Atmobil Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 In November 2012 I got a car from a fellow member in the Mercedes club in to my workshop. This was a 1979 Mercedes 450SL, in taxigelb (light yellow/beige) with brown interior. Imported from Indiana in 2009 and with 74 000 miles on the clock. I did only small jobs on it, replaced the steeringwheel, fixed a few details on the dash that had come loose and replaced some balljoints. But working on this car inspired me and I already had the old Monogram 450SL (the rallyversion molded in white) and in December 2013 I had time to start on this project. I was first planning on building it straight from the box but I soon changed my mind as the kit is far to incorrect and badly detailed for me to let it be. I had taken lots of pics of the 79 SL I had worked on so I used that as a reference but wanted to go for another color. The kit also depicts and earlier car. I wanted to have the steelwheels with fullcover hubcaps so I bought the standard Monogram 450SL (molded in silver) from a seller on Ebay. The interior need a lot of work, I scratchbuilt doorpockets and armrests/doorpull and dooropener. I also scratchbuilt sunvisors and modifed the arm/bracket for the rearviewmirror. Added instrumentdecals and tried to detailpaint the interior as best as I could. I also made sidewindows from clear plastic (the type that is used in packaging). The body also need quite a lot of work. The rear end under the rear bumper is straight and square like a box on the kit but on the 1:1 cars the body curves in and under. To make it look a bit like this I cut off the bodyparts from where the bumper is attached and down. I split it so that I had left and right sidepanels and rear apron and the I sanded and cut the panels at an angle so that when I fitted it back together the body narrows and curves a little in under the rearbumper. Not 100% correct as I had now way of making the radius that is there on the 1:1 cars but good enough for the model. I also sanded of the 450SL badge and filled in some bad sinkmarks on the trunklid. Also on the rear end but on the floorpan part I made my own exhausttips as the real cars have two pipes and the model only has one and that looked bad. The front end was also worked on. The frontbumper and grille is molded as one part. I sawed the parts away from eachother. The grille was sanded down on the backside to make it thinner as it is way to thick. I also cut out the plastic behind the headlights and made my own reflectors from thin aluminium. I also added a small chromestrip over the headlights like the realcars with chromefoil. The kit has no outside mirrors in it so I found some in my scrapbox. Think they are from a Tamiya rally car but not sure. Sadly I managed to loose the right one (this is the reason I put german plates on it as in Germany, right hand side mirrors where not compulsory by law before sometime in the 1980s) so only the lefthand mirror is there. The tires that come with the kit are far to small but the rims are ok. I did have to look around a bit to find tires that matched the size of the rim and what was need for the car but I found some from a AMT kit. They are Firestone Super Sports so not correct for a German 70s car but it looks much better. I painted the body in a correct for its time Mercedes color code 904 Dunkelblau Mitternachtsblau (Midnight Blue Dark Blue) and tried as best as I could to mix and match paint (and flocking) to the interior colors of the time. I also added chromefoil behind the taillights and on the bottom of the trunklid to simulate the small strip of chrome that is on the real cars. The bumpers also got foil on them as the chrome from the kit was not very good any more. The sidetrim is also foiled and painted with black in the center. The hubcaps are detailpainted and given a dark wash to give them some depth. The chassis was painted satinblack and I did only some simple detailpainting on the exhaust, engine and gearbox as the chassisdetails are not very good. Got no picture of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisR Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Nice build of a not so great kit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o-man Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Looks good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danno Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espo Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Very real looking, nice job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atmobil Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 Thank you guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helix Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Good job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Super nice build.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BVC500 Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 You did a nice job correcting the errors in this kit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peekay Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclescott58 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Very nice job Gaute. This is an old kit I wish Revell/Monogram would reissue. Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldcarfan Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 I'm glad I found this post. Your MB looks great! I just bought one of these kits tonight on eBay and found this article while looking for ideas. Again, I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dann Tier Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Nice build of a not so great kit!Agreed! -Well done!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DumpyDan Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Ya what they all said.....................Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davewilly Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 looks fantastic! Thanks Dan for the bump on this one....I must of missed it back in 2014! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinfan5 Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Very nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atmobil Posted August 19, 2016 Author Share Posted August 19, 2016 Thank you very much for the comments guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbowser Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Well done replica of a seldom seen auto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike 1017 Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Looks good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Rollins Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Good build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclescott58 Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 As noted before, a beautiful Merc. Had to take another look. And again, I whis Revell/Mongram see fit to reissue the kit. I think it was only offer the one time in about 1976 or '77. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Can-Con Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 That looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atmobil Posted December 27, 2016 Author Share Posted December 27, 2016 As noted before, a beautiful Merc. Had to take another look. And again, I whis Revell/Mongram see fit to reissue the kit. I think it was only offer the one time in about 1976 or '77. Yes, in to different versions. One "rally" version with Barrock wheels and a hideous looking front spoiler and one stock with the hubcaps and all stock. The stock one is silver (also molded in silver) and the rally version is white. The stock one has kit number 2102 and is dated 1976. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldcarfan Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 I wrote to Monogram a while ago and got a nice history on this line of kits from the guy that designed them. I urged them to re-release them. Maybe they will, the RX-7 is coming out soon and if it sells well, here's hoping the release the whole line again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montelsc Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Nice build great color Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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