[ROBSMC]

OK, Since the year is rapidly moving past the half way mark now, I thought I better get a move on with this build otherwise I won't finish it by the dead line. So today marks the true start of the build. Here is the 1/18 Hotwheels Elite Ferrari 458 China Edition that I bought second hand off eBay from a seller not far from me. It is in pretty good condition, but really all I cared about was that the windows were in good condition.

Next was the disassembly, which didn't take long as I have built many custom 458 from these HWE models, and the fact that the older these HWE models get, the weaker the glue bond of the parts. The windows and front and rear lights came out with only a little pressure, sweet!

Next I printed out some key reference pictures for my board, then stripped all the paint of the body. I use these pictures primarily to have it constantly in front of my eyes, but I have the computer behind me to go through the 25 or so detailed pics of this car I found on the web.

Not really any parts I can buy for this model, so lots of plastic sheet, Tamiya 2 part putty and lots of sanding ahead. I did have a Hobby Design wing blade though, so I will use this for the top mount rear wing.

Starting to mark out the body lines as the LB kit ties into these. Just a guide at this stage. Not ready to start making templates for the wide body yet.

Looking at the front of the model, the LB front bumper is much deeper and completely re designed, almost like a LaFerrari nose, so the whole center opening is different, larger and deeper to the ground. So I marked out on the diecast where I wanted to cut it.

Out with the Dremel and cut the front section out

While I was in a cutting mood, I marked out the vented hood and the new bumper mold lines as well. The vent holes are marked in the cross hatch pattern, but I have to cut it all the way back to the back line as well, as the hood will transition down to the mesh vent. This will all be made out of plastic sheet, putty and lots of sanding.

Some index marks on the hood so I know where the edges of the vents are, so when I add the plastic sheet to build up the inside edges, it will be the same as when I marked it out.

The Dremel into action again to cut out the 2 openings. I will still have to file the edges before I start building the inner frame

Hood fitted back into the body

Sooooo much more to come. Thanks for checking this out.

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 28/07/2019

Started to make the vented hood today by filing all the cut metal edges nice and symetrical and then started building all the edges up with 1mm plastic sheet. I found more pics of the hood and realised that I did not have to cut out as much as I did, not to worry, just filled in the extra gaps with more plastic sheet. Once all this dries rock solid, I will sand all the plastic sheet edges flush with the metal hood, sand all the bottom edges flush with each other and then start applying putty to fill all the gaps.

Next I started to work out the proportions of the wide body kit scaling off side view pics of the car. I needed to work out the size of the decals on all the panels so I can get my order in for the custom decals. I have a ton of Liberty Walk decals, so I have nearly all the right size decals needed for this red car, just have to get a few made.

I had all the decals in white that are on the rear engine window, so I had some fun on an easy job and applied them all today

And since I was applying decals, I decided to cover the rear engine surround trim piece too. I have done 7 or 8 of these before, so the process was pretty quick this time. Once I finish the vented hood, I am going to carbon that and then clear coat both these pieces, that way I know that is at lease 2 parts completely finished and I won't feel so overwhelmed with how much work I have ahead of me on this build. More to come.

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 29/07/2019

Back onto the hood today after the plastic sheet work yesterday has fully dried and is nice and hard. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to flush all the plastic on the top side and the underside too.

Next I used the Tamiya putty to fill all the gaps and smooth it out. Once this dries, time for some sanding.

Now it is time to start working out how to make this wide body. I am using the same method as I did on the LB 360 Ferrari, by scaling a side picture of the car on the computer, print it out and cut out the fender shapes. I have stuck these onto the diecast body to check size. They are nearly perfect, just a little adjustment is required.

These rear fenders are going to be straight forward as I can make these out of plastic sheet as there is a front and rear vent, only the top of the fender has the lip and blend into the panel. So the main part of the fender will be 1mm plastic sheet and the top part I will apply Tamiya 2 part putty, and sand it to shape

Front fenders are a mix of both with the back of the fender out of plastic sheet as there is a vent behind it, and the front of the fender will all be Tamiya 2 part putty which will blend into the new front bumper shape.

I then traced these shapes onto some 1mm plastic sheet and cut them out with the Dremel and sanded them close to the final shape.

This is the rear plastic sheet fender sitting in front of the body. This will be glued to the diecast with plastic rod spacers and joined to a plastic sheet skirt sill that I will start next.

This is how the front will sit, again it will be joined to the new skirt sill and glued with a spacer to the diecast body. The rest will be all putty to form the tops and fender shape.

