1955 Mercedes W196, Juan Manuel Fangio, Merit, 1/24, Roy Cross Tribute

[cmatthewbacon]

Keeping with the tribute theme, and needing something to work on while Ferrari was stalled awaiting spare parts, I moved on to this "Kings of the Road" build, and there's none more regal than the legend Juan Manuel Fangio. This one is based on one of the Merit plastic kits of the mid-50s.

 

Here's the master at work. The W196 is a sturdy beast, as you can see.

 

 

 

Although it's billed on the box as a "1955 Grand Prix Mercedes", the Merit kit is actually the 1954 car. The main difference is that the 1955 car has the big full length supercharger air intake along the right hand side, which is just not there on the '54 car. In the background, you can see the Protar W196 kit. It's got more detail than the Merit kit, but is less accurately sized and shaped. To correct the Protar kit, you need to widen it by 2mm within the wheel base, and deepen the whole body by another 2.5mm. The Merit my be a simplified 1954 car, but it captures the bulk and character of the W196 better. Adjustments begin...

 

The basic shape of the intake is formed by a styrene tube with the underside sanded flat and glued to the body, firmly clamped down to follow the curve.

 

 

The rest is built up with Milliput epoxy putty and several rounds of sanding, shaping and smoothing.

 

 

 

Eventually ending up here. Eagle-eyed readers will spot that I've also filled and smoothed those vents in the cockpit coaming ahead of the driver.

 

 

Quick check that Juan Manuel will fit, using one of the Immense Miniatures generic "early driver" bodies, which are more upright with arms ready to hold a large wheel. There are specific Fangio 50s heads, which should be arriving shortly.

 

 

The 1955 body also has scoops each side of the cockpit, and vents on the tail alongside the spine (you can see the cutouts for the parts on the Protar body at the top). So, I've carved some balsa and plunge moulded some blanks: large on the right for the tail, smaller on the left for the cockpit.

 

There are some nice resin wire wheels on their way from the Ukraine as we speak...

 

best,

M.

[keefr22]

On 09/10/2024 at 22:04, cmatthewbacon said:

Eagle-eyed readers

 

I see what you did there.....!!

 

Another interesting 3D remake of an Eagle cover....!!

 

Looking forward to progress.

 

Keith

[rob Lyttle]

Man, this is going to be good!

I was going to ask about the wheel situation, but looks like you're on the case already. 

Are you going to do the Protar car as well? Or just there for comparison? I've heard of this range of car kits but never seen one. Kinda surprised that it's so inaccurate. 

I'm thinking this Mercedes was developed into the 2seater that Stirling Moss took around the Mille Miglia, and then into the Uhlenhaut gullwing Coupe?

Well, I'm in 👍

[cmatthewbacon]

With Willy Mairesse and his Ferrari 156 having taken the checkered flag, time to get this one back up to speed...

 

 

 

 

I think that's all the body modifications for the 1955 car, after a couple of rounds of filling and sanding. Let's see how it looks under an even coat of primer...

 

 

The front axle had lost one of its wishbones, and the mounting point of lower right one had also gone AWOL, so I had to resort to a bit of cottage-industry manufacture, the old-school way.

 

 

I've also removed the chunky axles from the unit and put the 3D printed parts from USCP in place, ready for the 300SLR wires that are waiting on the sidelines.

 

 

The dash was very badly damaged by the previous owner's over enthusiastic use of glue, so I've made up a new one, and printed a decal for it.

 

 

Juan-Manuel may look pretty 'armless, but at least he now has a head, which arrived from RS Slot Racing this week. I think it's a pretty good likeness. It's another of the Immense Miniatures range, in this case the "Late Career Fangio" which offers hard helmets instead of leather flying caps. There's also a bare head, which if I compare it to the young Fangio I also have looks genuinely older -- that's clever sculpting in 1/24! I lowered him a bit in his seat. Period pictures show that the "headrest" is more of a back-rest, but his shoulders want to be below a line joining the peaks of the rear fairing and front cockpit coaming

best,

M

[Vesa Jussila]

This starts to look really nice. Work is paying off.

[rob Lyttle]

This image came up on a fbook group and I saved it to show you, 

...just in case you want to go all in with a diorama 😄

Pretty cool looking transporter though 👌 

[cmatthewbacon]

Funnily enough, look what I picked up this week for £15 at Smyths Toys:

 

 

It is indeed rather cool.... 😜

best,

M.

[klubman01]

Another great project underway.  It will. no doubt, turn out at least as good as previous "tributes".

Trevor

[Bengalensis]

On 21/10/2024 at 14:49, cmatthewbacon said:

Funnily enough, look what I picked up this week for £15 at Smyths Toys:

 

It is indeed rather cool.... 😜

best,

M.

It is indeed. At the risk of derailing your thread a bit more I have these lovely little Japanese resin kits in the stash. And I still regret not buying the Museum Collection 1/24 transporter kit when it was more or less readily available...

 

 

Back on track, this is another fantastic build to follow. Your making good work of the old kit as always.

 

I can’t let go of the idea of seeing your display builds behind glass, as art on the wall in the fine room... They would be well worth it.

