Andy Oldenburg

Thanks everyone for your kind response! I´ve been wrestling with Covid for a week and couldn´t make any progress. Hope to get into my shop this afternoon. More to come soon. @ peteski Peter: I´m grateful for every science because I am not a mechanic. Thanks!? I check that a generator produces DC, whereas an alternator goes AC. I just have to learn how to make the difference?. I guess it has to do with the production year and I have noticed that they look different? Best wishes to all of you!

It did give me a heavy chuckle to read about some of your own experiences with this kit. I am not the only victim?. It seems to have a bad reputation... hmmmm, how come?? So I´m just about finished with the engine now. The pulley wheels, alternator and the power steering pump are all connected to the block with brass pins. They can take a rough handling and pull from the belts without bending off. Before I attached the belts I fabricated a mount for the alternator and added micro hex nuts. The parts received a bit of patina. Belts and fan attached... The body is spayed with a blue base coat. This gives an approximate impression of the body color. This model will end up with a metallic blue finish. The surface is smoothend with 6000 grit and ready for the final paint job. It was time to take care of the bonnet. I wanted to try something new about the hinges. Until now I have always been bending them out of 1mm brass wire and connecting them to the kit parts with 3mm styrene tubing. for this bonnet I tried out 0.5mm brass rod in a 1mm brass tubing. I think I will stick to 1mm hinges for doors, since they have to stay in shape and should not sag. But the bonnet has no weight to hold. And the much thinner rods look much more elegant. So this is the hinge glued to the inside of the engine bay. And tipped open looks quite fine to me. I will file off excess epoxy glue and spray the rods blue. The hood will receive a silencing mat at the end. My fingers are itching to start with the final paint job, but my instinct is telling me to take care of the undercarriage first. I do want to prevent messing the body by mistake while working the undercarriage. I will not be satisfied with the kit parts for the front and rear suspension. They look more like they fit to Fred Flintstones vehicle. But I was able to work the front part and add some details for more realism. After cutting away enough to match it to the engine, I found the right spot for later assembly and prepared the part with pins. This will also make the final connection to the frame bomb proof. Next I added the details with styrene sheet and tubes and 0.4mm wire. Spray painted in dark grey and touching up with patina. The kit rear axle and differential just don´t look correct to me. I found a axle in my boxes and fabricated the missing parts with styrene profiles. In the back you can see the red kit axle.... Next I added a few details and patina. The undercarriage isn´t deep enough for shock absorbers, so I had to fake it with short stumps. But this is a big improvement from the kit setup. Now the undercarriage has its final color. I must wait with the exhaust system until the engine and the suspension system are attached. I haven´t decided yet to paint the body next or finish the interior first.? Thanks for watching!

Hi John, happen to say, yes, I am planing to fabricate that side strut. Compared to all the other work, it won´t be that hard to build. Depending on the viewing angle, it doesn´t look that dominant to me. It does come to my mind though, how many rear passengers must have bumped their knees on that strut, or messed their fancy attire with grease...?

Hi guys, thanks for your response. I´m always surprised about how many of you must have a big stock of kits ready to be built. I usually only have my next project waiting for me??. @ Jim - Yes, the wind shield doesn´t have a frame, but the original only had a quite thin and elegant one. The top will connect to the roof, so it´s only about the side edges. The simplest would be just a strip of BMF. But i´m thinking about adding a thin styrene strip first to build a "frame". While the body is drying after sanding or the paint and putty have to harden I have started building the engine. Um, what engine? OK, I scavenged my boxes for parts that come as close as possible to the original. I even had that big triangular air filter left over. The engine will include parts from about 4 different kits. I´m adding some extra details for realness. The valve covers are not close to the simple painted original ones, but I had a pair with the Cadillac emblem. So it has a custom touch. Next step was giving the engine a mild used look. It´s from ´57.... The air filter received some enhancement with chrome knobs and that flying V. There are two 1mm pegs underneath that fit into the holes of the double Holleys. I couldn´t get any really good images of the belt and pulley setup. There seems to have been different variants. I will concentrate on the alternator and the power steering pump. Since I like working with "real" rubber belts, the pulley wheels needed some working. In this case I didn´t have to fabricate new wheels, but could use a kit part. I deconstructed the piece and cut off the wheels. After sanding the wheels round I used a triangular file for the first V-cut. Then I widened the V with a diamond file flat and smooth. These parts will be attached to the block with brass pins. That way they can take the slight pull of the rubber belts without breaking off. Looks like the body is dry now. Time for the color coat. hope to come back soon! Thanks for watching!

