1954 Hudson Hornet

[MarkJ]

Well, i'm going to be held up a couple of days on the build. I tried to use a molotow chrome pen for the body chrome, but found that I was going to have to mask every little piece of chrome before I could do it, and the use of the pen is very unpredictable. Sometimes the liquid won't come out of the pen at all, and then other times it comes out too freely, making a mess. Also the chrome takes a long time to dry and if you touch it while its wet it dulls terribly.  I still think it will be a good product for touching up chrome pieces like bumpers if they need touching up.
I think it will be better just to use bmf on this model. Its a lot of work but I can control the quality  better than with the pen. The only trouble is, when I got my bmf scraps out, I realized I didn't have enough to do this model, so I ordered some from Micro Mark, and they said it would take about a week to get to me. I can go ahead and finish the frame and interior but the actual completion will be held up for a while. There is an article in Scale Auto where they remove the ink from a pen and spray it with an airbrush. the author thought it worked better than AlcladII but I wasn't convinced. And those pens aren't cheap. Oh well, just my opinion.

[Tom Birky]

Good observations Mark. I've wondered about the pen on larger surfaces. I'm using one on the interior trim of my Batmobile. After many weeks, it finally set to where it wont turn dull when touched. Just don't be in a hurry. I saw one article where someone masked the side trim on a hudson and shot it with alclad, but I don't think it would be practical for window trim. Looking forward to seeing some paint on this one.  Tb

[MarkJ]

Good observations Mark. I've wondered about the pen on larger surfaces. I'm using one on the interior trim of my Batmobile. After many weeks, it finally set to where it wont turn dull when touched. Just don't be in a hurry. I saw one article where someone masked the side trim on a hudson and shot it with alclad, but I don't think it would be practical for window trim. Looking forward to seeing some paint on this one.  Tb

Tom, The body is already painted. If you look closely you will see some light reflections in the roof.

[MarkJ]

You are on the right path Mark. Those Molotow pens have their place and generally they are good for small little repairs where some work had to be done where the chrome was removed from the tree, similar things with the kit chrome or small interior or engine details. They are way expensive and shooting Alclad (if you know how) will provide better results on larger pieces. Shooting Molotow out of an air-brush is a fool's errand in my opinion. No model car is worth that cost and the results are not better than well-shot Alclad. And of course, pain as it is to work with sometimes, BMF is tried and tested for lots of things. A little tip, keep your BMF in the refrigerator and it will remain "like new" indefinitely.

Thanks , David, for that tip of keeping the BMF in the fridge. It definitely doesn't look as good after it gets some age on it.

[MarkJ]

By the way, air brushing the small bottle Testors is a breeze and always produces a nice finish. I cut mine at 2/1 (paint/thinner) and I use the cheap lacquer thinner. Just light coats letting the color and shine slowly build up makes for some good finishes. IN short, I can "dig it" on your paint choice for this build! 

Thanks, again for another tip, David. I will have to try the 2/1 ratio on my next one. I did 50/50 on this one and wasn't real happy with the results, and the air brush actually spit a little bit here and there, which was a bummer.

[MarkJ]

308 c.i. flathead 6.








The interior is a pure guess based on only 3 reference pictures of the outside of the car. none of the inside.

[Olderndirt]

I love this era of racing, and automobile history. You don’t have to be a car genius to tell what make, and or model, these cars are. The engine is very well done. I’m excited about this build. I am trying to be patient, but it’s not my best thing.

  Olderndirt

[Lefturns75]

Supertex, tell me how you build the entire engine THEN do all that detail painting AND main color?  I can do part of it that way but not the entire engine.  If I tried that it would look like it had been dipped in several different colors of paint.  The plus side of this build is you won't have to scratch build a GM Steering box for it!

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Older, George, and David. I just use a big brush for the red and a little brush for the flat black and the black.

[Lefturns75]

If that's how it's done, your paint by number stuff must look like a Rembrandt.    I have brushes that range from one hair to the size of a house paint brush and I can't do that but I wish I could.  Carry on Pablo, you got this.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, David and George. I tried painting the parts first and then assembling them and ended up with a glue bomb mess. That's why I paint them after their built and primed. I use Acryl paint too, which dries fast and is easy water, soap clean up for the brushes. David , I really want to make the enamel the way I go for bodies , I just have to stick with it till I figure it out. I like that with the small bottles I can mix just about any color I want. I love Tamiya rattle cans but their expensive and you have to use the colors they make. Take this build for instance, The real car is a light gray with a slight blue tint to it. You're never going to find that in a rattle can. But you can mix white, black and blue bottles and get pretty close.

[Dirtman]

I'm like David, cut off sprue, prep, paint, and assemble. I've tried re-painting a glue bomb motor and it just doesn't come out good for me. Guess that's what makes the world go around and around, everyone has their way that works for them. Anyway, this Hudson is coming along nicely. I'm enjoying watching it come together..

Rett

[MarkJ]

I'm like David, cut off sprue, prep, paint, and assemble. I've tried re-painting a glue bomb motor and it just doesn't come out good for me. Guess that's what makes the world go around and around, everyone has their way that works for them. Anyway, this Hudson is coming along nicely. I'm enjoying watching it come together..

Rett

Thanks Rett. I appreciate the feedback.

[MarkJ]

I'm kind of caught up with the chassis, and interior, so I decided to try and polish the body. It has only been 6 days since I painted it, so I didn't know if it was fully dry enough to polish the enamel finish. To my surprise it polished out very well. I started with 3600 paper, and worked my way to 12000. If you look at the photo with the exacto knife, next to the model, you can see the reflection of the knife in the door. Now I just need to wait for the BMF to get here.

[MarkJ]

Having a lot of trouble with this one. The bmf will not stick very well to the body. I don't know if its the paint I used or if I got bad bmf. When I went to glue the glass in, it fits so tight in the openings that it pushed the bmf loose and made a huge mess. now I'm going to have to try and redo the bmf after the glass is in place. The bmf packaging looks brand new and the bmf itself looks fresh and new but it just doesn't stick well to the body and the molotow chrome pens don't work worth a flip either. This is becoming one of those builds I wish I had never started and I haven't even got to the decals yet, which are going to have to be cut very close to their edges and the excess decal material removed from the body. This one may never get finished.