I got this kit two weeks ago and finally sat down last night to see what I had and what I could do with it....oh boy - good and bad!
1st off, let me warn you that this kit is sink hole city...a really nice subject to biuld stock or play with but there's "alot" of sink holes on this baby and a few in some tricky spots. It's bad enough the kit is done in the old "upper and lower body sections", but then add the sink holes and you will need to expect to be pulling out the filler. I wish they would have done this as a 3 in 1 custom kit, but I can take care of that.
Hey Revell...if your listening....make us some early '50s caddys in the single headlight persuasion!
My intent is to either somewhat Caddzilla this puppy or to make a low and long speedster. I only found one mild custom done online of a real '57 Eldorado Brougham{ I do understand they were rare} and no kits to speak of what so ever...guess I'll have to fix that, huh....time to fire up some customs!

I think the whole point of this kit is that it is a re-release of a very old kit (hense the SSP designation). So if it looks like old technology for molding and assembly...it is because it is old technology. Not sure when the kit was first produced, but likely late '60s early '70s

It looks like it too! I get the whole "wecome back the memories with this kit" thing, but they coulda tweeked the molds a bit better...and maybe they did?!

How are the included figures? Being that the kit is that old, I would think they would be no better than Pokey and Gumby looking figures.

Sold 5 or 6 from the shop here, but have never actually seen inside the kit.

I have a set of gumby and pokey figures{showing my age - I know}...no nopey though{the dog}....the kit figures are a tad better.
Sounds like I need to fire up some pics....tomorrow.{just got home from Christmas gathering #1}
Before we left, I was eyeballing my C5 vette coupe and roadster kits for a possible donation to the cause. A fireball 500 kit is at my disposal as well, but I have that one slated for my '62 olds custom build at another date.

yes, I would also like to see the figures from this kit. I saw the kit at the LHS but it was sealed and could see inside

Well...seeing as none of us have X-ray vision and I have the kit, let's see what's all in the box;
-Decals

-Chrome

-Wheels and asst. parts

-Interior floor, note the lathe marks for carpet texture- get some flocking!

-the sharp dressed man{no ZZ Top here I'm thinking}

-the elegant woman in her evening dress

-the body...top and bottom halves and the roof{no boot to make a ragtop}

My eyes can see the sink holes but the camera has a difficult time of displaying them...sorry. Not a bad kit for the vintage or the subject, but she'll need some work to look nice.
Now you know what your getting into with this one.

Sorry, I actually have the rereleased '62 Buick..not an Olds - oops.

Mr. old-dragon, thanks for sharing the sprue shots!

I was wondering what the figures looked like because my buddy is looking for a well dressed man figure in 1/25 to represent his father standing next to their (scale replica) family car

Looks like we found it

That's what I'm here for...among other things....

Hi Bob

Bought the same kit a few month ago. I opened the box looked at the parts, didn't know whether to laugh or cry and desided to use it for a junkyard/basketcase build.

Awh come on now...she ain't that bad. More like an old AMT kit with alot of flash and sink holes...except its a revell.
Now, what I may suggest with this one would be to remake her into a coupe! Yeah, I went the coupe route- I'll be filling in the majority of the old door lines and scribing new ones to render a two door coupe - just to be different.


The top is from a clearance bin Revell Ferrari 612 scaglietti which I bought mostly for the motor and rims...nice to know the body was good for something!
Next time or kit I'll try a roadster...maybe a '62 T-Bird rear deck added.....

You may notice that the top and bottom body sections are glued together so I can smooth and finish the whole body without seems....I will cut out the bottom along the chassis rail lines so I can have access for the interior which may or may not be the ferrari's - I haven't gotten that far yet in the thought process....filling is my current concern/issue. Speaking of filling, I'm thinking of filling in the front top fender depressions just in front of the windshield to give her a smoother look - of course there will be the lower side rear fender scoops to be considered as well.......I still need to fill in the driver's side fuel filler hatch from the donar roof. This will be the good old fashioned rear filler behind the plate.......remember those days?!

WOW......I will say it again....WOW....what a profile on that car!! The fins of the Caddy really set off the low sleek slope of the roofline from the Ferrari.

I am assuming modern low profiles wheels and tires are in order?

Thank you sir...had I a '62 T-Bird with the built in headrest rear deck this may have gone the roadster route...but not this time!
I tried a set of 22" rim and wheels next to the kit's and they were actually smaller than the kit's, so, off I went to a Jada '06 corvette Z06 custom version wheel set - Ohhhhh yeah, that's the ticket!
Once I get the body set up I'll start lowering the stance for that "down in the weeds" look. I'm thinking of making the headlights into photocells with a single cover over each side to somewhat keep the natural look of the car while saying - I'm modded too. Not sure if I want to go monochromatic and loose all or most of the chrome. Time will tell, but I think this one needs some flashy chrome aside from the wheels-
Being a curbside kit takes alot of tinkering away from my time for the motor...a good and bad thing I guess.

