Yet another Gullwing Mercedes

[Neddy]

Wow, a supremely steady hand and two big brass ones - a rare combination.  Great result though!   The 'shell is looking really good now.

[Bengalensis]

A bit scary to put the Dremel in there, but you got away with it and fixed the problem 👍, well done. It's looking better with every update.

[Spiny]

Not so much a steady hands, more a case of bracing both the hand holding the body and the one holding the Dremel. I ended up going with that as the scalpel wasn't having much luck with the mesh and I was worried it was going to slip and damage something. So in that context the Dremel wasn't the terrible idea it sounds. I also made sure it was on the slowest setting and applied the minimum pressure I could manage so the cutting disk was only barely grinding through the mesh. (Even on the third picture you can't really see it, but I just barely grazed the paint below the mesh). Obviously quite nerve-wracking work, but I couldn't think of a good alternative at the time!

[Toftdale]

Great save on the mesh, the body looks great - Andy 

[Spiny]

No Dremels this week, just a load of clear plastic work. First up was painting the headlining bar which holds the doors in place, then onto getting them installed. I always dread putting masking tape on a nice polished paint, but figured I had a good chance of gettign through it with no issues given that the paint has had months to set.

 

 

And so it proved, no paint lifted and it also looks as though there's been no sticky residue left either. As you can see from the photo, the front and rear windscreens were put in too, the resin was hardened with the UV torch and now it's going to fully cure over the rest of the week with some natural daylight (I hope). The inside gives a better idea of what's been going on this week, and unfortunately also shows the mankiness where I had to grind off the superglue which had held the support from on while spraying. Fortunately that's not anywhere visible when this will be built.

 

 

Other work this weekend has revolved around the lights. The headlights were easy, just needed to touch up the chrome surround but otherwise easy and stuck in with a thin sweep of UV resin around the edge of the inside of the reflector. The sidelights took a bit more work with white paint put at the back of the peg (since these always look paler than silver in the photos) to hide that 'hole' you often see with pegged headlights, then the rim and rear of the lights painted with Green Stuff World Chrome. Finally the tail lights were the hardest bit. Being so small they were a pain to sand to size, then each glass piece needed painting red or orange. Finally they were resined into the chrome surround - each tail-light is made up of three pieces in typical Tamiya fashion. Again these are having a week for the resin to be fully cured before I fit them to the body.

 

 

So maybe not quite as much to show as I'd have liked, but it is starting to make real progress now. Thanks for looking, I think the end is in sight!

[Spiny]

It feels like I've been on this one forever, but made some good progress this week and I can finally get a good feel for what it's going to look like.

 

First job was to fit all the chrome trim, which with removing from the sprue and fitting in place took up a good chunk of the weekend. But it's all on apart from the grille which sits in front of the windscreen. My feeling was that the centre bar across this was just a bit (well, quite a lot) too thick, and looking up photos on the internet confirmed that at best this would be a small bar no thicked than the ones which run parallel with the direction of travel. Time to black that bit out I decided. This is after the first coat of paint on half of it, but it does give a good idea of before and after. Need to add a second coat of matt black though before it goes on the car. Still not 100% about it being more accurate, but I definitely prefer the look of it after painting, particularly as the chrome backplate is even more obvious when it's dry-fitted.

 

 

Anyway, I said I was getting the trim onto the body. Most of that was fairly painless with no real dramas to speak of. I'm particularly pleased that with the side trim in place the join between the original paint and where I had to respray the sill after burning through the paint is as near as makes no difference invisible. The chrome effect badge stickers also went on at this time, as usual a good burnishing down with a cocktail stick was enough to get them set correctly.

 

 

 

After that it was time to fit the interior.to the body - it's at this stage where things usually go to pot on my builds. And this was no exception as almost immediately one of the hinge brackets for the bonnet fell off. Fortunately I wasn't get at the point of no return so I could glue it in place, let it set, then have another go at fitting the interior... only for the other bracket to do the same. Unfortunately this one did go wrong past the point of no return so it's rattling arund somewhere in the wing at the moment. Fortunately, the bonnet is still working as intended, but I will need to be careful that I don't place undue stress on that remaining bracket when I open it. So, with the interior in place this is where I got to.