 

And I get a painful reminder of the Protar W196 shortcomings… I have one that I plan to build together with FPPM’s Streamliner. Looks like it might be better to get a Merit base?

[cmatthewbacon]

It’s a little bit hard to tell on my phone… are those like “egg-plane” caricature kits, or is it just the angle and perspective of the picture? They’re very cool either way!

best,

M.

[Bengalensis]

11 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

It’s a little bit hard to tell on my phone… are those like “egg-plane” caricature kits, or is it just the angle and perspective of the picture? They’re very cool either way!

best,

M.

Yes they are, in the "Choro-Q" style. But the quality is among of the very very best I have ever seen in resin...

[rob Lyttle]

1 hour ago, cmatthewbacon said:

like “egg-plane” caricature kits,

 

1 hour ago, Bengalensis said:

in the "Choro-Q" style

Got to admit that's a concept that I've never been able to get my head around. But it's good to know this Mercedes combo is being celebrated in one form or another 😎

[cmatthewbacon]

Finally some progress to report here -- probably a good thing, since the Telford countdown is at T-14!

 

 

 

Some very fetching upholstery from the decal stash, and instrument panel home made from an image I found online. I've scribed the fuel fillers as well.

 

 

JMF fully assembled and pose adjusted so his hands will (should?!) grip the wheel.

 

 

Nose finished, with teeny-tiny grille attached on the air intake. Not firmly enough, as we shall soon see...

 

 

Time to take it for a spin...

 

 

The winglets behind the wheels are in the original kit, but were missing from this second-hand one, so I've made some. Roy doesn't have them in his picture, but they were on the car in that race, so on they go...

 

 

 

 

Trying on the USCP wheels for size... they look pretty good to me. Now, where is that little grille...?

 

 

 

Not easy to see, which is kinda the point, but I've printed out some detail inside the "black holes" where the engine is. Note to self -- put something in the back to stop  that being see through...

 

Time to start painting JMF....

best,

M.

 

[Neddy]

I've always regarded the W196 as being one of the most beautiful racing cars of the era and yours is certainly proving to be.  I love the way you're developing and improving it as you build it.  Those wheels though... ooooh those wheels!  🤤

[Vesa Jussila]

This is coming together really well.

[rob Lyttle]

I've just noticed that Roy Cross has represented that troublesome air intake as a headlamp in the opening Eagle picture...😶

Oops. Well, nobody is perfect, not even Roy 

[cmatthewbacon]

Thanks, all.... Juan Manuel is now pretty much done. Conveniently, Collector Studio has had some replicas of Fangio's racing helmet made, which provided excellent reference (https://collectorstudio.com/product/1955-7-juan-manuel-fangio-replica-helmet/)

 

 

 

The clear epoxy trick with the goggles has worked well again. I'm a fan!

Moment of truth:

 

 

 

 

Yes, he can climb aboard and hold the wheel with it on place on the dashboard! Phew....

best,

M.

 

[JamesP]

Did they pinch the seat fabric from a local bus company!

 

[cmatthewbacon]

You mean you don't have a pair of these?

 

https://selectionrs.com/en/porsche-clothing-men/12306-4-pairs-mercedes-benz-300-sl-gullwing-racing-legend-socks-boxset-unisex.html

 

best,

M.

[CrazyCrank]

4 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

You mean you don't have a pair of these?

 

https://selectionrs.com/en/porsche-clothing-men/12306-4-pairs-mercedes-benz-300-sl-gullwing-racing-legend-socks-boxset-unisex.html

 

best,

M.

 

 

Ah, ah ! Excellent.....I want the blue one !

[HK-500]

Nice work on this legend of a car ! 👍

 

an earnest question , though : will the wheels be painted or chromed ?😉

[cmatthewbacon]

45 minutes ago, HK-500 said:

will the wheels be painted or chromed ?😉

They are already painted with "polished aluminium", which I will polish. The hub spinners are painted chrome. I want to be able to see the contrast between the painted wheels and the chrome spinners...

best,

M.

[cmatthewbacon]

Back from holiday now, and moving forward (the Scale Model World countdown clock is ticking loudly!):

 

 

 

 

I was a bit worried about getting these home-brew decals to settle down around the curves and over the detail, but they've worked out OK, I reckon.

 

 

I've got a "recipe" for doing these bases now, so it's pretty much rinse and repeat -- helped by the fact that Roy uses a small handful of different points of view over the whole series, so once you've figured out the front to back slope, the side to side slope, and how low or high the front panel needs to be, they are all variations on a theme...

 

 

Until I've glued the wheels, it'll roll off, so this is the closest I'll get to the cover pic before Ready for Inspection!

 

 

 

...and a couple of off-axis angles to give a clearer picture of how the base works...

Nearly there, now!

Best,

M.

[Neddy]

Looking really great, eager to see the finished result!

[rob Lyttle]

Saw some pics of this one and the others on your display at Telford, under the heading of "some of my favourites"....😇

It's a great theme and great modelling. 

Just wondering if there's more in the pipeline