Mercedes Benz SSKL, Matchbox 1:32 plus scratchbuilt and 3d printed bits!

[TheBaron]

9 hours ago, Brandy said:

 

Finally the epic saga of the spoked wheels has come to an end.

And nobody made the obvious joke about how wheely good they look Ian, proving- if any proof were needed - that this is a mature and sophisticated audience....

 

Superb progress.

[thommo]

As someone who likes adding a few details to old Matchbox aircraft kits, I'm loving this thread.

 

3D printing is way beyond my skill set however.  But I did recently buy a Cricut Maker, which so far I've only used for masks & vinyl logos, bit it can be used to cut scratch-built styrene bits which may be in my future.

[thommo]

As someone who likes adding a few details to old Matchbox aircraft kits, I'm loving this thread.

 

3D printing is way beyond my skill set however.  But I did recently buy a Cricut Maker, which so far I've only used for masks & vinyl logos, bit it can be used to cut scratch-built styrene bits which may be in my future.

[nick]

Hi Ian,

           this is very impressive at that scale. 
 

somehow, I seem to have ended up as a 3D printing veteran so to share a few battle scars:-
 

If anyone buys a Mars it needs to come with a big sticker that says you need to buy a Mercury too. It’s not optional or a nice to have luxury, it’s essential. 
 

suddenly all the soft detail is revealed, the hideous cleanup part just goes away, and it’s actually a pleasure printing. 
 

this is quite a biggie - where does it say you can’t draw your supports in fusion?

 

this was a game changer for me, chitubox or lychee are often too random, the scarring the supports leave is always in the wrong place and difficult to remove. 
 

I do swim against the tide as I like to print things flat, the surface finish is always better IMHO. To achieve this you do need more mechanical connection than spindly generated supports provide but that’s OK.

people are scared of printing large flat areas because they detach. They only detach because the supports are too weak - everyone happily prints rafts and that’s what they are. 
slicers assume your care about every surface, so try to minimise supports, we often have large faces we can use for very strong, custom supports that can be seamlessly removed. 
 

take a look at this;-

 

 

the base of the block has its entire wall thinned and dropping to the print raft. The standoff is the width of a razor saw. This makes it strong and simple to remove. That face is hidden and it can just be flat sanded. So that solves any suction issues. Next, some of the upper areas overhang and require support - but where?

 

easy, print one and let it fail:-

 

 

I then just added my ‘patent’ blade & comb supports that you see in the first image. By using broken linear (not round) supports like this they can be removed without leaving any scaring at locations of my choosing. 
 

fusions offset edge is your friend, just extend the lower flat face down to your own raft and away you go. For your rims for example, I would put them flat and extrude a pair of extremely thin walled cylinders on the inner and outer side down to a raft you draw. Remember to cut a couple of slots in the cylinder walls so they can drain, and away you go. Separate with a razor saw and sand away what’s let’s with no scarring. As they are flat, they also print quicker of course. 
 

feel free to ignore all this, but it works for me after about a year of trial and error!

 

regards,

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

[thommo]

3 hours ago, nick said:

Hi Ian,

           this is very impressive at that scale. 
 

somehow, I seem to have ended up as a 3D printing veteran so to share a few battle scars:-
 

If anyone buys a Mars it needs to come with a big sticker that says you need to buy a Mercury too. It’s not optional or a nice to have luxury, it’s essential. 
 

suddenly all the soft detail is revealed, the hideous cleanup part just goes away, and it’s actually a pleasure printing. 
 

this is quite a biggie - where does it say you can’t draw your supports in fusion?

 

this was a game changer for me, chitubox or lychee are often too random, the scarring the supports leave is always in the wrong place and difficult to remove. 
 

I do swim against the tide as I like to print things flat, the surface finish is always better IMHO. To achieve this you do need more mechanical connection than spindly generated supports provide but that’s OK.

people are scared of printing large flat areas because they detach. They only detach because the supports are too weak - everyone happily prints rafts and that’s what they are. 
slicers assume your care about every surface, so try to minimise supports, we often have large faces we can use for very strong, custom supports that can be seamlessly removed. 
 

take a look at this;-

 

 

the base of the block has its entire wall thinned and dropping to the print raft. The standoff is the width of a razor saw. This makes it strong and simple to remove. That face is hidden and it can just be flat sanded. So that solves any suction issues. Next, some of the upper areas overhang and require support - but where?

 

easy, print one and let it fail:-

 

 

I then just added my ‘patent’ blade & comb supports that you see in the first image. By using broken linear (not round) supports like this they can be removed without leaving any scaring at locations of my choosing. 
 

fusions offset edge is your friend, just extend the lower flat face down to your own raft and away you go. For your rims for example, I would put them flat and extrude a pair of extremely thin walled cylinders on the inner and outer side down to a raft you draw. Remember to cut a couple of slots in the cylinder walls so they can drain, and away you go. Separate with a razor saw and sand away what’s let’s with no scarring. As they are flat, they also print quicker of course. 
 

feel free to ignore all this, but it works for me after about a year of trial and error!

