Mercedes W125 and Auto Union Type C - Airfix Prewar Cars
Soon after launching its slot car range in the early 1960's Airfix offered up slot car versions of these two pre-war racing cars, the Mercedes W125 to the left and the Auto Union C-type to the right.
Work Progressing............
Here are the Airfix renditions, the Merc in white plastic and typically numbered 6, and the Auto Union in yellow, typically numbered 3.
Yes, I know these cars were SILVER in real life, but I am retaining the Airfix colours, plus the mentioned numbers.
I'd say the Airfix offerings are more representations that accurate scale models - for example, the louvres on the Auto Union's engine cover are in completely the wrong place. Nonetheless, I will be correcting what I can, and detailing them up a bit.....
Here's what I'm working with - piles of bits really, but I do like to recover what I can from these.
The Merc shell will be stripped of paint, back to the original white ABS; it will also need a rear axle, motor and steering unit from my spares box.
The Auto Union - I have most of one used car, plus a body kit to work with, and again I'll need some bits like the motor and axle bearings from my spares.
Wheels above -
Apart from the hiding the screw through the front wheels trick already mentioned, the rear wheels have been improved by adding a thinner rim, and the fronts replaced with Airfix Ferrari 156 Sharknose ones instead ( thinner rim, better spokes ). All wheels dechromed, then rechromed with Bare Metal Foil, and black-washed to bring out details. New hubs and spinners made and added. Finally, wheels fitted with new-old-stock original Airfix tyres.
Firstly I did the chassis. Both have had an airfix 'cube' motor added from my spares, the motors being done up by blowing all the rubbish out, then lubing the bearing points with WD40, and replacing the carbon contact brushes with new-old-stock ones.
Braids have been rplaced with new overlength racing braid - overlength to allow some spare to be folded up in the body, to be pulled through later as braids wear.
The Merc above left - I didn't have the right motor with an axle bracket directly attached to it, so I fitted brass axle bearings to the shell instead, opening up the holes in the chassis/body to fit.
The Auto Union above right - shows a modified driver's seat, and hands added to the driver. Note particularly the front wheels - visible rotation screw has been hidden by splitting the front wheels, putting the screw in the back half, then the separate front half simply held on to the back by the tyre.
The underside of the upper shells - the Auto Union has had the bulkhead behind the cockpit extended, and the interior of the shell painted grey to limit light intrusion, as the yellow plastic is quite translucent. The Merc has had the cockpit opened up as much as possible, floored with black plastic card.
These undershots show two versions of the steering - by the later 'keyhole guide' blade on the Merc, and with the earlier 'twin pins' on the Auto Union. Note also 'Airfix' logos on the underside of the lower shells.
Finished !
Improvements / additions made are the leading arms to the rear axles, raised panel lines reversed and hollowed out with extra ones added, chrome frames to the windscreens, more detail to the fuel and radiator caps, engine cover tiedown clips, and some missing louvres ( low down on the bonnet of the Merc, and behind the rear wheels on the Auto Union ). The Auto Union has also had added an air intake in front of the windscreen, plus wing mirrors.
The main body colour on both is simply that of the plastic - no paint. Panel lines and louvres have been lowlighted with dark grey and brown respectively. The front grilles were all chrome originally, which I painted matt black then rubbed the paint off to bring out the chrome grill bars again. The drivers are painted off in matt enamels.
Numbering - black Letraset rub-on decals on the Auto Union, and the red numbers on the Merc are painted, using the backing sheet off some vinyl stick-on numbers as a stencil. The make badges on the noses are from an MRRC decal sheet.
Finally the shells have been given three coats of Klear floor polish to gloss up and lock down the decals, with Humbrol Clear Cote on the chrome to help stick it down and protect it.
A bit of cockpit detail visible here - I added new scratchbuilt steering wheels of the right size, plus dashboards with some dials on.
