167 replies to this topic

[arick]

I agree with your comment about detailing. I just think a little bit of added detail here and there adds to the look.



I've never been a purist, although I admire those that do the research and build by the book.

I love that RR. Is that a stock chassis colour?

[Harry P.]

I agree with your comment about detailing. I just think a little bit of added detail here and there adds to the look.



I've never been a purist, although I admire those that do the research and build by the book.

I love that RR. Is that a stock chassis colour?

I think that the entire flange that's molded in place there is actually part of the intake and exhaust manifolds in "real life," so I'm going to paint it silver (bolt heads too).

As far as the RR chassis color... almost all of the photos I found showed the chassis to be painted to match the main body color... in my case the dark red you see here. (Body will be 2-tone, dark red and ivory). Not a factory stock color, but with RR, since pretty much anything goes on those cars, is there actually such a thing as a "factory stock" color? From all I've read, the customer could have had any color they wanted.

On the RR kit, the biggest pain was painting all the dozens of metal fittings, linkages, levers and rods to match the chassis color. That's the way they are in the photos... most all of the little mechanical gizmos are chassis color.

[Plasticfanatic]

Ah!!!!!....My favorite classic car, the Mercedes Benz 500K to 540K specimens are among the most beautiful cars in automotive history, specialy the one you posted at the begining of this thread....a superb desing and machinery!!

I have a pocher 1/8 500k which is was based in an actual car body, the cabriolet "A" and even with this one there are some errors on the body, but when Pocher made their 540K Special Roadster(I was looking forward to it with great expectations) was disapointed, they just "modified a little bit" the back of the 500K car to acomodate the rumbleseat, added "decals!!!!!!!!" for the new fenders/bodywork "chrome" moldings, and above all leaving the rest of the car body virtualy unchange, making the Pocher 540K Special Roadster a highly inacurate body style for the Special Roadster.....the most beautiful in the line of this cars in my humble opinion.

Some modelers have reworked this kits to make true and accurate scale models of the Special Roadster 540K, by the work pictures I have seen, is a very heavy scrachtbuilding project, the engine hood have to be made longer and repositioned, the doors have to be made smaller,new side window frames,new fenders side skirt,new solid body "chrome" moldings,new bumbers,new interiors(but there are some terrific replacement parts for this area) new headlights and some fabrication of parts in the engine area.

The two magnificent books work by Jan Melin "Mercedes Benz the 8 Cylinder Supercharge cars of the 1930's" you can find the photos of all the cars in the line of the "K" designation and are presented in great period photos, you can also see some of the most rare one off and prototypes in this superb two volume work.

Good luck with this great project, will be looking forward for the new updates, I am pretty sure it would be a interesting one all the way.

[Harry P.]

Transmission so far... handbrake linkage has a spring-loaded return function, same with the pedals (not all installed yet). I cut off the molded-in release button on the handbrake handle and replaced it with a pin for a little more realism. Easier to do that than to try and paint the molded-in button silver.

[Nick Winter]

Transmission so far... handbrake linkage has a spring-loaded return function, same with the pedals (not all installed yet). I cut off the molded-in release button on the handbrake handle and replaced it with a pin for a little more realism. Easier to do that than to try and paint the molded-in button silver.

Harry, this is just beautiful.

[Ryan Quantz]

Does the shifter arm move?!

[Harry P.]

Does the shifter arm move?!

Only if I bend it!

[Ryan Quantz]

Oh that's too bad! What's the fun in having that much detail without a shifter that shifts?! I think you should modify it so it shifts... It's nice to see you building something, and doing a fine job at it I must say.

[JayC]

That kit looks simply outstanding. I would kill for a kit like this. If they sell for a couple grand, though, that kind of kills that idea.

About a year or so ago, I helped work an auction. One of the items we sold was an old kit similar to this. I opened the box and the parts detail blew me away. Someone (I'm guessing the original owner) had wrote under the box lid that a few parts were missing. Everything looked like it was still in their original baggies, though. I don't remember who made the kit, it could very well have been a Pocher. It was a bigger scale. If I remember right the car was a yellow Jaguar. I was going to try and get it for myself, but the bidding went above $200 (pretty fast, too). I didn't have $200+ (I want to say around $250 mark) on me at the time, so I had to let that pass. It was a beautiful kit, though.

Edited by JayC, 16 December 2009 - 05:49 AM.

[Harry P.]

That kit looks simply outstanding. I would kill for a kit like this. If they sell for a couple grand, though, that kind of kills that idea.

About a year or so ago, I helped work an auction. One of the items we sold was an old kit similar to this. I opened the box and the parts detail blew me away. Someone (I'm guessing the original owner) had wrote under the box lid that a few parts were missing. Everything looked like it was still in their original baggies, though. I don't remember who made the kit, it could very well have been a Pocher. It was a bigger scale. If I remember right the car was a yellow Jaguar. I was going to try and get it for myself, but the bidding went above $200 (pretty fast, too). I didn't have $200+ (I want to say around $250 mark) on me at the time, so I had to let that pass. It was a beautiful kit, though.