 

regards,

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

 

What language was that Nick 😆

[Brandy]

On 8/14/2021 at 12:34 AM, TheBaron said:

And nobody made the obvious joke about how wheely good they look Ian, proving- if any proof were needed - that this is a mature and sophisticated audience....

 

Superb progress.

 No-one that is, until you Tony. No matter, exceptions to mature and sophisticated are also welcome here. In fact, they fit in far better with myself!

 

On 8/14/2021 at 2:00 AM, thommo said:

As someone who likes adding a few details to old Matchbox aircraft kits, I'm loving this thread.

 

3D printing is way beyond my skill set however.  But I did recently buy a Cricut Maker, which so far I've only used for masks & vinyl logos, bit it can be used to cut scratch-built styrene bits which may be in my future.

Glad you're enjoying it Thommo. I've had a silhouette cutter sitting unpacked on the table for a few months now, one day I'll find somewhere to set it up!

 

@nick thanks for those tips, I'll file those in "useful"!

 

Work has been very quiet this month so more (slow) progress has been made. Before I did anything though I couldn't resist this..

 

 

I do like the way this is going!

 

Right, where were we? Ah yes, bonnet panels.

 

Not too difficult to fix. A little gentle sanding in the bottom edge of the left one was all that was needed. The right one took a thin strip of plastic along the bottom rear and lower front edges. Joining surfaces where thinned with the scalpel and the bonnet is now on. I also fitted bonnet locks made from .8mm tube with a .6mm insert.

 

 

That made me cross eyed, and I've already knocked one off!

 

Next up, mudguards. You may remember that I spent some considerable time getting them aligned earlier in the thread. The problem with that is that the tyres are now smaller, so the gaps are wrong again! The rear ones were simple as I just needed to raise the front slightly each side. On the right side I simply straightened the mount and re-bent it with a smaller locating part. Unfortunately the left one wasn't long enough so I had to make a new mount. It's not as though I haven't had practice at that so that was completed fairly swiftly.

 

 

Happy with that.

 

The front is proving (there's the hint, longer job!) somewhat tougher. I initially thought I could get away with shortening the mounts so I filed them down to drop the headlamp mount to the correct position. 

 

 

 

 

That looked promising, so I CA'd the assembly (using only a tiny drop as I knew I would have to remove it again) to the chassis to test the fit. Of course, I then had to bend the upper part further out as I'd effectively narrowed the assembly by shortening the bottom of the mounts. Then it started to go pear shaped: The bend looked wrong, then the right side solder broke. Then the attachment at the top end broke off.

 

Damn, said I (or words to that effect).

Nothing for it now but to make new front mountings from my piece of brass T-bar. However, this time I will make a card template to make sure I have the correct angles and lengths. I'm not doing it today, so that will be the next job when I get back to the bench.

 

I've also done a little reshaping to the front mudguards. All 4 will need repainting too, along with the mounts of course. 

The good thing is, that this is the last major job and once done all I need to do is stick the little bits on!

 

Thanks for looking in, take care and stay safe!

 

Ian

[Heather Kay]

Looking good. I’m with you in spirit where little fiddly bits tend to go wrong near the end. Any number of times have seen me quietly - sometimes very loudly - curse a tiny part that makes the job harder.

[TheBaron]

22 minutes ago, Brandy said:

No-one that is, until you Tony.

I spoke too soon.

(No-one has ever knowingly bracketed me in the ranks of the sophisticated Ian; the evidence to the contrary is too damning. 😁)

 

This:

22 minutes ago, Brandy said:

 

 - is a wonderful sequence displaying the quality of your work. Gorgeous.

[Terry1954]

This "old Matchbox kit" is turning into a masterpiece Ian, or rather you are..... turning it into one that is!

 

It's a beatiful example of the creativity some can achieve within our hobby.

 

Love it.

 

Terry

[hendie]

The sum of the parts is decidedly greater than the whole

Nice work

[Brandy]

On 8/23/2021 at 4:06 PM, Heather Kay said:

Looking good. I’m with you in spirit where little fiddly bits tend to go wrong near the end. Any number of times have seen me quietly - sometimes very loudly - curse a tiny part that makes the job harder.

Thanks Heather, I need a little moral (or even immoral, when it comes to the swearing!) support!

 

On 8/23/2021 at 5:17 PM, Terry1954 said:

This "old Matchbox kit" is turning into a masterpiece Ian, or rather you are..... turning it into one that is!

