Packard Darrin Convertible and Coupé Parisienne by Western Models

[Jean B.]

I told you that you could do a lot better with the grill and I was right. Impressive upgrade!

Yep, you were right! In the future I will follow your suggestions without hesitation

Great work on the grill, but should it be longer ?

I saw this first on the picture, in situ it's not that apparent In fact it's not a matter of the length, but the original grille frame from WM was too wide in the bottom section, so I have overdone this today, have a look below...

Making the roof from a piece of polystyrene (and tons of putty ):



Using window dummies to find out the correct dimensioning.



...some fine adjustment still to do!

Now looking already better:

Actually I'm not fully sure that the car did have a detachable roof, but when examining the (only!) blurry photo of the Coupé, I think that there is a kind of gap or joint between front and rear part of the roof - and furthermore I thought of the Lincoln Loewy with a very similar layout...

newly shaped grille frame:

[Tom]

The roof looks great already!

[Jean B.]

The roof looks great already!

Thank you! Today I've spent the third (!) afternoon shaping the roof, and I hope that I'm ready now ! It was a terrible work to get the right shape so that the two parts of the roof will match and - of course - the whole line of the roof will be fairly similar to the original car... Now there are only slightest blemishes left which will be eliminated later:

[Tom]

I really like the shape of the closed car. A lot of work but at least the result looks great.

[reeft1]

Looks great! Almost has a hotrod chopped roof profile

[LUW]

It looks 100% perfect.

[Jean B.]

I really like the shape of the closed car. A lot of work but at least the result looks great.

Thanks! Yes, I was surprised myself when I found this car on the web! Originally I planned to simply make two different versions of the convertible, but when I discovered the Coupé, I immediately changed my plans

Looks great! Almost has a hotrod chopped roof profile

That was the trademark of Howard Darrin. Many of his designs show this particular roof shape with the top point rather towards the end and fast-back ending. My favourite - and probably one of the most spectacular designs ever! - is the Rolls Royce di Frasso by Darrin. Here's a picture from Steve (stewil), who obviously owns one of the rare Top Marques models (Steve: I'd sell my soul to get this model, too, especially with disc wheels ):

It looks 100% perfect.

You made my day

After smoothing and cleaning the models, they are now ready for priming, which will follow tomorrow:

[gilma]

Great shape of the roof, and the grille looks excellent!

[Jager]

Great work on the roof Jean. I assume you won't use the polystyrene & putty roof for the final car, but will use this as the master to cast a new one from white metal / solder ?

[Jean B.]

Great shape of the roof, and the grille looks excellent!

Thank you! Meanwhile I'm quite satisfied with the shape. It's always a thrilling work to follow the original designer with my model-building and learning how delicate and difficult the lines are to make to achieve the desired impact...

Great work on the roof Jean. I assume you won't use the polystyrene & putty roof for the final car, but will use this as the master to cast a new one from white metal / solder ?

I'm ashamed to disappoint you , but this time I'll use the plastic roof! To cast in white-metal is quite impossible as "slim & thin" parts can only be made with pressure or centrifugal machines, not with simple pouring of the molten metal. An alternative would have been to make the roof of sheet metal, but I'm still not familiar with this - later in life... And, well, I guess in real life the detachable roof was made of some lightweight material, too

Today the first coating with primer was made. Now all the blemishes pop up, and some more work must be done to smoothen the surfaces:





The first two tires are ready casted, reverse and front side with (then black painted) p/e profile ring:

[johann.nunweiller]

Nice and interesting work!

[BertOne]

I love the coupe - definitely a wise choice to go with this little known car. Back to the di Frasso Roller, another great looking car, one which I'm hoping Matrix or someone will have a go at especially as I don't think Top Marques really captured the shape of this car - it's too chunky and stunted though I suppose if you got your hands on one this would be remedied!

[Tom]

I think the unusual and interesting shape of the coupé makes for the best part of this build too.

[Jager]

Great work on the roof Jean. I assume you won't use the polystyrene & putty roof for the final car, but will use this as the master to cast a new one from white metal / solder ?

