Revell 1:24 Mercedes 540K Cabriolet A - Completed

[HoolioPaulio]

12 hours ago, Alan R said:

Goo save!

 

Thanks fella.

 

 

2 hours ago, Paul H said:

Following this with great interest!  I really like these old Monogram kits 😎

 

Cheers, though I saw yours and I'm not sure I can compete with that quality.  However, I am more than happy with how my body colour turned out.  Shows up much better with something white for reference, and goes real nice with the hood

 

[HoolioPaulio]

But of detail on the firewall

 

And here it is in position with the windscreen installed

[HoolioPaulio]

As you can see, the car still isn't finished.  But here is a sneak peek at what has been distracting me over the last few days.  On and off I've been trying to make a basic diorama (base and back plate) to photograph completed cars on, with a view to make others for different subjects once I have the process worked out.  I'd been looking for suitable images on Google to use for some time, but I couldn't find what I needed.  So in the end I just got several images and used my basic GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program, get your minds out of the gutter ) skill to create what I needed.

 

This is V2, as the first version the back was too big so the car looked out of scale and the sky wasn't in shot, and the base wasn't long enough so unless you had the car right at the bottom frame you could see the table.  So I modified the background, removed the hillside bit so it was just the hedgerow and sky, shrunk the hedgerow a little, then widened the whole thing by taking a section of the middle and adding it to the end.

 

 

Still need to work on V3 though.  The base needs brightening to compensate for the different viewing angle compared to the BG, the grass running along the back of the base is the bottom of the background, and identical in colour and shade when both are viewed straight on.  Also need to get rid of the line on the BG, which is caused by my old aluminium ruler no longer being exactly straight due to years of guiding scalpel blades taking fine shavings off (I sometimes see them if I've had the blade angled a little off) so they wouldn't but up correctly.  I resolved this on the base, which would be in the same place, by cutting one sheet with the ruler over the border of the paper instead of the normal way which was tricky to line up.  I've ordered a new set of stainless steel rulers for the next one.

 

For reference, this was V1, but this is unprocessed straight out of the camera, hence the flat washed out colours.

[HoolioPaulio]

Here they are side by side

[HoolioPaulio]

Things seemed to be going a bit more smoothly now with this kit, its been one of the worst I've had for flash and seam lines etc.  Fit has been OK though, so far.

 

I got the front of the exhaust connected to the manifold, and the bit of body panel below them were a PITA.  Instructions said they should be fitted before the body goes on the chassis, but I thought they would get knocked off during fitting.  Turns out this is because they are incredibly hard to fit when the engine is in place, very fiddly with no room around the front one.  But I did it.

 

Then I started getting a bit excited that the end was in sight now, and in my excitement I drilled out the exhaust tips

 

So far so good.  Test fit of the bonnet, nice fit around the exhaust and good colour match to say they were painted separately to the body

 

But here we go.  Doesn't fit right on the drivers side

 

Turns out the engine is fowling it at the front on the passenger side.  Looks like the air filter is in the way

 

Actually it looks like the whole engine assembly is too far over by a mm or two.  Which is incredibly annoying.  The engine mounts on the sump are pegs which are a tight and perfect fit for the holes on the chassis.  So maybe the engine isn't glued to the sump in quite the right spot.  Or maybe its just sloppy molding.  But right now I'm at the point where I either attempt to break the CA holding the engine to the sump, and move it over a mm or two, or maybe try grinding the inside of the bonnet away.  Either way, miffed is an under statement.  To say this is a car I wouldn't have chosen to buy, its classic and elegant design has really grown on me during the build and I've fallen in love with it some what.  But the quality of the kit is fighting me every damn step it seems.

 

So I moved on to the headlights.  Another issue that's plagued me.  Of all the sprues, the chromed one seems to have the worst flash issue.  Which has then been chromed.  And I lack the skills, and items needed to strip chrome, and replace it with a good chrome finish.  I tend to just spray the chrome parts with a bit of satin top coat to 'dull' the shine and scale it down, works well enough for me.  But as if flash wasn't a bad enough issue, one of the clear main headlight lenses isn't even fully formed and doesn't fill the housing.

