1931 Cadillac V16 Convertible Coupe, Jo-Han, 1/25

[Matt Bacon]

And now, as they used to say, for something completely different...

Clearly my subconscious had been working on what I should build after the RX-7 kitbash, because this came to me in a dream, literally. More accurately, maybe because I'd been reading some vintage modelling magazines, I woke up knowing I should build one of the Jo-Han oldies in my stash, or one of the Monogram 1/24 "The Classic...." series. After weighing up this one, the Jo-Han Carraciola Mercedes 500K, and the Monogram Duesenberg, I plumped for this. It couldn't be further from a JDM rotary of the early 2000s...

I've never built a Jo-Han kit before, but opening the box everything I've heard about these (compared to their annuals) is borne out, even though it had been slightly started by the previous owner. The detail is astonishing for any vintage, never mind the late 60s, and the way the parts trees lock together to protect everything in the box is genius. The instructions are properly old school, like vintage Heller, where you have to read the words three times and trial assemble everything before committing to glue.

I've stripped all the chrome (mostly the trees at the bottom right of the picture) and will repaint the bits that need it. This is a first-release boxing (the later re-release has a largely white box) and the whole kit, including the chromed tree, is 99% flash-free.

The engine had been mostly assembled (albeit with chromed parts) and the front axle had been part built, but that's as far as it went. I'm not sure why the previous builder had stopped... nothing seems to be FUBARed and all the parts are there. Anyway, their loss is my gain. So, just a straightforward build of a regular (and rather nice-looking albeit classic) kit according to the instructions. What could possibly go wrong?

best,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

Not much to show yet, but things I have learned.

1) The styrene in this older boxing is really hard, and brittle, which I guess is the price you pay for the sharpness of detail and the lack of flash.

2) There are serious sink marks in many of the thicker parts (see above)

3) They thought very hard about how to mold it so you can build without paint. Unfortunately, not all "silver" parts are "chrome", and not all "body color" parts are the same green, even if your basic body color is green. This also means the paint call-outs are very limited: the section in the instructions only mentions  things that you can't in all conscience leave the color they are molded.

4) On the plus side, I was very pleased to read that the designers of the Chevy V16 made it very "neat" with all the plumbing and wiring hidden. In practice, this means that the 16 spark plug wires from the distributor come out one side and disappear down around its base rather than having to be led to each cylinder in both blocks. Go Chevrolet.

5) It's designed beyond the limits of early-60s injection molding technology. For example, there are a couple of parts that are intended to be the folded "irons" for the fabric roof. They are slim, accurate, beautiful... and distorted and broken. I think even Meng with 2020s slide molding tech and using ABS instead of polystyrene would have struggled to make them work. But someone mastered them and they tried, so well done.

6) I genuinely don't think I've ever come across a "classic" kit so completely uncompromising in its ambition to get everything right, so of its time, and so close to succeeding, with the possible exception of some of Heller's greatest hits from the late 60s and early 70s. (And by that I also mean never taking the "easy to assemble/foolproof/fun to build" design solution if accuracy is on the line...)

best,

M.

[LennyB]

Matt, I’ve built many JoHan kits but never a classic, I’ll be watching, should be interesting.  

[Pierre Rivard]

Thanks for the detailed assessment of the kit Matt. I'll be keeping an eye for one in the future. This Caddy is glorious and I 'll be following your journey.

[bbowser]

I've built a couple of these and you're correct in your assessment.  They build into beautiful replicas.  Watching with interest.

[Can-Con]

I'll be following along on this one Matt. 

I have the other two Jo-Han '31 Caddys but not this one. 

I keep thinking I'll tackle one when I have the skills up to the task.

[Matt Bacon]

Starting to make some progress...

The engine stripped of chrome and repainted. Given the brittleness of the plastic, I didn't try to disassemble it any further and contented myself with repainting. Look closely, and you can see (and read) the "Delco" badge on the water pump bottom right.

