Andy Oldenburg

Hello, many thanks to all of you for your cool response! It really motivates me on my next build. Best model building wishes to all of you!

Hi everyone, many humble thanks to all of you! ??? After all the building "effort" (well, yes, more fun than work) it really feels good to get so much friendly response. Danke schön!

I was hot to try something new and employ some techniques on a build for the first time. After watching many videos from low rider meetings I finally decided that the ´66 GTO would be a perfect candidate for a low rider model. The first steps were to open the doors and the trunk. This time the engineering setup would be completely different from all of my former builds. But see for yourself. The paint job consists of 3 different colored layers on a silver base coat. This is a mix of acrylic airbrush paint and Tamiya metallic rattle cans, finally covered with 2 layers of AK clear varnish. The masking is done with Tamiya masking tape. I would have liked to drop the whole body even more, but the engine mount is just NOT touching the floor. Whatever, this build ended up as low as possible. I tried to work out of the kit box as much as possible, but a few extra details were necessary. The wheels are from my parts box and the disc brakes and calipers are after market items. Same with the headlamps. The plastic grill is opened so I could insert a "real" grill of mesh metal. Power dome and fender skirts are extra details. I worked the front suspension a bit to get a nice steering angle. The hood and trunk are connected with a quite simple, but cool hinge engineering. This wing setup flips wide open and reveals the goodies. The doors had to be suicide to match. I tried to add the body color code as much as possible to the rest of the car, so the dash and the hat rack have body stripes passing through. The interior has a "luxury" appeal with golden details, a matching flocked floor with mats and seat belts. The engine and bay have received a bunch of detailing. The engine itself is mostly kit basic, but I added chromed valve covers and pan. The air filters are pimped with grid metal and all of the lines and wires are close to original 1:1. Making an air suspension system was easier said than done. Every car in the scene seems to have a personal custom, which I find very creative and cool. So I tried my best and built my own system incorporating the research input. For the undercarriage I added some color details like in the interior. The fuel and brake lines are close to the original 1:1. Same with the parking brake cables. If your interested in more details, you can check out the WIP thread. Thanks for watching and thanks to everyone that gave me props on my WIP thread. I hope you like my build! I would be pleased if you check the video: https://youtu.be/xO8LDw2zmp8

Hello Keith, Carl and Martin, thank you for your kind response! @ Martin: Club Plaques!... thanks for the science! I hope I wasn´t disrespectful to the low rider community by appropriating a plaque as a detail for my build. I think they look cool and didn´t think twice about adding one. @Keith: I added some detailed images about the hinges lower below and hope you can modify a future model with winged hoods. I am preparing the last parts to finish this build. I was getting tired of messing the doors with glue while attaching the rear view mirror. Although the work is very delicate, I have come to pinning the mirrors or other small parts with 0.5mm wire. The mirror wont slide any more after attaching and I only need a small dip of glue. The grill/bumper part has received a fine metal mesh as grill and lenses instead of the kit headlamps. I glue the lenses with white acrylic glue. The undercarriage is finished now with all lines and cables. The hinges are actually quite simple engineering. The hard part is having to work as precise as possible. I use 1mm brass rod for the hinges, that fit tight into the 2mm styrene tubes I can acquire from my crafts store. For the front hood I drilled holes into the sides of the bay for the tubes and glued them generously on the back with epoxy. The length of the hinges should be long enough to swivel far to the front of the grill. Both hinges must have the exact same length and angles. I tape the hood/bonnet to the body before gluing the tubes of the other hinge end to the inside surface of the hood. Of course all of this must be done before the detailed body work can begin. Cutting out doors, trunks etc. is always my first job on my models, then attaching the hinges. The trunk work is not much different. I could glue the body tubes under the fenders. Now it´s just the bumpers left to attach. And of course the photo work has to be done, making fine images for the under glass forum. Hope to get that done asap. Thanks everyone for watching!

