Cool Hand

Made some adjustments to the stance. Lowered the rear and raised the front. Cant believe I actually raised a builds stance.

Thanks for the words Bob, yeah its a mix of styles. Pro Mod, Pro street and a tire killer(aka Burnout car)

Started another Holden HQ, applied a check coat of surfacer and got the wheels painted with Alclad chrome.

I lined mine with galvanized sheet steel and sealed edges and corners with reinforced aluminium duct tape.

Quick mess around with the DDA Custom Blown Holden HQ sedan, fitted up some Aoshima Cragar style wheels to see how they would look.

Im guessing and assuming they can only afford to have a license to produce under the now defunct GM Holden Australia, and to sell in the US market would require a GM USA license to produce which would no doubt be out of reach due to exorbitant fee's and the exchange rate. Maybe when they have built up a substantial revenue they will be able to enter into a US agreement and market. Like I said im just guessing and who am I to say the reasoning as to why they are not selling wholesale outside of Australia.

The DDA kit represents a 1971 Holden HQ sedan. I know wiki can be a bit dodgy, but it does provide some decent info of the HQ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_HQ

If true, its very sad and unfortunate to hear, have followed Rogers builds for many years and always liked seeing what he built and how clean his workmanship was.

Have a look on e-bay, might give you an idea of postage costs. I guess there would not be enough sales/profit to produce Australian stuff, other wise they would have surely produced something already. 18-21 seconds in on the second video Ron shared there are the Valiant Chargers on display. And going by what the guy said in the video, after every 1/24 diecast has been released 6-12 months later a plastic kit version will be available. So you might be able to get that Valiant R/T plastic model Charlie.

Yeah at first glance it does seem odd, questioned it myself when I first seen the larger rear side window opening on a mates build up. But the trim on the window is very pronounced and will be easy to mask and paint Also installing from the outside is different, but the fit up is very precise. When the trim is painted it does distract away from the approach taken with the rear side windows.

Personally I think these kits are great, the quality is equal to AMT kits. Some clean up and a bit of work required but overall ive been very impressed with the quality and fitment of the parts The simplicity of the modular design between the 4 variations makes them very simple and enjoyable to build, just glue and screw. The kits remind me of the diecast to plastic that Revell has done in the past. From what ive seen the kits are selling very well and I think what ever plastic kits DDA release will be very popular with us Aussie's I am currently building the Kingswood version here, Im so happy to be able to build an Australian car in plastic, so I made sure to build up a stock pile and to support DDA in hopes they release a lot more plastic kits. The thickness of the body and the type of styrene reminds me of Aoshima kits. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I will do my best to try provide an answer.

Couple more HQ Holden kits. Got the GTS Monaro version, so now I have the full set. Also got another super charged version.

So happy to finally be able to build an Australian plastic car kit. Kit is modular base, with 4 available variants. I decided to build the Kingswood version first and do it as a traditional Aussie Lowrider. DDA the manufacturer shot some styrene through a die cast mould to produce a plastic model kit, so its a screw and glue type kit. Decent parts breakdown. Dug out some of my favourite wheels from the stash and roughed in the stance.

Finally an Australian car is available in plastic. DDA the manufacturer shot some styrene through a die cast mould to produce these kits. Modular base kit which allows for 4 different versions. Still waiting for the 4th variant to arrive which is a GTS Monaro. Holden HQ Sedans.

Decided on the wheels for the Hakosuka. Finished all the prep work on the body. Mould lines removed, scribed door, trunk and hood lines. Filled the holes on the front valance and smoothed it out, drilled holes in the over fenders for rivets, blocked sanded entire body and applied a good coat of surfacer. One more coat of surfacer and it should be good and ready for paint. Havent really decided on a colour, so more than likely will end up black.

Yeah same old, same old with me. Black paint an slammed. Appreciate the kind words Mike, hope to see you back working on your Hako.

Really enjoy building the Aoshima LB Works kits, so dug another one out of the stash and made a start. Done a bit of body prep, shaved front and rear side marker lights and script, filled the recess for the badge on the pillar, shaved the badges on the trunk, filled the rear license plate locating holes and filled the rear bumper locating holes. Also as per usual applied a check coat of 1500 black surfacer. Not a serious build, all about having some fun enjoying the process and the visual end result.

