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Yet another Gullwing Mercedes


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The glue didn't get a look in this weekend, I seem to have spent the time I had on the bench just removing parts from the sprue and painting them.

 

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All the bits needed for Step 3 of the instructions, and mostly ready to fit. You can see in the photo though why I haven't got onto assembly yet - for those of you who think one of the driveshaft gaitors is suspisciously shiny, well it is. It seems that when someone was applying the second coat of matt black to it he grabbed the pot of gloss black instead :doh:. Not a major issue and easily sorted, but it's a slight delay. Not that I'm going to complain, I suspect any time gained here will be lost when I get to the Alpine unless we have a very un-humid autumn. There's still a little bit of painting on the wheel hubs and the dampers, but it's pretty much there for assembling the rear suspension now. Incidentally, it doesn't show in the photos, and barely shows under magnification, but I did spend time getting the outside of the springs gloss black and the recesses matt black. Looks as though that may have been a bit of a wasted effot :(

 

That isn't all I've done though, with the good weather we've had this weekend I got the clearcoat onto the bonnet and onto my sill repair, so all spraying is (hopefully!) done on this now.

 

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If you're thinking that looks a pretty shonky repair, you're probably not wrong. But it looks a lot worse as I had started sanding the rest of the body so the surface of the clear is different between the old and new clearcoats. And then I deliberately maked the line there as even if I don't get it smoothed enough to blend in there will be some chrome trim covering the line when I've finished which should disguise any slight differences.

 

And that's all I have to show for this week. Thanks for looking.

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That's what I'm hoping. The rest of the body has been done in 6000 grit micromesh so far so plenty of room for that to gain a bit more shine too.

 

The line of silver paint is actually towards the outer edge of the sill and happily doesn't show in the photo and you have to look very closely (and know what you're looking for) to be able to see that line, so I would hope the fact that it's just extra clear up to the trim line will mean that once done and with trim fitted it will be an invisible repair🤞

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Not a huge amount to show for this week. I did at least get all the bits from last week stuck onto the chassis so the rear suspension is assembled now.

 

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Nothing really out of the ordinary with this other than me breaking a couple of joints on the spaceframe due to the clamps I used to hold the diff in while the glue set, but that was easily remedied. I've made a start on painting the front suspension, but still need to give the parts another coat or two before I can start assembling.

 

Thanks for looking.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Having got back on the bench this weekend (the grotty weather helped a bit), I finished painting and assembling the front suspension. To make sure everything lined up, I did each side as in one go - glue in the spring then before it sets add on the suspension arm and fit the hub in while you can still open the gap enough to fit. Nice and easy work there...

 

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Now if you're being observant you'll notice that it wasn't all nice and easy work and the steering arm is missing. Unfortunately, while sanding off the mould line there was a small snapping incident. Easily remedied with a couple of revese angle tweezers to hold in place and some Tamiya Extra Thin, but I wasn't confident that the join would be strong enough to cope with moving the steering wheels. Better to strengthen it a bit now rather than when everything is painted and installed so I cut a thin sliver of plasticard and glued onto the back of the arm where it should be less visible.

 

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This is where it is after sanding it off a bit at each side, now it's in the process of being painted (and yes I did remove the dust before painting).

 

Other than that, I've done some more 6000-grit sanding of the body, especially where I did the repair. And that repair is still very obvious even after sanding smooth, but it does depend on the viewing angle as to how obvious it is. It seems odd that the line where I finished the new silver is all but invisible, yet the clear makes an obvious line (still similar to the photo earlier in the thread). Good job I made the clear edge where it will be hidden by the trim!

 

And that's it for this week. Thanks for looking.

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Having mentioned the repair being a bit obvious in the photo last week it was still bugging me this week. So I got out some filler and filled around the repair strip then sanded down once hardened and got some paint on this weekend. The good news is that the part still feels quite strong, and although you can see the thicker bit of steering arm when you look closely it's much neater without recesses either side of the repair piece. With that done, it was time to fit it into position:

 

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Fortunately it's just the effect of the camera being close to the chassis which makes it look as though it has massive toe-out - in reality I think it's pretty close to being true and if there is anything maybe the merest hint of toe-in. I guess I'll see for sure when I have the wheels added.