 

The build has become a real kick in the teeth.  After all its thrown at me I'm lacking the motivation to even tackle the bonnet issue right now.  I'm pretty certain splitting the engine in the chassis, or removing it from the chassis is going to cause damage.  Last thing I need it to start stepping backwards on this, its close hitting the back of the cupboard doom, so I can start on the Ferrari 599, which looks miles better than this, clean lines and haven't spotted any flash yet when I examined it.

 

Aaarrggghh.  This build.  The car is so beautiful, and (though I dislike tooting my own trumpet) I absolutely love the colours I chose in the end.  But the flash on all this chrome and the poor bonnet fit is going to ruin it  

[Andy J]

I feel your pain I really do you have two options 

1. Chuck the car in a cupboard and forget about it or

2. Leave well alone for a couple of days decide the best way to tackle the problems and go for it. 

For what it's worth you've done a great job so far so imo option 1 is not the answer. I once threw a Nissan GTR in the recycling bin due to paint issues. Another member on here suggested I strip the paint and try again. So next morning I dragged it out the bin stripped the paint and sprayed it again. It now sits in my cabinet wearing probably the best paint job I've ever done. I believe you can sort these issues but at the end of the day it's your kit and your choice. 

Hope this helps regards Andy 

[HoolioPaulio]

No you are right @Andy J I just need a few days off to mull it over.  Think I just needed to vent, like most I imagine this global pandemic is taking its toll mentally, I'm just not up to a proper fight when my hobby is meant to be relaxing.  It was never going to be my best work when I saw the quality of the kit at the beginning, but I'll persevere.  I'll step back for a few days and see what ideas come and go...

[HoolioPaulio]

Well thats a little win that deserves a 1am update.  I had a sudden brain wave as I was about to go to bed, and remembered how the block and sump were joined.  I was able to squeeze in a precision screw driver and work the CA loose and it popped off.  And I don't see any damage to the bodywork paint, or the engine for that matter but that would have been a much easier fix.  Gonna take some work to get the engine seated correctly from to look of a test fit.  But things are looking up for this build once again

 

[JeroenS]

Now that's the spirit!

[JCH]

 

12 hours ago, HoolioPaulio said:

It was never going to be my best work when I saw the quality of the kit at the beginning, but I'll persevere. 

My issue with Revell since I was a kid!  They always have let me down.  Your color choices and work are far beyond the quality of the kit.  Excellent work.

JCH

[Spiny]

I see what you mean about the kit fighting you all the way - well done for keeping at it and I'm sure you'll get it sorted and feel a sense of achievement in the end. But don't let this put you off Revell kits - they do some nice ones as well as some clunkers and it's always worth checking online before ordering if you want to avoid the poorer ones (I would struggle to receommend the '53 Corvette, but the Trabant kit is very good indeed).

 

Not sure what tools you have available, but if you have a #17 scalpel blade (small square ended one), you may be able to shave a little off the left hand (driver's) side of the top of the sump which could tilt the engine enough to avoid the clash between the air filter and the grille.

[HoolioPaulio]

@Spiny Thanks, luckily for me these three Revell kits were given to me by a friend at work who realised he would never build them, and I started with this as it was least favourite car at the time.  I also got the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, and the Trilux AMG Mercedes DTM 2009, both of which look far better on the sprues so there's hope for those.  In the end they were free, so they are what they are.

 

In regards to tools, I don't have the chisel blade, but I could order one as I should have one really.  Your suggestion intrigues me though, but instead I could just work the bottom of the block to make the corrections, it won't take much and that side has some overhang to cover it.  My main worry trying to work the top of the sump is damage to the body, and its a bit more securely located to the chassis, so again I risk damage trying to get it out.

