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Latelly I've been gaining the (bad) habit of embarking on more than one project at a time... and this is just one more example. Some time ago I had bought 2 cheap Jouef Evolution Ferrari 330 P4s, a berlinetta and a spyder, always with the intention of one day recreating two of the only three original 330 P4. The berlinetta will reproduce chassis #0858 just as it raced the 1967 24h of Le Mans (finished 2nd place) and the spyder will reproduce chassis #0856 with the spec of its last race for Scuderia Ferrari, the 1967 BOAC 500, in Brands Hatch, finished 5th:





This is what I begun with:















And this is the "charge book" (at least provisional, something else is always added during the work):

• Paint the interior of the panels and the belly plate in aluminium;
• Paint the tubular chassis matte black;
• Detail engine (includes painting the exhaust lines flat white, add the twin spark ignition system and the Lucas injection system fuel supply lines, paint the driveshafts, respray the engine block and gearbox, add pipes, cables, etc.);
• Detail suspensions and brakes (includes adding brake callipers, brake discs, adding coil-over spring struts, adding brake lines, cooling ducts, etc.);
• Detail radiator and surroundings (includes adding mesh to the radiator, adding pipes and clamps, etc.);
• Detail the interior (includes painting the tub in aluminium, the seats in red, redoing the gearbox lever, new pedals, new 4-point fabric belt harnesses with photoetched buckles, etc.);
• Detail wheels and tires (sanding the tyre surface, painting the rims golden, adding the valves and fitting the spare tyre correctly);
• Add the respective decals (custom-made by Légende Miniatures);
• Paint the aluminum window frames;
• Retouch the bodywork where necessary (the paint isn't too bad and I don't intend to respray it) and paint the air inlets and outlets matte black;
• Add the central vertical element of the front air intake) and a "duck-tail" rear spoiler on the #0858;
• And everything else that comes along the way!!

 

[slartibartfast229]

Looking promising.
I wonder if anyone has the tooling and is planning some upgraded re-releases?

 

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First, disassembling both models is rather simple. The undercarriage is only clip-on and only underneath this plastic cover you will find the bolts that hold the 2 half shells together. Already I can tell the plastic parts will be hard to work with cause they are too bendy, which after painted will cause cracks and dificult drilling wholes or cutting bits cleanly:



The quality (and not cheap at all) decals I had custom madefrom Légende Miniatures:



I wasn't very happy with the headlights to begin with and was always going to be one of my focal points (no pun intended). The low and high beams were moulded in one single clear plastic part so I separated each lamp, adjusted the shape of the high beams (which I wraped the rear part in aluminium duct tape to mimick the reflective background) and replaced the low beams with a set of Légende chrome-ringed headlights. Of course, first I resprayed the headlight cluster matt black before gluing all back in:





The original taillights were just completely clear. apparently they thought that, since the body panel underneath was red, it wouldn't make much of a difference... but it does. Sunce I intend to add a reflector behind the lenses, I painted them half orange and half red and added the chrome frame (also made with aluminium duct tape):



Painted the wheels golden and the friction plates for the knock-offs (aluminium for the 0858 and black for the 0856) and added valve stems that I did from 1 mm steel wire. The threads of the 4 "rolling" tyres were sanded down but left the spare tyre intact:









Covered the faces of the brake discs with aluminium duct tape and sanded them lightly so they look used. Brake callipers will be scratchbuilt later:



The rear brake discs I simply sanded the paint all the way untill the metal:





The floor of the cabin was just black plastic, the car has a tub made of aluminium plates riveted on the steel tubular spaceframe so I painted everything in aluminum and took the opportunity to highlight the seats in satin red and the dashboards in matte black. I then highlighted the knobs and buttons on each but nothing all that in depth:





a bit more colour to the radiators, added a mesh on the front part, the water hoses and hose clamps:





Work on the engines has barely begun. Drilled the holes for the twin spark ignition setup and the hole in the wheel arches where the brake cooling ducts will pass.The most complicated thing is yet to come which, in addition to going through all the cabling and piping, is the throttle linkage and the 2 distributors with 12 ignition cables each...



