1954 Hudson Hornet, Mobius 1/25 scale kit

[OldMiner]

In keeping with my Attention Deficit Disorder, I decided to build a model car kit. My grandson will be 4 this spring. Right after he was born, I bought this model. His first name is Hudson and I’ve always liked the Hudson Hornet, so let’s get this thing going.
Here is Hudson doing a fist bump with his Dad while he was still in the hospital, a day old I think.



That pic has proven to be true, he is a go-getter.

I got the model out today and was disappointed to find out that somehow it has been broken. The box was crushed and the right front fender is broken OFF!

The model:



And a pic of the body from the internet… like it should look.



Mine is broken at the top of the wheel well and at the radiator supports. I can fix it, but my styrene supply for reinforcing is not accessible. It is in a storage container that has about 4’ of snow in front of the door, so more must be ordered.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

That is a great idea! I am looking forward to seeing how this project turns out!

 

[OldMiner]

Thanks! It will be a diorama based kit too. I have some old garage diorama pages I’m studying.

hmmm… I think plastic spoons/forks/knives are made of styrene. I bet I can cut the bracing I need for the fender from one of those. Tomorrow…

 

[Revell-Fan]

There are several different kinds of plastic used everywhere. To find out if it is indeed styrene I use Revell Contacta glue. Cut off a small piece of the plastic in question and try to re-attach it using the glue. If the parts are fused together it's PS. If the connection stays unstable it is some other plastic like PE (which can be a pita to glue together).

 

[mijob]

Thats a nuce model I think with your skills its possible to fix the broken part. Looking forward to watch your build.

 

[micahrogers]

If Tamyia Extra Thin will glue it, it is indeed styrene. Good luck with this project, I finally motivated myself to get to work on my Falcon again, More pics to come

 

[OldMiner]

Last night I was looking through pictures and realized that I made a filling station diorama building years ago. It was for my 1:24 train projects. Hudson’s great great great grandfather had a filling station in Ohio in the 30s.
This is a picture of it, with a zoom in on the main part of the original:



Note the loading dock to the left of the building. That would be another item to model.



And this is the paper and foam board model I built. I think it is in a storage container out in the yard. When the snow melts down some (maybe by July?) I will try to find it and the accessories. I have quite a few accessories and people in 1:24 I’m sure.

 

[mijob]

Thats a great looking garage you have made

 

[OldMiner]

Thats a great looking garage you have made

Thanks, I hope it still exists. I can do a lot of detailing on it, like insetting windows and doors.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

The petrol station looks AMAZING!!!

 

[OldMiner]

Thanks!
I gave up on finding any styrene bits, but I did find this, maybe it will help someone else.


All my ‘plastic silverware’ was #3. Sigh.

So I decided to use a piece of sprue from the model as a reinforcement in one place.

Here is the carnage. This was bad. The box must have been crushed and sat like that for a while. The plastic when folded and broken, stretches and it was a pain to make it all fit again. Thankfully, the fender crack itself wasn’t too bad, it was a fairly clean break. The other parts were a mess.





After gluing and before squeezing it straight. The cross members were the most work. The black haze on the fenders is a shadow.



The arrow points out the piece of glued in sprue.



This will work. Lots of stress marks and some sanding and fill will of course be necessary. I did find my sandpaper but am not sure what to use for filler. I don’t do styrene models much at all.

 

[mijob]

You have done a nice repair on the car. I will give you a call if my car is damage.

 

[OldMiner]

OK, good enough for a model. Now I can proceed with the actual kit build. (I made my own double sided sanding sticks by gluing 400 and 600 grit onto popsicle sticks)

 

[Chuffy70]

Hudson, my cat... says hi from the model bench! - He thinks its a great name for a grandson

 

[OldMiner]

WOW, he looks like a great cat. I had a black and white one, showed up to live with us and was HUGE, I really miss him. His name was Sylvester of course. (He weighed 25 pounds at one point)

 

[micahrogers]

Thanks!
I gave up on finding any styrene bits, but I did find this, maybe it will help someone else.

View attachment 210202
All my ‘plastic silverware’ was #3. Sigh.

So I decided to use a piece of sprue from the model as a reinforcement in one place.

Here is the carnage. This was bad. The box must have been crushed and sat like that for a while. The plastic when folded and broken, stretches and it was a pain to make it all fit again. Thankfully, the fender crack itself wasn’t too bad, it was a fairly clean break. The other parts were a mess.

View attachment 210203

View attachment 210204

After gluing and before squeezing it straight. The cross members were the most work. The black haze on the fenders is a shadow.

View attachment 210205

The arrow points out the piece of glued in sprue.

View attachment 210206

This will work. Lots of stress marks and some sanding and fill will of course be necessary. I did find my sandpaper but am not sure what to use for filler. I don’t do styrene models much at all.

I use AV Vallejo plastic putty, it's an acrylic polyurethane resin impregnated with marble dust. it is water soluble while wet, and sandable, drillable, and tapable when dry.

 

[OldMiner]

Thanks! I’ll get some of that next Amazon order.

I did find that the big red plastic cups are marked with 6, meaning that they are styrene.

I’m also going to mess with making some sprue goo and sprue glue. It appears that the easiest way to get the solvent to make it is to get Tamiya Super Thin glue. Turns out that Tamiya airbrush cleaner is the same stuff and costs about a third of what the glue costs. I love the internet. (MSDS sheets show both with the same ingredients… only one PERCENT difference so they can sell both) Laws are strange.
I didn’t have any Super Thin glue so a bottle of the cleaner is on the way. Enough for several lifetimes for me it appears. LOL
I also didn’t have any sprues to goo… before I started this kit. Now I do.

 

[zathros]

Sad abput the ccrack, but that was a wonderful mold of the body. I'm sure you'll have it all straightened out. A beautiful car. There was a lot of care and attention paid to that mold by the mold maker who made it.

 

[OldMiner]

However it turns out, I’m having fun. I am learning the simple stuff now. See all those fiddly little bits in the lower left of the pic? I cut those off and painted them. DUH, now I leave that stuff on the sprue and cut it off AFTER painting. My old fingers don’t like those tiny things jumping around. Also, research… I followed the instructions… not always a good thing, and painted the bits black. A pic of the real engine in 1954 shows almost no black on the engine, only the fan and belt. Oh well, live and learn, and have fun!



I’ve made a little tool holder for the immediate space I am working in. Pic tomorrow and a second one too.

 

[Chuffy70]

WOW, he looks like a great cat. I had a black and white one, showed up to live with us and was HUGE, I really miss him. His name was Sylvester of course. (He weighed 25 pounds at one point)

View attachment 210212

25 Lbs...blimey! that would be one big puss! - mine currently comes in at 9.9lbs (4.5kg) Sylvester, I like it, lovely pic