Tamiya Mercedes Benz 300sl 1/24

[dougie]

Looks fantastic mate. Great job. Got a link to your mask? If I can get a better one I will! Can't seem to find an a3 filter for mine

 

[Marc Stock]

It's a p3 mask not a3 it's the same type of mask as my first one but the 1st was a p1.

 

[Paul Davies]

Just been reading through this. Great build so far.


Regarding masks for when spraying. If you can still smell any of the paint or cleaner through the mask it is not filtering all the vapour and the mask is not up to scratch. I use a 3m vapour mask designed for paint spraying and can not smell anything. Been using zero paints and zero airbrush cleaner and no smell gets through.

 

[Marc Stock]

Ok i have completed the dashboard. Bottom strip has been painted the lovely cream leather matching the rest of the leather. For some reason due to handling the top of the dashboard started looking scratched and mucky so i misted over the dashboard again to bring it back to looking crisp and thought to myself better get this glued down so im not temped to handle it further. Bought some latex gloves to minimise finger prints. The steering wheel has a metal ring thats supposed to stick on around the crest in the centre. No matter what i did the flipping thing just wouldn't come off the plastic backing so i pulled it off with tweezers and pinged it across the office forever lost...dough!!


So i masked up the wheel and metalcoaed the centre and poped the crest on. It looks ok i think but im a bit annoyed about that.


Back to how forgiving the zero stuff is. When i did the dash i tried masking off all the chrome, well you dont need to with this paint even though it flashes off within 30 seconds its still quite soft for at least 10 mins. So all i did mask just one chrome part in the middle and go over the whole lot. Immediately after painting i took a cotton bud and rubbed off the paint I wanted to expose as chrome. After this i applied decals and clearcoated.


Hubcaps is next will take the same approach on this.

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[jono]

Ok i have completed the dashboard. Bottom strip has been painted the lovely cream leather matching the rest of the leather. For some reason due to handling the top of the dashboard started looking scratched and mucky so i misted over the dashboard again to bring it back to looking crisp and thought to myself better get this glued down so im not temped to handle it further. Bought some latex gloves to minimise finger prints. The steering wheel has a metal ring thats supposed to stick on around the crest in the centre. No matter what i did the flipping thing just wouldn't come off the plastic backing so i pulled it off with tweezers and pinged it across the office forever lost...dough!!
So i masked up the wheel and metalcoaed the centre and poped the crest on. It looks ok i think but im a bit annoyed about that.


Back to how forgiving the zero stuff is. When i did the dash i tried masking off all the chrome, well you dont need to with this paint even though it flashes off within 30 seconds its still quite soft for at least 10 mins. So all i did mask just one chrome part in the middle and go over the whole lot. Immediately after painting i took a cotton bud and rubbed off the paint I wanted to expose as chrome. After this i applied decals and clearcoated.


Hubcaps is next will take the same approach on this.

Doing a great job mate, it will be ace looking when finished .


John.

 

[Netboy]

Looking good, especially like the work on the dash board.


You said that the carpet monster ate a little metal ring from around the steering wheel boss? Would carefully applied bare metal foil have been an option?

 

[Plastickitbasher]

That looks fantastic

 

[Marc Stock]

Looking good, especially like the work on the dash board.
You said that the carpet monster ate a little metal ring from around the steering wheel boss? Would carefully applied bare metal foil have been an option?

Hmm yeah I hadn't thought of that. How would I apply bare metal foil to replicate the ring?

 

[Marc Stock]

Doing a great job mate, it will be ace looking when finished .
John.

Thanks john

 

[Marc Stock]

That looks fantastic

It's not perfect but I'm getting better every time

 

[dougie]

awesome work mate, really looking great

 

[Netboy]

Hmm yeah I hadn't thought of that. How would I apply bare metal foil to replicate the ring?

Difficult to say without seeing the wheel, but if the area that needs to be metallised is clearly defined you just stick an oversize piece of BMF over the area to be covered and then carefully (very carefully) with a very very sharp knife cut around the area you want metallised and then gently lift off the excess and burnish the remainder smooth.


This, of course, assumes you have something to attach the BMF to!


However, the work you've done looks great so I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[Marc Stock]

Im almost ready to start on the body. Did some prep work last night, full wash and degrease, i also opened up the vents at the back of the car with a knife. Will pop in some mesh behind the vents to increase detail.


1st stage is a light coat of grey filler primer both inside and out. This will then be rubbed down starting with 1500 grit and finishing with 2500. This should iorn out any imperfections.


