Hooper & Co Diorama

[Anglia105E]

16 minutes ago, landman said:

1956 Chevrolet Bel Air.

Thank you, Pat....... and if I had to guess before, I would have said a '57 Chevrolet Bel Air, so it is nice to know it is actually a '56.

Your grandson will appreciate such a fine motor car, I'm sure.

So as I understand this, and from the viewpoint of an Englishman, the city of Blaine, Washington and the city of Surrey, British Columbia are connected by the Peace Arch Border Crossing. Now that I have the height measurement for this Peace Arch structure, I am wondering where I can find the width and depth of the arch. Perhaps some further ' Googling ' is needed. I can see three motor car models as part of this diorama, the Hudson, the Pontiac and the Rolls-Royce, also the Peace Arch itself, then some grass and a clear blue sky. The arch is entirely white, with some lettering and some plaques. There are the two flags and flagpoles on the top of the arch, both the US flag and the Canadian flag of course. Maybe I can do this, and the diorama should not have a particularly large footprint (baseboard). The height of the structure would rise to 31.5 inches, which is around 10 inches taller than my Hooper & Co. building.

Photos below show the Hudson ready for the painting. The roof is masked off, and this will be either Antique White on the left of the hood or Ford Ivory on the right of the hood. The Antique White looks closer to the Honey Cream that is the original Hudson colour. The Rolls-Royce Balmoral Green metallic cellulose lacquer is pretty close to the Hudson colour, which is Meadow Green (opalescent). The model car body is not attached to the rolling chassis / interior / engine bay parts, so can be lifted off during paint spraying.

David

[Anglia105E]

The Moebius 1953 Hudson Hornet has the lower body paint colour applied, which is the Rolls-Royce Balmoral Green (metallic), and this is a cellulose lacquer paint finish. Having removed the masking tape from the roof section of the model car, I have now masked off the lower body area so that the Rustoleum Antique White paint can be applied to the roof, and also the exterior sun visor. This Antique White is quite close to the Hudson Honey Cream, and will be applied over the Halfords White Primer.

The Balmoral Green does look very much like the Hudson Meadow Green (opalescent) when photographed in fluorescent light.

Currently testing the Rustoleum Crystal Clear gloss coat, which I have applied to the Pontiac Bonneville body shell, and this allows me to see what effect the clearcoat has on the three types of paint. The clearcoat will probably go on before the Molotow Liquid Chrome Pen, and I am still not able to source any BMF at all.

When completed, this Hudson will be photographed in a diorama setting, and most probably the Hooper & Co. diorama at this stage.

David

[DonW]

I'd love to have seen the reaction of the Hooper staff to the sight of a Hudson gracing the front of their premises!

[Anglia105E]

7 minutes ago, DonW said:

I'd love to have seen the reaction of the Hooper staff to the sight of a Hudson gracing the front of their premises!

Yes, I know, Don....... it would have been most unlikely to have seen a Hudson Hornet parked outside the showroom at 54 St James's Street around 1958, and you can imagine the reaction of such people...... Only this morning I received a magazine from the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club in the post, of which I am a paid-up member, and there was a photograph of a 1950's pink Cadillac that used to be parked on a Luton roadside. The comment from the RREC editor was " Vulgar doesn't do it justice ".

David

[DonW]

1 hour ago, Anglia105E said:

Yes, I know, Don....... it would have been most unlikely to have seen a Hudson Hornet parked outside the showroom at 54 St James's Street around 1958, and you can imagine the reaction of such people...... Only this morning I received a magazine from the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club in the post, of which I am a paid-up member, and there was a photograph of a 1950's pink Cadillac that used to be parked on a Luton roadside. The comment from the RREC editor was " Vulgar doesn't do it justice ".

David

😊

[Anglia105E]

I discovered some interesting information while researching ' Hudson in England ' this morning.......

 

In 1922 Hudson-Essex Motors of Great Britain Limited was formed, with new premises on Dordrecht Road, in Acton Vale. Over 100 agents were appointed to sell the vehicles resulting in 2,000 sales in the next 12 months.

In 1926 a factory was built on 4½ acres of ground on the recently opened Great West Road in Brentford. The plant opened in 1927 and a year later a three-story building was built as a service department for Hudson and Essex vehicles. The factory assembled the vehicle chassis locally but the bodies were imported as complete units from Detroit.

