Mercedes 540K Spezial Roadster by Western Models

JUNE, 2017

No time to be lazy, model building continues! Two days ago I posted pics of the Maybach and the Horch Roadster, and of course there's one, probably the one, of the German dream cars of the late 1930s missing, the gorgeous Mercedes 540K Spezial Roadster. Presented in 1934 as 500K, it became a bigger engine in 1936. In 1939 an even bigger version was planned as 580K, but due to WWII, this project never took place. The "Spezial Roadster" was special, as bonnet and passenger shell were placed 18cm back compared to the normal roadsters, on the same wheelbase, so that the radiator almost stood behind the front wheels.

Western Models must have made 100,000 copies of this model, as it seems on ebay, and there are several different versions of the model. I bought two, one of the very first series (the red one), and one of a later year:











The red one has a completely different construction, as the body consists of two halves:



Nice proportions, roughly made, and lacking of many important details...

Very decent holes for the compressior pipes:



The wings don't have the characeristic edges on the bottom line:



You can see that they used the master of the first model version and remodelled it for the later one-part version with open spare:



Beautiful:



This can't stay that way:



New challenge for my soldering station:



Looks awful, but you need some stuff to mill and file it down afterwards:







With my new lathe I'm able to make dummy wheels in the exact final size for the building process:



Can you see the "new edge" of the wings?





The wings and running boards get some more "swing":

I've owned the Matchbox as a child... Unfortunately the MOY always have wrong scales, and furthermore white-metal models meanwhile are a kind of fetish for me :oops: I only use diecast models if there is really no alternative in white-metal, no matter how badly it's made... :roll: And no, I won't make dickie seats. Not that I've not thought about, but it would be a really absurd work, and a dickie seat is for me not so very attractive compared to the luggage thing with the Maybach

Soldering goes on:


...and already gets better:



Already designed the fender chrome parts:



...photo-etched:



...as I do not need them only for the final decoration, but already to glue them in place for the exact cutting of the edges (post yesterday):

Nice to hear! It's really crazy, the more you've changed the details, the more you find what is still to change... :roll: Western did a great job concerning the scale and the proportions of the car, this couldn't be better. But every single detail is so crude that after all nothing of the original model will be left, I guess. And the flowing lines of the Spezial Roadster need a very delicate shaping as there are no straight lines you could refer to, everything has to be shaped "by the turn of the wrist"!

The rear brass tube for the axle has been soldered:



You won't believe how asymmetric such an old model is! It's quite difficult to bend it diagonal in a way that at last all four wheels touch the ground and the body is somewhat symmetric and horizontal:



The tail is more a fantasy than accurately made:



So it needs a pound of solder:



...to get its final shape slowly (not yet ready):

That's what I wonder, too :roll: ! But, well, at least this way I don't need to make drawings etc. and I'm not forced to think about constructing the single parts, how they fit together and so on... Meanwhile hardly anything of the original model is left, at almost every single spot I applied solder and/or milled original details off:

The tail seems to be ready:



Bonnet is overdone:



And lines for dickie seat, persenning and the gap for the passenger shell are newly made:



The upper door edges - as to be seen - are still to be shaped, and all the smaller blemishes of the surface will be filled with putty.

The Aston Martin from Mikansue required the same amount of works, I think. That was the first time that I modelled every single part of a car completely new, including new seats and so on. But it was much easier as the Aston had only some curved shapes of a sports car, this time the 540K is more a sculpture than a car... :roll: And yes, looking at the photos takes about two hours a day. Every time you think that you know how a detail should look like, different photos confuse you again and again! And I don't want to take my PC to the cellar due to the dust and dirt, so I have to walk hundreds of stairs every day! Model building is really hard work

Hey, I'm not that bad:

before...

...and after smoothing the body with putty!

Left the radiator of the first version, on the right the later version, plated but shorter!



I took the higher one and shaped it new for casting it in white-metal:



The radiator fits now quite good, but the gaps under the grill have still to be filled:

Thanks! Yes, the quality - especially the first series - is awful! But, as I've already said - the scale, the general lines and proportions are excellent, so I simply have to remove all the details and then have to build up everything newly... The Matchbox 540K is a little bit too big and too angular. Solido and TinWizard do not make the Spezial Roadster, and the one by Cursor was made of plastic :? , so I stay with my fetish Western/white-metal

What's happened today? A silicone cast of the radiator master was made:





The casted radiator grille:



Put on place, the area below newly made, fitting to the angular bottom line of the grille:



The chrome strips glued onto the fenders, shaping of the recessed edge will follow tomorrow:

...thank you! Yes, it's a kind of liberating to get rid of all the impurities and spots...

I guess the industry would fall into deep despair considering how long I need for every single detail... :roll:

It's a cylinder of acrylic (material doesn't matter) which serves as a cone: big entry, thin channel to the master. This way you increase the pressure of the molten metal. The industry uses centrifugues to fling the stuff into the tiny casts, that's the reason why you cannot make so detailed and sharp-edged parts at home :cry: . The thin plastic rod serves as a ventilation to let out the air in the mould. This way you get quite nice casts in the kitchen workshop And don't forget powdering the mould with talcum before pouring in the metal!

Next turn of photo-etching:



Passenger shell to avoid the usual "look-throughs" at the flanks of the passenger cell:



Template to scribe louvers into the body:



...ready:



Door and bonnet line:



...and the recessed line on the fenders:

And it's so easy! You even need no photo-etched templates, but simply cut-outs made of 1.0mm polystyrol sheet (available for pennies). These glued onto the body shell and then carefully scribed the outlines with a steel needle, and you have "perfect" lines. I don't know why they didn't do that at WM.... :?

Today I guess I've finished the first roadster so far. Recessed lines under the wings are made:



Doors are ready:



Doors are inside made even with putty:



Slots for bumper holders:



...so the second one is now on the table! I'll try to make this accordingly to the first, but it has a divided body shell and therefore needs some different treatment:




Here you can see the more curved shape of the running board at the re-done one above.

You're welcome! Yes, I find that out by myself after having made the very first attempt to white-metal casting and learning that you cannot pour the molten metal into a small hole. Also the smaller/finer the the part is made, the more difficult it is to get it completely filled with the metal. So I thought about how to increase the pressure. And the funny thing is: when I made all this, some time later I found in a catalogue for jewellers such a cone ready made for that purpose

That's it: top up/hidden spare and top down/open spare. Of course with two different liveries. That's true love, you know

The first roadster got some improvement. The left winker had to be newly made, the position was wrong, now it looks better:



And the fuel intake is made:



And a really hard work, resulting in one and half mental breakdowns, was to adjust the body in X/Y/Z axis in the same height as the first roadster. The old white-metal models are distorted in all directions, the holes for the wheels sit anywhere... :roll: So I build a quite funny construction made of Lego bricks to fix the axles absolutely parallel and then to put the body onto:

First making a completely even ground plate

Placing the axles in the Lego frame and fixing them

Now you can see the distortion!



Adjusting the body

Now it stands upright & straight!

Well, when I was a child, not only my "Models of Yesteryear" were beloved, but also my Lego bricks So meanwhile it seems I've entirely went back to my childhood

I know what you mean, but believe me, to design a car with drawings and then to construct a model with different body parts, base plate and so on is far more work... But of course I'm dreaming of doing that, and to be honest: I regard all these builds as a kind of training for making models by scratch in the (far, far) future...

Doctor? They can read my minds... I really know that they DO read my minds... :mrgreen:

Thanks for your understanding! I always fear no-one would understand what I'm doing and why...

:oops: I guess rather a nerd than a genius, but thank you!

Thanks! In total I guess I've spent about 20 hours to do the thing with the axles, but at last it works!

My latest toy arrived today: a Profillehre (please find out yourselves what it's named in English). It's great: you can take a conture and transfer it 100% to another object:



This way I could check and find out that the right-hand side of the first roadster is different to the left one and could overdo it:





The fixed axles on the second roadster:



Beginning soldering at the second roadster:



...and having made the first wing:

And I've thought that it was invented excactly for that purpose... :lol: But really, I noticed that device with the work of art historians and architects to transfer shapes from antiques to reproductions for example. However, it's amazing

I'm alread planning the thing with the "body shoppe" So you know the fuzzy work to straighten a model. I've meanwhile lost most of my hair over doing this work again and again until all parts are straight and still fit together... :evil:

Today I haven't done so very much, but to show that I'm not lazy:

The transition from the front to the rear wing is smoothened:

(and parts of the bench already gone...)

...and the other wing is started:



And now for something completely different: Together with some jeweller's stuff I've also bought this Würfelanke, and a first test shows...



...that a photo-etched wheel disc can simply punched into a perfectly even spheric shape:





I'm terribly happy

So now you know the better purpose for it...

The general shape of the wings has been finished:

I've never denied that I'm a a sort of retarded... always been...

Look at the top line of the bonnet :shock: :



Nothing helps but a radical cure:



...almost even now:





Today I've had to wait for the parcel service, which - of course - haven't come :twisted: So I couldn't work at the roadsters, but tried to take advantage of the waiting time and organized my collection newly:







After all I haven't saved any space compared to before, but it was quite a fun to have a look at all those cars & kits which I've meanwhile almost forgotten...

There are certain advantages of being obsessive...

Don't forget the 70 cars in the "bottom showcase" and the dozen under my bed :oops: So let's say there are kits for the next 25 years... To make the decision easier, the alphabet helps a little...

Thank you! Always trying my best to satisfy you

I have to admit, I'm a little bit proud of several kits & cars which seem to be really rare, regularly looking at ebay...

The second 540K seems to be somehow stubborn... It's obviously the first production series of WM, and there is really no single line or plain which could serve as a reference for the other details, so I meanwhile started for the fourth or fifth time to assemble the body halves and the grille... :evil: I really hope that today I've made it - anyhow:

I suppose it's getting a little bit boring: much work and not really a progress to look at... But believe me, I'm busy for several hours each day to get only these small steps in building :roll: The geometry of this - older - 540K is awful, and the flanks were so very thin - more like aluminium foil - that it was impossible to scratch the door lines into without punching all through the material! So it needed dozens of times to solder, to smooth over and to sand to achieve something which could be accepted as a model car! So here are the results:

soldering the top edges of the doors to have material to grind & smooth

fixing the template for engraving the lines and comparing with roadster #1



Top edges, door fugues and inside door panels finished

Well, I guess it only can get better

The tail fin is crooked (as the whole car is...):



...so only one thing helps:



A simple template printed on clear foil:



Templates made of polystyrol sticked with adhesive tape onto the foil:



Some glue applied:



The whole thing placed straight onto the body, the Lego bricks help for orientation:



Clear foil peeled off:



And the fugues engraved:



All the other lines already scribed:

...hope the anaesthesia will last long enough... :lol:

The fin is cut from 1mm nickle silver sheet, a wider slot is cut into the body:



The fin first glued into the slot, then filled up with putty:



And finally everything smoothed, the fugues scribed and already the slots for the bumper holders cut:

Thanks, I really hope so, at the moment it rather seems like complete deconstruction. Although I'm sure that the deepest valley is already passed...

Presumably :lol: But that would mean that the Laokoon group is still ahead... :shock:

...and this time I've indeed wondered if such a body could have been made eaiser by scratch! And hey, welcome back, where have you been so long?

Edgings are applied on the fenders:



With silicone wheels the concave recess below these edgings will be made:



Ready:



The inner passenger shell is fitted:



The next step will be the holes for the compressor pipes, and then all the brutal works should have been finished!

:shock: :shock: I have to admit that I don't know anything about locomotives, but those on the pics look verry impressive! So you're a kind of allrounder regarding modelling ? Having to make "real world" money is one of the most annoying things for me, but unfortunately necessary... This week I started spreading some business cards with "model building" in specialized shops, hoping to combine the necessities of earning money with some fun As it's raining cats and dogs in Berlin and as I don't know where to find my arm floats, I've started designing the first p/e parts, starting with the louvers and the belt line:



So if my cellar workshop hasn't already flooded, tomorrow I'll continue with building...

I'm quite upset concerning Photobucket: last night it seems that they shut down the function of sharing photos with S1/43, and the information here on S1/43 seems to be quite controversial whether this function can be obtained by paying for PB or not. I find this behaviour of PB very annoying and will not pay anything unless they guarantee that all photos will be available "unlimited" and not to be blackmailed every half year.

For this moment I returned to flickr, although I'm not very satisfied with it. Contrary to PB I have to resize every single photo for uploading/sharing, and this causes very much work. So I will try to find alternatives resp. I will wait how everything will develop. As I'm not fond with all this web stuff I'd appreciate any help of you web-cracks, thanks in advance!

For the ones who still remember the last steps (which cannot be watched anymore...), with the help of a template the holes for the compressor pipes are drilled:







...and a first "finishing" (not absolutely final, of course) of the two bodies has been made:



The rude works on the bodies are completed now, and so I'll go ahead with the interior details, wheels and so on.

Thanks a lot! Will try right now the hint with the size, have never seen that before... :oops:

Thank you! Of course the pipes are only samples for trying if everything works. And I fear that all the past threads of my model will be lost, as I find it much to heavy to upload hundreds of pics to flickr and replace every single picture in every thread. Perhaps I made new albums in a cloud and give only a link at each thread...

As promised I have started with the bench. First a simple construction of polystyrol was made:



Then I hade a quite funny idea: I cut off short pieces of half-round brass strip and soldered these onto a nickle silver sheet, then cut this in the appropriate shape. All this (and some further parts) put together may work as a pattern for casting this bench in white-metal - at least I hope so :

Thanks, but not at all... I bought the halfround strip long ago without a plan what to do with it, now I was happy to have something like that. And I simply love trying something new


That's the point! Windows to be made of glass, tires made of resin - but all the rest should be made in metal. There's no reason, it's simply the feeling...

After the first shock I've meanwhile calmed down, let's say c'est la vie... I simply hope that flickr will work for a while, and perhaps I'll ask some professional how to find a solution which works reliable (I've heard something about "private web hosting", don't know if this could be a solution).

And now for something more cheering: As announced, I finished the master for the bench:





Making a mold with forming sand:





Pouring in the molten white-metal:



It works :



Two items finished:



Guess it will work this way:

At least I have made a first test some time ago. But you're right, this is the first time I've used this smaller oval cast and made "real" parts with this technique. It's cheaper than with red silicone, doesn't leave moulds to store and you can work very quick without letting the silicone harden. For more tiny parts I'd prefer silicone, still.

This technique is quite simple! And well, I'll think of leaving it unpainted, o.k.?

But that would've been only half the fun And I needed two benches, so I think it's more elegant to cast it in white-metal

Next step will be making the wheels. I'll start with designing the rims, as the lathe-turned tire should be made according to the rim. A great help is this book:



It contains the technical data of all (!) German cars manufactured between 1920 and 1939, including wheels sizes, wheel bases and so on. Written in the 1960s by an author who obviously grew up before war so that he was really "in touch" with those cars and could perfectly describe all the specialties.

The page with the 540K:



And the first sketches in Inkscape:

Me, too So please have a look at the next step I've done today...

Thanks, feel invited, hope that I will finish the cars before my summer vacation in September...

The master for the tire resp. the wheel is made:


And the profile for the tire is designed:

Meanwhile photo-etching took place, with a nice result:



The profile thread was moulded in silicone and casted with resine, in two days the piece is ready:



The beltlines are glued onto the bodies:

Thanks! Cross your fingers that everything will fit together properly...

Today I've made the compressor pipes. First 2.0mm soft aluminium wire was bent into the right shape:



Then covered with spray adhesive (because this is "dry") and spun with 0.3mm silver wire:



Everything fits and joins the WM-exhaust pipes:

Very kind, thank you! Although - the artist's fate... :roll: - I'm not fully satisfied. But you know, I'm still learning...

Thank you! The original pipes of the WM model have a terrible shape, they are coming from the flanks and go in a half circle again into the flanks at the bottom line, absolutely weird :? Normally I've made the pipes by first spinning the thin silver wire around the alu-wire and then bending the pipe, this time I made it vice versa for the reason that this way I don't have to squeeze the thin silver wire with pliers. The disadvantage is that the thin wire cannot be spun around exactly in the curves...

Today I airbrushed a first coating of primer:



From a distance it looks quite nice, but the matte finish reveals all blemishes and spots, and there are lots of these :cry: So I guess it will take a couple of days to overdo all the parts to achieve a really fine look...

...although I rather feel like standing at the foot of the Mount Everest... :roll:

Having only an hour this evening, I made the tire master. The profile thread is ready:



...and glued around the tire, afterwards the rear flank profile:

And this time I'll go to level II: One of the roadsters will get white-walls, and I'm curious if my plan "how to" will work...

The tyre master is moulded in silicone:



And the first roadster body is overdone. Well, it looks worse than ever before :roll: , but I'm confident that all impurities are fixed now:

The silicone mould is ready, a first tyre is casted in resin:



Both of the roadster bodies received their finishing, and slots for the center windshield pillar were cut:

I guess Sunday will be the day . At least for the first one. Meanwhile I made a second cast, so that I can speed up the works a little bit. The resin needs three days to harden, and I cannot use "faster" resins, as they have always disadvanteges I do not want to have, like "colours" (dark yellow) and "shrinking". So casting nine tyres will take a couple of weeks in total... :roll:

Well, that would be a knightly accolade - Concerning the photos: I switched to flickr generally (I already tried it some time ago) and I have to admit, it's "clean & easy" to work with, I meanwhile like it very much!

Two steps for the dicky seat are made of brass tube:



The second primer coating is made, and it's a huge improvement . Although there are still some areas to overdo... Especially the "first" roadster, that means the older production with the two-halved body, is of such a poor quality that it is really hard to achieve plain and even surfaces...



And I'm designing the films for the wheels, which are to be photo-etched next:

No, for every new model you need newly designed parts... At least if you want to meet the desired downscaled measurements and other "specialties". But that's not so difficult: Most parts consist of simple forms like circles, rectangles and so on. With Inkscape (freeware!) you can easily design and draw all these patterns. Meanwhile (I don't have ANY experience in PC-aided design!) I'm quite familiar with Inkscape so that it mostly only needs a couple of minutes to design one part.

... the same do I Slowly, slowly the wheels and tyres come into sight, stay tuned! As it seems you also have switched to another photo-server, haven't you?

The second filing and the third coat of primer at last gave a satisfying result, now I will leave the body parts this way and will start airbrushing the colour paints:







The film pockets for photo-etching (not the final turn...) are ready and tomorrow the show begins:

The first turn of photo-etching with 0.2mm sheet gave a perfect result:



0.5mm in action:



... but this time the result is very poor :



Guess I left it too long in the developer, so I made another sheet which was more satisfying. Seems as if I still have to learn a lot... :roll:

The first tyre is ready-casted, and I've pre-assembled a first spoke rim:





I suppose that it will take a complete day to built one (!) wheel - for today I'm so dizzy that I'll have to sleep over all those results and make up my mind if I'll accept all this or if I will change certain parts.

Gentlemen, thank you very much! Nevertheless, I had a sleepless night as so many tiniest details went wrong yesterday... :roll: Today I redesigned most of the parts, only by 0.1 to 0.3 mm steps, but now I'm really satisfied The valves under the top spokes are bigger, the hubcaps have a larger diameter, the Mercedes star is bigger and this time a separated part, the rear spoke layer has got a new design, the upper spokes are shorter and thus more plain. The following pictures show the "new" rims, on the photos it will be hardly possible to recognize any differences compared to the rim of yesterday, but believe me, this time the wheels really look "wow"... :oops:





By the way, at this point each single rim consists of 13 single parts, and there are still some parts missing...

Thanks again Sometimes I don't know myself if all those things are real or if I'm already lunatic...

For the moment I'm happy to hearing from you

Well, I'm doing my varry best to shorten this process a little bit, perhaps I'm sliding into a maniac episode and can do without sleep for a while...

Simply the result of one or two sleepless nights, others are simply counting sheep... :lol:

Believe me, when I started this project I really, really thought about leaving the cars as they were and just finishing them a little bit, perhaps new painting, but leaving all the parts as they are, fixing the bumpers and - ready. Honestly! And then I'm disassembling the models, and I think "only that little revision here, only a new part there, but not very much, then everything is fine". This leads from one idea to the next, one step follows the other, some hours or a few days later I'm inventing the wheel again (like this time). I simply can't help it! The Mercedes 540K indeed has very special wheels, with many details not to be found at any other car, and I hope it's worth to try to catch all these details. The more as I meanwhile own six 500/540K in total:



... and I plan to equip them all with the same wheels resp. tyres (as two of them have disc wheels). So I'm spending some more time now to go back to this work once in a time when I'm completing this subject. That's all for today, on Tuesdays I always teach two classes and am unable to do anything else in the evening :roll: See you tomorrow

With a little luck some less time... Today I've pre-assembled three further wheels, so I hope to reduce this step to 2 1/2 months

But you know, genius and madness are siamese twins :mrgreen:

Glad to hearing that, and meanwhile I'm quite familiar "how to" assemble the wheels. Below you can see that the spokes have open ends, and it's quite delicate to bend the spokes without distorting them, they're 0.2mm thin!

The next turn of photo-etching has been made, and I hope that I've now all necessary parts for the wheels of the two roadsters:



Making the tyres also continues:



And a first set of door handles is pre-assembled:

There are two reasons: The main reason is, that I always use transparent silicone for the moulds, this way you can make the moulds in one piece and cut it open to the half afterwards, as you can see the object inside. This is much easier than making a mould in two steps with two halves, but of course the single mould can only be made with compact objects, not with a hole inside. The other reason is, that I fit the rims exactly into the tyre so that I don't need to glue them, and this requires a very fine "made-to-measure" drilling. But of course, this is my personal preference, the "double-halved" mould is the common way to do it...

Today I've pre-assembled all nine rims, now only the center hubs are missing, which will be made tomorrow, and then everything is ready for priming:

Boy, I can tell... :roll: I'm really missing the words what was necessary to join the different parts together - well, at least a dozen of curses...

When I photographed all those Mercs together, this was my thought, too...

Well, we still have some weeks! Of course I planned to finish the roadsters before going on holiday, at the moment I'm not sure if I will make it by the end of August... But I promise, I'll try my best!

The center hubs for the wheels were made from two different sized brass tubes:



Then all wheel parts were primed:





And the first roadster received a first layer of clear lacquer for preparing the final finish:

Thanks! And really feeling good after having meanwhile airbrushed tons of paint... :mrgreen:

There's no ignorance at all, it really looks a little bit weird what I'm doing... But I guess I can solve the riddle below...

I racked my brains for a long time which colours the two roadsters should wear. Today all the Spezial Roadsters are painted the usual way: black, white, silver, red and dark blue YAAWWNN! When I browsed the web, I found two vintage advertising graphics from Mercedes, this one still classic, but also very vivacious:



... and this one:



I'd never have got the idea to paint this roadster two-tone, furthermore in green, and then the body dark green and the fenders medium green :shock: But you know, I'm always looking for unusual, but authentic paintings, and when Mercedes saw their own cars that way, I guess it's worth it to paint the models in this scheme !

And now for Ian's question: The first roadster will get painted silver metallic, and for silver shades I always use AlClad II paintings. For a real "metal" effect they have to be airbrushed on a glossy black ground, but for more decent metallic effects you can use a lighter, but glossy ground. Therefore I simply take the "neutral" grey of the primer, then using clear lacquer, and finally airbrushing the AlClad silver mist.

So this first clear coating for the "silver" one had been sanded:



And the second one became two-tone green:





Furthermore, I also painted the wheels today and the base plates:





After having inhaled lots of solvents I now need a walk in the garden until I'm able again to spell my name...

Thank you! It's a pleasure to join this Living in big city as Berlin is, I haven't met any other collector here yet to share my hobby. Via S143 I found mates in all Europe, in Australia and - Brasil ! So even if the contact is "only" virtual, it's really nice to know that you're not alone...

What's happened today? A second pair of door handles is made, and yes, it's another design than the previous one. When studying vintage photos, I found that different Spezial Roadsters indeed had different door handles (as well as different signal horns and different tail lights...), so I simply wanted to show some variety:



And my "Chateau" diorama is not forgotten, the works on further small rose trees go on:



The fluted exhaust pipes get photo-etched veneers:





...and the base plates are painted black and metallized with graphite powder:



A view on the green body, now with a second coating (for more durability):



...and the "silver" one (even if not yet metallized) got a second coating with clear lacquer:



The wheels are now painted with bright red gloss paint:



And the light green wings shall get a metallic painting. I try a new method making my own metallic paints by using (from left to right): coloured glass paint, clear glass paint, Iriodine powder (smallest size of pearlized pigment powder with 1 - 15 µ) and enamel solvent:



The glass paints dry transparent like any enamel paint. Due to the transparency, the pearl powder stays visible, and if you mix the clear and the coloured paint in a way that the hue meets the matte basis, you get a very fine, silky metallic paint which is much finer than any ready-made mixture! Furthermore you are independent of any supplier regarding quantities, hues and so on. Here's the first test of this metallic paint airbrushed on the light green of the wings:

Finally after a long time we can see some progress...

You're welcome! And no, these are not the first painted wire wheels. The Horch 853 got standard wheels but with newly made spokes which were painted gold, the Aston Martin C-Type got standard wheels painted green, the Austro Daimler Standard wheels painted dark red and the Daimer Double Six Corsica got completely new wheels painted brown.

Thanks a lot ! When I was about 8 or 9 I started "pimping" my Matchbox Models of Yesteryear with self-painted "white-walls", "chrome-trim" and so on. Later, with 12 to 15, I also made plastic kits, which often were started, but never finished (guess that's the wrong age for those things... ). But I still have four or five of these old plastic kits which are surprisingly properly made, perhaps I'll make some photos (as long if I found them again in the closet...). Now, more than 30 years later, I've "arrived" in what I'm doing, and it feels fantastic! Hope that I still have some decades to build all the kits I'm storing under the bed...

The rims were sprayed metallic green:



And the red wheels were started to be assembled:



The wings are also sprayed metallic green:

...isn't it? It was quite difficult to "translate" the colour of the PC screen into a real paint, especially as the advertising is only a water-coloured photo-retouche, but in the end I think it will be "working"

Probably the result of being a "handicrafter" all my life! There has never been one single piece or object in my life which I had left the way it was. So I work with paper, glass, porcelain, paints, metal, wood and so on for decades now.

I hope so! But I'm really confident it will! I still think that this is a crazy painting scheme, but it shows how the people saw their world back in the 1930s really, and not how we think nowadays they did...

The red-painted rims are ready now:



...and the green ones on the way:



The green body already received its second coating with clear lacquer, after an intermediate sanding:



The silver body is now ready, after a careful polishing of the grey/clear lacquer (with MicroMesh linen 3200 to 12000) a thin coating of AlClad Polished Aluminium was applied and gently polished with a soft brush:

...and I thought you were watching this thread 24/7 I'm glad that the green finds so much appreciation. When I looked at the polished body today, I still wondered if this is a Matchbox MoY of the late 1970s :lol:

The upper and bottom body halves of the green one are now polished, and I think I will leave it that way for the further works:





The white-wall tyres were drilled and milled out and already got a first partial painting:



The green wheels are ready now:

Another incentive to give my best

"Blouse and skirt" - great phrase, I guess in German there's no such a nice expression for that...

Making the wheels went on, first the p/e rings (already airbrushed black) were glued onto the white tyres:



And the finished wheels:



Couldn't resist how they look together with the car:

Thank you! Perhaps a quite unusual way to make white-walls, but in the end - it works

I guess it's the combination of silver-grey, white and red! There are one or two of these roadsters on the road painted in silver, but with chromed wire wheels and black tyres, and for me these look quite boring... Indeed not a single 540K seems to had been delivered with white-walls, on the dozens of vintage photos - road and auto salon - this type generally had black tyres...

Thanks a lot, very kind ! One wheel consists of not less than 18 single parts. Quite crazy, but I have to admit, I love the result, too

Hope so, at least I've made a first test:



And you can see that I already polished the chrome trim on the wings:



For this moment I'll pause the "dungeon works" and return to the PC, as the next chapter will be making the interior design for the roadsters, that means interior door panels with window winders, dashboard with gauges, pedalry, gear lever and handbrake and steering wheel.

Still something to do before designing the p/e parts. Behind the bench there's a kind of wall needed, being a "pad" behind the backrest. Plus a center tunnel on the floor:



But now the first sketches for the side windows are made. For those purposes I always scan the original parts, import this scan and take it as a template for designing the desired parts:



Then printing and cutting out and trying what is to be changed. For the first test this seems quite o.k.:

Of course :oops: I'll make real glass windows. The photo is bad as the thin frames are not to be seen, but it only was a first test/impression, the "real work" will follow tomorrow. I'm always making the window frames of 0.2mm metal sheet, and on the rear side I etch a nut so that the 0.1mm glass fits into the metal frame without making it thicker. Hope you understand what I mean, it's terrible for me trying to explain those things in English...

But before going ahead with the frame works, I had to make the chrome trim at the windshield to define the measurement. At at this opportunity I also made all the other chrome strips along the passenger shell:

Thanks for always finding the right words!

Believe me, I rather feel like Goethe's Sorcerer's Apprentice... :oops:

Here's another photo of the side windows with the frame around:

The window pillars on the flanks will be doubled with a separate part, this will be quite difficult as the windshield of the original car contains curved 3D-shapes which are (at least for me) almost impossible to transfer into 1/43... :roll:

And some further parts which I have designed today, like the interior door panels, matching chrome trim, window winders, pedalry, side windshield pillar and so on:



Tomorrow I plan to design the dashboard and the steering wheel, and as soon as all those parts are sketched & etched, the roadsters will hopefully reach another level in the building process...

And I don't know yet if I love those details, too... It took the complete day to design the parts for the dashboard and the steering wheel, and meanwhile I'm only seeing circles in front of my eyes :geek: Looking at the photos of the original car, I'm finding more and more details, and I always want to re-create as many of them as possible. But sometimes you simply don't know on which level you design which circle, it's quite terrible :!: I really hope that all those parts will really work when etched:



Tomorrow I'll make the gauges...

Thanks for those encouring words, giving my life sense again ! I thought I could only make a "small" sheet this time to etch the necessary parts for the interior, but it became 135mm long, which is quite much, especially considering that I've already made square metres of photo-etching for these two roadsters. Seems that this project is the biggest I've made so far... :shock: However, this is the film (meanwhile printed out and made ready):



...and tomorrow we'll have some "handsome" results (I hope so...)!

Crazy, isn't it? But what shall I do, the Merc Spezial Roadster is some kind of baroque and covered with chrome trim unlike any other car...

You will laugh, but I already thought of etching parts for a scratch-built model. This way you could get precise parts with excact measurements which would have to be punched in shape then. Would be worth a test, I guess

Etching was made, but I fear I was a little bit careless today, because the result is not really satisfying The step of developing needs very much attention, and I think this was the mistake I made. This is a first impression of the dash with the gauges, but you can see that the deeper areas of the dash are crude and not smooth:



The steering wheel is o.k., but not perfect:



The center parts for the steering wheel are quite o.k:



The interior door panels are not perfect, but there's not so much to be seen in the completed model, so that I will leave them this way:



The window frames are surprisingly good, so that they do not need to be replaced:



Well, so I know now what I'll have to do tomorrow... :roll:

Don't know exactly what you mean :?: Of course it is only a flat sheet, but the point of photo-etching is to etch different patterns from front and rear side, so that that you have differently relieved surfaces on both sides and holes or gaps where the sheet is etched from both sides. But meanwhile I'm indeed always trying to construct parts in a way that they are easily bent and put together to real 3D-objects, such as the luggage for the Maybach Roadster (you remember?) Have a look a my "photo-etching" thread (Tips & Techniques) or ask whatever you want, I'll try to describe anything

Well, I'm always interested in new techniques, especially in 3D-printing. But what I've seen so far, this is not yet useful for car model building. I know that TinWizard uses such resin printing for making masters (or at least parts of). And - once again - I'm spoiled by my Matchbox childhood: Model cars simply must be made of metal, that's all... :roll:

Finally I'm convinced with a new turn of photo-etching the remaining parts for the interior, so that I've prepared the parts for priming:



And here's a newly made dash on the gauges, which are already painted from the rear side:

Thanks! It's terrible, when the photos are enlarged on screen, you really see smallest spots and whatsoever, what cannot be seen in "real life". On the other side, this pushes me to work very carefully...

Please have a look here: scale143.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=10535&p=343737#p343737

In German it's called "betriebsblind" when making a work a hundred times and then failing, because you make everything automatically and do not pay attention to important things as you trust in your experience... Meanwhile I found out the mistakes I've made (although knowing how to make it right) and hope for proper results in future! (It's annoying to waste the metal sheet as it costs some bucks... :evil: )

Interior parts were primed...:



...and painted:

Thanks! It's terrible, when the photos are enlarged on screen, you really see smallest spots and whatsoever, what cannot be seen in "real life". On the other side, this pushes me to work very carefully...

Please have a look here: scale143.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=10535&p=343737#p343737

In German it's called "betriebsblind" when making a work a hundred times and then failing, because you make everything automatically and do not pay attention to important things as you trust in your experience... Meanwhile I found out the mistakes I've made (although knowing how to make it right) and hope for proper results in future! (It's annoying to waste the metal sheet as it costs some bucks... :evil: )

Interior parts were primed...:



...and painted:

After painting matte, the interior parts were airbrushed with clear cote semi-matte from AlClad. This is very easy to airbrush, dries in minutes and gives a very fine silky surface. The surroundings of the gauges were covered with Maskol, this removed after painting and this area painted with pearl-white lacquer:



On some photos this dashboard part is referred to be made of mother of pearl, but that's not true. In fact it is made of acetate, an early duroplast (plastic) with a kind of 3D gleaming and sparkling. This stuff was often used for arts & crafts and is today used for pens and glasses. I have some patterns of vintage productions of this wonderful material (unfortunately not to use for this model):





Then the decoration was applied to the door panels:



And the first (black) steering wheel is brought into shape:

Nice to hear You won't believe how much time it costs to make the simpliest works... Today I've had so many steps on my schedule, and after having worked hours by hours, only the following things were accomplished. Sometimes it's a little bit frustrating :?

Well, that's what I thought today when applying the belt lines to the body, but in a quite different way :x To do this without spreading the glue over the paint is hardly impossible. At the end I used so-called transfer glue, a thin glue film on a protecting paper, but I don't know yet if it really holds forever...





The dashboards slowly come together:



And tomorrow... tomorrow everything will be better...

Thanks! I have to admit, I'm a little bit proud on these... :oops:

Well, I "invented" those winders a year ago. The base is - of course - photo-etched, the knob is a piece of a 1.00mm brass tube, galvanized and stuck onto the upward bent end of the p/e part. Hope I could explain...

Making the windows from 0.15mm glass (for microscopes):



cutting with the p/e template into shape:



Glueing into the cutout (the extended bottom end allows to glue without damaging the fine frame around the window):



And completing the "sandwiches" with the interior door panels:



The steering wheels are almost ready, beside the Mercedes star on the centre (will be quite tricky with a diameter of 1.3mm...):



And the dashboards were backed with polystyrol for mounting and got some switches and control lights:

The instruments are made in the style of "Hinterglasmalerei" (behind-glass-painting), that means I print the gauges mirrored on transparent foil and airbrush the printed side then. This way the the sequence of what you see is: 1.) clear foil; 2.) black printing; 3.) coloured background. This leads to the slight "3D-effect"

Thank you! Well, I'll shock you once more if I tell you that most of these works I do without glasses or magnifying glass, just "by hearing" Sometimes I wonder myself how I'm doing all this, but in the end I'm glad if most of the plans work and others - like you - also like what I'm doing! This project - the two Mercs Spezial Roadster - are indeed the most ambitious project I've made so far. Not actually the details themselves, but the amount of "scratch-building" and doing this for two cars at the same time. Wish me luck that I'll manage the future works, too...

The interior with pedalry, gear lever and handbrake is completed:



Door panels with windows are mounted:



And the steering wheel:



(all this took about six hours today... :roll: )

Thanks! Finally I'm dedicating my life to model building, so I have to admit I love doing this all day long...

Thanks a lot!

Honestly, that was coincidentally, not planned... :oops: But now I know how to achieve that effect...

Thank you - and please JUST DO IT

Very elegant, isn't it? Brings a bit of Cote d'azur to Germany...

Today some minor works were done, for example the interior for the green one:



And the next film design for photo-etching, as I urgently need the louver mesh for going on with assembly:

Hope you didn't miss me... Tuesdays I have to earn the money I'm spending for model building , and yesterday I was busy with rebooting the PC with a new operating system. Today I finally continued with photo-etching, but before making the necessary sheet, I had to to also "reboot" my method of etching :roll: I already told that I had different problems in the last weeks with doing this, and so I made several tests and protocols to find out what's going wrong and how to improve it. Meanwhile I'm confident that everything will work again, and here's the latest result:

Almost perfect! It's 0.1mm sheet, the lines for the meshes are 0.14mm wide, the holes about 0.15mm.

These are the already made bases for the louvers in 0.2mm sheet, the intakes painted black:



The meshes glued onto the bases:

However, I really thought I'd unlearned photo-etching :shock: But I have to say that most of the steps were made by intuition, so yesterday I made solid tests for the first time, and that revealed that I've had much luck the past years, but that I could do better...

Actually not really, so during the week I give some sessions as psychoanalyst, but not so many due to complicated regulations in Germany concerning health insurances and so on. Tuesdays I always give two classes in clinical psychology for beginners and person-centered psychotherapy for experienced. Most of the time I look after house & garden and trying to build some nice model cars, as you already know. Meanwhile I learned that there are both psychoanalysts and psychiatry patients who often are deeply involved in car model building, I guess that these subjects are related in a deeper way... :roll:

The louvers were first fixed with tape and then cut out of the frames to keep them arranged:



Then glued onto the body:



...and the tape removed:



A glimpse on things to come:



Compressor and exhaust pipes bridged over with some glue:

I guess it's the "refreshing" look of this car, far away from the usual paintings. I'm glad that I found those vintage sketches, so I dared to paint the car that way. In other cases I always think of using unusual colours, but in the end I'm not brave enough to do it...

Yes, it's exciting for me, too! When you tinker weeks and months you think that you won't make it once in a lifetime... :roll: So now I'm "over the top", at least with one car, but there's still so much to do...

I can imagine...! Once you'll have a new photo-server, you should post a picture of the Cord. I'm curious how the MBs come out when photographed under daylight. On my workbench, under LED and halogen lights it looks already quite striking...

I remember when a buddy of mine mentioned that he wouldn't know what to do with a toy car, he only wanted to drive an old car. The conversation ended quite soon... :roll: And as for the "last few steps": ROFL :lol: I fear that with this weekend I've done half of the works in total! There are still so many things to design and to build, that I already think of the Mercs being a Xmas present!

Finally the first one stands on its own feet:

Don't argue about the colour! It reminds me on the finale of Disney's Sleeping beauty, when the fairies couldn't agree about the princess' dress whether it should be pink or blue... :lol: Let's make a poll when the two roadsters are ready

Thanks! The "comparing" will take some further weeks, as there are still lots of work to do (windshield, chrome trim, headlights, bumpers and so on) and as I'm preparing my annual vacation, so that model building will be paused for some weeks...

Meanwhile the green one comes into shape, too, and after a "rollover" yesterday which resulted in a broken window (after glue had dried...) and learning that the prepared compressor pipes didn't fit, I really thought about committing suicide. I already sat on the windowsill, but jumping off the cellar wouldn't work, I gues... :roll: Well, now everything is made over, and I hope the result will be satisfying:

Thank you ! And indeed, it's a timeless beauty and a real icon for Mercedes until today. That was confirmed when I recently saw pictures of the latest Mercedes study "Maybach 6 Roadster", which shows proportions and details which are obviously an hommage to the Spezial Roadster, of course lacking its artisanal character...

Today I've made the radiator grilles. First the white-metal casted grilles were polished and clear-coated:



Then BMF was coated with AlClad "Flat":



The photo-etched mesh carefully glued onto the BMF:



Cut out:



And sticked onto the base, together with the small "star" badges:



Mounted to the cars:

Very kind, glad to hear that ! Meanwhile I trust myself to create new radiators. When starting model building four years ago, I always was frightened when buying an old model without radiator grille... Now I'm quite sure to be able to replace them in an adequate manner...

As already said, I'll make a poll at the end of this project - But I fear it will take some more time, as I'm taking my summer vacation soon

Double work, but double pleasure, I guess! Originally I planned to collect only one model of a type, but meanwhile - the collector's fate :roll: - I regularly buy two or three models of one type to be able to show the variations of those gems...

Today the next turn of photo-etching was planned, this time with 0.5mm sheet for the center pillar of the windshield:



...and the front and rear bumpers:

Boring me? - Not at all, it's an honour to hearing that from you , thank you! Well, it seems as if we're on a mission to convince others from the beauty of collecting and building model cars, aren't we? Some time ago I've started to write down some essays about the deeper sense and history of miniatures and collecting, hoping that sometimes a small book will develop which could be of interest not only for collectors, but for anyone else as well...

Today photo-etching was made, with an excellent result:



Central window pillars mounted:





Bumpers as etched:



Starting bending them into shape:













Using ordinary pins for the ends:





Ready:

Little impatient, I guess... I'm sorry but I think I've got bad news for you: I won't complete the cars before my summer vacation So we all have to wait three weeks until I'm going on...

There's no big risk of damaging them, the nickel silver is quite strong. But it's a crazy work to fit the bumpers to the car as you have to obey X-, Y-, and Z- axis so that the bumpers in the end are placed straight in place.

Thanks! It sure makes a difference whether plastic or metal is used for details, and details made of sheet is - of course - much more filigree than white-metal casted. But: it's a lot of work... :roll:

The works for yesterday and today (yesterday I simply was too late and too tired to write here):

Bumpers attached to the car:











The headlight units in their original condition, nice - but with too thick rods and a little bit "clumsy":



Everything milled out, cut off and polished:



A new horizontal rod milled and cut from brass strip:



Plated and put on place:



x2:

When studying the photos I realized that the signal horns had hemispheric caps, so I made such out of solder...



...and glued them on top of the horns:



The searching lights in the original condition...



...and after make-over (together with additional fog-lights):



The small light for the future "D" sign (made of brass strip):



And the holder for licence plate and tail-lights:

...and Pebble Beach would also be a nice subject for a diorama...

I'm amazed myself how this looks on photos I wished that the bumpers of all model cars could be made that way, but there are some in my collection where I've got no idea at all how to make those...

Height of the bumpers is 2.8mm in total That's the point with p/e: down to 0.1mm you can make almost everything in a proper quality, I love it!

The last days I was already busy with preparing my summer vacation, so only very few and small works are to be done now... The signal horns got some paint:



The headlights are drilled:



...polished, varnished and equipped with holders:



Let's see if I can still make something tomorrow, but then I'll shut down my workshop... :cry:

Don't know exactly what you mean. I've just seen that you are Californian, so I guess it'll be impossible to keep up with your backyard... I simply hope that somewhen in the future I can make a kind of beauty contest with my model cars. In my former life I attended many car presentations all around the world, but Pebble Beach - unfortunately - never was on my schedule, so I can only admire the pics on the web. Do you visit this event? It must be amazing...

Final countdown before leaving for vacation: the headlights are mounted to the horizontal rod, this all not yet glued to the cars, but only put there to show:





This was quite a crazy work, as you have no fix point to refer to, and the old Western Models are crooked in any direction... :roll: However, that's all for now, tomorrow I'll jump into the North Sea, and I'll be back in a few weeks to complete this project. Don't forget me, have a good time!

Hello and greetings from Amrum/North Sea, guys, and thanks for your kind holiday wishes! Today we have a kind of "Irma/Harvey" here... That's the "usual" view outside:



...and that's how it looks like today:



I guess I'll leave that up to you Being an Old European in every way, I'll concentrate on the Cote d'Azur... Curious about your PB pics!

Hope to save my life tonight (sorry for being so sissy), as I still owe you the completion of the two Mercs, don't I?

Hello again, folks! I'm back in Berlin :cry: after having spent three wonderful weeks at the sea... After the flood, there was a beautiful rainbow as a kind of compensation :



And so I'll continue the works with the Mercs, and there's a dozen (or even more) of p/e parts that are still needed to complete the models. Today I've designed the windshields. First a simple template was cut out of polysterene card:



Painted for better visibility:



Scanned:

]

...and converted into a bezier-curved graphic:



Manipulated until the parts fit (lots of printing and cutting out... :roll: ):



And finished with front (wide) and rear (narrow) side plus template for the window panes:

Believe me, every year it's really hard for me to say goodbye to my workshop for those weeks, but what can I do? Some playing in the sand at the seaside is a kind of "must-have" once in a year...

Thanks! And thank you for your patience I have to admit, I still need some time to get familiar again with this project, every year a kind of interruption... :roll:

So today I only made some further p/e designs, one for the running board strips:



...and for the center chrome trim for the tail:



Trying to add some details you cannot see clearly on the photos like the upper ends:

Thanks ! Meanwhile I've completed the p/e designs (at least I hope so...) And as for the green one: I find it always difficult to paint the models in unusual colours. I've plenty of ideas for crazy painting schemes, but when I'm building a model car, I always think "don't you dare it!". Well, I think slowly I'm getting used to do it...

Film pocket for photo-etching is ready:



The watch seems to be a little bit too big for the dash, but we will see how it fits...

...o.k., you got me, the watchface is for a pocket watch, let's see how this will turn out...

Here's the result of the latest turn of photo-etching, almost everything very good:



The templates for the headlight lenses sticked onto a board, moulded with silicone...:



...and filled with clear resin:



And the first edging (you wouldn't believe how many hours this took to bend the part according to the body and then glueing it without spreading the glue over the paint... :roll: ):

Thanks, that's nice to hear! It's ridiculous: Bending one strip, fitting it to the body, mixing the 2K-glue, holding the piece in the correct position until the glue has hardened and cleaning up the surrounding needs approximately 45 minutes. For ONE strip!!! But hey, I have to admit, it's my self-chosen fate to do this...

Well, one one hand I know that this is only an old-fashioned hobby, on the other hand I've never felt so good in all my life when doing all this So I decided to dedicate the remaining decades (hopefully) of my life to this, not doing this for a special purpose, but only for feeling "alright" (even if specialists would plead for a 3rd degree mental illness :mrgreen: )

Arrghhh, you're always putting your finger in the wound... If my parents wouldn't have pushed me into boring educations, I'd loved to learn something like goldsmith, watchmaker or even car mechanic, coachbuilder etc. Now it is simply too late to start with this (no matter what all the life coaches may say...), and so I'm satisfied with tinkering in a small scale. Furthermore I can own hundreds of cars this way... :lol:

Rainy day today, now fall has started in Berlin , but the green one's got most of the chrome trim today, on the tail:



... and on the running boards:

... oh yes! Huh, today I feel quite exhausted, but I'm almost through with the chrome strips. Today everything got faster, Übung macht den Meister (training makes the master) as we say . One running board has still to be made, as two of the strips were not photo-etched properly, so I have to postpone this.

Glad to hear that! At the beginning I was afraid of being suspended of S1/43 for using insane painting schemes :lol:

Patience is a torture isn't it :mrgreen: ? We're still missing the windshields, wipers, headlights, additional headlights, taillights, searching lights, hood ornaments, licence plates and the roof for the green one. I guess it will take one or two further months to do all this Just kidding, don't worry, here you can already see the headlights:

Thank you ! I didn't plan so, but I guess that these two models are the most ornate ones in my whole collection! By now there were no others with such an amount of details (even the two Duesenberg SJ were "easier"), and when browsing through my still-to-be-done models, I found no others with so many details. So let's enjoy this early "peak" of my model-building

Today's work are the searching lights beside the windshield:

...me, too ! As already said, this time it's real hard work to complete the cars, as beautiful they are, as difficult the works are... :roll: But meanwhile I'm confident to finish them in about a week or so, and I hope the result will fulfill the expectations!

Today the windshields were made. How they're cut and fit into the frames I've already shown before. So here's the completed green one:



For the silver one, I have to show what sh... can happen! While the green one needed two panes with the same measurements (only mirrored), the silver one needs window panes with two different widths (due to the "handmade" improperties). I considered that when designing the parts, but I was mistaken when making the photo-etch film and mistook left and right side :evil: (I have to admit, I've got a kind of "left-right-weakness" :oops: ). Nevertheless I assembled frames and panes, and with the last turn of etching (hopefully) I add the same frames from the other side, this way I can still use the parts

Thank you! The window panes are made of supporters for microscopes, 0.15mm thick. You can get 100 or 200 small sheets for 3 or 4 Euros, it's a quite cheap material. With a simple glass cutter (for 2.50 Euros) you can enhance your models quite easily

Thanks! And I think slowly we're on the furlong...

Last sheet of photo-etching (at least I hope so), and everything turned out fine - except the licence plates (although they're less filigrane than all other parts... :evil: ). So I'll make a "substitute" and will add p/e plates sometimes later:



The silver one finally got the remaining running board strips and the windshield, plus wipers and hood clamps (beneath the louvers):



The same for the green one:

You know, I'm always trying my best - and also always falling into deep depressions when browsing through the web and seeing what other model builders are able to do... :roll: . - Just kidding It's a fuzzy work, but I love trying new methods and techniques and simply learning much about car design. To be honest, I considered this Mercedes Spezial Roadster all my life as a rather boring car ( :oops: ), but when building this, I learnt how delicate all the lines are and how elaborated all the details - that goes for the model car as well as for the original! But step by step:

The licence plates were sprayed with white primer and the reliefs filed through:



Then put into burnishing solution for nickle silver (works best when warming up in the microwave):



Et voila:



The taillights made ready (for both cars, but different types):



And now I'm proud to present the first completed roadster:

Thanks! Yes, it's always a kind of "wow" when completing a project This time it's not yet completed, as the top for the green one isn't ready, but the remaining works are a nothing compared to everything I've done by now... I find it still amazing what you can make out of an old - and quite rough - model! And in this minute I'm thinking of the point that four years ago I had no idea that a maker like Western Models existed at all :oops: ! I really thought that there were only Matchbox, Solido and Rio and nothing else :lol: , as these were the toy cars I'd grown up with!

Thank you! Well, good idea the thing with the wine, while building a model I usually prefer tons of psychotropics :mrgreen:

You're welcome . The silver one is a beauty, isn't she? In this painting scheme it's for me one of the vey few German cars which could compete with the great French ones at a mediterranean Concours d'Élégance...

Wanna have a sneak preview? Here we go...











The next few days I'll complete the roof, make the finishing & retouching and by the end of the week the great show will end this project. Stay tuned!

I think I wrote this already before, I found it interesting to make the couple up to vintage brochure graphics of the 1930s, where exactly these two painting schemes were shown. That's also the reason why the green one got the closed roof (detachable, of course) and additional front and rear lights, as this can be seen on the advertising, as well. When browsing through vintage brochures, it's amazing to learn how colourful the cars were interpreted by the manufacturers themselves, compaired with the paintings of today. So - perhaps - the "Pebble Beach" look isn't that artificial as it seems...

Thank you! Yes, I am proud of them - at least a little bit. It feels somehow strange, to dive into the childhood with this hobby on one hand, on the other hand making things I've never thought I'd be able to... You see, but I think you'll know yourself, building model cars is for a boy obviously similar to having babies for girls... Long-term I guess it costs similar sums, too...

A late welcome to you! And thank you, nice that you've already found my thread

Thanks a lot! It seems that it would be best to make all my models in two different painting schemes so that the audience has the choice

Thank you very much! I haven't count, but there must be hundreds of photo-etched parts for these two...! I've browsed through all my other model cars, but I think there's no other with such an amount of details! It shows how elaborate and outstanding the original car was in the 1930s. No wonder that this was the pinnacle of German dreamcars before WWII...

And now it's time to show some photos of the finished cars. I hope that you'll enjoy them:





























(Rear window still missing, I decided too late to make a p/e frame, so it will be made next time...)







And that's not all , if you're interested, have a look under "Dioramas / Un chateau sur la Loire" the next days, there will be some nice shots, too...

Thank you, it's always nice to hear that one has done the right thing !

Thanks a lot! Epic car, epic work Feels like to have climbed the Mount Everest...

Thanks a lot! I really hope to maintain that standard for future projects

Thank you so much! To be honest, I haven't known Stephen Barnett so far... :oops: But when I visited his website, I felt small and ugly... he really plays in another league, I guess (opening doors, detailed engines... ) Let's see how far I'll come with this...

And - last but not least - the two roadsters in their new home:



And if you want to, tune in the next days, the next project is already on my workbench

Too late: 4,5 years x 365 days x 12 hours....

That's what I noticed, too... Indeed the wheelbase resp. the scale is absolutely correct, but when compared with other Mercedes Roadsters made by TinWizard, the WM look much "leaner", especially the radiator looks tiny compared with those of the other models. So it seems that independently of the scale, the master modeller does a lot of interpretation by making a model wider or narrower, higher or lower, the details bigger or smaller, even it is "1/43"...