Mercedes 4,5 L 1914 French GP

[Bengalensis]

Somehow I'm in the mood for more demanding resin, and I have plenty of that to choose from, such is the situation in my life as an addict, still waiting for the diagnose...  I'm going further back in time again, to the 1914 French GP, a rather famous race, run just before the world went crazy for a few years. The subject is the winning Mercedes 4,5 L driven by Christian Lautenschlager, the kit is once again in 1/24 scale from Fernando Pinto, FPPM.

 

There is quite a lot of interesting reading about the race and some about the car, here is just a little:

http://www.grandprixhistory.org/merc1914.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1914_French_Grand_Prix

 

I just love the box art of the FPPM kits that Fernando Pinto usually draws and paints himself.

 

 

The content of the box. Not something that will fall together easily, but should provide a few hours of interesting preparation.

 

 

Body and chassis main parts. A metal rod is cast into the rear axle that should help rigidity somewhat. Lots of clean up needed but the parts look pretty nice. Now those copper wires...

 

 

The smaller resin parts. Again we get some metal rods moulded in. Clean up work is provided, but thankfully I see very few air bubbles. The copper wires. They are meant to form the very prominent fuel lines running along the exterior of the body. They appear to be cut from the winding of some scrapped electrical unit, as they are glued together and have some distinct bends. First thought is perhaps wtf, but then again, isn't that how we often find detailing material? And recycling is supposed to be good thing? We'll see what I'll use in the end.

 

 

The wire wheels are supplied assembled as usual in the FPPM kits. Also here the method looks effective. Yes, six wheels, two carried as spares at the rear of the car.

 

 

A nicely done photo etch fret with many smaller parts and the radiator mesh. It will be necessary to cut a mask like one of the decals to spray the race number on the radiator mesh.

 

 

There is also a resin engine and intake manifold supplied, but it is not mentioned anywhere in the instructions and the body is cast in one piece, although with decently thin bonnet panels. However, if the engine is to be used and the bonnet opened up, quite a lot of scratch building will be needed to create missing parts like the radiator, steering box, firewall etc. Still the engine looks good and would have been the worst to scratch. If the bonnet is opened. I haven't decided what to do, but I'm not in the mood to build a super detailed engine room.

 

 

The instruction sheet. You do get the information required to identify the resin and photo etch reasonably.  Some good reference pictures and modelling experience will probably add a lot.

 

 

Looks fun to me. It will be a slow start as finishing the Auto Union Typ C has priority. No promise that not some other project may pop up as well...

[s.e.charles]

that looks like an absolutely beautiful kit; following along.

[Vesa Jussila]

Nice project. Need to follow this too. And knowing where to get these kits will ruin my economy. My lady will kill me..

[Hamden]

 

Interesting project will enjoy watching you work your magic

 

   Stay safe            Roger

[ElectricLightAndy]

This looks like it will be an interesting kit

 

Andy.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

This looks good, and under your wing no doubt it will be superb.

Taking a seat (but not in the car).

Those wheels surely look the part. I am extruding my brain to figure out how were they produced.

Cheers

[Bengalensis]

12 hours ago, Moa said:

Those wheels surely look the part. I am extruding my brain to figure out how were they produced.

I like the way Fernando Pinto make his various wire wheels, it's an effective compromise I think, so let's check them out closer.

 

 

 

The hub appears to be made up of two resin parts, a centre and a rear section. Then in the case of this Mercedes 4,5 L, the tyre and outer rim are made together from three resin pieces. First is the core section that I think is placed in a jig with the centre hub section. A metal thread is then routed from the outer core ring, bending some degrees round the centre of the hub towards the outer ring, over to the back side, back to the hub bending round the centre, to the outer ring, over to the front side and again and again... I'm not sure if it's done with one continuous thread or several. Then it's all secured with gluing the two remaining tyre/rim pieces - outside/thread and inside section - and the rear piece of the hub. Some filling and sanding of the tyre joint on the backside is left to do. The centre nut will tidy up the outside of the hub where the spokes bends round the centre.

 

The ones I have used before have had the tyre cast in one piece and the outer section of the rim in three pieces, like these from the Auto Union Typ C I'm currently building. I also like that he provides a tyre of resin. I dislike the various soft materials used in most car kits.

 

 

 

With the centre nut in place it all adds up.