The dashboard had to be adapted a bit for the doors. I cut a few mm´s off the left and the right, so that the door panels would have enough room to close correctly. I refrained from cutting off the molded on visors from the windshield. This clear plastic is very brittle and I didn´t want to risk cracking the window. The tub fit in very well. The rockers were too high for the doors, so I reduced the width of the floorboard and filled the cavity with thin styrene. I fumbled the dash and the hat rack when masking the stripes. The thin orange stripes I forgot, but you can file that under "artistic freedom". Watching videos I saw many low riders with custom logos on the hat rack. I still have no idea what to call them.., (maybe someone can solve that mystery for me?). None the less I liked the idea and chose the initials of my YouTube channel. I cut and filed this from 0.8mm styrene and added the shine with a molotow fluid pen. A real low rider needs a suspension system. I saw so many different versions that it seems like every custom build has it´s own personal creation. I let myself be inspired and built a few parts from scratch. The rest is aluminum 1mm wire and flex metal cord. Getting the engine into the bay was a tight job because of the "false" custom pan. It does fit very smug without hardly any glue needed. The water cooler cap is molded to the fan cover. So I chose to open that hole like on the 1:1 and add a more realistic looking cap. Apart from a few details the engine bay is just about finished. The undercarriage is a bit more colorful than an everyday street side. Some major parts are painted in the body color code. Here the rear axle has received its brake lines. The fuel and the brake lines lead to the front through metal tube crimp beads. What is left to do for the underside is the parking brake cable. I made a small connecting part and am letting the glue dry now. The cable system is actually made of 0.8mm thin cable for fashion jewelry. On the side I am preparing the few chrome parts. I like the look of a see-through grill, so I cut out the molded grill. Here my grill without the grill (yet...). I am closing in to the final round and hope to get done by next weekend. Thanks for watching!

Between business trips I had some time to get into my shop. Felt like being on turkey without my crafting hours in the evening...? After the first clear coat I did the BMF and applied a few decals to the body. The second layer AK gloss varnish is sprayed and after a few days of hardening I polished everything. Now the metallic sparkle shows much better. The engine is completely finished. I raised the air filters a bit with styrene tube and wrapped them with mesh metal. The alternator and power steering are connected to the block with 0.5mm brass rods. The belt is cut from a synthetic rubber place mat. The chrome valve covers and pan are from my spares box. I used the colors from the body for the block and fan and will continue adapting the color code of the body to the rest of the build. I tried to build this GTO out of the box a much as possible, so the red line tires were set. I did replace the wheels with customs from my spar box and added disc brakes from scale production. Yup, and added valves. I have to figure out, how I will attach the wheels later. The interior is finished too. The floor flock I mixed from red and light gray to match the paint job and added more red for the floor mats. The seats are an offwhite and enhanced with a gold gel pen. Next to the chrome parts I tried to add some lux with a bit of gold. The decal set is very good and fits well. The dashboard top has the same stripes as the hood. Last detail for the interior are a set of sum visors. Thanks for watching!

Hello Jon, Mike and Helmut, and others I may have forgotten, thanks for your friendly response, I am flattered and it feels good. ? As I have written before, I didn´t know ahead what I would receive when I ordered this kit and had no knowledge of its history. I started about 3 years ago with model building, but I have a long experience in drawing, painting and crafting. When I started during Corona I was just rushing into building as fast as possible, a model a month. Then I discovered how much fun detailing can be, which meant more time per model but since my skills progressed I still had a high output. Last year I changed my approach. I am now more "relaxed" and take as much time as necessary for my builds. Meaning only accepting my best possible effort and implementing every wack idea I might come across. This is "just" a hobby, but important to me. I have all the time in the world.... I hope I could inspire you just like all of the others on this forum have given me a big push!✌️

Hi Steve, thanks for your reply! I´m really eager to move on but unfortunately on a business trip for several days??

Hello Erock, sorry to hear about your sister, I know how you feel, lost my brother last year. The ´59 Impala is my favorite, but I have not gotten my hands on a kit. Hard to get in Europe. You did a fine job!??

Hello Craig, a great collection and very diverse over different ages and styles.

Hi Bill, a beautiful job on this model! Looks almost like the real thing, and your shop diorama scenes are a knockout.

Hello Christopher, a very good job on this Barracuda, I like the stance and the color matches perfect. Are the wheels second market?

Hello Michelle, good work on this muscle bird. I like that sparkle effect. You do the chrome with gel pens?

Hello David, a beautiful build! Color matches very well and the BMF work is great.?

