Bill Wardlow

I actually had a few of these kits handed to me. I knew a guy when I lived in NJ who was considering being the US distributor. He had seen the kits at the German Toy Fair, a grand European event with EVERYTHING!! As far as I know, he did not follow through, but I moved from New Jersey to Colorado shortly after this time. He wanted me to evaluate them for 'quality' rather than authenticity. After giving him my thoughts on quality, I tried to give the models back, but he said I should just keep them! Sold! He had given me the W154 Benz, actually 2 Benzes, the Bugatti 35, a Ferrari D50, and the Alfa P2. I quickly built one of the Benzes, and was not particularly impressed with the accuracy of the fit or the missing detail. That said, I could have done a better job. It has hung around my shop/studio for almost forty years. I was looking at it the other day and began to think about what the model would need in order to represent the full size car and my modelling 'level', whatever that is. It has distinct possibilities. There's really only one or two things that I look at when considering a model that interests me for purchase and building. Most importantly: How close to the original subject does the body seem to be proportioned and shaped? And, not that it's a real deal breaker, how well are the wheels and tires done? I usually plan on chucking most of the plastic parts. They are usually too big in diameter or they are 'curvy', with so-so plating. Even if they are not, I consider using stainless steel tubing, It's easier to work with than any plastic stuff I've tried. You can get stainless steel tubing in what they call 'hypodermic' sizes and materials. Try Component Supply Company. Don't let the term 'hypodermic' scare you off, as they make many sizes and will sell to you even if you aren't a doctor!! You need silver solder to join pieces, but the actual soldering is easier than electronics soldering. As usual, set-up, cleanliness, and preparation are critical. The reward is that when you join the parts with silver solder the color of the 'weld' is a perfect match for the stainless. If you go further and file, sand, and polish the joint, it will look absolutely as one piece, and a beautiful one at that. Consider it next time you do radius rods or any suspension pieces that stand out. The difference between what polished stainless tube and chrome plated plastic look like is massaive, no kidding. If you try this out I know which one you'll use. My personal saying is, "Nothing looks like metal like metal looks'. Also, stainless steel parts can be polished to a far more realistic finish than the plastic ones they replace. It will definitely make your model much finer to look at. The stainless, once polished, will not tarnish either. Oh yeah, the kit. I decided to put the 154 Benz on a back burner, but first in that line... I'm now in the process of doing the Revival Ferrari D50. Hoo Boy! This thing needs EVERYTHING. The first is the hardest. When you join the top and bottom body parts with the screws provided, there is a seam, of course, where the two pieces of metal abutt. It's a long, highly visible thing, right down the side of the 'sidepod', and it wasn't part of the full size Ferrari original from 1956, which had its side pods made of one piece of sheet metal, (some had some rivets, but not the particular car I'm doing). Getting rid of this seam is the big challenge in building this model. I screwed the upper and lower body sections together to keep shape and sanded across the seam, working along its length. I sanded enough that fill would be minimal. Pretty much flush. But It's now going to be stuck together! What about separating the parts for paint and assembly? Gotcha! After studying the situation for a couple of days, (always a good idea when you get stuck because something brilliant will pop into your brain in the meantime.) Then I began the surgery. Move one was to reinforce the outer body (the sidepod) where the seam is, but NOT all the way inward, or even inward of the body screws. Don't remove the body halves from each other at this point, but observe that the piece you've epoxyed now looks like a rocker panel, also called a 'sill panel', from a conventional car. I used fiberglass finishing grade cloth with 'Finish coat' epoxy to join them. These are RC plane necessities for builders. Your hobby shop should have them. It's very easy to use, really. Once that has stabilized for a couple of days, saw under the sidepod front to back, where it won't show, with a Dremel cutoff wheel. Stay JUST outside the body screws. You'll see there is some other cutting needed at the ends, but that's self explanatory. Now you can unscrew the upper half. The body will come away with the sidepods attatched and no seam! Lotta work? Oh yeah, but it was just such a glaring detail that I could not ignore it, considering the other details I had planned. The first 'other' detail I need to get to is rivets. When Ferrari took over these machines from Lancia they had 'pannier' tanks. They were separate, but actched to the sides of the car with various rods and braces. The thinking was that the fuel load would be generally centeralized fore and aft and not change the handling of the car as the fuel was used. Ferrari didn't like this and placed a tank in the tail, eliminating the side tanks. BUT, they kept the side pods. Kinda. The exhaust and oil/water tanks were placed in them, close to the center body. Then they were faired into the body to give the look we have here in model form. They also contained the exhaust, which exited through their sides, four a side in a square pattern. I believe it was Juan Manuel Fangio who desired the tank change. It suited his driving style this way. He wanted to 'drift' the car through turns, and the tail fuel load allowed him to initiate this kind of action by swinging the tail out just a little and countersteering while applying throttle, etc.etc. That 'tail tank' needed more support than it had, so the central body panel just aft of the driver was reinforced. Oh sweet Jesus, was it reinforced! The part was hammered out of sheet, and all those compound curves were worked in. Then the edges, 1-2 inches, were tucked under, or 'hemmed' for strength around the periphery of the panel. Here's where it gets a tad crazy. A good friend has told me as much. He may be right. It's the part on which I am presently stuck, but fairly resigned to my fate. By the way, this is way too long, but I'm just trying to give any prospective builders some idea what they'll be taking on. The model is pretty decent as is, if what you want is a close resemblance to an actual D50. I've been a professional at this, and sometimes I get involved in explaining. Let's just cover this rivet thing, and I'll go. The tail of the racer, when the tank was placed there, needed those rivets I referred to above, around its edge. These are poorly represented on the model as ridges. UCK! I filed and sanded the ridges smooth until you couldn't see where they'd been. Now the rivets, a part I have not yet accomplished, but I have a plan! Now I need rivets. I have purchased a bunch of them from Scale Hardware, now a part of Model Motorcars. They sell all kinds of really tiny hardware, like nuts and bolts down to 4 tenths of a milimeter! They also make incredibly small rivets. Well, I'm still looking for the perfect rivet. I have underestimated the size twice. Of course I don't have measurements for that particular rivet. Here's the hard part. Looking at a period photo, I can see that these are about a half inch diameter heads. Spacing? There's about one rivet head diameter's distance between rivets. You read that right, unfortunately! It looks like I have to drill about 200-250 holes and install them. What's more, the body is cast metal, and the rivet shanks are so small (.024") That no drill I know of will stand up to it. Having worked with brass for a long time, I have them all. But I have another hairbrained idea for that too. I should really have added photos of all this. I'm keeping my camera on the bench, and it does a better job of explaining than I have scribbled here. It really kind of depends on whether or not anyone wants to see them, or hear from me at all anymore! Perhaps I should explain the enjoyment you can derive from cutting and soldering stainless steel. It's far easier than you may think, and will have you standing back and saying, "Holy s--- that's NICE." Really. You'll see. Perhaps I can show a photo of the 1959 Indianopolis 500 winning car's chassis. I've done it entirely in Hypodermic quality stainless steel in 1/25 scale, and it's pretty. That's another lady in waiting... There's plenty more if you really want to do one of these in true scale. But, these are the two biggies. If these two things aren't important to you, that's fine. Just put it together according to the directions and display it. The wire wheels really make it fine looking. But the tires. All of my Revival kits' tires are cracking with age. I cannot find any replacements. Does anyone know anything about this problem? Now I'm planning the Mercedes out. Having two complete kits makes it quite tempting to build one complete car and one chassis on stands......