mrmike

The Story As McNally walks back to his car, his cell phone rings with a call from his girlfriend, Caitlyn Scotsen. She is calling to set up a date for lunch to which the Boston PI offers a rain check as he is heading out to Springfield, Mass. to look for the Parregrin's son and then down to Connecticut to interview the collector buying his late client's Caddy. Caitlyn says that it is not a problem and offers dinner instead if he gets back to Boston early enough. McNally says that this is fine and he will call her when he gets back into Boston. She wishes him a safe trip and he says thanks and ends the call. The Build I do know that there will be a lot of foiling to be done on this Caddy. But, some of my foiling time may be cut in half if i use the kit decals which look like chrome foil. A different angle showing the reflectiveness of the decals. I was going to use embossing powder on the floor, but the engraved detail looks really good, so I may not be using the powder. McNally Will Return...

John, the color I choose was not even in the list of available colors for the '59 Caddy. I had this jar of paint for several years now and I thought the color would look great on this behemoth and I was right. An automotive journalist friend of mine has told me that I seem to pick the right colors and make the right mods on my builds that really suit the subject at hand. If that is true, then I do know what I like! This metallic brown does have a bit of a copper hint to it and that looks just right on the Caddy. I do have a creative side to me and it varies from one end of the scale to the other as time goes by. The stories I create are currently my way of showing that creativity and while it has been suggested that I publish my stories, they have a long way to go before they would be suitable for publication. I can just see the rejection notices coming through the door now...

I got the Judge into a couple coats of clear this morning. It came out pretty good, but the are a few specks of trash in the clear so I'll be giving this one a good polishing. Here Comes Da Judge...

Thanks John! The Story The following morning finds McNally at the office of his part-time employer, Attorney Charlotte "Charlie" Rothmann asking if the Parregrin's were clients and Charlie replied that they were not. She made a couple of phone calls and found that they were clients of Fitch, Bracken, and Brown and that she had set a meeting with their associate lawyer, David Whitham. When McNally arrived at their offices, he was greeted by Attorney Whitham and they sat down to discuss their clients. The Caddy was under contract for sale to a collector in Connecticut and the only possible heir was The Parregrin's estranged son, Derek, who was left out of the will by his parents. The son is believed to be residing in the Springfield area of Massachusetts. Attorney Whitham didn't have the collector's information and left the conference room to fetch the information leaving the client file on the table and McNally quickly thumbed through it looking for any additional info that the lawyer wouldn't otherwise give up. Attorney Whitham comes back with the collectors info and says he will talk to the partners about compensation for McNally's investigation. The Build This afternoon, I gave the Caddy a light polishing and it brought out a nice shine. I found a couple of flaws that will need a little attention, but nothing major. I really like this color as it has a kind of a copper-like appearance to it. McNally Will Return...

Thanks Bryan! They should look better when I get the body clearcoated!

Keep at it Stace! I want to see more!

Thanks guys! John, while the color is not "traditional", but it does appeal to me and I do think it looks good. Jamie, depending upon the paint used, I wait from several days to several weeks before handling the body. The Caddy has been sitting in the paintbooth since I have painted it and I haven't even looked at it. Maybe this weekend... johnnyg, I usually build stock to near stock so I don't have any suggestions for you on lowering this kit. After looking at the kit instructions, your best bet might be to cut down the airbags. I hope this helps. Johnny1973, I hope you continue to like the story. There will be more!

Is that blimp pregnant?!!

Thanks Dr. Cranky!

Thanks Tyrone, Shane, and John.

I gave BMC a couple of tries over the years and I didn't stay there long both times. Yes,they had some really good tutorials, but some of the moderators were a little over the top for me. The last time I looked at that site, they wanted donations to keep it running and I told myself that the end is near for them. Well, the end is here and I won't miss them.

Thanks Charlie and Antonio!

Thank you Charlie! I am trying to get better at painting so I am paying extra attention to prep and procedure. Thanks for the link on Mass. plate history. I haven't given any thought at all to plates for this car. I'll read it though and then decide on plates later.

Thanks Mark and Mike! I'm happy that my fellow modelers are enjoying my stories. My goal is to keep them interesting and to help move my WIP along.

Thanks Carl, Shane, Bryan, and Joseph! I finally finished wiring the engine and installed it in the chassis. I found a couple of minor flaws on the hood, so I corrected them and gave it another coat of paint. I started applying decals this evening. This Goat is starting to look like a Judge! Here Comes Da Judge...

The Story McNally decides to investigate this case along with Sgt. Troy's cooperation. He looks around at the neighbors homes from the driveway and sees Mrs. Crane looking out her window next door. McNally goes over to her house and asks her if she heard or saw anything unusual that night to which she says that she heard and saw a noisy flatbed truck in the Parregrin's driveway and she could only make out some of the faded lettering on the truck door...PAR R T NG. She said that the truck made a lot of noise and smelled bad which McNally deduced to be an old diesel truck. McNally thanks her for talking to him and leaves the house. While going down the front steps, he sees Det. Darvell coming up the sidewalk and Darvell asks him what he is doing. "Investigating, you should try it sometime, Detective" McNally says passing the overweight cop. The Build I painted the body and hood this morning with Tamiya X-34 Metallic Brown. McNally Will Return...