 

 

At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I am very happy with how the embossing powder looks through the rear window on that parcel shelf. Definitely a product I will be using again in future.

 

And finally, it was time to fit the chassis underneath all that lot. It put up a bit of resistance at first until I worked out that I needed to put glue on the chassis pins to stop it falling out of the rear of the body while I got the rest put in. And the front wheel arches were a bit reluctant to spread out properly, but in the end the chassis went in with much less of a fight than I was expecting. It's a shame that the positive camber I'd noticed earlier in the build has come into play so the tops of the rear wheels rub on the arches, but on the bright side they do fit underneath the arches, the front wheels do steer and most importantly all four wheels touch the ground.

 

 

And, before it gets covered up, here's the underneath with the spaceframe chassis in position.

 

 

It's not going to be perfect, but if I can avoid any last-minute catastrophes this is shaping up to be one of my better builds, at the moment I'd score it about 8/10.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Fnick]

26 minutes ago, Spiny said:

At the risk of blowing my own trumpet

Blow away! That is very good work. The red interior is particularly striking and provides a nice contrast to the silver.

 

Nick

[Windy37]

Looking good , a nice shine on the body . Nearly there .

Gary .

[Jbourne124]

Red interior was definitely a good move! It balances out the silver nicely  did you use ranger embossing powder? @Spiny

[Bengalensis]

Looking very nice as it comes together, good work and progress!

[Neddy]

Really looking good!  I've always felt that the gullwing Mercedes is a model you shouldn't tackle unless you can do it justice, which is why I've never had the nerve to attempt one.  This one has been a pleasure to follow and the result reflects the amount of work you've put into it.

 

I feel your pain regarding the escaped hinge, the same happened to me during final assembly of the Mustang recently completed.  Everything was going smoothly - interior module mounted on chassis, doors hung, glass installed - then the body was gently wrangled onto the chassis assembly, aligned and left for the glue to set.  On returning to the car a few hours later I turned it right way up and there was an ominous tinkle as the interior mirror fell off.  There was no way I could access the area needed to reattach it so I just had to accept it would remain mirrorless.  🙄

[johnlambert]

That's looking absolutely gorgeous!

[Spiny]

Thanks everyone, glad you all seem to like the red/silver combination. I can't really claim any credit for it though as it's not only the box art but the colour combination I always think of for the 300SL.

 

22 hours ago, Jbourne124 said:

Red interior was definitely a good move! It balances out the silver nicely  did you use ranger embossing powder? @Spiny

 

Not Ranger, but Pretty Things off ebay:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255027009591?var=554980665190

 

That said, after you mentioned them and it looks as though they may have the elusive brown range I will need for the carpet on a build sitting in my stash so you have helped solve one puzzle for next year

 

11 hours ago, Neddy said:

Really looking good!  I've always felt that the gullwing Mercedes is a model you shouldn't tackle unless you can do it justice, which is why I've never had the nerve to attempt one.  This one has been a pleasure to follow and the result reflects the amount of work you've put into it.

 

 

If you want to do a Gullwing I would definitely steer you towards the Tamiya kit. Generally it all goes together pretty well despite the complex appearance and presence of small bits. If your eyes are playing tricks then a magnifying headset is a must for it though. Those tail-light indicator lenses can't be more than a couple of millimeters across, I'm amazed the carpet monster didn't try to eat them while sanding the tabs off them.

[Jbourne124]

@spiny glad to help out when I can, someone on here was using ranger and it came out so good that I had to try it for myself, I need practice but, overall similar to your out come it fits the scale very nicely!

[Toftdale]

On 05/03/2023 at 20:51, Spiny said:

It's not going to be perfect, but if I can avoid any last-minute catastrophes this is shaping up to be one of my better builds, at the moment I'd score it about 8/10

She looks like a perfect 10 to me, particularly like the photo of her on her wheels.  - Andy 

[Spiny]

On 07/03/2023 at 23:10, Toftdale said:

... particularly like the photo of her on her wheels.  - Andy 

Thank you. Not going to lie, when I got the chassis under this one and saw it on its wheels it really felt like I was getting somewhere. I just wish the rear track was about 1mm narrower (0.5mm each side) or I'd noticed the slight positive camber earlier as they rub on the inside of the arches. That said, the wheels attach so tightly they barely turn anyway so not a huge issue.

