New Product Revell Mercedes 300 SL 1:12 - Tifa lends a hand

Although a bit offtopic, I stumbled onto this, and thought I'd share it. Revell has got a modelkit of a Mercedes 300 SL. It can be found at around 100-120 Euro. On the pictures it looks like a very detailed kit.

Man, that is cool. It would be awesome to see something like this in 1/6 -- but I imagine the price would be prohibitive.

Yes, it looks cool. It's got a detailed engine and interior. Upscale to 1:6 it'd be much more expensive. And I guess a challenging build too.

I agree, very cool. I hope twelfth-scale figures are flexible enough to fit. Just don't collect enough in this scale (except maybe Star Wars, which wouldn't apply here) to justify going for it myself.

I think it's great those car manufacturers make some 1:12 for once, often it's 'non standard scale figure scale' like 1:7 or 1:10.

GubernatorFan wrote:I agree, very cool. I hope twelfth-scale figures are flexible enough to fit. Just don't collect enough in this scale (except maybe Star Wars, which wouldn't apply here) to justify going for it myself.

Remove the wheels and Mercedes emblems, add some jet engines and turn it into a landspeeder.

I have seen some evil 1:6 Mercedes from the thirties once for ~500.

I got it, might take awhile to build it because it looks like a challenging biild (and a lot of hours).

Good luck.

Haha! Have fun! Should look good with the ladies!

Diana wrote:Haha! Have fun! Should look good with the ladies!

I'm not sure if this is the proper vehicle for Red Sonja, Arhian, the Arhian pirate or Sariah

TravelGuide wrote:

Diana wrote:Haha! Have fun! Should look good with the ladies!

I'm not sure if this is the proper vehicle for Red Sonja, Arhian, the Arhian pirate or Sariah

Maybe it's time to branch out then.

In my experience, Revell sets are pretty easy to put together, but I was dealing with Star Destroyers, not modern cars, so it might be different.

GubernatorFan wrote:In my experience, Revell sets are pretty easy to put together, but I was dealing with Star Destroyers, not modern cars, so it might be different.

They usually are. This one has a lot of parts (241), and most need to be painted. The insturction is 22 pages with 80 steps in the building process.
It's the biggest and most complicated model I've built, so it's going to take awhile (also because I have a tendency to built something first up to 80% and then leave it lying for some months, in this case that may happen a few times).

First though I need to get some paint, because the building starts with the engine, and there's some colors I need that I don't have (and don't have a replacement for).

TravelGuide wrote:

GubernatorFan wrote:In my experience, Revell sets are pretty easy to put together, but I was dealing with Star Destroyers, not modern cars, so it might be different.

They usually are. This one has a lot of parts (241), and most need to be painted. The insturction is 22 pages with 80 steps in the building process.
It's the biggest and most complicated model I've built, so it's going to take awhile (also because I have a tendency to built something first up to 80% and then leave it lying for some months, in this case that may happen a few times).

First though I need to get some paint, because the building starts with the engine, and there's some colors I need that I don't have (and don't have a replacement for).

Yes, this does sound a lot more complicated than what I put together. Take your time and enjoy the build. I found this sort of thing (with models from Revell and Bandai or even Legos) a great stress reliever.

Progress on the engine:

Nice job. Make sure you don't have it running before you have completed the rest of the car or it might drive off on its own.

Nice. I wish I had the patience for model building, as that seems to be the only way to get decent representations of some of the vehicles that I want (the original Enterprise, Millennium Falcon, Boba Fett’s Slave 1), but I just don’t (nor do I have the painting skills for all that weathering).

Stryker2011 wrote:Nice. I wish I had the patience for model building, as that seems to be the only way to get decent representations of some of the vehicles that I want (the original Enterprise, Millennium Falcon, Boba Fett’s Slave 1), but I just don’t (nor do I have the painting skills for all that weathering).

Basic weathering is quite simple and gives good results.
You take some very watery piant (black or brown), i.e. something like 1:10. Apply this on the part you want to weather. Wipe it off with a tissue. Then there's only some leftovers in the cracks and lower places.

And even if it's too much it'll look like it's really battered. Example of some houses on my modelrailroad. Not the best pic though.


On the one at the right I went a bit too far, but it still turned out OK. The one on the left got little treatment and the one in the back somewhere inbetween.


Residue of exhaust flames is a bit harder (never tried it),but even if you do just the above, it'll take the plastic look of it.

Thanks for the tip. I have a Barbie buggy coming with a horse and figure, don't know how much I can actually use, but I'll see. I wonder if lightly sanding the plastic and painting over that would also get rid of the plastic look...?

Stryker2011 wrote:Thanks for the tip. I have a Barbie buggy coming with a horse and figure, don't know how much I can actually use, but I'll see. I wonder if lightly sanding the plastic and painting over that would also get rid of the plastic look...?

Probably the plastic on Barbie toys is really smooth. It doesn't work if the surface is smooth. There needs to be some relief. Sanding might help with that.

I just started using this, but Vallejo makes an acrylic-plyurethane surface primer (several, actually, I got the one in grey) that should help secure paint (and texturing) on top of the smooth plastic. It works with either a brush or an air brush (I'm using a brush or q-tips, as I don't have an air brush).

Progress on the Mercedes, engine and frontsuspension are kinda finished (after taking the pics I noticed that the paintjob could be a bit better). The parts of the springs didn't fit quite well, but they're mostly invisible when it's finished. So that is good enough. As it is now the steering works, but I'm not sure if that is still the case if it is all put together. I'm sure they can still move, but I'm not sure if they'll be connected to the steering wheel, judging the instructions it looks like it's not, but maybe I'm missing something.



The black spot on the gold part is because the black paint wasn't quite dry when I picked it up and I hadn't noticed some stuck too my finger. I kinda like the effect thought. I figure an engine isn't crispyclean anyway. I might do a brownish or blackish wash to dirty up the engine a bit.




Unfortunately the pic below won't be what you see when it's finished, because most of this is the downside of the engine, and you see little of it. Kind of a pity, because I think it looks cool. (The first pic is the top view, which is what you'll see when the hood is open.


GF doesn't have to worry about the engine running away, it's not hooked up to the fueltank yet.

Further progress. Front and back suspension and steering column added to the chassis.





Looks like the steering is going to be finctional.

After some thinking I decided to take a shortcut and skip painting the body since it's already silver and shiny (although plastic), I wouldn't get it as smooth as I've got no experience with airbrushing and do not want to try somehting new right now. Using brushes I wouldn'tget it as smooth. More experienced builders would probably frown on this shortcut.

I'm not sure if 1/12 figures would have the legroom to fit in it after it's finished (and if they do, getting them in would probably be a challenge).

Definitely more ambitious than the model kits I have done. Good progress, and good luck.

GubernatorFan wrote:Definitely more ambitious than the model kits I have done. Good progress, and good luck.

Thanks.
It's more ambitious than anything I've done too. I've built dozens of tanks and planes in 1:72, and houses in 1:160. But nothing like this. Since it's been released I've looked at the instructions on the Revell site several times considering to buy it. And a few weeks ago I decided to get it, because I needed a project to work on.

So far I'm pleased with how it's progressing.

Engine and drivertrain is installed into the chassis.




Progress will probably halt temporarily, because I noticed for the chrome parts I need a different glue, and likely it will be a few days or even a week before I am near a modelshop.

Progress was temporarily halted due to distractions of other projects. But with the arrival of Tifa it's started again.

Dashboard installed in the inner compartment.



Test if the body fits and it's really starting to look like a car.




Tifa came to take a look






The question is ofcourse, does she fit?


Kind of, but I fear with the seats installed she won't anymore (but maybe with her boots off).

A Figma however is shorter and has more room.