Hudson Miniatures 1900 Packard

Looking great Don !

Have a few coats of paint on the body and seat frame now.  Also a coat on the springs.  Finished the lamps with Alclad Brass.

Also primed the wheels.  The light gray primer I am using makes a good match for pre-1910 tires, so I will just mask off the tires and paint the wheel.

Got all the springs made!  The fourth rear spring is glued together and drying, three are shown here, with the two front springs.

Also shown is the chassis.  This car was really a good example of the American gas buggy.  The suspension was typical buggy style.  Note that the axles are rigidly fastened together in the chassis, the body was suspended from the chassis (lots of unsprung weight!).

Still working on sanding and filling the body.  Even after cladding there is a lot of shaping and puttying.

Hi " G "

    Listen , we all have gone here .remember Hot " FuelProof Dope " ? They made a sanding sealer that was the Cat's Meow ! I still use it too . Harder to get, But It's available through a wood-Carving friend . T.B.

Got the body sheathed in plastic now.  The seat is coming along.  Rear axle finished, and front axle almost finished.  One of the front springs broke due to brittleness of aged cardboard, so will have to do a new one with styrene.

I love wood kits. One line in particular was a set of wagon models. Wood, leather, brass parts. The wheels were cast plastic. I don't know the scale but it was something like 1/12.

There was a conestoga wagon, ore wagon, chuck wagon and stagecoach. Probably some others. I have found them on eBay but of course they are spendy.

Don, look forward to every step here.

Regarding GM's suggestion, Shellac is very useful in woodworking, acting as a barrier coat to prevent uneven absorbtion of stains or other finishes, with a couple caveats. First, use unwaxed shellac; Zinnser's Sealcoat is one that's commonly sold. Second, thin it with denatured alcohol about 50:50 so it strikes in as opposed to sitting on the surface. You'll still need filler, but much less.

Another, even easier technique for paint prep on open grained wood is to seal the surface with thinned white or PVA glue (Titebond or similar). This also helps to fill the pores.

I remember the wooden kits - great to be seeing one built!

All I can say is Wow !

I have sheathed Guillows kits with styrene, since Guillows kits often provide vacuform details for compound curve areas.  So I just use the styrene for the single curvature or flat areas.  Sheet styrene allows embossing rivet detail.

I have never had good luck with varnish nor shellac on balsa.  I am using a full-bodied sandable primer, but still may clad in styrene on the flat parts.  Much of this Packard body is made up of flat panels.

I find styrene easy to paint compared to balsa.  Balsa takes multiple coats of wood sealer, fewer coats of a sandable auto primer.

Remember Shellac? I'd find some and use it, or if not something like spar varnish.

Im doing a Guillow's F6F and sheathing in balsa as a shelf sitter.  Planning on using a wood sealer on it prior to paint.  But don't know how mant coats I'm going to need, probably two at any rate.

Lot more sanding invlolved in sealing over styrene, for me would depend on how many curved parts you have to fight with the card and wood.