Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition

You get a little story with this one. 

On Facebook there exist a whole bunch of modeling pages. I peruse them frequently, although I don't really like the social media part of it. I find the general public very rude and very very stupid. Anyway, I kept seeing a lot of post about Tamiya model kits. Turns out, they can be really nice kits. Their biggest problem is most of their car kits are Japanese sports cars, that's not my thing. My son got me this for my birthday only I had so many gifts to finish so it got set aside for a couple months. Also, on Facebook I saw a model in a color that made me melt (you know what I mean). That color is "Dark Garnett Red Pearl" it's an automotive paint and is used to repair Chrysler products. I can't say it had ever come to my attention before. On Chrysler products it's kind of ugly. Think Dodge Caravan or a big Ram Pickup. In my opinion the lines of the vehicles and the color do go together. On a sports car it looks great for some reason. Anyway, when I found that color, I went to the auto parts store and purchased a can. Almost $20.00 for a small can but worth every penny. After completing this kit my wife went and bought the last 2 cans they had. They have not replaced it. I like this color so much that I have done 2 more Tamiya kits with it. I've got 3 cars in that color. Up close they actually look different. I used 3 different base coats for the cars.

I was almost finished with this kit. I did some touch up on the paint and reapplied a gloss clear coat. You have to clear coat this paint, out of the can it is very dull and flat, clear coat instantly fixes that. I'm told it's that way with all Dupli-Color paints. I discovered that that was a major mistake. All the clear parts, windows and light covers instantly went to frosty. You can't fix that. I contacted Tamiya to see about purchasing some new clear parts. They sent me all the clear parts that come with the kit, free of charge. But they did not have any of what is called "Masks" for the windows, so I had to mask them myself to put the black on them. When I first did this kit, I told people it was January and there was frost on the car. I had to disassemble it to replace the glass. All but the little back windows on each side, couldn't get them out. For some reason I could not get the front grill and hood to fit together so there is a gap between them. I could find no way to close that gap, but I don't see it on other people's versions of this kit. I also wish I had made the four silver trim parts black. That would have looked so much better. I won't try to change it. I do not want to damage the paint anymore.

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On the Bench

Images

New Glass

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