I "wired" the distributor using thread, smoothed with PVA glue, making up two eight-strand skeins which are fixed into slots cut in the distributor cap. I wouldn't try and use it if the wires had to be routed visibly to each cylinder but as it is the fabric-covered wires just have to disappear into the front of the cylinder head.

In case you're wondering how big this engine is (and it's a monster) here it is in comparison to a 1/24 427 V8 from a Monogram Cobra that I had lying around.

The main elements of the chassis. I've added the exterior brake drums,, held on by the green pins so they rotate. The white-ish patches on the frame rails are the sink marks I mentioned, filled using superglue and microballoons.

Quick test of the engine in the chassis. You can see why the car has such a long nose.

An example of that ambition and attention to detail I mentioned above. This is the steering actuator lever. If you look closely you can see that the hole in the chassis is extended vertically by a slot, and there are two tiny pins moulded on the axle of the lever. This means that the lever can be inserted through the chassis with the lever lying along the chassis rail, and then rotated to its correct vertical orientation where it is retained in the hole by the pins which are now behind the chassis. I've never seen that done before. That gives plenty of  wiggle room for clipping together the steering mechanism.

The suspension is very nicely detailed with the shock absorber dampers and arms applied separately. And the steering works prototypically.

The rear suspension is equally well detailed: note the hex nuts on the differential and brake actuator rods as well as separate damper arms.

Here's the completely assembled chassis. I'm going to paint it as one piece because it is all black, and given the plastic's general resistance to glue I wanted to be sure I was always gluing plastic directly to plastic and using hot MEK liquid cement wherever possible.

The engine fits perfectly on its mounts and to the prop shaft. Now to pop it out and paint the chassis and powertrain. And make some decisions about what color the car is going to be!

best,

M.

[NOBLNG]

Good progress, and it looks like a really nice kit. That must have had a multi piece frame too right?

[Matt Bacon]

24 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

That must have had a multi piece frame too right?

Yes... I didn't realise until I started reading the instructions carefully, but the original owner had put together the ladder frame sides, under engine floor and a couple of the transverse frames before I got it. Again, although there are some sink marks in the frame sides, they are both as straight as a die and the cross-pieces fit perfectly between them and lock into position.

best,

M.

[Bugatti Fan]

Looks like being a good one Matt!   Quite enjoyable to see you building an older vintage classic !

[Pierre Rivard]

It is a nice chassis, and with working steering. Impressive vintage kit for sure.

[Matt Bacon]

So, I have found the missing part that stalled the build -- the back half of one of the wheels, which is the same as one for the spare wheel on the fender. However, I have another Jo-han Cadillac in the stash so I have stolen a bright blue alternative to the green piece in the kit. Having now gone rummaging, i would very highly recommend that if you want to build one of these, seek out an original 60s issue rather than the "white box" re-issue version from the 70s/80s. The newer kit is plagued by very heavy flash everywhere, and rough textured moldings, including the transparencies and chrome. I think if I'd opened the "Dual Cowl Phaeton" first, I'd have filed the Jo-han kits under "more trouble than it's worth" and moved on. But I didn't, and the newer kit is an excellent source of spare parts...

The chassis is now fully assembled and painted:

"What's with the red brake drums?" you are probably thinking. Well, I have settled on a real car to act as the prototype and solve my color conundrums, and here it is...

It's a deep cream/yellow beige in real life, not a virulent chrome yellow.

This is a more or less 50/50 mix of Tamiya TS-34 "Camel Yellow" and TS-7 "Racing White" decanted and sprayed with the airbrush. The fender molding is just the kit part with the plastic polished, which looks OK to me. I don't think priming it, painting it in gloss black and polishing it again will make it any better!

