Two german beauties... (300 SL in-depth progress)

[bigfrit]

This is my in-depth progress thread on one of the greatest cars ever made by the firm of the three pointed star... the Threehundred SL

As a classic car lover, I see this as my duty to make a tribute to this awesome car which was at the avant-garde of the car world.

The plan is to maketwo distinctively different cars,
the 300 Sl Gullwing (made by heller)
the 300 Sl Roadster (recently released by Italeri)


The two kits are more or less equal molding-wise , quite nice.

the kits were found at a good price, but I would expect one to want the heller kit badly to pay a lot ...


A few details were quite frustrating about the kits, and I show you in steps how to get by them .


The first thing to bust my balls was that the steering is fixed, which I hate, so I used some intelligence, imagination, superglue and alu rods to fabricate the next thing , pics speak for themselves.





At the left, the original bits, at the right the bits changed to have steering.



this is with the steering into place




Two more things were bothering me in these otherwise more then good kits ...

the crappy tyres (if anybody got some dunlop's racing's spare, I ll be more then happy to pay for them

and the windscreen on the 300 SL is fully scratched... which is a very bad thing, but I need to cut out the glass anyway...

and another thing is the decals... the stars really do look ugly on them, and I was wondering if there were any Photo-etched stars around ???




Here are the two bodies, with hoods that need to be cut-out to show the nicely made engines.

And you migth have guessed it by now, the Gullwing will be able to fly



I 'm planning to cut out the doors and to hinge it , but I m still open to any suggestions about how to do this...
As I have to replace the glass with some clear plastic, I shouldn't have problems making that .. so why not hinge it, it's this car's key feature...






Well, that's it for today, I ll be firstly finishing my E-type and then I can fully concentrate on these to beauties.








For those who don't like to read throught the whole thread, here are the key questions..

Q1 : which colour for the cars (exterior -interior)
Q2: how to hinge the gullwing doors
Q3; how to cut out the gullwing doors
Q4: are there photo-etched mercedes stars and emblems available ?
Q5: Which tyres (rims?) could I use to replace these, and from what kit
Q6: can I fix the scratched glass easily


Ciao
and thanks
Olivier

[Midnight Racer]

Can't wait to see them done especially the opening gullwings.

[Purpura Delujo]

Looks like an intereesting build! I love these old Benzs. If you want to hinge the doors there are a few different tutourials in the Car modelling part of the two model forums. The colours are entirely up to you but I think one in gun metal with red interior and maybe a black one with cream interior would look good. I don't know about the stars because I don't get photo etched parts but there will most likely be some.

Old wire wheels would look good on them, would keep the theme. As for the windshield it depends on how badly the plastic is scratched, but people usually use very fine grit sand paper to get scratches out.
Good job with the steering

[egon_dude]

Yes its easy to fix the glass! Ive done this a feew times on the bubble canopies on model jet fighters that often have an ugly seam running down the middle. Get some very fine wet+dry paper (the grey stuff) and rub till the whole screen is unifornly scratched all over and is a cloudy white colour (dont worry i promise this works) then get some silver/metal polish and rub the screen until its nice and clear again. Sorted

[bigfrit]

ok, thanks a lot, that's one thing I won't have to worry about !

Oh, and would sanding untill 1500-1600 be enough?

Oli

[primera man]

2 lovely looking cars that well look great when done.

I'm liking the colour that is already on them.....silver and a nice deep red.

[ales]

Originally posted by primera man
2 lovely looking cars that well look great when done.

I'm liking the colour that is already on them.....silver and a nice deep red.

That's what I keep telling him! But does he listen? Noooo...

[Cychalen]

At least one of them has to be silver.

[bigfrit]

agreed about the silver on the gullwing, but the other car??? don't like red on a merc.... sorry !

And here 's a little update, I did a trial , like a prototype version of the actual hinges, they're still drying with some superglue, but I m pretty confident they will do the trick.

Plus they seem to blend in nicely. The only thing that might be changed it the front attach, it's showing a bit through the front window , when looking carefully, or I could just put a sun-visor in front to camouflage it ...


Oh, and about the German Beauties, I just gave the beautifull and classy Gullwing a name, from now on yuo can call her Claudia, mind you, she's mine though


tell me what you think and if you know answers to the first post, please, please post them !

Thanks Olivier

[mel79]

The Gullwing atleast should be silver, maybe with red interior? I think the roadster wouldn't look bad either with that combo, or maybe it could be white (ivory?).

I didn't realise that Heller has managed to do so good looking Gullwing After buying their crappy 205T16 I swore I'd never buy Heller again, but I guess I'll have to rethink if I ever see their Gullwing for sale

-Mikko

[bigfrit]

Hm, thanks for the comments Mikko, well, the colour of the interior of the gullwing will Red.

And the door has been tried, and it does work like a charm, except that I will have to replace the hinge , it should be almost against the top of the door.. atleast my test worked .


Oh, another question for merc fans ; IF you have got pics of the trunk of this car, I couldn't find any, could you post them, so I can see if it 's do-able .

Thanks

Olivier

[Midnight Racer]

Hope these help.

[Guido]

Senor! Let me just tell you how amazed I am with your choice here. I have those 2 exact same kits in my shelf, waiting for some inspiration on how to do the Gullwing doors... So you're first That's good, now I can steal some of your ideas.
Oh wait a minute, I won't steal them, I'll pay for them, with reference pics. How's that? Cause it happens to be, that I just bought - at Goodwood - this book:



ISBN: 0-7603-1213-3
Published by: MBI Publishing Company
Author: Dennis Adler
It describes the 300SL in the US, but I think spec-wise there aren't any differences.

Here are some idea's for the colours. First a family shot. Silver Gullwing with blue interior, Red Gullwing with tan interior, Black Roadster with hartop and Red Roadster, both Roadsters with tan interior.



Detail of the door



Blue interior of Gullwing



Tan interior - here on red Roadster, but identical on black.

[Guido]

Bigfrit questions on 300SL
Q1 : which colour for the cars (exterior -interior)
Q2: how to hinge the gullwing doors
Q3; how to cut out the gullwing doors
Q4: are there photo-etched mercedes stars and emblems available ?
Q5: Which tyres (rims?) could I use to replace these, and from what kit
Q6: can I fix the scratched glass easily

A1a: Silver Gullwing with blue interior
A1b: Red Roadster with tan interior - there's nothing wrong with a red Roadster, in fact it is a typical colour for it.
A2: No answer, you're well on the way in doing it - keep going
A3: drill a small whole and use some nylon wire (naaidraad - dutch word for it, sorry guys) it'll cut through the plastic
A4: Never seen them, still a problem for me as well.
A5: maybe you could look for tyres like Tamiya uses for the Super7 kit, but I'm not sure
A6: Like stated, you can use a very fine grid paper for that, and then polish it. I use a product called "The final touch" manly developped for jet canopies, but it works on car as well of course. Bought it a an IPMS meeting once, but forgot from whom.

Hope this helps. If you need pics on the engine, trunk, chassis, etc. I'll scan them and e-mail them to you



Oh I almost forgot:
Always good to see a Benz being build on the forums

[fullbloodchop01]

those are 2 beauties