Final Update! '59 Buick.......8/13/06 Pg.4

[MrObsessive]

Well, to break up once again the superdetailing on the Ford............I figure why not build another curbsider? I have another Modelhaus kit which I figure won't give me too many fits.......so here 'tis.

This is another fine casting from The Modelhaus. This came pretty much as you see it here with very little flash and just some very minor cleanup.

The only flaw I can see in the original body that was used for a master, is that the rear wheelwells are not symmetrical from side to side. The left rear wheelwell shown here looks correct according to my reference photos.

Hmmmmm..........looking at the right rear however, I notice that the leading edge of the wheelwell, has a bit more radius than the other side. Careful filing and some sandpaper will fix that.

There is one small dimple on the right side part of the rear deck. I'll primer that and then putty and smooth it out.

This is the car I'm trying to replicate. I believe the color of this car is '59 Copper Glow.........but due to the inconsistencies of a computer monitor, I'm not 100% certain.

Front end shot of the same car.......Dig that mean scowl!!

Rear shot......................Buick called their fins "Delta Wings" in some ads back then.

Allright.............I got the body primered and will let it sit for a couple days before I try to fill any imperfections with Dynatron Putty-Cote.

Here's the paint I plan on using..........It's from Paintscratch.com. For us guys who like to airbrush but don't want to spend $30 for a pint of paint, these guys are a GREAT alternative! I'll let the body sit for a week or so (after some minor putty and reprimering) and then shoot about 5-7 coats of this.

Well stay tuned for this one.............later in the week I may get a chance to shoot some interior pics........not much to right home about there.......it uses a tub (uuuuuggghh!!! :evil:) Which means some of my "Obsessiveness" will have to come through to fix this.

I would definitely want to get this done before our show in September (Super September Showdown).

Thanks for lookin'! :mrgreen:

[GTmike400]

Cool project. Be careful with that paintscratch. It doesnt seem to like clear coat.

[BIGTRUCK]

Modelhaus stuff is all A-1 , cool subject and nice color , my old body just would shutter at all that foiling. This ones gonna look sharp..

[Wildrice]

I like that your building an unusual car. I'm sure it will turn out great like your other builds. Where is the show at?

[MrObsessive]

I was gonna use Tamiya Clear for the clear coat, (it's milder and not so "Hot") but I think I'll test it on something first before using it.The paint is an Acrylic Enamel so there shouldn't be too much problem. If worst comes to worst, I can always use Tamiya's water based acrylic clear.

The only downside to that is it's LOOOOOONGG drying time although a dehydrator would take care of that.

Bobby, the "Super September Showdown" is in Gilbertsville, PA on September 24th (Sunday).

It's held at the Gilbertsville Fire Hall and the address is..........

Route 73 1456 E. Philadelphia Ave.

The show runs from 9AM-2PM and there will be vendors there such as R&R, Fantastic Plastics to name a couple. If you want more info, you can get a hold of Len Feinberg (Fantastic Plastics) at 610-923-7534.

[Billy Kingsley]

That's also looking fine Bill!! Modelhaus products can be very addictive can't they? After I finished my Tucker, I wanted to get on their website and order one of everything they offer!

Maybe someday over the cource of years I'll actually be able to collect them all...Maybe!

For now, I need to order me a 61 DeSoto and bathtub Nash...

[GTmike400]

I was gonna use Tamiya Clear for the clear coat, (it's milder and not so "Hot") but I think I'll test it on something first before using it.The paint is an Acrylic Enamel so there shouldn't be too much problem. If worst comes to worst, I can always use Tamiya's water based acrylic clear.

The paint is a really weird Acrylic Enamel. Bob Downie, myself and a friend tried three different clears on it before finding one that wouldnt react. Its one of the Gunze paints (504 Gloss maybe?), ask Bob about it to be sure.

[MrObsessive]

The Buick is now painted as of this morning! While the color is nice...............it seems a little more brown than I thought.........that's okay as cars like this don't look so great in wild vibrant colors IMO.

Here's what turned out so far............

A couple of nits I have with myself is that I noticed a very slight depression in the roof which block sanding didn't turn up............also, a couple mold lines which I overlooked. It's no matter as this is just a shelf model to add to my '50's collection. The problem with resin models and mold lines however is if you try to get rid of them............you run the risk of sanding off details/contours which is very tough to replace with resin.

I'll let this sit for a few days and then take some 6000 or so grit polishing cloth and rub out some of the dusties.........and then clearcoat.

