sjordan2

You might also want to use solder along the seatbacks, which should have fabric matching the carpet -- unlike Tourers that have a backseat, with front seats that usually have leather seat backs with pockets.

Jawohl.

Anyone who prefers the Bears to the cast of Celtic Woman has serious problems. Which team would you rather spend a week with at Sandals?

Latches on door panel pockets? Not sure I get that, but speaking in general, everything I've seen is that the door panel pockets pull out for storage, and are retained by small leather belts in the middle, like a classic purse that has a downward belt running through a leather loop. Likewise, as with Rollses of the era, the bottom part of the doors would have a horizontal leather retainer belt at the bottom, attaching the door to the cowling.

The door pulls usually look something like a wide Greek "Omega" letter, upside down -- various sizes on different cars.

Based on the journal of this old kit, it makes me wonder whether the return of Pocher is a good thing or not.

Good call on the door pulls. And you mentioned earlier that you're going to add the fuel lines to the intermediate fuel tank on the firewall -- after following builds of this kit for several years, I've never seen anyone attempt that (degree of difficulty: 9.0). It's a signature part of the car, and I can't wait to see it.

That dash is a masterpiece, especially the fuel level tube on the far right. How did you make all the parts that go into it, like the mounts? As for the fan, it's certainly strange considering the precision of everything else, but Harry is correct that you really can't see it very well in the end.

A thing of beauty, and a joy forever. If you fix the gauge faces I sent you, both in hard copy and in a digital file, please send me a copy.

I apologize. I meant Prismacolor, and I do believe I saw yellow in the rack. $5.49 each at my local Hobby Lobby.

Terrific. As you can imagine, I am most pleased to see copper brake drums.

Select-A-Size?

I think that as modelers and car collectors age into Boomer years, they're more interested in the kinds of cars they grew up with in their families. Same goes for station wagons. You can see a growing interest at Mecum and Barrett-Jackson auctions for nicely done 4-doors and wagons, though not exactly a groundswell. Old pickups are really experiencing a resurgence of interest.

I believe the Goofy cartoon you're referring to is "Motor Mania."

If you look at the build journal folder in the Misc. CD I sent you, the builder was very concerned about the stress that the overall weight of the model put on the suspension. It's also easy to see on the partly built kit I purchased that the wheel mounting spindles are extremely thin, and one of the spindles broke off without ever having wheels put on it -- I think that's the weakest part. The entire front suspension fell away in pieces the second time I picked the model up.

Are you planning anything special to reinforce the suspension parts? I might add that everything you're doing is amazing at 1/16 scale.

As for color choice, just remember that this is an open car and the interior color will have a major effect on the look of the car. The partly built version I recently got didn't paint anything, and the combination looks great with black fenders, box-stock white body and brown interior. I've seen one build in black and yellow, and didn't like ti very much. You can see it in the Models folder in Miscellaneous of the CD I sent you. It's not helped by having amber headlights.

That's similar to the way the exhaust pipes were made. The visible chrome coils were heat shields that covered the pipes. Neither this kit or any other Mercedes kit, even Pocher, have accurately depicted the beveling/razor edges of the exhaust coils, which were applied to every car with these exhausts from the SSK to the 540 K.

Totally agree.

I'm just going with the most logical common denominators in my research of cars that haven't been over-restored, and they're either black or wrapped.

The engine block has an outer shell that contains all that stuff you don't have to mess with. However, the kit does not indicate the access doors. You can see that at the Fine Art SS Tourer link. In your earlier post, the tube that connects the intakes to the valve cover should be either black or wrapped in asbestos.

Also in Harry's defense, this factory photo doesn't show those wheel weight thingies either (though the car probably hadn't been driven very far). The details of this shot overall are closer to the kit than any other photo I've found. The kit left out two details that seem common to most SS 2-seat cabriolets, and that is the decorative grille guard and the storage doors on the running boards. Running boards were special order options. Of course, the whole car was usually made to order by the Sonderwagen (Special Vehicles) works at the Sindelfingen plant, though there were standard catalog versions, which this appears to be.

In my experience, a Pantone silver paint pen (available at Hobby Lobby) provides a brighter silver and does a good job of touching up small nicks on chrome parts. EDIT: I meant Prismacolor, not Pantone. Sorry for the error.

The gray car has a rich red interior that really adds elegance and more color. Silver and black or red and black would also look good.

The color's way off in that photo. The car isn't green, it's gray – the color scheme I intend to use, along with the pinstriping. The green looks fine, but I think that's a color shift that happened when you lightened up the photo, which was dark and shot at sunset.