Enter the mighty Ferrari F40LM

[Pascal D]

This project started with 1 conversion (F40 => F40 LM), but currently there are 15 F40's on the workbench.

I'm using the old Bburago model :

The first one is for a dutch collector and will look like this :

The second one is for a french collector :

The third one is for me :

The others will be made into various race versions for the french collector.

I started with an all-out attack with my Dremel on the chassis P-) :

First try :

[Pascal D]

Nope, second try :

Not quite, third try :

Yes, this might work :)/>/>

Second Dremel attack from the rear (auch !) :

Ooh yeah !! I love the smell of a hot cutting disc !

[Pascal D]

I used my Dremel (what else ?) to cut the floor and firewall out of the frame. Replaced them with plasticard :

Filled all the holes and gaps :

Started working on the center console :

I'm cutting the rear chassis to get rid off those ugly metal tubes that hold the screws. The suspension and rear frame will be scratchbuild to resemble that of a real F40.

The engine/gearbox look awful, to the left is that of the Hotwheels LM, not much better :

[Pascal D]

The goal is to make it look like this :

The cockpit needs some changes :

[Pascal D]

I cut the floor out and filled some holes with plasticard :

I sanded the firewall and made a center console (tunnel) :

The front chassis looks like this :

The Hot Wheels version is almost the same, but is has a radiator :

First step is to remove the overscale metal :

The plastic parts get the same treatment :

So everything can be rebuild :

[Pascal D]

I cut the front part of the chassis, and rebuild it with brass and plasticard :

Left side has received the diagonal piece of plasticard :

It's strong enough to support the weight of the hood :

Dryfit with the other parts :

[Pascal D]

It's not finished, but there's already a big difference with the original Bburago chassis :

I decided to make the front part of the frame out of brass tube :

Took me a couple of hours to find the right dimensions, but it will save me a ton of putty / sanding work.

[Pascal D]

I wasn't satisfied with the way I made the front part of the frame. So I replaced all the plastic tubes with brass tubes.

Before :

After :

Not much is left of the original Bburago frame :

I made another version (3 bis) with a copper plate soldered to the brass tubes :

But then I wandered if the tubes were the right scale, the answer was : NO. So I bought smaller brass tubes, and after a day's work this is the result :

[Pascal D]

I added a few details to the first chassis :

And drilled a small hole in the 2 brass tubes.

Reference picture from Ferraris-online :

The shape is a little different, this will be alterd with the other chassis :

I made the first cuts in the front hood :

Using a resin one from legende-miniatures as a reference :

That's it for now, hope you enjoy this project, comments are welcome.

Sincerely

Pascal aka Wet Sellery

[Pascal D]

OOOPS :bandhead2:/>

I posted my WIP in the wrong section. Can someone move this topic to the "Work in progress" section please ?.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Pascal D

[Crazy Snap Captain]

Dude, this is awesome work! Keep the posts coming!

[Pascal D]

Fifth and final version of the frame. The rectangular brass tubes will be replaced by ones that are 1 mm higher. Makes them look less wide and looks more like the real F40LM. Version 5 is the one on top :

After hours and hours spent looking at the pictures and drawings of the frame of the real LM, this is what I came up with :

De rectangular brass tube is now a little wider, the frame on top is before the modification :

The rectangular brass tube is now a little longer towards the back :

Normally the copper plate should be where the rectangular brass tubs ends. To do this I would have to rebuild the zamac part of the frame and also the front of the windscreen, but since the copper plate will no longer be visible from the side when the build is finished, I will leave it in place :

I used a file to shape the middle part of the rectangular tube in a diagonal form, just like the real LM. The U-shape supports will be added to the left and right of the diagonal form :

Sincerely

Pascal