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Mercedes L 4500


Lummox

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Wonder if we have somebody aboard who is fluent in cyrillic to translate the text for us (if it touches that intereseting payload). Anybody?

 

https://p.calameoassets.com/120814121529-7f5fb91dd904f348d01b4cd3b18dc6d4/p48.jpg

 

p48.jpg

 

Regarding the Spriegel-holders, the etch parts do look nicer, or at least "more in scale" (open, rebend/reshape, shorten if neccessary, resolder).

 

The "piggy back trucking" thing ... OK, the police man looks like a German police man (and "Gerüstbau" is German for "scaffolding"), but who knows more about the truck driver? The load is not tied down properly 😉

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/19/2021 at 7:04 PM, Jochen Barett said:

Regarding the Spriegel-holders, the etch parts do look nicer, or at least "more in scale" (open, rebend/reshape, shorten if neccessary, resolder).

I agree that etch holders will look better Jochen, but I doubt I'd be able to re-purpose the Voyager versions without something going snap, so let's see what can be knocked up from spare brass runners.

 

Firstly, we'll do some measuring and sketch a diagram for the more complicated lower holders that are basically open boxes:

ad93a8f9-0cb9-489f-8610-db6ddb16085c.jpg

 

I squirrel away all the brass runners from any etch set that I use 'just in case' something ends up being useful. Looking through the stash of brass bits I came across a runner from an Eduard set (no idea what it was for) that had something of the correct dimensions:

bf69e3fe-1c46-4a29-8379-35a3185bb11d.jpg

 

After some careful bending/soldering we end up with something that bears a passing resemblance to the kit holders. Not perfect by any means, it being tricky to form precise 90 degree bends without engraved fold lines, and you can see that the two boxes are not quite the same size, but hey, they'll do. Spare strips of brass were soldered on to serve as the attachment brackets:

2d3c85e3-1945-433e-8e3d-bcce9161bc4f.jpg

 

The upper holders were much easier, being simple open loops that can be folded in one go from a brass strip along with the attachment brackets:

e61ea134-a6a1-4eaf-8eeb-0c99792f1817.jpg

 

The Voyager versions were then carefully prised off the truck bed ready for the home-made replacements. For etch items like this I use Klear/Future as 'glue' which has the advantage of forming a relative weak bond that can be easily broken if necessary. That being said quite bit of force was necessary, which was surprising given the small contact area, but reassuring in that you know things won't drop off too readily. Here's a comparison of the old and the new which illustrates the change in shape of the holders (from long and thin to short and fat):

6ff64e69-0f01-40de-9e2c-88d39618969b.jpg

 

Without too much ado the home-made holders were slapped onto the truck bed:

b698f0ac-c963-4186-b375-0df850776dcc.jpg

 

Inserting the Spriegels into the holders it soon became apparent that things got very messy, very quickly (it being impossible to keep to two neat rows of three and two). I resorted to soldering the base of three Spriegels to form one row, but inserting this highlighted another interference problem, in that the bed side clasp wouldn't allow the Spriegels to 'sit' vertical within the holders. Sigh! More deconstruction was therefore necessary, reducing the length of the clasp loop so giving more 'headroom' for the Spriegels:

17efbf29-dd06-4a6d-87f3-e78583f7f861.jpg

 

The Spriegels still wouldn't stack tidily as the remaining two needed to be slightly wider so they could 'sit' outside of the row of three. Fortunately I still had the 'jig' that was used to originally create the Spriegels (did I tell you I never throw anything away :smile:) so I modified it slightly by introducing a slight gap, and used it to create two new Spriegels. These were soldered together at their base, and now we had a row of two that slipped over the row of three:

ecfb45c0-374d-4295-bf2b-e08788d28c16.jpg

 

So, after all that, what's the end result? Not too bad actually. The Spriegels stow quite neatly, and there is no longer any interference with the trafficators:

b9561fe3-49a8-46a5-8f58-074f1b1d9245.jpg

 

52811b12-5f40-469f-870a-045ddd0f47ca.jpg

 

The Spriegel storage compares pretty well with the one good reference picture I have, Looking again though, they do look to be a bit tall. Sigh! :sad::

88b8a89b-dadd-4ad6-845f-b824400ba1e5.jpg

 

 

Cheers, thanks for looking, and a belated Happy New Year to everyone,

 

Paul.

