Ramfins59 Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 (edited) Well, at times it was a tough fight, but I finally got this thing finished up. I painted it with Tamiya Tan and Tamiya Red Brown. The BMF work was a bear to do, but came out well in the end. The Modelhaus resin interior gave me fits to get it to seat into the body properly. I had to sand down the side panels and the front and sides of the dashboard, plus, I had to drastically trim the front and rear promo glass a lot at the bottom edges. The interior still doesn't seat in perfectly, but it's as good as I could get it. I added clear headlight lenses from my parts stash on top of the chrome promo headlight pieces. They look a lot better with the clear lenses. For the taillights, I got a little creative. The Johan promo body had the taillights and backup lights molded on in the same color plastic as the body. I snipped those off with a sprue cutter and filed the bases as flat as I could get them. After the BMF got applied to the taillight area I wound up creating my own taillights. I used the little round nubs attached to the clear parts trees around kit windshields that the ejector pins hit to push the clear parts tree out of the mold. I found 6 that were the same size, cleaned them up and painted 4 of them with Tamiya clear red. Then I glued them in place, using 2 unpainted clear ones for the center backup lights. I think they look pretty cool, and definitely a lot better than the molded on ones would have. I made my own twin antenna's from printer pins and stainless steel surgical tubing. I used a cool looking set of wire wheels from my parts box along with a set of whitewalls, instead of using the blackwall promo tires and hubcaps. I think that the wire wheels look a lot better on this car. Here's what the finished interior looked like before being installed into the body. The Modelhaus resin interior for this car is a 6 piece assembly consisting of the dashboard, steering wheel, 2 side panels, front bench seat and floor with rear seat. Doing the BMF on the side panels was a pain because the trim to be foiled was so thin that the foil didn't want to stick. It all came out OK though. I used brown flocking for the carpet and installed a brake pedal from my parts box, as there was no pedal molded to the floor. Thanks to all for looking in on the beginning of this new, Class of '56 build mission. All comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated. Now on to the next one... Edited August 7, 2013 by Ramfins59
Harry P. Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Beautiful! Fabulous! Spectacular! (I like it... ). Nice work on the taillights.
PappyD340 Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Well darn, Harry used all the adjectives up in one breath, but he forgot one IMMACULANT build Rich!!
Tom Geiger Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Very cool work Rich! Now on to the Plymouth and Oldsmobile?
Ramfins59 Posted August 7, 2013 Author Posted August 7, 2013 Thank you all so much for your great, encouraging words. Al, the BMF was a real chore on this one......more so than some of the '58's that I've done. Harry, WOW.. thanks a lot..!! Yeah, I'm really happy with the way that the taillights turned out. Larry, this car is far from immaculate, but thanks very much for your kind words. Tom, yeah I'm thinking that the Plymouth will most likely be next up, but I still have to do the interior work. I've also still got the '58 Olds in the works... the clearcoat is drying and I've got a lot to do yet on the interior.
TFchronos Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 A beautifully stunning car, amazing work, it's perfect!
Ridge Rider Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Very nice Rich, your making me love the class of 50's.
blunc Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 nice job upgrading the promo tail lights. the Jag/Maserati wires look good on this too. If you keep doing BMF on these 50's cars people here may just ask for a BMF tutorial from you.
Ramfins59 Posted August 7, 2013 Author Posted August 7, 2013 Thanks very much again everyone for all your kind words. Steve, I absolutely LOVE all of the cars from the 1950's. They all had their own style and identity back then...... not to mention all that chrome and stainless trim. IMHO cars today don't have much if any individual style or chrome. Mike, those wire wheels are not from either a Jag or Maserati as I've never had a model of either of them. I found them in my tire/wheel parts stash. I really don't know what kit they were originally from. The only thing I can say about doing BMF work is use a new, sharp blade, burnish it down really well with both a QTip and a toothpick, and after you trim it on the model, burnish down the cut edges again with a toothpick. Use a magnifier if you have to, and take your time.
Dr. Cranky Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Wonderful interior, great finish. It's a keeper.
ChevyCoupe41 Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Very Nice Desoto! This is those models what you don't see every day. Tou did very good job with this one and especially I like that interior a lot. Nice Job As Always!
blunc Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Mike, those wire wheels are not from either a Jag or Maserati as I've never had a model of either of them. I found them in my tire/wheel parts stash. I really don't know what kit they were originally from. The only thing I can say about doing BMF work is use a new, sharp blade, burnish it down really well with both a QTip and a toothpick, and after you trim it on the model, burnish down the cut edges again with a toothpick. Use a magnifier if you have to, and take your time. So far, I've seen at least three kits those wheels could have come from, Monogram also had an Aston Martin those tires/wheels could have come from, although it's possible they could be from some other Airfix or Aurora kits of some english sports cars.
TooOld Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Looks really really nice Richard , and is a great start to the Class of '56 ! Paint , interior , and the BMF all look great , and I like your idea for making taillights ( I'll remember that ) ! Also , making the antennas that way is the only way to go . . . I did it on my El Camino build and will never use plastic "kit" antenna again !
Ramfins59 Posted August 7, 2013 Author Posted August 7, 2013 Thank you all very much for your great, encouraging words. That all helps me to keep up my game and continue to try my best for neat, clean builds. Virgil, thanks, and yes, I'll be keeping this one...... I keep them all. Matti, thanks a lot, and yes, I enjoy building some cars that are not the run of the mill, everyday model, especially the gorgeous cars from the 19'50's. Bob, I only have a few of those dot matrix printer pins left (A friend used to work for Pitney Bowes as a repair tech and he gave me a bunch of old printer heads that I took apart to get those pins from). You can also use a piece of an E string from a guitar (the high E string).
XJ6 Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Well now that you got that Nice Work Done...on that Great '56 Desoto....Let's go for a Ride....well let's not....Hate to polish out all that BMF Lol.... Again....Admire you subjects.....Great Work Man... Cheers Don
jerseyjunker1 Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 what can i say Richard this is a great looking model and i can sure appreciate all of the work you have done. again great job.
Drgon63 Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 Awsome build rich... looks great... Those colors look vaguely familiar....did a great job on that one....NEXT....?
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