Tamiya Ferrari F40 Progress (Summer 2020)

It's been a super long time, and I have been longing to pick up the F40 build. I forgot to post some updates I made back in Summer of 2020, where significant progress was made.

The fitment of the engine lid is a widely known issue with the Tamiya F40 kit. As such, I had to make some adjustments in order for it better align when the lid is closed. This consisted of sanding the bottom rear compartment and adding a piece of styrene next to the rear wheel arch pin hole to prop up the left side which is where most of the fit looked off. Below is the before and after all of the fitment related work.

I also made modifications to the side windows to better match the body of the car in real life. This is sometimes overlooked with the stock kit but the triangular area that is originally a piece of the side window is actually suppose to be part of the car's body. I shaved off the clear material of the window and replaced that space with styrene (angled and glued into place) so when I paint the body it will all be one.

Now onto the engine! As I was building, I was inspired by Alex Kustov who built an extremely detailed F40 in Giallo Modena (yellow). Similar to his build, I used a mix of Model Master metalizer paints to capture the weathering effect of various engine pieces. For additional details, I used ProTech braided lines and bolts from Tech Deck skateboard trucks as the fittings, along with the photoetch pieces in the Studio 27 set.

Cam covers were primed with Rustoleum's Textured spray paint and then detail painted / fixed with red engine wire (DTM-1025). I predrilled holes, glued into place, and used black wire for the plugs.

 

I test fitted the engine to the bottom compartment, and honestly looks like a beast! In this picture you'll also see the white piece of styrene I placed near the pin of the rear wheel arch to fix the fitment issue. I made some progress on the interior as you can see, but neglected to capture a lot of photos throughout the process. The interior has also been very time consuming given the carbon fiber decals of the tub and on the back of the seats. Still working through some of the finer details which is where I want to prioritize next alongside getting the body painted.