Mercedes Benz MGP W01 - 1/24 Revell (Complete)

I've always find the final assembling of a model to be the most challenging.........
what fits before may not fit now, and there's no turing back (unless you don't mind painting the whole part again....and with decals fitted, it might be a better idea to get a new kit and start all over again)

Thankfully the parts fit ok, with a bit of scratch off the paint, luckily they're on the black areas so it's an easy fix. I have to trim the side-wings a bit more to make both sides parellel. Guess I have to improve on my pre-assembly job next time.

Making it gloss surface seems to be the right choice, though someone at the hkml forum said it should be flat.......I'm not quite sure....

The nightmare cockpit, sanding away the seatbelt and smoothing the surface is really a hard job, but it pays off, and the seatbelt looks ok, which is in fact made from paper cardboard~

Mercedes Benz MGP W01 - 1/24 Revell (2)

I started off painting the base and the rear wing first, since the black is easy to control, and the rear wing is mainly deco, it also serves as a great part to test the silver paint

 Then off to the body, I did the back first, then cover it up for the silver..

 It took a few tries to get the right silver I wanted, basically it's Mr Color's Silver mixed with a few drops of shine red and cobalt blue

 There's actually silver stripes on the body of this Benz, quite hard to notice that while it's on TV. After the silver coat I added the strips, then seal it with a clear coat for the next layer of decals

...and now for the sponsor's decals....

 

 ...and the steering wheel..

 
 Finally all the pieces are ready, next comes the final part: assembly..

 ...and ones everything's in place, I add the antennas. I leave this to the last coz I know I will just break them when I'm putting the car together. I use a 1mm brass rod for the silver ones, and stretched some heated plastic rods to make the other 2 antennas.

Mercedes Benz MGP W01 - 1/24 Revell (1)

At the time when this blog is published the car has long been finished, so no need to wait for 4 months to see the finish product~ Why choose to write now? well~ I did have photos when making the major changes during the build, so I might as well put them here, in case (and hopefully) you are interested in the car

So here's where it all started: Revell's 1/24 Mercedes Benz MGP W01, technically the fastest Benz ever. (Well.....technically...........it's a Benz, right?!)

This is the first time I ever build a F1 car kit, since 2010 I've regained my interest in motorsport, especially F1, so expect more car kits to come.

At first I think it would be a good idea to use this kit as a practice in building cars, afterall my last 15 years of model builing are Gundams, Star Wars and Macross. However, this kit is a lot more challenging than I thought.......

Unlike Gundams and other Sci-fi stuff, this car actaully exist in the real world, so I thought it would be better to do some research before hand, and the more I look, the more my heart sank..............the kit is different from what it actually is!

To put it simple, the instruction claims the kit has markings for 4 versions: Spain, Germany, China, and Hungary, however, upon closer look you'll notice the car is slightly different that the kit. My guess is when Revell decided to release the kit, they based it on the test version, and when it is finally released a few months later, the car has already taken some modification, and thus the difference.......

....and while the kit is based on the test version, there are still some minor bits that don't quite match the real car, most noticeably the air inlet at the top of the cockpit. The way the parts break down also affect the appearance of the car while it is assembled (the front axle), so based with the material, I set off modifying the car

The plates at the end were too think, so I replaced them with 0.3mm plastic board

 Revell made the wing support straight, which has to be fixed...

 The space for the wishbones was filled, this would make a look closer to its real world counterpart...

  The same for the rear one...

 The inlet modification was the most challenging one, it's took some time to get it right...

 That's about it for the body work, next up, painting!