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1 hour ago, Lummox said:

I agree that etch holders will look better Jochen, but I doubt I'd be able to re-purpose the Voyager versions without something going snap, so let's see what can be knocked up from spare brass runners.

+++

The Spriegel storage compares pretty well with the one good reference picture I have, Looking again though, they do look to be a bit tall. Sigh! :sad::

 

Cheers, thanks for looking, and a belated Happy New Year to everyone,

Paul.

 

Great work, grrreat result.

 

Regarding tallish Spriegel, my paternal grandmother (milliner/modiste before marriage) used to say "Dreimal was abgeschnitten und immernoch zu kurz!" (Three times something cut off and still too short) at occasions like this.

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Good to know that I'm not the only one not to throw away the scrap bits of etch. They do come in very useful. Those brackets look very professional. Great work Paul.

What do you use for soldering, iron or torch?

 

John.

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On 1/5/2022 at 6:51 PM, Lazy Modeller said:

Nice work! That's a jewellery damn work! I couldn't do that.

Cheers

LM

Cheers LayZee. I disagree, I think you could do it. 👍

 

On 1/5/2022 at 7:08 PM, vytautas said:

You really didn't lie about the scale? Is this really 1/35? Really really? Or maybe 1/6? :D

Everything you do here looks incredibly accurate and neat.

Thanks Vytautas. Given the exemplary work that's gone into your Salvenmaschinenkanone I think you know all about accuracy, neatness and 'are you sure that's really 1/35?' :wink:

 

On 1/5/2022 at 8:01 PM, Jochen Barett said:

Great work, grrreat result.

 

Regarding tallish Spriegel, my paternal grandmother (milliner/modiste before marriage) used to say "Dreimal was abgeschnitten und immernoch zu kurz!" (Three times something cut off and still too short) at occasions like this.

Cheers Jochen. I'm starting to think the Spriegels may be OK in height now, but more on that later...

 

On 1/6/2022 at 8:25 AM, Pig of the Week said:

Actually looking nicer than the real truck now !

Thanks Mr P. I initially thought that it would be an impossibility for a model to be nicer than the real thing, but then I started to think about British Leyland's finest. I suspect that this completed with bits stuck on upside-down, gluey fingerprints on the windscreen, and a paint job done with a toothbrush will still be much better than the real thing: :smile:

71d01eed-99d4-4e96-ba5f-fbd83af9ce56.jpg

 

On 1/6/2022 at 11:24 AM, edjbartos said:

The work that you have done with the etch is amazing and so much better than the originals, will definitely watch this one progressing...

I appreciate the kind comments Ed, thank you. 👍

 

On 1/6/2022 at 11:14 AM, Bullbasket said:

Good to know that I'm not the only one not to throw away the scrap bits of etch. They do come in very useful. Those brackets look very professional. Great work Paul.

What do you use for soldering, iron or torch?

Thanks John - glad to hear I'm not the only weirdo in refusing to throw anything away. :wink:

My first experiences in the world of soldering were with an iron, which I never really got on with to be honest. It was fine when soldering larger items, but small work ended up being immensely frustrating. I'm sure you know that it is critical in soldering for the pieces that are to be joined to be positioned in such a way that they are stable and in contact with each other. I don't know if it was me being ham-fisted, but I used to find that introducing the iron to the subject would always result in some movement or displacement, especially if the pieces were delicate.

