Tamiya 1/24 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing

[Spiny]

[First of all I'm afraid this one is a little picture heavy - 23 pics - so if you have a slow internet or don't like lots of photos of averagely built models you may want to skip this one! But I did enjoy a bit of a photoshoot with it last night, even if it did take the best part of two hours to get done.]

 

It's taken a while to get here, nearly 6 months, but I've finally got this one finished. I've yet to see a badly built version of Tamiya's 300SL, and having built this I can see why - it's a very detailed kit with few flaws, even though some of the tolerances are a bit tight. But there's nothing in there that's wrong, so very little I can blame Tamiya for the issues as opposed to myself. If you're in the market for a 1/24 Gullwing you can't go far wrong with this one.

 

Unlike some of the superbly built versions I've seen on here mine is very close to being as you get it from the box, the only additions being embossing powder to represent the carpet and Bare Metal Foil where there wasn't kit chrome (e.g. window surrounds, door handles etc.). The only bit about the kit which was annoying were the bumpers which had a prominent mould line at the ends, especially annoying for a chome part so I ended up sanding that down then covering the bumpers in Bare Metal Foil. Anyway, enough about the build, if you want to see the whole thing it's here:

 

 

So onto the photos. First of all, a snap of what you're missing when the model is complete - Tamiya have you build the entire spaceframe chassis which looks complicated but actually assembles very nicely.

 

 

It's all hidden though unless you leave the undertray clear (I didn't) so let's move onto a trip around the car:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And back to the beginning with a more stylistic shot

 

 

Of course, the most striking feature of the real car is the Gullwing doors, and the kit accommodates this by allowing you to pose them in the open of closed positions. You've seen them closed, now for the open pose:

 

 

Unfortunately, in the latter parts of assembly some of the embossing powder came lose and static clung to the rear window. It's barely noticeable until the camera decides to cruelly highlight it

 

 

Of course, one of the benefits of having opening gullwing doors (and bonnet) is that you can get a half-decent shot of the interior. Can't get any closer - the camera was tucked under the doors for these shots.

 

 

 

 

There's also quite a nice engine under the bonnet. This is what you end up with out of the box, other people have made a more complete job by adding additional wiring etc, but that's just not for me.

 

 

And finally, onto the arty shots. First of all I decided to try my hand at a 'real-world' style shot. I wasn't going to bother putting this one up as I think it's fair to say I need to work on getting the backgrounds right, not to mention it was late and I didn't check that the camera had focussed on the front of the car rather than the windscreen so it's actually a bit of a rubbish shot. But we all have to start somewhere and hopefully it gives the idea of what I was aiming for. (in fact, the more I look at this, the worse it becomes

 

 

So onto some better shots. First up the 'angles'

 

 

 

 

And to round things off the 'reflections'

 

 

 

 

I think this one is my favourite.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who has waded through all of these, and apologies to all who lost the will to live, but I did enjoy both building and photographing this one so I hope and least some of you enjoy the pics too. And especial thanks to all who liked, commented and encouraged through the build.

 

[CrazyCrank]

A lovely model, superbly assembled and painted 👍

[Neddy]

To reiterate what I said earlier in the build thread, that is absolutely top-notch work.  Beautifully finely detailed and finished, very high level of craftsmanship everywhere.  Great interior (you were dead right about the embossing powder being finer than flock powder, very effective).  BMF applied beautifully everywhere, all round a terrific model!

[Toftdale]

A great build thread, which I'll definitely be revisiting before I build mine.   Spot on finish to the body,  however the interior is definitely the stand out feature on this one.  You know I'm a fan of your photography skills and these are no exception.  There's a hugh potential in the photo with the viaduct (the perspective and angles are spot on), however like you say there's something not quite right with the focus.  Sorry I know enough about photography to be a critic, but not enough to be of actual help 😁.    I'd also be interested to know what you surface you use to get your reflections.  Thanks for sharing - Andy 

[nearsightedjohn]

What a beautiful job you’ve done on one of Tamiya’s very best kits. This is a kit that made me want to buy and build another one right after I finished the first, it’s that good. I particularly love the three interior photos in your post; were these taken with a digital SLR or a late model cell phone? I’m amazed how well my iPhone 13 works for wide angle interior shots on 1/25 car models

[Jbourne124]

Amazing work @spiny and great pictures too! 

