This past December I pre subscribed to this long term subscription based model from Eaglemoss. I already got my first two shipments which is for issues 1 through 6 with a total of 141 issues till completion.

For those curious about what the finished product should look like here is a video of the prototype which we already have found some changes from the prototype that make it more accurate to the film used car.




With that said this is what I am up to so far since I am starting this a bit late.

The first issue comprised of the hood, hood filler panel, license plate and hood vents. I had to get two replacement issue ones as the hood had major defects in the paint that was quite noticeable. The second replacement issue is pretty good with some minor defects but they are along the edge of the hood and are felt more than actually being visible. The hood vents I wont be using as I ordered custom screen accurate 3D resin printed replacements from a mod maker over in the UK for these subscription based kits.


The second issue from shipment one comprised of the headlight buckets and the grill assembly along with the anti collision strobes for the grill. I left these off as I will be purchasing a mod for making them functional at a later date since the kit supplied ones are not functional.




After many weeks I finally received shipment two on March 10th and I will be assembling this shipment of issues 4 to 6 over the weekend. This shipment consists of the free magazine binder that was to be with shipment one but they didn't have enough stock.


Then issue three consist of the rest of the pieces to finish the front bright work by being the front bumper pieces and turn signal housings and lenses.


The next issue, issue four was the pieces to assemble one of the four wheels. The tire is even a '50s period correct Firestone Champion Super Deluxe wide white wall tires


Issue five is the Cadillac blue painted transmission pieces which I need to look more into cause so many people are fighting on this that it was painted engine blue while others like me don't believe it was as the factory never sprayed the engine/transmission as an assembly at the same time. Im honestly thinking about respraying the transmission pieces in a raw cast iron color, I think I still have some east wood bare cast iron color paint I could use.


The final issue for this shipment, issue six is the left cylinder block, the cylinder head, the valve cover, the exhaust manifold, the spark plug wire loom, and a dipstick.


And the last thing that arrived on the 10th was my 3D resin printed replacement hood vents which look amazing compared to the one piece solid plastic vents.



I hope to get this detailed up more so than being built straight up. I got a water slide decal set coming from the UK that has all the OE under hood decals in 1/8 scale. I wont be using the radiator tags and such as by time the car was built in the mid '80s things like that wouldn't be on the car anymore. But generator tags, the condenser washer on the generator, the air cleaner decal, the oil filter decal, AC decals, ect would still be located on the vehicle.

 

Ok first update since I started this.

I took about 3 hours to complete issues three through six. With any luck my previous bills were all on the 28th so I hope for getting my third shipment for issues seven through ten some time late this month or early april. Shipment four might be delayed due to the virus going around.

This is the front bright work completed as of now. I left the anti collision strobes off the grill bar as we may be getting from a modder the mod to make them functional. I also left the license plate off as well as I planned on getting the magnetic license plate mod that will come with the yellow license plate from the first movie as well as the white license plate we see on the worn out version of this car at the beginning. I did also install the dummy parking lights for now. I have to see what mods come about as if a mod is made to make the headlight circuit switchable from high beam to low beam to just park lights then I will gladly unscrew those dummies and install functioning parking lights.




The next two photos are of the kit supplied license plate sitting in place.




The next step of the build for issue two was assembling of the wheel. Wasn't much to do there just use three screws to attach the two rim halves together around the wheel. The hubcap cant be installed till the whole wheel assembly is attached to the car.




The next two stages was assembling the complete transmission and assembling the left half of the engine block. I still am not sure but I am leaning towards just leaving the transmission the Cadillac engine blue as I cant find no clear cut answer on if it was done this way by Cadillac. I will how ever be painting the black plastic sparkplugs a chrome like color for the base and a white porcelain color for the porcelain insulator. The spark plug wires I have seen on other peoples builds look like a small hose that is just blue. I don't know if I will stick to this as the distributor that they are using has a HEI style tower with 90 degree boots at the dist instead of the straight male style spark plug wire ends. I also don't know if I want to have the spark plug wires to be a vibrant blue either. Might see what kind of hose I can find to change the color to maybe yellow or black or grey which were common replacement style spark plug wire colors in the 80`s which is what this car is supposed to be replicating. I am also thinking about possibly buying these tiny small scale hex head screws to replace the valve cover screws with to make things look more accurate. Would also use them for the phillips headed screws for the engine brackets to the motor. Just have to see as the only place I found that sells them is over in the UK.




