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Jo-Han Mercedes 500K Roadster- Slumpbuster!


jaymcminn

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So after starting three or four projects and getting bored with them and putting them aside and never actually getting anything built, I decided to do something completely different from my usual state-of-the-art Japanese kits of exotic and racing cars. Something to shake things up. A slumpbuster.

The first kits I built back in the early 80s were the Monogram classics. I have fond memories of them and have most of them in the stash, but I wanted to try something a little different. Several recent builds of the Jo-Han Caracciola 500K Limousine had me intrigued, but I really wanted to try my hand at the stunning Special Roadster. I bought an early "Gold Cup" release on Ebay and settled in for what I figured might be a challenging build.

Initial impressions of the kit were very positive... the level of detail is impressive for a fifty-year-old mold and the flash was pretty minimal. Sink marks were present everywhere, of course, but some effort was made, especially on the chrome parts, to hide sprue attachment points and ejector pin marks. I salvaged as much of the kit chrome as possible, but a fair amount of it had to be stripped, cleaned up, and painted with Spaz-Stix Chrome. The wheels are the finest plastic wires I've ever seen, by the way. The body and fenders required a fair amount of sanding to get everything straight and smooth and the panel lines were rescribed. I glued the rumble seat down and filled and rescribed the seam after block sanding the rear deck. Chrome trim lines on the body and fenders were sharpened up to better take the application of Bare Metal Foil.

The interior benefited from flocking and parts-box door handles and pulls. The correct finish on the steering wheel should be black, but I like the woodgrain effect much better. Under the hood, the engine received a new scratchbuilt air cleaner as well as ignition wires. I used matte aluminum BMF on the firewall and faked a turned-aluminum pattern with a tiny circle of sandpaper on a toothpick. I'm not happy with the kit plastic radiator supports above the engine- I'll do new ones from music wire someday.

I narrowed the rear track slightly and cut the rear springs by about 1/16" to get the stance just right...otherwise it sits too high in back. Of course during final assembly the hood, which sat perfectly during repeated test fittings, somehow managed to be off by just enough to tick me off. Oh well. The most infuriating thing about the build was the brittle plastic- I don't know if it was just from age or if it's just Jo-Han's plastic, but there was no room whatsoever to finesse any parts by bending. I probably increased the parts count on this kit by 10% by virtue of breaking parts in half... aaargh.

Paint is Tamiya German Grey under Testors Wet-Look Clear. Interior color is Tamiya Dull Red with a dark wash to bring out the highlights. Top and tonneau cover are Tamiya Haze Grey. This color combination doesn't represent a specific car as far as I know, but definitely looks right for the period. I painted the wheels in the German Grey and very carefully wiped the paint off the spokes and wheel weights with lacquer thinner on a Tamiya swab. Chrome spokes on a painted wheel were actually fairly common on Mercedes of the day and it's a nice look for this car. I went with whitewalls instead of blackwalls to add a little extra punch to the wheels. I also painted the brake drums red, but that doesn't show through quite as well as I was hoping it would. The snaps on the tonneau and body are PE bolt heads, but I can't remember who from.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the way this thing went together... the detail straight from the box is pretty impressive and I could see it being built into a box-stock winner at just about any contest. With a few extras it really pops. It's also got me interested in the pre-war stuff again...I've been looking at the old Monogram Rolls Royce Phantom II Henley Roadster and thinking how far I could take it using what Harry and Cato have done in 1/8 scale as a template. Anyway, on to the pics!

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Thanks for looking, and questions and comments are welcome!

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WOW! nice job..

Does the Dull Red paint show up correctly in your pics? Maybe it's the wash, but it doesn't look like the color on the cap of the can I have.

It's a bit more orange in the pics than it is in real life. For some reason it doesn't photograph well.

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The Mercedes Benz 500/540k' series is my all time favorite classic car of the 1930's, the lines,power and detail of these cars are simply magnificent, your model is equaly a superb looking one, specialy like your color combination, indeed it look stunning as is all your bare metai foil application, a beautiful scale model from all angles and taking in consideration the vintage of the kit the detail looks great.Great work!!!!

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Thanks..it looks fine in the pics,

but it's not the color I wanted when I bought it... minus the wash, do you think it matches the cap fairly well?

From the rattle can, it is the same color as the cap. The wash darkens it up somewhat.

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Wow, that is stunning! Great model, congrats. I especially like the dash, were those decals for the instrument faces?

The instrument faces are painted. I drybrushed black over the raised details and flowed a mix of acrylic white, silver, and gloss base into the gauges, which settled in and let the raised detail pop. I then used Micro Krystal Klear for the lenses.

Beautiful! I love the color–not the typical red, black or silver. Really, really nice work. B)

Thanks, Harry- I couldn't find a gloss paint I liked, so I had to go with a flat and clearcoat over it!

Edited by jaymcminn
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You were never in a slump Jason, you were just building the wrong type of models! Stick to the classics!

Flattered that my work might help or inspire you. I'm impressed that you changed ride height - a key to get them to look 'right'. Don't be afraid to alter. Soon you'll be hinging hoods and channeling bodies.

The difficult BMF work on these is tough. You nailed it. Color scheme and presentation are superb. Great work.

Now come up to 1/8 scale classics....!

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Really beautiful! Very classy with the paint colour and the whitewalls. My dear wife bought the same model for me for Christmas back in 1972. It was my first model in a long while, and was a hand painted gluebomb. It's nice to see your version done so nicely!

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I'm looking at this for the second time today. Noticing things I didn't really pick up on before. Your dash is outstanding, foil work is about as good as it gets, and the wheels are a thing of beauty. You really nailed this one, Jason. Out of the park.

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Congratulations on annihilating that slump! I don't often use the word spectacular when referring to models, but I'm convinced it certainly applies here. Between the chassis mods you made to achieve the correct stance, the innovation used in creating the look of the gauges and your exemplary BMF work, this will definitely be one of the most remarkable builds we'll see this year.

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