Lead City Customs

[Cool Hand]

On 8/6/2025 at 2:42 AM, espo said:

Like the Holden Pano body style. We know them as Sedan Deliveries, different name but same thing. 

Yeah multi purpose vehicles. Also known as shaggin wagons back in the day 😄

 

On 8/6/2025 at 3:59 AM, BK9300 said:

Great prep work, as always - block sanding just like on a 1:1.  Looks so smooth in primer!

Cheers for dropping in to comment Brian.

Paint work all starts with the foundation, good prep leads to good paint jobs. It has taken me many years to learn and develop a system that helps me get consistent results.

Mr Hobby 1500 Surfacers are excellent primers. Spray can or airbrushed it always lays down smooth once you learn how to apply it. 

 

On 8/6/2025 at 7:30 AM, Zippi said:

That 1500 pink primer looks Awesome Luke.  Yup,  we'd call it a GM Holden Sedan Delivery.  But...no matter what its called its a Bad Boy.

Thanks Bob.

Cant go wrong with the Mr Hobby 1500 surfacers, good stuff. 

It will be a trip back in time, to see the Pano all done.

[Cool Hand]

Just finished applying the colour coat. Have to let dry for bit, before I can do a mock up 😁

[Cool Hand]

[Zippi]

1 hour ago, Cool Hand said:

Just finished applying the colour coat. Have to let dry for bit, before I can do a mock up 😁

Lookin good there Luke.

[Kenmojr]

You build some cool cars. Really enjoy seeing those Holdens from "down under"...

[Cool Hand]

On 8/7/2025 at 11:53 PM, Zippi said:

Lookin good there Luke.

Thanks Bob.

Should come to life a bit more once I apply the clear.

 

On 8/8/2025 at 2:38 AM, Kenmojr said:

You build some cool cars. Really enjoy seeing those Holdens from "down under"...

Thanks Ken.

Just trying build something different. 

There will always be Holden builds to see in my thread, so good that more kits will continue to become available.

[Cool Hand]

Engine bay sub assembly complete, and got some of the interior parts done.

[SpikeSchumacher]

Sharp as usual, Luke!

[espo]

Beautiful looking paint and engine detailing. A friend of mine had a 1950 Pontiac Sedan Delivery, an uncommon vehicle even here, that he fixed up, this was many years ago, and he had a sign painter paint some signage like a business delivery vehicle. 

[Cool Hand]

13 hours ago, SpikeSchumacher said:

Sharp as usual, Luke!

Thanks Mathias. Starting to look the part now.

 

12 hours ago, espo said:

Beautiful looking paint and engine detailing. A friend of mine had a 1950 Pontiac Sedan Delivery, an uncommon vehicle even here, that he fixed up, this was many years ago, and he had a sign painter paint some signage like a business delivery vehicle. 

Thanks David.

Its a very nice colour with excellent coverage.  

With some extra effort and details the engines in the DDA kits present well. 

That 50 Pontiac Sedan Delivery would be a rare sight im sure.

The Panel Vans are a rare sight, but there is still a yearly show with massive culture

  

[STU111]

G’day Luke, that HJ van is looking great! 👍🏻 I might have to grab one of these. 

[Zippi]

Nice video there Luke.  Looks like your getting close on wrapping this bad boy up.    

[Cool Hand]

1 hour ago, STU111 said:

G’day Luke, that HJ van is looking great! 👍🏻 I might have to grab one of these. 

Thanks Stu, Pano's build up good and a few variants to choose from. Worth getting one for sure.

 

25 minutes ago, Zippi said:

Nice video there Luke.  Looks like your getting close on wrapping this bad boy up.    

The guys YouTube channel is also excellent, he is one of the pioneers of the Street Machine car culture in Australia. He built some brilliant show cars over the years.

 

Very close, hoping to get the clear applied tomorrow. Then il let that settle for week or so. But yeah after that wont take much to get it completed.

[Cool Hand]

Back to working on the LJ Torana pro street. While I wait for the opportunity to apply a clear coat to the Pano.

