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1935 Auburn Speedster - The Abysmal Lindberg/Pyro Kit Completely Reworked


Plastheniker

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Hi,

 

Though the Auburn Speedster is one of the really iconic cars of automotive history there never was any usable styrene kit.

Whatever you hear about the Lindberg (former Pyro) kit don't believe it - everything is much worse. The kit parts are crude and mostly out of scale. Fit is disastrous. A lot of important parts aren't replicated at all. Worst of all OOB the finished kit is so ill-proportioned that it looks rather like a caricature:

comp_VergleichOOB130-vi.jpg

 

 

After 60 years of modeling and several hundred built kits I think this is the poorest kit I have ever seen. Lindberg's claim on the box "Authentic Scale Model" is a joke even if you consider the age of the kit - Revell's kits of the same era are still usable.

 

After comparing the box content with an excellent scale drawing found on the web it was clear from the start that this would be a challenging and very time-consuming project.

 

As expected I had to convert almost every spot of the multi-piece body:

comp_VergleichDraufsicht130-vi.jpg
comp_VergleichEinzelansicht130-vi.jpg

 

All the rest of the kit was completely useless because it was so poor and so incorrect that it couldn't even be modified. Finally the finished model was half conversion and half scratch build, and my sacrifice of time exceeded 900 hours.

 

Since the proportions are now very different some more pictures than usual in my topics may make sense.

I hope the result is acceptable:

 

Auburn001130-vi.jpg
Auburn002130-vi.jpg
Auburn003130-vi.jpg
Auburn004130-vi.jpg
Auburn005130-vi.jpg
Auburn006130-vi.jpg
Auburn007130-vi.jpg
Auburn008130-vi.jpg
Auburn009130-vi.jpg
Auburn010130-vi.jpg
Auburn011130-vi.jpg
Auburn012130-vi.jpg
Auburn013130-vi.jpg
Auburn014130-vi.jpg
Auburn015130-vi.jpg
Auburn016120-vi.jpg
Auburn017120-vi.jpg

 

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That really is beautiful, Jurgen. I can see why the original would have inspired you to want to get it right, but it looks like a truly mammoth task, with a stellar result at the end. I don't suppose you took some moulds from the final body before building the rest did you? ;-P

Good to see you back again!

All the best,

M.

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Very fine indeed...but that's what we've come to expect from you.

I always knew this horrible old mess could make a beautiful model with enough applied (and highly skilled) effort, but all I've ever used it for is the basis for customs, and a parts source.

Your work here is the inspiration I've needed to make a pleasing stocker from it. And thanks for showing us all so much about how you achieved it.

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All I can say is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!    -I think that this is the most reworked build I have ever seen, its not the usual "hack job....fill it with whatever, and smooth it out" job, it looks like plastic surgery -pardon the pun. that convertible top looks REAL!!....how'd you accomplish that?

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