Mercedes L 4500

[Jochen Barett]

19 hours ago, Lummox said:

+++The column is the correct length but it is too loose in the (rack and pinion?) housing so has slipped through to rest on the chassis. No matter, it was an easy fix, so the steering column is now the correct length: +++

 

Today's German class: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenkgetriebe

 

"rack and pinion" = "Zahnstangenlenkung"

This one looks rather like a "worm and roller" gearbox or "Schneckenrollenlenkgetriebe" (a "Schnecke" is a snail)

"screw spindle steering" = "Schraubenspindellenkung"

"recirculating ball steering" = "Kugelumlauflenkung"

[Pig of the Week]

Yikes ! I wonder what the longest ever German composite word thingy is ?...

[Jochen Barett]

3 hours ago, Pig of the Week said:

Yikes ! I wonder what the longest ever German composite word thingy is ?...

You don't wanna know, but start your google search with "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmützenbandstickmaschinenüberwachungsverordnung" or "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" (that one used to be real! It used to be a law but the name was changed for some reason or the other) even better "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetzesentwurfsdebattierklubdiskussionsstandsberichterstattungsgeldantragsformular".

 

But note: "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" (yes that's supposedly Englisch) is a "Quarzstaublunge" in German.

Plan to impress French students of the German language? Practice to say "Streichholzschächtelchen" like a German.

 

Back to the Mercedes L 4500 and the gorgeous build! I can hardly wait for the moment the tilting windscreen is complete and a picture of the real thing will surface 😉

[Lummox]

1 hour ago, Jochen Barett said:

Back to the Mercedes L 4500 and the gorgeous build! I can hardly wait for the moment the tilting windscreen is complete and a picture of the real thing will surface 😉

 

Jochen waiting for the build to complete:

[Lummox]

An update on this is way overdue, partly because the weather has been far too nice to be hidden away in the man cave when there is a long list of jobs to do in the sunshine, and partly because I've been stuck in the mojo doldrums. But there has been progress of sorts, and progress is progress, so here we go...

 

A long standing niggle has been lacking inspiration on what could be placed in the dashboard 'glove compartment' to give a 'lived in' look. I feel there should be something in there, after all everyone has detritus of some form littering their vehicle, and I'm sure that your average wartime truck driver was no different in this respect. I'm pretty sure that Starbucks coffee cups and old parking tickets wouldn't be appropriate, so what could we use instead? Although the compartment looks to be a gaping empty chasm, it's actually quite small, so initial thoughts or putting a Luger, binoculars, or some other piece of spare kit wouldn't really work:

 

As luck would have it @NIK122 made a comment about a packet of cigarettes a while back, Brilliant, that would work, but what did your average Mercedes driver smoke back in the day? Not a clue, so down the rabbit hole we go...

After some digging, Regie 4 looked to be a popular choice:

 

A rather dapper manikin clutching his favorite cigarettes handily provided a reference as to the size of a Regie 4 packet:

 

So, a few measurements were made, two different candidates were cut from stock card (the smaller size looked the better option), and a frustrating time was had persuading tiny slivers of red decal to stay where you want them to stay. Patience, and lashings of Micro Sol came to play here, but we ended up with something that looks jolly rough, but kind of resembles a pack of Regie 4 (if you squint a bit, and have a good imagination)

 

It does help fill the gap in the 'glove compartment', which is good enough for me:

 

Whilst were on the subject of the dashboard, you may recall I hacked the rear of the instrument binnacle so the film for the gauge faces could be placed behind following painting. I thought it would be a good idea to fashion a replacement binnacle rear, which included something that represents the various gauge housings. I'm unsure how much of this will be visible to be honest when the dashboard is in place, so I won't go so far as to provide wiring for the gauges at the moment, apart from a socket for the speedometer cable which will be visible inside the cab:

 

Another job on the cab interior was installing the cabling for the trafficators which would be tricky to do once the cab is closed up. The cables exit the cab just below the trafficators, as can just about be seen in these not too clear pictures:

 

Some lead wire was run up the side of the door pillars to be hooked up to the trafficators at a later date. I don't hold out much hope that these wires will survive the work to come, but you never know

 

And finally, as a break from work on the the cab (which seems to be going on for ever) I thought I'd address another niggle that has been bothering me for a while. The front driver's side wheel hub was sitting at a dodgy angle which caused the wheel to skew out. There's no chance of the truck getting through the MOT in that state

 

There was some play in the hub, but not enough to bring it into line, so I had to resort to the nuclear option, shearing the ball socket pin that allowed the hub to pivot on the axle:

 

The hub could then be glued so it was true with the axle, as per these before/after pictures:

 

There is good new and bad news in this remedial work, The bad news is that unfortunately, we no longer have 'working' steering (which is a shame, as the 9 year olds in all of us love a working feature). The good news is that the stance of the front wheels looks a whole lot better. The front wheels have been set at a jaunty steering angle, corresponding to more of less full lock to the left:

 

And that is where we are currently at. Cheers, and thanks for looking,

 

Paul.