 

But before that it was onto the engine...

 

True to form I got every bit painted satisfactorily apart from the main block (glued together before paint was added) and the engine end piece. All the bits which will hang off the main block apart from that end are completed, just need another coat of black on the engine block and then some touching up and I will be able to start assembly.

 

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It doesn't look like much for a weekend's work, but there were other things away from the bench needed doing too which limited my time a bit.

 

Thanks for looking.

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I do seem to be making heavy weather of the engine on this - not sure why it's taking so long to get the various parts prepped and painted but it is and progress is still slow. (Actually, that's not quite true, what took so long is that the Tamiya X-18 on the engine block took 3 layers to get half-decent coverage, and as everything hangs off that it acted as a brake on assembly.) The good news is that I have at least got the parts in the photo above assembled now:

 

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I did wonder about adding a bit of weathering to the engine as it looks very clean, then I remembered that I've got a good shine appearing on the body so a clean engine will be appropriate for this build. So it's staying like this. Other than that, I've got the bonnet polished down to 12,000 grit level, and have started painting the remainder of the engine parts, I think the engine should be assembled apart from maybe the belt assembly next weekend. Got to say the most annoying bits are the caps in the engine cover which are a) tiny, and b) on the chrome sprue, even though the instructions call for you to paint them flat aluminium. So some very delicate cutting of these to keep the knurling around the edge, then they got put in the bleach. What is really strange is that one dechromed in about half an hour, while the other two still have chrome clinging onto them 8 hours later. The bleach container is currently balanced on a towel rail to speed up the dechroming process while the cleaned one has its first layer of paint on. For anyone building this model, be aware that these parts look as though they will be a delicacy for any carpet monster around - luckily mine went hungry today.

 

Thaat's all for this week, thanks for looking.

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22 hours ago, Spiny said:

then I remembered that I've got a good shine appearing on the body so a clean engine will be appropriate for this build

I can't imagine that there's many full size examples that are anything other than immaculate. 

 

Just catching up on your progress,  great work so far.  I'd have never thought about painting the frame in two halves.  Definitely picking up tips for when mine comes to the top of the stash. - Andy 

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Kind of you to say so, I'll be happy if it helps with your build since helping other people with their builds is one of the pluses with all WIPs, not to mention the advice which is freely given while building it.

 

I agree that there can't be many full size non-immaculate Gullwings - I think of all the ones I've seen, then excluding the racing ones I've only seen one which wasn't immaculate and even that looked nice apart from a couple of rust spots breaking through. Still went for close on a million Euros thouse (before auction premium is taken into account) so the real thing is just a bit out of my price range...

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Well it seems my prediction of progress for this weekend was spot on - the engine has been assembled now with the exception of the belt assembly which as with all belt assemblies is taking a bit of painting what with the three different colours and careful painting on the edges. Almost done, just needs another layer of paint on the belts and some tidying up. The engine though is starting to look something like ok, and having tried dry-fitting it it looks as though it will fit in the chassis, but it will be a tight fit. Need to make sure the exhaust is threaded through the correct gap in the spaceframe though or it doesn't fit at all :blush:

 

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The prop shaft and fuel tank are also in paint, and once they're installed it will be onto the bulkhead. As I'm planning to try adding embossing powder for the carpet (a first for me) I tried on the handle of a spoon first. And I think the best effect will involve painting the interior first, then adding the embossing powder. So I got the first layer on (matt on the carpeted areas, silk finish for the leather on the sides of the footwell). And the upshot is that coverage of the black by the red is rubbish - this is after the first coat but I can see me needing another three yet at this rate to get a decent red.

 

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Hopefully I can get better coverage with the other layers or I won't get very far next week either. Thanks for looking.

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Stressing the obvious here, from my recent experience you'd need to apply a coat of PVA adhesive (maybe diluted) just before applying the embossing powder.  Having applied it, don't tap or shake anything off until the adhesive is totally dry.  Don't be afraid to be heavy-handed, just shake it off onto an A4 sheet when all is dry and - using the paper as a funnel - tip it back in the container to use again.

 

If you're already doing all that, my apologies - I'm new to it myself but that was the method i used.

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No need to apologise, it's always better to pass on knowledge to someone who may already know it than to keep schtumm and watch someone make a mistake which could have been avoided.

