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'53 Hudson Hornet is coming....


Drago

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That would be an outstanding choice for a "Next!" for Moebius if the 300 and the Hudson are successful ... which I have no doubt they will be.

I hope their second truck kit is a first gen A-series Scout! What? A boy can dream, can't he? :lol:

I'm not one bit disappointed in what I see... this looks like it's every bit as incredible as we've expected. I for one can't wait to get my mits on one... I might even rob that Triple H I-6 for use in a hoodless hot rod. :lol:

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As I did for the Chrysler 300, I took the photo of the prototype model and overlaid it on a photo of the real deal. In this case, the profile is very close to correct... not dead on, but pretty close. The biggest goof: the door handle is way too low.

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As I did for the Chrysler 300, I took the photo of the prototype model and overlaid it on a photo of the real deal. In this case, the profile is very close to correct... not dead on, but pretty close. The biggest goof: the door handle is way too low.

Shave the door handles, and nobody will notice that. ;)

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

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Regarding the door handles on the Hornet.

The photos in the gallery are a mix of several different stages of work on the mock-up. You may be looking at an old photo of the mock-up.

I spent some time yesterday with photos of the real car and photos of the most recently revised mock-up, I even overlaid some photos to check.

I cannot find any evidence that the door handles are measurably too low on the mock-up as it exists today.

Dave

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I was hoping for better wheels. Just kidding it looks awesome, and what I'm most impressed with is the fact that while well detailed, they didn't see the need to over complicate the kit the way Accurate miniatures and Trumpeter did. The hudson along with the 300c appear to compare favorably with the Galaxie limited 48 Chevy kit, which in my estimation is a high water mark in model design.

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And yesterday while out at lunch I had the pleasure of seeing a gorgeous metallic green '51 Hudson Hornet coupe make a left turn onto the street I was driving, and passed me. Looked like a brand-new car :rolleyes:

A question about the chassis bracing: I was showing the photos online to another builder last night who is familiar with these cars, I believe he still has one somewhere on his property. While drooling over the photos of all the details, he commented that the quantity of bracing underneath looked to him to be from a convertible. Therefore my conjecture is that this is a good sign that a convertible is planned from this tooling?

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The chassis of our model is for a coupe. I have photos and drawings of the underside of a couple different coupes as well as photos of the bottom of a convertible - under restoration,

the structure of the bottoms of the coupe and the convertible are virtually identical.

The only visible difference between them is a small square well under the driver's side of the back seat of a convertible for the hydraulic pump to operate the top.

I'd have to study some photos to see if it's even visible on the bottom of the car...

Dave

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And yesterday while out at lunch I had the pleasure of seeing a gorgeous metallic green '51 Hudson Hornet coupe make a left turn onto the street I was driving, and passed me. Looked like a brand-new car :D

A question about the chassis bracing: I was showing the photos online to another builder last night who is familiar with these cars, I believe he still has one somewhere on his property. While drooling over the photos of all the details, he commented that the quantity of bracing underneath looked to him to be from a convertible. Therefore my conjecture is that this is a good sign that a convertible is planned from this tooling?

Considering that Hudson, unlike the rest of the auto industry from the late 30's onward, made no convertibles from the ground up, choosing instead to take coupes off the production line, move them to a separate area for final work, literally cutting the roofs off of the coupes and installing the top mechanism for a convertible top, plus a different, distinct interior, along with window sill trim, it's not at all likely that their convertibles had any extra bracing either underneath or inside the body shell--after all, "Monobilt" unibody construction, as Hudson practiced it, made the common reinforcement of an otherwise closed body pretty much unnecessary. As an example, the very reason for the abnormally large (compared to competitors' convertibles) windshield header was that on a Hudson body, that was a MAJOR structural member.

The underbody reinforcements on the convertible are the same as for the coupes and sedans, part of the unit body "Monobilt" construction, not separate frame members. They include a full perimeter frame, that on the real car, actually goes OUTSIDE the rear wheels, just above the rear wheel arch, plus a ton of other subframe members underneath, and beaucoup beams and such under the skin. With all that, the convertible was almost as rigid as the coupe it was cut down from, no further reinforcements needed.

