Cadillac V-16 1931 Trio: Cabriolet, Sport Phaeton and Town Brougham (Jo-Han)

[Greasefinger]

 

"Released in 1930, Cadillac became the first American car manufacturer to introduce a production car with a V-16 motor. In the early 1930s American car manufacturers were in a battle of “cylinder wars.” The likes of Packard, Franklin, Lincoln, Auburn, and Pierce Arrow all had created 12-cylinder cars by 1932. Marmon, a Cadillac competitor, thought about the idea of creating a 16-cylinder car in the late 1920s before Cadillac, but were unable to do so due to the lack of resources.

Unlike many of the competitors in the high-end market, Cadillac predominantly offered complete cars rather than rolling chassis to be bodied by custom coachbuilders. Many of the 'standard' bodies were constructed by Fleetwood (Ultimatecarpage.com)."

Jo-Han has released three of the Fleetwood styled bodies as 1:25 scale model kits first in the 1960´s: Two door Cabriolet, four door Sport Phaeton and four door Town Brougham. The kits were re-released and re-boxed in the 70´s.

For the Town Brougham Jo-Han used as a template a car which was a result of 20 years of research and restauration work. You can read more about it´s history here:

https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/23234/lot/43/1931-cadillac-v-16-series-452-town-brougham-chassis-no-703164-engine-no-7-3214/

All Jo-Han Cadillac 1931 models share the same chassis, engine, tires and lights. The kits have over 160 parts each and are very well detailed. The age shows, and the plastic was quite brittle, I broke several parts.

The cabriolet was built in 2023. The Sport Phaeton and Town Brougham were finished just this week. The most challenging part in the building process was probably attaching the Town Brougham´s interior into the body, it was a very tight fit. Otherwise parts fit quite well. Painting the Town Brougham required lots of masking because of three different colors. 

                                 

 

Edited Sunday at 10:10 AM by Greasefinger

[Matt Bacon]

Those are superb. Beautiful builds of genuinely classic kits. Having done just the one (the Cabriolet), I know how much work goes into getting a single one completed (and I hear you on the brittle plastic...). never mind the full set of three! On the other hand, they are superb kits, designed and engineered by people who really cared about these cars, so they fully do justice to the prototypes. Your color choices and detailing are outstanding, and that rear-compartment picture of the Town Brougham is to die for. Does the wicker lacquer body treatment on the Brougham come as decals, or have you done that yourself? Looks fabulous, whatever...

Well done indeed!

best,

M.

 

[karbuildr]

Outstanding. Really well done trio.

[Ragtop Man]

When they didn't need no steenkin' ads to say, we are not just luxury, but F**K YOU  luxury. 

Which is really the ultimate luxury. 

Superb builds, all!

[jaymcminn]

Absolutely beautiful. I have the Brougham in the stash, I've been trying for years to figure out how I want to tackle the wicker work. The Jo-han classics are a level above!

[bbowser]

Outstanding job on those awesome Johan kits.  I echo Matt's comments above, these were way ahead of anything else at the time.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Very nice work. They are all beautifully done. Great trio.

[Hard_2_Handle_454]

Beautiful

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

Gorgeous 

[Greasefinger]

11 hours ago, Matt Bacon said:

Those are superb. Beautiful builds of genuinely classic kits. Having done just the one (the Cabriolet), I know how much work goes into getting a single one completed (and I hear you on the brittle plastic...). never mind the full set of three! On the other hand, they are superb kits, designed and engineered by people who really cared about these cars, so they fully do justice to the prototypes. Your color choices and detailing are outstanding, and that rear-compartment picture of the Town Brougham is to die for. Does the wicker lacquer body treatment on the Brougham come as decals, or have you done that yourself? Looks fabulous, whatever...

Well done indeed!

best,

M.

 

Thanks! I saw you build here and on Britmodeller and it is really still at another level.

The wicker / cane treatment is actually molded in the body. I posted a question about the subject here before starting building. I thought of making it look a little more three-dimensional by applying brown panelliner but that didn´t work out quite well so I opted for just a clean look instead. For the same reason I didn´t gloss coat the black and dark red body parts, wet sanding and buffing them would´ve been quite a chore. Semi matt was easier to get a clean look. 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 08:54 AM by Greasefinger

[PappyD340]

Beautiful trio!

[Greasefinger]

16 hours ago, jaymcminn said:

Absolutely beautiful. I have the Brougham in the stash, I've been trying for years to figure out how I want to tackle the wicker work. The Jo-han classics are a level above!

Thanks and looking forward to see your solution. I posted a link to discussion about the cane work above, maybe they will help!

Edited Sunday at 03:34 PM by Greasefinger

[papajohn97]

Really nice trio of Cad's Kari. That grey roadster is my favorite. I've built a few of the classic 1/24 Monogram kits (Packard, RR) and loved them. Your builds are inspiring me to track down and try one of these 1/25 Jo-Han kits which still appear to be available on eBay and at reasonable prices.

[Jim B]

Gorgeous Cadillacs.  Very well done.

[espo]

All three of these have beautiful and realistic looking finishes and textures. Amazing attention to detail. We can only hope that Round 2 has these molds and maybe if they saw your builds they would consider reissuing these kits. 

[ford fan]

Ouch ! Incredible !

I really fell in love with this trio. You did an outstanding job !

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Karl!

Great trio, you made the most of those kits. The interiors are very impressive, as is your photography. Bravo!

CT

[Kah puts]

Primo trio 👍

[BKF]

Beautiful builds!

[bondo bill]

3 beauties

[baycolony]

Very impressive.  These are so well done.  Thanks for sharing.

[70 Sting]

Well, aren’t those beautiful. 🤩

[bamadon]

Great job. Love the old classics. 

[Rob Hall]

They look like gorgeous kits and builds. I've never had any of the Jo-han classics, but have built some of the Monogram ones years ago. 

[ChrisR]

Very nice!