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Benz Patent-Motorwagen 1886


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This little box arrived the other day, and it seems it will not even make it into the growing stash. ICM's new 1/24 scale kit of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen 1886. I have been eagerly waiting for it and when opening the box it looks so tempting to build that I will get right into it, in what little time I have right now.

 

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I haven't done much research into this, but if I understand it correctly this kit should closely resemble the first car Karl Benz built, #1. There seems to have been many differences in the first cars built, no wonder. ICM are also releasing this kit in a version complete with figures of Bertha Benz and sons, depicting the famous long trip she made in August 1888, but that trip is said to have been made in #3, which apparently looked different with sturdier wheels and a front passenger seat.

 

Opening the kits reveals well drawn instructions and a nice print of the first page of the German patent letter issued. The parts don't look much like what is usually found in a car kit. A main tree of delicate well made parts, two small trees of wheel parts and a jig for building the wheels. Then we have a photo etch sheet of wheel spokes and chain parts.

 

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I was a little suspicious of the photo etched spokes before receiving the kit, but when I look at it in real life the wheels may well build up quite nicely, especially when painted black. Time will soon tell.

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40 minutes ago, Gorby said:

I've been wondering how they would do the wheel spokes. I'd be interested to see how this comes together.

 

35 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

Wow! This looks like a fabulous kit. Looking forward to seeing this built. 

The kit looks very nice to my eyes. The wheels will be interesting indeed. Here's the build sequence in the jig. I'm counting 62 spokes in a rear wheel, compared to something like 76-80 in photos of what are presumably replicas. 62 may well look busy enough in this scale? Of course they are flat being photo etch, but they are reasonably delicate and being painted black gives some allowance I think.

 

B3.jpg

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3 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Wow! This looks like a fabulous kit. Looking forward to seeing this built. 

We've got one in for review, and I had a squint in the box.  Looks lovely :)

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1 hour ago, gt6mkiii said:

Wow, so cool that this is 1:24 scale - would make a great companion with some other significant MBs. I was at the Mercedes-Benz museum in 2016 and took these if they're of any help:

Thanks, nice photos. Is the frame and wheels on that one painted black or a very dark green? It looks to be a defintive greenish tint to those parts, but could be some light effect perhaps? It adds some interest to the overall look of the thing.

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When I eyedropper sample the image, it definitely leans dark green for me, especially if you compare the frame colour to the colour of the frame around the seat that looks like a straight gloss black. Here's the hex code from the frame - #373931 - entering this into google will give you a screen representation of the colour and some other colour model breakdowns.

 

Martin.

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I'm trying to get through this year without buying any kits (don't laugh anybody!), but this is one of those which is sorely tempting me. I'll be interested to see what you make of it, from first impressions it looks like it should make a very good representation.

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I searched around for more photos from the museum, and the green color varies wildly depending on the light and conditions. I wonder if Karl Benz original first build was black or green-black back then? Anyhow I decided to go for that combination, so I have made myself a very dark green mix for those parts of the build.

 

I started with the wheels as they will pretty much make or break the build. The real wheel hubs are built from two parts with no centering feature between them. I centered them on a drill while gluing.

 

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Here we have the hub parts ready for a coat of Alclad polished brass.

 

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The trees for the wheel parts are used in the jig and must be cut apart and the stubs cleaned up like this. The number tabs can be left.

 

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Here a rear wheel section is placed in the jig.

 

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Then the photo etch is placed and pushed down with the jig center piece. It is important to carefully cut the attaching points of the photo etch right up the ears. I found the corresponding recesses in the plastic parts to be very tight fitting and not deep enough as they don't seem top in account the slight angle the spokes attach the rim with.

 

What I did was that with photo etch placed correctly I put a tiny drop of methyl acetate on each ear to let it melt into the plastic ever so little, and then followed round with a small amount of CA. When this had securely dried and the wheel was cut from the tree I lightly sanded the backside of the rim with the ears to make sure it was as smooth as possible. The photo etch is copper and sanded quite nicely.

 

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After some patience improving work I had six finished parts.

 

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A trial fit of two rear wheel halves looked like this.

 

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At this point I needed to paint the parts before further assembly can proceed. First paint within 24 hours is not common in my builds.