On the question of clearcoat.....I think I'll take the safe route with this one and use Tamiya's water based clear. Actually water based is a bit of a misnomer.................you have to use their thinner to prevent fisheyes, at least that's been my experience when using it in the past.

Stay tuned! ...........

[PatRedmond]

The color is different.....but VERY nice.

[Ken]

Color looks great Bill! Try to keep this project simple :wink:

[camaroman]

Nice job so far, Bill.

[GTmike400]

Bill thats a wonderful color! Suits the car well.

[Zoom Zoom]

Looking great Bill, nice color choice. I remember those old Buicks well from growing up in the 60's, their "scowling" front and rear always caught my attention. I think I have a restorable '59 Craftsman kit somewhere in the stash, and I restored a '60 model in silver w/a white top that looks pretty neat. Something about big GM coupes back then, they all had a classy style about them, especially the HT's.

I also need to reiterate what Mike said about clearcoating the Paintscratch.com paint because it reacted much differently than expected.

We recently airbrushed some of the paintscratch color (a single-stage Porsche IROC color called "Raspberry Pink" from the '70's that isn't intended to be clearcoated) onto a pair of models (one a test body), and Tamiya TS 13 clear, Gunze B 513 Mr. super clear gloss enamel, and U-Pol polyurethane clear all caused the paintscratch paint to lift/wrinkle in numerous spots on the test body (strange that it didn't happen uniformely). It was by far the worst with the U-Pol, causing severe wrinkling of the color coat (didn't seem to hurt the lacquer primer underneath). Careful wet block sanding and careful spot reapplication of the color over the affected areas repaired the damage w/o any need for stripping, but it's obvious that one has to use the mildest of clears over this paint to be safe. I would only trust Future, Tamiya or Gunze bottle clear acrylic, or Gunze's B-501 Mr. Topkote gloss clear acrylic. I always order extra cans of it when getting kits from Hobbylink Japan.

Gunze's B-501 clear from a spray can worked perfectly over the repaired areas, it's wonderful stuff as it goes on very smooth/glossy, dries almost instantly like Future (Tamiya acrylic clear needs weeks to dry in ambient conditions), but the finish is much stronger than Future, it's like Teflon-very smooth/glossy/slick and you can wetsand/polish just like other paints. It's also seemingly safe over decals as long as they and the underlying paint have dried thoroughly. I haven't airbrushed Tamiya X22 clear in ages, but I've seen how good it can look so I expect this Buick will be gleaming in no time

[MrObsessive]

Thanks for the info Bob!!

Yes, I plan to use the very mildest of clears for this car as I did a test on the Tamiya spray clear..................and it did react badly as you said. I'm not too worried about the drying time of the Tamiya bottle acrylic clear as the car won't need to be ready until September for our show here in PA.

The Tamiya bottle clear can be sped up a bit for drying if you put it in a dehydrator............however the caveat with this is if you're doing a white car------make sure the paint has dried a bit before putting it in the dehydrator. Seems as though the Tamiya will turn kinda "brown" where the paint has not tack dried yet. It doesn't seem to like to be sped up by heating.

Your right about the finish being hard as a rock when completely dry...................another thing I found out is that when it is dry, ammonia won't take off the clear as easily as Tamiya's regular colors!

I think in the future when I'm doing metallics (either Paintscratch's or some other brand) I will start using Tamiya's acrylic clears since the way I build..........I'm in no hurry anyway!8)

Stay tuned as later this week (possibly tomorrow), I will shoot the clear..............and then post pics as to how it turned out.

And yes, I too remember this car very well as a kid in the '60's as I thought they always looked kinda scary with that front end!!

[MrObsessive]

I got the body clearcoated using Tamiya's acrylic gloss clear (X-22)............and believe it or not it's thoroughly dry! Of course, I had a little help from the dehydrator, and I learned a few things in the process..........

First, resin bodies DO NOT like to be left in the dehydrator but for so long!! I left mine in for about an hour and I noticed a slight warpage in the body. I was able to fix this with no problem, but this reinforced the fact that I need a new dehydrator with temp control! :shock:

What I did then is dry the paint in steps.........no more than 15 minutes at a time for several hours over the past week. This worked out well as I can now rub out the clearcoat and polish it.

Here's a few pics.............

As you can see in the last pic, this clear rubs out and polishes very nicely! It's maybe not as durable as the other types of clears.............but this model will be in a case when finished---so that's no problem.

Pardon the dust the dust in those pics! I was trying to do some cleaning in the model room and overlooked some of the dust that settled in the model before the pics was taken.