[StuartH]

Fantastic detailing work. Dashboard looks great 👍

[Bullbasket]

Reading back over the last couple of pages, I have to say that my gob is well and truly smacked at the amount of detail that you've managed to cram into this build. Keep going Paul. You're doing fine.

 

John.

[vaoinas]

Glad You're back!

 

Great detail work as always,
can't wait for the next update.

[Lummox]

Blimey, it's been 3 months since my last update. 3 months!

I have no excuses apart from a severe bout of slothfulness. Things are going to change though. I've given myself a damn good talking to, and I'm determined to get this build back on track. Well that was the intention anyway, but as a wise man once said, 'no plan survives first contact with the enemy'. Recent progress has been hampered somewhat by, how shall I put it, 'a series of unfortunate events'...

 

Some of us relish the painting stage of a build, but I am not one of these people. No putting it off though, I'd fiddled and faffed for so long with the cab interior, it was now time for paint. Everything was dunked in a nice bath of soapy water, given a wipe of IPA for good measure, and then dust off the airbrush to lay down the primer coat. The primer went on beautifully, laying down a smooth, even coat of loveliness. Everywhere, that is, apart from here:

 

I really don't know what happened here, but the cab firewall ended up looking like a scene from The Singing Detective. The paint didn't seem to be reacting with something on the plastic and lifting off, it was more like layers of primer 'laminating'. If you gentle scraped the 'flakes' off you were left with a primer coat underneath. There was nothing for it but to strip off the primer (easier said than done) and start again. The primer went of just fine second time round.

 

Most odd, but never mind, just one of those little bumps on the road. Before starting on the base coats I thought I'd do the right thing and give the airbrush a good strip down and clean. I've done this many, many times, and know how important it is not to over-tighten the nozzle because it's really easy to shear the thread. Oh, bother:

 

Most annoying, but never mind, just one of those little bumps on the road. Out with the credit card, and a week or so later the postman dropped off replacement nozzles, and off we go again. The base coats actually went down without too much trouble. Firstly the firewall:

 

The rear of the cab:

 

The floor and seat:

 

And the dashboard. Unusually for me I had a bit of a brainwave, using the PE fret as a template to make a mask for the instrument binnacle:

 

Things are progressing well, I thought, so out with the oils to start on the washes and filters. Now I must admit that I hadn't used the oils for quite some time (probably a couple of years) so I was expecting that the caps may be a bit stiff. Well 'a bit stiff' turned out to be a massive understatement, the caps wouldn't budge in the slightest. After a good soak in boiling water, and getting the pliers from the garage, all that happened is the body of the tube started to shear below the neck:

 

Hey ho, never mind, just one of those little bumps on the road. Out with the credit card again to order some replacement oils. At least I could make a start on dirtying up the cab floor using the paint leaking from the now ruined Burnt Umber tube. It was at that moment that the light I was trying to adjust decided it didn't want to be adjustable anymore:

 

Hmmmm, starting to get a bit annoyed now, these little bumps in the road seem never ending. The broken light had the last laugh though. When it decided to go 'all droopy' it managed to dislodge my optivisor. Can you guess where the said optivisor landed? Yup, you got it:

 

Arghhhh! I'm fed up to the back teeth with these ******* bumps in the road now, when is the ******* council going to get round to fixing them?

 

It was at this point that I though it best to count to 10, take a step back, and do something totally different.

Looking through the remaining parts on the sprues, I noticed the four bench things which are used when transporting troops (parts F2 in the instructions):

 

Those won't be used in the build, so wonder what I could use them for? Some cutting here, and some chopping there:

 

And we end up with a crate that can be used to help fill the space in the truck bed later. Amazingly I actually managed to achieve this without something breaking, or spilling, or dissolving, or exploding. You never know, those bumps on the road may have changed into some nice, smooth tarmac:

 

Cheers, and thanks for looking,

 

Paul.