 

A combination of your suggestion to tilt, and my idea to lower the whole thing and slide it over should give me all the clearance I need.  I think we are talking fractions of mm in all three planes to line it up.  I'm going to mull different things over before starting though.  Shaving bit off is a little more final than just splitting it apart, so I will try to have a good idea what I'm going to do before I start.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, its really got my brain thinking again now  

[Spiny]

To be honest, you're probably braver than I would have been just getting that engine out - well done on managing that without further damage. I only really suggested shaving the sump as it looked as though there was a bit of glue/paint there which might come off relatively easily. As you say, it's only going to be a couple of tenths of millimetres at most, so it probably is safer to shave the engine block if that can be hidden.

 

Good luck

[HoolioPaulio]

On 01/05/2020 at 20:43, Spiny said:

... I only really suggested shaving the sump as it looked as though there was a bit of glue/paint there which might come off relatively easily...

 

You were correct, some glue to remove from the sump, combined with flattening the bottom of the block as it came to ever such a slight V where the two halves met, and we now have a central engine which isn't fowling the bonnet

 

The bonnet still isn't perfectly square, but that's just its shape I think (I'm not squaring it up now, I just really can't be chuffed to sand and repaint it).  Before gluing the engine I could rock it so I know its definitely not touching the bonnet anymore.  Also, the little black mark at the front is just a block/sump shaving that is no longer there.  Thankfully after all my work, I don't see any damage or scuffs to deal with 

 

I feel bad saying it, because I now realise its a beautiful car, but I'll be glad to see this damn kit finished so I can move on to something hopefully less stressful (I thought hobbies were meant to be relaxing, but here I am making a 3:05 am whinge...).

[Homerlovesbeer]

On 4/17/2020 at 7:35 PM, HoolioPaulio said:

But of detail on the firewall

 

And here it is in position with the windscreen installed

Really tidy work on the car so far, especially the firewall. How did you dp it so neat? Mask or freehand painted?

[HoolioPaulio]

@Homerlovesbeer Thanks fella, I airbrushed the black, then hand painted the alu and steel, then just a touch up with black by brush for a couple of runs around the bolts.

[HoolioPaulio]

looking more like a car today

 

Bonnet doesn't fit perfect, but I wanted to leave it removable to see the engine

 

If I'd been able to dry fit this far ahead before painting I maybe would have fixed it, but due to the shapes it was incredibly difficult to get things to sit properly without glue...

 

Back end it also done, just number plates front and rear need painting and decalling, then I think its finally done.

[Homerlovesbeer]

Again you've done an outstanding job! She's gorgeous!

[HoolioPaulio]

I could have had this finished tonight, but I got side tracked.  You see my 14 year old daughter engaged me in a prank war.  I'm rather proud of the engineering that went into this.  Just need to work out the perfect time to set the trap...

 

[HoolioPaulio]

Well, progress on this took a big hit.  After being distracted for a few days by other things I found I had misplaced the decals for the number plates.  The thought of painting them by hand to complete this build filled me with dread (with good reason, I'm terrible at hand brushing detail), so I kept putting it off.  Eventually decided to just do it and deal with it at the weekend, results were not great

 

Terrible.  However, just after painting them was finished I found the number plate decals (hurrah), though the 'D' is gone as I tried to put that over the raised detail some time ago as a test and it wouldn't sit properly.  So back to the original problem that the plastic parts need the raised lettering sanding off before decals are applied.  Front plate should be easy to just sand off, but the rear one is in a recess.  No idea how to tackle that yet.  So its either tidy up the silver around the recess and live with the terrible lettering, which is really going to detract from the rest of the car which I'm pretty proud of (it's not perfect, but better than the plates), or risk ruining the part altogether.

 

Although I've just had an idea while typing this.  Maybe I can cut a rectangle out of my thinnest plasticard sheet and glue it in the bottom of the recess.  The recess would not be as deep after, but as I was already going to leave off the clear piece that's meant to go in this recess over the number plate, I don't think it will be a problem.  I'll experiment with that...

[Mr Mansfield]

That’s not bad for hand painted numbers ta5 small, but glad you’ve found the decals, it will look a million times better!

