Koenig Specials Mercedes SL500 by Fujimi (Dec '06/Jan'07)

[lechatnoir82]

Body has been painted and polished. Came out pretty nice and my camera does not do it justice. Still lot's of work left...

[KevHw]

Wow, the paint looks like it's still wet! I gotta get me some polish, heh! Shouldn't you have cut that extra sprue part on the roof though?....or is that part of the body?

[lechatnoir82]

Originally Posted by KevHw

Wow, the paint looks like it's still wet! I gotta get me some polish, heh! Shouldn't you have cut that extra sprue part on the roof though?....or is that part of the body?

Thanks, this is the first time I used clear coat, and I think I'm now officially a beleiver! I wish I had used it on the Mitsu VR4 that is my other work in progress, makes all the difference in the world.

The extra sprue will be removed, I just left it there to give me something to hold on to while painting or moving as to not leave marks on the body, and the windshield frame is pretty delicate, so the sprue also adds some structural protection until the glass is installed. All the parts where it is connected are to be painted flat black, so its all good.

[tonioseven]

Looking pretty good so far!! Have you started on the suspension yet? Mine needed to be lowered substantially in order to get a decent "performance car" ride height. Good luck with this one!!

[lechatnoir82]

Originally Posted by tonioseven

Looking pretty good so far!! Have you started on the suspension yet? Mine needed to be lowered substantially in order to get a decent "performance car" ride height. Good luck with this one!!

Haven't checked the suspension yet, hope I don't have the same problem.

[KTem]

Nice job so far! Be careful polishing, those sharp edges on the body are tricky and can result in rubbing through the paintjob.

Edit; heh, not that it needs polishing...

[bigfrit]

now that is a paintjob to be proud of!

[tonioseven]

Originally Posted by lechatnoir82

Haven't checked the suspension yet, hope I don't have the same problem.

You will; it's prototypical Fujimi suspension-wise. Here's how mine ended up after working on the suspension...

[lechatnoir82]

Update: The beauty of building a model of a modified car is the freedom to finish it as I please. Since Koenig also does custom interiors, I've decided to make the interior dark red on black with the wood inserts replaced with "brushed aluminum". It's still a while from being done, but here are some pics to give you an idea of what I'm going for. Where you see the tape will remain dark red, the rest will be flat black, with flocking for the "carpeted" area.

[lechatnoir82]

Progress has been slow on this one, but here is an update...

The interior is coming along quite well. I've painted the door inserts and flocked the whole thing up. For some reason, Fujimi really scrimped on the door detail. I got a picture of a real 500SL's door and, using some old school algebra, figured out the right dimensions for the door handle and the panel that houses the seat controls and the door release. This insert is wood in the real car, but since this is a Koenig Special, I'm replacing the wood with a brushed metal finish.

Here is what I've done so far. I'm going to use BMF to make door release handles and tape or styrene to make the seat controls.




As for the chassis, it is almost finished. Unfortunately, I lost the rod that connects the front wheels, so I need to make another one. That's the only hold up. Here is what it looked like before:


And here is what it looks like as of today:


Stay tuned for more updates, I've done a lot of work on the body and will be posting pictures soon.

[lechatnoir82]

Ok, my camera was messed up so I was not able to take any more WIP pictures, but the model is now finished and the completed pics are in the Completed forum. Thanks to all who found this thread interesting. This was a great car and if anyone building it has any questions, feel free to ask.
LCN82