 

It's a beatiful example of the creativity some can achieve within our hobby.

 

Love it.

 

Terry

Much appreciated Tony! Although I don't think I'd go as far as masterpiece, I am very pleased at how it's turning out. The paintwork could have been better, but I'm used to a different sequence of painting/assembly so my handling has dulled it a bit.

 

On 8/23/2021 at 5:42 PM, hendie said:

The sum of the parts is decidedly greater than the whole

Nice work

Cheers Alan, much appreciated!

 

On 8/23/2021 at 4:09 PM, TheBaron said:

(No-one has ever knowingly bracketed me in the ranks of the sophisticated Ian; the evidence to the contrary is too damning. 😁)

Ah, but I didn't! I grouped you in with the exceptions!

 

On 8/23/2021 at 4:09 PM, TheBaron said:

- is a wonderful sequence displaying the quality of your work. Gorgeous.

Many thanks for that though, that is a true compliment from one who is setting the bar so high!

 

I'm afraid I have no photos of butterflies, stormy skies, sunflowers, or even just moody modelling pics, but I have made a little more progress today. 
Front wheels were glued on yesterday and today I set about making up a stencil to use for the front mudguard/headlamp mounts. After winging it last time and getting very close (but no cigar) I decided this was the only way to do it. Part of the kit box was cut up and fitted in place then marked up to give me a (hopefully) accurate guide as to the shape and size required.

 

Here's what I have ended up with:

 

 

This will not only provide the shape, but also serve as a guide for soldering the cross brace in place later.

 

If it works......

 

The rear mount was also raised slightly on the mudguard. This came about because of actually looking at my references! The stone guard that sits on top of the rear mount is flush with the top of the chassis frame, so I had to raise the mounting point on the chassis, meaning I had to do the same to the mounting point on the mudguard.

The lesson from all this is: If you need to fabricate a part to fit with reference to another, then make and fit the other bit first or you may just have to do it all again!

 

C'est la vie.....

 

Thanks for looking in, and stay safe!

 

Ian

[TheBaron]

I love those low angle photos of the vehicle at this stage Ian; looks a real solid beast. Gokd luck with the mudguards!

[Hewy]

Superb ian, its looking ace with the wheels on 👍

[Brandy]

On 8/30/2021 at 10:49 PM, TheBaron said:

I love those low angle photos of the vehicle at this stage Ian; looks a real solid beast. Gokd luck with the mudguards!

More to come!

 

On 9/5/2021 at 10:10 AM, Hewy said:

Superb ian, its looking ace with the wheels on 👍

Thanks Hewy. Only the front wheels are attached for now, so I have a stable reference for the mudguards. The rears will go on after the mudguards.

 

I little more progress as I finally bit the bullet and got the soldering done. It wasn't quite that straightforward as I had to set up a new soldering station. My work bench doesn't have any spare outlets, so I moved the painting booth and set up there for soldering. Once that was done I spent an hour or two swearing and finally ended up with something I think will work - The first side attached nicely (and straight!) first time. The second side made up for it!

 

 

 

It looks straight to me! It's now sitting in situ to let the Gator's Grip (which I used to join the brass end pieces to the aluminium cross-bar) dry properly.

Next step will be to prepare the last parts for the steering, and the stone guards, then all can be painted together. I'm toying with the idea of repainting the mudguards in claret/deep red as seen on many other models. Does anyone know if this was accurate or not? It would certainly give a little variation to the colour scheme!

 

Thanks for looking in, and stay safe!

 

Ian

 

 

[TheBaron]

That last overhead shot. <chef's kiss>.

[Brandy]

On 9/11/2021 at 4:13 PM, TheBaron said:

That last overhead shot. <chef's kiss>.

Merci bien mon ami!

 

I appear to have lost some pics so I'll describe what has been going on!

 

Next main step will be mounting the mudguards, but first they needed to be repainted. Since that involved white, I made up the rest of the steering parts so they could all be painted together, and included a couple of small pieces of brass rod for the rear brake actuators. I'm not worried about detail underneath so these will simply be ca'd to the diff!

 

Paint has been applied, and all appears well apart from one of the mudguards which has crazed slightly. That will be rubbed back and the black resprayed.

 

While waiting for the paint to harden sufficiently I started looking at the folded hood. This is what we are given.

 

 

Not particularly inspiring, either for the overall shape or the supports. I toyed with the idea of scratchbuilding the whole thing but in the end decided to reshape the hood part and add the supports from brass rod.  Reshaped hood:

 

 

Upon test fitting it I noticed another issue I should have taken care of a long time ago. Namely that the recess for the spare wheels is too big! (although to be fair it probably fitted the oversized tyres!)

