103 replies to this topic

[Len Carsner]

Unfortunately, life events have taken precedent over modeling for me these days. Bill has been slaving away to bring this project to its conclusion. Tonight we have a quick up date on his progress.




Two views of the first test fitting of the Revell 50 Olds body over the nearly completed interior/chassis etc. We’d recommend using something thin and flat (Bill uses a metal engineer’s scale) to help coax the body down over the interior and open things up just enough to allow the chassis to be moved into place.


Once the two-tone paints are thoroughly dry, the rubbing out and polishing can begin. Shown here are just some of the “tools of the trade” we use and recommend. Counter-clockwise: a small bowl of water and a well-used piece of 600 grit wet/dry automotive sand paper; Micro-Gloss white polish; three grades of sand paper, 6K, 8K and 12K; cotton swab, no-oil facial tissue and a piece of soft cotton cloth

Work carefully in sequence (600, 6K, 8K, 12K and then apply the white polish) so as not to take too much material away. Better to rub some more than to go through the paint and have to re-shoot things.



You could mask-off for painting areas to get a matte black finish but this for us was not one of those times. We use Testors Aircraft Interior black applied with a broad brush. Generally this paint levels out well and when thoroughly dry assumes a somewhat matte finish.


Here we carefully brush painted the headliner using Testors Euro Gray to stay with the general shades of gray interior scheme. Once the paint dries we’ll move on to installation of dome lights, window glass and sun visors.

Well, like I said, a small update so that everyone knows we're still at it. At this point Bill is nearly done. Me, not so much. But I'm working as hard a sI can to finish soon so we can have the big reveal.

Stay with us, the best is yet to come!

Thank for looking,

Bill and Len

[Len Carsner]

Another week, another update! Bill has his car finished and is relaxing while I work feverishly to complete my car. Good thing this isn't a contest or he'd beat me again! Anyway, here's one last update before the grand finale. It's getting really close!




For Lens car he chose a two tone scheme with Tamiya Maroon for the upper color and 1950 Olds Canto Creme for the lower. The creme paint came from Bob's Paint, etc. I hadn't tried his products before so i thought I'd give it a try.


At this point the maroon has been sprayed, dried, and covered before airbrushing the lower color. Bob's paint went on beautifully with little to no issues.


With the paint dried and the masking removed you get a real feel of the two tone effect. Time to set the body aside and get on with the chassis.


To go with the two tone interior I chose contrasting tan-brown colors for the interior. While not prototypically correct, I like it and that's all that matters.


Other than our choice of colors and a bit or detailing the chassis of both cars (street and race) look the same, as they should since in this era "stock cars" really were "stock".


Just like the chassis both cars engines are virtually identical.


The wheels are a tight fit in the tires, so I decided to assemble them first before the whitewall decals went on. I found that assembling the wheel front to the back, then pushing it in from the front and using a dental pick to pull the rear sidewall into place was the easiest method of them assembled. Don't forget to put the axle pin in place when assembling the wheels!


Not the best photo, but you'll get the point. Clockwise from the upper left: Tire before inserting the wheel, wheel and tire together, whitewall decal in place, and finally the trim ring and cap. A center emblem is on the decal sheet.


At this point Lens chassis is complete, waiting on the body to get its foil, lights, and ornaments. Let go back to Bills car.


continued.....

Edited by Len Carsner, 24 October 2012 - 04:41 PM.

[Len Carsner]

Here Bill is preparing to tape the clear parts into place in preparation for attaching them permanently. The question is always what type of glue to use. We recommend using ONLY white glue since it won’t attack the clear styrene and it cleans up with a moist tissue.

Bill also took note of the headliner which (though it’s not seen much once the model is assembled) looks to need a second coat of Euro Gray bottle paint.


At this point, Bill used low-tac painter’s tape to temporarily hold the clear parts in place until a fine bead of white glue can be run along the edges of each piece where it touches around each interior window openings.



Here are two views of Bill’s 50 Olds body in the process of having the exterior trim treated to an application of BareMetal Chrome foil. Bill says he finds cutting strips to length of BMF close to the width of the surface trim to be foiled to work best for him for this operation.


Note here some of the tools and materials Bill suggests for applying kit decals like the ones seen here on the Revell 50 Olds deck lid and hood. We always recommend using Micro Set (1) first and once the decal is positioned, Micro Sol to insure a clean, smooth and level application. Also, Bill has begun attaching the plated emblems front and rear. We recommend attaching those part with Elmer’s glue to avoid damaging smears or smudges that can occur with styrene or super glues.

We suggest that prior to applying any race car markings, the entire body be wiped down with a surface cleaner like Fantastik using a no-lotion facial tissue. This procedure will remove any oil and grim from handling and prepare the surface for virtual trouble free decal placement.


Note here the tools and supplies recommended for applying decals properly. Bill recommends trimming out each of the required decals as close to the edge of the printed image as possible. He used a small amount of filtered water and some folks also suggest a small drop of liquid household detergent in the soaking solution.


Make sure to use reference illustrations from the Revell 50 Olds kit instructions to get the markings positioned correctly. Page 11 shows the No. 87 Bill is building. Please note the direction the car number “speed streaks” are going. Both sides should be pointing to the rear for example.