[Kelscale]

Glad to see you back on this one, bumps an all!  It's all about the journey 😉

 

That stash of kits in the light pic looks very familiar. Had to do a double take. Got every one of them and all on the same shelf too.....🙃

[Pig of the Week]

Looking very nice!.... as regards oil paint, if I couldn't get the cap off I'd just cut off the very bottom of the tube, squish a bit out, then roll & squash the end of the tube over again, like they come, if you see what I mean  

[Lummox]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:08 PM, Kelscale said:

That stash of kits in the light pic looks very familiar. Had to do a double take. Got every one of them and all on the same shelf too.....🙃

Ha, it would appear that we both have impeccable taste my friend.

 

Here's the stash in it's entirety, which I suspect is quite modest (@Stef N. has probably got more StuG variants to build than my entire collection!) I stopped acquiring new 'projects' quite some time ago when I realised that the current stash will most likely outlive me given my glacial build rate:

 

Appearances can be deceptive though, as some of the items are like Russian dolls:

 

No prizes for guessing the common theme in the stash, but I wonder if the eagle eyed amongst you have noticed the Cuckoo in the nest? Yes, that's right, the little known Luft 46 heavy lift project that never got off the drawing board:

 

 

1 hour ago, Pig of the Week said:

Looking very nice!.... as regards oil paint, if I couldn't get the cap off I'd just cut off the very bottom of the tube, squish a bit out, then roll & squash the end of the tube over again, like they come, if you see what I mean  

Thanks Mr P, that sounds like a jolly good idea, but unfortunately a bit late in the day. The credit card got some hammer and these dropped onto the door mat the other day:

 

No excuses now, I can crack on with the build. Yay!

 

Cheers, thanks for looking, and thanks for the comments,

 

Paul.

[Stef N.]

That's a sensible sized stash and the Nashorn makes me regret buying the very old one I am trying to start.😀👍

[Peter2]

Your 4500 appears to be very well detailed. I just had a thought. I was going to suggest putting a pair of (driving or thicker welding type) gloves in the glove compartment but your cigarettes are in the way. What about a pair of gloves hanging over the steering wheel?

You could make them from green stuff or paper cut to size. for example.

I once got an oil paint tube cap to open by using pliers to turn the cap: when I noticed it was bending the tube which I held in my other hand (like yours did), I then added a second pliers, in my other hand, to hold steady the "shoulders" of the tube (where it begins to slope towards the screwtop "neck") as that part of the tube seemed a bit stronger than the "body" of the tube. This two-plier option may give more traction, though the risk of deforming the tube or bursting it still remains.

I wonder will oil paint last if it is squeezed out of a damaged tube into an airtight bottle or jar?

Once with an alkyd paint tube whose cap got broken, to avoid the paint drying out I cut the soft metal tube in half and squeezed the contents into a small screwtop plastic jar like you can buy to meet air travel restrictions.

Someone else might like to try these two methods if their paint tube cap gets jammed solid.

[Lummox]

On 10/14/2022 at 1:22 AM, Peter2 said:

What about a pair of gloves hanging over the steering wheel?

Thanks Peter, a pair of gloves is an interesting suggestion. If not in the cab, then maybe in the bonnet area where the engine will be fully on show when the time comes.

 

Keen to keep to momentum going on this, I thought a quick update may be in order. Without wishing to tempt providence, progress has been good recently. Long may it continue!

 

Firstly, the fuel tank got a lick of paint:

 

As did the battery:

 

Both are now comfy in their new home under the seat:

 

You may have noticed that the hand brake lever and gear stick have now been repaired following their altercation with the optivisor. You'd hardly know anything had happened (so long as you don't look too closely).

 

The dashboard was detail painted, had a couple of placards added, and then oil washed. The film representing the instrument faces could then be inserted in the recess behind the instrument binnacle, and then entombed by the binnacle backplate. Various cylinders on the backplate represent the instruments themselves:

 

The speedometer has a cable that passes through the firewall to, well, I'm not sure where if I'm honest (I assume somewhere in the gearbox area) 

 

As an aside, the film for the instrument faces is actually legible at bonkers magnification, which is nice, but maybe a little over the top. I suspect that an indicated 120kph is perhaps a tad ambitious

 

All that was then left to do was slap the driver's cigarettes into the 'glove compartment' and add the dashboard to the cab front:

 

And another couple of shots just for the hell of it:

 

Do you know, whisper it softly, but we may actually be getting somewhere.

 

Cheers, and thanks for looking,

 

Paul.

[vaoinas]

Lovely!

The dash looks really neat. Can't wait to see more.

[Model Mate]

very tidy! Honestly, really great work here - I faintly remember the days when, as kids, we were all convinced that speedos never lied..... "your dad's Allegro does 110mph? Well my dad's Austin Maxi can do 120!"

