The Hornet's Nest - Part Two

I've discussed my Moebius Hudson Hornet illness before, and I've gone through the first seventeen of them I've built already. If you missed the starting gun, you can see it right here... http://chuckmost.wixsite.com/madhouse-miniatures/single-post/2018/02/18/The-Hornets-Nest

But that was then, and this is now. And here in the now, I've squeezed out a few more of them. So, sit back, relax and enjoy part two.

The 1953 Club Coupe served as the basis for this lowrider. I'd wanted to build the Hornet as an old-school lowrider from the moment the kit came out, but for whatever reason it took me almost seven years to get around to it. The suspension was modified, and fitted with wheels and tires from Revell's Custom Cadillac kit. I'm glad I used the wheels and narrow-band whitewall tires from that kit- they look better to my eyes than the wheels and tires provided in other Revell lowrider kits! Not that the more common set with the hollow tires look bad or anything, I just think the ones included with the Cadillac look a little bit nicer. I went with Testors One Coat paints, Purple-icious for the main body and White Lightning for the accent color. Under the hood you'll find a finned cylinder head from Morgan Automotive Detail, along with carbs and air cleaners from a Revell '29 Ford Roadster. Since the box art Cadillac is purple and thus includes complementary stripes I thought about using them but ultimately decided to ixnay the pinstriping this time.

This '52 beater started out as the Mel's Drive-In version, which builds into a lovely replica stock model with an optional set of wire wheels. Other than mismatched rear wheels (taken from one of the '52 NASCAR versions), AMT Goodyear Polyglas tires, and plug wiring, I built it right out of the box. The idea was a once-flashy cruiser which has spent 20 rough years on the road and is now a battered back-road gladiator. The mismatched front end panels indicate a long- ago collision, repaired with junkyard parts. Maybe this is the kind of car you'd have seen idling in front of a rural Michigan party store in 1973... beat and battered but still pretty solid and that old 308 Twin H engine still purring along, biding it's time while the leaded gasoline holds out. A car like this probably would have met it's end years ago, but who knows? Maybe today it's somebody's fully restored pride and joy. Or, maybe it met it's end decades ago. In either case, the model is a window back in time to the car's middle aged years.

This particular model was a quick weekend project. It served it's purpose, and it had the added benefit of making me go back and finish up some of my long-stalled Hornet projects. Starting with...

This was the twentieth finished Hornet, but if I'd finished it shortly after getting the body it may have been the tenth. I bought the Hollywood (hardtop) body from Jeff Ballard at Motor City Resin Casters a few weeks after he began casting it, but did not finish the car for various reasons until March of 2018. I went with a simple white-over-yellow paint scheme, a mild lowering, and the chrome plated steel wheels from the '52 Convertible kit. I might end up getting a few more Hollywoods to build, and Jeff also does a nice four-door trans-kit for the Moebius kits, and I dare say I'm tempted.

I started this '52 convertible way back when that version was first released, and got it done a week or so after the Hollywood. Basically it sat in a box, 95% finished, for about five years, and then over the course of an afternoon and evening, I wrapped up the final 5%. This was a pretty extensive rework above and beyond the base Moebius kit. The windshield frame was chopped, and the body was drastically sectioned. This work required quite a few modifications to the chassis, interior side panels, and even the seats. The front and rear suspensions were also reworked to lower the car. I chose to use some side trim with an abrupt downward turn to offset the sectioning job- kind of a way to mess with people visually. I retained the stock upper grille frame but used a bar from a Revell '53 Chevy sedan delivery. A Revell '49 Mercury kit coughed up the bumpers and side pipes. An Oldsmobile V8 was transplanted, along with a Hydramatic transmission and an automatic-transmission steering column. I made bucket seats by cutting down two Hudson front bench seats, and fitted the dash board from a '54 Hornet. The entire mess was painted in metallic purple and gold, with a tan interior. Because so much time had passed I'd forgotten what paints I'd used, so the top boot and padded firewall don't quite match the interior, and the purple used to detail the ribbed bumpers is WAY more purple-y than what's on the car, though that may have more to do with the paint being applied over raw chrome plating than the red oxide primer used on the body. The gold and purple came out with such a nice natural "suede" look that I chose not to go with a clear gloss. I was so taken with the semi-gloss look I just left it as-is.

