Christian's workbench

[Christian]

Nothing spectacular, but I thought I'd give an example to start with.

A Magnuson mail truck that I just received from Chester ... Dodge I think. I went to great length to use the original set of wheels and make them roll. It already has a coat of primer and will be painted white once I have fixed the (few) casting flaws.



Some of you will know that I am not satisfied with one kit in the works, and there are actually 28 other more or less finished models on my workbench at the moment - it's only that this one has the best chance of rolling from the assembly line first.

[skunk]

I like seeing the glimpses of white metal in the background... what could that be?

I find it interesting that Magnuson's resin castings come equipped with metal wheels, a strange choice of materials.

[Christian]

skunk said:

I like seeing the glimpses of white metal in the background... what could that be?

No metal. Those pieces are the chassis and interior of a Nissan Primera which I am transforming into a "street racer".

[Christian]

Time to dig this up again (and you have probably realized by now that I want more pictures on this board ).

This is the Andrepa Goliath GP 900:

A special model for me because I feel attached to the Goliath/Borgward make, and quite a charming little kit. As it is based on an EMS kit, which in turn was molded off a 1950s Wiking model, it has a few flaws (the most obvious is the oversized hood in relation to the rest of the model), but I don't mind. Will be finished in turquoise, just like a similar Goliath I saw pictured in one of my first Borgward books years ago.


A BS Design Bitter SC Convertible:

While the coupe has been available for almost two decades, the convertible kit is a bit rarer and was only produced for a short time. It comes with a plastic windscreen, which I will have to make fit somehow. The red resin still shines through the primer at this stage.


Here we have a Fiat 850 Coupe from MFM:

Painted in some kind of glaring green, with flat black highlights, this is obviously not going to be a stock version. Almost ready except for some chrome parts and final assembly.
(special note to Philippe: I don't know exactly about which MFM kit you were talking at forum-auto, but I really couldn't agree less. These kits are not horrible at all ... maybe not the best ones out there, and the interiors always need a lot of work, but they are pretty decent for the money.)

[cfesmire]

Beautiful castings Christian. And the photography is very telling.

[skunk]

I welcome your decision to supply more pictures! Especially when they are so interesting to look at. The MFM Fiat 850 looks great. My only MFM model is the Visa, which is so-so, but I think that it is one of his first efforts.

[charlieb53]

Love that 850.A few years back I had one that I intended to restore.Just never found the time and wound up selling it.

[Christian]

Everyone seems to be working on Cutter's models, so you will see some from me, too.

[Christian]

I see I need to do something about those image links (and about those models, too). Here's a test fit of the Kaiser.

[Christian]

Artitec has released more and more civilian models over the last few years, so this one caught my eye recently since it's a rather unusual subject. It's a 1932-36 Hansa-Lloyd Merkur III 4 ton truck, a predecessor of the later Borgward vehicles.

Availability of these kits is somewhat erratic (they prefer to sell them assembled and the kits are a by-product), so you have to be quick when you see them. It's surprisingly inexpensive for a professionally made resin kit.


Artitec 10.380 Hansa-Lloyd Merkur, € 16.80. Currently sold out, but the photos on their website are nice.


The kit comes in a largish box, but there aren't that many parts.


Cab, truck bed, chassis, four wheels & spare, hood, roof, a sheet with photo-etched parts and a little piece of clear plastic for the windows (cut to shape windows would have been nice). The instruction sheet is straightforward enough.



The huge resin sprues are rather annoying!

[Christian]

Close up views of the cab with engine, chassis and pe sheet.

[Christian]

Much better! Still needs a bit of a clean up, then I am going to dry fit and look at paint options.

[Christian]

It's getting there. I'll probably resort to brush painting as the instructions suggest (they list Revell and Humbrol paint numbers), although I'm not really looking forward to that. The alternative would be to spray paint, using a lot of masking tape in the process.
Seeing that I'd like to get this finished one day (hello Magnuson mail truck from 16 years ago!) I'll handle this pragmatically.