Tamiya Mercedes Benz 300sl 1/24

[Guest]

awesome work mate, really looking great

[Guest]

Hmm yeah I hadn't thought of that. How would I apply bare metal foil to replicate the ring?

Difficult to say without seeing the wheel, but if the area that needs to be metallised is clearly defined you just stick an oversize piece of BMF over the area to be covered and then carefully (very carefully) with a very very sharp knife cut around the area you want metallised and then gently lift off the excess and burnish the remainder smooth.


This, of course, assumes you have something to attach the BMF to!


However, the work you've done looks great so I wouldn't sweat it.

[Marc Stock]

Im almost ready to start on the body. Did some prep work last night, full wash and degrease, i also opened up the vents at the back of the car with a knife. Will pop in some mesh behind the vents to increase detail.


1st stage is a light coat of grey filler primer both inside and out. This will then be rubbed down starting with 1500 grit and finishing with 2500. This should iorn out any imperfections.


Second coat is another light misting of grey filer primer to smooth out further and go over with 3000 grit.


2nd stage is a white primer sanded to 3000 grit.


3rd stage is a mist coat of db396 and a further wet coat left to cure for a few days.


4th will be the clear coat 2 coats and polished from 6000 up to 12000 and a final wax.


Hopefully all goes well it will look nice.


Hubcaps to go first and then this.

[ATTACH]121236.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121237.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121238.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121239.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Im almost ready to start on the body. Did some prep work last night, full wash and degrease, i also opened up the vents at the back of the car with a knife. Will pop in some mesh behind the vents to increase detail.
1st stage is a light coat of grey filler primer both inside and out. This will then be rubbed down starting with 1500 grit and finishing with 2500. This should iorn out any imperfections.


Second coat is another light misting of grey filer primer to smooth out further and go over with 3000 grit.


2nd stage is a white primer sanded to 3000 grit.


3rd stage is a mist coat of db396 and a further wet coat left to cure for a few days.


4th will be the clear coat 2 coats and polished from 6000 up to 12000 and a final wax.


Hopefully all goes well it will look nice.


Hubcaps to go first and then this.

Zero paints advise doing the Base coats in short succession and straight on the the clear mist coats after a short wait I'm sure, I would double check times on their website. Also you don't wet coat the Base coat, they tell you not to do that as it dries matt and is not required. You just get a good few nice even coats on then clear over the top soon after.


Iirc you do maybe 2-3 clear mist coats and maybe 2 wet coats, I would say that from experience the 1k clear wet coats take an age to dry and I had problems doing wet coats too soon together where the paintwork the was soft underneath when sanding even nearly 2 months after. I would try to get the wet coats on as thin as possible and give them a good long time between coats. Honestly I think I will be leaving about a week or more began wet coats but that would be miles overkill according to instructions.


Just trying to be helpful hope I'm not being a pain!

[Marc Stock]

Ah ok dougie i see you litrally do enough base coat to get the pigment even and the go on with the clear. Good pointer there.

[Guest]

Ah ok dougie i see you litrally do enough base coat to get the pigment even and the go on with the clear. Good pointer there.

Aye and try to get a nice even colour. Do all the body work at the same time or parts can end up slightly different mate. You don't leave long before the clear as it helps if tack on I think

[takeslousyphotos]

Ok dougie i got a a3 air mask it seemed to keep all at bay. Here is the completed dashboard. Its okay not amazing to be honest very fiddly work on the masking. The paint is very forgiving, its several legues above using enamel. Just have to wait now to harden over the next few days. Will need to do the bottom part the same colour as the interior. So in going to have to mix up some more paint for interior. I can see though the body work is going to be amazing with this paint.

That interior / dashboard looks superb. First class work Marc.

[Marc Stock]

Thanks for your kind words. Been doing the hubcaps man is this a challenging job.


Its taken me all night to get one good hubcap. Two of them are trashed as the chrome has come off from the constant re trying of getting it right and the other one that looks ok isnt good enough in my opinion so im going to do a re order of the hubcaps. And practice on the trashed ones. The decals for the wheels are as good as a choclate teapot and just look plain naff.


Or i might just stick on the hubcaps as they are in chrome but that seems like a cop out to me and im trying to push my skills as a modeler. Apparently i can order the knock off wheels for this kit and considering the original car i am copying has the knock off wheels thats always an option.


[ATTACH]121551.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121551.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121552.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121553.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121554.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]121555.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Marc Stock]

I have been looking at my good hubcap and i honestly feel that getting the rest of them good in a reasonable time going to be nearly impossible. After doing some more research i am suprised to find out that the actual hubcaps supplied by Mercedes-Benz were also painted at the factory to match the body and they had a known issue with the paint chipping off. As a result some customers ordered replacement hubcaps from mercedes and simply didnt have them painted and left them chrome because after a few years they would look really naff. I also found out that some customers switched the colour from the hubcaps to the wheels, and im led to believe that the factory actually switched the painting of the hubcaps on the early models to the wheels in the convertible as the paint was alot better at actually sticking to the surface.


So im impressed with tamiya in this respect as they have made the model true to the way it was built.


Whats my plan going forward? Well i have emailed hobyco for some replacement caps. Im binning the idea of painting them, but i am going to paint the wheels themselves the colour of the body instead with the chrome caps i think this is going to look alot crisper and im pleased that im keeping true to the history of the car that actual customers did the same thing on their real cars especially in holland apparently.


Sorry this build is taking so long.

[ATTACH]121571.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121572.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121573.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121574.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Nice one, wouldn't apologise about it taking long... We don't all have loads of free time and such to spend it doing models haha

[Guest]

No worries about how long on the build mate,..... It takes as long as it takes,

[Marc Stock]

Ok well i had another disaster tonight. I went to paint the wheels the blue from the body and the paint reacted with the paint already on the wheels and went all gooey. I thought id clean it off with thinners and its melted it.


Big fail. o_O


On the plus side my hubcap parts came in from hobbyco. Looks like ill be ordering the A parts again for new wheels and i might as well oder new transfers so i can do the ring thingy on thw steering wheel that pinged off into the carpet.


Thought after these two disasters with the wheels id start on the body. Used zero paints primer filler its a lovley primer fantastic product again from zero paints.


Did 1st coat rubbed down, and second coat lightly rubbed down with 8000 grit. Also primed the inside of the body to reduce transparency.


Bonnet needs just one more coat for some reason.


Then after this its the white primer ready for the topcoat of blue, and clear

[ATTACH]121750.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121751.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121752.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121753.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121754.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121755.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121756.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121757.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121758.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121759.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121760.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121761.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121762.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Marc Stock]

You know what I might just order another kit. And after this one do a 300sl barn find build. It's already cost me 11 quid for the hubcap error and I'm going to order another load of parts which will probably come to 11 quid again I might as well order another kit for 30 quid

[Marc Stock]

Done the 1st coat of the white primer and rubbed down. Half way through my airbrush stopped working. Took it apart and the needle nossle fell out the thread. Its broken ???


So i have to order a new needle nossle. I finished the rest of the priming with my cheapo backup airbrush so i could at least get even coverage.


So far its looking good. Just one more white primer coat now and I can put some colour down.

[ATTACH]121842.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121843.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121844.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121845.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121846.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121848.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121849.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]121850.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Marc i know exactly zip about building cars, but this looks spot on to me