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Mercedes CLK "Original Teile" by Mike Sells The Mercedes CLK
is one of the best looking GT1 cars and one of the most successful, despite
the Mercedes team's recent experiments in cars that fly. I had one of
the excellent blue "Original Teile" models made by NINCO After removing
the original tampo printed markings, cut the rear window loose from the
rest of the glass, glue it in place and blend it into the rear deck with
body filler. This reduces the number of joints to be covered by the decal
- not enough, but it helps. After filling the rear window, priming and
painting, start with the nose decal, all in one piece. You will find that
small cuts with a sharp x-acto knife blade around the headlights will
enable the decal to settle down into the nooks and crannies much better.
This is a nerve-wracking process At the second
session, apply both large door decals and the white "Original Teile" decals
across the tail. The stripes should line You have two choices
at this point. If you bought two decal sets as I always recommend, cut
the second rear deck decal the same way you did the first, but leave an
1/8" or so overlap to the inside. ***It may be advantageous to stop here and clear coat the large portions so the constant handling needed doesn't damage them as you go along. Were I to do a second one, especially in 1/32 scale, I'd definitely give this a try. *** I tend to do one
side or end of the model at a time, working my way around. When all of
the decals are in place, let everything dry completely, gently wash off
the setting solution residue and cover the decals with several coats of
clear finish to protect them. The HO racer shown is a resin casting of a Maisto diecast mated to a Tyco chassis. Bruce's decals are used here as well and while it's an easier project because the individual pieces are much smaller and seem to fit the proportions of this body somewhat better, it still required several evenings of effort. The same process, including filling around the rear window, was used here. The rear wing is taken from the Matchbox Porsche GT1 diecast. I also used Bruce's HO scale wheel decals on ¼" styrene discs glued to the original wheels. Economically speaking, two sets of decals may seem to be a lot but I needed several small replacement decals from the second set as well as splicing the large rear deck markings. This model is available from Slot 32 in Germany as a custom job for just about twice what I have into this one. While I would not presume to compare my work with theirs - the custom Slot 32 'Exxon Tiger' Porsche GT2 I own is magnificent - this one means more to me because I did it myself. As we say on this side of the water: "You pays your money and takes your choice." |
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the shelf and finding that Bruce Paterson had decals available for the
exploded rear deck version, I decided that I'd try a conversion to the
later car. I will tell you right off the bat that this is not for the
faint of heart! Bruce's decals are first rate but there are a lot of markings,
his carrier film is extremely thin and fragile and they do not fit this
specific body as well as one might hope. Perseverance and patience count
as much as skill in this venture. I spent a week of evenings applying
decals beginning with the largest portions of the body, then adding successive
layers on top after the first ones had dried. 
but
take your time and apply lots of warm water when sliding the decal around
until you get it precisely where it belongs. Gently work the water out
from under the decal from the center to the outside, making sure all the
wrinkles are gone. Bruce has surrounded the decal groupings with thin
black lines but I found ads for the Tamiya 1/24 scale kit to be enormously
helpful for determining decal placement. When the nose markings are applied
correctly, add the white stripes and lettering to the roof above the windscreen,
lining the stripes up with those on the nose. When everything is in place
with all the bubbles and wrinkles removed apply decal setting solution
and quit for the evening. 
up
in rows, as before. Easy to say but do the best you can. If it gets too
intense, walk away for awhile; there's no rush, is there? Small cuts or
pin holes in the film at scoops and vents will help the decal snuggle
down when the setting solution is applied. The third session will begin
the installation of the large exploded rear deck decal. Cut it into three
sections down the length of the car, centering the cuts through the middle
of the vents on top of each rear fender. This decal will cover some of
the white roof markings which is why we applied those first. Be careful
moving the rear deck decal around so you do not affect the previous markings.
When you have the decal placed, cut a small slit at the rear edge of the
rear fender vent and work the decal into the vent. Add the setting solution
and leave it. 
This
allows for the extra material required by the rear fender vents and should
give you enough to wrap around the fender to the wheel openings with decal.
If you only have one set on hand, you'll have to fit the outside decals
in place the best you can and stop short of the wheel openings. The fit
is difficult because of the rear spoiler. When you have the best fit possible
- remember that small cuts may help the decal to lay down flat - add the
setting solution. At this point, all of the major markings are in place
and you can move on to the smaller stripes and sponsor decals. 
As
I said at the beginning, this is a tedious, difficult decal job to accomplish.
If you try to hurry it, you'll be sorry but patience will be rewarded
with a marvelous looking model. The model is from the box in all other
respects except for small brass jewelry rings used fore and aft for the
red tow loops.