[Transmission]

Just a few more shots of the 512M. It's a really nice kit and Slot.it got the proportions spot on. Much better then the Spirit car from years ago.

The mechanics celebrating victory!

Arturo with the trophy.

 

[Transmission]

Ferrari 801 & Ferrari Dino 246

Two Ferrari Grand Prix cars from the early years of the World Championship this time. Both are kits from George Turner Models so not a lot of real scratch building as the quality and detailing of the kits is excellent. I did change the drivers heads with heads from Immense Miniatures and did some work on the Luigi Musso figure to create his bare arms.

Ferrari 801, Luigi Musso - 1957 French Grand Prix, Rouen-Les-Essarts
The 801 had a 2.5 litres V8 engine and was an evolution of the D50. It wasn’t as successful as its predecessor though. Ferrari did not win a race in 1957 but had several podium finishes with Hawthorn, Collins and Musso. The model I made is the car in which Luigi Musso finished second in the French Grand Prix behind Juan Manuel Fangio’s Maserati. One year later, poor Luigi would die, again at the French Grand Prix in Reims, after a violent crash.

Ferrari Dino 246, Phil Hill - 1960 Italian Grand Prix, Monza
The Dino 246 was fastly becoming obsolete when rear engined cars were taking over Grand Prix racing. But at the super fast Monza layout with the banked curves, the front engined Ferrari was still a good weapon. Several British teams boycotted this race because of the dangers of the banking and the championship was already decided. So this was a good opportunity for Ferrari to star in front of the Italian crowd and that is exactly what happened. The Ferraris finished 1-2-3 with Hill, Ginther and Mairesse.
Not significant for the championship but historic nonetheless as it was the first Grand Prix victory for Phil Hill, the first for an American and the last win for a front engined car.

Thanks for watching!

René

 

[tamar.nelwan]

Nice job Rene, on the cars, pictures and post 👍

 

[conti_rowland]

Lovely cars,
Well done,
A

 

[Transmission]

Ferrari 312 B3 - Zolder & Paul Ricard 1973

1973 was an eventful year for Ferrari with many changes and little success. Not a single race was won in Formula 1 and a last attempt to win Le Mans was also unsuccessful. With the partial takeover by Fiat and the eventual termination of the sports car endurance program, nothing was the same anymore. It was more of a transition year. Mauro Forghieri was temporarily put aside from the F1 program and there was plenty of experimenting with various aerodynamic and mechanical ideas for the 312B3. And despite the fact Ferrari had the chassis made in the UK, the car was uncompetitive compared to the Lotus, McLaren and Tyrrell. No one had any idea then how successful the following years would be for the Scuderia...

The B3 saw many different iterations that season. I chose the cars that raced at Zolder, Belgium and Paul Ricard, France. As a basis I used the resin shell from Simon/DNQ combined with the chassis, motor and various parts of the Policar 312B2 white kit. SRC drivers and of course a lot of stuff made by myself.

At the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, the same car configuration was used as in the Spanish race with a wide nose section and flush side panels. There seemed to be a glimmer of hope for Jacky Ickx and the Belgian fans when Ickx qualified the car in third. At the start he even moved to second position behind Peterson, but the joy was short-lived when he had to retire on lap 6 with a broken oil pump.

The car used at the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard saw the second iteration of the B3 with two small front wings, inward swooping side panels and a new rear wing support. But Ferrari was no match for the front runners. A 10th starting place for Arturo Merzario and 12th for Jacky Ickx gave little hope for the race. Arturo eventually finished 7th, just outside the points while Ickx still managed a 5th place.

For both cars

• cut off the engine/gearbox part
• redid the air intakes on the side panels
• remade the large reservoir at the rear
• engine and suspension detail a combination of B2 white kit parts and self made parts
• rear wheels SRC alloys with Ortmann tires
• front wheels Policar with Slot.it tires
• as always, I use a small magnet to hold the body in place. This works better than making posts for the screws and it also makes it easier to create the very low profile of these seventies cars.
• decals were designed by me and printed by C&C design.

Specific for the Zolder car

• the resin shell has the side panels with the inward relief so I glued a very thin piece of polystyrene on it to make them flush
• for the nose section, I could use parts that came with the shell as a basis and added more detail
• I drilled out the two radiator air outlets on the nose into one large outlet
• this car has a complicated rear wing support system with one small central pillar and two additional supports

Specific for the Paul Ricard car

• although the resin shell had the correct relief in the side panels, I also glued a very thin layer of styrene on this one to better emphasize the sleek and hard lines
• made the front wings
• different rear wing supports

The building process...

Ready to race!

Bye, bye...

Cheers,
René

 

[merkit the grof]

Great research and great cars Rene, you have more patience than I have, all those small fiddly suspension bits.

Joel

 

[Greengreg21]

A pair of beautiful looking cars well done.
Greg

 

[DNQ]

Fantastic results
Some of this pics made me look twice as they could be the real thing
A true artist 👍

 

[conti_rowland]

Very beautiful Rene,
Great to see the different versions.
Also, thank you for taking the trouble to post and show all the hard work.
That, in itself, is a lot of work that many no longer seem to do.
Best wishes
Andi

Ps. Looking forward to see the Lotus, although not in a Ferrari thread of course!

 

[29458]

As I'm not into Ferrari, I'm not too upset but I can't see any pics, just the broken sign. It would be good to see some great builds though.

 

[Transmission]

Very beautiful Rene,
Great to see the different versions.
Also, thank you for taking the trouble to post and show all the hard work.
That, in itself, is a lot of work that many no longer seem to do.
Best wishes
Andi

Ps. Looking forward to see the Lotus, although not in a Ferrari thread of course!

Thanks Andi. For me, the process of building is the biggest joy. I work with computers all day so doing 'good old' craftsmanship is very relaxing and rewarding to me.

Yes, the Lotus. I have another double Ferrari project on the table but building the occasional garagista car is also fun. I will build it soon.

 

[Transmission]

Fantastic results
Some of this pics made me look twice as they could be the real thing
A true artist 👍

Much appreciated Simon. I had a good base to work from.

 

[Philip P]

Wonderful work Rene. So many details that make the cars look amazing. I love that you even have "Little Art" sitting lower in the car. Sublime craftsmanship all round.

(Andi, I plead guilty as charged! I will endeavour to post more process pictures as well as final result photos! 😔 )

Thanks again Rene for posting excellent photos of such fantastic cars.
Philip

 

[Quatrozero]

Well I am very glad this thread continues in all its majesty.
Dunno how i missed it.
Just read thru the whole thing.
Fantastic work. Beautifully depicted. Mega. Just mega. All of it.

 

[Transmission]

Thanks guys for the great comments. Very much appreciated, especially from fellow scratch builders who know how much work, but also fun this hobby entails.

Here are a few group photos of the 'B-Team', the 312B variants that I have built over the years.

Cheers,
René

 

[conti_rowland]

Truly impressive.
A

 

[Tissthemix]

A really fantastic group of great cars
Ciao
Giuseppe

 

[Trisha]

Lovely pics, Rene. A beautiful and thoughtful piece of diorama.

 

[Trisha]

The nicest GP Ferrari?

 

[Transmission]

Lovely pics, Rene. A beautiful and thoughtful piece of diorama.

Thanks Laurence. I build the track in a way that it actually works as a diorama when you're eye level. Like your fantastic painting of the 312B in Monaco.