 

The good news is that you've pretty much described the process I had in mind, the main difference being that I was going to shake of the loose stuff soon after applying. I'll give it a couple of hours or so first now you've said that. Fingers crossed for a good result next weekend.🤞

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9 hours ago, Spiny said:

No need to apologise, it's always better to pass on knowledge to someone who may already know it than to keep schtumm and watch someone make a mistake which could have been avoided.

 

The good news is that you've pretty much described the process I had in mind, the main difference being that I was going to shake of the loose stuff soon after applying. I'll give it a couple of hours or so first now you've said that. Fingers crossed for a good result next weekend.🤞

Very nice progress so far!

I, too, have just finished my first flock job - after three tries! 

I was trying for a medium green carpet. First attempt was very blotchy, used a spoon to shake out the fibers on the primed floor. Realized the flock does not have much hiding power. So I scraped it all off and mixed some paint to approximate the desired final color. Result was much better coverage,, but still clumpy. Cue scrape #2.

Third time's the charm, put the flocking in a tea strainer and tapped a generous amount on to the white glue, voila!

Also, remember to use a matte finish for the undercoat.

Look forward to seeing the results.

My boss had a red Gullwing parked in front of my desk for a few days during the filming of the movie "Zookeeper"

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You've made two valid points I failed to mention - the use of a tea-strainer to sprinkle the flock or embossing powder and using a matt fairly close match to the powder as an undercoat before applying the PVA.  Sorry, I should have included those details.

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The good news is that I have started with matt paint so am on the right lines there. The photo of the interior really does oversell the coverage of the red though, I'm nowhere near that level of redness in real life. What is going to slow my up a bit is that although the carpeted areas are being done in matt red before adding the embossing powder, the side parts to the footwell are in leather so they will be done silk red meaning another layer of paint.

 

Unfortunately no tea strainer in my house (I use tea bags) but I reckon this could be a good test piece as it's not very visible - crossing my fingers that as the embossing powder is smaller than flocking and didn't clump in my test I will get away with it but will check out shops in town one lunchtime this week to see if they have a suitable strainer. And if I can't fine one and it does clump it's not the end of the world as I can always get a strainer before I get to the visible bits. :)

 

The testing also proved what you've both mentioned about not using the flocking/powder to cover a colour - I had the same doubts so drew a sharpie line across the paint before test flocking. The black line was still very visible so rest assured I will be making sure I have a good matt finish and consistent red colour before applying PVA

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Back on the bench this weekend and the red was proving to be very bad at covering the black which was already on the footwell. So I resorted to doing the whole lot in matt Carmine Red, almost as an undercoat, then once that was looking a bit more er.... red, I gave the sides of the footwell a coat of satin red to represent leather. I think what I'm going to take from this is that the theory works fine, but I'll need at least two coats of satin to get the right sort of finish. Here's the part painted up:

 

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As it stands you can hardly tell the difference yet between the satin and matt paints, but rather than getting a nice finish which I could mess up with the carpet, I decided to make a start with the embossing powder. As you can see from the photo, I only did the back of the footwell at first - far better to make a mess of it where you can't really see it than in a visible place. The carpet was done with red embossing powder shaken over watered down PVA - unfortunately Herfordshire seems to be having a shortage of tea strainers at the moment so I just tipped the embossing powder out of the tub. There was a bit of overlap to the sides, obviously I wasn't quite neat enough with the PVA, but I was able to scrape that off with a cocktail stick without causing any damage apart from those bits at the side of the carpet which I can deal with next weekend when I aim to finish 'carpetting' this piece.

 

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The embossing powder doesn't stand out hugely in the pic, but I'm pretty happy with the result as it does look quite carpet like.

 

Obviously (I hope!) I didn't spend all weekend on this one part. I also finished painting the belt assembly and fixed that to the front of the engine. Two attachment points make this one of the easier belt assemblies to fix in place. After that it slots into the chassis, you need to make sure the exhaust is routed around the spaceframe but once you've done that it all goes together pretty well, although it's very tricky to see the attachment points on the front of the engine. For these I added a small dab of tube glue to the chassis, then needed an extra torch to see in as the headtorch was at a bad angle to see what was going on. Once everything was in place, a bit of Tamiya Extra Thin carefully threaded through from the rear to each attachment point strenthened the mounting.