I'm ashamed to disappoint you , but this time I'll use the plastic roof! To cast in white-metal is quite impossible as "slim & thin" parts can only be made with pressure or centrifugal machines, not with simple pouring of the molten metal. An alternative would have been to make the roof of sheet metal, but I'm still not familiar with this - later in life... And, well, I guess in real life the detachable roof was made of some lightweight material, too

Sacre bleu !

[Jean B.]

Nice and interesting work!

Thank you! Although most of the single steps repeat from one model to the next, I find that every car has its very own difficulties - let's say: challenges

I love the coupe - definitely a wise choice to go with this little known car. Back to the di Frasso Roller, another great looking car, one which I'm hoping Matrix or someone will have a go at especially as I don't think Top Marques really captured the shape of this car - it's too chunky and stunted though I suppose if you got your hands on one this would be remedied!

...will we ever know... I'm perhaps too romantic with white-metals, but I wouldn't care of those shortcomings, so give me a hint if the Top Marques crosses your way one fine day...

I think the unusual and interesting shape of the coupé makes for the best part of this build too.

I really hope that the dramatic shape will come out fully with the - then - completed model! I think this Coupé was far ahead of its time, it reminds me of the Facel Vega Coupés of the late 50s, for example.

Sacre bleu !

Mille sabords!

Hard to believe, but there is indeed a life beside model building! I tried it this weekend, but it was not that interesting, unfortunately the works that I wanted to do came too short. However, some progress was made, so the chassis were painted black:



Hubcaps for the Coupé painted a bright red:



And a second coating with primer, after smoothing over the bodies:



The roof of the Coupé is still not satisfying, the putty is much harder than the primer, and when sanding over, the primer is brushed off much too fast. I fear I'll have to make the roof only with dozens layers of primer and sanding after every turn...

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[Jean B.]

The metallized chassis plates:



Hubcaps for the Convertible (left) and the Coupé:



And the roof gets better and better . One or two additional primer coatings and I think it'll be o.k.:

[Tom]

Looks fantastic!

[reeft1]

All in favour of Tom’s motion say “aye”.

“aye”

[LUW]

Things are shaping up!

[Jean B.]

Looks fantastic!

All in favour of Tom’s motion say “aye”.

“aye”

Nice! Thanks, Sirs

Things are shaping up!

Slowly, but they do!

With the third (or fourth?) coating of primer and sanding, the roof is now nicely smoothed:



...and that leads already to the painting! The first (thin) layer of glossy black, airbrushed with enamel paint:

When using glossy enamel paint, I always make a very thin first layer which stays rough. When dried, this is a good base for a thicker, shining second layer which doesn't drip then.

The hard-top roof gets a silk-matte black finish:

[Tom]

That car will look amazing in high-gloss black!

[Jean B.]

That car will look amazing in high-gloss black!

...and let's hope that it will be high-gloss... Dark colours are always a little bit difficult, but I'm confident that we will get a thrilling, dramatic look !

Meanwhile a second layer of black paint was applied:



And the convertible got its light yellow paint. I couldn't make a good photo, the first was taken with "artificial light" filter...



... and the second with "automatic" adjustment...

...but neither the first, nor the second shows the colour as it really looks like. So I will take additional pictures the next days under daylight!

A first sample of the wheels:



...and tomorrow the next turn of photo-etching will be made:

[Tom]

Coupé looks amazing in black, looking forward to seeing the real shade of yellow on the Cabriolet. I hope it's closer to the first than the second.
The finished wheel is great, top notch work.

[Jean B.]

Coupé looks amazing in black, looking forward to seeing the real shade of yellow on the Cabriolet. I hope it's closer to the first than the second. The finished wheel is great, top notch work.

Thanks, this time the tire has got a really nice shape - seems as if I could improve from time to time

Today I've tried several tunings with my camera, and it's stunning how different a colour turns out every time! I decided for this photo, for me it shows the highest resemblance to the original colour (still depending on your screen, of course...):



Photo-etching was satisfying, with several parts in 0.2mm:



...and more in 0.1mm: