So I was looking for a quick easy kit to throw together over the Xmas holiday and spied MB’s cute little Mercedes (MB 35100)…or I could buy a different box which included figures. I chose the former, but when I opened it at home – surprise! Figures included. Thanks for the freebie MB, I just hope they’re not the early ewok-sized renditions.
I’m not sure if this is their own production or a re-badge, so I don’t know who to blame. Well maybe that’s too harsh, the level of detail is actually quite good for the money but the designer’s idea of what makes a positive bond/locating point for joining small parts (actually most of the parts) is wildly over-optimistic. As for the “artist’s” idea of useful instruction diagrams (seemingly from CAD renderings), most of the time an arrow points in the general vicinity of an approximate area not un-adjacent to the overall position where the part could, or kinda sorta might be fixed to…or maybe a bit to the left – no locating points provided. The only hope is to study later diagrams for some clue to actual location, and as a final flourish they just let you guess where the window winding-handles go – it turns out not quite where you’d expect. Another issue was the number of fragile parts which had already snapped on the sprues.
This was always going to be an oob build, I was thinking of it as a potential wreck but the above difficulties are strangely and inexorably forcing me to complete it intact. I guess I’ll see what it looks like at the end, but it’ll be more difficult to wreck a finished vehicle than to incorporate damage during the build.
As for the construction, the chassis’ weight is probably 50/50 plastic and glue. In these later progress photos all the main components (body, doors etc) are dry-fitted because there are some obvious fit problems to rectify. When that’s sorted, it’s on to the paint stage…unless I riddle it with bullet holes first.
Is it a good kit? No. Am I enjoying it? You bet.
