MrObsessive

Nice work as always John! I'd would have loved to use your garage and borrow Jackson for a while in polishing my '61 Caddy. How much does he charge an hour?

Looks great Art! Some very clever bodywork to boot also! I wouldn't known Ghia did that to make their limos back then...............Are you gonna stretch the AMT '57 300 chassis or the one that came in the '59 kit?

Ok, fellas...............here's the latest on my "quick" build '61 Cadillac. I got as far as getting most of the body rubbed out and polished, and will soon start on the interior. Here's some new pics of the progress......... The chassis that The Modelhaus gives you........looks like basically a repop of the old Johan kit chassis. The interior..........which was modified to become a 2 dr------some of us old timers remember that there were no '61 2 dr hardtop Caddies. Both the '61 and '62 were 4 doors. I LOVE the separate door panels.....makes painting a LOT easier! The Modelhaus gives you the correct wheels and WWW tires with the kit. The tires look like repops of the '59 Cadillac kit from Monogram. The wide whites would be correct for a '61 as this would be the last year they were offered across the GM lineup. OKAY! Now where gettin' somewhere! I got the body pretty much all polished out............and have done a "mockup" to see where the body would sit in relation to the chassis. Lookin' good so far! I'm just trying out the BMF to make sure the sheet gives me no surprises! One of the things I like to focus on when rubbing out the body is to put a lot of emphasis on the hood, roof and decklid. The reason for this is when the model is on display, that's the first thing most people will notice. You can have all the bells and whistles on your model..............but if the paint job looks like hell, it won't matter! I'll get the rest of the driver's side polished out later today and get the interior painted also. Contrary to popular belief.......................painting is not the most difficult job in putting the finish on a model-----------rubbing it out and polishing it is! I give a lot of kudos to whoever did the master for the body on this one. Like I mentioned above, there were no '61 2 door hardtops done of any Cadillac by Johan (they didn't appear until '63 or '64). The body has been corrected to the correct length as the Johan bodied were a little "short". Word has it that Johan originally did this to get the model to "fit" in their boxes. Probably economically sound at the time, but wreaks havoc on us detail guys 45 years later! Anyway, a kit well worth the money-------------and by golly I think I'm hooked! This is actually my first attempt at a 1/24-1/25 resin buildup believe it or not! Stay tuned as I'll try to get this baby done by next weekend! Thanks for lookin! BILL

WOW!! Fantastic Job Billy!! Your BMF looks great too..........not especially easy to do around the wheelwells! Keep up the great work! BILL

Lookin' Good Bill! Ahhhhhhh those old Indy Racers!! Those were the days! BILL

For masking, nothing beats Tamiya Masking Tape! I use it a lot and have never been disappointed by it. It does not have heavy adhesives like regular masking tape and it will go around curves with relative ease. If your local hobby shop doesn't have it..............you can always go to http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/tam/tam87030.htm and check it out. Hope this helps! Regards, BILL

Okay! In the last couple hours, I was able to lay down several color coats of the York Blue and now need to let it sit for a couple weeks before rubbing it out. I could speed things up a bit and let it sit in the dehydrator.........but we'll see. I'm not crazy about dehydrators after having a bad experience with one years ago .........so I've learned to exercise patience. 8) First, here's a pic of where I do all my painting in the house...... I live in a 3 bedroom rancher..........(2 of the bedrooms are quite small) so I turned one of them into a build room. The other side of the room I have this table although it's a lot messier now! :shock: Here's the Caddy now that it's been painted....... While the paint's drying, I'll start on the interior..........I'll mix the blue with some aluminum Alclad to make a medium blue interior. I may add a couple details like a rear view mirror and the "Autronic Eye" on the dash. When the body dries I'll rub it out with the polishing cloths and Meguiars Car Cleaner Wax. Stay tuned and thanks for lookin'! BILL