[StuartH]

Beautiful work there. That interior detailing looks superb!

Keep up the great work 👍

[Jochen Barett]

On 25/10/2022 at 14:52, Lummox said:

+++

The speedometer has a cable that passes through the firewall to, well, I'm not sure where if I'm honest (I assume somewhere in the gearbox area) 

Paul.

Never underestimate the ingenuity of a German engineer and the Sparsamkeit (thrift) of a Schwabe (Swabian).

(Swabians are former Scottish expelled from Scotland due to their extreme stinginess disliked by their fellow countrymen who are world famous for their generosity.)

 

Technically it would be "possible" to get the speedometer signal at the output-end of the gear box - in case you know the differential and countershaft transmission (Vorgelege / Vorgelegegetriebe) employed or at the differential (as done in e30 BMWs).

But a simpler way is shown in the VW Käfer, where the Tachowelle (speedometer cable) is getting the signal from the front left wheel (is that how you say it or is it the "left front" wheel?).

In case you use the gear signal you still need the differential and countershaft transmission ratios AND the tire circumference (to chose/calibrate the speedometer), in case you use the front "axle", you only need the tire size to do the math(s).

 

Anyway, this needs further investigation, because in case you just let the cable go "somewhere" a pic of the real thing will surface minutes after you showed the pictures of the completetd build.

[NIK122]

Fantastic! Really looking forward to more😎

[Bullbasket]

On 25/10/2022 at 14:52, Lummox said:

Do you know, whisper it softly, but we may actually be getting somewhere.

You certainly are. The inside of that cab front looks like the real thing. Can't say fairer than that.

 

John.

[Pig of the Week]

Coming along brilliantly...As a daily driver of an old vehicle with a similarly spartan cab ( S2 Land Rover)  I'd feel very much at home in your truck.. in fact yours has more detail than my 1:1 scale motor !   

[Lummox]

On 10/26/2022 at 12:14 PM, vaoinas said:

Lovely!

The dash looks really neat. Can't wait to see more.

Thanks Kristjan. Sadly I'm such a slow modeller that I always keep you waiting

 

On 10/26/2022 at 12:47 PM, Model Mate said:

very tidy! Honestly, really great work here - I faintly remember the days when, as kids, we were all convinced that speedos never lied..... "your dad's Allegro does 110mph? Well my dad's Austin Maxi can do 120!"

Cheers MM. I too remember peering through car windows to see what the speedo went up to. Kids don't seem to bother these days, probably more likely to nick the car instead and find out what it can really do. 

 

On 10/26/2022 at 1:21 PM, StuartH said:

Beautiful work there. That interior detailing looks superb!

Keep up the great work 👍

Thanks Stuart, and thanks for the encouragement. 👍

 

On 10/27/2022 at 2:47 PM, Jochen Barett said:

getting the signal from the front left wheel (is that how you say it or is it the "left front" wheel?).

Well Jochen my friend, I guess the terms used may depend on whether you drive on the correct side of the road or not.

For those of us that drive on the left, the left of the car is termed the 'nearside' (or passenger side), the right of the car being the 'offside' (or driver side). I'm unsure whether the speedometer signal is always obtained from the left wheel or may it depend on whether the vehicle is left/right hand drive?

 

On 10/27/2022 at 2:47 PM, Jochen Barett said:

Anyway, this needs further investigation, because in case you just let the cable go "somewhere" a pic of the real thing will surface minutes after you showed the pictures of the completetd build.

An initial investigation has taken place, which unfortunately was somewhat inconclusive (more of which later)...

 

On 10/30/2022 at 11:57 AM, NIK122 said:

Fantastic! Really looking forward to more😎

Cheers Nik, much appreciated. 👍

 

On 10/30/2022 at 3:18 PM, Bullbasket said:

You certainly are. The inside of that cab front looks like the real thing. Can't say fairer than that.

Thanks John. Not sure whether to dirty things up a bit more to be honest, but may stick with the 'less is more' approach.

 

On 11/1/2022 at 5:59 PM, Pig of the Week said:

Coming along brilliantly...As a daily driver of an old vehicle with a similarly spartan cab ( S2 Land Rover)  I'd feel very much at home in your truck.. in fact yours has more detail than my 1:1 scale motor ! 

