Revell '50 Olds 88 finished!

[charlie8575]

Like Bill says... bigger pix would be nice. But from what I can see, beautiful work!

One question, though: to my eye the interior and exterior colors are an odd combination. Were those colors available together from the factory?

I had wondered that, too. Apparently, all the closed cars (except from what I've seen, the wagon), had gray cord and broadcloth interiors. The convertibles could be ordered in leather in red from what I've been able to determine, but I don't know about other colors.

I ran across pictures of an 88 Holiday in the soft yellow with a black roof and a gray interior. That was actually a rather pretty car- I generally prefer beige/brown/tan with yellow tones.

Charlie Larkin

[catpack68]

very nice work art!!!

[Austin T]

Very nice build.

[Art Anderson]

I had wondered that, too. Apparently, all the closed cars (except from what I've seen, the wagon), had gray cord and broadcloth interiors. The convertibles could be ordered in leather in red from what I've been able to determine, but I don't know about other colors.

I ran across pictures of an 88 Holiday in the soft yellow with a black roof and a gray interior. That was actually a rather pretty car- I generally prefer beige/brown/tan with yellow tones.

Charlie Larkin

1950 was perhaps the beginning of the transition from traditional wool fabrics (cord, broadcloth) for car interiors. The colors tended to be subdued, almost drab, due to a lot of dusty roads, not to mention sun-fading. 1950 was, of course, the year that GM introduced the pillarless "Hardtop Convertibles" (GM never advertised those as hardtops, sticking to the term "Sport Coupe" for nearly the full era of the classic pillarless hardtop however!). With those bodies, GM began adding brighter colors to their interiors, often color matching upholstery to the exterior colors of the car. But with sedans and traditional coupes, they still stuck with more conservative colors. This was very much in keeping with the demographics of new car buyers in 1950--people in their middle 20's to their 70's (a 70 year old in 1950 was born in 1880, for example, and even a 25-yr old was born in 1925. Also, consider that an Oldsmobile 88 Coupe, 2- or 4-door sedan was very much a conservative car in 1950, not unlike the fairly conservative adult market they were aimed at. Those people had, for the most part, not yet adopted 1950's fashions in areas such as home furnishings, or their houses themselves. They had been seriously influenced not only by colors and styles of such things, as well as their automobiles, by their experiences from not only the "teen years" of the 20th Century, but also the 1920's and certainly the years of the Great Depression. In short, many people were still influenced by those experiences, and tended to be slow in adopting the "flash and dash" for which the 50's became famous.

However, by 1953-54, those tastes did begin to change, as younger, more affluent buyers hit the new car showrooms, and more brightly colored interiors began appearing in new cars--either color-matching the exterior, or keyed as complimenting color schemes.

From a couple of rather bad photo's I found online, the upholstery colors were as Revell called them out, light grey with a medium-dark grey. However, the interior sheetmetal was painted, based on those pics, a light metallic grey, with the "inset" part of the instrument panel in a darker, almost metallic charcoal grey. So, those were the colors I chose for this one.

Art

[mangodart]

Looks very nice, but some more pics will be good !!!!