MikeA

Thanks for the feedback Peter. It is much appreciated. The car is such a beautiful shape that it really does stand out. The leather used is actually a fine lambskin. It will be good old Merino, as any Ethiopian sheep is not to be found in NZ outside of a farm park or zoo! Most of the photos were taken using a very harsh light which I needed to get an image of something that was all black. This shows the leather grain to be much coarser than it is. The leather is 0.5mm thick but is also stretched over the seat forms, although that stretching action in itself also accentuates the grain when looking at the photos. Was my first attempt at finishing upholstery like this. i did also try some very fine synthetic leather as well as some specialist leather for scale cars, but neither looked right. The only piece I used with that was around the base of the gear lever, as it was not possible to use anything there with a thickness of more than fine paper. But always room for improvement. I'll see how I go with the Citroen which awaits me. Cheers, Mike

Cut out the entire panel and flip it around? I ended up doing that with a similar stuff up some time ago. Was easier than trying to re-create the bulge shape for me at least. Cheers, Mike

That's come out beautifully! Love to see these PCM kits in their realised glory. I hadn't realised they had clear bomb fairings. Good luck with the Reggiane - one of my most challenging kit builds but it does make for a very impressive finished product. Cheers,

Love the weathered lozenge finish - looks for all the world like you've stretched fine fabric over the frame. Beautiful! Cheers, Mike

Should be a warning on this thread. I opened it and got lulled by the low key start. That is some simply gorgeous detailing and painting there! That beautiful layered depth to it. Cheers, Mike

That intake fairing beggars belief! Well done!! Certainly a complex shape to wrap in aluminium. Mike

That is very impressive!. Well done with leaping in the deep end on both a conversion and the metal work. Crazy nice looking outdoors shots! Cheers, Mike

This must take up some serious real estate! Very impressive. Love the stand. Cheers, Mike

Stellar! Turned out absolutely amazingly - very eye catching I'm sure. Better get her under glass though - hate to think what the dust would do to those tiny stars. Cheers, Mike

That almost beggars belief! "Pops" doesn't come close. And a magnificent save. Cheers, Mike

Just gorgeous! Amazing to see the scheme build. Never thought anyone would manage this ome. Cheers, Mike

Don't think I could ever afford to buy enough of these MFH kits to make the investment worth my while. It was repaid many times in the building! Many thanks for all of the very kind and extremely generous comments - especially for something without wings. The real car is such a gorgeous shape that I'm sure it gives an unfair advantage to any model in the looks department. The Pocher 1/8 Aventador is probably next in line, but might not be a WIP but a rather longer and more complex undertaking than even this one was. In the meantime, I took a final photo of the Ferrari out in the sunshine before she retires to her glass case. Cheers, Mike

Thanks so much for the comments all! I am pleased that you all enjoyed the photos. Sorry it's been a long time getting back to this - work and then the festive season got in the way. However, it is now finished - just need to get a case and make some mounting pegs to hold her off the wheels. The windscreen and rear window trims worked well in the end. it was just tedious works as the white glue struggled to hold the flimsy white metal and polished aluminium together whist I hand shaped the latter. The first photo shows the result of chain drilling to get the rough shape, which was then finished using needle files. The remaining photos are all of the finished model. I left off the side mirrors which are mounted on the door window frames of the real car as I was concerned that these would be too frail. I also omitted the temporary speedometer which is mounted on the top of the transmission tunnel in front of the gear lever when the car is used on the road - it is not fitted for races, with the drivers being reliant on the large rev counter instead. In the end I couldn't get a clear enough photo of the dial to make it worth my while. The other major discrepancy from Nick Mason's car is the shape of the front grill which has a flatter lower edge on his car - way too difficult for me to change on this one. The myriad of small, and some major, changes made to the model to reflect the real one really did add to the experience of building the kit. I reckon these kits should be enjoyed at least once in a lifetime. The custom number plates were made from 4mm and 6mm self-adhesive letter and number sets from BECC in the UK. The Pulse CD was tossed in as a nod to the role this car had for that Pink Floyd tour. On with the photos........ Thanks for following on the journey. It's a shame the engine is all but invisible, but the WIP photos show it very clearly. Such a gorgeous shape that car is though, so it can be forgiven. Cheers, Mike