[JeroenS]

A darn fine result there Spiny, your slow but sure approach to modelling is once again paying off. Great paint on the outside, excellent detail on the inside, even super close up! Well done. 

[Fnick]

Wow. Flawless modelling Spiny. The interior is just stunning. One small thing to note if I may... You do realise that we are going to be expecting the same standard on all your future builds! 😄.

 

Photography top notch as usual. I personally really like the one with the bridge in the background. Would be interesting to see how it would look if taken in natural light when it is a bit sunny.

 

Nick

[Stef N.]

A fantastic model Spiny and the interior and its colouring is very special. Top, top work. 👏

[keefr22]

23 hours ago, Spiny said:

....don't like lots of photos of averagely built models

 

I can't see anything average about that model, just a really lovely little Merc, beautifully photographed as usual, so lots of pics are no problem to look at!

 

Top work all round Spiny!

 

Keith

[Spiny]

Thanks everyone for all the kind comments, always a morale booster when you've spent 6 months looking at the thing under magnification and seen nothing but the little issues with it to hear that it looks ok when viewed with normal eyes:)

 

To answer some of your more specific comments:

 

22 hours ago, Toftdale said:

A great build thread, which I'll definitely be revisiting before I build mine.   Spot on finish to the body,  however the interior is definitely the stand out feature on this one.  You know I'm a fan of your photography skills and these are no exception.  There's a hugh potential in the photo with the viaduct (the perspective and angles are spot on), however like you say there's something not quite right with the focus.  Sorry I know enough about photography to be a critic, but not enough to be of actual help 😁.    I'd also be interested to know what you surface you use to get your reflections.  Thanks for sharing - Andy 

 

No problem with you saying that about the focus, you are right. If it hadn't been time for bed I might have picked up that the focus is too far back and on the windscreen - if I'd got it focussed on the front bumper it would have worked much better. What made that even more irritating is that I had deliberately opened the aperture to f4.5 to make the image slightly out of focus compared to the car to give that impression of distance, then messed up the focussing. I did practice a bit over Christmas with that background and got some much better images (but those images have now gone to the digital photo waste bin).

 

As for the surface for the reflections, I skimped a bit and got an A3 sized black perspex sheet off eBay. In hindsight, there is a part of me wishes I'd gone with glass as I think the perspex will scratch up over time (there are already marks visible on it) and it's a pain in terms of collecting dust - if you think a model being photographed is a dust magnet just try a perspex sheet for size. I used to use mirror tiles, but because the glass was in front of the mirror there was a noticeable step to the reflection - having the reflection on the top of the base rather than the bottom gives a noticeable improvement.

 

19 hours ago, nearsightedjohn said:

What a beautiful job you’ve done on one of Tamiya’s very best kits. This is a kit that made me want to buy and build another one right after I finished the first, it’s that good. I particularly love the three interior photos in your post; were these taken with a digital SLR or a late model cell phone? I’m amazed how well my iPhone 13 works for wide angle interior shots on 1/25 car models

 

Neither for the photos, all of the shots were taken with my 11 year old Canon SX40 bridge camera which has had a lot of use (so much that it's gone around the clock on the picture count). I've just got a new phone about a month ago which has a 0.6x wide angle lens, probably something to try next model!

 

For both of you, since you've mentioned it, I did grab a pic of the setup while doing the photoshoot. Basically, newspaper rack on the dining table with an A2 sheet of sugar paper clipped to it as an infinity curve. This was one of the reflection shots, so the perspex sheet sits on top to give the reflection. Two light sources of different intensity give a key and fill light, and the camera is tripod mounted for stability with a time delay to further prevent shake. The lens hood is obviously not used for close-up shots as it stops the lens getting close enough to the subject.