Based on an idea from noted hobby journalist (as well as former Hudson owner and consultant to Moebius on the Hornet kits) Bill Coulter, this 1953 Mexican road racer began as the Teague stock car. I used some whitewall tires (front only) and full exhaust from the stock club coupe kit, and I removed the fender skirts. Aside from those points and some parts box decals, it's box stock. This is a fictional car, representing something a small town Hudson dealer may have sent off to race for publicity. I don't remember what paint I used, but the white came out very smooth, very glossy, and VERY brittle. I opted to leave the chips in the paint to represent a car that had taken a long road trip to Mexico. I also found out how robust the Moebius Hornet can be... during final assembly, the model fell from about waist height and bounced off a hard wood floor. Nothing broke, nothing came loose. Not too many models can take an impact like that!

This one was built to get rid of spares and cast-off bits from other projects. The idea was an abandoned old custom coupe that was rebuilt as a rat rod. I retained the Hudson 308 six and added a draw-through turbo setup with triple carbs. The RatRodzRus Terraplane grille was cut down and fitted with a '52 hood ornament. I modified the dash to resemble a '48-'50 piece and used the tail lights from a '54. I refer to it as a 1948, but kept the modified '51-'53 style greenhouse trim as provided by Moebius on the chopped and shortened roof. So... technically this can't be a Hornet as the Hornet did not appear until 1951, but this Frankenstein's monster of a car started out as a Hornet kit, so here it is.

After finishing up all of these long-stalled projects, I was riding a wave of productivity that lent me the motivation to begin this new project. As with the '48 coupe, this one is also an old custom, but I went with more of a "preserved barn find" motif. I started with the '52 convertible kit. From there, the suspension was lowered, and wire wheels from the '52 Mel's club coupe were used on the front. The "stacked quad" headlight arrangement was achieved by using fender pieces cut from a second body and flipped upside-down. A hand-made grille frame ties things together. The grille, rockers, and skirts were scratch-built, and the hood was sectioned. I left the surgical scars on the hood and highlighted them with a little rust. The Carson-style top is an old R&R vacuum formed piece meant for a '49 Mercury, and it was reworked to fit the Hudson body. Finally, rear quarters and taillights from a '56 Chevrolet were grafted into place.

The Hudsonator was the 25th Hornet model I built, so I pulled out the stops and went with a '90's style Pro Touring theme, with a few traditional custom touches thrown in. It was chopped and converted to a hard top, and the hood was sectioned. A custom grille was fabricated, and AMT '49 Mercury tunneled headlights were used. Bumpers were shaved and de-chromed, and painted in a charcoal black along with the rest of the former chrome trim. Fins and tail lights were grafted in from a Revell Foose Cadillac. The tail light lenses and backup lights were treated to a coat of Tamiya Smoke. Wheels and tires from Jimmy Flinstone were used, the wheel rims were polished while the centers were painted in the same charcoal paint used on the trim.

The real magic is under the hood. The idea was... "What if somebody dropped off a Hudson 308 block and a blank check at Uncommon Engineering, and told Steve to 'just go apeshit'?" The engine was fitted with a scratch built DOHC head, scratch built manifolds, and a new front cover with belt drive for the alternator, A/C compressor, and power steering pump. A modified Hobby Design turbocharger supplies boost, and it breathes through a custom made open-element air filter that uses a factory Hudson air cleaner lid.

The interior is rather tame- aside from Taurus SHO seats, a Momo steering wheel, a Detail Master gauge panel, photoreduced CD player head unit, and a shifter, hand brake, center console, and tach from the spares box, it's stock '54 Hudson.