More to come.

 

[ROBSMC]

Thanks T, I don't have a 3D printer, so I have to do things the old school way, But this works.

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 30/07/2019

Sanded the putty on the hood this afternoon and gave it a coat of grey primer to see where i'm at

More work to do on the back edges of the hood. A bit more filing and sanding to sharpen up the edges

Another coat of primer to check. Nearly there, just a little fine tuning and it will be ready to paint black and add the carbon decal.

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 2/08/2019

Today I made a start on the side sills as this will tie all the new fenders together. Now the side sills have a rake to them, thinner at the front and thicker at the back, so I am using some 3mm plastic sheet and I sanded it down into a wedge shape on the sanding belt, half the thickness on the front compared to the rear

Here you can see the wedge shape I sanded into the plastic sheet

Next I made a card template of the sill shape

I scaled the width of the wide fenders and then that gave me the width of the side sills. I then cut the card to the final shape

I then transfered the card shape onto the plastic sheet

Cut the 3mm plastic sheet to shape with the Dremel and sanded the edges

Quite a bit of fine sanding to get the plastic piece to fit snug to the metal body. I had to sand a 45 degree shape to the back of the plastic sheet sill to get it to fit over the diecast skirt. I also had to cut away some of the diecast sill in the middle too

Once the skirts get glued to the body, then the wide fenders can be glued to the sill, then the rest of the fender can be made out of putty to complete the top shape

As the fenders are flush with the face of the side sill, I rebated out the front and rear of the new sill 1mm so the 1mm plastic sheet fenders sit in there nicely

This is how the plastic sheet fender will glue into the sill. It can then be filled with putty and blended all together to form one smooth form.

Top finger of the plastic fender bent into meet the diecast body. Still lots of fitting to do but the basics are there now

And I was not happy with how much I sanded away on the hood shape, and it was frustrating trying to keep refilling the shape and trying to sand it back to where it was. So I decided to re do the hood again. Rebuilt the plastic sheet frame, next filling and sanding and getting it back to where I was before. Anyway, that's it for today. More to come.

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 6/08/2019

Made a bit more progress on the build starting with the back bumper of the body. The LB car has a new lower rear bumper and the opening is wider and angled, so scaled out the size and marked the cut lines

And while I remembered, the side fenders have mesh in the air intake, so before I glue the plastic sheet in place, I used the Dremel to cut a slot for the mesh to sit into. Without this, it would have been very messy to try to glue some mesh in place after the body is painted. Marked out the shape of the mesh from my paper template.

Groove cut about 1mm deep

Diecast cut from the rear of the body

The side sills I made were too straight on the outside edge, so I re shaped them to follow the factory sill. It pays to take your time and keep looking at the pics of the real car over and over again to get all these details right

You can see here the outside edge of the sill now follows the factory sill just like the real car

Second time around on the hood and all the plastic sheet now sanded back flush with the metal and ready for some filler

Filler applied

Filed all the diecast to create the new angle all the way across and down the sides of the revised rear bumper. This will get skimmed with putty and squared up before painting. I also drilled out the 3 exhaust holes with a 5mm drill bit so I can insert the new exhaust tips from 4.5mm brass tube

Next I glued the side sills to the diecast body. I used masking tape underneath to contain the glue, and also sat a couple of rubber blocks on top of the plastic, and taped down to the work surface and let this dry over nite. I used Bob Smith Industries Maxi cure glue which is extra thick and good for gap bonding.

They came out good, well fitting to the diecast sill and super strong. Now I can start gluing all the new fenders to these sills.

Back onto the hood and I sanded it all up and primed it in Tamiya grey surfacer. I am glad I re did it, it came out much better second time around

Then I sprayed the hood in Tamiya semi gloss black and next I can add the carbon decal on top. This is going to be one big piece of carbon!

Next I made a masking tape template of the hood

Then transferred the masking tape to the carbon sheet

Big decal ready to go

Decal on the hood. I sliced the decal on the sides of the vents and kept and was able to do the back angle with the whole piece. I then added the inner vertical sides of the vents.

Added the FI exhaust decal on the hood too as per the real car. I will now let this dry for a couple of days, then clear coat it.

That's it for now. More to come. Cheers

 

[ROBSMC]

wow

Thanks mate

UPDATE 9/08/2019

Time to start prepping the body to attach the new plastic sheet fenders. So I worked out the width and added these 3.2mm spacer blocks that the new fender will glue to. These will eventually cut out to get the tyre sitting up in behind the lip

Next I filled the body seem and the old side marker hole as these will be easier to fill and sand now before I attach the plastic sheet fenders

I also did some painting yesterday and painted the mirrors in black and then clear coated them. Today I glued the mirror backs in. These are now finished and ready for final assembly.