 

 

Here are the same wheels as in the Auto Union kit, but used on a Mercedes W125 that came with rather toy like wheels in the kit.

 

 

The method will perhaps be more limited the larger the scale, but here are the FPPM wheels for the new 1/12 Alfa Romeo 2300C from Italeri, using the Italeri tyre and centre nut. I think it will even work in this case, especially as they will be black.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

4 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

I like the way Fernando Pinto make his various wire wheels, it's an effective compromise I think, so let's check them out closer.

Thanks Jörgen for the close-ups and the narrative.

It's clearer now.

Ingenious!

 

[Bengalensis]

Real work has started, cleaning up and filling of the body and chassis is first.

 

 

There are some air bubbles and smaller issues to take care of, but nothing too dramatic or unexpected. They're also a bit intricate castings.

 

 

But no problems some work with filler and sanding can't fix.

 

 

[Bengalensis]

The body is all cleaned up and ready for further test fitting.

 

 

The chassis took a good deal of time to clean, fill and sand. It's a complex and rather fragile casting. The moulded in U-bolts for the rear axle where incomplete and filled with bubbles, so they were cleaned off and new where bend from metal wire and glued.

 

 

 

After the some minor adjustments the body fits the frame OK.

 

 

That step was celebrated with a little photo mock up on wheels, sort of.

 

[Schwarz-Brot]

Is it just me, or did the Bluebird look better right from the start? The Auto Union is also looking better to me, from a quality perspective. Though its grille is a bit too unevenly spaced for my liking.

 

This one needs the Jörgen-treatment to become a really good model. But as I see you're on your way already. Keep pushing!

[Bengalensis]

5 minutes ago, Schwarz-Brot said:

But as I see you're on your way already. Keep pushing!

Thanks a lot. I''l keep working on it.

 

I'd say this one is overall on par with the Auto Union I'm about to finish in the other thread. But that kit was produced back in 2014. The Vanderbilt Cup Auto Union kit I have, that is a very similar set of parts but produced in 2018/19, just like the Mercedes here, is better than the older. Having said that I also think it is more difficult to make a good quality resin kit of the 1914 style car than the 1936 one. The Blue Bird is quite different and a bit difficult to compare, but it too needs its fair share of work.

 

These are no easy kits to build well, they are challenges that are rough around the edges. The thing is though, that the kits guys like FPPM create are of subjects few makers, even many resin kit makers, wouldn't even care too look twice at for strictly commercial reasons. I suppose that's why I'm enthusiastic about them, despite some very obvious issues. But you have to like messing with resin castings... 😎

[Schwarz-Brot]

Thanks for your opinion on the quality.

 

I know resin kits are usually a lot of work and not for the average OOB builder. But I love the opportunities they give us as they cover topics no strictly commercial company could reasonably tackle. Seeing resin models being built to a high standard, I constantly have to stop myself from filling up my stash. Then again I remind me I don't even have time and place for a simple OOB-build these days. Every piece of modelling equipment is packed up in boxes. Even if I had the room to unpack some of it I couldn't justify spending time and money on doing so right now. Meeh.

 

 

[Mr Mansfield]

It really looks like a lot of work to clean up a resin kit, but seeing that mock up on the last pic really shows it’s worth the effort. Love those real spoke wheels

[Bengalensis]

6 hours ago, Mr Mansfield said:

It really looks like a lot of work to clean up a resin kit, but seeing that mock up on the last pic really shows it’s worth the effort. Love those real spoke wheels

Cleaning up and fixing problems in a resin kit can indeed be lot of work, you sort of have to like to sit there for an hour and bring a part to life that sometimes would be done in two minutes in a styrene kit; cutting it from a sprue and sanding the mould lines. But it also depends; there are many differences in resin. The FPPM kits need some time and work, but I have done far worse resin than this, far worse... We also have the occasional one man creator making resin kits on the other end of the scale. This for example is the Ferrari 250 P5 from SMP24, an amazing jewel of high quality resin.

 

 

Back to 1914. The wheels are an ingenious construction as they come in the kit, but they still require love and care by the builder. Some of them more than others. We have some air bubbles on the rear sides.

 

 

We just have to continue. 2-part filler applied.

 

 

It took an hour or two of first cutting the filler roughly with a sharp knife, then sanding and a little refilling, but in the end it's done. I also sanded down the rather prominent thread pattern a bit. Ready for primer.

