SCALE MODEL NEWS

WE HAD A QUICK LOOK at the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL 1:24 scale Tamiya kit six months ago, and now here’s how we got on with building and finishing the model. Mat Irvine: Tamiya’s presentation is always excellent, and the Mercedes-Benz 300SL is no exception. When I looked at the kit in February 2015 ( click here to view ) I realised the build would have to wait a month or three, as there was going to be plenty involved. But it was worth the wait, and here’s how I got on. Opening the box reveals 163 components ( below ). They are moulded in silver-grey, black, white, chrome and clear. There are also vinyl tyres, mesh for the grill, conventional water-slide decals, and metallized decals. Cutting the runners from the door openings ( below ). I found it best to use the small razor saw seen at bottom left. Sorting out the hinge arrangements ( below ) for the gull-wing doors. The lift-up components are crucial for the appearance of the finished model, so do take care with them. Fitting the doors...

The Tamiya January 2015 announcement at the Nuremberg Toy Fair of its own 1:24 scale kit of the Mercedes Gullwing was a delight to hear. Mat Irvine: The Mercedes-Benz 300SL kit will be a fully detailed static display model, produced with Tamiya’s usual attention to detail. The real car was built around a ‘birdcage’ tubular space-frame, and the kit ( below ) mimics this form of construction. It was because of this birdcage structure that the car ended up with its distinctive lift-up gullwing doors. Conventionally-opening doors would have been more difficult to hang, so the top-hinged doors came about. On the Tamiya model, these can posed open or closed. The fuel-injected straight six engine is also fully detailed, as is the interior. Plus the under-body pan is moulded in clear plastic, and can be left as such, so not to hide all that glorious tubular frame detail. Metallized decals are included for wing-mirror glass, name plates and the distinctive Mercedes-Benz star. There is nylon me...

SMN REPORT Here’s a well-timed kit release, a movie tie-in that’s bang up to the minute. It’s a variation on Italeri’s existing AW-101 kit to 1:72 scale, modded slightly to represent the triple-engined beast shown in the latest James Bond movie Skyfall . We haven’t see the new James Bond movie yet (though an SMN  Crew cinema outing is slotted for Wednesday this week) so we can’t comment on the accuracy or otherwise of this special Skyfall edition. But it seems a good idea and we’re all for kits like this, not least because they help attract newcomers to scale models. Smaller diecast Matching the theme of the 1:72 plastic kit is a smaller diecast version, this time to 1:100 scale. It’s ready to fly out of the box and comes in Skyfall colours and markings. Big boat President John F. Kennedy’s World War II command, PT109, is a famous boat all right, and here is Italeri’s 1:35 scale model of it. As with other motor torpedo boats from Italeri, the PT109 is superb, and comes complete w...

SMN report: We’re not sure whether this counts as ‘art’, ‘craft’, or ‘modelmaking’. Whatever, it’s an amazing piece of work, created by a skilled German, who has hand-carved a life-sized replica of the classic 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘Gullwing’, the sports car with the flip-up doors. All-wood construction The rather bizarre model is made not partly, but entirely of wood, and features all the intricate detail you might expect, including the wheels, tyres, M-B star, steering wheel, cockpit instruments, even the headlights - though these won’t light up unless you set fire to the creation. Suitcase in the rear There’s no motor in the car, and it’s definitely a non-runner. But if you want a weekend away, then there’s a wooden suitcase behind the wooden seats, just in case. The car may not be fit for driving along the highway, but it is a pretty good take on the original’s size, shape and proportions. The wooden Merc was listed on eBay recently by a seller in Germany, with an asking price ...

SMN reports on the 1:24 scale Revell Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG kit Until the New York Motor Show of 1954, Mercedes-Benz street cars were seen mostly as somewhat ordinary, if safe and sensible, four- and five-seaters. Then things changed dramatically, when M-B wowed the hordes of show visitors with its new 300 SLR (picture below the jump), a roadgoing version of its SL ‘Sports Light’ competition car. But what set the SLR apart from anything else on wheels was the pair of upward-opening ‘gullwing’ doors. The 300 SLR became an instant icon, and in one fell swoop, turned Mercedes-Benz into a desirable brand. Gullwing up to date The modern version of the car is the Mercedes-Benz SLS of 2009, a hugely desirable performance machine, capable of an official 317 km/h (197 mph) though we’re told that a keen driver could reckon on blowing well past the 200-mark with the right road and weather. The SLS also has those gullwing doors, and the top-spec edition is made by AMG, M-B’s performance subsidiary ...