Steve H

Thanks Donald. Slow but steady…

Hi Trevor, thanks for checking in. Ya, his car is ridiculously clean, and it’s nice to have photos for reference. Yes, it will be a fun one, I really enjoy builds that will be gifts. Hello Jim! The clear blue gave it just a little more depth and richness. Thanks for taking the time to comment sir. Hi Rich, and welcome aboard. Looks like you are fairly new to the forum, so welcome to the forum too! Trying to have a small update tomorrow… Thank you Carl, always enjoy your input sir!! Cheers, Steve

Hi Keith, I do have an AMT 69 Olds kit and had looked at it. The 69 firewall would have needed enough mods that it was a wash so I decided to just modify the kit piece and leave the 69 unscathed. Great (?) minds think alike… Also an opportunity for me to do some scratch building. Thank you for the idea, much appreciated.

Really nice progress Mark. Those door panels look great. As for the seat attachment where you have flocked, you could CAREFULLY scrape off the flocking where the seat attaches. Just a thought, but pinning would likely be stronger. Flocking looks good but the way. Cheers, Steve

Those pleats on the seats alone represent a ton of work. Sheesh. Great stuff going on here Dave, enjoying watching your progress. Steve

Fill, sand, prime, repeat… fill, sand, prime, repeat…. ? Wow, that’s a lot of slicing and dicing! It’s definitely starting to take shape Oliver. Nice work. Steve

Looks great in red David. Let the foiling begin! Anxiously waiting for the big reveal…

Wicked! Turned out awesome Jim. Love your builds, and as you know I’m a fan of all your paint jobs. The metal look turned real nice indeed. One day I’ll learn how to paint… Cheers, Steve

Hi Folks, time to get another build going. I am building a replica of my brother in law’s (Wayne) 71 Olds 442 W30 as a gift for him. He is my wife’s, sister’s, husband. As you will see in a moment, it’s a spectacular, fully restored beautiful car, no nut or bolt left untouched. I’m doing this build for a few reasons, so I’d like to quickly share that as some backstory to the build. First, I really like the Olds 442’s, (all years), absolutely gorgeous cars with beautiful lines. Second, Wayne was nice enough to take me, along with a few of his friends to Barrett Jackson in Scottsdale back in 2018. It was my first Barrett Jackson and a very memorable trip. The third reason was extremely memorable. In the summer of 2022, the band “The Lumineers” did a charity concert here in little Victoria BC Canada, literally 5mins from my home. It was an invitation only deal that was kept very quiet,(only about 350 tickets I believe), and few people knew about it. Wayne’s company had done a considerable amount of work for the charity raising money, and got my wife and I tickets for the event. We are HUGE fans of the Lumineers, so needless to say we were absolutely thrilled and it was a fantastic evening. So this is being done as a small token of appreciation for Wayne. I’m doing this as a surprise, it was originally going to be his Christmas gift but that obviously didn’t happen… I will share the link to this thread once it’s complete, and he has the model in hand, so he can see how it came together. Anyone that has followed my builds knows I’m normally kit bashing, this will be a little different. It will be MOSTLY “box stock”, but I already see changes that I will need to make for the replica. I guess I can actually follow the kit instructions ??‍♂️? Haven’t done that for years!! I have been slowly getting a start at this over the last few weeks. So far mostly figuring out what needs modifying, and just how much detail I will add, and where. This will be a fun build, and I’m looking forward to sharing the journey with you. So here we go, the kit I am starting with… Wayne’s car… I will share more photos of this spectacular car as the WIP progresses. Wait til you see the undercarriage of this thing!! My plan is to do a reasonably accurate replica of the car. With it not being a kit bash project, I plan on spending a bit more time on some of the little details. So the whole “box stock” thing, well we’ll see where we end up. At first glance I know I need to eliminate the kits A/C and add an 8 track player. Yep… he has a factory 8 track in there! More on that later in the thread. I didn’t have a suitable pulley set to replace the kit piece, so I modified the one from the kit. Before… during.. after.. Here is a couple of photos of the engine. I took a bunch of photos last summer at a local car show. I was trying to get some under hood detail shots for this build. Again, you will see a few more photos as we progress. One of the biggest flaws I found in the kit so far is that there was no thermostat housing on the manifold. There is an oversized hole to drop the rad hose in, and it definitely needed some attention. So I scratch built a thermostat housing, I will deal with the rad hose later in the build. I’m not going to get TOO carried away with details, but there are several things I will definitely be doing. Ignition wires, fuel line, heater hoses, and the breather hoses to the air cleaner, battery cables, probably brake lines, but they may “terminate” out of site under the chassis rather than full brake lines. Here’s what I have so far… I made larger breather caps for the valve covers as the kit pieces that were molded on seemed much too small. The transmission and manifold are painted using a “recipe” that Dennis Lacy shared with me a few years ago. Tamiya silver leaf followed by Tamiya flat clear. I think it’s a near perfect match for cast aluminum, thank you Dennis!! I painted the engine block Bahama blue, then added 2 coats of clear blue, it’s not a perfect match, but pretty close I think. If you look at the heads, you can see the heat stains in the paint at the exhaust ports. I replicated that using a little clear yellow, then flat clear brushed on. The dipstick is simply ignition wire. I’ve done some work on the exhaust manifolds, but not quite ready to install yet. I have a fair amount more work done that is not shown here yet, but it’s a bit discombobulated (there’s a word for ya ?) I’ve been bouncing around a bit trying to sort out things that need modification and such. Removing the A/C from the firewall and building a heater box for example… I’m almost at the point where I can boldly march ahead….following instructions…..nah. Thanks for taking the time to have a look, and as always all comments welcome. If anyone sees anything glaringly not right, please speak up. Cheers, Steve