The wheels are a bit more sophisticated than the kit colors and chrome would allow. The picture of the real thing above demonstrates that the wheels are basically black with chrome details, not chrome all over. The two wheel/spoke parts are glossed in black, and then the spokes colored in chrome with AK and Hyperchrome pens. The rims on the real thing are mostly black, so only the outside edge is also colored in chrome. The hub is chrome, but I'm going to leave that until after gluing the wheel parts together so I can apply pressure to the hub while they dry. The whitewalls have been primered in white and then painted with Gunze "off-White" spray.

One of the reasons I love this color scheme is that as well as the red brake drums, it's been refurbished with a glorious red leather interior.This is Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet diluted slightly with water and with some acrylic flow enhancer added. I don't know why it's taken me so long to figure this out, but while it takes several coats to build up the color density, you end up with no texture from the paint at all.

Lots still to do, but I feel like I've taken all the big decisions now, so I can just plug along building it.

best,

M,

 

[Matt Bacon]

Back from a lovely break in the midst of the Forest of Bowland, I can now see how all the bits I left to cure thoroughly got on while I was paying no attention...

That's the chassis (and the first part of the four-stage instructions) completed. The steering column and box need to be clipped in place before attaching the floor and fender part, and then rotated to the correct orientation and fixed permanently into the location on the kick-panel of the floor.

I'd stripped the chrome from all the parts to clean them up and glue together the various assemblies firmly, and this is the first to be repainted. I stuck the grille, radiator housing and mascot together, and then sprayed with SMS Hyperchrome over a base of Tamiya Gloss Black from a rattle can.

Quick test assembly. Now time to do a few hours of masking before painting the black body mouldings.

best,

M.

[Pierre Rivard]

You have absolutely nailed the yellow hue. Gloriously beautiful!

[Bainford]

A beautiful classic. Interesting kit. Incredible molded detail. It's coming along nicely.

I have the JoHan Mercedes in the later white boxing, and can attest to it being plagued with flash, and it too is brittle plastic.

Edited May 2 by Bainford

[Matt Bacon]

Took the masking off after letting the decanted and airbrushed Tamiya Gloss Black cure for 24 hours in an unseasonably warm workshop...

The running boards, believe it or not, are the much-maligned "New Improved Chrome" Bare Metal Foil. I've finally run out of the old stuff, and this envelope had been sitting unopened behind the bench for years, so I didn't have high hopes. But it worked brilliantly. There are a few touch-ups to do, and detail painting on both the main body and hood sections, but overall I'm pretty happy with how this has come out.

best,

M.

 

[Deathgoblin]

Looks fantastic! 

[beeRS]

You’ve done a great job. The yellow is a perfect match.
Thanks for the insight into this kit. 

[Curt]

This is turning out so well, nice work so far.  I especially like your color choices.

[NOBLNG]

Yes, this is coming along very nicely! I agree the colors look great!😎 Reminds me of my ‘30 Packard.🙂

[Matt Bacon]

Popped the rather imposing radiator on for a test fit, which is pretty impressive given that everything is just resting in place...

I'm going to diverge slightly from the instructions, and build the rumble seat and mechanism up from underneath with the opening panel taped in place like this, rather than assembling the whole thing as a unit and then trying to plug it into the open hole at the back.

best,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

Let's get ready to rumble! Bottom line is that the cunning plan for building the rumble seat up on a closed panel didn't work. Nor did several other attempts. The tolerances are tight, and the fact that the plastic is hard and brittle makes it very hard to create and use "wiggle room".

What I've ended up with is this fudge. I've cut a slot in the circular sockets on the seat arms, so that when the seat is fully open and upright, it should be able to drop down onto the bearing pins from the top and gravity will keep it in place. When it's closed the remainder of the socket should rotate around the pin and locate the bottom/rear end of the panel. The top edge rests on a ledge at the front of the opening in the body. As you might be able to see, given the fragility of the plastic, I've used some clear epoxy above the "hook" of the fudged arm to reinforce it. This is now curing until tomorrow!