Part of the rear sub-frame has aluminum sheet guards, which in the model was just black plastic. It is now "aluminated" and with the spare tire mounts highlighted in black. It just needs a bit more detail on the 4 coils and connect them to the distributors



The exhaust pipes of the original model have the classic white ceramic coatingm which after removing the mold marks I replicated with matte white paint. A bit of dry fitting to see how they look on the chassis:

 

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Painted black the bonnet rubber seals at the rear:



The roof's inside has also been painted matt black an, a few hours and a lot of Tamiya masking tape later, managed to respray the remainder panels silver:





Just to see how it looks like now:







Here's the engine bonnet painted silver on the inside and the touched-up taillights fitted:







The 330 P4's undercarriage is also covered with a belly pan made out of aluminium sheet, which meant that the black plastic the models originally had needed to suffer the same fate as the other insides of the bodywork panels. I just left out the chassis tube elements as they were and painted the sump with Tamiya aluminium:



A few work done on the font bonnet. In addition to retouching the air intakes to the cabin ventilation (which are the 2 oval intakes at the centre of the bonnet's leading edge), I fiddled a bit with the headlights, of which only the frame and the main beams were used from the original. The turn signals and dipped beam are Légende and the fastening screws are cut-out pin heads:

 

[P A D]

Hi João,
Another pair of sexy ladies and you are dressing them up very nicely. May I ask what you intend to use for the brake cooling ducts? On my spyder upgrade I used silicone tubing as I wanted it to be flexible enough to allow the front wheels to steer. However, as you know the duct was a corrugated/concertina construction so the silicone is a big compromise. I don't recall where, but I have seen this ducting represented using a length of extension spring of suitable diameter. When painted grey it looked very realistic and I managed to source a couple of springs about 10 inches long from China via Ebay. Unfortunately, the wire is too thick and the spring is not flexible enough. Since then I have tried making my own springs from different wires from Hobbyshops and model shops. I've had a good result using piano wire from KS Precision metals. I've coiled it around a suitable length of brass rod and it looks promising. The wire is too hard as it comes so I will try annealing it to make it softer a d then make the coils. This should give a tighter wind and be easier to prevent gaps occurring between the coils. If you don't know it, annealing is done by heating the wire with a blow torch along its length until it glows red then allowing to cool. When it cools it hardens again after a day or so. I'll let you know if it works OK and if so post some pics of the results. If you know an alternative way of making the ducts I love to hear it as I now have P4 Berlinetta in the pipeline and want to improve on the Spyder. The silicone works well but ig won't take paint very well and just flakes off after flexing. I replaced the cab vent pipe with some smaller silicone wire later in the build.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[slartibartfast229]

For cooling ducts I use those drinking straws with the flexible section.
Being a high flexibility plastic means careful painting to prevent drop off.
For springs - ebay #163010425864

 

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I've tried drinking straws before but I honestly don't like them for 2 reasons: first, usually the corrugated part is usually very short (it will only be like 1 or 2 cm long, tops) so for these applications it wouldn't be enough; second, if you paint it first and then try to adjust the position in place, it will always start to crack as the plastic deforms...and a hate to have to start over again.

Therefore, I'll be using copper wire that I previoulsy wrap around a thicker plastic tube and then shape it into form. After it's completely shaped, I just paint it over with a thick layer of Tamiya tape and, hopefully, it will look something like a corrugated pipe.😁

BTW Peter, did you fabricate that cooler? Is that brass?

 

[slartibartfast229]

I have no solution to the paint falling off, it still happens to me.
To get around the short length of the flexible part, I will leave a small section of plain straw and feed two sections together.
After many years of kit building, it's the only solution I have found to work at minimum effort and cost.
But then we all have our own preferences.....

 

[P A D]

Hi João,
Your method sounds good for the rear brakes, but will the hose be flexible enough to allow the steering to work?

Yes, the cooler is scratch built in brass and copper wire. I'll see if I can find an image before it was fixed in place. The frame is cut from thin brass sheet, the cooling pipes are from 8BA threaded brass rod (in metric, M2 or M2.5 would be good). The "U" shaped frame is made first then the threaded rod cut to length to fit between the outer faces of the frame. Insert the rods one at a time and clamp the ends of the frame to hold the rod in place until soldered. Repeat adding one rod at a time. If you clamp in the vice it will act as a heat sink and no matter how good your soldering iron is, it won't melt the solder. The pipes that loop outside the frame are copper wire. Holes need drilling in the frame sides to locate the loops for soldering. I did it all with 145 degree solder, but you have to be fast and accurate, or some of the cooling pipes might move. Alternatively, fix the loops with CA.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

This is the cooler before I installed it. I hope the image helps you to understand what I wrote. This was before I added the loops on the outside of the frame. I can't believe I didn't take a photo after that! There should be more rows of cooling pipes underne6the top row, 3 or maybe 4, but they can't be seen when the unit is installed so I didn't bother. Some modellers like to add things that are not visible when the model is complete, because even though "it can't be seen, they know it's there". I'm from the school of modellers who " can't see it, because I know its NOT there". Haha. But each to his own. I think it's a big improvement on the plastic part as the screw thread gives the impression of the vanes on the cooling pipes.

