Mercedes-AMG GT3

[harti20]

Hi all

 

As my wip on the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento will be on hold for an undetermined amout of time due to the corona virus and the closed borders I decided to start a new WIP. Somewhen I will be stalled on this build as well because the body color is in the same parcel as the missing parts for the Lamborghini. But as I already started the build before the borders were closed, I continue anyway and do as much as possible without having to paint the body. With a little luck the borders will be re-opened by the time I reach the point I can't continue  And if not there are enough model kits in my stash where I have everything needed to finish them ?

First I started with glueing all body parts together without risking any troubles on the final assembly and without making the painting process unnecessaryli complicated. The fit was absoluteley excellent so I needed almost no putty to close the seams.

Then the roll cage was put together. To make sure everything will fit on final assembly I placed it inside the interior tub to let the glue set.

 

For the PE set I had to open up the air outlets behind the front wheels. Here two PE meshes will be added once everything is painted.

Once everything was prepared I primered the body parts and am really happy with the result.

That's where I am at the moment. Next time I think I should be able to show you my enhanced version of the shock absorbers and the undercarriage with the carbonized diffusor.

For the moment I wish all of you a good and, first of all healthy, start in the upcoming week. May you and your beloved ones stay healthy.

Urs

[Jhedir6]

Good start. It's a great kit you'll really enjoy it, even without a full engine.

Be advised that the two brake ducts above the rear wheels need to be added before paint as there are no seams on the rear car

The parts fit well but without some putty and sanding they will show up under paint. 

Looking forward to more.

[Mixalz]

Will be following this one. Got mine in the box still!

[Dann Tier]

Outstanding start, bud!!!!

[harti20]

Hi all 

Thank you for your comments. An update with pictures will follow later this weekend.

On 3/23/2020 at 4:20 AM, Jhedir6 said:

Be advised that the two brake ducts above the rear wheels need to be added before paint as there are no seams on the rear car

The parts fit well but without some putty and sanding they will show up under paint. 

Thank you very much. Without you I would have forgotten these two parts. Now they're installed, putty has been applied and everything is sanded out smooth (I hope). Somewhen this weekend I will apply a coat of primer over these spots, then I'll see if everything is as smooth as I wanted it to be

Edited March 28, 2020 by harti20

[harti20]

Hi all

As promised here is my weekend-update

First the missing parts have been added to the body. The whitish parts in the front are sanding residue which I forgot to wash off before taking the picture. Of course I cleaned it meanwhile

After that the diffusor got its carbon decals

And the inside of the doors was primed using Alclads Black primer. Then the AMG sign from the PE set were glued on and after letting the glue settle over night, the carbon decals have been applied.

The brakes have been finished some time ago, but to this day I always forgot to take pictures of them

Finally I managed to complete the shock absorbers.

That's all for this week's update. I hope you like it and as always, I'm open for constructive criticism (as well as for plaudits of course ).

Urs

[Dann Tier]

Its all looking BRILLIANT!!!!

[Gt fan]

Great start .. such a good kit.

[harti20]

Hi all

 

Thank you for your feedback.

This week was dominated by bodywork. First it got its paint on (Gloss Black by Zero Paints). Even if I really love working with Zero Paints, the gloss black will never become my favourite. I always get massive orange peel. Here I had to sand the first (wet) coat with some 3000 sanding sponge and then reapply it. It still got some orange peel but not as much as it would cause silvering. So I decided to apply the decals. After clearcoating it will all be gone (at least this is what I hope for  ).

Somewhen in between I placed the shock absorbers. As they will hardly be seen in future I though, I'd take a picture of them in their final stage.

When I wanted to do something different than applying decals to the body I made stencils for the carbon decals on the inside. Today I started by adding some of them to the seat. Unfortunately they wrinkled on the possibly only spot that can be seen on the final model  So I think, I'll have to try to reattach it.

Finally I made some additional parts which will be attached at a later point in time. I won't tell what it is, but I'm sure you'll find out yourself very easily

That's it for today. I wish all of you a nice week and stay healthy

Urs

[Funkychiken]

Cool build, really high quality!

[harti20]

Hi all

 

Somehow I had the impression that I didn't made that much of a progress this week. When I took the pictures to show you what happened here, I was surprised how much it was though.