And I clear coated the engine carbon surround and this too can go in the finished parts pile.

I also clear coated the front carbon hood (in gloss clear to get a nice thicker finish) and then today, I sprayed a coat of Tamiya flat clear over the top as the real car has a dry carbon hood. I then glued some hexagonal mesh in behind and this too is now a finished part

This is the hood sitting back into the body and I have marked out the hood crease lines, as the new LB front bumper has a 'raised' center section that I will build up with Tamiya 2 part putty, then sand back to shape.

Next I sanded the putty on the body lines ready to glue the fenders

I then glued on the plastic sheet side fenders using Bob Smith Industries Maxi Cure glue and taped them tight. I will let these dry for a day or so to get nice and hard

Front fenders glued on also

Next will be all the putty work to blend all these in.

That's it for now, more to come. Cheers

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 17/08/2019

Tape removed from the fenders and these are now glued in place. I can now build the rest of the fenders from here.

Now to set the angle of the rear part of the fenders, I used tape to space them off the stock rear bumper

I then glued in the top and bottom plastic sheet plates as these rear vents are open, so rather than fill the top of the fender and sand or file all the putty back, I want a nice flat edge that the putty will sit above. It will make sense when the putty is applied soon.

Top spacers in the front fenders too like the rear. Putty will then be back filled above these and behind the face of the plastic sheet

This is the top view of the body with all the renders in place. Once this dries nice and hard, I can start adding putty to form the top of the fenders and the whole new nose of the car.

Now before I add putty to the nose of the model, I have to cut out some more metal where the front fender louvers are, as the LB louvers are much wider than the standard 458 air vent holes. It is easier to shape the putty without the diecast underneath to cut away too. Again, this will make more sense later.

I used the Dremel again to cut away the excess diecast

More to come. Thanks for looking. Cheers

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 22/08/2019

Pulled all the masking tape off the other day after all the glued dried rock hard.

So today was the day to start with all the putty filling. I am using Tamiya 2 part putty as I have used this before and like how it applies and sands

Started by back filling the rear fenders and adding some to the under side of the arch so it can be sanded back flush with the diecast arch

Then the front, back filling behind the plastic sheet, and then free forming the wider fronts of the fenders and the adding more to the nose to create more of a 'LaFerrari' pointed nose

Looks a bit rough, but I have way over filled above the level of the diecast, so I have much more to cut back and work to the first shaping

I had to add some to the underside of the rear bumper to so this can be sanded back level like the LB rear bumper

A bit of water on the finger and smooth the putty back

Top view of the front, quite a bit wider than the standard 458, but a lot to sand back

I will now let this putty dry for a couple of days, then the shaping and sanding will begin. This will be a lot of work! Thanks for lookin. Cheers

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 25/08/2019

Today I made a start on shaping the Tamiya putty. First step is to use a sanding block and square up / flush up the fender arch's to the plastic sheet, this flush's up the putty that I put under the arch too to add some more depth under the arch where the plastic sheet was a bit too high.

Here you can see where the sanding block has squared up the front fender

Next using the dremel with a sanding drum attached, I flushed all the top edges of the putty using the original diecast as a guide

I then sanded all the inside of the wheel arch's again with the Dremel and a sanding drum attachment. This gives me the finished inside shape of the wheel arch

With the inside shape finished, this gives me a guide to shape the lip and the top shape of the wide body fender

Then out with the templates again, when I cut these out of the picture, I cut the overall shape where the wide arch meets the original 458 fender, so now I cut that away back to the lower edge of the lip. That is the body line that I have to sand the angle shape too

I then use a black marker and trace the edge so I know where to sand the putty back to. I leave this a little oversized as with all the shaping, so I have more to work with.

Here you can see the line, and this has to be sanded back to the bottom edge of the line. Or close too.

Now I sand most of the putty away with the sanding drum again on the Dremel refering to pictures to get as close as I can to the angle of the arch

I also roughed in the shape of the nose, first by marking the center line, and then using the sanding block again to remove the bulk. All this is still over sized too, and I will come back to the front after I finish shaping the rear fenders.

Same with the front fenders, scolloped out as much as I dare with the Dremel

This is about an hour and a half of hand sanding with 80, 120, 180 paper to get the final shape. I think I am nearly there with the shaping.