The yellow Jaguar was made by Monogram... it was the mid-70s release (the kit was originally released in the very early 60s, molded in red). It was 1/8 scale.

BTW... not all Pocher kits sell for $1,000+, only the rare ones. The more common kits, like this Mercedes, which was produced in higher numbers, can be bought for much less. The easier to find Pochers usually sell for anywhere between $400-$1,000 (roughly). Of course, in any given ebay auction, depending on who's bidding and how bad they want it, anything can happen.

[JayC]

Is this the kit you refer to? I thought I would hit up eBay to see if the one I mentioned was listed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/...=item3ca6de7a96

I should have been more specific (even though I've forgotten most of the details ). The yellow car was of the vintage of your Benz. It looked like that style. I don't remember if it was actually Jaguar or not, but that is what I would go with. I remember looking it up last year and didn't find too much about it. I found someone selling an assembled one through their own site for about $3000. I think just about everything in the kit was metal. The quality seemed outstanding.

I won't hijack the thread anymore. If I find the kit I am referring to maybe I'll post it, but for now I will resume watching this beautiful build.

Edit:

I did some searching and found the car I was talking about. It was a Rolls Royce and not a Jaguar. Here are a few links:

http://translate.goo...y...sl=de&tl=en

http://cgi.ebay.ca/P...=item20ae49cc16

http://cgi.ebay.ca/R...=item3ca846e161

Like I said, it was a beautiful kit. I would have LOVED to have got it. I've got another project I'm going to get started (non-vehicle), but I'm going to make it a mission to get a Pocher kit at some point.

Edited by JayC, 16 December 2009 - 10:55 AM.

[Harry P.]

That yellow RR is one of the rare Pocher kits. Yeah, that one would definitely sell for well over $1,000.

[JayC]

That yellow RR is one of the rare Pocher kits. Yeah, that one would definitely sell for well over $1,000.

Now I feel even sicker for not buying it! The auction was not really an estate auction. Some guy wanted to sell his stuff out of mini-storage units. I'm the one that found the box sitting on the shelf inside one of the storage units while we were taking things out to set up. I knew it was something special by all the detail. I just didn't really know how much until now.

[Michigan Madman]

Oh that's too bad! What's the fun in having that much detail without a shifter that shifts?! I think you should modify it so it shifts... It's nice to see you building something, and doing a fine job at it I must say.

HeyheyheyheyHEY.... BETTER idea! Make the engine so it actually runs!

[Modelmartin]

As far as the RR chassis color... almost all of the photos I found showed the chassis to be painted to match the main body color... in my case the dark red you see here. (Body will be 2-tone, dark red and ivory). Not a factory stock color, but with RR, since pretty much anything goes on those cars, is there actually such a thing as a "factory stock" color? From all I've read, the customer could have had any color they wanted.

Rolls-Royce built no coachwork prior to WWII. They only built and sold running chassis. There were "approved" coachbuilders but anyone could order a chassis and have the body built by anyone they wanted. So there were no factory colors at all! The same went for the American(Springfield, Mass.) built Rolls Royce Silver Ghosts and Phantom I.

I was at an IPMS show many years ago and someone had taken one of the Pocher Rolls and converted it to one of the Silver Ghost WWI armored cars. It was very well done.

[Harry P.]

New progress photos coming tomorrow, but in the meantime...

I went to Hobbytown USA today to pick up some aluminum tubing and brass strip for some scratchbuilt details I'll be adding to this model, and while I was there I found this great brush. The bristles are shaped like a knife blade... flat and wide in one dimension, but thin and sharp in the other. That sort of shape is called a "filbert"... it's perfect for detail painting tiny things like molded-in bolt heads, better than a typical brush with a round or conical shape to the bristles. This one is red sable, and the bristles have just the right amount of stiffness and "spring" to them. If you're on the market for brushes, check this brand out. They come in a ton of different sizes and varieties, and they all are just $4 apiece. I was using this one all day, and it's a real pleasure to use. It's amazing how much a good brush is a factor when you're painting tiny details.

[Harry P.]

A little progress... it's kind of hard to see much detail, because the engine is black. Cars of this era usually had the ignition wires running through a loom of some sort, to keep things neat. The kit doesn't have one, so I scratchbuilt one out of aluminum tubing. The mounting brackets are strips of thin aluminum (actually cut from a pie tin!) and the "bolts" are pinheads.

[JayC]

That engine looks awesome! I can almost hear it running.

[vizio93]

Wow Harry, you could quit now and put that engine under glass if you want to You sure put at least the same amount of work in it as some one would put into a full model. You've put parts together that looked impossible to fit, you've wired the engine, and you've strachbuilt parts !!! Sounds like you've done a whole model to me

[Harry P.]

Wow Harry, you could quit now and put that engine under glass if you want to You sure put at least the same amount of work in it as some one would put into a full model. You've put parts together that looked impossible to fit, you've wired the engine, and you've strachbuilt parts !!! Sounds like you've done a whole model to me

Oh, I'm just getting started!

Lots more engine work done today... I'll post photos tomorrow.