Moebius Chrysler 300C, 1/24

[mattbacon]

A bit of a departure from my normal European exotics, but I heard so many good things about this kit that I had to give it a try. I don't generally like chrome-laden barges, but this is a genuinely cool car, IMHO...



The parts, detail and engineering in this kit are superb, as many have mentioned before me. I had the body painted in Tamiya Italian Red already, just waiting a final polish. The rest makes speedy progress easy.



No clear coat, just polished paint. I think it gives a nicely realistic sheen. Lots of work to do on BMFing the chrome, and then some more clean-up to get rid of the glue residue that always seems to be left behind!



When people say in reviews "The engine is almost a kit in itself", I usually say "yeah, right..." to myself. But in this case it really is. I'm not sure why it was necessary to add detailed valve rockers inside the heads, but I'm not complaining. There are a few areas where the fit is not entirely clear (why ARE there eight holes in the joining surface of the two parts of the carburettor?), and the instructions would really benefit from a couple more angles on the pictures of the engine...



The seats benefit from a gentle wash and drybrush -- they really are benches!



The dash with some detail painting, BMF and decals. Looks OK, even at this range.



Nicely moulded wheels, with a wash to pop the wires out. The printed whitewalls on mine were off centre and shiny, so I matt varnished them and filled them out with some Vallejo Off White. Maybe the white shouldn't go all the way to the raised lip, but at least two of the tyres had the printing nearly touching it at one side, so absent a way of removing the paint, I just chose the easy way out and filled the whole sunken section.




The completed cabin. The steering wheel is a little chunky (and seems a bit over-large. I can't believe any 1/24th scale guy could get his legs under it... and it's way back in his belly, too...) But it does have nice, and accurate detail, which responds well to painting. The interior is probably a bit over-contrasty in this light, but once its all in side, I think it'll look nicely complex. By the way, if anyone knows what that thing on the rear "parcel shelf" is, and whether it should be silver or not, or have something in the recesses, I'd really love to know.

Now on to building the chassis.

bestest,
M.

[MerlinPro]

Originally Posted by mattbacon

By the way, if anyone knows what that thing on the rear "parcel shelf" is, and whether it should be silver or not, or have something in the recesses, I'd really love to know.

.

See your MCM thread for my answer.

[mattbacon]

Thanks for the guidance!






That's the chassis pretty much put together -- there's still the radiator to add, but the remaining under-bonnet parts go inside the body before fitting the body and chassis together. Once again, the fit and engineering is excellent, though I do think that the instructions would benefit from some more illustrations of key elements from different angles. The single exploded isometric per stage with "join" lines showing where parts fit is far from clear on occasion, with parts being almost unrecognisably distorted (OK, they are numbered, but still...) and more importantly the lines sometimes don't clearly indicate the locating points. To some extent the great engineering is a "save" because the pieces do slot into place crisply -- but first you have to find the place!. And additional "reverse angle" would help a lot in some places.



The underside looks nicely detailed. One word of warning -- the two exhaust pipes are NOT symmetrical, so don't worry if you can't make them symmetrical when you fit them. I cursed for a while when dry fitting them without much success until I really looked at them closely. They may look the same on the sprue, but there are subtle differences in curvature and angles, so they won't fit exactly the same on the bottom of the car...



Front suspension is a masterpiece of detailing in very few parts. HOWEVER, this is the area that more than any other could do with some close-up details in the instructions. A few things that I have learned:

• fit the springs with some glue that gives you time to wiggle them precisely into place when you fit the lower wishbone piece
• the uprights are NOT vertical, exactly
• it is very hard to get the two mounting points on the lower wishbone, the spring, and the upright all lined up in one move, so consider "hinging" the thing downwards slowly, getting the pivot points in first, then wiggle the spring in place as you lower it the wishbone, and finally trap the upright at the apex
• treat both sides separately even though they are moulded in one piece -- the tie rod is strong and flexible enough to cope
• and finally the mounting points of the tie rod will need some flexing upward to fit in place on the main chassis frame, so you need quick setting glue or be prepared to clamp it while it sets.

Again, if you follow the instructions, this will go smoothly. There's one oddity, though. The axle has what clearly seem to be slots for mounting to the tabs at the top of the spring towers. However, if the axle is fitted so that prop shaft is at the bottom, as it needs to be to clear the tunnel in the car floor, then the slots are at the bottom too, not mating with the towers. I'd have assumed that I must have accidentally fitted the front face of the differential (with the prop-shaft fitting) upside-down, except that I was actually a bit worried about that, and I was relieved to see that the locating pins and slots in the differential are different sizes, so it CAN only be fitted one way. I'm just surprised no one else building this has commented on the issue, if it is a genuine engineering gotcha.



Now the firewall is in place, I really can't delay the BMFing any longer! I'm wondering if the "spigot" (for want of a more technical word) on the brake master cylinder ought to be silver...

Shouldn't be too long now...

bestest,
M.

[mattbacon]

BMF... I have a love/hate relationship with the stuff. Great effect, but my head literally explodes if I do too much in one session. Now I remember WHY "I don't generally like chrome-laden barges..." ;-P. At least those fine folks at Moebius provide the worst, most fiddley bits (eg scripts) as decals...




...shouldn't be too long before these two can finally be fitted together!

bestest,
M.

[mattbacon]

A bit of a milestone, this...







Some leverage needed to get it the chassis into the body, but when it goes in, it fits really neatly...

Decals and final chrome bits now...

bestest,
M.

[mattbacon]

I'm now calling this done. Proper pictures in Complete Projects when it stops raining (next weekend, on current forecasts ;-()








Just need to clean off some greasy finger marks and top up the polish here and there...

bestest,
M.

[euro_z]

looks awesome!