Thanks Bob! The exterior will be '61 Caddy York Blue..........a sorta solid Navy Blue. The interior will be a medium blue. It's kinda hard to find interior photos of older Cadillac's............I had some pics of a '61 from an eBay auction a while back. Thank goodness I saved them and burned them on CD. That car also had a blue interior so I have some reasonable reference. I figured it was time to do something a little simpler to break out of the mold of superdetailing..............I think I'll be doing this a lot more as my time isn't as plentiful as it used to be! BILL

Well, I need something to break up the monotony of the superdetailing on the '55 Ford.............so I pulled out this forgotten model I bought a couple or so years ago at the NNL East. This is The Modelhaus 1961 Cadillac Series 62 2 dr Hardtop.........I wanted to build something that was about as old as I am :shock: (not the actual model but the car ) So this is it! I've always liked the jet like sleek lines of all the '61 GM lineup..............they were just starting to come out of the super excesses of the '50's yet they hadn't quite hit the simple lines that would be to follow as the '60's wore on. I've just gotten as far as primering the body..........whoever did the master for this body did a pretty darn good job as there was never a 2 dr hardtop bodystyle modeled of a '61 Caddy. They were all four doors. They also "lengthened" the body to the correct proportions as all the Johan Cadillacs that this is based on were too "short". :? As usual for Modelhaus standards there were NO pinholes to fill in and the resin is of very good quality. The roof had a very slight bow in towards the center, but some hot water and some bending fixed that. I noticed this when I was test fitting the front and rear glass and it wasn't fitting as flush as I would like. Here's the body in primer so far.............. There'll be more pics to follow after I get the color coats on and paint the interior. It's rainin' hard here today..........so now's the time I guess since I can't do yard work! :wink: Thanks for lookin'! BILL

Great models man! As far as the pics are concerned..........you can pick up the Paint Shop Pro 7 (made by JASC software) which will let you resize the pics once you have them on your hardrive. I take my pics at a high res them resize them so that the crisp details can still be seen. Hope this helps! BILL

WOW! Super Build Dave! I LOVE the color! With those body mods can you say 2009 Mustang? :wink: BILL

Hi Jairus! Sorry you couldn't make it to the show...................I had a really great time and it was good to see Gregg up and about again! I'm going to try to "modify" the grill from the "Orange Crisp" diecast which is perfect for the car. It's a little wide though as I think it's actually 1/24 scale instead of 1/25. The jury's still out on the decklid trim as I'll either have to scratchbuild this out of plastic and PE grillwork, or use my CAD/CAM program on the computer and do the artwork and make one out of PE. That'll remain to be seen................I have seen '55 Fairlane Victoria's without the trim however...... :wink: BILL

Okay guys! Here's the latest on the loooooooong buildup of the '55 Ford. I'm now starting on the working windows.............I've only got the basics of the left side window done so far. I'm starting to get things together for NNL East Saturday..............I'm leaving work early to get a jump on the traffic and should be in Jersey around 5PM or so tomorrow afternoon. I'll be able to meet some of you guys at the hospitality get-together at the Holiday Inn. 8) OK! Here's a few pics.............. Yes, that's a dime next to those tiny parts! I soldered a watch gear onto a sewing pin bent to represent a crank. this will mesh with the larger gear shown. This is the beginning of the working window mechanism. It's in its most basic state.......I want to make sure the gears are meshing together smoothly before adding anything else. The smaller gear that was shown in the upper pic is under the "cover" and it's meshing with the larger gear with an arm soldered on it. This arm is what will move the window up and down in its track. Here's the other side of the panel. Actually this panel is what supports the mechanism, and a scratchbuilt panel will go over it. The crank is a bent sewing pin.................since it is plated metal, this makes for nice "chromed' cranks, and makes soldering a gear onto it much easier. This is how the structure will fit onto the door. The inner door panel will slip over the handle and be glued onto this panel. Well, that's all for now folks! See y'all at the NNL! BILL

Fantastic Job Bob!! Too bad Ferrari didn't use your idea for the 612 instead of what they came out with! Your bodywork mods look so much better and says "Ferrari" more than the 1:1! ...............and I love the pillarless hardtop look. Frankly, if I were king all 2 dr coupes would be hardtops! BILL

Beautiful car Brian! The paint job is super nice..............silver blues have always given me trouble which is why you may never see one from me!