Aoshima Liberty Walk Ken Mary Works Nissan Skyline complete. Not a serious build, just about maintaining skills and having fun actually getting something completed for a change. Also was a buddy build with @Sandboarder

Nice wheels, stance looks spot on. Look forward to seeing the paint scheme.

As always after painting I cant wait to do a paint mock up.

Yeah dude!! I seen that whilst searching. And had full intentions of doing a lowered 69 Camaro on wire wheels as a future build. But seeing those pics in my thread got me inspired and motivated.. So I dug out another Aldi Camaro kit from the stash and went to work setting the stance and fitting Pegasus #1311 DZ's. Yep!!

Interesting, look forward to seeing current tech and how its being used and what its capable of.

This 68 Chevelle was the first build idea I had to use the Pegasus Mini T's with 1311 DZ tyres. But it got painted before setting the stance. So now the paint is fully cured I set about roughing in the stance. Few adjustments needed, just loose mock up for now Im not concerned about the undercarriage detail it will never be seen once its in the display case and on the shelf. So the stance is what matters with these recent lowered builds.

Thanks, Had a lot of practice, painted over 50 builds with TS-14.

Applied the Tamiya TS-14 black. Please bare with me as I try to explain and hope it makes sense. Sorry for it being so long and wordy with no pics. I like to paint when the temp is around 86f, a slight bit of humidity is helpful. I wet down the area where I paint. For this build I did not wet sand the surfacer as there was no need. It was very smooth and was a good enough foundation for the black. I start of with what people call a mist coat. On the surface it looks like that, but in reality it is a very thin light wet coat. It needs to be wet, if misted on too dry it will cause texture and added layers will not bury it. To me this is where orange peel can start. All the coats of paint I mention are applied about three to four inches from the surface. The closer you are to the surface the wetter the coat will be. But the wetter the coat, the faster you must move the can past the surface to prevent runs and sags I start painting the thin light wet coat along the bottom edges first. Rocker panel, wheel arches, and then front and rear. After that, go to the top edge of front guard, door top and rear guard, then trunk, roof and cowl. Followed by going down the sides. Once that first light wet coat has been applied to all surfaces, I continue straight away with another light wet coat in the same order as the first. When the second light coat has been applied I set the body aside and paint 2 light wet coats to the hood and any other parts painted body colour. Then its back to the body, this time a medium wet coat is used and applied one after the other on the surface until the surface looks fully wet. For me thats usually 3-4 passes. These coats are where the paint is built up in layers/passes to full wet look gloss. Start on the front and rear. then do the trunk, roof and cowl, then make your way down along the sides. The trick here is to keep moving and rotating. Trying to keep it all looking wet. The medium coat is achieved by moving the can past the surface a slight bit slower than the thin light. Once the whole body has the wet look from the medium coat, set it aside for 10-20 mins. You can tell when its ready for the next coat as the wet look will be gone and the paint has shrunk to the surface and has a very fine/micro orange peel. Next final coats are medium and built up to the wet look again in 3-4 passes, but after the wet look is achieved one final heavy coat is applied. This is again is moving the can a slight bit slower past the surface than the medium coat. But there is a fine line between being just right and the paint running. Its all about learning how much paint can be applied before it runs on the final coat. After being fully painted. The body stays under a container with a very small air gap for the first 24hr's to dry/cure. Ive found if Tamiya paint gasses and dries out within the fumes of the paint, it does not shrink as quick as it would in open air. I think this prevents orange peel. So I think thats another cause for people getting orange peel with Tamiya lacquer. Dry and cure it too quick and it doesnt get a chance to shrink slow and self level. So after the first 24hrs I increase the air gap. I wait 72hrs before removing the body from the paint stand and keep it in the container with a large air gap. If the climate is around 86 it will take at least a week to fully harden. One day I will just have to try build up the confidence to step in front of camera and show the process, because showing would explain the technique so much better.