[Windy37]

Like we always say @Spiny, we , as the builders ,  notice the small issues  , but doubt anyone else will . Looks correct and spot on to me .

Gary . 

[Spiny]

Unfortunately this weekend the Gullwing has decided to put up a bit of a fight.

 

First job was fitting the undertray, one of those jobs which should be so easy. And fitting it was easy, trouble was it doesn't seem to want to sit quite flush with the underside of the car. I must have spent a good part of the weekend trying to get this to site right, including this attempt where I'd run CA along the edges and front of the tray then supported it so they were held in position while the glue set.

 

 

This was actually my most successful attempt as at least the front held after this - after a day and half with the rest not holding I've given up and will just have to live with it. I suspect that some paint build-up on the space-frame chassis is holding the tray off, but as it's only off by less than a millimetre (it basically sits hard against the sills rather than in line with them) I'm going to live with it. Now the exhaust has been installed too there's at least something to hold the tray in place and stop it popping off any further.

 

The next annoyance was the bumpers. After having a kit with not too bad mould-lines it's absolutely typical that the worst mouldline of the whole kit should be on the trailing end of the sides of the front bumpers, a really obvious place. I could have left it like that, but decided I would sand it off. Whether that's a good idea is still open to debate, but it created a lot more work as I had to BMF the whole bumper.

 

 

As you can see from all the edged this isn't a shape you can do with one piece (think it ended up being 10 in the end if you include the repair patch where I accidentally cut in the wrong place and went back to plastic). The picture above is after I'd applied the BMF. Once it was all rubbed down with a sanding stick to remove the worst edges, then 3000 grit before Novus 2 then 1. It's not a perfect finish, but the mould line has gone and it looks reasonable when in position.

 

 

Trouble is that means I have to do the rear bumper as well as a) it also has a mould line, just not as bad as the front bumper; and b) the kit chrome colour is different to the foil so I'd have to foil it to match even if perfect. I've taken a different approach with the rear bumper and think I may get away with only five pieces.

 

So there we are, that's my 'progress' this weekend, a lot of time spend battling with CA and trying to get BMF on bumpers. Fingers crossed though, one more push and I might get it over the line. Thanks for looking.

[Anteater]

On 08/03/2023 at 21:03, Spiny said:

I just wish the rear track was about 1mm narrower (0.5mm each side) or I'd noticed the slight positive camber earlier as they rub on the inside of the arches. 

 

Can't comment of the track width but a bit of positive camber is prototypical. The handling can apparently become quite challenging when pressing on. 

[Toftdale]

I used BMF on the bumpers on my Alpine and that was tricky enough, so hats off to you for taking on and completing that bumper - Andy

[Spiny]

I'm not going to deny that even for someone who quite likes foiling this was a pain. Not something I particularly want to do again, but the result looks much better with the naked eye than in the photos. Must admit that I'm pleasantly surprised by how polishable the foil is too.

[Bengalensis]

Your foiled bumpers are looking very nice, very good foil work! That also means they match the rest your build very well, it's taking shape really well 👍

I'm glad I will be building mine bumper stripped... 😎

[Spiny]

There is definitely something about the Gullwing without it's bumpers, somehow it looks much more aggressive although that is probably a function of the fact that the only ones I've seen without bumpers are the racing versions. I always planned to do the European version (don't like the overriders) and for the same reasons as you I'm doubly glad I chose not to as I think they could be a pain to hold while foiling.

[Spiny]

Last few bits on this, the main battle being the rear bumper. I had to patch the foil in a couple of places, but in the end it polished up ok. It also seemed not to want to stick to its mounting, took 3 goes before the CA eventually did its job but at least it's on now.

 

So that means after close on six months I'm calling this done. The photoshoot will be done later tonight, so only a rather average shot taken with the phone to show as a taster - hopefully my RFI pics come out a bit better than this as my phone seems to have gone overboard on the post-processing on this one. I have also now got rid of the wax which is still around the doors.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who liked, commented, assisted or just watched this one come together. It's been a long haul but we made it!

 

 

 

 

[Neddy]

That's a great result and it's been a pleasure following it's progress.  Fascinating build, gorgeous looking model.  You don't need posh photography to see that.