You can see the loops in this image.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[genkov4336]

Good job so far

 

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Wow, quite some soldering work you did there, Peter! I like to see the craftmanship some guys put into their works, I still can't go that far but we learn every day!

Well, a few more updates. The headlights are done and I added the plexiglas fixation bolts (which I did out of pinheads) and painted a small strip red from the inside, which should be a small strip that was part of the front clamshell):



On the inner side, in addition to the aluminium silver painting, I deleted the horizontal bar that joined the two headlight frames together and then added the housings for the main beams, which I made of two shirt buttons:





The coupe's complete bodyshell:





Did the same hing to the spyder's body panels and painted the windshield frame matt black:



A bit of a dry fit on the spyder's interior:



Engine bonnet:



And the spyder's (almost) complete bodywork:



Painted the inside of the door panels matt black and touched up the window frames:





The 4-litre V12 that pulled the 330 P4 had dual ignition and mechanical injection. Thus, each engine carries 2 distributors, 24 ignition cables and 12 fuel injection lines. The ignition wires should ideally be a little thinner but these were the thinnest I got. The distributors are made out of used electronic capacitors (to the electronics guys, please correct me if I'm wrong):



The exhaust heat shields had to be scratchbuilt (the original ones were one piece together with the rear sub-frame), nothing but a little thin plastic, some aluminium tape, a pin and some patience can't solve:



The exhaust manifolds and pipes, of course, were painted matte white to mimic the typical ceramic coating of classic racing Ferraris:



The injection lines came from the cable of an old mobile phone charger (thank you Nokia). It is still necessary to drill the openings of the intake trumpets, to give them a little more depth:



The valve covers and intake manifolds mounted here on the block and the cables and piping put in place:





The coils are already painted red. Only when everything is in its final place do I place the cables that power the distributors:



Engine and gearbox lined up, to see how the complete set looks:

 

[P A D]

Fantastic work Jaoa.
I love what you are doing with the engine. You've definitely raised the bar compared to what I did on my spyder and there's lots there to inspire me when I get to my Berlinetta. Can't wait for your next post.

As to my scratch built radiator, if you're not familiar with soldering and working with brass, you could do it from plastic card for the frame and plastic rod for the cooling pipes. To make an impression of the vanes, you could turn the plastic rod by hand through a suitable size thread tap. I've done that in the past and it works a treat. Then you could assemble with plastic weld or CA. Just a thought.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

I did a quick example using 2mm styrene rod threaded with an 8 BA die. As you can see, it gives a good impression of the vanes on the cooler tubes. I think a slightly thicker rod and maybe an M 2.5 die would be a little better. You may be too far advanced on your upgrades to do it now, but l"ll give it a shot when I get to my Berlinetta P4. The big advantage with doing it in styrene is it will be a lot quicker to work with and you don't need a top quality die to cut plastic, so any cheapo item from Ebay will do. Or maybe ready threaded styrene rod is available???

 

[X-Filer]

That thread tap is genious! Will have to get me that, do they come in a kit with several sizes?

 

[P A D]

Yes, usually they come in sets of taps (for threading holes) and dies (for threading rod) along with a wrench for turning the tools. This is more expensive of course even if you go for a cheap set, so if you only need one size it's better to just get that. I just ordered this from Ebay UK, but I'm sure you can find a local seller in Portugal.

Metric Thread Cutting Die - Right Hand Round Threading Dies All Sizes M2 to M24 | eBay

M24 - 55mm. M2 - 12mm M2.5 - 16mm. Right hand thread. Sharp cutting performance. Available in a range of sizes:M4 M6 M8 M10 M12 M14 M16. Made with HSS high speed steel. We aim to provide the DIY community with a wide range of quality and affordable supplies that they need to make their projects...

www.ebay.co.uk

You can get them cheaper from Chinese sellers but watch out for the delivery times which can be up to 3 months!

