Build Log

The Fujimi kit comes with the hood already seperate and nice firewall detail already begging for an engine. Even the chassis has a nice channel that pretty much perfectly outline the engine bay and trans tunnel which I used as the guide to cut the hole for the engine. 

The Tamiya 500SL kit I at first ordered because it had a nice looking engine and the chassis part I thought I might be able to use. I later decided i really liked the look of the front and rear bumpers but will get to that later. 

Here is the built up Tamiya engine next to the Fujimi kit 

Cutting out the opening for the engine bay in the Fujimi chassis went much smoother than I expected and it was the first time I got use a needle scriber (it was the Tamiya .2 mm needle) and it was pretty fun. Then used a file to clean up the edges and now the engine bay is ready for its donor engine 

The Tamiya 500SL engine fit like a glove with only minor adjustments needed to the frame rail area to wider it a little more than I had originally cutout. I also cutoff the tab the connects the front of the chassis to the body and the surrounding area to the width of the engine bay opening (it probably would've fit without doing this though after I got everything together and checked clearance. I recommend keeping the engine cover separate up until final assembly as the engine doesn't got in too easily with it on. 

I really liked the look of the front and rear bumpers of the 500SL kit so out of curiosity I held them up to the 300CE body to see how they'd look and if they were even the same dimensions. 

Rear bumpers of both kits compared 

Rear bumpers of both kits compared 

Rear bumpers of both kits compared 

At first I thought the 500SL rear bumper was going to fit perfectly with no modification needed so I quickly got to cutting off the bumper of the 300CE. I then quickly realized the bumper was wide enough but the sides of the bumper were flared out quite a bit so i ran the bumper under the hottest tap water I could get for about 30 seconds and then quickly tried to bend in the sides of the bumper while holding it against the body of the 300CE. I think i did this process twice then once I had it where I wanted it while still holding the bumper in place I quickly wicked in some thin CA glue to hold the bumper in place to the body. While ideally I would've used plastic glue the bumper was still trying to bend back to its original position and I wanted it really locked in place for when I got to smoothing out the bumper 

After I glued the bumper on I noticed the bumper was much shorter in the wheel arch area than the stock bumper so some surgery was needed. 

I said well the stock bumper already has the correct wheel arch shape so why not try to chop it off and splice it in to the 500SL bumper and well for eye balling it I think it worked out pretty good 

 

Decided I wasn't happy with how wide the front bumper was and could've either attempted to remove the bumper, reheat, and then glue back in place but decided to try some Apoxie sculpt so shape the fender to meet the bumper line. Not sure yet how this will look once I get some paint on but figured it didn't hurt to try 

Kicking around the idea or bashing in some of the engine bay detail from the Tamiya kit so cut out some of the engine bay and did some test fitting of it in the Fujimi kit. It definitely makes the engine bay a little claustrophobic but does add some nice detail. I may decide to cut out the individual pieces like the coolant and washer bottle or section out the Fujimi wheel wells to drop in the ones from the Tamiya kit but not sure yet 

Decided the easier and cleaner option was to cut the individual details I wanted form the Tamiya kit out and then after some more trimming and checking alignment I then used Apoxie Sculpt to blend in the strut towers and to refine the shape on the Tamiya parts 

The Fujimi seats came with open backs so trace the back of the seats onto some flat styrene and then glued to the seats and sanded to fit. I then had some leftover Apoxie Sculpt and thought the seats looked a little bland so tried to recreate some seats pockets. They're a little crude and I need a little more practice with this but its better than what the kit started with