Hoffman

Hello Jürgen, Thank you for sharing your beautiful work on the Leo Models 8C 2900! You've inspired me to give it a try as well. Doing some research, I found these were offered in the Whitebox line, painted black (as you found) and also in the Hachette line, painted blue like the full size example #41029 at the Museo Storico Alfa Romeo. These models are difficult to come by in the U.S. but can be found doing an ebay worldwide search. I managed to pick up two of Hachette branded versions recently, one from Netherlands and a second one from Italy. They sat in Customs for several weeks but eventually made it to me safe and and sound. Jürgen, one thing I'm still working out is how to replace the Superleggera script and the 'Carrozzeria Touring Milano' badges after repainting. The existing ones on the models look great, like they were pad printed. To replace them, I suppose one possibility is to simply reduce digital photos of the full size articles and print them on clear decal film. What are your thoughts on this? Any ideas? Thanks, -TIM-

Beautiful, Mario! Great job. Thank you for sharing your paint technique too.

Wow, that is so cool! And, you're underselling how much work was involved to pull it off. Like, scribing the revised door lines in the Revell lower body, cobbling together the interior, etc, etc. You make it sound and look easy; the finished product is so nice. I bet the build photos would make peoples eyes pop. ?. Very well done, David! I like the '58 hub caps too. Now, don't forget to put an upper radiator hose on there before you take it for spin. ? -TIM-

Bob, thank you so much! This is very helpful. I'm going to try it out. Your approach seems very doable. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again,

Bob, love the tow truck! Tell us about your paint technique. What are you using to thin down the craft paint? I assume you're shooting it through an air brush? I've got some folk art paints too, and other similar acrylic 'craft' paints I'm intending to use. I was thinking about using wiper fluid as a thinner. Curious how you're going about it.

Incredible! Loved the Work-In-Progress thread too. Great work!

Very nice, Bob! I've been tempted to purchase one of these Shapeways bodies. Great to see one put together, and quite nicely. Thank you for sharing!

Great job, Mario! Really nice paint. Love the color.

That is amazing! Especially considering what the base kit is like. Fantastic! ?

Eric, you've waited long enough, buddy. Yep, finally made some more progress.

David, you are SO right. I did a few diecast makeovers just for fun, finally got past the mental block with this project, and ready to dive back in. Sometimes there's an initial rush from realizing something is possible, that with the right combination of pieces and scratch building you can actually pull it off. So you jump in with both feet, there's a flurry of activity, but yes, you can get burned out and need a break. By the way, I've noticed you're quite a prolific builder. I'm impressed by how you seem to be cranking out one fantastic build after the next, very high quality too. Awesome work! Last thing, your scripture quote is GREAT! and I just happened be reading those same passages a few days ago. ☺️ Thanks!

Bob, thank you very much! You've been really active lately, posting lot's of Cool stuff. Great work you're doing. Keep it up!

David, thank you, kind Sir!

Trevor, thank you so much! This thing has been a head scratcher at times, trying to figure out how to piece together something that will resemble the full size article. That's what we do though, right? ? I've enjoyed your work posted here as well. Thank you again!

Beautiful, Helmut. Thanks for sharing!

It's coming along. Hope you enjoy. ?

The wheels and tires have taken some effort as well. The Italeri tires are slightly too small in diameter, in my opinion. The hubcaps are entirely wrong. I found the Franklin Mint '32 Cadillac tires were slightly larger in diameter and looked pretty good. However, the wheels are too big in diameter, and the WIDE whitewalls don't look right on a '33. The 33's are closer to a medium white wall. the solution I came up with was to remove just the outer ring of the Italeri plastic tires, shrink down their thickness and outer diameter slightly, until they were the right size to pop into the Franklin Mint tires. I used the Italeri white walls. I cut out the wheel rim from the front half of the Italeri wheel/tire assemblies. For hub caps, I'm using Everbilt #10 nickel plated finishing washers available at Home Depot in the hardware department. That's the first part. On top of that, I'm using Monogram flipper hub caps from their '48 Ford kits, reduced slightly in diameter. The photos depict the component parts I'm describing, along one wheel mocked up with some red paint and Molotow trim ring to see how they'll look on the finished car. Now, a very good match for the full size '33 Cadillac wheel and tire. The last photo shows what the Italeri pieces look like out of the box.

I've been working on the chassis as well. I've got a Franklin Mint '32 Cadillac all-wheather-phaeton I'm using as a parts car for various projects. For this '33 Cadillac, I'm using the wheels and tires, and the pose-able front axle. Originally I was going to try to use the steering box too, which enables working steering, but the plastic chassis seems a little too light weight to hold everything intact to function properly. Getting all the moving parts positioned in exactly the right locations and angles was giving me some trouble too. So as a compromise, I decided to just make it pose-able. I fabricated a drag link from aluminum tubing and a pitman arm. I drilled and tapped the chassis and plastic kit steering box so I could run an 0-80 button head bolt in. This fastens the steering box to the chassis much better and functions as the fulcrum point for the pitman arm as well. I glued pin heads to the springs as locating pins for the front axle. I glued brass eyelets into the axle to reduce the diameter of the screw holes that were used to attach it to the diecast model. Now it pops into place on the Italeri plastic springs in the correct position. In these photos you can see currently just pinned together. The white plastic on the sides of the frame rails are where I shortened it to the 143" wheelbase this car has.

Finally getting back to this project, after about a year off, working on other things, and well, way too much working! Lot's of overtime. Anyway, glad to get back to it, and determined to finish it. So, the body work is coming along. I'm almost ready to tackle the belt line moldings. I've worked out the rumble seat. The trunk lid is mostly Johan '31 Cadillac, but lengthened and widened. The top cushion on the trunk lid is modified Monogram Duesenberg, with an AMT metal axle for a hinge pin. The bottom cushion is modified Johan '31 Cadillac again, this time narrowed and shortened to fit.

Fantastic, Mario! I appreciate the detailed response. I'll be on the lookout for your Duel truck. That was such a great movie. It's one of those you have to watch again every so often and it never gets old. ? Thanks!!

Terry, I've always enjoyed your work over the years. Great job! By the way, there's a feature on the Bangshift web page right now you should check out. It's Gene Winfield's recent party at his shop in Mojave. Several of the movie cars are in the article. https://bangshift.com/bangshift-galleries/gene-winfield-car-show-photos-the-2021-winfield-watson-custom-car-and-hot-rod-gathering-did-not-disappoint/

Mario, your model is great, and I love the photos! This might sound silly, but I'd love to see what your base looks like; the platform you placed the model on for the shot. The depth of field is really good. The background and foreground are not wildly out of focus or obviously distinct, one from the other. The way the model is positioned in front of the background, it looks in scale, blends right in and is very convincing. I've just been doing sort of 'in studio' photos up to now but would like to try outdoors. It looks like you know how to do this really well.

Very nice! What are the colors, exactly; the red and the blue, please?

Grant, that's radical! Very imaginative and excellent execution. Go Tillers!

Dave and Max, the truck looks GREAT! ?