Cheers Mr P. I can very much see the attraction of having a classic Land Rover as a daily drive - quite envious to be honest. 👍

 

 

Right, where were we? Ah yes, the seemingly never ending saga of the cab. The end is in sight though, but first we have the rear window to attend to. The glazing that came with the kit had an odd 'embedded hair' mould flaw which just wouldn't do at all:

 

A replacement window was created, shown here with the original (which doesn't look too bad in this picture to be honest). I've also attempted to show the improved clarity and reduced distortions of the replacement glazing in the image on the right. What do you mean you can't see anything? It's there above the original window!

 

The rear glazing has prominent framing (I assume this being the rubber window seal), which was replicated using thin styrene strip using the kit window for reference:

 

The drivers cap was given a coat of paint:

 

Everything was then attached to the painted cab rear:

 

It was then simply a case of piecing the various cab components together. Firstly the cab floor was attached:

 

And then the cab was closed up by adding the front. No real problems at all here, Zvezda should be complimented on the fit which was very good. Sure there are some seams to tidy up, and the joint at the top of the door arch will need a little finessing, but nothing too problematic - everything just slotted into place really:

 

 

The roof panel worked well to disguise the join which may otherwise have been quite noticeable. The rear window has turned out well too, being nice and clear (these photos don't really do it justice):

 

 

It feels like a real milestone to have finally closed up the cab (I guess it's similar to aircraft modellers closing up the fuselage). There's still lots of work to do on the cab (the firewall, the doors, the windscreen, etc.) but I think I'll take a break from it for now and move onto something different. But before I do, what about that speedometer cable...?

 

Firstly, from the perspective of the interior of the cab, from left to right:

1) In 'our' cab the cable travels nearly vertically from the speedo to exit the firewall just right of centre.

2) In the simplified cab on the 'Einheitsfahrerhaus' (where the cab was made of plywood on a wooden frame due to metal shortages) the cable follows the same path.

3) In a (assumed) post-war cab variant where the instruments have moved to be clustered around the driver's position, the cable follows a more tortuous route to the same exit point.

 

 

So to me the designers really wanted the speedo cable to exit at that point just right of centre. OK, well what can we see at the engine side of the firewall? I could only find a single image, where we see the exit hole for the speedo cable, but the cable is missing. Oh bother:

 

Never mind, let's use the model to see the lay of the land. The exit point positions the cable just above and to the right of the transmission:

 

Here we have a diagram of our motor with a portion of the transmission. What is that circled thing? Might that be a speedo housing? I don't have a clue really, but whatever it is, it's in roughly the right place to hook up with the speedo cable as it exits the firewall:

 

There's nothing on the model that corresponds with 'the thing' on the transmission, although I may be tempted to add something when push comes to shove

 

Well that ended up being a bit of a ramble. Apologies for that, I'm just thinking out loud really.

 

As ever, cheers, and thanks for looking,

 

Paul.

[vaoinas]

Terrific modeling you are doing here with this thing.
And congrats closing that cab. Having done a few full interior models myself
the feeling of closing something forever like this is very familiar.


Keep up the good work!
Kristjan

[Jochen Barett]

On 08/11/2022 at 20:46, Lummox said:

+++ Well Jochen my friend, I guess the terms used may depend on whether you drive on the correct side of the road or not.

For those of us that drive on the left, the left of the car is termed the 'nearside' (or passenger side), the right of the car being the 'offside' (or driver side). I'm unsure whether the speedometer signal is always obtained from the left wheel or may it depend on whether the vehicle is left/right hand drive?

+++

So to me the designers really wanted the speedo cable to exit at that point just right of centre. OK, well what can we see at the engine side of the firewall? I could only find a single image, where we see the exit hole for the speedo cable, but the cable is missing. Oh bother:

 

Never mind, let's use the model to see the lay of the land. The exit point positions the cable just above and to the right of the transmission:

 

Here we have a diagram of our motor with a portion of the transmission. What is that circled thing? Might that be a speedo housing? I don't have a clue really, but whatever it is, it's in roughly the right place to hook up with the speedo cable as it exits the firewall:

 

There's nothing on the model that corresponds with 'the thing' on the transmission, although I may be tempted to add something when push comes to shove

+++

I took the liberty to e-mail the museum people (the ones with the video) and ask them, the answer:

 

"Hallo J.,

es ist schon erstaunlich was ein Modellbauer mit dem Tachoantrieb vorhat.

Der Antrieb befindet sich am Getriebeausgang links kurz vor der Kardanwelle.

 

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
G. W.

Museum für Militär- und Zeitgeschichte e.V.
Waldweg 3
D-97509 Stammheim / Gem. Kolitzheim"

 

"The drive (for the speedometer cable) is located at the gear output to the left shortly before the cardan shaft."

 

In case I'll be visiting Stammheim any time, I'll buy them a coffee.