Several years ago a friend suggested I try a torch, and it turned out to be an epiphany! I find it so much easier; position and secure the pieces to be soldered, paint the joint with flux, slap slivers of solder in the flux, waft the torch over the joint, and bingo! This is the torch I use:

cfd78b12-3029-42ae-9186-c855af5a7d7a.jpg

 

For completeness, this is the flux and solder I use (bought many years ago on a friend's recommendation). I'm sure there are many, many alternatives that work just as well:

82c6dbfc-b81f-4bfc-ba66-d5a41c860351.jpg

 

 

Now just a quick ramble on the Spriegel height. Digging a bit further, I'm now not convinced that they are too tall (or not overlying tall anyway). Firstly, let's compare with the kit versions (which I used as a guide in the first place, so no surprise that the heights are the same):

dc9b8107-c36d-4ff2-9279-07f7168bc294.jpg

 

Comparing with the excellent diagrams found here - maybe slightly tall, but not a great deal in it:

304b07f9-ad5e-4944-865d-a15a0ed943c2.jpg

 

Comparing with one of the few pictures I've found showing the stowed Spriegels - it's a poor picture, but a similar story:

5b1d93eb-5a82-46f9-a81d-e7f54a060bf9.jpg

 

And finally, there doesn't seem to be a standard Spriegel height anyway, as illustrated by these very different examples:

be8943b2-5d92-44ea-a55a-ae0f21e9e84c.jpg

 

So in summary, I'm not convinced that the Spriegels should be shortened, but that being said, I'm sure it will probably gnaw at me, so no doubt I'll end up shaving them slightly anyway :penguin:

 

Cheers, and thanks for looking,

 

Paul.

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14 minutes ago, Lummox said:

Cheers LayZee. I disagree, I think you could do it.

Humm... No! No and no! I couldn't do it! Two reasons. I hate Ca glue and metal parts! Truly! And I don see well. I could also imagine some more but these are rock solid! :rofl:

Better see the nice work you're doing ... its much easier... and keep my metal works at minimum levels... :rofl:

Cheers

LM

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I think the hoops look fine height wise, as per the photos they vary in real life anyway, and the taller ones do have historical precedent !

The Austin Princess, I actually liked, I had the Ambassador version and it was great.. To be fair tho it was given to me as a rather battered freebie and I ran it till the clutch died, it wasn't worth spending a load of dosh on it. I then had one of the early Metros, in the incredibly leery "applejack green"... No doubt both would be collector's items by now :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.

 

You may or may not have noticed that pictures have disappeared from previous posts due to Village.Photos playing silly beggars. Just messing about trying to use Google Blog for picture hosting. If some kind soul could confirm that they can see a picture I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks in advance. 👍

 

Paul.

 

AVvXsEhvnjYaHeFOyHJNtOBxhs_Yiks1ALwz15Fh

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5 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

And what a wonderful picture it is ;)

 

 Matt

Thanks for the confirmation Matt, and what a coincidence, as it was a post from you that pointed me in the direction of Google Blog for picture hosting. I'll know who to blame when they start charging for it next week! :wink:

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1 hour ago, Lummox said:

If some kind soul could confirm that they can see a picture I'd be eternally grateful.

 

Yes, the photo is visible, but more importantly, it is clearly visible that the torpedolike object in the bed is made very well. Especially all pipes, valves, and so on.

 

Vytautas 

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2 hours ago, Lummox said:

I'll know who to blame when they start charging for it next week! :wink:

 

 Lol yes, hopefully that will never happen, Google Blogger has been around a very long time, and virtually unchanged, probably more likely to just pull the plug completely rather than start charging hard cash for what is essentially a bargain basement, get you started kinda Bogger platform, time will tell...

 

 Matt

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On 2/6/2022 at 4:28 PM, Cerberus said:

And what a wonderful picture it is 

 

On 2/6/2022 at 5:48 PM, vytautas said:

Yes, the photo is visible, but more importantly, it is clearly visible that the torpedolike object in the bed is made very well. Especially all pipes, valves, and so on.

