Plastheniker

Kenneth, I saw your request for drawings. I have some scale drawings for SSK/SSKL. If you want them, please let me know. Then I would post them tomorrow.

Skip, I was wrong. My photo at the bottom shows Carraciola's 1930 car in which he arrived sixth. Of course he won in 1931. My picture is a scan from a book where it is much clearer. Regarding the picture in the book more closely I am quite sure that it shows a standard works coachwork added by unique fenders for the Mille Miglia. Indeed there is a strong resemblance between your second picture and the Lindberg model even if the top of the coachwork seems to be more roundish.

Skip, I reviewed everything I have upon the SSK and SSKL. I found some photos of chassis that were obviously not made for display because they are rather dirty. SSK SSKL On these pictures are some chassis parts that are not white, f. e. the rear shock absorbers, the battery boxes end the lateral brackets for the fenders or the running boards. Did Mercedes spray the SSK/SSKL chassis only white? I found no explicit information about that, but in my oppinion it is a question of plausibility. I found no clue that there was any works coachwork in a different colour than white. This seems consequential because both SSK and SSKL were meant for racing and the German racing colour was still white. There were several cars with red or black fenders ( besides white the other colours of the German flag in those days) but the chassis always remained white. If a buyer of a rolling chassis wanted his bespoke coachwork in a different colour, was it nevertheless delivered in white, only primed or sprayed in the colour of his choice? The latter seems to me least probable, because in Europe there were no standardized paints before the mid-thirties; that is why the paint of the chassis would hardly have matched the paint of the future cochwork. A primer coat only seems not very likely either, because the chassis looks so rugged and difficult to be sprayed neatly that presumably parts of the chassis were sprayed white already in that factory where they had been manufactured. Finally a I think there was no other colour choice than white. Remember that the price of SSK/SSKL was between 30.000 (SSK Chassis) and 40.000 Reichsmark (complete SSKL). Today this would be a purchasing power of roughly estimated 1.000.000 $. For a buyer who was willing and able to spend such an amount for a car it should not have been any problem to take the chassis down partially for a matching paintwork. But this all remains speculation. By the way I found a picture of the SSK that won the Mille Miglia 1930. It had red fenders that look similar to the fenders of the Lindberg model.

Skip, spontaneously I would say yes, all white without any exception. I will try to clear this up and post tomorrow.

Skip, Mercedes is very helpful and friendy whenever you need pictures or copies from their archives. When I scratchbuilt a pre-war Mercedes truck about 10 years ago they sent me a lot of material without any charge. I suppose they never give such an information as you wanted in order to make it difficult for criminals to make f. e. fake SSK from S or SS. I suppose you refer to the special intake manifold on the Schlegelmilch-photo. Indeed I found no similar picture either. There seems to be the following solution: As seen on this table there were two different types of engines and several different versions. This second picture shows ( photo top left) engine M06, obviously for display, with an identical manifold, the 3 openings in it, however, are closed by screws. The drawing of the M06 (bottom right) shows those downward bent tubes additionally that fit into these holes exactly as seen on your picture.

Kenneth, Skip, here comes the screenshot: I hope you can use it. Skip, your translation is linguistically perfect but I am afraid you were misled technically. #851301 "Handluftpumpe" is translated litterally "manual air pump". Nowadays we use an air pump for inflating tires, so you drew this obvious conclusion. In those old days you find such an airpump at least on every racing car. It has the purpose of generating an over-pressure in the fuel tank and by this securing the fuel supply of the engine. Since I am not a technician I dont know if this pump has to be operated continously or only when starting the engine. F. e. the Bugatti 35 or the Fiat F-2 (I will show both) have very large pumps on the passenger side. All items on the dashboard marked with " *) " are connected with the pump. Besides the mentioned Mille Miglia car there is probably a second Mercedes coachwork with conventional fenders and running boards - but this is contentious. I do not believe it because the rear end looks completely different. To everyone who is interested in Mercedes cars I do recommend a visit of the German Mercedes homepage. If nothing has changed you can download there for free two comprehensive English books with tons of historic pictures in the press area. For immediate access simply type in any modelling magazine - even Bavarian-Australian Beerdrinker News should be sufficient. You can download as pdf-files a history of the Silver Arrows racers from W25 to present a production history from the very beginning to present Skip, p l e a s e reconsider your colour choice for this fantastic kit. I built it approximately 40 years ago and in the meantime I saw many versions. Best by far looks on the model white cachwork, black fenders and trunk, silver wire wheels, raised black soft top, fenders with the integrated running boards as on your picture. But of course colours are always a matter of personal taste. Harry, of course I will show my SSKL in this forum with some acknowledgements within the next weeks. Additionally I will present several historic GP cars (among others Mercedes W 154 and W 196), some as superdetailed twins, that is the first one with and the second one without coachwork. I hope you all will be interested.

The Bugatti pictures are here http://www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=43679 Only the naked metal body except hood and radiator comes from a Burago ready-made diecast. The rest is self-made. Indeed I have found a file named "SSKL Instrumente (=gauges)", but I do not remember what I really used for my model. It is stored with a MS word processing programme called "Works" that many computers cannot open. Shall I mail it anyway? Otherwise I could make a screenshot and post it as a ordinary jpg here. Please let me know. I can do it not before tomorrow or Thursday because in Germany it is almost midnight. I hope you agree.

