The way this model comes in the box, it is sorely lacking in detail, both the exterior, and interior. This model, although somewhat disproportionate, and lacking in detail, or incorrect detail, for it's size, is still somewhat of a nice model. Scale models of 1965 Cadillacs are far and few in between, in the first place. So, really, when one comes along, beggars cannot be choosers. But because of it's size, at 1/18th scale, it is very easy to add the missing details to the exterior of the thing, and these items can be made very easily from scratch by modelers with moderate skills.
I used self sticking aluminum tape around the back window to simulate the moulding around it. Also, I used this same aluminum tape, trimmed to fit around the front wheel openings,to blend in with the cornering light details on the front end of each front fender. Also the rear wheel openings on the back fender skirts were trimmed out with this tape, also. In between the back edge of the hood, and the windshield wipers, I added the "chrome" cowl vent grille, which was completely missing from this model, out of the box. On this yellow model, I made this out of very heavy gauge posterboard, and I used a ballpoint pen to heavily emboss the grille grooves in the thing. Then, I cut the thing to shape to match the front curvature of the front edge of the cowl, and notched out the back edge of the thing to fit around the molded in wiper blade arms. Then I glued it on the cowl, and carefully painted it silver. The door handles were made from pieces of flat sheet styrene, the main piece 1/8" X 7/16" long, and notched out for the handle hold. Then I glued a small rectangle underneath this to complete the handle body, and on top of this small rectangle, I added an even smaller square, making that the push button for the assembly. Then I crazy glued them to the doors, and painted them silver. The door lock cylinders were made from very tiny pieces of lightweight posterboard, cut as circular as I can get them, as this piece is less than 1/16 inch in diameter to be scaled right to this car. Then they were glued to the car, right below the upper horizontal crease, and painted silver. The last thing I did was I "blacked out" the front grille. I did this by using Testors spray paint flat black, not shaken up the whole way, so it would be thinner than normal. I spray a little bit of this stuff in a small disposable container, such as a spray paint can lid, and with a medium size modelers brush, quickly paint it on the grille. I then let it tack up for about a minute or two. Then I quickly wipe the excess off the raised areas of the grille, leaving the black only on the areas behind the grille "egg crate" fins, giving the effect that the grille is actually open to the back, like the real car. Some modelers call this effect, "blackwashing", and the effect on model car grilles is very realistic. I've been doing this effect to my different model cars' grilles for years.
The first one of these models, I totally disassembled, stripped the metal body, and repainted light metallic blue in 2007, and reassembled it, detailing it out very similar to the way I did this yellow car. The only difference, other than the stock yellow color that I left on this second model, is the fact that I did NOT disassemble this one to detail it. I did this one while it was together.
I have one more of these cars still in it's "Reservoir Dogs" box, and I intend to figure out how how to fully detail the exterior, AND the interior on this one, as I have not worked on that aspect of the model, yet. The seats are shaped correctly, but are not engrave detailed at all. The dashboard is a 1964, which is a totally different dash from what the 1965, in real life actually had. I'm thinking about sculpting a new dash out of balsawood, plastic and posterboard, and then painting it to match what ever color I decide to make the interior. Hopefully, this third model will be about as close to scale perfection that I can get with this model.
For me, this model is very fun to experiment with, honing my modeling skills.
Jim.
No comments:
Post a Comment