 

On 2/6/2022 at 10:53 PM, APA said:

As precise as always Paul

 

Thanks Matt, Vytauyas and Andrew. In truth, I only chose that image as it was one I had handy to prove Google Blog for picture hosting as an alternative to Village.Photos. VP now seem to be a dead duck. It's been 15 days since VP's security certificate expired, if they haven't updated it in that time I suspect they never will. The photo is actually from my other build thread over in Maritime of a SLC 200 Maiale (I'd offer up a link but it seems a tad pointless and you wouldn't be able to see any photos anyway :smile:). I will post the odd picture of the Maiale here though, starting with a quick question...

 

Probably being a bit thick, but how would awkward loads such as this be secured...?

a) By lashing to the truck bed uprights in some way (see rubbish example scribbled in red)? Probably the obvious and most likely answer I guess.

b) By lashing to some kind of tie downs affixed to the bed floor in some way (see rubbish example scribbled in black)? 

c) Nothing special done to secure, relying on gravity and friction to stop things shifting around? Unlikely, but if the driver took things steady it may be OK.

 

AVvXsEj4QFOTzwfuYCrY4a6SYAhqcTR3mclPzJQ5

 

 

Meanwhile, work on the cab is continuing, mainly in an area that I didn't plan to do any work on, but hey, best laid plans and all that! :wink:

When taping the cab together to check for fit, I noticed that the rear wall is quite visible through the windscreen, which is a shame as it is pretty featureless, and has a 'hard to tidy up' join seam across the top of the window:

AVvXsEioXWJPnRW1-W8RJNu4-Cm8Dt4jvHKWRSxp

 

Now this isn't wrong in any way, there being examples that exhibit this featureless rear wall:

AVvXsEhWM5bYCdq27rhcygfOKuPNXjsthwSRr7LH

 

But there again there are also examples that show a more interesting internal structure, which got the old cogs turning:

AVvXsEhOp2NhaVn35XgMvPfGU3q0LLMbC8QNzz8R

 

These wreak pictures show things more clearly, there looking to be an internal frame to the cab which is bolted together. I assume that the outer skin is attached to this frame, and sometimes an internal skin is attached at the rear giving the featureless appearance:

AVvXsEglj47cBxwJCr3bLF5hg73BmHPaoKjNq5Ag

 

Originally I wasn't planning on replicating this internal cab frame, but one thing led to another, and before too long we had a Mock Tudor Mercedes: :smile:

AVvXsEgj30ScpBJh_GXtAfWHauvWmTd0uLDPaHON

 

The curved sections over the doors were more of a challenge. The door was used as a template to sketch the curve onto a laminate of card stock, which was carefully cut and shaped to approximate the frame. Once the 'umbilical' was severed we ended up with two (nearly) identical 'lintels':

AVvXsEhC71P-z8geWuVKFSmEksSOaU5vYUROslyj

 

A recess had to be scraped from the cab roof to allow the upper door framework to sit flush and vertical(ish). Straight framework section could then be added for the door verticals, the joint hidden by some spare etch that mimics the brackets that hold the framework together:

AVvXsEjGsdWUGe-KT2STzTGrCsIwm5TSm161XuhZ

 

Eventually we end up with something that looks a bit like the cab framework:

AVvXsEiWggan3UgHTv_COo8Mt7xMsGWlV22MwahU

 

Which makes for a more interesting view through the windscreen (and hides the nasty join seam to boot). Win, win!:

AVvXsEicrl3aHhv3QMUnXo15eOhPnOsUeHezreQx

 

I'm still getting used to Blogger as a photo host so I hope these pictures are coming through OK. Cheers, and thanks for looking,

 

Paul.

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34 minutes ago, Lummox said:

Probably being a bit thick, but how would awkward loads such as this be secured...?

 I would go for b) By lashing to some kind of tie downs affixed to the bed floor in some way (see rubbish example scribbled in black) - Once the carrier frame is fixed down to the bed of the truck, it shouldn't move around too much, maybe...

 

 

40 minutes ago, Lummox said:

I'm still getting used to Blogger as a photo host so I hope these pictures are coming through OK. Cheers, and thanks for looking,

 

 Pictures are fine yes :thumbsup:

 

 Matt

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