First the carbon on the seat was touched up

The first of the doors got another part from the PE set. Another will follow on the door handle.

The interior got it's carbon decals. This time I'm not that happy with the outcome. Somehow I didn't manage to take proper stencils for the decals and had to do some spot repair, especially on the far side of the center console.

The front got some black paint which was scraped off of the front faces right after application

Then I tried for the first time to do a labelling on the tires. Once I was satisfied with it, the decals were applied. After some drying time I added a decent (ok, in some spots not so decent) wash with Tamiya's black Panel Line Accent Color. Unfortunately I waited a little too long to wipe it off, so that the wash got much heavier than planned...

Finally I spent several hours today assembling the front fan from PE parts. The fan itself needs some additional work. When assembling the lower part (in the meaning of the picture) I didn't manage to align all the 0.5 mm holes over all 5 layers of PE parts, so I could no longer use the rivets provided in the set (the ones you can see in the upper part). Luckily I had some head-only rivets for an old PE set for Tamiya's Ferrari Enzo, so I used them instead. I know, they are larger than the original ones, but I preferred that over having nothing

That's all for this week  As I am on vacation the upcoming week I think, I'll have some progress to show in next weekend, as I can't do much than building models

Urs

[Dann Tier]

Wow, this is still looking FANTASTIC, Bud!!!!

[harti20]

Hi all

On 4/14/2020 at 10:57 PM, Dann Tier said:

Wow, this is still looking FANTASTIC, Bud!!!!

Thank you. Really apreciate it when I look what you are doing in your WIPs

This week was not as productive as I originally thought, but it delivers enough material for a somewhat bigger update today

First the rims were painted and received their decals and the air valves. After that the tires were airbrushed with some matt varnish to blend in the decals and to protect the labelling

Then the doors got all of their PE parts

The front fan was completed

And the cushions on the seat have been applied after I finished the lap belts as they had to go under the cushions

The rest of the seatbelts has been done as well. There is one part still missing. It's the only resin part from the PE set. I always wondered what that could possibly be, as I couldn't find it on the assembly instructions. Now that I found it I will have to paint it before I can add it to the round part of the seatbelts

The exhausts got their paint as well. When applying it, I tried to do some heat stains and was quite happy with it, so I stopped to not overdo it. Now I can't hardly see them...

Some more work on the interior was done as well. I know, the brake is still missing, so don't try to go on a test run yet 

 

And finally the front has been completed.

I hope, that I will be able to add the clearcoat to the body the upcoming week. But before I can do that, I will have to finish the spoiler first. I painted it yesterday, but the finish was not at all as smooth as I wanted it to be, so I will first have to sand and / or polish it out before applying the decals and be ready for assembly.

That's all for this week. I wish you a nice and healthy week

Urs

[kilrathy10]

Good gravy, Man!!! That is some amazing work... Excellent detail...Very clean.... Amazing...

[absmiami]

Really like this. I know that it is a difficult build. Its been so

long since I’ve done a modern ... but this has got me thinking about that Tamiya original teile SCWC Mercedes kit that is sitting on the shelf ....

[harti20]

Hi all

Again thank you for your kind comments

First I owe you a pic I forgot on my last update. I applied the yellow decal on the roof when I was laying down the body decals but remarked at the same time that something was wrong. Unfortunately the clear part was not ready yet to get its decals. So I removed the already applied decal from the roof and transfered it back to the backing paper it was on before. About two weeks later the clear part was ready, so I decided to give it a try, put the decal back in some warm water and tried to re-apply it (at the right spot for once  ). To my relief everything turned out fine, the decal sticks to the clear part as if nothing happened at all

Yesterday the dashboard came together. Unfortunately I wasn't able to remove the soul from the cable, otherwise it would have been attached to a connector which had already been prepared. So I had to just stuck the cable directly to the dashboard. Not really happy with that, but I couldn't manage the cable to stay attached to the connector as the tension was too high.

Some electronic boxes for the interior have been finished as well (the larger one got another connector meanwhile).

