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I never planned to be a model reviewer; it just happened,
and it happened because of the Mercedes 300SLR! The sports
and sports-racing cars of the 1950’s and ‘60’s
had always been my favourite cars, and the 300SLR was at the
top of that list. There were precious few kits or models of
these cars in 1:25 scale back then, so I began collecting
1:43 scale models. By today’s standards the Solido and
Politoys “models” of 1970 were crude, but they were
better than nothing! Through a small collector’s club
newsletter I read about a French company, Manou Auto Sport,
who would make hand-carved wooden 1:43 scale models of any
car you wanted for the ridiculously low price of $7.50. I
ordered my two “most wanted” models, Gurney’s
1967 Eagle F.1 and Stirling’s Mille Miglia 300SLR from
Manou in late 1972 and waited.
In January
of 1973 I got a letter from Jacques Simonet telling me the
Eagle was ready but his model-maker had built the Moss-Fangio
Le Mans car, not the Mille Miglia car. He offered to have
the correct 300SLR built if I would wait a few months more,
but there was another option. He had this new white-metal
kit of the Mille Miglia 300SLR and if I would take that instead,
he’d let me have it at the same price. Well, I was a
model builder, right? I didn’t know what white-metal
was, but if others could build it, so could I. In due course
a good-looking Eagle (I still have it) and a 10-piece kit
(John Day, of course) of the 300SLR arrived. I’d been
writing model airplane stories for Scale Modeler for a few
years, so I photographed the kit as I built it and sent them
a story on this “new kind of model”. It was published
in the Fall, 1973 issue of “Scale Auto Modeler”
(a short-lived American magazine) and I sent a copy to the
address on the kit box. Much to my surprise, a few weeks later
I received a package from John Day. In it were 4 new kits
and a note that said, in effect, “That was nice—
do it again.” I did, and well, I guess I still am.
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So
the 300SLR has always been one of my favourite cars. Incidentally,
the name came from the P.R. department; the SLR bore as much
resemblance to the 300SL as Jeff Gordon’s NASCAR ride
does to a real Chevy Monte Carlo. The factory designation
is W196S (Sportwagen) and it was, in effect, the Grand Prix
car with the chassis widened in the middle to accommodate
the required two seats and a bigger fuel tank. Its engine
was bored out from the 2.5 litre Formula One limit to the
“sports car’ limit of 3.0 litres, so it actually
had more horsepower. I’ve collected a fair amount of
reference material on the Mercedes and I’ve got a very
soft spot for 300SLR models. I think I’ve built—
or at least bought— every kit that’s been made in
1:43 scale, and when I saw the Southern Cross Miniatures kit
(SCR005) listed in FSW I debated about ordering one; did I
need another 300SLR? That question became moot when I unexpectedly
received one from Southern Cross via GPM, along with a request
to write a review after I’d built the model— shades
of déjà vu all over again!
Upon opening
the box I found pretty much a “standard” kit by
current standards; 5 resin parts including the body and baseplate
with integral interior, 5 white-metal castings, 4 very nice
factory-assembled wire wheels with rubber tyres, 2 aluminum
exhaust pipes, and 28 photo-etched parts, not all of which
are used for this model. The perfectly etched “300SLR”
badges are really tiny. Add the vac-formed headlight covers,
flat windscreen, and jewelled light lenses and I count 55
parts; not a “superkit” but a far, far cry from
that John Day model. An even greater difference was the three
A4 sheets of instructions with colour photos of the model
and the real car. The instructions
provide step-by-step information, a painting guide and a layout
of the photo-etched parts tree. Although the decals are simple,
numbers are provided for all three cars at Le Mans (along
with three photo-etched license plates) and there are correct
plaid “upholstery” decals for the seats.
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Preparation
was quick and easy with only a couple of small mould lines
under the nose and tail and some “ragged edges”
inside the cockpit. There’s a fairly large feed tag under
the dashboard that must be cut away to get the baseplate to
fit correctly. There was some thin flash inside the windows
and small feed tags on the bottom of the air brake casting;
be very careful not to break the integral hinges while removing
them. The small white-metal parts have mould lines, of course,
but those were small and easily removed too. All in all, parts
cleanup took less than five minutes as opposed to a couple
of hours on that John Day kit.
Southern Cross
suggests a couple of ways to get the correct painted silver
finish; I chose to use Metalizer and sealer, which worked
very well, but when I applied the foil (included with the
kit) to the side spears some of the clear sealer came off
with the excess foil. If you choose that method, be sure to
cut the foil to size before burnishing it down over the side
spear. It’s almost a shame to paint those gorgeous wire
wheels, but SCM is correct; chrome spokes were NOT used back
then. The instructions say to paint the cockpit sides, non-upholstered
parts of the seat, and the center console flat black. The
300SLR I photographed at the Ford Museum has medium blue leather
or naugahide on those parts, and colour photos (“Supercar
Classics”, Sept. 1989) of the Mille Miglia winner in
the Mercedes Museum show the same thing, so I painted them
blue, not black. Maybe my drill bit was dull, but the photo-etched
instrument panel started to wrinkle when I tried to drill
a large hole for the steering column, so I simply cut the
lower part off. It’s hidden by the wheel, anyway. This
is the first model I’ve seen with the air brake control
panel; most of the photos I have are of cars without the air
brake and the control box isn’t used on those.
There are
quite a few differences between the Le Mans cars and those
which ran in other races besides the air brake and the shorter
headrest fairing that allowed it to work.
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There are no small
lights below the headlights; instead there are big driving
lights inside the nose intake. The fuel filler tube was extended
and there’s a small vent tube on the right rear fender
that doesn’t appear elsewhere. The chrome “strakes”
in the side vents aren’t there on the Le Mans cars, the
windscreen is different, and the rear view mirror is housed
in a substantial fairing, too. The Le Mans cars ran, at least
part of the time, with an access panel removed from the right
front fender and SCM’s model not only has that correct,
but there’s frame and structure detail visible, too.
I used the photo-etched “star” on the nose, but
SCM provides a black one on the decal sheet and after studying
the excellent race-day photo in Ludvigsen’s biography
“Stirling Moss” I think the “painted”
badge would be more correct. As I said, there are lots of
differences, and as far as I can see, Southern Cross has them
all correct!
Everything,
from the major parts to the tiny photo-etched badges, fit
just as they should and assembly was very straightforward
with a couple of provisos. I had to cut the exhaust pipes
a bit shorter (check photos to see how far they extend) and
I cut the headlight covers a bit oversize— if they’re
cut right on the engraved line they’ll be too small.
I found that the rear tyres supplied in my kit were much too
large (18.5 millimetre diameter) and rubbed against the wheel
arches all the way around as well as giving the model a “nose
down” stance. When I contacted Southern Cross at the
email address on the instruction sheets they immediately mailed
the correctly sized tyres to me. If you have an early kit
with the same problem, they’ll take care of it.
Wheelbase
comes out only 0.07 inches short (1:44 scale) and the body
lines look right on the money to me. SCM’s model is easily
the most detailed 300SLR in my collection and all its details
(tyres aside) are correct. Even the “see through”
wire wheels are correct; the SLR’s massive drum brakes
were inboard. This well engineered and beautifully cast kit
was a pleasure to build and will look (when I replace the
rear tyres) “just right” from any and all angles.
I’m glad SCM took the initiative as this model makes
a fine addition to my collection.
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