Gave it a blow out with the air gun and wax and grease remover, then sprayed some grey Tamiya primer on the rear quarter to check the shape. I am pretty happy with this, just some very minor fine tuning.

Oh yeah! Next I will shape the other rear fender, the hardest part is to make them an exact match. More to come.

 

[ROBSMC]

Thanks fellas.

UPDATE 26/08/2019

Back to sanding today and I made some final adjustments to the shape of the flat of the arch to make it even. Also added some tamiya filler to the diecast where there was a few deeper nicks and scratches

I then moved to the other side of the rear and sanding it to match the first side I did. I just stick a piece of masking tape over the first fender, use a marker to trace the upper crease line, cut it out and stick it on the other side and again use a marker to trace the top edge. I then sand back to that line, and then a few measurements to check they are both the same shape.

I then test fitted the head lights back into the body, then marked out the cut lines for the vents that have the fender louvers in them.

I then test fitted the hood so I could mark out the hood lines in the new shape of the nose

Hood and head lights test fitted to check clearances

Marked the crease line of the front fender into the front bumper, then started shaping the rear of the front fender. Got that roughed in, then started shaping the top of the front fender down to that body line.

I then cut the outside line of the front vents with the Dremel, then used my tiny cutter to remove the putty from inside the vent holes.

Vent holes roughed in, and the nose got another sand to get it flush with the hood.

Just working out how to make the vent louvers, this is just some card roughly cut and just sitting in there. I still have to add more filler to blend into the back of the vent hole.

Soooo much more to go, but I am getting a good amount of work done over the last few days. Work is a bit quiet at the moment, so more time for modelling. Thanks for lookin. Cheers

 

[ROBSMC]

This is awesome, cannot wait to see the finished product!

Cheers Mazz, me too.

 

[ROBSMC]

Loved the Zonda build and now this one.. WOW Rob, brilliant efforts put in by you. can't wait to see the updates.. Doing the whole wide body by scratch is a whole new level..

Thanks mate, it was a good idea in my head, but it has been quite the challenge, but I am getting there.

UPDATE 30/08/2019

Decided to add some carbon decal to the engine air box, just did it in one piece, and used a fair bit of decal softener to get it to flow around the edges

I was looking for a wing blade for the top mount rear wing, I found this Hobby Design wing blade from the LB Aventador in the parts box, so this will work well, just have to cut the back curved edge off to make it straight

Continued on with the shaping on the other side of the nose. So much sanding over the last few days.

A bit more shaping on the nose

Getting the front bumper face edge like the real car, continually check measuring each side as I go to get symetry

As I am continually looking at pics of the real car as I go, I noticed that the rear bumper side pods needed to be extended further back and vertically squarer. So I added more putty shaping it while it was soft as close to the shape as sanding the sides of this would be harder since the rear wide fenders are already glued in place

More putty added to the right side nose as this was slightly less in width than the other side which was shaped to the right size. And a couple of other spots I added more putty too.

A bit more putty on the side of the left fender vent and added some more too on the sides of the front bumper vent

Marked out the final cut line of the new added shape to the rear pods after I sanded the faces flush with the diecast

You guessed it, more sanding and pretty much got it all to the final shape above the bumper side body line, trying to get that body line straight was quite the challenge, but I am happy with where it is at now.

More index lines so I could cut out the added putty either side of the main bumper opening. It's all about getting the symetrical shapes, so again, I am constantly measuring and drawing lines on the body, these get sanded off, and drawn on again, and sanded off, etc, etc

Side openings sanded back to the lines. Still requires angle shaping

This is the majority of all the putty shaping done on the diecast body. There is still alot of fine tuning to do and I have to finish the lower part of the front bumper, but this will be made out of plastic sheet

Now was the time to spray the whole body in grey Tamiya primer to see where i'm at, and I can now start all the final tweaks and fine tuning of the plastic sheet edges and final filling of little gaps and such

As you can see by this close up picture, the edges of the plastic sheet need sanding, original body line needs to be filled, and just general fine filling all over. This will all be done with Tamiya putty paste

Nose is symetrical, but again, all the fine tuning needs to be done.

Head lights and hood sitting in place to check proportions with pics of the real car. Happy with the shape and width now

Door sitting in place to have a look

Just sat the tyres under the body, but they are squished a bit and hitting the underside of the chassis wheel well tubs. I need to cut all that plastic out so the tyre will sit up under the fender and the car can sit slammed on the ground. This is a milestone set though with all major shaping and putty work done. More to come. Thanks for looking. Cheers

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 31/08/2019

Back onto the model today and I did some work on the chassis by cutting out the tops of the wheel wells front and back. This will give clearance for the tyres to sit up a lot higher.