Thanks for the compliment S10Man! I thought since I have Fotki, it would be a good idea to use them as some sort of online diary. I wish I could have done this with the GTO..........but I didn't get a digital camera until I was more than halfway through with that one. Stay tuned........as time goes on you'll see pics of the window mechanism (front and rear) I may also scratchbuild the front and rear suspension as I want them to work also. BILL

Hi Gregg! Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I'll definitely be there next week! I wasn't sure I was gonna go at first due to some car trouble........sooooooooo I went and just bought a new one! Actually she's a 2004 Saturn ION Quad Coupe with 40,000 miles. I was pleasantly surprised to have some play money left over, so I can travel in comfort (and safety!) Here's a few pics of my new toy........ Thanks for the offer about the pics! I hope to have at least one of the windows working on the '55 by showtime. Like the '58 Impala I did, I hope to have all four windows on this one working without any drama. See ya! BILL

Hi Roy! I concur with everyone here about the type of thinner to be used. Whenever I want to transfer paint from a can to an airbrush I like to use those paper cups that are used for snow cones. You can cut out the bottom slightly and this will make a perfect funnel! You don't get the mess associated with just trying to spray in the jar and cleanup is easy............just simply throw the cup away. These aren't readily available in stores for some reason.......I got mine on eBay----for a pack of around 200 cups or so, it cost something like $10. These will last you a looooooooong time! I like to thin my paints with acetone, especially acrylic enamels such as Krylon and others. Lacquer thinner is okay, but acetone seems to really "wash" the color through and not leave any "beadiness" when mixing in the jar. It also seems to run through the airbrush very well. BTW, I use a Badger Crescendo for my paint jobs. I've had it for 10+ years and it is still working GREAT. As far as masking.......the best stuff in the world I have found for that is Tamiya Masking Tape! It is not heavily tacky like some other masks, and it also leaves a perfect edge behind when pulled up. As with any project that you're unfamiliar with------ my golden rule is to always TEST, TEST, TEST!! 8) HTH, Bill

Hi Folks! I was told about this board at a club meeting yesterday..........and it's very impressive! My latest project is a bit of a cliffhanger-------a 1955 Ford Fairlane. It's a cliffhanger as there was not plastic kit ever done of this car except for the annual promo done.............in 1955. I started with a forlorn kit I won on eBay.......an even when I won it I new it would need some MAJOR correction. The fellow who originally had it already attached the roof in which he used the roof from the '53 Lindberg kit. The roof was attached too far forward, and was not widened at all to accomodate the larger AMT '56 Ford lower body. A little bit of history of Ford Fairlanes in the 50's..............Ford was desperately trying to outdo Chevy in the production race in the early to mid '50's. Chevy was to have an all new body style for 1955 and with this new body was to come an all new small block V8. Ford not wanting to cede leadership to Chevy, had all new body styling done for their lineup for 1955. While the cars looked new to the casual observer, they were really nothing more than restyled '54 models......a body style that was introduced in 1952. Some clever reshaping of the windshield pillars and rear fenders gave the cars a fresh look which would tide Ford over until the really all new models would debut for 1957. The hardtop roof stampings were essentially the same from the '52 models up through the '56 save for the Crown Victoria's Ford would introduce a "Crown Victoria" model as a sort of a flagship to the Fairlane line which had a completely different roofline and "Tiara" or crown which was the centerpiece of the styling theme. In model form this turned out to be a very popular version to build........but what of the more mainstream "Victoria"? I wanted to do something that was more out of the mainstream of builders..........and so I chose to build the more common (in the '50's) Victoria 2 dr hardtop version. I had to whack the roof totally off the body and split it in half, also move the roof rearward to eliminate the "cab forward" look it had. This was then rejoined onto the beltline of the body and connected with sheet plastic. There's a lot more to the story..........so if you mosey on over to this link.........you'll see what else I've done to this baby http://public.fotki.com/MrObsessive/1955_ford_fairlane/ Let me know what you guys think! Enjoy! Bill Geary