Thanks to everybody for you friendly response! I have bin moving on with this build. A few words about my first anguish about the kit. Nice to know now that the mold must be really old. This must explain why the major body parts didn´t fit very well at all. Anyway this kit cost about as much as a newly engineered issue (32 Euros), so I did have some minimum expectations. I´m skilled enough to get anything built, redesigned, chopped and put together. But in these cases I think about beginners that enter our hobby and abandon their build and quit building models because the first kit pick is a bummer. I covered the open areas of the doors with 0.5mm styrene. I usually cut the styrene pieces larger and cut the excess sheet after drying with a scalpel. The doors gaps have gotten smaller. I added a lip the the back door to further close the gap. I necessary I can add another thin layer later. The first base paint did reveal several murky areas. Now comes the boring part of building to me: Putty, sanding, putty, sanding, spraying, putty.....??? I cut thin strips of 0.5mm styrene to add the trim running the middle line. This will help cover up the poor fit of the body parts. Finished with extensive wet sanding. I´m letting the body dry a bit and after the next base coat will see how much putty work is left to do. As you can see I shaved off the door handles. Nicer ones are on their way now from Scale Production. Thanks for watching!

The Brougham was a luxurious premium car. At a list price of 13.000 Dollars only 704 were sold in the 2 years of construction. It cost more than the average Rolls Royce. And was doomed because Cadillac lost another 10.000 with every sale. A beautiful and rare classic. So I was looking forward to finally building my first Caddy. In contrast to my high expectations you can´t imagine my disappointment unboxing this kit. My vendor didn´t mention that the model only fits level 2: It has no engine, less than 60 parts, the "tires" are styrene donuts and the qualitiy level is §$%&? In a sentence, the crappiest kit I have ever laid my hands on. It took 2 days of brooding to make my decision to build or bin. I chose to give it my TLC and add as much details and levels as possible. I have enough spare parts to build a decent engine and turn this kit into a fine show. The body/undercarriage parts connect at the middle, where you would expect a chrome trim. Everything is molded quite crude. The undercarriage has all the details molded on (exhaust system, engine pan etc), so I had to cut and grind out large sections. And I did want an engine to look at. I was able to salvage an engine bay from an extra body (`58 Impala). After cutting the hood open I added lips and glued the bay into place. The hood needed small strips of styrene to fit smug into the opening. I filled the cavities on the bottom with sheet styrene and smoothed the surface with putty. Because I will add an exhaust system only a minimum of cleaning will be necessary. My order of work on this kit will be much different than my usual habit. Fortunately the roof is an extra part, so I can work the interior while getting the body finished. Opening the hood wasn´t enough complexity yet, so I decided to get some doors open! Yup, those opposite doors with the suicide back door. Needed some brain work to think it out, I didn´t want to go into a dead end street... The body glued and after first sanding: Now without the doors... The interior panels have to fit too... The hinges are the usual method, just that the doors are not flat. After fumbling to find the correct spots, I used 2-component epoxy to glue the styrene tubes. It fills the gapes very well and wont loosen later. The hinges themselves are 1mm brass. And by the way, I will only equip the driver side with doors (this is enough work already?). The tricky part is getting the doors into the correct place to glue the hinges to the inside of the body. Getting it crooked here is a minor catastrophe. Securing them in the right spot with tape. A look from the inside before applying the glue. Here too I trusted in epoxy. The door gaps might seem wide at this stage, but I will cover the open ends with sheet styrene and fill the cracks with putty. I hope to get under 1mm gaps in the end. Behold, the hinges work and the doors swing wide open! Just like the original Brougham. I want to avoid the doors not closing correctly when the build is finished and chose to hide magnets in the right places. The front door will hold the back door closed, so I will only need 2 magnets at the right places. One is under the bottom side of the interior panel. The other will be hidden in the driver seat. The magnets I happen to have at home are quite strong so they can bridge about 1cm and still keep up enough pull to keep the door closed, but not me having to pull too had to open the door. I do hope this works out! Heres the one in the door before I cover the holes. A lot of work ahead, but I´m happy to build this and am having a fine time. Thanks for watching!

Thanks everyone for your friendly response! @ Matthew: This kit did have opening doors from the start. There are a few kits out there that have this feature. Whatever one you might find, do take measures to check the fit of the doors before you start fine working on the body. Especially with the interior panels attached! Just about every model needs serious filing/sanding to make them fit neatly. What I did do on this one though, was open the trunk. The hinge mechanics are basically the same and with a little building experience quite easy and very rewarding! (oh well, you should reckon the extra time?). Good luck!

Wow! So many return messages on this thread? Thanks everyone! ? Seems I hit a sweet spot with this build. It´s become one of my favorites! (Well, maybe until the next build?)

Hi Dan, well I did mention that I added a bit of LUX. Happy that you love it, THANKS! ? But no low ride, fancy wheels or wild paint job on this one.