Oh, one thing you'll find out very quickly when trying to retop an older car is that most modern vehicles are skinnier so filling would be in order...like if I were to have chossen the Z06 top{which I really was considering!} I would have had to add side strip stock to bring the body into the new roof. I admittantly took the easier route and used the ferrari roof since it was actually wider, with some fender area, than the needed area. I carefully cut off the roof section from the ferrari and tacked a big piece of sandpaper to an 8" wide board and porceeded to take the roof down, slowly...very slowly, to where I needed it width wise.

Hmmmm...the Jada back wheels might be too big for the cause, but I'll worry about that later-
-Body work beginnings;






I'd love to make a windshiled visor, but with that rake it'd be a mile long! Oh well - I'm shooting for a clean build so no wide thin hood scoop, no front visor, no rear cross wing between the fins and no rear window visor....
Most of this 1st coat of primer will be sanded off just to show the high and low spots and any seems that weren't filled...which I now see a few{dang it}.

Oh, thought I'd share this with any future builders...note the roof has an "inset" for the windshield...most of the time your windshiled lays inside the body and gets tacked in. This set up has both in the way of it needing to lay in by the hood and yet sit in the channel on the roof.
I got very lucky in the fact that I didn't spread the front pillars too far from origonal so the windshield still fits...you'll need to watch that if you ever swap a roof in and said windshield sits in a channel, so that windshield will still fit afterwards. Too narrow is an easy fix - sand the windshield down on the sides till it does fit the channel again....too wide and you'll be either making a new windshield or filling that in so the donar windshield fits properly again.
Another recourse is to sand out the sit in channel and make a new windshield that lays in from the inside...more fudge room that way too!
Just things to watch out for...

Well...lots more wet sanding and some refilling for me to do....later.

I should add this too....while there are different ways to get the body smooth before paint, but a coat of paint will usually show things you missed. Sometimes ever primer will hide something till a shiney coat of paint is applied. I've found that this way of priming and sanding then repriming{repete as needed} till smooth works for me - it does, however, try to fill in the door, trunk/hatch, and hood lines at the same time, so I take out my scribe every time and clean these areas out after a primer coat session. Keeps the lines clean...

Lookin good OD, super cool profile on the body now (a bit like me after too much festive intake !!).

Great little tutorial on the mods as well. Looking forward to progress pics, what colour do you have in mind ?

Cheers, D

Looks good--sort of like a GM future style car designed in the 1950's.

Thank you..."colors" was mentioned recently..here's a few I'm kinda liking at the moment-
The two lil "Black Gold" jars shown are 1:2 ratio{paint to thinner} HoK{house of kolor} flip paints that I got off of ebay for...something, someday...and of course a Pink for consideration since it's a caddy.

In the last set here is the end{RH} Tamiya "White pearl"

...I'm open to suggestions as well and I have plenty more of jar and rattlecan paint to choose from - choices are a wonderful thing unless your unsure what cool color to paint your creation!

Super cool lines you've created Bob. I have no doubt we're in for a real treat here

Thank you Jesper and Happy New Year sir. Funny thing the other day - I had taken these now found pics of the car being sanded down but when I uploaded them to my computer they got lost....luckily I found them.
Anyway, here's the body after a thorough wet sanding to smooth things out. I removed the drip/wind rails from the top of the roof for a cleaner look and to make it look flatter.


The rear deck will be the most work trying to blend that all in.


In this process, you will wet sand and re-apply primer till everything blends in with no ripples, marks or cracks....I put the body on the Tamiya spray stand and turn it around slowly while viewing it at different angles to the light{daylight or a strong lamp} to look for any distortions in the reflection off of the body. I then will mark those "need attention" areas with a pencil and keep searching.

Notice on the side scoop areas that run from the front of the car to just past the door - those lines can get alittle soft on you from either fillin or molding so this is your chance to crispen them up by sanding them straight. Roof lines are also correctable this way too...or trunk, fender...well...anything.
I normaly tweek like this about 3 or so times on a given model...sometimes it's less{if I get lucky} and sometimes it's more. Keep tweeking till your absolutely happy as your base here will dictate how well your paint lays or looks on the finished model.

Another coat of primer and more wet sanding-

Possible sets of wheels to be considered pictured-
Tweeking of the side scoop...it's not round enough for my liking-


The outside of the roof line had some sharp edges from having sanded off the drip/wind rails previously so I rounded those over.

Still blending the rear deck- I filled in the whole rear arear around and above the Plate to the top of the trunk for a smoother look.
Each time I finish wet sanding with 3000 grit for a nice sheen and do the "look at it with a good light source" for odd reflections..then re-wet sand as needed, then follow up with a coat of primer and relook...wash, rinse, repete.......don't forget to rescribe those panel and door lines as you go along.