Skip, if you are interested you can see my pctures in a German forum. http://www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=44033 I hope it works. Kenneth, Skip's hint is excellent. The 1/16 Entex/Gakken/Revell Mercedes SS is probably one of the best and most attractive car kits ever made. I suppose the box still contains real (!) wire wheels.

Thanks for your comments. Each one of them is appreciated.

Skip, in those days customers could order either only a running chassis or a complete car with a standard Mercedes coachwork. The factory coachwork always had cycle wings and looked like this: This is the displayed original SSK in the Mercedes-Museum in Stuttgart. Of course it is possible that owners modified their car later on, f. e. to make it road legal in their country. Customers who ordered only a running chassis felt free to fit any bespoke coachwork to their chassis. Your pictures show some examples. On top ist a coachwork by Murphy of California. The second and the third could probably be French. The fourth shows a SSKL like I built. You can recognize the same mesh radiator guard on this SSKL as on my photo

About 2 years ago I converted Lindberg's SSK into a detailed SSKL. I spent about 400 hours and did a lot of research before. Model designations Father of SSK and SSKL was the 710 SS. At its first presentation 1929 Mercedes claimed that the SS was the world's fastest road sports car. The supercharged 7.1 litre engine had an output of 250 PS , appr. 250 net hp. The SSK ( K= Kurz = short) had the same chassis but with a shorter wheelbase. It lacked any comfort, was considerably lighter and more a competition than a road car. The engine output was not increased. With the exception of a Mille Miglia car all SSK had, if any, four separate cycle wings without running boards. The SSKL (L = Leicht = light) was an SSK slimmed and lighted in all details. The most striking feature were numerous drilled holes in the chassis. The output was increased to 300 PS. It was intended for racing only. It is the most famous and most attractive car of the series. The Lindberg kit Built straight from the box the model does not look convincing at all. The most important shortcomings the serious modeller has to cope with: all measurements are correct, but coachwork and radiator are a bit too low tyres and rims must be replaced, real wire wheels make or break the model the complete exhaust system, especially the visible outside exhaust manifolds, is not correct the reproduction of the visible friction shock absorbers is too simple the brake drums must be finned the separate radiator guard should be made from real mesh the kit fenders are not authentic and no SSK had any bumpers Despite all these shortcomings the experienced modeller can build a very attractive model if he is willing to spend a lot of time and a lot of effort. I am planning to present my SSKL soon. Maybe you are interested to see my solutions.

William, the Mack F ist obviously the AITM cab. I built the daycab with early interior one or two years ago. Even for a most expierienced modeller it was a challenge, especially the replacement of the resin grille which all alone would spoil an otherwise good work completely. As with the AITM GMC 9500 presented in the forum some days ago I invested again approximately 400 hours. The effort really pays off. Carefully built the F makes a very attractive model. I am going to show my model in the nearest future in the forum. Maybe you are interested to see how I solved the problems of my cab.

Thanks and danke for your warm welcome. I hope my contributions will be interesting enough.

Hi everyone, one of the most attractive truck designs ever is in my opinion the GMC 9500 short hood. With its compact, clean lines without any styling gimmicks it is unmistakable and looks quite modern even by today's standards. I suppose any general remarks about the pros and cons of AITM cabs in an American forum would mean carrying coal to Newcastle, but you will probably notice some modifications I made, f. e. I converted the cab from butterfly hood to the tilt hood version because of its more attractive fender design I built the large chrome bumper typical for the GMC 9500 The massive resin grille/headlight unit did not look convincing at all, so I built a new one I made mirror arms with realistic diameters from hypodermic needles I built a complete new interior A striking blemish of many finished AITM cabs is the use of a bed of white glue for fixing the cab windows as AITM recommends. Firstly it is almost impossible to cut out the "glass" so accurately that it fits without any gap and without any kink, secondly the required large amount of white glue dries as a visible white ring around the windows. Instead I used a technique without any glue, preventing any gap between "glass" and window frame and any kink in the "glass". Probably you recognize the principle of this technique on the pictures. The tube trailer was scratch built. As I prefer being completely free in the choice of my paintwork I lettered the rig with the fictious "AMGASCO".

Hi everyone, I made my first modelling attempts in the late fifties before I came to school. Once infected modelling remained my favourite hobby over all those years. Despite some temporary excursions to diorama and WL modelling my emphasis always was on car and truck modelling resulting in approximately 250 models still in my hands. I intend to present some conversions of vintage U.S. trucks a few scratchbuilt vintage German heavy trucks several classic Grand Prix racing cars from the beginning to the early sixties street legal sports cars of all periods I join this forum as some kind of refugee from quarrelsome forum users in Germany. Although they are a very small minority it is almost impossible to dodge their attempts of starting a vendetta. I do hope the atmosphere here will be peaceful and really focussed on modelling. Writing this I realize how rusty my English has become. I hope it will improve.