On my last model I tried incorporating magnets into my build for the first time. I was tired of doors that didn´t stay put when closed. I was overwhelmed how good that worked out. OK, that means some extra crafting and time, but the doors look great. On this build I hid the smaller micro magnets under the door panels. Attached with superglue. Covering the open spaces is the same procedure as always with sheet styrene. Here you can see the counter magnet attached to the firewall. Triple check the correct sides so that the magnets attract themselves! Once glued and covered you will hardly get them out without heavy deconstruction. The flat ones on the firewall are now hidden behind a second wall. Instead of building the trunk onto the undercarriage I this time connected it right to the body. Here too it took a few checks to make sure that the body and undercarriage fit well. The body parts received a base coat of silver metallic. Because the paint job will have several layers, the silver serves well as a base for the metallic light orange. Here the orange is already masked for the second color, Tamiya pearl green. The masking tape is by Tamiya too. The orange and green match quite well and I was tempted to keep it this way, but I felt that something was still missing. I masked everything again and added a few highlights with Tamiya pearl light red, which is more like a dull rose. Now I am happy with the paint job. A few corners needed a touch up and overall I am very relieved that no paint creeped under the tape. I wet sanded the layer edges very carefully with grit 2000 and now the surface is almost smooth. At this moment the first clear coat is drying and waiting for the BMF. While the paint layers was drying I started building the engine. Since this will be a show car I will stay away from grime or weathering, and the engine deserves a bit of bling. I found custom valve covers and a chrome pan in my boxs to pimp the engine. The distributor is home made and step by step I am adding details to the kit engine. Thanks for watching!

Hello John, thanks for your response and the further information on the Brougham. My kit is actually an Atlantis. I restarted model car building 3 years ago and so I missed out on a lot of science that you long time builders can look back on. If so, I would not have ordered this kit. But once I had it, it roused my ambition and then one step led to another. I do much research before ever build to check as many details as possible, but my images didn´t reveal the true look of those vents. Oh well.... Thanks for the hint, but I will not start carving this build for the vents?? Best wishes, Andy

Hi Ricky, thanks for your reply! The hood and trunk hinges are actually quite simple. The tricky part is getting both sides bent in exact the same length and angle, and of course gluing to the same opposite spots. I would not have tried this stunt 2 years ago...

Hi Steve, thanks for the advice! I have clipped the undercarriage on to check my trunk interior. Look like everything will be quite sturdy when glued correctly.

After building a few classic stocks, I was eager to try something extreme. I have watched some videos from low rider shows and meetings and got triggered to get crazy on my Revell GTO. This kit is very fine detailed and and the parts fit very good to me, so I don´t have to hassle with extra problems. ( I mean, other than those that I got into myself?). I opened the doors and the trunk with a scalpel and my micro tool saw. I have made it a habit to add another layer of 0.5mm styrene before I attach the lips to the trunk and the doors. The paint layers add up too much later and then the trunk and the doors don´t close correctly any more. The hinges are bent from 1mm brass rods and fit smooth into 2mm styrene tubes. I cut the rods to different lengths, that way it is easier to fumble the doors onto the body. The bonnet received a muscle hood and the rear wheel arch is filled with a skirt. The trunk and the doors are fixed with tape in preparation for attaching the hinges. After a first gluing of the hinge tubes I later did a second round of gluing with epoxy. I can´t afford losing a hinge once the build is too far into progress or even finished. This is a first mock up to check the stance and looks. I might even drop the body lower.... And this is what I meant with "crazy": I still have time to think about the paint job. It will be multi colored, but I am waiting for that bulb to light up over my head. Thanks for watching!

Hi Peter, that Gunze Sangyo does look like it had much more detailing right out of the box, even though it has a much smaller scale. Yes, our builds do look quite the same, what a coincidence! Sounds like a Japanese kit. I have heard that those manufacturers have a higher standard of detailing and fitting quality. I must check out what I can get from my European suppliers. So if you are already at car model building for over 30 years, I will not be able to catch up with your building record. I started 3 years ago during the Corona lock down. Remembered what I loved to do as a kid and it saved my soul. I´m glad to be in this forum and share my passion! Best wishes, Andy

Hello everybody, many thanks for all of your friendly replies! That really feels good....?? I´m still enjoying that feeling of getting this build done. It will get a front row place on the shelf. Merry Christmas and a happy model building new year!

