1903 Mercedes 60HP GB Race Car (Micromodels, 1/50)

    New project is this MC1 Micromodels kit from 1954. I'm starting with the Mercedes 60HP car that was used to race in the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup series.


    What you see is the copy onto 160gsm card..... My original kit (first photo) is stored away safely.

    I started with the seat pedestal and the two seats. The driver seat back is a different shape to the mechanic seat back. After cutting out, I c


    The seat backs were curved by rolling on foam with wooden sticks. The seat bases have one score/fold line each.


    To reinforce, and make easier to assemble, I cut replica seat bases from 1mm grey card and glued the red bases to them. I also glued similarly-shaped white card to the bottom of the grey card, to make them look better from underneath. Before assembly, I lightly-sanded the seat bases to get the correct profile.

    Here, they are assembled, together with the seat pedestal......

    The top ridge of each seat would be covered with padded leather. I may attempt to replicate this with brown thread or paint.

    Petrol tank..... This is in three parts. The main part required rolling and scoring to approximate the shape of the two side panels.

    Not sure why, but there was a gap after assembly.... It's possible that was caused by wrapping the panel around the two end pieces, but I followed the instructions to do that.

    So I cut a strip of the same colour from the card and glued it on top.

    I think this part will be hidden when the tank is attached to the chassis/body. When I have the positioning done, I will add a petrol filler neck/cap.

    Research indicates that the gap along the fuel tank may be part of the kit design (?), as this is where the mounting bracket sits and connects to the chassis side members. I can therefore use the strip I have attached for this purpose 👍🏻✂️

    Yellow filler cap added to fuel tank.

    Interesting that some parts are supposed to be yellow, like the filler cap, steering wheel spokes and handbrake/gearstick mechanism.

    I added a filler cap for the oil tank, using a very small screw (I have a selection of small parts such as this, taken from old wrist watches).


    The radiator and bonnet..... I glued the radiator, front bonnet former, and rear dashboard bulkhead to 1mm card to provide a more rigid framework. The dashboard bulkhead (on the right) is not printed symmetrically, so care needs to be taken.

    After cutting out.... The dashboard (top) has been trimmed to correct the printed error.

    I marked out the rear of the bonnet with median and score lines and started gluing the radiator and rear former (using support fillets in the inside).

    Radiator and bonnet assembled. I will add a filler cap then possibly paint the radiator surround with brass paint.

    The dashboard bulkhead rear face is covered with white card to hide the grey cardboard, and, likewise, a card strip will be glued around the edge perimeter.

    Filler cap added (plastic rod) and cardboard base added to the bottom to keep the sides straight.

    Card strip added around perimeter of dash bulkhead.

    Starting on the chassis.


    I scored the fold lines on the rear and did the preliminary folding. The middle section has lines that look as if they should be cut to enable folding if the curved sections (the instructions didn't say).

    I also cut some 1mm card to act as inserts and keep the chassis floor straight and rigid, and give the folded edges something to glue on to.

    Front assembly attached to chassis floor. It seems best to work from the front, backwards, in order to obtain the correct spacings...

    Oil sump attached to flywheel cover...

    I decided to thicken the front and rear driving sockets by doubling up on card...

    Sprockets cut out and edges blackened. I also drilled out the holes on the front sprockets (hole punch not small enough)...

    The seat pedestal was glued to the floor panel. Notice the hole I made (with an awl)..... And the piece of wire I will use for the steering column.

    The steering wheel assembly..... I glued the outline onto the rear of a piece of yellow card, then cut them out.....

    I also made the rim from a piece of copper fusewire......

    Steering wheel and column assembled. I used a small length of plastic tube as a boss to attach the column to the wheel centre.

    Not entirely happy with the colour, so will probably paint the spokes yellow.

    Seat pedestal and floor attached to chassis and front bulkhead.

    Where the dotted score/fold lines are exposed, I will cover them with thin lengths of card from the sheet.

    Thanks to Moritzamica2, I have lots of photos to work from. I decided to give the model an identity - racing number 4. To do this, I had a look through my stock of rub-down (Letraset) transfers and found suitable sizes (the fonts are close).


    There are numbers on the drivers seat, engine panel sides and radiator. Here they are......

    I plan to varnish the model when completed, which will seal the transfers.

    Here, I have started adding panels and strips to cover the dotted lines - along the chassis floor/bulkhead join, along the sides of the seat pedestal and the top of the seat pedestal. The seats will serve to cover the front ones.

    Seats now attached.

    I'm not sure if the kit is entirely accurate, as the seats seem to be too wide compared with the photographs of the actual vehicle. That's fine, as I don't want an exact scale replica - the inaccuracies are part of the charm of the early Micromodels/Modelcraft kits 😄

    The chassis side rails were cut out and attached. The rails are not printed as opposites, so the rear face of the card is visible for one of them. This presents a problem similar to the seat backs and the main bulkhead. Because the original card has a brownish tinge to it (lower quality was sometimes used, and ageing has an effect), this has been transferred to the digital copy - however, the rear face is much whiter 🙄 The difference can be seen in the rails......

    The above photos were taken after I darkened the seat backs using a light yellow pastel applied with cotton swab. This appears to have improved the 'white/off-white' mismatch, so I will repeat on the white chassis rail and bulkhead.


    I also attached the pedals...... I may also add dashboard instruments.....

    I'll do that HaJo!!


    Petrol tank attachment......


    I added a piece of 1mm card (coloured black) to the underside of the rearward floor, which acts as a spacer/glueing point for the petrol tank. Two small pieces of doubled card from the sheet are used as brackets to attach the tank sides to the chassis rails.

    Attached......

    Started on the wheels...... After cutting out, each spoke was scored and formed into a sort of V shape. This was done by forming over a pair of thin tweezers.

    Then the rims were curved to approximate shape and glued onto the spokes......

    The rear of the spoke)rim joins was reinforced with UHU......

    The completed wheels will be painted (probably yellow) when I make/add the axle bosses.

    Whilst I think about how best to make the tyres, I have started on the front axle. I doubled the card thickness on the main cross beam...

    Slowly glueing the caps on...

    It takes a while to form the caps and keep them in shape until the glue dries...

    Front springs...

    After gently curving them, they were attached to the front chassis...

    The front part of the springs are glued to mounting brackets made from plastic rod, that were, themselves, super-glued to the chassis horns. Once the front axle is attached, I will apply dilute PVA glue to the front spring/axle/chassis assembly.... as it is, it is quite fragile.