking a little bit, and never intending to speek badly from your stellar work (damn, now ther's a better 250 GT Lusso than mine LOL!), you know what could improve the model look even further? Those nice metal tail pipes you used on the DB4 GTZ. I did mine from an old radio antenna:

 

[P A D]

Hi João,
Your Lusso looks great. There aren't many images on your garage thread so if you have any more feel for free to post them here as I'd love to see them. Interesting how you prefer the Lusso over the 250 SWB and 250 GTO. For me the GTO just edges out the SWB, with the Lusso in third place.

Yeah, the tyres are a let down and BBRs would be much better, but I don't want to waste those nice HWE wire wheels. Strange how HW put poor wheels with decent spinners on the SWB and good wheels and poor spinners on the lusso! However, you've convinced me on the tailpipes so I'll be digging out the boot lace ferrules. Nice idea using an old radio antenna on yours.

As to the steering wheel, again I can't argue with you. I guess I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and buy from this commercial dinosaur Automobilia. If I do, I'll get one for the SWB as well.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[X-Filer]

Yeah, I don't know why but I get all flimsy-kneed when I see the Lusso. Don't get me wrong, I love both the GTO and the Passo Corto but the Lusso is the one if-I-ever-won-the-lottery Ferrari I'd have. I guess that sloping rear with the Kamm tail and clean side lines (the GTO and SWB are a bit more muscular, especially around the rear wheel arches) and that egg-crate front grille with the separate headlights and the small "bumperettes" under the turn signals...

I get what you mean about the SWB vs. Lusso wheels but bare in mind they're two models maybe some 15 years apart. The Lusso was one of the first "own releases" by HW after they were done with rehashing old Bburago mouldings while the SWB was probably their last classic Ferrari release so it's normal their options have changed along the way, which includes going back to (cheaper) plastic wheels instead of the PE but refining the knock-off nuts. IMO, their best wheel job was on the 250 California Spider, I remember when I got it I had to look twice to see they were plastic and not metal. Why they didn't stick with those for the SWB is beyond me for they were just great!

As for my 250 Lusso, I actually don't have photos of the finished car with the Elite bodywork on it. I took a few photos of the finished car when I got "phase 1" finished with my friend's car and took one more when I added the Automobilia steering wheel which I posted already... but that's pretty much it. I actually have to make a complete photoshoot of it some day, for although i could be better, I like it quite a lot.

Before Automobilia:

After Automobilia:

A gift I was given when I was making these two (not of my making:

 

[P A D]

Thanks for the images João. It would be great to see more of it if you get to it some time. I see you didn't do anything with the horns. Are they a variant on the versions I made of the standard Framm types? Love the 3 dimensional moulded wipers. Much better than those shitty flat PE ones on mine.

There you go again, showing me those damn steering wheels and it's got BBR Borranis! 😁 😁
I was happy with the HWE wheels and steering wheel but now you've put doubts in my mind. Ah decisions, decisions!
Cheers,
Peter