I am the fourth owner of this kit from my club- the other three passed it around as being too daunting a build. But you have heard of the fool who rushes in where angels fear to tread Please excuse the fuzzy photos- my flash would not talk to the camera, so it was a one second exposure handheld.
I finished the frame and it is in prime now. Also working on the body, cleaning up flash and sprue attachments and a few pieces painted. This thing, especially the engine, has a zillion parts!
It was primarily a land speed record car. It apparently was tried in a road race or two but was too big and heavy for track racing.
I recently built their Alfa Romeo 8c 2300 and it was a fantastic kit. There were virtually no problems and everything fit perfectly except for one body panel that was reluctant to go into place but eventually did. This was my first Italeri kit and I was concerned about both fit and quality but shouldn’t have been. The 1/12 scale kits are expensive but probably worth it. Your club members made a huge mistake giving up on the kit.
Looking at how you finished your Mercedes, I have no doubt this one will be a jewel. I’m looking forward to your updates. Thanks for sharing the build with us.
Most folks look at the Name and say Uh Uh. What a horrible name for a neat Auto. Keep us in the loop okay? I have some cars I got from Gene so I will be watching. Also a perfect car to do real wire wheels on.
The wheels are not bad for plastic molding. I suspect the wheels used pretty heavy spokes anyway because of the weight of the beast. Name comes from loud sound and noxious fumes. Big aircraft engine.
I have started working on the engine. As someone said, the engine is a model kit in itself- I figure if I work on chassis, body painting, and the engine, sharing time, I will have the engine ready when needed.
The cylinder heads have a tube running between them. The kit has little nubs on each head, and some vinyl tubing. You are supposed to cut the black vinyl tubing to fit between the nubs, and leave it black. But photos of the real engine shows these tubes were brass. So I cut lengths of 5/32 brass tubing to replace the vinyl tubing. Each length is less than 1/8 inch- I had to make a jig to control length- made this tube cutting jig from MDF.
Even with the jig I had to touch up several with a file to get them to fit. But it looks good now.
I am also painting each molded in bolt head a different color than the casting itself.
Got the front suspension onto the frame. Sorry for the bad lighting. Each axle has four friction shocks. Each shock is seven pieces held together with screws and a screw fastens it to the frame. These are tiny metal screws that self tap into the plastic. Holes are a little tight! Hard to apply much torque to a small 1/16 tip screwdriver. Already poked painful hole in thumb when screwdriver slipped. I’m starting to drill out the pieces and glue screw in.
Also continuing on with engine. Have cam housing ready to mount, but need to put in valve stems. The valve stem, spring, and rocker arms are open. They supply the spring, but it is a little thin in cross section, so valve stem should be visible, but they do not supply stems. No problem, I thought- little pieces of steel wire will surface. Problem is drilling the small holes. We’ve discussed the problem of poor quality 60-80 drill bit sets. I’m tearing my hair needing to drill 24 holes (4 valves per cylinder). The soft plastic does not drill easily.
I especially appreciate this WIP becuase I have one on my shelf, purchased some time ago from Hobbylink Japan at a price too good to pass up.
Looking good so far, and do keep it up please.
Been wondering how this might compare to the Pocher kits of the good old days. With your help, I’ll be able to find out without cracking open the plastic seal.
This is far superior to the Pocher kits. It is a quality kit- detail sharp, fit very good. There are tiny parts, and some are supposed to be screwed in spots that do not have good access to screwdriver. I have been drilling out more screw holes to clearance diameter and replacing screw with glued-in 80 mil styrene rod. Painting is fun- I love painting small details by hand. Been around race cars enough I know what colors small parts probably are.
This is every exciting to me. I suffer from Pocher nostalgia, often feeling sad that the old kits aren’t there anymore (yes, I know they are available occasionally from collector sites but though I could afford the new ones as a youngster, I cannot afford them now).
Thank you for the additional info and for making me feel better about my purchase, Don.
I did it! Got 24 tiny holes drilled down into the head to hold the valve stems (pieces of steel wire). Gave up trying to do it with pin vise. The quality of today’s small drills are so crappy I had to resort to my mini drill press.
Then I had to cut short lengths of the wire and glue them into the holes- easy job. Next I had to paint valve springs. I feared this job- the springs were stainless, but I stuck them down on a piece of double side tape and airbrushed them with graphite metallic. They came out okay. Next job was gluing on the rocker assemblies and cam housing. I would have to hold all twenty four springs in the right position and fit them over the valve stems while gluing cam housing in place. I first glued springs to rocker arm tappets, brought it down over the stems. Took two tries, each time only one errant spring. Got every thing lined up okay second time. Fortunately, the springs were strong enough it held the cam assembly about a sixteenth of an inch up above mounting surfaces. That was enough to get some CA glue on those surfaces. Valve and cam stuff complete!
Please excuse the fuzzy photos- my flash would not talk to the camera, so it was a one second exposure handheld.
