RSchnell

Like Bill posted, Testors is still in business. What part of FL are you in John?

Here is the finished build of the Hubley Ford Coupe I posted about in this thread. Not happy with the pinstriping, but for a shelf sitter it's just fine. Those old metal kits aren't the most detailed and take some work to get the flash off, but they are fun to build! Colors are Tamiya TS-55 dark blue, Tamiya TS-14 black and Humbrol 89 blue wheels and stripe. I was going for the combo of the original Lombard Blue/Black with Hessian Blue wheels & stripe that was offered on the 1:1 1930 Fords.

I always wanted to build the Duesenberg Hubleys. I had a Hubley '32 Chevrolet Coupe on my desk when I had the resto shop. A customer bugged me about that car for 2 months. I ended up giving to him when he came to pick up the '55 Thunderbird I was working on for him. Come to find out his first car was a '32 Chevy Coupe way back in the day. Would like to build more of the Model A Hubleys for the second & third times, but I can't bring myself to pay ebay prices so I keep a look out at shows & model swaps.

Those are nice, I may have to see if my local Ikea has any. Those would sure work better than the Vans shoe boxes/ziploc bags method if parts storage I use now!

Interesting pair I spotted last night. You don't see many of these older LTD Crown Vics on the road like you used to. As for the second pic, sorry for the poor quality, it's a screen grab from my dash cam. Not sure what kind of car it was, but if you look close you can see the cords showing on the tires- and little wonder why! I hurried up and got around that piece before one of those tires blew.

This was my first chance to use a Molotow chrome pen that I picked up the other day. While it won't replace Bare Metal Foil I think it's great for small pieces and touchup where a chrome part gets cut off the sprue. I used the same Humbrol 89(close match to Ford's Hessian Blue) that I painted the wheels with to do the pinstripe. I couldn't find my box of real pinstriping brushes so had to improvise, but for a car that is going to sit on the shelf with the rest of Hubley Model A's in my collection it will be just fine. The brown Coupe is one my grandfather built in 70s. You can always spot a 70s restoration of an early 30s car-it seems 90% of that era cars were painted in two tone brown/tan with orange or red wheels when they were restored! After some cleanup and touchup I'll post the finished build in the Under Glass section.

Here's the final installment of this build thread, ended up going back to work so that cut my "covid quarantine build" short. Here's a few shots to bring it up to date. I used the kit windows as patterns to cut new ones from a fresh sheet of clear acetate and glued them in with Humbrol Clearfix. At this stage I have the interior done and painted window frames to simulate the original car even though you won't see much when the roof is installed.

Those are great! My dad had a '31 Tudor in Chicle & Copra when I was a kid and my grandfathers A-400 was in Chicle & Copra also so that color combo remains a personal favorite after all these years.

Resisted the urge to buy a couple kits at the LHS, but picked up a few supplies. Never tried the Molotow pen, figure I'll give it a shot this weekend.

Got some of the stash organized, these are mostly kits I've picked up at the last few swap meets and shows.

That lathe is awesome! I need to find one of those. I got into model building from my grandfather who built everything from stick & tissue model airplanes to model cars. I still use some of his model tools when I sit down at the desk-which was my great grandfather's desk he used at his auto parts store in the 1920s. I guess the desk counts as a tool too!

It'd be hard to make a complete list of my favorite tools as they are all my favorite otherwise I wouldn't have them. One of the most versatile tools I use daily are 1-2-3 Machinist blocks. They have many uses from aligning parts, small parts drying rack, etc etc.

