Tamiya Mercedes 300SL Gullwing - B396 Blue - A Holy Grail build

[Kmb0319]

I posted last summer about finding the paint I wanted for this build, then found it on AutomotiveTouchup.com and posted my painted body.  I bought the kit back in May, and couldn't wait to get started, especially once the color was on.  But, as one of my Holy Grail kits, I've been saving it.  The body was painted in July, and it's been sitting ever since.  Last week I finally got going with it.  WHAT A KIT!!!!!  Just superb.  I haven't added a thing, although I some wires in the engine might be necessary.

The instructions begin with assembling the space frame.  I didn't paint it, as the black plastic has the right finish to me, but found little areas to paint in detail.  I then took my painted body, and filled in all the black edging around the door frames and hood.  I did have a tragedy that is fixed, but not very well...  the right A-Pillar broke, and in doing so, was twisted, apparently.  I was able to glue it back in, but it's not straight.  I went ahead and detailed my front windshield trim and installed the glass to support the broken piece.  It left a less-than-ideal fit with a big gap, but there wasn't much I could do, and needed to have the clearance for the gullwing door.  Very unfortunate, as I really wanted to make this one as perfect as possible.

Test fitting the frame into the painted body:

Then added the wheels

The space frame fits together beautifully, but be careful... I put one crossmember in backwards, and because I used super glue to strengthen these fragile little pieces, I couldn't separate them.  I had to heat and bend all the bars back in the proper direction and attach to the upper frame rails.  Then I moved to the engine, which again is a very nice piece right out of the box:

The lack of spark plug wires bothers me, but the tube they insert into is not actually a tube.  I might take six pieces of wire and twist them together, then glue one twisted end to the intake tube piece and try to separate the other end enough to get close to the distributor points, but the distance is so small, I don't know if it will work.  I also see a couple touch-up spots.

Touched up, and got the engine in the chassis... still working on my wire idea.

for the interior and engine compartment, I painted everything.  I was possibly going to flock the interior, but the carpet in the 1:1 reference pics seemed too fine to use the fuzz.  In the end, I left the floor as painted plastic, but cut a piece of sandpaper and glued it into the hatch area and painted it to give a little texture to that space.  I wish my cut had been a little sharper, but it's an improvement overall.

Next, the instructions take you to the firewall/interior bulkhead, which I painted, decaled and installed, along with the radiator and sway bar.

With that, I only have a few pieces to have the chassis complete.  I'm now working on my interior.  The car I chose from my reference pics had piping on the seats.  I did my best to hand paint some in... still need to do a little more touch-up, but it's getting close:

Then moved to my dashboard, and chickened out a little.  I didn't have a good way to use the body color on the dash, but figured I could use the darker blue that I used for the seat piping on the front panel, then installed decals.  I'll use some clear glue to seal the gauges and still need to add the chrome emblem sticker and touch some color to some of the dash buttons and knobs, but it's looking good so far.

Lots more to do, but this kit looks great and just falls together beautifully.  The A-pillar will bother me when it's done, though... maybe I have to do another.  More to come.

[drodg]

Great job and I love the color.    Keep the pictures coming.   Thank you

[Ron Hamilton]

I like what you are doing with your build. It is unfortunate about the pillar. I recently picked one of those kits up myself. Eventually, I would like to build and display the SL and the SLS side by side, as if the same person owned both cars.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Ron Hamilton

[XJ6]

Hoping to see this kit being built, have my eye on this Tamiya Kit off to a Great start, Thanks for sharing

[OldNYJim]

Looks good Kevin!

Just as a heads up, you posted your address on the internet in that first pic...

[Bennyg]

Very nice! That colour look great. I'm nearly finished my gullwing. Looking forward to seeing yours finished.

Ben

[Zoom]

Looks very good!

[tedd60]

Until this build, I'd never seen the chassis for a 300.  Neat car.

[DrKerry]

Wow looks awesome!!!! Dash looks way kool!!!!!!

[sjordan2]

Looks great. The one odd thing about the kit is the hollow back of the seats. Should be an easy fix. Will you leave the belly pan clear or paint it?

[sjordan2]

Another thing to look at is that the kit supplies radio speakers, but there's no radio or indication of an antenna on the body.

 

Here's a typical Becker Mexico from a Gullwing. Look at a dashboard photo for placement.

Edited March 15, 2017 by sjordan2

[Kmb0319]

I agree with the lack of seat backs... a very odd omission for such a great kit.  I don't have any sheet styrene, but I'll look and see if I have something to fit them or I suppose I could putty the tops of them to the package shelf level.

 The radio is also a strange omission, said the lack of luggage for the rear.  I know there are a couple resin versions out there, but I haven't found where they are available.  If it's reasonable, I might purchase them if I can find them.

[sjordan2]

The package shelf also seems to lack the 2 chrome luggage rails – one that runs around the upper curve of that area from door to door, and a straight one that runs horizontally across the front of the shelf floor; these are meant to attach leather belts to keep the luggage from sliding. Your build looks very accurate, so I'm sure you have reference to look at.

