NIK122

The mystery reservoir has two lines coming from it? One traveling forward and one going across the firewall. Yeah I'm guessing but maybe it's something to do with the brakes!? The black cap reminds me of a power steering reservoir but I appreciate that's a stretch.........

Preempting any suggestion that @NIK122 may have, I don't think it's a bonnet release lever.........damn😆

Hello. A little progress and a rant of sorts. I've managed to do a little on this kit all week but don't have much to show for all the effort. Mainly because of all the clean up followed by vague instructions and poor fit. I'm having a love, hate affair with this kit. I bit the bullet this weekend and decided to add some welds to the differential housings. Milliput and patience. The tops of the housings had slots in them like the chassis frame has and despite them never being seen on the finished model I just couldn't live with them as they were. Evergreen strips and a little filler to remedy this. Another dry fit shot. The plan is to paint these parts separately for ease before assembly. It's a shame that the drive shaft wasn't provided in multiple parts as it's a little basic. Earlier in the week I made a start on the front suspension and immediately ran into some problems. This cylindrical part, dampener?, has a pin on the end of it with no place to go! It needs cutting short in order for the part to sit parallel with the chassis. Above it is the towing hook which also restricts its positioning. The towing hook on the opposite side. The fit on both sides is horrible and a tiny plastic fillet was added to make up the gap in the frame underneath. There were some horrible location slots that needed filling on the chassis. I highly recommend filling these prior to adding all the delicate parts as doing it retrospectively was a pain! And finally to end on a low😬😂 the engine mounts are too long to accommodate the engine! I've started assembling the engine which isn't too bad but once I realized that it wasn't going to fit without some more alterations my patience ran out. More on the engine next time! Thanks for looking

.............following on from earlier. The rear wishbones etc dry fitted. The parts all line up ok with the chassis despite the wishbone mounts leaning outwards slightly. The differential housings are missing weld detail that I think I will add. Next up was getting around fitting the aftermarket wheels to the kit parts. Provided with the kit are four disc break looking parts which are incorrect as this vehicle had drum breaks. The kit part and aftermarket wheel below. The wheel cannot be fixed directly to the axle stub. In order for the wheel to sit on the centerline of the mudguards it needs to move outwards roughly 3mm. The solution I came up with was to model the drum breaks to work as spacers. They aren't as deep as they should be as the drums should partially sit inside the wheel rim. Question to Model Trend- Is it not possible to 3D print the rear of the wheel rim rather than just block it out? I guess with a lathe it could be machined out if you so chose?! The stub for the kit wheel removed and a tape strip applied as a guide for reducing the part to approximately 3mm. The same part reduced to 3mm in depth and drilled out to seat the wheel in the center. Some parts from the spares box came to the rescue to build up the drum sides. Bonus points if you recognize the donor kit. The rim removed from the hub. The three parts together. The plan is to glue the drums to the back of the wheels before painting. They can then be fixed in place after painting with ordinary glue. Far from perfect but that's the wheel alignment fixed and an improvement never to be seen again😄. I guess the break lines could be added?! Just to finish, returning to the tyre debate, I found this image showing the G4 with a mix of tyre types. Being rear wheel drive only it makes some sense. As ever thanks for looking

Yes agreed Keith! It's not a shake n bake kit unfortunately. I'm sincerely hoping that the bodywork goes together well! Honestly I think the kit is under engineered. The fit is loose at best. It strikes me that producing it in 1/24 could have produced an impressive model had a little more effort gone into it. What's resulted is a good!? base for super detailing and aftermarket, if there was any! but otherwise feels a little toy car ish. Maybe I'm being harsh. Time will tell........

Hello. Back again with a new phone 😶, god knows what happened to the old one but on the plus side the new one has a much better camera! 😁 So I've mixed feelings about this kit so far! It's got some great detail, I think?!, but some of the fit is terrible and I haven't built anything recently with so many injector pin marks or with really prominent seams on just about everything. There has been a ton of clean up consequently. It took me all Sunday afternoon just to clean up the chassis with it's molded on fenders. As you can see there was a seam line running all the way around the chassis which included a mold defect, in the middle of the image above, between the third running board bracket and the mounting point for the battery box. Corrected below with 0.5 plastic. Trying to find reference for this vehicles chassis and its details hasn't been easy. It's frustrating as there are still examples in the world and I think a much better job could have been done by ICM on this kits details. Having downloaded ICM's instructions for their 1/35 kit of the G4 it became clear that the detail on the smaller version is actually better than on this offering. Why not carry this across to the lager model ICM? If you had the wherewithal to really go to town on this model there are a ton of improvements that could be made. (Lummox)😉. For example the openings in the chassis are missing on the 1/24 kit but not on the 1/35 chassis(image below). The problem with adding them to the larger kit is due to it being molded in one piece, so it would need to be cut into separate pieces to drill out and shape. As I like to mount all my models onto a scenic base I'll pass on this mod. The first fit issue I came across is the curved brace between the wishbone mounts. The instructions would have you glue these three parts together before mounting them to the chassis. Don't!!! The cross brace is short and would result in pinching the chassis together and distorting it out of shape. It's an easy fix. The wishbone mounts don't sit square with the chassis either and again to alter without warping the chassis or altering the ride height could be a problem. None of this will be seen on completion so I'm going to roll with it. The double wishbones had seams right the way around and took a couple of evenings to clean up. They do build up into quiet nice units though, consisting of 12 pieces each. Again they won't be seen which is a shame but what will be seen are the two injector pin marks, top and bottom center, of the wishbones. There isn't any on the reverse side. Come on ICM!!! I think that the large central bolt should have a Mercedes badge on it from what I can tell from the one available photo on the internet. There's more to come today but I need to cook a roast, so until later, thanks for looking

It may be a coincidence but having followed the link above, my phone froze and has now become completely corrupted with some sort of error code. Like I say it may be a coincidence but just in case......

