Alan Keller's

1/8 Scale 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing by Eaglemoss

In my mind, there are a few camps when it comes to model building. There are those who use a kit exactly as the manufacturer intended. It’s bought and then built per the instructions and box photos. The builder uses the kit parts to build the model as manufactured. Then, there are those that use the kit as a canvas for modification or customization with no intention of building “box stock.” Their completed kits may not resemble the manufacturer’s photos at all. Finally, there are those in the middle; those who want a result very much like the manufacturer intended, but improved. I’m moving from the first camp to the last. I’ve been building models for over 40 years and I’ve always used what came in the box to try to get a result like the pictures on the box. That was, until this model.

The Mercedes Gullwing is my absolute favorite car. If I could own a real one, I would. It wasn’t an easy decision to take the plunge into a model car subscription, but I wanted the car so I placed the order with Eaglemoss. Like all models, subscriptions provide quite good, but still imperfect, results. There are always some places where they’re lacking. For me, for the Gullwing, it was the interior. I never cared for the red. I thought the parts seemed a bit cheaper than other interiors. Also, I already had a favorite color combination. I immediately started looking into how I could change the interior.

Looking through Model Motorcars site, I’d seen others’ builds with real leather upholstery. I’ve reviewed some of Paul Koo’s DVDs where he shows upholstering, usually on Pocher Classics. That was how I needed to proceed with my Gullwing. I reached out to Marvin for color samples, finally made a selection, and bought my leather. At the time, Joann.com(Joann fabrics) had an online tool allowing customization of fabric patterns. I was able to create a very good likeness for the Mercedes plaid in real fabric. Armed with the upholstery material and some scale rivets, I was off and running. Those materials allowed me to convert the Eaglemoss red interior to what you see here. Other than the interior, there was a bit of detail painting, but the rest of the build is mostly stock Eaglemoss parts.