Mercedes CLK DTM 2000 Team D2

[jmwallac]

I've been wanting to do a WIP for quite some time, so here goes....

It's been done plenty of times before, but I thought this looked like it would be a fun one to do. I like the kits with challenging decals and this one didn't disappoint. I screwed the pooch on a few, but thanks to solvaset, managed to get them back in place. Up next is the original teile which promises to be even more fun.

You're not here to read, so on to the pics.

I read somewhere that X-19 smoke applied over X-10 gunmetal made for convincing CF. Here's the result. I think it's passable.



Another shot:


Speaking of tires...nothing special. Would applying a satin finish to the tires make the decal less noticeable?



Couple of chassis shots. I think I had too much red in the mix for the air intake as it looks a little too pink to me. It must have fooled the camera as well, because it introduced some reddish color into the background.





I was quite pleased how the breaks turned out on this one. First I painted the entire part X-31 titanium gold. Then the brakes were masked off and it was painted X-32 titanium silver. After that the rotors were painted X-10 gunmetal. I purposely blotted the brush onto the surface after the paint dried a little bit to make it look a little more textured. After seeing some of the brake jobs (BJs?????) around here, I'm almost embarassed to post these.

Back:


Front:




The body was painted with Duplicolor radiant silver and their clear was applied over it and polished out. I really like working with the duplicolor paints, especially the clear. It polishes out great. I had originally written this body off for good. The first coat of paint/primer etched the surface really bad. Bath in brake fluid and quite a bit of sanding made it presentable. The decals cover up the flaws to an extent. The body did become brittle and cracked in a few spots, but it's hard to see. I'm certainly not going to point them out!







Nothing too crazy in the cockpit or engine compartment. All box stock. My specialty! I'd love to do some scratch building and add some details, but I want to improve my skills with some OOB building first.

Cockpit:



Engine:



Thanks for looking! I'd appreciate comments and criticism as well!

[jmwallac]

Forgot to show a few scenes of the car mocked up together.

[anopanjo]

Great work mate and great photography!

[stevenoble]

Excellent build so far.I think you have made a good job of the brake parts,the painting is very good.The decals on the tyres would be less noticable with a light coat of satin or matt varnish.I usually use Vallejo Air varnish for this task.Cut a small circular mask to hold in place around the wheel rim to ensure you only get the varnish onto the tyre wall and just lightly dust the varnish on in thin coats.Also if you havn't tried it yet I sometimes use a little MicroSol decal setting solution on the decal,this will usually make the carrier film less noticable and you may not have to varnish the tyre decals at all.Where did you get the little stands from? Were they included in the kit? The model looks very nice sat on them.I'm looking forward to seeing some more progress pictures.I have a similar kit in my to do pile in the Warsteiner colours (the black one)

[jmwallac]

I used Walther's solvaset on all the decals, and put a few coats on the tires as well. I'll try taking the tires off the rims (they're not glued on) and spray with Satin.

The stands are taken from the 1/20 Tamiya FW-24 Williams kit. They could probably be scratch built pretty easily.

I'd like to find the black Warsteiner as well. Then the CLK collection is complete. I think S27 makes a decal sheet for the white Service 24h as well. The Original Teile is next. That should be a fun decal job!

[stevenoble]

Originally Posted by jmwallac

I'll try taking the tires off the rims (they're not glued on) and spray with Satin.

Be careful doing this.I tried the same thing once and when I tried to put the tyres back onto the rims the flexing of the tyre wall split all the varnish and it looked awful.Might be best to varnish the tyre walls whilst the tyres are still on the rims.

[godfather23]

The body work is execellence and your way of displaying your models is inspiring. I should start my DTM-CLK again. Once completed these kits look awesome. I´m sure, yours will!

[jmwallac]

Originally Posted by godfather23

The body work is execellence and your way of displaying your models is inspiring. I should start my DTM-CLK again. Once completed these kits look awesome. I´m sure, yours will!

I was going to send you a PM about yours. I just looked over your WIP. Great work so far. What CF are you using and how many sheets do you think you'll need? I'd love to do one with CF instead of X-18, but I think the CF would cost as much as the model itself?

Do you guys thinks the Smoke over gunmetal is a passable CF substitute?

[godfather23]

Originally Posted by jmwallac

I was going to send you a PM about yours. I just looked over your WIP. Great work so far. What CF are you using and how many sheets do you think you'll need? I'd love to do one with CF instead of X-18, but I think the CF would cost as much as the model itself?

Do you guys thinks the Smoke over gunmetal is a passable CF substitute?

Well, I got mine form Scale Motorsport (SMS). They offer CF-templates you just need to cut out. They kind of prepare the correct size for covering most of the parts of the CLK.

http://www.hlj.com/product/SMSSM7130

Nevertheless, you will need some more CF to touch up spots and re-do parts. Don´t foget to also have plenty of Microsol or Mr. Softener to get the CF-templates in shape. They sure are nice but not really helping you with the task.
For replacing CF, I never found a way as convincing as the replica using decals but maybe somebody elso knows a better solution for that.

[360spider]

Everything looks great! Pictures are really nice!
One tip if I may - some of the close-ups show mold lines on parts, and it really makes it look like a plastic kit. If you get rid of mold lines on all, even the smallest parts, even your box-stock buildups will look a lot cleaner. And I'm not talking about detailed buildups, nothing looks worse than superdetailed interior with bunch of mold lines on parts!

[jmwallac]

Originally Posted by 360spider

Everything looks great! Pictures are really nice!
One tip if I may - some of the close-ups show mold lines on parts, and it really makes it look like a plastic kit. If you get rid of mold lines on all, even the smallest parts, even your box-stock buildups will look a lot cleaner. And I'm not talking about detailed buildups, nothing looks worse than superdetailed interior with bunch of mold lines on parts!

I agree! I spent about 30 minutes cleaning up the roll cage, then noticed a few after it was painted and installed. There are also a few ejector pin marks that I forgot about. Selective photography took care of those, however.

On a side note, your italianhorses.net site is fantastic! Your review of the 360 made me go out and buy one for myself. Do you have any tips on finding decent BBS style rims w/tires?

[godfather23]

One question, not really regarding the Mercedes: Where did you get the repair stand from? Did you make it yourself? Looks very convincing and quite well manufactured.

[jmwallac]

The stands come from the BMW Williams FW24 kit (Tamiya). They're 1/20th scale, but I think they look OK.

I'd like to make some resin copies of them, along with some wheels, but I'm afraid I'll ruin the plastic parts. Shouldn't be too hard to make out of hollow tubing and some plastic card. Maybe even old sprues?

[jmwallac]

Finished this one. Click me.