As of now my issues three to six are complete. But I did take the best hood I had out of the multiple issue ones I received due to defects and set the kit supplied hood vents on the hood for this comparison shot.



The next two photos shows the mod vents I bought that were 3D resin printed to be screen accurate with rivets in place of the four large holes for phillip headed screws. It also has open vents on the back side compared to the solid vents supplied with the kit. These vents attach with 3M double stick adhesive that was preinstalled on the mod pieces. I think it really wakes this replica up over what the kit supplied pieces would have done.

 

I got some M1.6x4mm and M2.0x5mm mini hex bolts for RC cars to replace the Philips head screws on the engine to make it look more like an engine.

Up side they fit perfectly and look great. Downside is the website listed the M1.6 having a 1.5mm head but my 1.5mm precision nut driver doesn't fit it so I got the black oxide all scraped off around the top. I for sure wont be able to install these bolts to begin with I would have to use the phillips head to cut threads first. The M2.0 went in nicely and the 2mm precision nut driver fits perfectly.

The M1.6 I installed on the valve covers and will use them also for the thermostat housing. The generator and powersteering brackets I do not know if they thread into metal then I will have to use the M2.0 screws otherwise I will use the M1.6 screws. The M2.0 I installed in the motor mount.

 

Update time for my next grouping of issues.

Engine is now 95% complete, I have to make some changes to the wiring of the generator and the starter as they want me to connect the generator directly to the starter. I also need to order another set of sparkplug boots as I had one rip during installation but all of the cylinders are wired with the correct firing order in the correct rotation with the correct starting position for cylinder 1.



I also did detail painting on the radiator hoses as they have molded in hose clamps but they were black like the hose so I put a little steel colored Vallejo model paint on them. The back part of the power steering pump was painted engine blue while the rest of the pump was painted black. So I painted it with my Vallejo satin black which is a dead on match to the color they used. Only thing I am not sure about is the powersteering cap. Part of me wants to paint it bare steel but every photo I seen shows the cap black just like the pump.

and a close up photo of the spark plug boots at the distributor which are the correct straight end points terminal not the 90* HEI female boot ends which came supplied with the kit.


Will be a few more photos for tomorrow, as this was just two issues for this month I did, I will do the other two issues tomorrow which is where I start on assembling the driverside suspension on the forward frame half. Cant wait to see how stout the real metal coil spring is. Im sure it has to be fairly strong to support the weight of this diecast which I have confirmation will weigh 35 to 38 lbs when complete.

Im also still searching for correct decals. I got a decal sheet off ebay and its good but the oil filter canister lid decal is just a print on decal paper of a photo of a reproduction decal. The decal should just be white text with a clear background but majority of people don't have printers that can print white ink so thus they use white paper that you cant get the transparent nature of the white text.

 

Got the engine mocked up today sitting on the frame. Wont be able to get the assembly bolted together till I finished the right suspension and the front crossmember that mounts the bumper/grill assembly in place. I think that might not be finished till the next two shipments. Once that happens then I can bolt the engine and transmission down and start doing the fun stuff of routing power steering lines and brake lines and even making generator wires as I refuse to use blue hollow tubing to connect the generator directly to the starter. Im also trying something a little different with my photos, I am cropping the background out and going with plain white color background to help make the focus of the images the model itself.

Paint wise I also took and painted the one shock I have so far a silver color and painted a red band and a diamond as best as I could to emulate the look of KYB Shocks. Sadly the band is hard to see as it is partially up in the frame but the band is placed roughly where real KYB shocks have them placed. At least the shock is not the same satin black as everything else blending in with the gloss black coil spring.