I´m moving this build from WIP to Under Glass. I had a few issues to the end, but won´t fuss about them anymore. (Guess I´m doing that right now???). Had a lot of fun with this build. It´s an ESCi ERTL kit and the overall quality was brilliant. I did some customizing to just about every major part. The trunk was opened and received hinges. The bonnet was also equipped with hinges. My idea was making this a classic stock build, but getting a good amount of luxury to the looks. I was uneasy at the start if the eggshell white might be too boring. But after applying the BMF I was confident that this baby looks fine. As a contrast the interior, the trunk and the undercarriage were crafted in red. A few parts needed to be fabricated because the kit didn´t include them (mirrors, engine parts) and the rest of the goodies I crafted from scratch styrene, wires, beads ect. The only after market items applied were the headlamps (Scale Production) and photo etched hex nuts on the engine. The base paint is Molotow cream white an AK clear varnish finish. For more details you can check out the WIP thread. Thanks for watching! You can see the video with this link: https://youtu.be/N9nkFPx3SNM

First of all I would like to express my thanks to all you guys watching this thread and for your friendly comments! ? I am finished with the building process now and here are the last images. Connecting the body with the undercarriage was quite smooth and needed only minor cutting and sanding. Starting at the tail I added a tiny metal bead to the trunk for the press/key button. Only later did I realize that the middle lamp of the taillights on the original car were white. Oh well... The trunk turned out fine. The surface is flocked red on red. Don´t get fooled by the spare wheel. I sliced it to make it fit. I could have opted between the standard bumper look or the custom front. Instead I decided early on that I wanted maximum opulence and combined both. The custom grill AND the heavy bumper. Behind the grill I set a piece of fine metal mesh. The headlights are by Scale Production. To the end I had the idea for a latch mechanism for the hood. Styrene hook set with a wire pin and piece of insulated wire. I filed the styrene to shape with diamond files. And a bit of rust too. The engine bay is as crowded as the real thing. The coil and the brake booster are home made with different pieces of styrene and wire. They too are connected with 0.5mm brass pins. I feel much more comfortable now with this procedure. Once attached to the body with super glue, I can work the wiring much harder now without risking to break them off again. Taking a last look in my big book, I discovered that my model needed those cool slanted double antennas. I filed styrene triangles glued to 0.5mm wire to shape and chromed them with a Molotow pen. And on these last days I was surprised and shocked by THIS! A hinge arm had applied too much pressure to the fender and chipped off the paint. I was fuming, damn! ? I haven´t experienced this before and didn´t take measures to prevent it. I could have/should have filed the arms thinner to have more room to swing. Well, lesson learned. I was aware that whatever I do, this flaw would stay visible. First I sanded the gap a bit wider to prevent further trouble. Then the chip was sanded "round". I carefully applied tiny drops of paint to cover the spot. The result is, well, OK. The spot looks like this now and I can get along with it. It´s an old car with history. The owner must have had issue...? I will show the final images on an "under glass" thread asap. Thanks for looking and best wishes!

Hi Gregory, looks like straight outa the ´70s, clean build! Like that aggressive stance signalling trouble looking at the next traffic stop. ?

So the interior tub is cut at the back end to fit, and it really did fit well. I didn´t have to do any filing on the dash or the sides, just cut a neat curve to match the rear window. The hinges for the trunk lid and the bonnet are working too? Starting to look like a car... I had to fabricate a door mirror because the kit didn´t have one. Fortunately I had a searchlight that does the job well after some mild working. The battery is finished also. Parts left to make from scratch for the engine bay are a coil and a brake booster, which I am currently working on. The engine bay itself has received a bit of grime. The missing parts from the exhaust manifold to the mufflers are really missing... I finger bended new ones from 3mm styrene. Looks like I will have to touch up the transmission a bit, paint has gotten chipped off during construction. Now comes the exiting part! Connecting body and chassis. I will show that asap!

Cool build! That customized tail makes it look mean. Love it??

This torn out ex racer has it´s best days long gone. You did a great job on the rust and patina! Could it still drive in real life????

A good looking understatement rod, no flames or decals. I really like it! Fine color and nice details under the hood.

Cute build and a good job with the wooden grain! Looks very era correct?

Hello John, I have just learned that something like decal paper exists? I will check out, if I can source that here in Germany. It took a bit of web research to find Chevy emblems and logos of different eras. I this case even on a single sheet, but way to big for a 1/25 scale model. I just copied the image and reduced it continuously to various sizes in a A4 word document. Printed on stationary paper looks quite dull, but I happened to have gloss photo paper, bright colors and sharp printed images. Cut them out with a small silhouette scissors and attached them to the body with white glue. I did the same with the speedometer on the dashboard and in the meantime found era conform images of a vintage radios. So there is a cheap and fast way to get more detail into a model. I hope this was of help to you. Good luck!