Cheers,
Peter

 

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The engine is mostly complete. I bored the intake trumpets and painted the inside matt black and added the alternator on the upper front left-hand side of the engine like on the original car. All cables and pipes ar in place although there are some bits and pieces that can only be added after the engine is asembled on the rear sub-frame. When it's in place, in goes the gearbox and differential and only afterwards I can add the rear anti-roll bar, trailing arms and rear coil-over dampers:



Time to strap in the spare tyre to the rear subframe. Did the bungee ropes from a pouple of strings and bent a few pint into hooks:







Did the "headrests" from a dit of plasticard and added the 5 point safety harness from a Tremonia kit. And yeah, the bolts are just pinheads:





Pretty much all that's missing is the geardhift lever:





Scratchbuilt the front coilover damper units from a couple of old ball pen springs and bits from a destroied computer mouse:





I also scratchbuilt the brake callipers from plasticard and filling putty, sanded all to shape, painted and added the hydraulic lines and flexible hoses. To make the discs metalic surface I used aluminium duct tape and sanded the faces bac a little so that it looses its shine and looks a bit worn:





The front brake and suspension assembly:



The front assembly dry fitted to the chassis. I think I'll use the tip @P A D gave me for the radiator on another future project:



Chassis #0858's rear bonnet had a few elements added like the rear window frame and inner face painted red and blacked-out the 2 air intakes at the trailling edge and side "gills" (for now, I don't have the skills nor the tools to drill them out like Peter did so I'm happy with it as is. It's still missing the small rear adjustable vertical lip spoiler that I'll be fabricating from a fit of plasticard too, it's already polished out and soo will be placing the decals in place:







Chassis #0856's bonnet is also almost finished. Tried to open up the air louvres at the centre but the plastic is so darn maleable I couldn't cut them as precisely as I'd like so... I just resprayed it and it is what it is! All it needs now are the decals:

 

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In the #0858 I added the rearview mirrors from a bit of mirrored plastic (not sure if the miniature originally had them or not but the shrouds are specific to the Le Mans car so I had to add them):




Started to work on the rear axle. Scratchbuilt the brake callipers like at the front axle, added the hydraulic lines and, after spraying the gearbox casing with Tamiya Aluminium Silver, added the oil lines for the gearbox and differential lubrication. All it needs is to at the coilovers and the anti-roll bars once bolted in place:



A detail on the rear brake hydraulic lines, shich are slightly different than at the front. Did at the rear same as with the front disc faces:




The rear setup dry fitted and ready to assemble:




More updates soon. Stay tuned!

 

[P A D]

Hi Jaoa,
Looking good. There's lots there on the brakes and engine for me to copy when I get to upgrading my P4 berlinetta.

As to opening up the "grills", you may not have the tools, but from looking at your work I'm sure you have the skills.

Cheers,
Peter

 

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Wow, it's been 2 months... darn... Well, they're pretty much finished. Here the steering wheel with the prancing horse decal and added the indicator stack and a few buttons on the dash:



The photoetched pedal box I got from Tremonia, adapted so they could fit underneath the steering column. The throttle pedal is separated and fixed on the ground like on the original car:



0858's interior is finished:









Inside rearview mirror installed, donated by a Maisto Jaguar Mk 2:



I managed to figure out from one or two photos from the car at the 1967 24h of Le Mans that 0858 har, other than the rubber bonnet latches, a leather strap to keep the bonnet shell closed. So, I cut one off and added the photoetched buckles (left over from another Tremonia kit):



Ready to assemble:



After applying a set of custom decals (the first larger decals I ever put on a model), they're pretty much finished:











The rear spoiler made out of plasticard with the adjusting screws made of small pins. I actually redid the strap with synthetic leather cause the natural I had was too degraded and it just tore apart::











The number lighting on the door sides. In all the photos I've seen from the race, the #0858 only really has lighting on the left-hand side, whereas in the May test it had both the doors and the rear hood. I don't know exactly the reason for the difference but I chose to keep it exactly as it was in the race (in this aspect, even the Amalgam is incorrect):



Painted the inner axle peg solver to try and disguise the whole on the knock-offs. Not the ideal solution and I'm still thinking of plugging the hole completely: