Horch 853A Roadster by Erdmann & Rossi, 2 x

Many times I was just about to do this job, but this time it couldn't be avoided!  And yes, in the end hardly an atom of the original kit will remain, so you're right!  But you know, simply "born this way"...

I have to admit, I was a little bit sweaty before starting the saw...   How do you say in English: Do or die!

Yes I have the book too, the old edition and the new edition which has a little more text and more color photos. Identifying each car is extremely difficult, perhaps impossible. Erdmann & Rossi list four consecutive chassis numbers, which may have all been given the same body and were built subsequently in a short period of time. The first of the cars with chassis no. 854261/comm. no. 3161 was the IAMA car. Goering was photographed with the car at IAMA, but it seems impossible that it was the same vehicle that was delivered to him. The IAMA car had running boards applied as shown in the following photo:

The car in which Göring was photographed, on the other hand, has molded or integrated running boards:

It is technically impossible to subsequently convert the body flanks in this way, since longer or larger metal sheets would have been necessary for the integrated running boards. It also seems questionable why Göring should have ordered the vehicle at the trade fair, but ordered other running boards for it. Rupert Stuhlemmer is an outstanding Erdmann & Rossi expert, but his expertise is not diminished if we assume that he does not know every single vehicle with all the associated numbers or assign them to each other.

As for the color scheme: You write that the car was painted "dark blue". I'm not going over this bridge, as we say in Germany . The car has an interior that matches the exterior paintwork (white piping). Accordingly, this interior would have to have been dark blue, but 1.) the skins for leather interiors were usually beige/brown, grey, red or black, 2.) the "dark" paintwork could then also be interpreted as dark green or dark brown or any other colour. I still believe that black and white was a very popular combination at the time and makes the most sense overall with whitewall tires and white piping. If the assumption that the car was painted "blue" is based on the Göring hypothesis (which - as I have described above - is unlikely), then Göring's cars were painted "aviator blue", which was a darker grey-blue metallic , and of course not the paint of the IAMA car anyway, which was still unsold at the time of the exhibition.

The vehicle belonging to Goering must therefore have been one of commission numbers 3162, 3163 or 3164. Today - as far as is known - there are still two vehicles of this type, the silver one, which was awarded in Pebble Beach, and a blue-green one in Latvia. Both vehicles have been changed a lot on the outside and interior, so that unfortunately they can no longer serve as a reference for comparisons. The Pebble Beach car was in mostly original condition until 2001 and was painted gray, there are still some photos in the books and on the internet.

And what's happened the last days?

The second car was stretched in the same way as the first one.

The chassis plate has received some additions, next step will be joining of baseplate and body.  Stay tuned!

Always trying something new to keep you on the hook

Thanks for your participating!  Making research for a car is a major part of my vision of model-building.  It's such a luck that we have the www nowadays!  Think of the old times in the 70s or 80s, looking eagerly for car books, almost impossible to get foreign books in your own country.  Mostly I write short memos for each car, as I am unable to remember everything I find out when studying a project at a time.  And the stories of the Horch Erdmann & Rossi roadsters are quite thrilling!

Must be contagious, is it?

Time to really get started: I always try to get a good stance of a model, and so I wondered if a certain "device", made of Lego bricks, would help to adjust axles, baseplate and body independently to each other.

As Lego buildings are perfectly straight and rectangled in any size, it's the perfect medium to determine center-lines, height and so on.

To fix the front axles, some Lego bricks must be modified

Fixing the body in the correct height is difficult, there must be a better solution...

...found it:  Why travelling far abroad, when good things are so near - as we say in Germany   Simple screws from the tool shop give a perfect car jack!

The inside of the body filled with putty, and then pressed onto the prepared baseplate, this way both parts fit perfectly together for the rest of the building process.

The baseplates are meanwhile completed,

at least for the current stadium of works.

After many weeks intermission, finally made a new p/e sheet.  The lots of wipers are for the many car restorations I make for a Berlin dealer.

And again: it's perfect!  It took only ten years to get this idea, so perhaps I'll have two or three further ideas for the rest of my life .

The model was designed in the 70s or early 80s, I guess, and obviously the master-maker had only the E&R sketch as a template, as the WM model meticously represents the sketch, not the real car.  However, I'd rather prefer making the original cars, and comparing the model with photos (really perfect photos are always available at R&M Sotheby's) revealed that the rear fenders are much too short.  So a p/e template helps to extend the fender tips and give the fender an authentic shape.

Of course this means that the complete rear end of the car has to be newly shaped...

To be continued!