Second coat is another light misting of grey filer primer to smooth out further and go over with 3000 grit.


2nd stage is a white primer sanded to 3000 grit.


3rd stage is a mist coat of db396 and a further wet coat left to cure for a few days.


4th will be the clear coat 2 coats and polished from 6000 up to 12000 and a final wax.


Hopefully all goes well it will look nice.


Hubcaps to go first and then this.

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[dougie]

Im almost ready to start on the body. Did some prep work last night, full wash and degrease, i also opened up the vents at the back of the car with a knife. Will pop in some mesh behind the vents to increase detail.
1st stage is a light coat of grey filler primer both inside and out. This will then be rubbed down starting with 1500 grit and finishing with 2500. This should iorn out any imperfections.


Second coat is another light misting of grey filer primer to smooth out further and go over with 3000 grit.


2nd stage is a white primer sanded to 3000 grit.


3rd stage is a mist coat of db396 and a further wet coat left to cure for a few days.


4th will be the clear coat 2 coats and polished from 6000 up to 12000 and a final wax.


Hopefully all goes well it will look nice.


Hubcaps to go first and then this.

Zero paints advise doing the Base coats in short succession and straight on the the clear mist coats after a short wait I'm sure, I would double check times on their website. Also you don't wet coat the Base coat, they tell you not to do that as it dries matt and is not required. You just get a good few nice even coats on then clear over the top soon after.


Iirc you do maybe 2-3 clear mist coats and maybe 2 wet coats, I would say that from experience the 1k clear wet coats take an age to dry and I had problems doing wet coats too soon together where the paintwork the was soft underneath when sanding even nearly 2 months after. I would try to get the wet coats on as thin as possible and give them a good long time between coats. Honestly I think I will be leaving about a week or more began wet coats but that would be miles overkill according to instructions.


Just trying to be helpful hope I'm not being a pain!

 

[Marc Stock]

Ah ok dougie i see you litrally do enough base coat to get the pigment even and the go on with the clear. Good pointer there.

 

[dougie]

Ah ok dougie i see you litrally do enough base coat to get the pigment even and the go on with the clear. Good pointer there.

Aye and try to get a nice even colour. Do all the body work at the same time or parts can end up slightly different mate. You don't leave long before the clear as it helps if tack on I think

 

[takeslousyphotos]

Ok dougie i got a a3 air mask it seemed to keep all at bay. Here is the completed dashboard. Its okay not amazing to be honest very fiddly work on the masking. The paint is very forgiving, its several legues above using enamel. Just have to wait now to harden over the next few days. Will need to do the bottom part the same colour as the interior. So in going to have to mix up some more paint for interior. I can see though the body work is going to be amazing with this paint.

That interior / dashboard looks superb. First class work Marc.

 

[Marc Stock]

Thanks for your kind words. Been doing the hubcaps man is this a challenging job.


Its taken me all night to get one good hubcap. Two of them are trashed as the chrome has come off from the constant re trying of getting it right and the other one that looks ok isnt good enough in my opinion so im going to do a re order of the hubcaps. And practice on the trashed ones. The decals for the wheels are as good as a choclate teapot and just look plain naff.


Or i might just stick on the hubcaps as they are in chrome but that seems like a cop out to me and im trying to push my skills as a modeler. Apparently i can order the knock off wheels for this kit and considering the original car i am copying has the knock off wheels thats always an option.


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[Marc Stock]

I have been looking at my good hubcap and i honestly feel that getting the rest of them good in a reasonable time going to be nearly impossible. After doing some more research i am suprised to find out that the actual hubcaps supplied by Mercedes-Benz were also painted at the factory to match the body and they had a known issue with the paint chipping off. As a result some customers ordered replacement hubcaps from mercedes and simply didnt have them painted and left them chrome because after a few years they would look really naff. I also found out that some customers switched the colour from the hubcaps to the wheels, and im led to believe that the factory actually switched the painting of the hubcaps on the early models to the wheels in the convertible as the paint was alot better at actually sticking to the surface.


So im impressed with tamiya in this respect as they have made the model true to the way it was built.


Whats my plan going forward? Well i have emailed hobyco for some replacement caps. Im binning the idea of painting them, but i am going to paint the wheels themselves the colour of the body instead with the chrome caps i think this is going to look alot crisper and im pleased that im keeping true to the history of the car that actual customers did the same thing on their real cars especially in holland apparently.


Sorry this build is taking so long.

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[dougie]

Nice one, wouldn't apologise about it taking long... We don't all have loads of free time and such to spend it doing models haha