Spirit Ferrari 512M

[KarKraft]

Some time ago I got my hands on a few Spirit Ferrari 512Ms and got a double-up of the Filipinetti car, which I didn’t like in the first place. After looking at it for a while I thought I could fix the major flaw in its looks – the stubby squared-off nose – and repaint it at the same time.

 

 

Of course the old paint needed to come off so a soak in a bath of metho and then some scrubbing with a toothbrush to bring it back to bare plastic.

 

 

The front intake which is the black bit at the nose of the car is moulded into the chassis, so I cut that section off first. Then I used strips of plasticard to build a nose extension around the intake and glued it to the front.

 

 

Despite this add-on, the body still looks stumpy compared to the real car. In an attempt to fix this I opened out the leading edge of the front and rear wheel arches to make the car look longer. I also move the headlight openings a little bit forward as they should be close to the front. Then on with the primer.

 

 

The Penske version of this car had a full-width rear wing, which I thought would make the car appear longer, so I made one from a spare wing and some plasticard.

 

 

The paint caused a bit of drama. I painted it with Humbrol matt enamel as the colours matched the blue and yellow I wanted. I had made the mistake of thinking an air-brushed clear coat would hide the matt effect. It didn’t, and eventually I resorted to topping it with Humbrol acrylic clear, which they tell me is the hobby equivalent to Klear.

I didn’t like the driver – one of the worst of the Mr Blobbies. So I added a driver from a Scalextric Mustang which had dark goggles that made him look a bit like Mark Donohue in sunglasses.

 

 

To fix the droopy front wheels I removed the stub axles and fitted Slot.it alloys and a solid axle. The original wheels were turned into inserts.

Edited July 15, 2016 by KarKraft

[aquakiwi]

That's a great transformation, I've had one for years and never liked the look of it compared to the Fly version.

 

[Wobble]

Too good KarKraft. I also have one (yellow Tergal version) that I always thought looked wrong.

More's the pity, mine goes to match its looks but now I know what to do with it. ... send it to KarKraft

[manimmal]

Nice one. Very nice. I never did get myself the spirit 512 but raced against several of them in period, so why not make one look right as well as go hard?

How many hours in your effort here?

[kalbfellp]

Fly never did a version of the 512 M only the 512 s.

The Penske 512 was not a Ferrari body, but was a copy built by Penske on a 512 s chassis like the Ferrari versions.But the cockpit area is narrow compared to the Ferrari version,

I started to convert a Spirit some time ago But it got put on the back burner.

 

[KarKraft]

Thanks for the nice words guys.

 

Hours? No idea - not an excessive amount. It's was about the time span - letting glue, filler, primer, paint, decals and clear coat cure before moving to the next made it a long time from start to finish. My job involves a lot of overnight stays in different towns. I'm not a pub kinda guy so I pack a tackle box with a project and materials to keep me amused.

 

Phil - let me know if you need the 'Cebe' logo for decals. I have a high-res version in pdf.

Edited July 15, 2016 by KarKraft

[munter]

Nice stuff KK. I like to see a guy cutting and shutting bodies.

 

Resin Ferrari inserts to fit Slotit 15" rims are available from munter skunkworks if you need any sometime in the future.

[slotmadmac]

Nice one. I campaigned a 512M in the early NZ Can Am proxies. The snob nose always looked wrong. Lovely work.

[belles51]

nice bash!!