Tamiya Mercedes 300SL Announced, new pics added to OP

[Austin T]

People have done all sorts of stupid horrible things to them over the years. One of the worst in my eyes is the Von Dutch SL.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

I'll leave it to the true SL cognoscenti to document what colors should apply where on the dash, but in the context of an airbrushed Tamiya aqueous acrylic, it actually makes perfect sense; you can hit the entire chrome piece with the highlight color and then swab off the bezels and switches back to bare chrome with Tamiya thinner or alcohol. I'm actually quite pleased they did it this way for that exact reason.

[W-409]

People have done all sorts of stupid horrible things to them over the years. One of the worst in my eyes is the Von Dutch SL.

That would be very cool one to build (In 1/25 or 1/1)! But unfortunately I could not paint those flames... But honestly, it looks very good, as well as the ones painted by Larry Watson that I posted earlier in this thread. I'll probably buy one of these and build one of those Larry Watson cars.

[sjordan2]

I'll leave it to the true SL cognoscenti to document what colors should apply where on the dash, but in the context of an airbrushed Tamiya aqueous acrylic, it actually makes perfect sense; you can hit the entire chrome piece with the highlight color and then swab off the bezels and switches back to bare chrome with Tamiya thinner or alcohol. I'm actually quite pleased they did it this way for that exact reason.

I totally agree. At this scale, most of the chrome trim on the dash is hair-thin, and revealing the chrome bling will really make it pop. And body color on the dash panel is the only factory-accurate way to go.

Edited March 12, 2015 by sjordan2

[Cato]

I'll leave it to the true SL cognoscenti to document what colors should apply where on the dash, but in the context of an airbrushed Tamiya aqueous acrylic, it actually makes perfect sense; you can hit the entire chrome piece with the highlight color and then swab off the bezels and switches back to bare chrome with Tamiya thinner or alcohol. I'm actually quite pleased they did it this way for that exact reason.

I did my 1/16th nearly exactly this way only using sprayed-on body color British Green enamel and damp swabs of reducer. Fairly easy at this size.

[VRM]

I have the owners edition of the Anthony Pritchard book Gullwing - it lists every car with its paint code and interior info as it left the factory.

Most were the MB silver or Ivory. There were a fair number of light metallic blue and red cars, but there were only 12 in Strawberry Red met. Black was pretty rare. I think there were 3 or 4 different shades of green used, but they were pretty rare also.

I'm doing one in the rarest shade of all of the factory ones though - just 1 car. Just to make things interesting I will send a set of my 300SLR decals (which include chrome emblems and seat plaid) to the person who first posts the paint code (it will look like DB-xxx, where the x are numbers).

It is a very early car, number 16 to be exact, but you will have to sleuth out the rest.

There are 2 clues in that last sentence. I will post another clue tomorrow if nobody gets it.

Steve

[Cato]

Get Skip's address now so you can send him your SLR stuff...wait - he already has all the plaids.

[sjordan2]

I have the owners edition of the Anthony Pritchard book Gullwing - it lists every car with its paint code and interior info as it left the factory.

Most were the MB silver or Ivory. There were a fair number of light metallic blue and red cars, but there were only 12 in Strawberry Red met. Black was pretty rare. I think there were 3 or 4 different shades of green used, but they were pretty rare also.

I'm doing one in the rarest shade of all of the factory ones though - just 1 car. Just to make things interesting I will send a set of my 300SLR decals (which include chrome emblems and seat plaid) to the person who first posts the paint code (it will look like DB-xxx, where the x are numbers).

It is a very early car, number 16 to be exact, but you will have to sleuth out the rest.

There are 2 clues in that last sentence. I will post another clue tomorrow if nobody gets it.

Steve

I don't have all the build info (Mercedes doesn't release that info on cars with current owners), but according to MB records, the car would have been built in Sept., 1954. Noticeable elements would be a concave grille star and long-neck shifter. I can post the color code if I know the color shade. I wanted to paint one of my kits in strawberry red metallic (DB 543G), but the parts manager at Mercedes' Classic Center told me it was not available from Mercedes. Ivory is DB 608.

Those who want to know how how the 300 SL evolved can find year-to-year updates here:

http://www.gullwinggroup.org/content/production-summary

MEANWHILE, for those who are looking for kit comparisons, the hard-to-find Heller kit can be seen at the link below. It also lacks an opening trunk and has no space frame detail. Bottom of the nose is a separate part, requiring putty work. I vote no on this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Heller-Echell-1-24-Mercedes-Benz-300-SL-model-car-kit-/301558837305?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item46364eb039

It would be cool if you could do some kitbashing with the AMT, except AMT is 1/25 and Tamiya is 1/24.

Edited March 13, 2015 by sjordan2

[sjordan2]

Steve DeVaux...

The incredibly expensive 2008 Pritchard book is out of print and unavailable. Could you send a scan of the paint code page? Thanks, Skip.

[charlie8575]

Mercedes had a pretty good selection of paint and interior colors, including strawberry red, dark gray, mist green, etc., but you could order any color you wanted. Here's the factory list of standards.

According to Dennis Adler's book, "Mercedes-Benz 300SL," (the best, most visual reference I know of, outside of a couple of other helpful books) the standard Gullwing came in silver with plaid blue gabardine seat inserts and blue-gray tex-leather (vinyl). Real leather was a special order option. The rarest color was strawberry red metallic, only 13 of which were made.

EDIT...I believe the paint chart above is for the roadster, since it doesn't show silver (special order only for that model), but otherwise it mostly matches Adler's description.

Thanks, Skip.

