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Scratch Built 1958 Mercedes-Benz LP 333 Twin Steer Truck aka "Tausendfüssler"


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Hi,

 

Some time ago I showed two 1/24 projects

 

Scratch Built 1937 Mercedes-Benz L 10000 Heavy Truck

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234955774-scratch-built-1937-mercedes-benz-l-10000-heavy-truck/

 

Scratch Built 1951 Büssing 12000 U13 6x4 Underfloor Engine Truck

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235018898-scratch-built-1951-büssing-12000-u13-6x4-underfloor-engine-truck/

 

 

 

Maybe there will be also some interest in my latest scratch built 1/24 German vintage truck that I finished about two years ago.

 

 

In 1958 the German Transportation Department reduced the maximum dimensions and weights of brand new trucks. The official motivation was accelerating road traffic but the inofficial motivation was providing a competitive advantage to the state-owned railway company Deutsche Bundesbahn. At any rate all German truck manufacturers had to re-design their heavy trucks.

 

Mercedes-Benz decided to offer the first German twin steer truck called LP 333. While twin steer trucks were a common sight f. e. in Britain or Italy German coevals found that this new Mercedes design looked so odd (to say the least) that it was nicknamed "Tausendfüssler" (= millipede). Despite its odd appearance it became a sales success, and though originally designed only for the domestic market it was also sold in many other European countries. Today the Tausendfüssler is very likely the best-known and most popular of all Mercedes vintage trucks.

 

To my knowledge only four LP 333 have survived. Two of them, an early model (blue) and a late model (green), are displayed at the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart.

 

The original 1958 LP 333 looked like this:

 

comp_01Vorb-vi.jpg
comp_02Vorb-vi.jpg

 

 

 

When I started my model I was aware that building this cab would be laborious and very difficult, because almost every surface was curved into all directions. Moreover the deeply recessed, angular windscreens would not make things easier. Furthermore all known previous attempts of other modelers showed no convincing results and even most manufacturers of ready-made models in smaller scales had obviously trouble making realistic replicas of the LP 333.

Nevertheless ultimately everything became even more laborious than foreseen. Approximately 1300 hours for the complete model was more than any other of my previous projects required.

 

 

comp_LP33300168-vi.jpg
comp_LP33300268-vi.jpg
comp_LP33300368-vi.jpg
comp_LP33300468-vi.jpg
comp_LP33300568-vi.jpg
comp_LP33300668-vi.jpg
comp_LP33300768-vi.jpg
comp_LP33300868-vi.jpg

 

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I am blown away at the quality of build and level of detail and keep saying "and it is scratch built!"   The older trucks have a certain aesthetic you dont yet any more.

 

Outstanding Jürgen!  Well done.

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1300 hours!:surprised:An incredible amount of time, but equally an incredible result. All the builds I've seen you do look fantastic, but this is brilliant and I can imagine that will earn a deserved pride of place in your collection.

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Superb work, I assume this was brass or copper body work?. Stunning workmanship.

Cheers

Richard

P.S Would be good to see some W.i.p photos

Edited by Rwa66
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Quite simply a masterpiece, it is spot on in every way, from the gloss levels of different materials to the most convincing chrome trim I think I have ever seen at this scale........just gobsmacked !!!!

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Outstanding work!!   Wonderful scratch-building.    Bravo.

 

Frank

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Thanks for the response!

 

 

On 28.3.2018 at 2:14 AM, Rwa66 said:

Superb work, I assume this was brass or copper body work?. Stunning workmanship.

Cheers

Richard

P.S Would be good to see some W.i.p photos

My models are made almost completely of plastic (styrene , ABS, resin) and some metal rods and wires.

Though being no metal working expert I suppose that achieving the same details in 1/24 using sheet metal would be almost impossible. At least IMO it would require even more time and effort.

I am sorry, but usually I don't take any WIP pictures.

 

 

BTW I detailed the chassis as far as possible.

Here is an additional picture from underneath. Please not the rear axle design. The halfshafts and the carrying axle are still separated. Mercedes preferred this conservative design on their heavy trucks until the seventies. Then they started to use planetary hub reduction axles.

 

comp_LP333ChassisHeck130-vi.jpg

 

 

 

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What a fantastic piece of art!! This is outstanding effort and I have no word of praise that could suitably describe it. I have never seen such a realistic scale model built from scratch. 

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