1/12 MFH Ferrari GTO 250 - Finished

[Alex]

WOW what a beautiful result.  Congratulations on wrapping up your build so successfully!

[machine_marty]

Absolutely beautiful work, superb..!

[geedubelyer]

Magnificent job Mike. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride.

 

What an achingly beautiful car. 

[GreyGhost]

Gorgeous job on The Prancing Horse ..! 

I bet Enzo is proud ..! 

 

~Gregg

Edited January 18, 2022 by GreyGhost

[MikeA]

On 1/18/2022 at 9:58 AM, Pascal said:

Excellent job Mike.

 

Nice to see someone that actually builds this kit, instead of collectors buying them as an investment.

 

Stunning work.

 

Sincerely

 

Pascal

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

[Pascal]

The Pocher Aventador will be a walk in the park after this MFH kit. It's basically a snap and screw kit, but it's a nice canvas for extra detailling.

[PAD]

I've just found this wonderful build of the MFH Ferrari 250 GTO. While the quality of the kit and building of it are first class, I would like to make a point regarding the use of real leather for upholstering seats in models whether cars, planes, or whatever. The model here is to 1:12 scale so if the seats are to be covered with real leather which is 1:1 scale, then it needs to be from an animal with an exceptionally fine grain pattern. Having been associated with the leather industry for many years, I would suggest leather made from Ethiopian Hair sheep as used for golf gloves would be my selection if I was going to use leather for model seating applications.  It has a very fine grain, is very thin and stretchy whilst having a high tensile strength. However even that would have a grain pattern which is too course for all but the largest scales 1:12 and larger. Automotive upholstery has for many years been made from cow hide, apart from  maybe bespoke seats made for the cars of the rich and famous. If the grain pattern of cow hide was reduced in size 12 times then it would be almost invisible. Unfortunately, the grain in the images is extremely visible and if scaled up sould be more akin to the hide of a much larger beast than a cow. It's hard to say from the images,  but it looks like pig or maybe goat skin. Sorry to be a nay sayer on this point when the rest of the build is exceptional. 

 

I've only read as far as the covering of the seats but look forward to reading the rest of the build. 

 

Cheers,

Peter

[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

 

 

 

[PAD]

Hi Mike,

It did cross my mind that it could be sheepskin but I discounted that. In all my years in the leather industry there was only ever one tanner of lambskins here in the UK and they only processed it with the wool on, so I've never seen the grain of a lambskin. The skins were all sourced from NZ and the supply was seasonal as all the skins came from casualties (still borns etc.) 

 

Next time you are anywhere near a golf shop have a look at the golf gloves. A UK company (Pittards) produced leather for Footjoy golf gloves from hair sheep, so you could compare the grain with the lambskin. It tends to be undyed (a pale blue colour) but you could colour it with an permanant marker. I believe the grain pattern would  be finer than the lambskin but it would be a very expensive way to cover two 1:12 scale seats! 

 

As a modeller I have built model steam engines from etched brass and nickel silver kits in 1:43 scale for over 30 years before recently getting an interest in model cars. So far I've only made upgrades to 1:18 diecast models so not at the same level or size that you are working in.  I've recently acquired a Hotwheels Ferrari 250 GTO and whie searching for background information on the prototypes I discovered this forum and your incredible work. I know you shouldn't use models as refference works, but there's so much in the MFH kit that you never see in prototype images that I'm going to cut myself some slack on that. MFH have a number of kits that I'd love to build and although I can afford to buy them, I just don't have the space to display them, which is why I went the way of modifying 1:18 diecast. 

Cheers,

Peter