 

 

 

I'm considering the best paint mix for the tyres that will be some grey/whitish colour. There is an interesting thread here, well worth reading:

 

 

The front axle, steering link, shock absorbers and brakes were cleaned up and test fitted.

 

 

The exhaust done, and again I need a little mock up as a reward.

 

 

 

Smaller exterior and interior details done, actually quite quick work. The small resin parts for the top of the fuel tank remains.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The stupendous work begins again!

I admire your patience, but it surely pays off.

 

[Bengalensis]

The main parts for the fuel tank have now been prepared and test fitted. The top of the fuel tank will be a busy area on the finished model.  There are resin parts for the two fuel supply valves, the pressure gauge and the pressure hand pump. The fuel cap is moulded in place. I had to scratch build the pressure relief valve, as it was not represented in the kit, and do some other small changes. There are several smaller photo etched parts to be fitted later. I also made some cuts in the resin to ensure I can fit the retaining strap after painting, being made from wine bottle foil.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I like that impression of "busyness"! Rich visual detail always ads interest.

 

[Bengalensis]

13 minutes ago, Moa said:

Rich visual detail always ads interest.

It does indeed. There is a lot of things going on around both the exterior and interior on this one.

[Bengalensis]

I started to cut into the photo etch to prepare all parts that must be shaped or glued before painting. It turned out to be a number of those. It's also a good idea to test fit parts that go into recesses, like the radiator mesh, to prevent any nasty surprises, like that they would be just slightly too large to be fitted after painting... No such problem here though. There are four handles that have three layers of etch glued to give them some shape and thickness. I have used some extra glue and sanding to give them better shape. Hopefully some work with the paint brush will reduce the photo etch feeling a bit more.

 

 

The steering wheel controls for ignition and mixture are also on the photo etch sheet. But they need a tiny round knob to be added. I decided to try using epoxy. Holding the sheet upside down I applied a tiny dot for each knob, as much as possible, which isn't much, without going outside the fixing point. Then I let it cure upside down to prevent any floating.

 

 

It didn't look much at first, but after five repeated applications I had something that might work well, given a little black paint.

 

 

 

The external fuel lines are a very prominent feature on this car. I will have to make them reasonably well represented. They are mostly referred to as being white, as the body. They are indeed painted white on the restored car, but I never trust restored cars for details like this. It might be correct though, looking at the few period photos there are, but I'm not sure.

 

 

I'm intrigued by those recycled copper wires from some electrical device that are supplied in the kit. Their diameter is good, and I have nothing obviously better in stock, so why not? I separated them, removed the worst spots of old resin and straightened them.

 

 

Then I sanded them clean and straightened again. They will be fine for this work.

 

 

I have a problem though. The fuel lines are clamped in four places, three on the body panels and one on the frame, approximately where I have marked. I have to create some clamps that look OK, but can also handle some force without breaking loose when the lines are formed and routed, as there will be tension, even if not much.

 

[Schwarz-Brot]

Could you maybe drill and insert some pegs temporarily to route the lines, then remove the pegs again and install the perfectly shaped copper? That's what I'd try, as I know any detail I'd add there before having the right shape would be destroyed by me not being careful enough.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Pre-forming the lines over a photocopy of the side, then clamp on the model?

Aluminium sheet of adequate thickness drilled on the sides to accept a metal pin?...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gi3kDBMrOE

 

[Brandy]

For items like the knobs on the controls I use Mr Dissolved Putty, applied with a paintbrush. Build it up slowly, just like you did with the resin. The advantages being it doesn't take as long and can be teased into shape very easily.

 

Ian

[Bengalensis]

@Moa @Schwarz-Brot Thanks for ideas. My worry is not so much to shape the lines, that I think will be fairly straight forward, but more to produce reasonably good looking clamps that actually have some mechanical rigidity. Actually acting like clamps one might say. I want to avoid the first glued only clamp-thing to pop loose when I manipulate the pre-shaped and pre-painted lines into position for the third clamp... I have been raiding my stock of left over photo etch material and might have some idea. We'll see.

[Bengalensis]

2 hours ago, limeypilot said:

For items like the knobs on the controls I use Mr Dissolved Putty

Sounds like a product worth looking closer at. Notes taken.