Kit in Full: Type 170V Tourenwagen, 4 Turen German Military Staff car
Kit number: MB35100
Feature Article by: Geoff Brown
Gallery and pdf
When I agreed to take on this build for SMN magazine, I did so with a little trepidation.
My main subject for building models these days are automotive. I usually build in the 1:24 scaleand they are always of the civilian type, with the highest shine on the paintwork that I can get.
I figured this wouldn’t be too far out of my comfort zone though, and at least I don’t have to make the paintwork shine like a mirror. This will be the first ever military model I have ever built.
As usual when I get my hands on a new kit, I always check the contents and make sure that all the parts are present and there are no faults with any of the parts. There were no faults here, the main sprues, of which there are four, moulded in a light grey colour plus another one for the clear parts.
Starting with the Engine
Building the model starts with the engine.
The main engine block, sump and cylinder head go together without any problem. One small problem with this kit is that part numbers are listed and shown on the instructions, but there ‘s no corresponding part numbers on the part trees themselves, so for smaller parts that you can’t make out by their shape you have to keep checking with the instruction sheet.
This is where the problem arises, the instruction sheet itself is A3 in size, so you have to keep turning it over from the side you are working from; the diagrams are very clear, but perhaps a smaller instruction sheet would be a better idea.
The gearbox is moulded in a single part, with just a small part to fix on top. The fit of the engine and gearbox are not a brilliant fit and I had to do a little bit of sanding to get them to fit together.
There’s a small part that fixes on top of the gearbox, but here there is also a slight fit problem, as where the two parts come together, there is a small ejector pin mark that needs removing. Not a hard job, but annoying never the less.
I deviated slightly from the instructions and built up the exhaust and inlet manifolds without fixing them to the engine, as I wanted to paint the engine block before adding the manifolds.
As these needed to be painted silver, you could fix as per the instructions, but you would have to be very careful picking them out with a brush after they were fitted. As such it was much easier to do them separately and fix them later, using a few small dabs of 5 minute epoxy.
The engine was primed using Tamiya fine grey primer decanted out of the aerosol and put on using an airbrush. You get a lot more control over the amount of paint using this method, using it out of the aerosol would have put on way too much paint and hiding the fine detail that this engine has.
Once the primer had dried off, I gave it a few coats of Tamiya semi gloss black. Whilst I had the airbrush out, the manifolds were given a few thin coats of flat aluminium, this time using Alclad 2 lacquers.
After all the parts had been left to dry overnight, they fitted together using 5 minute clear epoxy glue.
With the engine and gearbox finished and set aside for later in the build, it was time to move on and start work on the chassis.
The main frame is supplied in one piece; it’s a very nice moulding and true to the original Mercedes chassis.
After cleaning off the mounting pip’s and a small amount of flash, building starts with the front suspension and the steering box and steering shaft. As I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this article, this is the first 1:35th scale model I have ever built as I usually build in 1:24th scale, and I wish some of the models I build in that scale would have as much detail as this model seems to have.
The front suspension builds up with double transverse leaf, which comes moulded as a single part. Care has to be taken to remove it from the sprue without breaking it, as, like a lot of parts in the kit, it is very delicate.
The steering box and shaft comes next. They are separate parts and need to be glued together before fixing the steering box onto the chassis. Apart from fixing on a couple of brackets, this pretty much finishes off the front end.
Onto the Rear Axle…