Next I cut off the front and rear of the floor to make way for the new LB front and rear diffuser

Floor fitted back into the body and you can see the wheel wheels opened up. After I finish all the body work, I will get the Dremel out again with the metal cutter and remove the original diecast wheel well a few mm more so the tyre can sit even further up under the new wide fender.

Next I made a card template of the lower lip of the front bumper

I then cut a piece of 3mm plastic sheet from the template

Next I used a piece of 5mm x 5mm square plastic rod for the center pillar of the bumper opening. I rounded the edges a little, but will still have to use some putty to finalise the shape. This is just used as a structural leg to join the lower lip to the upper diecast body.

Lower plastic splitter and center leg super glued in place

I then cut and glued the little up turned end plates. Once the glue dries, I can fill and shape these

I then used some fine line tape run along the bumper body line, and sanded out the underside to that line with a radius at the top under the line as the real car has a scolloped out shape here

Revised all the back edges and adjusted the angle edge on the right side of the body, sanded and primed again to check results

Now with the primer on, you can see the scolloped out shape under the body line.

Still more work to do on the opening, and then I have to build the back shaped vents and fins

I had to assemble the model again to have a look, these are not the final wheels, MIY is making me the correct set of Forgiato Dieci-ECL's for this model, but overall, I am really happy with how this is turning out. Can't wait to paint the model after all this body work, but i have to wait for the custom decals that TK is making for me.

Way more to go. Thanks for looking. Cheers

 

[ROBSMC]

Is this a new LB kit Rob? A few of their recent kits also have the low set rear wheel flare so I was wondering. Going really well btw!

Yes Wes, this is Liberty Walks new 'Silhouette GT' kit for the Ferrari and they are making a similar style kit for the Lamborghini Huracan. Just google it, there are pics online for both. Thanks, progress is good but I am going to take a break for a week on this one for now.

 

[ROBSMC]

Are they tuned in any way? I thought it was just bodykits and air suspension?

Anyway, superb craftmanship, I love watching you sand, lol.

They have exhaust systems which give a power increase, and i have read that they have other performance upgrades like ecu flash tunes, filters, etc. Thanks, I'm glad you are enjoying my sanding, lol, I'm over it. That's why I'm having a week off on this model. I'm sanded out!

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 13/09/2019

Some more progress on this model too today, I repainted the stock HWE brake calipers yellow and I found these metal caliper face plates out of the parts box

I then cut and trimmed the metal face plates and added them onto the calipers. I then added some Ferrari decals to those plates just like the real car. I am using the stock HWE rotors too as I think these look pretty good.

Now a few last final skims of Tamiya filler where needed in preparation to paint the body.

I also added some Tamiya 2 part filler to the center rib of the front bar. I will let this dry and then final sand it to shape.

And while I was clearing some other parts today, I sanded and flow coated the rear carbon engine surround again to give it a super glossy, wet look

More to come. Cheers

 

[ROBSMC]

UPDATE 14/09/2019

Just some final adjustments to the body today so I can get the body into primer. Sanded the center leg of the front bumper, and the other little putty additions as well.

I needed to take more out of the sides of the front bumper, so again I used tape on the sharp body line and sanded using paper on a round tube to get the top concave shape shape and flat sanded under that

Gaps in the top rear of the fenders sanded smooth and a bit on the nose

I then had to mark out the angle of the fender join line which runs at the same angle as the back of the head lights

I then used my Tamiya fine cut saw to cut the line

I then went over the whole body with a 3M fine sanding sponge to smooth all the Tamiya primer

I then got the Dremel out again and ground away the original diecast arch and some of the new putty as well so that the tyre will sit up under the wheel arch lip

All arches cut away on the inside

Gave the body a blow down and wiped it all clean with some wax and grease remover, then primed it in white 2K surfacer / primer

Doors, engine lid and hood sitting in there to have a look. Looks good in white, but the model will still be painted in Rosso Corsa red

Next step is sanding all the body and then time to paint. More to come, Cheers.

 

[ROBSMC]

Thanks Pete, I just found that it gives the basics for the layout and shape. I used to just sketch the lines on the body and go from there, but this is not always the most accurate. It helps too if you can find side view pics of the model you want to copy, luckily there are a ton of Liberty Walk cars on the web, so pretty easy to find and scale the pics to make the templates.