It goes too far forward, so if the spare wheels are fitted to the recess, they are too far forward and foul the hood.

 

Out with the milliput - hence why it should have been done before it was all painted!

 

I lost the "before" pic, but here is the "after" - still a little too far forward but it will do!

 

 

Once that has properly hardened it will be sanded down and blended in, then repainted.

 

In the meantime, the struts for the folded hood will be added so that it can be painted and attached. Then the mudguards, then the rear wheels, then the last of the little pieces.....on the home stretch maybe?

 

Thanks for looking in and stay safe!

 

Ian

 

[TheBaron]

2 hours ago, Brandy said:

Thanks for looking in and stay safe!

You too. Another tantalizing installment Ian!

[hendie]

Coming along nicely Ian. 

[Sabrejet]

Oh good work fella! You have a silk purse there

[Brandy]

Sorry for the silence, but work has been busy and I finally got rehired full time so priorities have been elsewhere. Having said that I have not been idle!

Here's a brief summary of what has been going on over the past couple of weeks.

 

I have done some work on the tool box and bag in preparation to adding those. The kit parts were dire. I have no clue what was supposed to be represented for the bag, it looks like 3 thermos flasks, and the tool box was far too small...

The original size can be seen here...

 

 

and with a new bag made from a couple of bits from the spares box and some styrene sheet....

 

 

A start was made on the hood frame - 0.6mm solder bent double and then squished in the pliers to represent the pivot plate at the end.

 

 

The rear mudguards and wheels were fitted, and I got clumsy. The front left wheel got knocked off! Needless to say at that point I put it down and walked away.

Next day I drilled the broken ends and inserted a small length of brass rod to give a little strength, then glued it back together. I think I managed a reasonable save.

 

 

One spoke was loosened but I think I've saved it well enough - not perfect, but good enough!

 

So where does that leave me now?

With the front mudguard/headlight brackets added, followed by the front mudguards, and the first of the spare wheels, it leaves it like this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've also prepared the second spare wheel. The top of the kit part was removed and glued onto the hub.

 

 

The mudguard alignment is not perfect, but I think it's good enough. The original cars are not perfect either so I can live with it.

Next job is to paint the knock-offs and headlight rims with the chrome pen, then they can be added. Definitely on the home stretch now!

 

Take care and stay safe!

 

Ian

[Bengalensis]

It is looking fantastic as it comes together. Lovely work!

[TheBaron]

Oh I say...

On 13/10/2021 at 18:56, Brandy said:

 

 

 

These shots really bring home the quality of your work on bringing this to life Ian.

[Brandy]

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

These shots really bring home the quality of your work on bringing this to life Ian.

Many thanks Tony, much appreciated from such an accomplished fellow modeller!

 

A little more progress this weekend. I made up and painted the stoneguards to be fitted on the rear mounts of the front mudguards, and painted the chrome on the knock-offs, headlights/spotlight, and the corrected fuel filler. That was another one of those "how did I miss that" moments.

I don't have a pic of the kit part, but it was basically flat on the top and had a ring around the edge with 4 cutouts in it. Sort of like a raised quartered edge. 

Here's what I have now after having sanded the top off and added a hinge bracket from .020 rod. I have also made a quick release handle from solder which will be added once the filler is in place.

 

 

 

 

 

The hood frame was made up from solder and CAd in place. The nice thing about using solder is that it can be easily squashed flat and bent to shape. The bad part is that it can be easily bent OUT of shape!

Here's what I ended up with. Two pieces of solder, one bent through 180 degrees and squashed at the bent end, the other squashed in the middle and bent into a stagger to give the upper rear and lower front brackets. The middle and ends were squashed flat and CAd to the first part.

 

 

 

 

Here's how it all looks once fitted.

 

 

A very small slither of aluminium rod was added to the inside face to represent the mounting point to the bodywork.

 

 

I'm more than happy with that!

Which means that all the major work is done. I need to add the tool box and bag, plus add some straps for the bag, then redo the bonnet catches. Headlamps and wiring, windscreens, oil/coolant and fuel filler caps, and that's about it!

 

Thanks for looking in, and stay safe!

 

Ian

[TheBaron]

That metalwork shine is absolutely  exquisite Ian - may I ask what kind of chrome pen you used dear heart?

[Brandy]

8 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

That metalwork shine is absolutely  exquisite Ian - may I ask what kind of chrome pen you used dear heart?

Of course you may dear sir. It is a Molotov chrome pen. I recommend you get a couple of them, one very fine tip and one  a larger tip. It works best with one pass so if the tip is too narrow it can mess it up when making second or third passes to get the coverage.

It can also be purchased as a refill and sprayed. I found it clogged my airbrush very quickly, although I did manage to spray the radiator surround without any problems.

 

Ian