Graphite Gray/red sounds like a very nice color scheme to me.

Charlie Larkin

[jbwelda]

>It would be cool if you could do some kitbashing with the AMT, except AMT is 1/25 and Tamiya is 1/24.

why would you want to do that? I am fairly secure in guessing any and everything in the new issue will be miles beyond what was in that AMT kit of 50 years ago. or is there something in particular you think would improve upon the Tamiya kit? opening trunk?

jb

[sjordan2]

>It would be cool if you could do some kitbashing with the AMT, except AMT is 1/25 and Tamiya is 1/24.

why would you want to do that? I am fairly secure in guessing any and everything in the new issue will be miles beyond what was in that AMT kit of 50 years ago. or is there something in particular you think would improve upon the Tamiya kit? opening trunk?

jb

Yeah, I'm bothered by the lack of an opening trunk, but I'll defer any real comparison until I receive the Tamiya kit. Otherwise, it looks more accurately detailed overall from the pictures posted here.

[sjordan2]

Thanks, Skip.

Graphite Gray/red sounds like a very nice color scheme to me.

Charlie Larkin

Definitely a good choice. One of these looks more gunmetal to me, but that dark gray is gorgeous.

[sjordan2]

I have a feeling some of our members might want to build the Tim Flock version, the first all-alloy coupe (of 29 total), which raced in the first and only NASCAR sports car race. I don't have any background on it other than this. I believe the car was owned by the founder of Mercury Outboards (later Mercury Marine).

http://www.conceptcarz.com/events/eventVehicle.aspx?carID=1392&eventID=70&catID=424

Edited March 14, 2015 by sjordan2

[sjordan2]

I know some modelers like to use accurate paint for airbrushing. So for what it's worth, I sharpened up the things I couldn't read in the paint chart above and it appears to be a Gullwing accurate chart before the roadster, in spite of what I said above. You'll have to check to see if any of those color codes or equivalents are available. Here's the list from the chart; everything in the picture looks darker than actual color. In order:

Black DB 40

White DB 50

White -grey DB 158

Blue grey DB 166

Silver grey metallic DB 180 (this is the standard silver)

Graphite grey DB 190

Light blue DB 334

Fire engine red DB 534

Strawberry red metallic DB 543

Ivory DB 608 (this varies from Ponton model numbers of 615 and 620)

[250 Testa Rossa]

I have a feeling some of our members might want to build the Tim Flock version, the first all-alloy coupe (of 29 total), which raced in the first and only NASCAR sports car race. I don't have any background on it other than this. I believe the car was owned by the founder of Mercury Outboards (later Mercury Marine).

http://www.conceptcarz.com/events/eventVehicle.aspx?carID=1392&eventID=70&catID=424

This is the car I'm planning on doing. Hopefully, we can get some correct decals and Rudge wheels for this version.

[sjordan2]

This is the car I'm planning on doing. Hopefully, we can get some correct decals and Rudge wheels for this version.

I don't think you're going to get totally accurate Rudge wheels, but you can put knock-off spinners on the kit wheels. This is from the Adler book. Maybe you could rob the wheels from Revell's BMW 507 kit.

Edited March 14, 2015 by sjordan2

[jbwelda]

that Flock car would be a good companion to the Mobieus Chryslers.

jb

[sjordan2]

that Flock car would be a good companion to the Mobieus Chryslers.

jb

Yep. And did you see the car in the picture next to the Flock Gullwing?

[jbwelda]

some big old Hudson?

jb

[sjordan2]

some big old Hudson?

jb

The Moebius kit would also be a good companion.

Since Moebius has Flock versions of both the Chrysler and Hudson cars, maybe they have a licensing agreement with his estate and could produce Gullwing decals. They already use Mercury Outboard decals on the Chrysler, so I assume that's been cleared through Mercury & Brunswick Corporation, implying they have an existing relationship that may need to be amended for Gullwing decals.

On the other hand, the Gullwing graphics are about as simple as it gets. After the kit is received for measurements, anyone who can find full side shots of the car and has a grasp of computer graphics can produce their own decals.

Edited March 15, 2015 by sjordan2

[250 Testa Rossa]

I'm so glad that Tamiya is coming out with this really nice kit of the 300SL Gullwing. I had the AMT Gullwing that I intended on building as the Flock car, and when I heard about the Tamiya kit coming out, I sold the AMT Gullwing, and now I'm waiting for this thing to come out.

[Matt Bacon]

I think, just to be contrary, I'm going to have a go at my Heller kit BEFORE my splendid new Tamiya one arrives...

I must have some Dark Admiralty Grey somewhere, left over.

bestest,

M.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Matt Bacon

[sjordan2]

I think, just to be contrary, I'm going to have a go at my Heller kit BEFORE my splendid new Tamiya one arrives...

I must have some Dark Admiralty Grey somewhere, left over.

bestest,

M.

i've got to say that a Gullwing kit that requires putty on the nose part and has no opening trunk, like the Heller, is a loser.

[Matt Bacon]

Fair enough...

...though I do HAVE a Heller kit, and the Tamiya one is just a promise over the water, today. Am I likely to build the Heller kit _after_ I have the Tamiya one? No.

It actually looks pretty well-shaped compared to plans. And I learned my lesson from the Uhlenhaut Coupe that expecting gull-wing doors to open (and close) was a fool's game, so that's not so important to me. As an paid-up member of a "Classic Kits" SIG, where we believe that old kits have much to offer, and we shouldn't all be waiting for the "state of the art", then it's almost my DUTY to build the Heller, just to show that it can be done. Right..?

bestest,

M.