Then I finished the seat with all its seatbelts. As per the instructions you would first glue together the back and side parts of the roll cage, insert that, then insert the seat and after that attach the top of the roll cage. As I already put the top of the rollcage on, I now have a minor problem getting everything in the interior tube, because the back part of the roll cage would push the seat out of position when I try to slip it in between the back of the interior tub and the seat. And I can't insert the roll cage first as I wouldn't be able to insert the seat afterwards. Although I didn't want to break the roll cage apart as it is already finished. So I decided to try something I already used to insert belt buckles and rear view mirrors: I placed the seat where it's supposed to be at the end and drilled two holes through seat and interior tub (that was of course before I added the cushions  ). Then I stuck two evergreen rods in which fitted perfectly in diameter and glued them to the seat. On the upper part of the seat they were cut and sanded. The rods have about 5 cm in length. So, when it comes to final assembly, I will first slip the rods through the holes of the tub but let the seat "float" over its position. Then I can insert the roll cage and once that is in place I can pull on the rods from underneath the interior and bring the seat to its final location, glue the rods to the interior tub and cut them  once the glue has dried.

The headlights got their pe parts (the small ring around the lenses) before assembling them.

In order to complete the rear wing I also had to assemble the supports. The part you can see here consists of 9 parts from the PE set (as per the instructions it would be 10 parts, but I'm afraid that it won't slip in the body once everything is painted and clear coated).

Finally the body got its last few decals (the ones with the carbon pattern). As the previously attached decals didn't conform to the panel lines that well I used a sharp hobby knife, cut them and applied some softer. Then I used a soft brush, dipped in softer, to push the decals inside the panel lines. I just noticed on the pictures that there are some spots where I'll have to repeat the last step. Also I completley forgot to do the same thing on the front, so I'll have to repeat it there as well.

That's all for this update. I wish you all a nice and healthy week

Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

This week's update is not that extensive as I very rarley found the motivation to do anything on the AMG. Mainly the interior part could be finished. Now it could come to a halt because all I can do now before continuing with the final assembly is clear coating. But right now I have no idea when I will have the opportunity to do so because I don't like using 2K clear when my son is at home, so I'll have to wait until home schooling is over.

First the small red PE part got finally its paint (something I always forgot to do before) and was installed

Then some small interior components found a place (not always the one they use to sit on in the right car, as one of them was just too large to fit in), the seat got installed and the rolling cage was welded to the chassis

A small electronics box from the PE set was installed on the seat

Then I had to notice that Tamiya seems to have forgotten the third break light. It is molded in the body but there is neither a clear part for it nor can you find any hint in the assembly instructions. So I just added a piece of BMF which I will paint over with Tamiya Clear Red once the clear coat has been applied.

Finally a preview picture with the rear wings only put on the body without glueing yet.

That's all for this week's update. I wish you all a nice and healthy week

Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

As home schooling is (at least partially) over, I had the possibility to apply the clear coat to the body on friday. Unfortunately I got some orange peel.

Saturday I spent my time wet sanding and polishing the body to get rid of the orange peel. Today I applied some modeling wax to it, installed the clear parts and most of the PE parts.

The rear view mirrors got some black color on the inside to enhance the depth once the mirrors are put in place.

Only a few small parts have to be attached and then we will have a marriage to celebrate

That's it for this update. If everything goes well the gummy bear should be finished by the end of the upcoming week

Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

 

As mentioned in the previous update, the model could be completed this week. Here are the final pics of this WIP, before the gummy bear will roll over to the gallery somewhere down the road

I hope you all enjoyed the build as much as I did and hope you will be following my next build as well

Urs

[NYLIBUD]

Great job.

[PatW]

Superb Urs! I've just started one of these, my youngest son's present to me for my birthday. As we are trying to move although our latest offer for our house lasted since February, due to the Covid-19 outbreak our buyer has pulled out I have no spraying facility as I packed everything in my cabin hoping to move. The body will stay grey with the Haribo decals, interesting! 

Edited June 25, 2020 by PatW

[Ensis Ferrae]

Love the build, and love the Haribo decals (I have a set sitting somewhere in some customs bin somewhere. . . lol, Royal Mail in UK says it was scanned in San Fransisco, USPS says its sitting in Chicago)

 

Love the work with the PE stuff, especially the tiny bits that I still don't mess with.

[randyc]

Beautiful!  THe more I see tamiya kits, the more I wish that I could build those only.  This is Tamiya, right?  BUt still, the fit on the Asian kist seems pretty nice all around from my experience.