 

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As well as the slow progress over the past few weeks, I've also polished up the body. Got to 8000grit yesterday and discovered that I'd gone through in a couple of places on the left hand side. So today I decanted a small amount of paint from the rattle can and touched up those bits. It still needs a gloss clear coat, but it looks as though I might get away with it (both areas in question were on the side showing in the pic below). I've also heard lots about the engine being very tight under the bonnet on this one, so I figured it was worth dry-fitting the chassis in now to make sure. And, while it is very tight over the cylinder head, the good news is that at the moment I can get the bonnet to sit right:

 

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The main worry on that score now is that there is a cover to go over the exhausts. At the moment there is more room there than over the cylinder head so I'm crossing my fingers it will fit.

 

And that's it for this week. Thanks for looking.

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A little more progress this weekend, and as the pic below shows my use of the embossing powder was not wholly successful. At least I can say lessons learned from it, and the plan to start in the footwell where things are not too visible turns out to have been a wise one:

 

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So what was the problem? Not clumping this time (incidentally, i did get hold of a tea strainer from Sainsburys, but the sieve size was way larger than the embossing powder so I'll have to scratch that one off :( ). Instead, it was a result of me watering down the PVA a bit the week before to get a smoother finish on the glue - a good idea in theory but  what I hadn't realised is that it separates a bit over time and some areas had glue and some didn't leading to bald patches in the initial application. I managed to fill in most of the gaps, but it's not the best finish. Here's hoping I can get a better finish on the more visible parts...

 

While all that was going on, I finally got the fuel tank painted up which meant that and the prop shaft could be fitted to the chassis. Getting the engine in last week certainly made it look more car like. Unfortunately, the finish on the fuel tank isn't very good due to the Tamiya paint tearing up the previous layers. The good news though is that the top is much worse than the underside, and it's the top which is pretty well hidden by the body once I get this finished.

 

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And finally, back to that bulkhead. Having got the carpet done, it was time to add various parts to the engine side. Nothing particularly special here, just adding in some small parts with some careful painting and application of decals which kept trying to stick to everything except what they were meant to. But I got there in the end, and not all that's left is to leave everything to set before trying to fit it to the chassis next weekend.

 

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That's all for this week, thanks for looking.

Edited by Spiny
Posted same picture twice
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I reckon that's a pretty good attempt at flocking personally.  If it helps, I used Deluxe Materials Glue n'Glaze, simply because I had some, undiluted and a fine-mesh tea-strainer nicked from Management's cupboard (she'll notice it's gone one day - you'll know when by the sudden and lengthy hiatus in build reports!).  If that happens, no flowers by request...

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Thanks both of you. @Anteater - I presume you're suggesting the tactical scalpel for that single raised bit towards the rear of the top of the tunnel? If so, I might do that, but there is a large part of me chickening out in case I accidentally slip and go down to the paint, especially as the powder is thinnest in that area.

 

I've also noticed that I accidentally posted the chassis pic twice rather than including the engine side of the bulkhead so that has all been rectified too now.

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1 hour ago, Spiny said:

a large part of me chickening out in case I accidentally slip

I've lost count on the amount of times whilst making a model when I knew what I was going to do was going to make the situation worse, but still gone ahead and proven myself right. Also I find flocking to be one of the most frustrating processes as in theory it looks so easy,  but in practice I've never achieved anywhere near as good a result as you've done. Top work - Andy 

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22 hours ago, Toftdale said:

I've lost count on the amount of times whilst making a model when I knew what I was going to do was going to make the situation worse, but still gone ahead and proven myself right.

I know exactly where you're coming from, done that a few times myself. My thinking on this one is to let discretion be the better part of valour - I'm 100% certain that if I do it right it will look better, but also 95% sure that I'll go wrong somewhere. And seeing as the offending area is going to be pretty well hidden below the dashboard anyway I'm thinking to leave it be.

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Right, two things have just happened with that offending piece of embossing powder / tuft. Firstly, valour got the better of discretion. And secondly, the amazing happened and I didn't make a mess of it and only removed the offending piece and not anything else. Definitely quitting while I'm ahead with that now!

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