Very nice replica David. Fond memories while you built it I’m sure. Did you print your own license plate decal or order that from somewhere? I’m working on a replica now and plan on ordering some decals from STS, but curious what you did. Steve

Yep, the 1/24 scale versions are much cheaper..this one was done about 35 years ago.

I’m really into old wagons these days, especially GM. Excellent example Tim, looks fantastic. Steve

Another beauty Craig! Very nice clean build. Crisp….

Hi Tony, great looking build and equally impressive photography. The subtle weathering is very effective and well done.

Beautiful build Dave. So many details, and fantastic scratch building. It is kind of funny, and very interesting, to see an Impala with a straight 6. My Dad had a 62 Impala with a 283 automatic. Always loved the 59-67 Impalas, awesome cars. Another beauty, keep em coming sir! Steve

Hi DA, very nice conversion, and awesome to see some Canadian cars. You have sparked my curiosity, as you mentioned a 67 Beaumont grill for an upcoming project… As I mentioned on one of your other posts, I own a 1:1 67 Beaumont that I will build a model of one day. Great work on this wagon. Steve

Hi Mark, really like this build so far. The stance is perfect. Looking forward to seeing what you do for an engine. Steve

She’s coming together Jim, looks fantastic. The “steel” body turned out very well. Steve

Absolutely wicked cool Dennis. I still can’t believe you stripped that beautiful black paint off it. Most of us would be lucky to achieve a paint job like that, I thought you were joking! Having said that, I love the colour it is now, and the overall look, especially the stance and wheel/tire choice are perfect. VERY nice build sir! Steve

Oh boy… this is great stuff Dennis. Slice and dice!! I know you have a plan, I hope that includes a V12 up front, this thing NEEDS a V12, well… that’s just my opinion. No matter what powers it, this is really cool. Very nice work as always.

Wicked, cool, and excellent! Great job Anton, that is a beast of an engine! The whole car is really starting to come together.

Ah yes, another masterpiece from the house of Claude. Beautiful concept and execution, as others mentioned, the alignment of the hood and intake is impressive. One of those little things can make or break the overall look. You nailed it as always. Keep em coming sir, they’re always a treat. Steve

Yep.. absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for another photo Bill. I’m just getting into a 71 Olds 442 W30, should have a WIP started in the next day or 2. I NEED to get my hands on a few 70’s Olds. Thanks for sharing sir!

Thank you Steve! It took longer than it should have, but I’m happy with the outcome.

Hi Bill ! All of these are very nice builds. That Hurst Olds though… wow, love that beast. You had an excellent year in styrene!!