[Bengalensis]

Good to see you working on this again. It's a lovely car.

 

You can make a little chisel by breaking a small piece from a razor blade with a set pliers, getting a piece of lesser width that the recess, then carefully scraping of the raised letters. Be careful if you try this though, to not cut yourself, but it can be done 😎. Although I must say, your painted plates look pretty good.

[Spiny]

Am I understanding correctly that the raised bits on the number plates are the lettering? If so, there's a couple of options which might save the chiselling of the raised bits:

 

1: Apply the decal anyway, then attack with Microsol or equivalent. You'll need to have aligned it right, but that should give you the raised lettering effect.

 

2: Paint the whole thing black, then when dry go over with white. Once all layers have hardened, you can sand down until you have removed the white from the raised lettering leaving you with the underlying black on them.

 

The painting you've done isn't bad at all, but it does look as though you painted the white then the black. In future if you are going to be painting raised items, I usually find it easier to paint the raised bit first then paint the lower level afterwards as it's easier to paint up to an edge rather than over it.

[HoolioPaulio]

8 hours ago, Bengalensis said:

Good to see you working on this again. It's a lovely car.

 

You can make a little chisel by breaking a small piece from a razor blade with a set pliers, getting a piece of lesser width that the recess, then carefully scraping of the raised letters. Be careful if you try this though, to not cut yourself, but it can be done 😎. Although I must say, your painted plates look pretty good.

 

Thanks, and I'll bear that in mind for the future, good tip as I couldn't find any X-acto chisel blades recently when I looked on Ebay.  But I'm not going to risk attacking this one with blades as its literally the last piece of the puzzle.

 

6 hours ago, Spiny said:

Am I understanding correctly that the raised bits on the number plates are the lettering? If so, there's a couple of options which might save the chiselling of the raised bits:

 

1: Apply the decal anyway, then attack with Microsol or equivalent. You'll need to have aligned it right, but that should give you the raised lettering effect.

 

2: Paint the whole thing black, then when dry go over with white. Once all layers have hardened, you can sand down until you have removed the white from the raised lettering leaving you with the underlying black on them.

 

The painting you've done isn't bad at all, but it does look as though you painted the white then the black. In future if you are going to be painting raised items, I usually find it easier to paint the raised bit first then paint the lower level afterwards as it's easier to paint up to an edge rather than over it.

 

Yeah the raised bits are the lettering.  I don't think microsol will handle it, didn't like the 'D', couldn't get it to conform.  Plus knowing my luck it won't be aligned correctly.

 

Noob experience there I think, painting the black over white.  I always have it in my head to start with lighter colours and go through to dark, the rationale being that darker colours cover lighter colours easier and cleaner than light over dark.

 

Some good suggestions guys, this one should be finished soon.  I've been pre-occupied with an electronics project, and Farming on the PS4 this evening.

[HoolioPaulio]

I think I need to sort my head out, this social distancing, working from home, and barely leaving the house must be getting to me.  I've avoiding things model wise that I would normally jump into feet first and learn as I go.  I guess I've just been wanting things to go smoothly, in the currently climate its been getting me down when my hobbies are going to plan and stressing me out.

 

I must have unintentionally had a change of heart in my sleep, because without any pre-planning I just grabbed the rear number plate today, and my angled chisel blade and started scraping the letters like it was the plan all along.  A few scrapes in I thought to myself "This wasn't the plan, what if you ruin it".  I ignored myself and carried on gently scraping away.  And with a bit of sanding, it looks to be pretty much bang on, but a layer of primer will be the judge of that.

 

But hey, another step forward, and another job tackled for the first time and realising that its not so difficult with care and patience to scrape away unwanted detail in a recess.  Also in the background is the plasticard blank to fill the hole should it all have gone awry

 

Still don't know what to do about the 'D' yet, as that decal was sacrificed.  I could sand it flat and print a new one.  Home printed ones are never quite as good as proper ones, but i think it will be better than my painted effort.  Just need to find a scan of the decal set and scale it correctly in GIMP for printing...