Cool Hand

Thats not entirely true. Just need to know where to look. You can still get them, a quick search on ebay and you will find many sellers in Australia.

Wet sanding done, wont bore you with that process. Tricky to get photos of this one. Camera trips out taking pictures of this particular paint job, it wants to over expose which makes the pearl pigments look like a heavy flake I used the God Hand 10mm and 2mm sanding sponges 4000-10000. 10mm is used for overall blocking of the open flat surfaces and 2mm for corners and crevices. Also got the interior components prep'd and 1500 Gray Surfacer applied. If your are observant you will notice I removed the head rest from the Hoddy Design resin seats.

Thank you very much to all who commented. Thanks Stu, with a bit of effort they build up great out of the box. Hope my build can motivate and inspire you to do work on your HQ, been waiting to see an update. I built 7 of them 😄 No idea what happened to 1:1 car after he sold it. Havent spoke or seen the guy who owned for years. But I think it might have ended up in Adelaide. 🤷‍♂️ Thanks Doug, the plastic kit is based of a die cast version, DDA shoot plastic through the diecast mould. Always try my best to take good pictures of my models as it helps to showcase the details of the build to viewers. I like to present it in a way the looks like something you would see in the magazines

Next on the bench, bringing this one back for completion. Need to get the interior prepared and ready for paint, after thats done the Body needs a full wet sand and polish.

Thanks Brain. Very happy I managed capture the 90's street machine style. Its my favourite era of Aussie Street Machine car culture. I will have to think about it, to see if I could show and explain the polishing process I use. Next build on the bench I will see if I can piece something together.

I found these Tamiya swabs help a lot with precise removal of paint from scripts and badges. Check out Scale Riders they have them in stock. Dont over soak with the thinner. Dip and wick away excess on paper towel. Then just take your time lightly wiping over the paint on the raised script. No need to try remove in one go. You will have to dip and wipe multiple times, being patient with the process will get you the best results 😉

Thats a great technique for doing scripts Bob.

Holden HQ complete and Under Glass.

This build is a special one to me as its inspired and my interpretation of local car that was one of my favourites back in day during the late 90's. And its the reason I like Holden HQ sedans. I only manage to get one picture of it from a local event. My memory of it is pretty vague, but il never forget how it did sound and look. The engine was a fully worked 350 Chev with a Jackson Gear drive, big stall convertor and 4:11 gears. If you know you know. So its absolutely great to have DDA Collectibles manufacturing the Holden HQ's as plastic kits. Ever since the kit was released ive had the idea for this build. Just took time for all the pieces of puzzle to align and fall into place before I was ready to make it a reality. After using this colour on another build, I knew it was going to be perfect for the HQ. I remember the interior being black, and it having a mega shifter so I sourced something similar from Texas 3D Customs . I dont like the front vinyl seats that come with the kit. So I got a file from Black Box and 3D printed new front seats. Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 black was the perfect solution for the look of black vinyl upholstery and the floor carpet is Tamiya XF-1 flat black. Had to modify the transmission tunnel to clear the aftermarket transmission. That can be seen in my Lead City Customs build thread I 3D printed the steering wheel, the file was from Black Box. Main feature of the 1:1 car is the wheels. They were Dragway Pro Wheels but there is none available in scale. So similar wheels that I have always liked are Weld Racing Draglites so I sourced them and the BFG T/A tyres from Morries Kustoms and I 3D printed. Wheels are painted with SMS paints Hyper Chrome Cold Tone. Headlight surrounds, bumpers, wipers, door handles, side mirrors, rear vision mirror and exhaust tips were all painted with SMS paints Hyper Chrome Dark Tone. BMF for trim and grill surround trim. The kit has the Holden 308 engine, so that was replaced with a 350 SBC which was sourced from Texas 3D Customs. But the air cleaner supplied with that engine was too tall for the engine bay, so I replaced with one I found in my parts stash, no idea what its from. Had to do a lot of cutting, modifying and build a new fire wall to fit the aftermarket engine. That can be seen in my Lead City Customs build thread Air filter and valve covers painted with SMS Hyper Chrome Dark Tone I 3D printed the distributor and coil. And finally with typical rev-head bogan behavior, have to put the stockies/steelies on to do some burnout outs. Cant afford to be shredding BFG T/A's 😄

Thanks Greg, Scot and Stu. Appreciate the comments. Yeah Black Hole is a pretty good alternative for Nissan Midnight Purple, there is another alternative similar but with different colour shift mix.