From 1932, the bodies came over from the United States in sections to be assembled at the Great West Road factory. After the Essex marque was retired in 1932 the British company was renamed Hudson Motors Ltd.

Because of the Hudson-Essex factory, the Chiswick roundabout (the junction of Chiswick High Road, North Circular Road, South Circular Road and the Great West Road) became known as "Hudson's Corner."

The Acton Vale area of England, and also the Great Western Road, is very close to where Hooper & Co. had their factory on Western Road in Acton, so this is the link that I was looking for between Hudson and Rolls-Royce.

David

[landman]

So it was possible after all.

[Anglia105E]

1 hour ago, landman said:

So it was possible after all.

Also in Canada, there were Hudsons...... Pat.....

Canada

Canadian assembly of Hudson vehicles commenced in 1932 by Hudson Motors of Canada in Tilbury, Ontario. The factory building was owned by Canadian Top & Body Co. which built the motor bodies for the vehicles. The first models assembled were a series of Hudson Eights. World War II interrupted operations and production ceased in 1941. Post-war operations resumed in 1950, with Hudsons being assembled by CHATCO Steel Products in Tilbury, Ontario. Operations ceased in 1954 following the Nash-Hudson merger that led to the formation of American Motors Corporation. Toronto-based Nash Motors of Canada Ltd. became American Motors (Canada) Ltd. and all subsequent AMC operations continued in Toronto until its closure in 1957. Local production of Ramblers resumed after AMC's Brampton, Ontario plant opened in December 1960.

David

[Anglia105E]

Having placed an order for some Bare Metal Foil from an Ebay seller in Germany, I am now waiting for the paintwork on this Hudson to cure. This Ebay seller is the same one that sold me both Hudson kits previously. Most probably, I shall use the BMF for the long chrome strips along the sides of the car, and maybe the Liquid Chrome Pen for the window surround mouldings. The Crystal Clear coat will not be applied until the chrome work is all done.

In the meantime, I have drilled two holes up through the roof, from inside the car as indicated in the Moebius assembly instructions. These two holes are for the locating pins on the external sun shade. Applied some decals to the engine bay, painted the headlining inside the roof and drilled out the locating hole in the hood, which is for the hood ornament.

David

[Anglia105E]

Today I decided to go ahead with the Rustoleum Crystal Clear gloss coat for the Hudson body, and the BMF work will be done over the clear coat. This is a change of plan. For the application of the clear coat, the hood was dry fitted, along with the sun shade and the gas filler flap. Also, while I am waiting for the clear coat to dry and cure over the next four days, I set up a short photo shoot, using the 1:43 scale diorama as a setting. This features the bus stop and the lady pushing the pram. Some of the shots are in B&W and some in colour. Lighting source is one daylight bulb of 100 watts, from a low down position.

David

[Anglia105E]

An idea came to me yesterday, quite out of nowhere really....... Maybe if I constructed a 4-post Lift on which to display the Hudson Hornet, this would allow me to photograph the underside of the car, which has lots of interesting detail and carefully painted parts. The 4 post lift would be entirely scratch built, from pieces of styrene and foamex. I did have a look at the idea to 3D-print the lift, but when a 1:64 scale lift comprising 8 parts is scaled up to 1:25 the model is too big to fit onto the build platform of my A8 3D printer.

As well as displaying or photographing the Hudson Hornet on this 4 post lift, it would be nice to do the same for any other model cars that I have in my collection, in both 1:25 and 1:24 scales. The 1968 Pontiac Parisienne 4-door would be the largest car to position on the lift, and the 1955 - 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Clouds are not much shorter. There are 4 post lifts in kit form available on Ebay, but they don't look all that realistic, and in any case they would be too short for the 1:25 Hudson and Pontiac cars. The 4 post lift model should not be difficult to build, as it is a fairly simple structure when broken down into component parts.

David

[Anglia105E]

The 4 - post hydraulic car lift is nearly done........ The lift is entirely scratch built, and I used lengths of aluminium channel for the corner posts. After coating all parts with red primer, the lift has a final coat of Humbrol Acrylic spray, in red gloss. The two ramp extensions at the front of the lift are freely hinged. I scratch built a control unit for the left-hand rear post, and ran a black hydraulic pipe from the control box to the ramp.