Thanks Corey!

The Story Mary's husband Walter was 93 years old when he past and Mary was 88 years old when she was murdered. Walter had parked the Caddy in the garage when he decided that he was too old to drive anymore. As McNally looked around the house, he noticed that the study was ransacked...papers and books everywhere, pictures pulled off the walls, furniture torn apart...someone was looking for something! McNally and Sgt. Troy walk outside and looked at the Caddy on it's semi-flat tires and at the scrape marks on the driveway in front of the old car. McNally says, "These scrape marks could be from a flatbed wrecker which would explain why the Caddy was pushed out of the garage." The Build The hood is a two piece unit with the lower front edge as a separate part. I glued the two pieces together and sanded the edge a bit. I did not notice this until now, there is a vinyl roof molded onto the body! Closer examination showed this mold joint and this is the worst one! The other three points of the roof have much smaller mold joints to be removed. McNally will return...

Byron, the purple stuff is called Purple Power Industrial Strength Cleaner/Degreaser. It is sold at WalMart for about $8.00 a gallon container. Good luck on your first wiring job and with your '69 Charger R/T.

Progress on the engine has been a bit slow. Here's a picture of the engine with the plug wires installed into the distributor cap. Foiling was completed this afternoon after getting out of work early due to Hurricane Sandy. Decals are next. Here Comes Da Judge...

Thanks Bruce and Erik! Erik, I do clear over Tamiya paint and I usually use Tamiya TS-13 Gloss Clear. I have switched over to using Testors Wet Look Clear and i have had really good results with it.

Sorry Charlie, there I go again with the tuna commercial reference, the location is Cambridge. There are homes with garages there! Just cross over the Charles River and see! And, thanks for pointing out to our non-New Englanders what the short terms mean! In order to shorten the story for posting on the forum, I had to leave out some details of the story. Hopefully just enough that wouldn't affect the story or its outcome. And, like some novels or even TV shows, I took certain liberties to try and make it all work. Thanks Mike and Bryan!

I bought this kit several years ago for $7.00 at a discount store that has since gone out of business. I bought this kit mainly because of the price and I wasn't really sure if I would ever build it. Earlier this year, I started writing another McNally, Boston PI story and thought the '59 Caddy would be a great fit for the story. This WIP is more about the build than the story. All characters are fictitious and are not related to anyone living or deceased. The Build I am using the Monogram '59 Cadillac Eldorado Seville Hardtop kit No. 85-7808. This is a skill level 3 kit and the body is molded beautifully without any visible mold lines. The paint will be Tamiya X-34 Metallic Brown and sprayed through my Badger Universal 360 airbrush. The Story Old Stocks And Murder A McNally, Boston PI Story McNally walks up to the police officer at the tape line and shows his PI license to the officer who then speaks into his radio. Shortly afterwards, Det. Darvell waddles out of the front door and approaches the tapeline while he lights his cigar stub. "McNally you'll keep your hands in your pockets at all times. I don't want any evidence disappearing and ending up on eBay." McNally replies, "I won't contaminate the crime scene with my pocket lint like you will with that cigar, Detective." He stuffs his hands into his pockets and is allowed onto the crime scene. He is lead up the driveway and notices rusted scrape marks on the pavement and an old Cadillac pushed out of the garage on semi-flat tires. They approach the front door as the Coroner pulls the gurney out with the deceased body on it. "Who's the victim," McNally asks? Darvell answers, "You figure it out, you being the great PI that you are." Sgt. Adam Troy sticks his head out of the front door and says, "You two stop sniping at each other. Darvell, help canvas the neighborhood, McNally come with me and take your hands out of your pockets!" McNally walks into the house, removing his hands from his pockets and asks,"Who's the victim?" "Mary Parregrin. Her husband passed away about 3 months ago of natural causes and she was pushed and hit her head on the kitchen counter. She may have known her attacker since the Caddy was pushed out of the garage and she may have caught them in the act. I remember them being your first clients when you became a PI, so I called you down here." McNally, Boston PI will return...

I once worked with a kid who owned a Yugo. It stopped running and he pushed it into the backyard and gave it to his dog as a doghouse. Yugos are junk!

Thank you guys! I just get over the fact that the paint job came out looking so nice! I need to paint the firewall and the radiator shroud after I foil and decal the body. Since I usually just cut 4 wires at 4 inches long, fold them in half and glue them into the distributor, I read of a slightly different technique by Tim Boyd. I decided to try this technique by cutting eight lengths of wire varying in length from 3 1/2 inches to 2 inches and inserting them into the distributor with Testors tube glue. I found a piece of insulated wire here in the shop and will strip pieces of the insulation for plug boots. I'll fan out the wires and insert the plug boots after the glue has dried in the distributor. Here Comes Da Judge...