Back From The Dead - My Mercedes Benz G-Wagen Glue Bomb

[oldcarfan]

Because I get bored, I've found a new project. I bought a G-Wagen parts lot on eBay a long time ago and decided that they were all too far gone to do anything with. The lot included two new in the box kits and I've been meaning to build one, but I hated to open up a new in the box vintage kit.

I felt I pulled another built up from the stash and disassembled it. Unlike the Nissan Sylvia I just finished, this one was originally built with only a little glue. It practically fell apart with a little prying. The body was painted in what looked like a whole can of runny department store spray paint which is why I got it so cheap. Luckily the paint fell off in sheets after two days in the tank. The body is repainted in Tamiya Pure White.

I always like to have a theme for my builds because it helps me keep my interest from wandering. This build's theme is going to be a restomodded vintage G-Wagen set up for desert camping and exploring. I've been following some companies that restore and mod G-Wagens and Range Rovers in the same way Singer Porsche mods 911s. You can have your truck any way you want as long as you have the money. Since I'm not likely to win the lottery, I'll make do with a scale version.

I plan to add a roof rack and the usual off road cargo and I'm trying to come up with a way to make a rooftop tent and some other things.

The stripes are an experiment and I'm not sure if they will work yet. My wife has a Cricut so she always has scraps of vinyl laying around. I've tried to cut it before with an X-Acto and ruler with mixed results. Seeing how the Cricut works, I bought a sticky cutting pad and put the vinyl on it. I grabbed a few scraps and cut these Rothman's style stripes to go on the truck. Rothman's racing livery is one of my favorites of all time.

I'm not sure yet if the vinyl is going to work for modeling use as it's fairly stiff but it seems okay so far. A hair dryer would probably help in the application, but I thought about that too late. I'll give the stripes a few days and we'll see if they conform to the body without pulling away. If it works as I hope, this might be a lot easier than trying to mask and paint a bunch of small stripes in different colors.

Of course the grill went missing while I was tearing the kit down. I searched everywhere and couldn't find it so I just spent a few hours scratching up a new one. That's when the first rule of modeling kicked in. I got the replacement grill finished and moved a little box on my desk. I'd checked under that box twice while searching with no luck but when I moved it this time original grill was right there. I'll still probably go with the new grill since I put so much effort into it and the original would need a lot of clean up.

[stavanzer]

Looking Great, so far.

VCG Resin's has a nice roof rack that might be modified to fit.

https://www.vcgresins.com/shop/p/deluxe-roof-basket-kit-for-amt-2021-bronco

Has a whole lot of Primo equipment. The stocking is hit or miss, as they sell out faster than the can be made, but VCG is top notch stuff!

[oldcarfan]

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Looking Great, so far.

VCG Resin's has a nice roof rack that might be modified to fit.

https://www.vcgresins.com/shop/p/deluxe-roof-basket-kit-for-amt-2021-bronco

Has a whole lot of Primo equipment. The stocking is hit or miss, as they sell out faster than the can be made, but VCG is top notch stuff!

Thanks for the info, I'll check them out!