As you can see, I mocked up the chassis for now. The wheels on this kit were VERY fiddly! I thought that the hubcaps mount on top of the whitewalls, but that's not the case. The hubcaps mount on the inside of the separate whitewall, so that the hubcap appears flush with it.

It was a bit more work to slice out the promo like tires.........but I think the result is lot cleaner otherwise.

Now, I have to tackle the interior..............this is gonna be tough because I absolutely refuse to use the interior tub that came with the kit. It's for a convertible, and in this thin pillared hardtop-------it just doesn't look right! :shock:

Yes, I told myself I wasn't going to be as "Obsessive" with this one....................but what can I say..........

:wink:

I have a junk '59 Chevy kit interior in mind..............hmmmmmm.....that should work with some changes!8)

Stay tuned..........

[PatRedmond]

Did that color brighten up in the drying process? It seems lighter.

Maybe it was the clear.

It couldn't have been your big paws.... :wink:

[MrObsessive]

Pat, I think the clear maybe did brighten things up a bit.............could be the camera had onions for dinner also when I took the pic after it was originally color coated!

Anyway, it does look a lot closer to the pic of the 1:1 which looks like it was taken in direct sunlight..........I may do that when the model is completely done.

[Mal.au]

That is a nice model and paintwork

Well done as alway Bill

[Ron Hamilton]

Are you going to do the "spinner" on the wheelcover, like the 1-on-1? The spinner add a little spice to those "flat" wheelcovers.

[MrObsessive]

Spinners??

I never even noticed that the 1:1 had 'em! I don't think I have anything at the moment that can replicate those.................It's no biggie as I want to try to keep this one as simple as possible!

(Well almost.......save for the interior-----I'll have more on that later...) :shock:

[MrObsessive]

Phew!!

Getting BMF on this thing was a CHORE!! The difficulty was guiding where the exacto blade should go because there were places that had no defined edge.

Anyway, for the most part the foiling is done, except for a couple emblems and the door handles.

LOVE the wraparound windshields of the late '50's early '60's! GM I think had the best looking windshields as not only did they wraparound the cowl, but also bend up into the roof of the car. Looked pretty sweet back then, but probably wouldn't pass safety regs if tried today!

This was the most difficult area to foil as there was no defined edge on the underside of the fins.

Both front and rear glass is now fully set in place...........later I'll clean up some of the epoxy stains on the foil. But the hard part is OVER!

Now I can get to work on the interior.............after that's done I can focus on getting the body to sit squarely on the chassis, and get the ride height correct.

Thanks for lookin! :wink:

[Zed]

Wow ! I really like what i see ! :shock: Can 't wait to see it finished ! :wink:

[MrObsessive]

Now about that interior...........

Hmmmmm................Looking at the interior, this simply won't do! I don't like the "doglegs" of the convertible interior in a hardtop! A fix is definitely in order.........

Another reason I want a new interior..............the rear shelf area is too long which makes the rear seat too far forward. For a conv, this is okay because of the space required for the folding top mechanism. But I just don't like it! Not to mention........the seat pattern is also incorrect for a hardtop Buick.

I swiped this interior out of a junk '59 Chevy Revell kit. The body had an unfortunate accident....(broken pillars) so this kit won't be totally wasted.

This is looking better already! The seat doesn't sit so far forward this time. Of course I'll have to do some tweaking to get it appear correctly in the body.

Here's most of the parts that came from the kit. I'm going to use the resin kits dash.........but it too will need some help!

I took a model coping saw and started to cut into the rear part of the floor. This was due to the interior out of the Revell kit being too tall.

I figure that this interior should be a natural since all of GM's '59 line had the same basic interior structure. Of course, this doesn't always translate to 1:25 scale models but it's always worth a try!

I'll have to grind away the '59 Chevy pattern and replace it with a Buick pattern.

Alright! Now we can add sheet plastic to replace that section of floor...............this will eventually be covered in flocking so any imperfections in the area that was joined, will be covered.

Here's one of two patterns I found for a '59 Buick on the 'net. This was out of a restored car, and looks pretty good, except I think it would look better if parts of the seats and door panels were red like the outside of the car. To replicate the "checkerboard" pattern of the interior, I ordered upholstery decals from Scale Motorsport. While not 100% exact, they're very close to what I'm looking for.

Here's the second choice I found.............I kinda like this arrangement a little better. The front seat is basically the same except the front is of course a split bench.

Thanks for takin' a peek and stay tuned!........

[PatRedmond]

Great thinking on the interior. I like that second scheme as well.

[BIGTRUCK]

Bill that ole Buick is hot lookin. How do you get that foil to lay down so tight, looks like it was a trim insert..