Thanks guys for your response! Bob, anecdotes about some of us knowing someone "back then" does make me realize how old we must have gotten... If we hadn´t found the fountain of youth called model building!??

About time I showed some more images of my progress. The body is coated and sealed with AK clear varnish (rattle can). I´ve tried a few products but made the best experiences with AK. It flows into a great shine (if you warm the can before using) and is very mild to any other paint that might be underneath. No cracking or orange peel. The emblems on the hood and sides are printed images on glossy photo paper and the AK spray didn´t bother them either. One shot did the job this time. To contrast the white body the interior and the undercarriage will be in a bright red. The bottom will see some weathering and a bit of rust (not much). Then come the additional details to the drive and suspension. I started with the parking brake lines and the gas line. The transmission and suspension parts all received some smudge. I replaced the plastic springs with home made coils made of 1mm aluminum wire. Also added etched hex nuts and tiny beads for details. The brake line is 0.4mm silver plated wire. The exhaust system needed hook ups and some patina. The front suspension got wire springs too. The king pins are still steering! The wheels are mounted and all touch the ground?. I wasn´t happy with the kit tires and replaced them with spares out of my rumble box. The white walls are painted with a white gel pen. As always, fitting the engine was a pain. Something gets in the way; exhaust manifold, cooling hoses.... I still have to make and attach the missing part from manifold to muffler. This kit comes without any mirrors. With the rear view I built a pair of sun visors and attached them after gluing the windows. In the meantime I gave the clear coat a week to harden and then did a mild polishing. Since I opened the trunk the interior tub is a bit too long. I must shorten it very carefully to fit, not leave a gap under the rear window and leave some room for the trunk hinges. tricky.... I´m working on a trunk tub next, but for the moment I can already present my spare wheel. Thanks for watching!

Beautiful job Jim, thumbs UP!? Impressive challenge getting it to look like the original example and you did it. I haven´t been into drag racers myself but your build has triggered some thoughts....?

Hello Jim, great job on the engine! What do you use for the belt? Your weathering and smudge look just perfect! ???

I spent a whole afternoon applying the bare metal. This baby has a lot of chrome and I didn´t want to mess it up, many curves and long trim. The decal sheet is a big disappointment. You get a load of logos for oils, spark plugs and hot rod accessories, but not a single emblem. I surfed the web and copied the emblems I needed and reduced the size until it fit. Printed it on high gloss photo paper and was very happy with the results! Next step for the body is the clear coat with AK Gloss Varnish. On the side I finished the dashboard and interior. Of course the decal sheet didn´t contain any dash images either. So I found and copied images of the original dashboard and reduced the size to fit. I was surprised that enough details are still noticeable. The speedometer and a few gauges bring life to the dash and even the tiny logo on the steering hub looks fine. I enhanced the radio and gauges with 0.4mm silver plated wire. The ashtray with the cigarette and the key chain were some extra fun. The metal work on the dash and the doors are bare metal and a dip of Molotow pen here and there. Seeing these images magnified so much I guess I will have to take care of a few corners where the red and white collide..... The seats received a bit of patina. Thanks for watching so far!

Well thanks everybody for your nice comments!

This build is about 2 years old, but still one of my favorites. I am a big fan of Quentin Tarantino and really like every film of his. In "Kill Bill" there is an important character that is not human: It´s that yellow "Pussy Wagon". This came to my mind and inspired me when I bought this Chevrolet El Camino kit. I wanted to build my very own version of a P-Wagon. I chose to build a low rider with a maximum amount of muscle and hot rod appeal, but with a feminine touch to the paint job. The wheels are custom by Scale Production and actually for a racing car. Very low profile tires lets the car hug the street. To make room I widened the rear fender with an arch of 0,5mm styrole and filled and worked it until the surface was smooth. The body is in a silver metallic and enhanced with a baby pink (Tamiya). The finish was with 2 crystal clear coats and a good polish. From the box I only used the big block engine. The custom parts in the kit were not hot enough for my needs. I used parts from my leftover box and added some home-made details. I was really happy to have found a supplier for those wire braided cables and hoses. The setup resembles a full-blown engine I discovered while googling. For the bed I didn´t have a supplier for wood veneer back then. I opted for popcicle sticks and sanded them down until I got tired of it. Colored with walnut varnish makes it look real enough to me. The "springs" in the kit did not satisfy me, they didn´t look much like springs at all. I wound coils of 1mm wire around a 2mm brass rod for the front and rear suspension. The interior is VERY pink. The floor is covered with velvet flocking an a few extra details like the radio and seat belts were added. I had a lot of fun building. Unfortunately, this dream of mine will not come true in real life..... Thanks for watching!