As far as I recall building this model was straightforward. A few things to watch out for:
In the 1970ies Monogram did a series of 1/24 scale model kits of classic 'Museum Pieces' cars.
The Packard Speedster was one of this series and was first released in 1975.
This particular kit was faithfully modeled after an actual car in the Harrah's Automobile Collection.
All kits in the series come with a fully detailed chassis, engine bay and cabin interior.
The kit I built was from a 1977 rerelease, this is identical to the earlier release apart from the size of the box.
As far as I recall building this model was straightforward. A few things to watch out for:
The level of detail in the kit is so high that I only needed to add some wiring to the engine bay and open up the handholds on either side of the engine covers.
I decided to leave off the radiator stone guard (nr.29) because fitting it required drilling holes in the beautiful radiator grille.
I left off the top because the sleek lines of the body look better without the top fitted.
The kit contains a choice of radiator cap ornaments: the standard Packard ornament (nr.105) or "Daphne at the Well" (nr.33), I picked the standard ornament.
First thing I did was coating all plated parts with gloss enamel varnish, this serves two purposes, it will protect the plating from getting damaged and secondly old-fashioned thick chrome plated parts usually have a warmer, slightly more yellowish tint than the bright aluminium plated kit parts have.
I also applied a coat of gloss varnish to the clear lenses of the headlights (nrs.93) and fender lights (nrs.91).
The color scheme in the kit depicts the car in the Harrah's collection, with the body color being an orangy coral color with chocolate brown fenders and trim.
I preferred to pick my own colors and decided on a crimson body with black fenders. It turned out to be a lucky pick as years later I saw an actual 734 Boattail Speedster in the very same body colors.
I sprayed the body colors using a Badger 200 airbrush, laying on a single wet coat, then putting the parts under a dust free cover to let the paint cure. Back in 1978 Humbrol enamels took at least a few hours to cure to a touch-dry state, so I let the paint cure for a couple of days to be sure.
The red finish ended up perfectly even and glossy, but there were a few fish-eyes in the black paint on the fenders. As the old Humbrol enamel thinner used to be mild enough to remove fresh paint without harming polystyrene, I cleaned off the black paint using a piece of lint free cloth wetted with Humbrol enamel thinner.
After removing the paint I sprayed a fresh coat of gloss black on the fenders, this time the coat ended up even and perfectly glossy.
After the red paint had cured thoroughly I painted the strips on the body gloss black using a fine brush and painted the remaining details, again using a fine brush.
As the Humbrol enamels on the body ended up smooth and shiny I saw no need to polish the paint.
Date finished: January 3rd, 1979.
| Paints used | ||
|---|---|---|
| upper body | Humbrol 20 Gloss Crimson Red | |
| fenders, body trim | Humbrol 21 Gloss Black | |
| chassis and running boards | Humbrol 33 Matt Black | |
| engine block | Humbrol 80 Matt Grass Green | |
| various details | Humbrol 11 Silver Fox | |
| seats, cabin interior | Humbrol 95 Matt Beige Green | |
| spare wheel covers, folding top | Humbrol 71 Satin Oak | |
| clear coat on plated parts | Humbrol 35 Gloss Varnish | |