The ´57 Brougham was Cadillacs answer to Rolls Royce. It cost a staggering 13,000 $ but the manufacturing price was about 10,000 extra. Not a good deal for Cadillac but an impressive marketing move. This kit misses those standards by far. I was a bit shocked when I unboxed it and was on the brink of not building it at all. I learned later that the original issue was in 1958, but the very low level of molding and fitting quality is a disappointment. After shifting the chances of turning this kit into a reasonable build in my head, I took the challenge and set out to pack everything possible into my Brougham. The body and undercarriage are in an unusual molding setup. Two parts that connect at the belt line. This kit contains no engine and the details one could call almost nonexistent. Instead of tires you get plastic donuts. So I replaced a lot of parts (only about 60 in the box anyway?) and fabricated many details from scratch. Fortunately I had enough parts to build an engine and could cut an engine bay of a spare body. On a blue base coat I sprayed Schmincke AERO Color ultramarine blue with a 50% part of metallic fluid. After applying the BMF I sealed the body parts with AK gloss varnish and gave it a polish. The wheels and tires are from my parts box. The grill is cut out and replaced with a sheet metal grid from my model crafts dealer in town. Headlamps are lenses from Scale Production, same with other details like the wipers, door mirror and the handles. The suicide doors really hooked me and this build cried for getting them. Inside the drivers door I hid a micro magnet and the counterpart is behind the side of the drive seat. This keeps the doors in place and aligned because the drivers door holds the back door tight. The floor and the mats are flocked and the chrome is BMF with a occasional dab of Molotow chrome pen. I tried to get some of those original gimmicks into the interior and chose the record player in the front arm rest and the bar in the glove compartment. The dash got some upgrading for the gauges with printed images and 0.4mm silver wire for the trim. The engine is a mix of 3-4 different kits. Fortunately I had a air filter box that looks the the original. Detailing engines is always my favorite with every build. In this case I had to fabricate the power steering pump and the generator. The pulley wheels are deconstructed from a kit part and worked to pick up rubber belts. The wheels are connected to the block with 0.5 and 1mm brass pins. The grime comes from AK interior streaks. The extra parts in the engine bay are hand made from scratch styrene sheets and rods, wire and thin sheet aluminum. The undercarriage and all the parts for the suspension and transmission needed heavy working. A big part of the undercarriage I cut out or just grinded off. I discarded most of the kit parts and remodeled the few left to get some details on the bottom. The rear axle is from my spare box and received the extra details with styrene raw materials. The brake and fuel lines are inspired by original images. The exhaust system is finger bent 2mm styrene with mufflers from my parts box. Like the engine I weathered the bottom and added a bit of "rust". You can see the building progress in a thread on the WIP forum. The video will be released soon with this link: https://youtu.be/S5R_Goj9sR8 Thanks to everyone that followed me on the WIP and thank you for watching here!

I´ve crossed the finish line! "Everything" done, but I will take a close look a while, if I might have missed something.... Thanks to everybody that has followed my progress. When I started I had no idea where my creativity would lead me. In the end I am really happy that I took the challenge and not put the kit to the back of the shelf. The engine bay has all the parts added and the bonnet closes too. The hinge is working fine. Left and right of the back bench there are ugly gaps that I want to get rid of. I glued dark pieces of styrene from the back. Before I glued the roof to the body I didn´t want to forget to take some pictures of the interior. The sun visors and the rear view mirror are attached. The 1:1 Brogham has an exhaust system that kind of weaves itself through the frame. I tried to copy that but the result didn´t look good to me. So I chose a conventional setup and feel OK with that. The exhaust pipe is finger bent from 2mm styrene rod. The mufflers were out of my scrap box. This is a first test fitting and I will work the parts a bit to make them fit better. Exhaust system is painted, weathered and equipped with hooks. Since the wheels are not from the original kit and the front suspension doesn´t have a kingpin, I chose a simple wire as a wheel axle. The wheels are all glued to their axles. The front bumper with the metal mesh grill is connected. Here is that post for the door locks. My plan to keep the doors closed with magnets works out fine. The counterpart of the hidden door magnet is tucked under the driver seat. The front door holds the back door closed and the alignment fits. The post has no function but adds realness. I will confess that I had to cheat a bit to make room for the post. I shifted the bench to the right by about 4mm. Being the kit as it is, some major parts didn´t quite fit in the end. The windshield is too wide by 5mm. I had to adapt the roof part and it was some juggling until the roof fit to the windows AND everything looked correct. Because I wanted the driver side to look best I had to push the windshield to the right. The wipers and the mirror are from Scale Production (Nooo, you don´t get detailed parts in this kit??) The door handles are epoxy after market. I did want them to fit at the precise spots, so I had to pin them. Which was a tricky task because of the size, but it worked out. Here the pinned handles before attaching. I will show the final images in the Under Glass forum. From Europe my humble thanks for all of your support! After a few classic builds my fingers are itching for something low and nasty again, and I have an idea what that will be..... Merry Christmas to everybody! Andy

