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1/24 Ferrari 512TR


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I love the old TRLiving in Wisconsin though I would leave a lot of sliced cheese behind me...Nice finish on the model kit

Lol. I remember reading a review of the earlier Testarosa in Car & Driver, they said the side strakes were to keep animals and small children from being sucked into the radiators as the car drove by. You couldnt publish that in a magazine now.

Jut to add - Rosso was a company created by a bunch of ex-Tamiya people... so Tamiya quality too :)

Really, I didnt knwo that. I must look for this kit then, Always liek the looks of the 512TR, would be a nice buddy to my Tamiya Testarossa.

Great build and paint work I might add.

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Slight correction: Rosso was started by ex-Fujimi employees.

(long-winded history of model cars follows:)

Back in the 80's, Tamiya, Hasegawa and Fujimi were in heated competition, each trying to out-do each other with better kits. That's why you see Fujimi's 1/72 F-14 with full engines and such. One of the off-shoots of this was Fujimi's "enthusiast" series kits. Where Tamiya had engine detail, Fujimi included *full* engine detail, right down to the pistons in the engine (Porsche 356). Tamiya had opening hoods, Fujimi did opening hoods, trunks and doors. Kits with a couple hundred parts, phenomenally detailed for the time, basically throwing down the gauntlet to say "we are the best". Apparently the line was produced by a special department in the company, run by the son-in-law of the company's president.

The Enthusiast series faded in the late 80's. Fujimi went back to making simpler curbside kits. The son-in-law, and most of the rest of the patternmakers, left to form their own company so they could continue producing high-detail kits. This was Rosso corporation. It was supposed to be sort of like "Enthusiast Series" under a different brand name. Rosso released a handful of well-reviewed items: a couple of 1/43 cars (NSX and Ferrari 643), a couple of items in 1/24 (including the 512TR), and some big scale 1/12 and 1/8 stuff.

A few years later, there was a fire in the Rosso warehouse. Inventory was lost, and the toolings were damaged beyond repair. Rosso went belly-up, and their kits have become rarer and more collectable. Obviously there's a lot of speculation about the circumstances, but it's all just gossip and whisperings. I have no idea what happened to the son-in-law, whether he went back to Fujimi, or went somewhere else. Rosso kits still pop up on eBay pretty regularly. Some are pricey, others are pretty reasonable. They're not all hyper-detailed, but they all have nice toolings.

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