Mercedes SLS AMG

[Matt Bacon]

This is a superb Revell kit - well up to the standards of their Ferrari California and 458. It's a big, brutal-looking lump of a car, but I think that's its charm!

This is my attempt at what they call "Alubeam Silver", a VERY expensive paint option which is supposed to look "as though liquid metal has flowed over the car". It's DOESN'T look like chrome plate, though the right Alclad might be one way of achieving it. I think it has a slightly "softer" look, but you certainly shouldn't be able to see any metallic "flake" in it, which rules out most silvers. This is Tamiya Mica silver, polished with bronze "craft powder". It'll certainly need doing again to touch up once the whole thing is together to remove any marks from assembly, but it's the effect I wanted.

The wheels are not prototypical - though I'm sure you could spec something like these if you could afford an SLS in the first place. They are graphite grey from Zero paints, with red brake callipers and "carbon" brake disks. Again, I don't know if you can really get them in that combination, but red, grey and silver is the colour theme running throughout my build of this car.

Work begins on the chassis, with the nice, but simple, engine in place.

bestest,

M.

[oldscool]

Nice work so far. Is this a Revell Germany kit? I'm not a big fan of modern styling but this is one cool looking car.

gus

[Pete J.]

Far and away my favorite current super car! This one was at Coffee & Cars a couple of weeks ago. Note the semigloss titanium paint job. It really sets the car apart.

[crispy]

I love where you are going with this Matt! It looks great and I love your out of the box thinking on the paint job. The wheels look absolutely killer! Great combo!

I just got a hold of a SLS kit for myself and like you have already had the "theme" in my head months ago.

Keep posting updates. I love it!

Chris

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks, guys.

Yes, this is the Revell of Germany kit, coming to a Revell US box near you soon, though, I believe. It's great value over here, though - I think I paid £16.99 for mine, and I think it's a pretty much state of the art car kit.

Pete - thanks for the pictures.. they'll be very helpful when I get to assembling the doors. I don't suppose you got any of the interior roof, so I can see what goes on in the headliner around the top of the doors? Or indeed what happens behind the seats - where do the carpets stop and the headlining material start?

The chassis is pretty much together, with some mountings for the wheels now, as well! That's a pretty beefy rear diff, and the torque tube isn't bad either (though it will be pretty much invisible when the interior is in place...) There are a LOT of decals to add around the engine before I can call this done, though.

I'm not overdoing it with the carbon fibre, but a few parts add a nice accent, I reckon. These are done with my usual technique of painting a base colour then overspraying the contrast "weave" through a piece of decorative metallic mesh ribbon. The console is black with graphite overspray, the seatbacks the other way round. It's not accurate or true-scale, but it looks the part at a glance amongst all the other materials on view in the cabin, and it's a LOT easier and cheaper than decal!

I think you can see where I'm going with the interior colours for this one! Eventually, this will sit next to an original-vintage 300SL (the Heller kit) in silver with a red interior, and I want the "compare and contrast" to be as complete as possible. Of course, I'll have to BUILD that Heller kit first!

bestest,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

and because I couldn't resist:

bestest,

M.

[crispy]

Matt, Here are a few pictures of one I've seen. I hope they help a little bit:

I'll be at cars and cafe this coming weekend and if the car is there again I'll try to get some better interior shots. IF anything I'll be able to use them.

Chris

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks, Chris... those were a great help.

Here's the inside of mine, in a prototypical, if garish, colour choice:

It's mostly painted with Citadel Chaos Black, and Vallejo Red, German Grey and Basalt Grey. The "parcel shelf" is pre-sprayed with a Plastikote "Velvet" to give it a "carpet-like" texture, and to get some contrast with the textures in the rest of the cabin. The bright silver elements are painted with the ink from a Pentel silver marker, which if applied wet flows to a beautifully smooth chrome-like finish.

bestest,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

That's the inside, well... inside. I trimmed off the extended bit of the location tabs on the dash so that I could get it to join the transmission tunnel, when the tub is in place. My driver's door opens fully, whereas the passenger's won't go up so high and click into place. The bonnet shuts with a nice positive snick, as do the doors, and they stay shut. I'm not sure how one is supposed to open the doors when the windows are in position!

On the home straight now, I reckon...

bestest,

M.

[Randy D]

Hello Matt, Great build you have going here!! The paint job looks awesome and thank you for the tip about how you do carbon fiber.

Randy

[Matt Bacon]

Thanks, Randy... I'll demo the CF properly when I next have some to do (Just need to find out which bits of a 288 GTO are bare carbon!)

I think it's pretty much built now. Just the last decals to do (WHY do they want you to put a decal over the chromed Mercedes star on the boot????), and the if the weather is OK, a proper photo session in the morning. Note the scale accurate bonnet prop ;-P

bestest,

M.