Here is "Hudsonic", a name I came up with ages ago and finally got around to attaching to a car. This began with the Mel's Drive In '52 Club Coupe. From there it was kept mostly stock with a few notable exceptions. The Cragar wheels, front tires, and rear slicks came from the Winspur '54. Under the hood, I used a finned aluminum cylinder head from Morgan Automotive detail, along with a scratch built header and Hilborn mechanical fuel injection setup. I also used a '53 hood scoop rather than the triangular '52 ornament to feed air to the stacks.

This home-made farm truck was familiar territory, beginning with the '53 Club Coupe kit. I've done a few Hudson pickup conversions before, but I'd never used the optional hood hinges and prop rods provided in the kit, so I put them to use here. The engine is a Ford 300 straight six from a Moebius F-100. The Ford "Big Six" and the 308 7X Twin H engine were designed by the same chief engineer, Bernie Sigfried. Had Hudson survived past the '50's, what eventually became the Ford 240/300 may have become Hudson's first OHV straight six. This was also fitted with wheels from a Moebius F-100, but the tires came from a Revell Bronco. Various junk litters the cargo bed.

This '53 Club Coupe employs the chopped top body from Morgan Automotive Detail. I actually had a hand in the creation of the master... I chopped about three scale inches out of the top, while Detroit area modeler Corey Bass did the window trim and drip rails. Now, anyone can purchase this body from MAD. The body includes the remainder of the stock trim. I shaved off the trim but otherwise used it just as cast- it's a direct fit, and slips onto the chassis and interior just as well as the kit body does. I used the open steel wheels from the NASCAR '52, with hub caps from an AMT '57 Ford. The grille came from the old AMT custom parts pack. For power I went with a Dodge 325 Red Ram Hemi from an AMT '29 Model A Roadster, fitted with dual quads. I haven't done a black-primer finish in a while, so that's what I went with here, along with some Hemi Orange accents and C&S Chop Shop decals from the AMT Rat Rod decal sheet.

A spare Teague '52 ended up being done as a long-forlorn old junker. With this one it's not so much what I added, but what I omitted! The center grille bar was removed, and I left off the gold-colored triangle peak of the hood ornament, leaving only the rusty base. The engine, rear suspension, and most of the interior were left in the box, the rear side trim was removed, and the rear fender skirts were cut out. I did add a few things, though... the structure behind the absent driver's side headlight, and I re-positioned the trim on the driver's door to represent a junkyard replacement door taken from a 1951 model. I also added a dent and some rust damage in the driver's side quarter panel, and "popped" the trunk. A small strip of plastic was draped out of the opening to represent a loose piece of weatherstripping. The car was treated to a general coating of rust. The hood was actually used years ago as a paint mask for the hoodless black and yellow '53 convertible you saw in the first article. I scuffed it a bit, added some rust effects, and used it here with the (partial) '52 hood ornament. Five lug hubs from Scenes Unlimited were used on the front spindles.

And this brings us to Hornet #30.... Green Inferno. The idea was a classic "lead sled" theme, but with some 21st-century touches. The first piece of the puzzle was a Ford 5.0 Coyote engine and six-speed manual from a Revell 2014 Mustang GT. The Mustang also donated it's dash, steering wheel and column, center console, and seats. I noticed a bit of a resemblance in the design of the '53 Hornet and '14 Mustang gauge clusters and thought this would be a nice way to update the interior. A modified Mustang II front suspension (actually from MPC's Pinto wagon) was used up front and the entire car was lowered. The body is a mild custom with shaved trim and handles, rear wheel openings modified to resemble '55 Chevy rear wheel arches, and frenched headlights from a Revell Foose Cadillac. I retained the stock bumpers, but went with an aluminum mesh grille and molded the factory hood scoop. The scoop opening was fitted with matching aluminum mesh. Paint is Testors Lime Ice for the body, while the roof was finished in Mystic Emerald.