Charlie's Cadillac STS-V

[mrmike]

I have decided to continue the theme of my McNally storyline with another build. This one centers around Charlotte "Charlie" Rothmann, McNally's friend and part-time employer. My influence for this build came from a model I saw at the recent Classic Plastic show and an article in a recent issue of Model Cars Magazine.

The Story

 

Charlotte "Charlie" Rothmann is a person to be reckoned with. She is a Harvard Law School graduate who is very sharp, dedicated, and a powerful lawyer who stand by her client, win or lose. She works long hours, has very little time for a social life, and relies greatly on her friend, Private Investigator McNally, to get the facts to defend her clients in court.

 

Charlie is usually seen driving her BMW 740 until she was sideswiped by a drunk driver. Fearing a rather large lawsuit, the insurance company offered to pay for the damaged to Charlie's BMW immediately. After dropping off the BMW at the BMW/Cadillac dealership bodyshop for an estimate, Charlie wandered in the showroom and spotted a metallic red Cadillac STS-V that seemed to be calling her by name. Being a very attractive woman, 3 salesmen immediately offered to assist her and she told them she would only deal with the sales manager, whom she knew. An hour later, Charlie was driving away from the dealership in her new Cadillac.

 

The Build

 

I am using Revell's Uptown Cadillac STS-V kit for this build and will de-bling this car by removing the overly large wheels and tires along with the mega stereo componants.

The wheels will be replaced with a set of Pegasus Vanquish wheels and the paint will be Tamiya TS-39 Mica Red.

I started by removing the Lambo door hinges and I will need to add exterior door handles including the pockets behind the handles.

I added the exterior door mirrors only to realize later that detailing the window trim will be quite difficult. The solution? Carefully removing the mirrors without doing any damage to the door frame.

I added strips of styrene to the forward and bottom edges of the doors to close the gaps between the doors and the doors jambs.

Now, that's better!

 

More to come.....

Edited August 2, 2016 by mrmike

[sjordan2]

Charlie would be disbarred for using wheels unbecoming to an attorney.

[charlie8575]

This will be interesting, Mike, particularly in how you address those missing door handles and their recesses.

The CTS, while not really "attractive" to me, is one of Cadillac's better efforts of late, and a car I certainly wouldn't object to for myself. I like how you addressed the doors, too, that's been the one major thing that's stopped me from buying that kit. It's unfortunate no factory wheels are available or supplied, they're actually not bad-looking. Hey Revell- open to suggestions?

What's next Mike, Quirk's Gran Fury?

Charlie Larkin

[mrmike]

Skip, you are probably right! Charlie could possibly be disbarred for having wheels unbecoming to an attorney!

Charlie, I have decided to use my Dremel for the recesses. The rear doors are quite thick and some careful grinding with a small ball bit made the recesses fairly easy to do. The front doors are another story themselves where the plastic is much thinner. I'll add a small piece of styrene on the backside of the door and then use the Dremel again. Hopefully, there will be enough material so I won't end up going through the door altogether.

I painted the wheel spokes with Humbrol Gunmetal Metallic paint.

Humm, Quirk's Gran Fury? I'm not sure if I could find a kit that would even come close to what I need for that car. It would be an intersting subject though.

More to come.....

Edited September 28, 2010 by mrmike

[exesivefire]

watching this one, I have always liked the newer caddy designs, but dismissed this kit because of how goofy it looked on the box. Might have to take a closer look now..

[Agent G]

Looking good!

Throw a blob of epoxy putty behind the door handle recesses. That way if you do breakthrough there will be something there.

G

[mrmike]

Andy, I have overlooked this kit since it came out, but after seeing someone else make this into a near stock model, I had to try and put my own spin on it.

Wayne, thanks for the suggestion, but I have figured out a different solution.

I have mounted the doors since this would give me more to hold on to when I go to make the door handle recesses.

I have added pieces of styrene to the inside of the doors to give me more to grind into when I go to make the recesses.

I am undecided as to leave the trunk lid operational and make a trunk floor or to just glue it shut.

More to come.....

[horsepower]

Andy, I have overlooked this kit since it came out, but after seeing someone else make this into a near stock model, I had to try and put my own spin on it.

Wayne, thanks for the suggestion, but I have figured out a different solution.

I have mounted the doors since this would give me more to hold on to when I go to make the door handle recesses.

I have added pieces of styrene to the inside of the doors to give me more to grind into when I go to make the recesses.

I am undecided as to leave the trunk lid operational and make a trunk floor or to just glue it shut.

More to come.....

Just my unsolicited opinion, but I'd glue the trunk lid shut, as there is really no reason to open it as there 'taint nothing to see there.

[mrmike]

Thanks Del and James! James, if I do make Quirk's Gran Fury, it'll be well off into the future.

I went and painted the body and discovered two things, one...the color is too bright and the door handles stand out like a sore thumb! I did an experiment on the inside of the trunk lid by spraying Model Master Honduras Maroon and I really liked the color in combination with the Mica Red. Two...the door handles where made from some round stock and I replaced them with some flat strips of styrene which blends into the body better.

I called up my Dremel again and removed the package shelf and replaced it with one made from sheet styrene.

I decided to leave the trunk lid operational and made a foundation for the trunk floor.

The trunk floor is made from sheet styrene and should look great when it's painted and flocked.

More to come.....

[Lownslow]

what you use for door handles? did you dremel out the dip

[mrmike]

what you use for door handles? did you dremel out the dip

The door handles were made from thin strips of styrene that I had on hand and doubled up to add some thickness. I did use my Dremel on a slow speed to create the recesses for the handles. Trying to create 4 recesses the same size and depth is not easy!