 

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7 hours ago, harveyb258 said:

Nice one Jorgen. Initially,  I was a bit sceptical about  pe spokes tbh…..I thought they wouldn't look correct.  I have to say, though,  they look very good indeed.

Thanks. I was also skeptical about the PE, but it's better than expected. The wheels don't look quite as lightweight and airy as the original, but are quite OK and not a bad compromise to make a good OOB build for most builders. I think the dark color will help a lot.

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Thanks a lot guys, glad you enjoy.

On 20/02/2020 at 11:09, ElectricLightAndy said:

 have you built any of their model T's?

No, none of their Ford T's, I do have all their Renault Taxi's in the stash and they also look very nice and delicate. I suppose the recent Fords are similar.

 

Work continued on the wheels gluing the painted halves together with CA, with the hubs placed in between. With the outside joint filled with CA it could be sanded smooth with some care when cured.

 

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The outer hub areas were then masked and sprayed with the same brass paint.

 

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Next I cut arcs of masking tape to match radius of the thin massive rubber tires and then covered the centers.

 

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All painted and finished the wheels look like this. I'm positively surprised.

 

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Nice work on what must have been a very delicate task!

 

The tires are surprisingly dark though, including the museum replica. IIUC, carbon black didn't show up as a rubber additive until the 1910s.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found a little time at the workbench again, and started on the framework. Delicate parts to clean up, but all fitting very well so far.

 

Here the first three main parts are assembled. I dry fitted the seat bottom and the driveshaft support frame (for lack of a better name) to help the alignment while the glue dried.

 

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I decided to build up the frame as much as possible to spray all the dark green in one go. The parts pretty much fell in place and I think this is ready for spraying, and then detail painting some black and metal parts.

 

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I couldn't resist a slightly wonky trial fit of the wheels. I do think it looks quite promising.

 

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Hi Jorgen,

It looks like a cross between a horse-drawn carriage and a bicycle!

Wonderful piece of work! It's building up into a masterpiece.

 

Cheers,

Alan.

Edited by Alan R
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23 hours ago, JeroenS said:

It looks really graceful Jörgen.

Thanks, it really is. It makes you treat the project with quite some respect. It once was the top of development.

5 hours ago, Alan R said:

It looks like a cross between a horse-drawn carriage and a bicycle!

Wonderful piece of work! It's building up into a masterpiece.

Thanks a lot. That is actually a very good description I think, it's probably very much such a cross, with a rudimentary motor added to the equation. I actually want to drive one, it must be a fascinating experience.

 

I thought I would clean up parts and build up as many sub assemblies as possible before painting, so I continue back and forth in the instructions.

 

The flat and twisted drive belt from the engine down to the drive shaft under seat is an interesting thing. The kit gives you the choice of building the two drive wheels with parts of the belt integral, and adding two twisted belt lengths during assembly, or building the drive wheels empty and provide your own separate belt from scratch. Like this:

 

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Here we have the parts involved. Using the belt parts from the kit will mean some intricate sanding and painting after assembly to get a nice smooth belt. After some thinking I decided to build the plain wheels and try to find some good material for the belt later.

 

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It's no problem to ignore the instructions and assemble and paint the complete drive wheel  before  putting it on the drive shaft, thankfully, so that's what I'm doing.

 

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The drive wheels assembled. Their belt surface is not very smooth over the joints and need careful filing and sanding.

 

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While the glue on drive wheels dried I joined the two floor parts. I thought it would be best to dry fit them on the frame with some clamps so the glue joint could dry in the perfect position.

 

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This thin cross member goes on the top backside of the floor, under the seat. It had a small sink mark at each end. It would probably not be seen when all is built up, but I nevertheless had to fix them. Also four tiny ejector pin marks and frame rear cross member were filled and sanded. The flywheel parts to be glue as well.

 

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The first belt drive wheel filed smooth. I thought of turning two wheel faces in my smaller lathe, but it the end persisted and got the second wheel done as well.

 

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The various halves building up engine and tank parts are glued together, to give them time dry fully before all joints are taken care of.

 

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4 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

I actually want to drive one, it must be a fascinating experience.

A fascinating terrifying experience 🙂 

 

This kit is really nicely detailed! 

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