And balls of steel!!!!😮 Thanks for the information Kingsman

More digging has turned up a photo of a G4 with two MG34's and the Trend Model pattern tyres. ICM are releasing this version later this year with their figure set if anyone is interested. Add the wheel set and there's a project for someone. I had a browse in my extensive reference library 😀, just one book 😶, 'Standard catalog of German Vehicles(David Doyle) and came up with this. For some reason my first thought was Indiana Jones...........

Thanks Kingsman!!!! I think I may have a punt! Regarding the tyres, the spare on the G4 in the head on picture does look almost identical so I guess that's proof? I maybe kidding myself but the first historic photo I posted as inspiration, earlier in this thread, shows on the vehicle in the background two types of tyre. The chunky one as a spare but with road wheels fitted on the front. I'm maybe clutching at straws but I'm sure there's a difference. Thank you anyway for taking the time

Hello chaps. So the replacement wheels arrived today (many thanks to Super-Hobby.com), so here's a comparison with the kits offering. First impressions are that they are an improvement but I am disappointed that they are not the chunky off road pattern. They have some lovely detail but is it just me or does the raised lettering etc need carefully knocking back with fine sandpaper!? The tread pattern is a vast improvement as you can see and more accurate to the image below if you zoom in! The difference I think is that the V of the tread pattern should extend to the center line of the tyre. The kit tyres are more off road looking from the side I think but the side wall looks thin compared with the aftermarket set. It's almost like comparing a scale tyre with a Lego tyre? What I was really hoping for was a set of tyres more like these below. I do think that it's these chunky tyres that give the vehicle its presence. Oh well, it is what it is! From what I've read the G4's off road performance was poor so it's possibly all for show anyway. That's it for now. I will glue some bits together today and post an update tomorrow. Thanks for looking

Well Stef I can tell you that a weapons set was available once😶. Obviously it's as rare as hens teeth, discontinued or just a massive wind up to frustrate my build! Or all three!!!! (below) Model Trend produce a 1/24 MG34 for the Tasca Zundapp KS-750 kit, I think. They also have Allied MG's in 1/24. Shapeways do some sets but I find the prices discouraging. I really just wanted small arms etc. I have found some German maps, magazines and French cigarette boxes in 1/24 though. I will post some pictures of these as soon as they arrive.

Well Keith! It's not what you know, it's who you know 😉. What Mercedes is it? 1930's? PS glad to have you along!

Hello guys. Happy new year to everyone. So after a break I feel ready for another build. It's been a year since building my last Christmas present, Italeri, T34, 1/35 and this year an unexpected gift was ICM's G4 Personnel Car, 1/24. Honestly it's not a kit I'd of bought myself but having received it as a gift I think that it's a pretty cool vehicle. The main problem with it is the scale! This being said after many hours online trying to find one or two things to add a little, accuracy and interest, it's not been entirely fruitless. With what I have in mind, from what I can tell so far, the two obvious omissions from the kit are the Notek light and the windscreen wiper motors. As I'm looking for a straight forward build with a little scratch building why not!? The kit doesn't have any chrome parts, personally I wasn't bothered about this, which drove me towards a dunkelgrau paint job. Below is the image that is inspiring the build. You can see in this photo that there are width indicators? on the front mud guards of the vehicle in the foreground but not on the vehicle in the background.(Possibly unique to Hitlers car?). A little scratch build job. The other scratch building job will be the light covers. What do you guys think. Canvas with stitched slits? Also evident are the two late war jerry cans in front of the radiator grill. FC Model Trend produce a set of weighted wheels for this kit (awaiting delivery), that I will do a kit/aftermarket comparison for anyone interested? Will it have been a necessary purchase? As far as tyre markings and possibly tread, yes! So! I'm going to make a start this weekend and will hopefully have something to show shortly. Thanks for looking

Thanks Stef N. After a couple of evenings trawling the internet for 1/24 aftermarket, it's looking bleak! Ho hum. Cheers anyway

Hi all and happy new year! Does anyone know of anyone who produces (WW2) German army general kit and weapons etc in 1/24. Is it just me or is there a gap in the market? Any help welcome

Screen wash reservoir?😁

Great stuff 😎

As ever, insanely good!😎

It must cost a fortune in paint to airbrush this real truck to look like a model kit!?!?

I have a set of artillerymen that I started painting but I really wasn't happy with the results. They are still all on my shelf. Maybe I'll have another go at finishing two rather than the five I started out with. Something to show scale would be good. Thanks Pete

Takom TAK2018 😎

Well there you go! Hands down, I'm a little out of my depth but you learn something new everyday!😎

Here's the link as it's got a copyright. I know it's not the same chassis but the position of the fuel tank is similar https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/en/instance/picture/Mercedes-Benz-L-3250.xhtml?oid=58459

Great! Glad to help. I've been trawling the tintraweb and I found one black and white illustration that looked as though a line was running in the same position back to the fuel tank. It was a Mercedes but not the exact model. I'm trying to find it again now