In other news, the body interior has been detail painted and inserted. Go in downwards from the top rear,  pointy end of the interior through the gap in bottom of the body at the front, get the rear bulkhead of the interior over the  parcel shelf panel on the body, then pivot the front of the interior up into position flexing it past the interior flanges of the footwell vents one at a time.  The controls have also been fixed, which means the chassis is more or less done. I don't think attaching all the head and tail lights at this point makes sense.

Which means I can try this. I just love this engine bay...

Only this side so far (the masking drives me nuts!). Masked the arrows on the vents with thin strips of Tamiya tape, then AK Chrome pen to highlight them and all the other handles, embellishments and fasteners. A couple of touch-ups to the yellow to do, I see...

The dash is a tribute to the astonishing finesse of the molding in this kit. There are three parts here. The windscreen frame and dashboard has finely-textured "engine turning" which catches the light perfectly. The wood veneer "bow" has very fine grain molded in, which is easily drybrushed -- or gently sanded to reveal the black underlying plastic. But the instrument panel is the piece de resistance - all the dial markings are molded in relief. I painted the whole thing silver, filled the dials with Citadel "Black Templar" contrast paint, drybrushed the raised markings with Two Thin Coats white, and applied a couple of layers of Citadel 'Ardcoat varnish as glass. It took longer to type this than it did to do. Amazing detail, the like of which I've only ever come across in classic Monogram 1/48 aircraft kits of the 70s and 80s...

Tomorrow, it's time to see if we CAN rumble...

best,

M.

 

[Matt Bacon]

OK, there's a bit of wiggling to do to get from closed to open, but the rumble seat seems to work fine!

If you have a set of 1/24 golf clubs and bag spare, the accommodation awaits, even if it is behind an inch of armour plated door...

That's the cockpit finished. The wheel has the correct concentric levers for the throttle and something to do with parking (I can't read all the wording, but "parked" is the first setting) moulded on the hub so I faked up some labels. Look closely at the windscreen in the pictures above. I haven't worked out how they did this, but the natural resting angle when you trap the tiny bearing pivots between the front and back halves of the windscreen pillars is slightly open at the bottom. I thought it just didn't fit, but then I looked at the pictures of the real thing above, and lo and behold the windscreen does open at the bottom for fresh air ventilation, so it's 100% accurate. I'll wait until the glue is set tomoorow, and very gently (very small pins in fragile clear plastic) see if it can be nudged fully-closed as well...

Radiator now fixed permanently. I tacked the bracing to the firewall first, then glued the base of the radiator and the leading point of the brace in their locations, and while the glue was tacky and not fully cured dropped in the hood assembly and pressed everything together before leaving it to set. As you can see, this means that the hood fits neatly at the edges and clips positively into place.

Lights tomorrow...

best,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

Grrr....aaargh! Looks like the windscreen managed to work its way loose as I was fixing the body to the chassis. Anyway, it's now back in place where it should be and the glue is setting.... again!

best,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

Slow progress in the last week as some family issues occupied a lot of my time, but some things got done in the odd bit of downtime...

The light bars were among the finest and most fragile parts, and the main element had a distinctly cross-eyed look. I got it straight and reinforced though, and I think it looks pretty reasonable now. The main headlights have both a lens and an outer ring to install; the "pilot" lights at the bottom (which _are_ meant to turn to align with the steering, I gather) had just the clear lens to be added. Both have a clever bit of molding at the back of the dish that actually looks like a bulb when seen through the lenses.

I wrangled the windscreen back into place. The spare tire covers required a combination of BMF for the central circumferential cover strip and chrome pen for the inner circle. The hubs also need chroming but I wanted to finish trial fitting and prepping before I finally apply it to avoid handling as much as possible.

The folded hood is now finished. For the erected hood, I still need to apply the opened-up landau bars, and it looks from the photos of the real thing as though there are also some silver fasteners around the edges when the top is up as well as the tonneau cover fixings on the folded version.

best,

M.