What's on my desk? part 7.

A new Tuesday, a new blog post. :-)

First of all: the Mercedes. When we last looked, I had to repair some patches of the paint finish. This did not turn out well, so I decided to strip the paint and start over. I used VMS Clean Slate rmvr 3.0 (I hope to supply VMS products in the future. For now: have a link direct to the VMS page). An old toothbrush and old stiff-bristled paintbrush helped clean off most of the paint. Afterwards, with the help of an old knife blade and some sanding sponge, I removed the last remains and did a light polish of the plastic. A nice smooth black Vallejo primer was then applied.

Mercedes body, stripped of paint. The same body, now with a nice black primer coat.

Next up: a layer of Mr. Hobby H-021 Off-white, followed by a coat of GX-100 Super Clear III. This will provide a nice gloss surface for applying some decals. Two more coats of GX-100 will seal everything off ready for polishing.

The San Francisco cable car has seen some progress as well. The roof has been planked. This was a bit more difficult than I thought, because there's both a curve and a twist in the wood planks. Soaking them in warm water for 20-30 minutes softens the wood enough to allow for superglue to grip the planks and keep them in position.

First planks of the tram roof. All planks of the roof done.

At this stage it honestly doesn't look very good, but it still needs sanding, filling, end frames and more filling and sanding.

Detail of one end of the tram roof, showing big gaps and crooked planks.

I also skipped a few steps and started on the wheel bogies. These are composed of both wood and metal parts.

Picture showing the different assemblies making up the wheel bogies.

I made some subassemblies, painted everything black and then gave it a drybrushing of Ammo Drybrush paints: first an overall coat of Gun Metal (A.Mig-0622), followed by a lighter application of Light Metal (A.Mig-0621).

You can see the difference the second colour makes on these two wheels:

Two wheels, the left one drybrushed in just Gun Metal, the right one also with Light Metal.

My trusty Dremel was then used to grind the wheel rims to get a nice shiny metal effect.

Two wheels side by side, with the Dremel tool used to grind a shiny metal effect.

The bogies and axle holders received the same paint treatment:

Wheel bogies painted and drybrushed.

This week I hope to (finally) finish the Mercedes body, finish the tram bogies and sand the first layer of the roof. The second layer on the skylight should be a little easier, as it doesn't require the twist on the planks.

See you next week!

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