It can be pretty tough finding accurate references for a race car from over sixty years ago. Thank God for the internet! Searching for BUCK BAKER 1950 NASCAR Oldsmobile brought up the two reference photos shown here of what is surely the restored or cloned version of this iconic stocker.


The end is rapidly approaching! Stay tuned, with any luck at all the final update will be up in just a couple of days. You won't want to miss it!

Thanks for looking,
Bill and Len

Edited by Len Carsner, 25 October 2012 - 01:34 AM.

[fredo84]

WOW ! Man !
That a really Nice job !

[Agent G]

I love it!

Look close though, the color pics of the real car have the "speed streaks" facing forward on the driver's side. I find that curious, clone car or not.

G

[tabsscale1]

Has anybody had problems with sink marks on the hood where the hood hinges attache underneath? My hood had some really bad ones that had to be filled

[Danno]

Good stuff.

[AzTom]

I love it!

Look close though, the color pics of the real car have the "speed streaks" facing forward on the driver's side. I find that curious, clone car or not.

G

It does look like they put a right side decal on the left side

All of the photos I found did not have the streaks.

The model is sure looking great.

[Fat Brian]

Has anybody had problems with sink marks on the hood where the hood hinges attache underneath? My hood had some really bad ones that had to be filled

Yep, mine had them as well. A little white putty and they were gone but it does seem odd to have them on a new kit, but the entire hood is odd since it totally lacks any underside detail.

[jjsipes]

Your builds are looking great.

I really need to get a couple of these but trying to support my so-called local hobby shops but they still have not gotten them in stock yet. Gonna check again today.

[Duntov]

VERY nice work!!!

[Gluhead]

Has anybody had problems with sink marks on the hood where the hood hinges attache underneath? My hood had some really bad ones that had to be filled

Yeah, seems they all do. That was the first problem I spotted on mine, so I had my brother check his just in case and the same for his. They're slight on ours, though...did you end up with deep ones?

[bryan_m]

nice work guys, these two builds are really shaping up!

thanks for sharing them
bryan

[midnightprowler]

Beautiful work guys. I use 5 minute epoxy for windows and chrome emblems, and use white cotton gloves for body handling during all of the final detailing and assembly work.

[1930fordpickup]

These are looking awesome.

[66belair]

That has come along nicely.Can't wait OT see it finished.

[Len Carsner]

We’ve made it to the end of this build. Good thing it wasn’t a contest to see who finished first, Bill had me beaten by miles!

We both started this project with specific cars we wanted to duplicate, so lets see who came closest to their goal.

We’ll start with my car. What I wanted to duplicate was this basic color combo but with a different upper color. Here’s my inspiration:



And here’s my result:






I really like the two tone combination of maroon over creme. As you can see the overall proportions look spot-on, and give you the feeling of looking at a full size car. The engine, as well as the chassis, look period exact and will no doubt be the fuel that powers many other projects.

continued....

Edited by Len Carsner, 03 November 2012 - 09:49 AM.

[martinfan5]

Very nice

[bryan_m]

that is beautiful! thanks for sharin it with us

cheers
bryan

[Len Carsner]

Now lets look at a picture of the car that inspired Bills’ project:


In many ways Bill chose a tougher road to go, as duplicating a race car can be difficult when there are so many people who may be familiar with the subject and may nit pick over details.

Here’s Bills’ result:






Here are five views of the finished, out-of-the-box build of the Revell 1950 Oldsmobile as driven by the late Buck Baker during the nineteen-race NASCAR Grand National season. This was the first year of this series using the GN moniker that was in place until the early 70’s when it changed to Winston Cup Series.



The finished Buck Baker 87 NASCAR Olds model strikes a handsome pose with the hood propped open here with a short length of plain guitar string. It congers up visions of Buck and the crew in the pits at a dusty, rut and pothole infested dirt short track prepping the racecar for a day of bone-jarring beatin’ and bangin’. Like they say…”that’s just racin”.  


Bill Lastovich was a steady hand in product development at Revell for many years. A great friend to Bill and me was lost earlier this year. Bill's passing was actually a great loss to the whole model car building hobby. The new Revell 50 Olds kit was one of Bill's pet projects. He was really looking forward to seeing it in production. When we were asked to provide this internet build/review of this long awaited model car kit, we couldn't help but feel like we were doing this one for Bill. And indeed, we are.

Well, we’ve finally come to the end of the road on this project. And while it may have been a long time between updates it was certainly not the fault of the kit as it was, as with all of Revells recent releases, an absolute pleasure to build.

And now that we’re finished it’s time to sit back and watch your 1950 Olds projects as they get posted to the boards and show up at contests. We hope you will enjoy this kit as much as we did.

As always we want to thank Ed Sexton and Roger Harney of Revell. Without them we would not have had this opportunity.

We’d also like to thank the owners of the forums that we post to, without whom we wouldn’t have this great space to discuss and display our work.

Finally we’d like to thank all of you that followed along with our build. Your comments and suggestions were very helpful and entertaining.

Thanks to you all, and we’ll see you again soon with another exciting build/review!

Take care,

Bill Coulter and Len Carsner