Getting the paint job done always feels like a big step to me. Usually I don´t work on the "big groups" engine, body, interior and undercarriage parallel, but since the body and undercarriage on this kit are one piece, I had to adapt my building logistics. It seems I´m working on every corner of this kit at the same time. After applying the BMF the body received a final coat of AK gloss varnish and a soft polish. There isn´t that much chrome trim on the Brogham, but it does ad up to big areas. Here before the sealing.... And after... The undercarriage is just about finished too, except for the wheels. Which will be attached almost last. The rear axle with little left to do. Front and rear axles finished before the engine gets connected. Getting the engine into the bay was a bit messy. It sure was a good decision that I used pins to hold the front suspension in place. Since nothing of this is OOB but more or less scrap, it took some grinding and filing until the engine and the radiator fit snug and were low enough in the bay to let the bonnet close. After getting the engine secured I cut and attached the engine mounts and glued the drive. The front bumper was i bit too crude for my choice. I opened the grill and replaced it with a sheet metal grid structure. Here the step by step. First I cut a large area open and then grinded as much as possible with a micro drill. Next step was filing removing the last bit with diamond files and sanding up to grit 1200. The chrome is Molotow applied with a soft brush. In the meantime I have removed the vents and painted the bumper tips flat anthracite. The headlights are getting customized with "lenses". I grinded off the lights and applied headlights by Scale Production. The engine bay still looks a bit empty. Here are the parts that will enhance the bay: brake booster, battery, coil, relays. All hand made from scratch with styrene, wire and thin sheet metal. As you can see, I like to use pins for these parts. It makes them secure right from the start and I can´t pull them off again by mistake while connecting the lines. The dashboard is finished too. For the interior I want some sun visors and of course the missing rear view mirror. The mirror is 1mm sheet styrene connected to a 1mm aluminum wire, which I flattened after bending the curve. Chrome is again Molotow. The visors are 0.5mm styrene and fixed in different positions for a bit a realness and will be sprayed cream white. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for the get well wishes! Day by day I´m moving on! But Covid is a bit.. @Steve - Your not the only one in this thread asking himself it this kit is worth the money and effort. Well, for historical reasons it might make sense trying this oldie. The actual issue is not it´s straits, it isn´t a hard to build kit. But that the molding and fitting quality is so bad despite the low number of parts. One can approach it with an attitude of "got that one done", but now it turned into a fulfilling challenge for me. What the heck, I will throw as much as I can at it. It´s just another kit. I have sprayed the body with the final color. I did a lot of paper and canvas art during the last decades and my favorite airbrush paint is definitely Schmincke AERO COLOR. It is fine enough to pass though a 0.15 mm nozzle, but still has a dense pigmentation and high opacity. It is easy to mix, especially in small amounts, and I cherish the brilliance when mixing the paint with the metallic fluid. In my case I wanted a bright untramarine and added a 50% part of metallic fluid. With the metallic fluid you must use a bigger nozzle though. I best choice is a DeVilbiss Sprite Major. It´s a double action with 0.25mm nozzle and a bigger paint cup. I prefer 40 - 50 psi air pressure. The surface is flat, so of course it needs a clear coat. I prefer AK gloss varnish. This first coat will be smoothend with grit 6000 later for the final sealing. On an old image I saw that the Brougham could be ordered with a record player on / in the middle arm rest. So why not try that? Here are the parts for the record player fabricated from styrene and a piece of wire. I will skip the intermediate steps for the interior and just show the door panels and the bench, with record player. Another very exiting luxury accessory was a "bar" for the glove compartment. I started this detail by cutting the compartment lid open first. Then fitting the lid to the dash in the open mode before moving on to the dashboard details. Of course this kit contains no decals. The gauges and the speed meter are images from the net reduced in size and printed on glossy photo paper, the same with the radio. The trim rings are 0.4mm silver plated wire. The chrome is Molotow pen applied with a hair brush. Now comes the bar... My best wish was getting VERY tiny tubes for 6 shot cups. Alas, the smallest I could get a hand on would make for say, 4 slightly bigger cups. These are set on a small tray covered with BMF. I will get the dashboard finished in the next step. Thanks for watching!