Here are a few photos of the almost completed model.

David

[landman]

Niiiiice!

[Anglia105E]

15 minutes ago, landman said:

Niiiiice!

Thank you, Pat !

David

[landman]

Ihave to build one too, at least a two poster, to replace theold fashioned one in my diorama.

 

[Anglia105E]

10 hours ago, landman said:

Ihave to build one too, at least a two poster, to replace theold fashioned one in my diorama.

 

I did look at the two post lift, but decided that a four post lift would display better, particularly for the larger cars like the Pontiac and the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.

Also, the lift has to look right for the 1950's in my case. Certainly, I have enjoyed putting this lift model together, and I learned quite a bit about car lifts from researching YouTube videos and photos of the real thing. This is just one more of the interesting aspects of our hobby.

David

[Anglia105E]

Now that the 4 post hydraulic car lift in 1:25 scale is completed, I decided to take some outdoor photos. For this I used the Hooper & Co. grey baseboard, which has a drainage grate for added interest, and the vehicle is a 1994 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 SWB...... The 4 post lift and small baseboard is a mini diorama as a standalone model. This Pajero model is from an Aoshima 1:24 scale kit. Forgot to show the ramps in the raised position, as time was limited.

Thanks for looking, guys !

David

[Anglia105E]

The 1:25 scale Moebius 1953 Hudson Hornet build is completed, which has taken 6 weeks and 4 days in the making. Here is a photograph of this fine motor car, along with it's proud new owner. This has been a most enjoyable build, I must say........ I am extremely impressed with the build quality of the Moebius kit, and I do have a second Hudson, should I get the urge to build another pretty soon!

As soon as weather conditions improve outside, I shall be taking some photos of this Hudson up on the 4 post hydraulic lift, as a standalone diorama.

David

[Gramps46]

I am impressed indeed.  Your color choices are a perfect fit.

[Anglia105E]

3 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

I am impressed indeed.  Your color choices are a perfect fit.

Thank you, Gary......  and I did try to get the actual Hudson colours, in Meadow Green (Opalescent) and Honey Cream, but they were simply not available in England......

The Rolls-Royce Balmoral Green (Metallic) and Rustoleum Antique White have turned out to be reasonably close, I think.

David

[Anglia105E]

Here are the results of two photo shoots......... The first batch of photos was taken outdoors, featuring the Hudson Hornet on the raised 4 post lift.

The second batch of photos was taken indoors, featuring the Hudson Hornet inside the ground floor showroom of the Hooper & Co. building.

Twin ' H ' could mean ' Hudson ' and ' Hooper ' ?

David

[landman]

Lovely.

[Anglia105E]

7 hours ago, landman said:

Lovely.

Many thanks, Pat......... As soon as I can get the 3D printer repaired, there will be a 1:24 scale grand piano printed, painted and assembled, ready to go into the ground floor showroom at Hooper & Co.

David

[Anglia105E]

The 3D printer has now been upgraded with several replacement parts, and I was able to print all the nine parts of the 1:24 scale grand piano. One of the following photos shows the mock-up of the assembled piano model in blue PLA, before paint and glue are applied. Using a failed 3D print of a raft for the first attempt at printing the piano body, I found this to be perfect for the strings. These have been painted gold, and will be glued on top of the wood frame later. This brings the total number of parts to ten, and there are five further parts that make up the piano stool and seat. Already, a base coat of grey primer has been applied, and over this will go a coat of black gloss, followed by a final coat of yacht varnish. Two separate parts make up the keyboard, one painted white and one painted black. There is a piano lid support and three legs.

This piano build has been most enjoyable, and I am sure the model will photograph really well within the Hooper & Co. showroom.

David

[Anglia105E]

Here are a few attached photos of the 1:24 scale grand piano that I have just finished building. Some of the parts are 3D printed, while some parts are made from sheet styrene, and bits of wood. Mainly spray painted from aerosols, with some brush painting also.  I used orange automotive filler primer spray, with a topcoat of Halfords gloss black enamel. The piano body has a final coating of yacht varnish to give it that high gloss shine. I printed the gold lettering for the ' STEINWAY & SONS ' just above the keyboard, after scaling down to size. Covered the piano stool seat with real leather and painted it with Vallejo black acrylic, once it was glued in place.

David