Body attached to chassis. Just the final exterior components to install/attach.

Polishing done. Still has the slightest bit of orange peel texture, but I can live with that. Having no clear coat I could not get too carried away. The depth in the reflection is much better and clearer, so im happy with that improvement. And BMF applied. Onto the home stretch now.

Appreciate the comments Carl and David. 3rd picture. SMS paints Colour Shift Extreme, Black Hole. Yep, gloss black undercoat.

Thanks for all the comments. Just part of the Liberty Walk styling to be different. I call it angry eyes. But from a quick search the influence comes from the Kaido Racer and Slihoutte race car culture. But the overall style is called Bosozoku.

All the Holden HQ components are ready to be assembled. I just need to machine polish the body to remove the micro orange peel. Then I can BMF and work towards getting completed.

Thanks Bob, its good to be back in the zone and having so many options with all the available 3D files.

Well I guess if at some point in the future lots of Ai generated car models start showing up on the forum, then you would assume another sub section would need to be created to separate Ai generated. I doubt there is any need for concern about Ai created or the casual observer, sure some people will use Ai as a tool but most if not all that visit this forum are here to see and discuss the creation of all things related to real world physically created scale model cars.

As Les mentioned AI images are highly defined and crystal clear, where as regular human model car images will not be as polished or 100% in focus.

Hako completed. And Under Glass.

About time I got this build completed. Shaved front and rear side marker lights and script, filled the recess for the badge on the C pillar, shaved the badges on the trunk, filled the rear license plate locating holes and filled the rear bumper and oil cooler locating holes. I 3D printed the wheels which are from SlowysModels. 3D printed steering wheel from BlockBox. Chose the colour as it's very similar to Nissan OEM midnight purple II. As per usual with my over fender builds. SMS paints Hyper Chrome Dark Tone was applied to the tail light surrounds. Aluminum tube for the exhaust tip.

Finally completed the Hako build I started 2 years ago.

Seen another members Hako and the colour reminded me of my LBWK Hako build, so it got me inspired and motivated to circle back and put in some work to try get completed. Interior pretty much completed, just need to adjust the roll cage position and touch up a few things. Body needs a clean, the dash fitted and door cards installed, then once fitted onto the chassis plate I can install the tail lights, attach the wipers and fit the front grill panel and call it completed. Which will be later today.

Good job on the fire wall Bob. I would be happy to trade some weather, ive had enough of southern polar blasts that keep gusting through 🥶 Thankfully my room out the garage/shed has heating and cooling so I can work on the models in comfort all year round.

Went on a side mission circling back to a Holden LJ Torana I have painted, but had not chosen the wheels or decided what style to build. Found some Holden VL Group A Walkinshaw wheels from Scale Model Wheels And Designs. I printed the centers and use some other hoops/sleeves for staggered deeep dish rears. Tyres are from Morries Kustoms. Painted with SMS Hyper Chrome Cold Tone and Jet Black clead coated with SMS Super Clear. Definitely will need to adjust the stance, its a bit too low. Cant believe I just said that 😄

Sometimes time is limited and I just like to get things done so I can move on to the next stage or something else. Time frame with the full system of SMS paints. I applied the surfacer let that dry overnight. The following day I based coated jet black and clear coated in the morning let that dry all day about 8hrs. Then applied the Chrome Cold Tone. 2 hours later I buffed and assembled the wheels.