Thanks Alex - actually my first time weathering parts like that on a car model, so pleased they look right. I used ground pastels and some Vallejo wash. Almost all of it is provided in the kit, apart from the few extra bits peculiar to this particular car. Desperately stopping my self from getting another MFH kit! I heard somewhere that MFH didn't renew their Ferrari licence, so I suspect the chance of anything else Ferrari coming from them is pretty slim. Just a small update for this one. I finished off the headlight covers. The covers themselves are vacform, but it was the chrome trim bits that were the problem. These are provided as white metal rings that are over 1.5mm thick, which have to be thinned, filed and bent into shape. The problem is that it is difficult to get a consistent profile around the entire frame and there is a high chance of breaking the piece in the process with no chance of a replacement. As I said previously I have stolen the idea of using these as templates to cut the trim pieces from 0.4mm aluminium sheet. The white metal was glued to the sheet using high strength PVA glue and then the sheet was chain drilled, filed and then sanded to match the kit piece, but with a finished thickness of 0.1mm at the edges and 0.4mm in the middle. A short soak in hot water then released the pieces for polishing. The instructions call for pins to go through both the trim and the clear covers, but I only set them into the trim pieces as I wasn't enthusiastic about drilling through the clear parts and then losing any wriggle room at all for fitting the trim pieces. The most difficult part was getting the trim parts bent to exactly the right shape to fit over the curved covers. Final fixing was using high strength PVA glue, but the type that sets in 1 - 2 minutes, so that I could "clamp" the pieces in place with my fingers until the glue held. Any excess then washes off with water on a Q tip. All of these jobs on the finished body shell are tedious to say the least, but certainly set the car off. Thank you for the "likes" and comments. Next up will be the rear screen and windscreen - a lot of chain drilling to come........ Cheers, Mike

Summer is on the way here, which means time at the modelling table is getting limited. This update includes the completion of the sub-frame and its attachments and the finishing of the bonnet. The first couple of photos show the overall chassis, including the fire extinguisher fitted and plumbed in place. Mason's car was adorned with a replacement plastic rear view mirror to replace the less sturdy and less functional, but much prettier, factory example. I decided to stay with the factory one, just for the looks. I couldn't get a decent photo of the reflective surface, but it is very effective. Apparently the sun visors were lifted from a wrecked Austin Metro, so these were scratch built after googling what they look like. PistonHeads UK has one of the few WIPs of this MFH kit. The following photos show the bonnet stay shamelessly copied from that site. The stay was formed from 0.45mm brass rod with a couple of washers drilled and punched out of some whisky bottle foil. The mounting stay and clip were cut from fine brass sheet. The boot lid has a similar one. I have also filched a way of doing the chrome trims around the headlight fairings and front/rear windows, which I will show once I've got them done. The next two photos show the finished inner wheel arches. The weathering is the same general level as the rest of the chassis. Unfortunately the rear shock struts bent slightly when the rear frame was finished, but at this stage there is not a lot I can do about it. It won't be noticeable on the finished model, unless I take the wheels off. I also see that the top hose has popped off the front oil cooler, so it will need re-attaching. This car was used as security for a bank loan to finance the Pink Floyd Pulse tour in the 1980s. Nick Mason was obviously very sure of the ability of the band to produce the goods and he retained ownership of the car - and no doubt made a healthy profit as well. Anyway, I always like to add something a bit personal to my models, and in this case the Pulse CD has been tossed onto the shelf behind the seats. It's always been a favourite, although annoyingly I missed the actual concert back in the day. Lastly a moody couple of photos taken through the door openings, with the car keys sitting behind the gear lever. And a photo of the model as it is now, although I haven't yet screwed the body into place. All photos courtesy of my iPhone now - thanks Jeff! Any comments welcome. Cheers, Mike