 

 

12 hours ago, Fnick said:

Wow. Flawless modelling Spiny. The interior is just stunning. One small thing to note if I may... You do realise that we are going to be expecting the same standard on all your future builds! 😄.

 

Photography top notch as usual. I personally really like the one with the bridge in the background. Would be interesting to see how it would look if taken in natural light when it is a bit sunny.

 

Nick

 

Something for me to try. All I will need is sunshine over the weekend!

 

As for the build standard, I think the aim for everyone is to try to improve with each model. Not sure I will next time as the base for this is very, very good (I can't decide between this and Aoshima's Countach as to which is the best kit I've done) but I can try.

 

[Windy37]

Really good work there @Spinyon a cool subject . Great photography too ! 

Gary . 

[Jbourne124]

@spiny I can’t remember if you’ve used an air brush for your paints or not, how do you go about getting the interior color so even?

[Vesa Jussila]

Wonderful work there and excellent photos. This is clearly nice kit. 

[Toftdale]

Thanks again @Spiny for taking the time to post about your photography set up.  Its much appreciated - Andy 

[Anteater]

Nicely built, that has turned out well.

 

For the bonus £5 star prize I'm going to say that's Digswell Viaduct near Welwyn Garden City. 

[Bengalensis]

That's a remarkably well finished model, you have done really good work here!

And added to that some equally nice photography to give the model great justice!

Superb work, and very inspirational. I must give some priority to mine...

[Spiny]

21 hours ago, Jbourne124 said:

@spiny I can’t remember if you’ve used an air brush for your paints or not, how do you go about getting the interior color so even?

 

I'm afraid me and the airbrush don't get on well, this is all done with the rattlecan for the large surfaces and paintbrush for the smaller ones (including all the interior). Not sure the interior colour is that even, but it's close enough given how badly the red covered the grey plastic that area is made of. I ended up giving it a couple of coats of matt white first, almost like a primer (if I'd realised it would need this I probably would have looked to spray it) then about 4 or 5 coats of the red. I did try to get it reasonably thin (not milky thin, think full cream sort of consistency) so that it had a chance to level out a bit before it dried.

 

2 hours ago, Anteater said:

Nicely built, that has turned out well.

 

For the bonus £5 star prize I'm going to say that's Digswell Viaduct near Welwyn Garden City. 

 

Thank you. And yes you are absolutely correct that that is Digswell Viaduct - pay yourself the £5 prize

 

[Toryu]

Beautiful photos of a beautiful model of one of the most beautiful cars of all times!

[galaxyg]

Very very nice build. And as other have said, superb photography as well. I especially like the lighting on the interior shots.

[Spiny]

Thanks. I wish I could say that I did something special for the lighting on those, but to tell the truth all I did was move the angled lamps around until I got light through the windows into the interior, otherwise I was just getting shots with them in deep shadow.

[Spiny]

On 21/03/2023 at 09:15, Fnick said:

Photography top notch as usual. I personally really like the one with the bridge in the background. Would be interesting to see how it would look if taken in natural light when it is a bit sunny.

 

Nick

 

I missed the sunny bit as I've been redecorating the modelling room this weekend (and next I expect). But I did get a chance to try and get some better pics in natural, slightly cloudy, light instead. These are the best I got (I think the first is probably the better of the two), but think I need to try getting a better balance between background and road surface photos - I can't always have a photo of the model cresting a rise! I also need to get a bit more height on the photo of the road surface - despite the fact it looks as though the Merc is sat on a heavily pebbled road this was actually taken of a freshly tarred-and-chipped country lane.

 

 

[RaulNanu]

Amazing build! Really love the end result, it makes justice for such an amazing car! Congrats

[Fnick]

16 hours ago, Spiny said:

I think the first is probably the better of the two

Yep that is definitely looking really good!

 

Nick

[Toftdale]

20 hours ago, Spiny said:

But I did get a chance to try and get some better pics in natural, slightly cloudy, light instead.

Definitely worth the revisit.  Top results - Andy PS. Although I definitely agree the second shot is overall better, I think I prefer the slightly lower angle on the 1st shot 😁