[bismarck]

I have that very same kit in my "To do" pile. Love that color. I got an aftermarket set of Rudge racing rims for mine.

Edited March 15, 2017 by bismarck
Not my picture. Didn't mean to hijack his post.

[Mike Chernecki]

Looking good. I almost have all the parts to start mine. If you go to AutomotiveForums.com and contact user KBX, he sells the lugguage set with lugguage rails and photo-etch detail set for the lugguage. He also sells a nice set of Rudge wheels. I have ordered both and they look great. You may even contact Mate at Gravity Colors, he can get the lugguage set from KBX as well.

I am doing a replica of this car

[geemoney]

beautiful!!

love these cars!!

[sjordan2]

Not only do the Rudge wheels look racier and more serious, they also keep you from the nightmare of accurately painting the hubcaps, which were always body color without exception.    The 1/24 AMT kit includes Rudge spinners and luggage rails.  In either case, the knockoff wheels can be body paint, chrome, or silver paint, with or without chrome beauty rings. Mercedes offered knockoff racing wheels, which had a slightly different slot design from the Rudges, so you could just put some 2-eared spinners on the kit wheels and be accurate. Here's the way I'd do it, which I think is both racy and elegant:

 

Edited March 15, 2017 by sjordan2

[Mike Chernecki]

Blue Stuff decals offers a nice decal sheet that includes the difficult to paint hubcap and dash sections. They also have the plaid seat inserts that some of the 300SL came with.

[sjordan2]

Blue Stuff decals offers a nice decal sheet that includes the difficult to paint hubcap and dash sections. They also have the plaid seat inserts that some of the 300SL came with.

There were multiple plaid designs and colors. Please contact me if you want images. I have thousands of Gullwing reference photos. As for dash and hubcaps, they were always body color from the factory.

Edited March 15, 2017 by sjordan2

[microwheel]

Seen this kit when it came out and really wanted to buy it, just didnt have the funds for it. Maybe someday lol. I hear it is outstanding. Your doing great even with the little issues you've had.

[beeRS]

lovely build

[GeeBee]

Blue Stuff decals offers a nice decal sheet that includes the difficult to paint hubcap and dash sections. They also have the plaid seat inserts that some of the 300SL came with.

http://www.hiroboy.com/124_MercedesBenz_300SL_Gullwing_Coupe_Dashboard_Decals--product--9145.html

I'm going to take the easy route on mine by using the decals, very nice build though .....

Edited March 15, 2017 by GeeBee

[AthOz]

Beautiful build. The component packaging on these is wonderful.

Does the kit have the piping for the DI setup? The fuel pump is on the LH side but no injection tubing is shown

[Kmb0319]

Looking good. I almost have all the parts to start mine. If you go to AutomotiveForums.com and contact user KBX, he sells the lugguage set with lugguage rails and photo-etch detail set for the lugguage. He also sells a nice set of Rudge wheels. I have ordered both and they look great. You may even contact Mate at Gravity Colors, he can get the lugguage set from KBX as well.

I am doing a replica of this car

WOW, that's beautiful... but they all are.  Thanks for the tip!  I think the luggage set is worth investing in... especially if it has the rails.

SO, I made some progress today on some of the issues.  Keep in mind, I wouldn't call my solutions great, but more like low-budget, low effort work-arounds.  First, seat backs.  This one was quick and easy.  I had a business card of a potential client who didn't call me back sitting on my desk, so I cut his business card up and stuck the pieces across the back of the seat:

Then painted... one sitting in place:

Hubcaps:  I've been stressed about these since I bought the thing.  How am I going to mask the outer ring and spray B396 blue???  Well, I didn't...  I sprayed B396 blue into the lid of the 396 blue can, grabbed a detail brush, and did my best to hand paint in a circle.  Then I put a quick clearcoat on them, added the center symbol decals and a shot of decal bonder spray.  I might add another clear coat in a few days, but it wasn't terribly painful to do!

And, finally, the radio dilemma.  I wanted something to fix this omission in the kit, but as simply as possible.  This isn't very correct looking, but it's something. I cut off a part number tab from a sprue as my radio.  Then, on the clear sprue, I cut a couple of the little tabs off the windows:

I glued the part number tab to the bottom of the dash and made a silver rectangle (or a facsimile thereof) in the middle.  I glued the little tabs on either side, as these are my dials.  Finally, I took a small decal of a dash screen from a Ferrari, cut it down to size, and placed it in the center to be the radio face.  It's as amateurish and incorrect looking as can be, but it's better than having speakers and no radio:

I will look at the luggage set... that may be in order for this.  Maybe I'll build this one with the luggage set, and then build a second one with the Rudge wheels as more of a sports racer... that would be my justification to build this incredible kit again!!!

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by Kmb0319

[sjordan2]

That's a pretty good radio. However, it should be easy to surround it with the seat-material mounting bracket as shown in the photo I posted. That's pretty standard.