A 68-B Hubley Cabriolet is on my build list(and a Sport Coupe). I've built a couple of 1:1's for customers years ago. One in Bronson Yellow/Seal Brown and the other in Andalusite Blue. Here is the A-400 and Closed Cab Pickup. These were built back in 1993-1994 so they are showing age and on the list to get freshened up. I used the Hubley Victoria, cut the rear section out as the Vicky has a bustle back and the A-400 has a rear section like a Model A Sedan. I used sheet brass to make the rear section, the apron that goes between the fenders, the bumpers, bumper brackets and luggage rack. Cut the rear quarter windows and reshaped them with brass rod and JB Weld. Once I got it roughed in, everything got a coat of Nitro Stan Putty. To convert the Victoria top into an A-400 top was pretty straightforward. I may just leave this one as is and build another one from scratch with more detail. The Pickup is the same sheet brass & JB Weld recipe. In fact the Pickup was practice for the A-400.

Here's where I'm at as of tonight. Got everything primed, sanded the body & fenders, maybe I can spray tomorrow if the weather holds out. Got the chassis together and started painting all the little parts, seats, headlight bar etc.

I stopped by my local HL today and grabbed a few kits. See "what did you get today". One thing I noticed since my last visit- they have shrank the kit section to add more gundam & stars wars type stuff. Looks like they cut out some armor & aircraft, car kit selection looked to be unaffected. Didn't want to grab pics as there was an employee doing inventory in the aisle.

Hit up Hobby Lobby for the first time in a few months, grabbed the Model T, Torino and '64 Cutlass. The '32 Chrysler came in the mail along with some OT kits I ordered, figured I may as well get a 2nd kit before it disappears again for 30 years.

Very nice build! The white exterior and blue interior just looks so nice together.....

I haven't been in HL in a good while since they always have the same kits, but may take a stroll through there tomorrow just to see if they've anything that excites me. Doubtful tho!

I bought a '59 Ford F-800 fire truck that had the 332 Heavy duty engine and it had the ram horn manifolds. Bought it with the intention of making a rollback out of it as the frame was already the right length- but someone offered me double what I paid for it before I even got it home, so it went down the road. I'll have to see if I can find the photos. I've been messing with Y-blocks for 30+ years. Even though my days of projects are probably over, I still want to build one more "full house Y-block" and put it in a '56 Victoria.

It's cool to see so many others with similar memories as mine! Not much to report, a bit more filing & sanding. Screwed the chassis together and painted the wheels. The tires were rock hard and didn't want to risk breaking them or the wheels so I painted the wheels with the tires still attached. Humbrol 89 is close enough for Hessian Blue for me. May shoot some primer tomorrow and see how everything looks.

Correct. The Lincoln manifold bolt holes are at an angle & the 292-312 Ford bolt pattern is straight across. There were a lot of differences between the Lincoln passenger car Y-block and the "Heavy truck Y-block". Heads, cam, even blocks were all different between bore displacement. You will not find ram horn style manifolds on any Ford, Mercury or Lincoln passenger car engine of any displacement as the exhaust dump interferes with the front suspension of the car. This was not an issue on trucks since they had a solid front axle.

After an hour or so of trimming the flash and rough sanding/filing, it's starting to look pretty good. Looking at the colors for 1930, I'm going with Andalusite Blue which is a very deep dark blue- almost black until you get in full sun. I've painted a few 1:1 Model A's in this color and it's really a nice deep blue.

Since I'm sidelined with Covid and have some free time thought I'd start a build thread. You don't see many of these old Hubley kits built anymore, they require filing and go together with screws. These kits hold a tremendous amount of nostalgia for me as I've built a bunch of them with my dad & grandfather, we had the 1:1 Model A's to go with the models too. I already have a pretty good collection of Hubley Model A's, some I customized to create cars that Hubley never made such as a closed cab pickup & A-400. Saw this kit at a local swap for $10 & couldn't pass it up. This is the first Hubley I've built in probably 20 years! Tonight's installment starts with what you get in the box, The tools I'm using for this build are a set of files, some 320 DA paper on a sanding pad, cheap nippers from Harbor Freight to trim the flash off. I'm building this OOB so I'm not going to open up the bumpers or do any other super detailing.

I've never seen any and would like to have a few pair myself. I'm a bit of a Y-block fan! You don't see the truck ram horn exhaust used in 50s passenger cars due to fit issues- but they look great on street rods.