'62 Studebaker GT Hawk

[mr moto]

Hi Everybody,

It seems a long time since I've had a completion to post so I hope this is worth the wait. When I take a close look at it it's easy to see that it's not really contest quality but it shows pretty well in photos or sitting on a shelf. It's based on a Missing Link resin body and AMT '53 Stude donor. In a lot of ways the Missing Link body was one of the best resin casts I've seen but there were still a ton of issues in doing the conversion; a very difficult build overall. The hood and grille shell were very poorly shaped and had to be totally remade to look like the real thing. The grille mesh is stainless steel screen from Model Car Garage. The odd placement of the radio antenna on the trunk lid is actually the only location that was available from the factory in 1962. Any cars that now have it in other locations are aftermarket jobs.

The paint is Studebaker's Brown Metallic factory color; a color that MCW doesn't make and I found out why. I went a local Sherwin-Williams auto paint center and they finally a match by eye to an original paint chip which I had. I also brought them the Studebaker paint code and cross reference codes to Dupont, Ditzler, Arco, etc. and they all drew blanks in their database search. Their computer optical match wouldn't accept the Stude paint chip either! We finally found a paint chip among the thousands hanging on their wall (many thanks to very knowledgeable  employee) that everyone in the room agreed was the right color.

The engine used started out in an AMT Avanti kit and was backdated to look like an early '62 Hawk engine. This part 2 of my proposed 3 part Hawk project. The first was a '56 Golden Hawk and sometime when I get the right vibes in the future I plan to start into '57 Golden Hawk. Don't hold your breath!

[Bugatti Fan]

Those early 60's Studebakers  were really elegant looking cars back in the day.

Quite European in styling when compared with the Fins'N' Chrome American cars of the time.

Nice pair of models !

[Falcon Ranchero]

Nice Stude, dude

[Jim B]

Very nice. Well done. We don't see Studebakers very often. 

[espo]

Beautiful looking Studebaker, these were really under rated cars in both fit and finish as well as performance in their time. Like how you changed the grill.   

[PappyD340]

Very nice Stude!!

[Kah puts]

Great job on this resin build, I know you can spend a lot of time on preparing the body and sometimes you get to a point that you just want to see it finished, been there done that, you’ve achieved excellent results on a seldom seen subject, bravo ?

[charger74]

Looks great ????

[Tom99]

Beautiful Studebakers!!

[Reegs]

Terrific build. The Hawks were great looking cars. As Bugatti Fan said, European in styling. Sadly, underneath it was still the '53. Studebaker had an admirable history. 

[ncbuckeye67]

That's some awesome conversion work!

[Paul Payne]

Great job, beautiful model! I have one that I can't work up the courage to get out the foil and finish!

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[slusher]

Very sharp!

[MeatMan]

Well done!

[XYHARRY]

Very nice GT Hawk there Manuel, your engine detail and colour combination looks great. Well done. 

Cheers, 

David. ??