Art

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

1953 Hudson paint chips

And for the rest of the colors...

1952 Hudson paint chips

1951-52 Hudson paint chips

And, because there are very few differences between the 1951 and '52s, you could use '52 colors, too. The 1951s had some trim differences, and the 1950s had different grilles. Also, the Hornet didn't exist, however, with a little ingenuity, you could do a Commodore 6 if you wanted to.

Lastly, here's the 1953 brochure.

1953 Hudson full-line brochure

Charlie Larkin

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1953 Hudson paint chips

And for the rest of the colors...

1952 Hudson paint chips

1951-52 Hudson paint chips

And, because there are very few differences between the 1951 and '52s, you could use '52 colors, too. The 1951s had some trim differences, and the 1950s had different grilles. Also, the Hornet didn't exist, however, with a little ingenuity, you could do a Commodore 6 if you wanted to.

Lastly, here's the 1953 brochure.

1953 Hudson full-line brochure

Charlie Larkin

Yup charlie! Dave and I have also conspired to dig out all the factory two-tone color combinations for both 1952 and 1953--those cars sure could get colorful in a hurry!

Now, just for grins and giggles, why not do some research, figure out how to convert one of these puppies to a Commodore 8? Hmmmm?

Art

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Yup charlie! Dave and I have also conspired to dig out all the factory two-tone color combinations for both 1952 and 1953--those cars sure could get colorful in a hurry!

Now, just for grins and giggles, why not do some research, figure out how to convert one of these puppies to a Commodore 8? Hmmmm?

Art

To make a Commodore 6 or 8 will be a challenge. The Hornet used a unique "wide-block," where the other Hudson engines had a wide lower part of the block, making the block to look something like an upside-down skeleton key. Come our next Hudson meet, I'll take a few pictures and post them so you can see what I'm talking about better.

For those wondering, Pacemakers, Super 6/8 and the Wasp were on shorter wheelbases with shorter overall lengths and slightly different interior patterns.

And for the record, the Hornet in 1953 had interiors in green, brown and blue. And yes, red with a green interior was a legitmate scheme. We have two Hornets around here in Toro Red with a green interior. The green interior is best achieved with Testors Beret green lighted about two shades with white. Testors flat brown will work for the brown interior and Testors Sea Blue, also mixed with just a hint of white to lighten it just a little will work.

Charlie Larkin

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And for the record, the Hornet in 1953 had interiors in green, brown and blue. And yes, red with a green interior was a legitmate scheme. We have two Hornets around here in Toro Red with a green interior. The green interior is best achieved with Testors Beret green lighted about two shades with white. Testors flat brown will work for the brown interior and Testors Sea Blue, also mixed with just a hint of white to lighten it just a little will work.

Charlie Larkin

Thanks Chris! That's very helpful. How close do you think the maroon color on the roof and hood of this model would be to Toro Red? It's Tamiya Italian Red spray shot over Tamiya blue spray.

torino.print.jpg

Edited by bluemoose
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Nice stock car. That burgundy is very pretty. I might try that myself.

A lot of people may not like this, but....

Toro Red is best duplicated with Testors Gloss Red enamel, despite its appearance in the paint chips, it's actually a bit brighter. If you feel adventurous, you might add a TINY amount of black to the red in an airbrush bottle and airbrush it, but the Gloss Red out of the spray can will be a pretty good representation. The burgundy should be ordered from MCW or ScaleFinishes. It's a weird color and I can't think of anything that'll really duplicate it well.

Honey Cream can be dummied up reasonably well with Testors Light Yellow Pla Enamel. However, as it doesn't come in rattle can, you'll need to airbrush it.

Yellow with the green is actually a very nice color scheme, especially with a black roof.

Charlie Larkin

Edited by charlie8575
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