[Tonioseven]

I dig it! I'm takin' notes to use your tips for the completion of my Caddy one day. Thanks for sharing.

[mrmike]

My pleasure, Antonio! I have this Caddy WIP posted on 2 other sites and the response has been quite positive. Others want to build this model kit as a stock kit as well and I think that they didn't know how to go about it. I'm still figuring out certain aspects of this build as I go along and it is testing my abilities and skills. So far, I'm happy with this build!

[mrmike]

The Story

Charlie returns to the office and is met by her assistant Brandon who tells her that George Netwill is in the conference room and that McNally's background check is on her desk. Charlie enters the conference room and greets George and asks, "How Can I help you?" Georrge replies, "I am being sued by my ex-wife and former business partner, Audra, for making faulty auto parts in my new business." "Do you have the court summons with you?" George hands the summons to Charlie and she says, "I'll see what I can do for you." She then tells George of her fee and what to expect during the proceedings.

The Build

After some issues with painting the trunk lid and hood, I was able to clear coat the entire body with Tamiya Clear.

I ordered the 23" brakes discs from Scale Dreams for the Pegasus wheels that I am using. The chrome was stripped and the brakes were detail painted.

The interior parts were painted with Tamiya Dark Ghost Gray and will be flocked soon.

More to come.....

Edited October 3, 2010 by mrmike

[charlie8575]

That Mica Red is a really good match for the tri-coat metallic red Cadillac offers. Nice work, Mike.

Those brakes and the interior are looking good, too.

Charlie Larkin

[mrmike]

Thanks Charlie! That's 2 coats of Mica Red with one coat of Honduras Maroon on top. It looks great out in the bright sunlight! I'm having second thoughts about the interior color I chose. It looks too blue for my liking. I'll have to venture down to my LHS for something darker. Maybe something like charcoal gray would look better.

Edited October 8, 2010 by mrmike

[mrmike]

The Story

With all thoughts of enjoying an afternoon out in the Berkshires driving her new car out of her head, Charlie returns to her office and calls McNally with a new assignment. He must find out whatever he can about George's ex-wife, the company they shared together, and the allegations involved with the faulty custom suspension parts that George's company was manufacturing. She then calls Audra's attorney to schedule a sit-down with him to see where they are both at in regards to the law suit.

Later in the afternoon, McNally walks into Charlie's office with a folder in his hand. "You are not going to like this", he says handing the folder to her. "Last week, a test driver working for George, was testing a Corvette with George's new suspension pieces when the car went out of control and crashed hard. He died an hour ago at Mass General Hospital." "You're right, I don't like this", Charlie replied.

The Build

Some progress today! The dash is assembled and detailed.

The interior is completed.

I got the mirrors, inner door panels, hood, and trunk lid on. I set a couple of wheels under the body to get an idea of what it's starting to look like.

More to come.....

[charlie8575]

Looks great, Mike. And those wheels look good on it, opinions of others not withstanding. Frankly, I prefer them over Cadillac's factory offerings.

Charlie Larkin

[exesivefire]

that is turning out really nice, thank you for changing my mind about that kit!

[mrmike]

Thanks Charlie and Andy! The wheels on this car do make a statement when compared with the oversized, chrome plated billet type wheels that came in the kit. Normally, I wouldn't have bothered with this kit in the first place, but seeing someone else's build changed my mind quickly. And wanting to add to the story line that I had previously started made me want to continue with the story using this model. Someone else's vision allowed my vision to come forth in the form of what you are seeing here.

[charlie8575]

Mike, a thought occurred to me.

A lawyer's car in Massachusetts needs a low-number plate. If you haven't run across this yet, Licenseplates.tv will allow you to make one. All you need to do is copy and paste it into Paint, or Open Office Draw (my preference) and reduce to 0.23 x 0.47 inches (just about 6 x 12 inches in 1/25 scale.)

To explain Massachusetts' low-number plates to the rest of the world...

Massachusetts low number plates were formerly given out as political favors, however, starting with the Dukakis administration, the RMV (Registry of Motor Vehicles) holds an annual low number plate lottery. Low number plates may not be sold, but may be transferred to relatives or persons with whom the plate holder may document a long standing relationship. The plate number "1" in the BUS series generated some controversy, since the owner Biff Michaud utilized the plate on a Caddy rather than a passenger bus, and was ordered by the RMV to surrender the plate. [18]

Source: Wikipedia's write up on plates

Last I heard, the Michauds are still holding on to Bus 1 and may add jump seats to their Escalade to get it to the 10-seat requirement for a bus.

Charlie Larkin

[mrmike]

Thank you Charlie for reminding me of one of the things I'll need to complete this model...license plates! I haven't given any thought as to the plate itself, but I could make up a Mass. vanity plate with a cheesy word relating to lawyers or something like that. When I do make a plate, I use ACME License Plate Maker, copy the image, paste it in Microsoft Word, and resize the image there. I print it out on photo paper and mount it on the model with Elmers white glue.

[charlie8575]

I haven't given any thought as to the plate itself, but I could make up a Mass. vanity plate with a cheesy word relating to lawyers or something like that.

Ummmm...."LEECH" perhaps?

Charlie Larkin

[mrmike]

Good one Charlie! But, I don't think Charlotte would be driving around with that on her plates.

[DumpyDan]

I am really impressed on what a great job you have done with this kit. I have one and didn't know what to do with it, thanks for the light at the end of the tunnel. LOL GREAT JOB!