Need to get the basic body prep done, then I can work on modifying the rear wheel arch.

So same usual process block sanding body, I like using the black surfacer makes it easy to see whats going on and keep track of the surface.

 

 

 

Havent done this type of modification before so it will be interesting to see if I can stretch the wheel arch to suit the tyre.

 

 

[Cool Hand]

Well got to make the most of the good weather today, so its clear coat time for these 3 builds.

[Cool Hand]

Well I payed the price for not using the clear that I always use.

For some reason decided to use same brand clear as the pearl base coat, which I know from experience has a very hot thinner solvent.

I must have put the last wet coat on a bit heavy as it disturbed all the pearl pigments and soaked right through to the plastic.

Funny that @STU111 and I were mentioning clear ruining the paint the other day and he we are 🤣

Was a bit annoyed so straight into a bath of Tamiya Lacquer thinner.

Problem solved and now back to bare plastic. Its just paint so easy to strip and start again.

And the other pearl paint job was the same. Not as bad with the pearl being disturbed but soaked right in and ruined the under lying base coat. 

Slight bit of crazing the plastic on the roof, hoping that should sand out.

So yeah it is currently having a Tamiya lacquer thinner bath.

Sometimes the best lessons are learnt the hard way. Story of my life 🤣

More often than not modelling is about problem solving and recovering from a ruined paint job

Edited Sunday at 11:56 AM by Cool Hand

[Cool Hand]

Other Skyline back to bare plastic.

So time to reset and try again with these two. 

 

 

 

Thankfully the Pano clear coat turned out pretty good, I will let it sit and cure for week, then come back to it and get it completed. Has fine orange peel texture which will easily be sorted out with a light wet sand and compound polish.

 

 

[Zippi]

Oh man...hate to hear when a paint job goes bad and the paint has to be stripped.  Been there done that and will probably be doing that again somewhere down the road.  The clear you were using was working out Great.  You know the old saying, if it ain't broke don't fix it. 

[Cool Hand]

Yeah is what it is Bob, cant be successful 100% of the time.

Always will be a paint job or 2 that go bad every once in a while. Thankfully it was only old style Aoshima kits being built as slammers, so no stress just deal with the situation, strip and repaint.

Yeah definitely will only use Mr Colour GX-100 Super Clear III from now on.

 

Both have are back in surfacer with check coat applied, As expected few spots will need some further work.

Its odd the engine bay looks great no issues 🤣

 

Have to redo putty work on this one, lacquer thinner dissolved it.

 

Now that spanner in the works is partially out the way, I can get back to the LJ Torana pro street.

 

 

 

[STU111]

G’day Luke. Geez, that’s disappointing when that happens. I had a paint job turn to custard on a 442 Olds last year but after stripping it, it turned out to be probably my best paint job in the end. Even after building around a dozen cars, the body painting still raises the anxiety levels in me!   Looking forward to seeing the Sandman finished. 👍🏻

 

[Cool Hand]

Yeah Stu, once in a while things will stuff up. All part of learning. Always a little bit of anxiety with model building when 80% is all about paint work.

[Cool Hand]

Made a start stretching the rear wheel arch on the LJ Torana.

Also adjusted the stance, lowering a bit.

Now to fill the gap and blend the joins.

 

Edited Monday at 07:38 AM by Cool Hand

[Cool Hand]

Filled the gap with some 2mm styrene and shaped to match. Opened up the joins and beveled the edges slightly. 

 

Then filled the joins with AnyCubic Standard resin I use for my 3D printer, its very thin so it wicks in really good. Cured the resin with a UV torch. Had seen a few car modelers use the technique so thought id try it out

 

Applied another layer to bring the resin just above flush with the surface.

And back filled the inside for added strength.

The cured resin wet sands easily with 400 grit. Didnt get any pictures was in rush mode and just proceeded to applying 1200 gray surfacer.

Overall pretty good for first round of sanding. Another round of sanding and surfacer should be all it needs.

 

[BK9300]

Fabulous work, Luke - looks like it was that way all along!

[SpikeSchumacher]

Great tip!