Le Mans Ferrari 1958
1/43rd scale kit from Starter Models
Painted in 2021
I’ve already done a lot of the NASCAR kits in this scale from Starter Models – a French company now deceased.
So unfortunately it’s a case of getting these when you see them appearing on eBay and the likes.
Whilst the NASCAR offerings are pretty easy to come by, the related sports racers are less so, and getting more expensive to purchase all the time.
I got this in an auction, and it’s a superb little kit. The wire wheels themselves are little showstoppers all in themselves, and the cockpit has just enough detail to make it look good.
I’ve taken to replacing the gear sticks, simply by stretching some plastic sprue after heating over a naked flame – the way we used to make aerials for our AFV’s back in the day – and then putting the cut end of the stretched sprue close to a naked flame again makes it curl back on itself and form a perfectly round blob.
It’s useful for making rivet heads, and in this case, with a short length of the stretched sprue still attached, a gear lever is formed.
Other than that, the kit is pretty much plain sailing to assemble and paint, I think the only thing I’d go back and change is the exhaust pipes. The moulding of these isn’t too great, and it brings the rest of the kit down. I’m sure I’ve got some thin brass tube somewhere that would be perfect as replacements for the two twin pipes sticking out the back.
