MF-01X Mercedes-Benz G 320 Cabrio Item #58629

[Rb4276 803]

13 minutes ago, Effigy3 said:

I started on the body yesterday afternoon.  This is my least favorite part of any build.  It's quite tedious.  Stage 1 of masking up the body took about 3 hours in total.  Then I laid down about 3 coats of the black for the soft top, bumpers and sills.

Then it took me all of 5 minutes to peel it all off and another 30 minutes to cut out and apply the remaining window masks.

Then I laid down 2 coats of teal, followed up with two coats of white backer, and followed that up with two coats of black backer.  I've found that I don't care for R/C bodies with clear windows that are completely white on the inside.  Then I carefully cut the overspray protective film off the soft top leaving it intact on the teal and windows and laid down two coats of clear matte which gives the soft top a very effective cloth appearance!

All that's left is to cut and apply the 79 decals and the hardware which includes the side mirrors (which I painted with TS-17 Aluminum Silver) and the grill emblem.  That'll most likely take me a few days because I can't do marathon decaling sessions.    My fingers and eyes get sore after an hour or so.

Looks good, I dread masking and painting

[Effigy3 1267]

Thanks!  In pictures it looks much more light blue and it does teal.  In real life however it most definitely is teal which becomes more obvious when sitting next to my Bronco.  Can't wait to get this Mercedes done so I can walk the trails with my wife and our R/Cs!

[Effigy3 1267]

Thanks!  In pictures it looks much more light blue and it does teal.  In real life however it most definitely is teal which becomes more obvious when sitting next to me Bronco.  Can't wait to get this Mercedes done so I can walk the trails with my wife and our R/Cs!

Double post.  

[Effigy3 1267]

I put the spacers into the rear suspension and I'm very pleased with how much slop has been removed.

 

[Effigy3 1267]

I started in on the decal job.  Two things of note to report so far:

1) You do NOT need to paint the sills black because there are decals (#10 and #11) exactly for that. 

2) If you apply the decals in numerical order you'll do #12 and #13 which are the horizontal stitching above and below the rear window.  Then #14 which is the vertical stitching on the sides of the rear window.  Because of how the decals are printed you'll want to do #14 first then #12 and #13.  I had to lift the ends of #12 and #13 and tuck the tips of #14 under.

[ChrisRx718 4470]

I have noticed a few mistakes with Tamiya decals on some of the newer kits, seems that someone isn't doing the proof-building so much these days!

I'm sure it'll end up looking great nevertheless. The whole black side-step thing caught me out with the Amarok rear bumper, a detail I missed in the build manual. Luckily it still looks OK!

[Effigy3 1267]

This took me about 10 hours to decal up.  Obviously there aren't a lot of decals (79) at least not a lot that are clearly visible!  So many for the stitching in the drop-top.  So many window trim pieces.  It's not even the quanitity that made this a pain but it's that they are all these looooong, narrow strips.  Most are just a couple of mm wide.  I think the finished product looks sharp though.  It still looks light blue in the pictures but it's most definitely teal.  We plan on taking it out on its maiden voyage in a few days.  I'll get some shots of it in the sun and include my blue Blazer along with.  Maybe then the camera will render the color correctly.

[TurnipJF 9192]

That looks great!

 

I am looking forward to reading about your maiden voyage with the car, specifically how it runs relative to your CC-01. I have read elsewhere that the MF-01X is closely matched performance-wise to a stock CC-01, and while I know from your build thread that your CC-01 is no longer stock, it would nonetheless be interesting to see if you agree or disagree with the aforementioned comparison.

 

It would also be interesting to read your views as to what it would take to make the MF-01X perform to the same level as your hopped-up CC-01, which appears to be a very capable trail runner.

 

[Effigy3 1267]

My wife and I hit the trails this morning.  She with her MF-01X and I with my CC-01.

Driving impressions:

As a general all-rounder the MF-01X is a great rig.  On the tarmac it's quite snappy.  Much more so than I expected with a Dirt Tuned motor.  On hard packed dirt trails it it excellent.  It feels more at home there compared to my 60T crawler motor equipped CC-01.  The MF-01X's tighter turn circle helps her out maneuver my CC-01 as well.  The MF-01X starts to show it's limitations as an aspiring crawler as soon as the roots or rocks get to be taller than 1/2 the OD of its tires.  She got hung up on roots and rocks that my CC-01 didn't even think twice about going over.  She also spun out fewer times than I expected but she did completely lose traction a number of times vs. my CC-01 traction loss count of zero.  I blame the smoother tread and harder compound of her stock Tamiya tires.  There's just no contest when my CC-01 is running KRT Kongs.  The softer compound and more aggressive tread pattern rules on the trails.

All-in-all she is very happy with her rig and so am I.  It's a wonderful all-rounder.  While she may not be able to completely hang with my dedicated trail rig on the trails, she leaves me in the dust once the trail smooths out or gets extremely technical.  She'll also be able to bash on the tarmac with my son and his TT-02.  She'll have a great time at the play park when I'm driving my SCT and my daughter is driving her TT-02B.  So if you're going to have just one rig and you want to cover a lot of different types of driving, I can't think of a better rig.

When we finished up on the trails, my wife picked up the pace in the parking lot and actually did a power slide parking next to our 1:1.  I was so impressed that I had to take it for a quick spin around the lot.  Then I traction rolled it. 

She was not impressed.  A couple of spays with the rattle can and she'll be right as rain.

[TurnipJF 9192]

Thanks for the great report! Makes for some thought-provoking reading. CC-01 or MF-01X for my next purchase? Hmm. Both are strong contenders and I will probably end up getting one of each someday, but which to get first? I will have to think on this further...

 

[ChrisRx718 4470]

Nice! Excellent pictures too.

When I first got my MF01X Jimny out on the trails I realised just how similarly it handled the smooth stuff as my TL01 rally car (in effect, they're mechanically very much the same!) and the dry dirt powerslides were what clicked in my head to go ahead with a drift car build in low ride height spec.

I think those tyres look better than the rally blocks we got on the Jimny too. The rally blocks simply aren't big enough to fill the arches or look anything like scale!

[Effigy3 1267]

1 hour ago, ChrisRx718 said:

I think those tyres look better than the rally blocks we got on the Jimny too. The rally blocks simply aren't big enough to fill the arches or look anything like scale!

Yeah, I bought a set of rally blocks for her to use off-road but the OD is just too small to really work with this body.  They look almost comical.  I'm going to slap on the 90 mm OD Kongs I have on my Bronco to see how they look.  If they fit well I'll probably order up a set for her Mercedes.  I just hope I can find a different rim than the stamped steel jobber I use on my Bronco.

[Aleblanc 57]

i recently finished my MF-01X G320 and I was wondering how you like the upgraded shocks? I like how soft the stock ones are but friction shocks are pretty bad overall. I'm using the Active front shock mount so I've got much more flex than stock (worthy upgrade IMO).

[Effigy3 1267]

I love the shocks but TBH the 900 CST oil they ship with is too thick for my purposes. An all surface rig like this needs soft damping so I plan on rebuilding them with 400 CST. When I do I'll report back how well I think it works out. 

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

I live in a small Bavarian village. We have one shop, 3 (three!!!) nail parlours and a garage. The garage has recently purchased some "Wolf" surplus vehicles from the German armed forces, refurbishes and sells them, hopefully with a good profit. 

During the last few months, they've sold some nice ones, but the newest one is by far the nicest so far. Honestly, I don't know is this is an ex German armed forces vehicle or not, but it's definitely a mix of several modelyears and a combination of the utlitarian type of G-Wagen sold by Mercedes Trucks and the "private vehicle" type sold by Mercedes cars.  Anyway, I think the tires are exactly the right size and the amount of off-road accessories is also appropriate and not over the top.

I still haven't painted the body for my MF-01X G-Wagen, and now I feel inspired!

("Wolf" is the German armed forces name for their Steyr Damiler Puch G-model.)

[Effigy3 1267]

1 hour ago, Mokei Kagaku said:

I still haven't painted the body for my MF-01X G-Wagen, and now I feel inspired!

 

This looks amazing!

[Ritchie 6]

Excellent build thread mate, I've cheated somewhat though and bought a kit with the body shell pre-painted.

That colour blue (Teal) looks excellent

regards