XE Falcon S-Pack ** so anyway 8 years later- **

Im with DeeCee, go for it mate

Shawn, I know the feeling very well. I agree with DeeCee. Get up something simple...maybe a couple of simple builds. Just to experience completing a model. A slammer, maybe???

Shawn, Just so you know, I'm not trying to stalk you. As I said on MCM, your work inspired a heap of others including me to try something. I understand that you can reach a point where anything is tough to contemplate starting and nothing at all is hard to fathom, but seems to be the thing right now.

I think that it is hard for you to see objectively what your work did for your aussie modeller colleagues especially. A falcon, our car from our childhoods coming alive in front of us. We weren't amazed by the perfection of your build, although Shawn it is phenomenal, it was that it was possible. Aussies cars are very limited, through our own limited modelling market, and so examples are limited to short run resin kits, or the odd cross over - Aoshima Mad Max Ford kit example.

But you brought it to a whole new space, that it was possible to make our own, and kind of tell the bigger manufacturers to stick it. Shoey does it as well, and makes a fine fist of it, until some numb nuts tries to knock off his work and make it his own. But dickheads who are greedy bastards and ruin it for others aside, guys like you and Shoey, you gave me and a few others around here hope that one day we could have our own version of a childhood memory on the shelf. It was also that you shared, so it wasn't so much of a mystery, and you showed us when it didn't work as well, and all the time, amazing us with your skill.

So if you pick up one of your copies and have a go, or find something to inspire you to go back, or buy a $20 kit off ebay and just build, know that your effort on this and other modelling websites is a gift that hopefully many will gain inspiration from and take it to the next level.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Thanks for your support, I appreciate and I am thankful for it.

News for all-

Work has begun on the third body and is going well, there will be some changes but they will only be to the spec of the car and nothing too extensive. As it will probably be the first of the 3 Falcons finished I don't want it to de-value the work that has been done to the other 2 and the plan will be to keep it to minimal extra detail just basically OOB (if you can have OOB from something that is 99% scratchbuilt). So it will compliment the other two in a way that the current build will be basic, the second build (the beige one) will be extra detail and the third will be the super detail version.

I am still not completely in the zone and recent troubles with my dodgy back have left me with trouble sitting upright for long periods of time but I'm making sure that each time I pick up the tools that I am getting something done each session. I am hoping to get the body painted before the weather turns completely to shit otherwise I'll be back to square one.

Stay tuned,
Thanks again,
CheersSS

Was wondering what happen to this one. Will watch for up dates, Take care of your back too.

Don't force it.
Pack it all up and walk away if you have to but don't force it.  It's a hobby and should be enjoyable.  If it's not then you need to stop until you want to start again.
Just don't get rid of all your stuff.  Keep it somewhere you can get to it when you feel your mojo again.

Hi guys.

Well ever since I announced my intentions to start the 3rd body I have actually been working fairly steadily on not just that but I have also used the opportunity to kick the beige Falcon back into life. I guess you could say the plan to bust my slump worked a treat. For the 3rd body I had many options to choose from, should I build a street machine? should I do a drag car? a taxi? a police car? nope all of those things are too exciting for me so I chose to do it in the most basic spec I could do- a plain white GL.  Here's some pics.

Since I was masking and painting anyway I decided to finally polish the body and paint the blackouts on the beige one too after several years in the cupboard.


and the bumpers too.


To move the white GL a little bit further away from the two S Pack versions I decided to do a front bench seat. It's made from about 75,742 individual pieces of evergreen styrene so it took a while before I figured out how to do it right.

and put the base model upholstery style on the rear seat.


I needed to make a GL steel wheel too


and cast some in resin.

After the bodies received the blackout treatment how could I not have a play with some mock ups. I used the completed S Pack wheels and interior for the white one as the new wheels had not yet been cast and the interior isn't ready.



The ride height needs a tweak but the beige car is looking good too.



There is still a bit of work to do on both bodies with some BMF for the trims around the outside of the windows and more blackout treatment around the window frames, door handles and the lower lip of the beige cars airdam. I haven't decided 100% about the interior colour of the GL yet but it will most likely be the horrendous red-brown that was one of a few options at the time.


From the start of this project in 2011 I was always concerned about the look of the body and even though I did do a mock black out treatment a few years ago I always felt that it wasn't until the body was painted and everything was blacked out properly that the true look of the body would show and I am actually stoked about how it looks ( it sounds silly I know) and it has re-ignited my need to get this project finished.

That's it for now
Thanks for your encouragement and support.

CheersSS

Those are looking real nice. Keep at it.

Looks fantastic, that Beige mock up with the trailer looks amazing.

Brilliant. Nothing else sums it up!

Worth the wait for me... STUNNING !!!

Hi Shawn
good to see you in building mode again
This cars look´s awesome.
I dont find the correct words how impress I am of your building.
I will send you an PM so please check.
We are also a group of model builders in Norway who have our own fb page, you are welcome to like our page.
https://www.facebook.com/Team-Østlandet-Modellbil-Lastebil-og-MC-405898642937561/

Brgds
Oddvar

The mock-ups look great. Are those "sheepskin " seat covers ? wow ! I can almost smell them.

Hi guys,
I've made some further progress on the white Falcon. As it is a practice build for the other two I needed to figure out how I was going to go about doing the rough texture that the 1:1 cars had on the underside of the chassis. Originally I was going to apply a textured paste that I bought a couple of years ago but after a trial run with that paste I found it fairly unforgiving and too much trouble so I decided to use some Tamiya liquid primer. I found some old brushes lying around and I trimmed the bristles to make the brushes a bit stiffer.

After some testing on an old chassis I developed a technique and was happy with how it came out. I also practiced some weathering on that same piece.

The next task was to mask off the areas that I didn't want texture on.

If you want a product to avoid I would recommend avoiding Microscale's masking liquid like the plague. This stuff sticks like shit on a blanket and is very hard to remove.

I used a repeated dabbing (stippling) motion to get the coverage that I was happy with, it looks coarse but remember it's a close up picture.

After the masking was eventually removed.

I then painted the front chassis rails white (the body colour) and when that was dry I masked them off and painted the tank and diff semi gloss black then I masked those off and painted the rest flat black. The only thing that I forgot to do was take photos so use your imagination please. After the painting was sorted I then started the weathering process.  I used some of the stuff that I bought when I weathered the trailer a couple of years ago.

These pics show the initial weathering, the brown shows up more in the pictures than it does in real life. I was aiming for the look of a low to medium kilometres, dry climate car so no massive oil stains or clumps of mud.


I added the exhaust, driveshaft, watts link, front sway bar and steering arms and gave them the treatment too. I tried several times to get some weathering on the exhaust but it wouldn't take. It's not heavily glued so I might take it off and hit it with some flat clear to see if the dust sticks to it then.

Some pics with natural light to get a better idea of what it looks like.







The interior has been painted brown. I tried to give the seats some depth with a wash of darker brown but I'm still not sure about the look.



The wheel backs are also weathered.

The wheels are also complete.

The blackouts on the wheels and the silver centre on the hubs are decals.


A little more interior work to do and then final assembly. Hopefully not too far away now.

Thanks,
CheersSS

That is some very impressive techniques there mate, NICE !!!!
The only thing i can see wrong, is being a Ford, there is no where near enough RUST under there !!!

WOW been awhile since I looked at this, Great work on them both.
One of my jobs as a car detailer was to book these into stock there were two white colours Stark White & Snow white. The Stark was used on Fairlanes.
There was a Falcon in Cessnock years ago painted Monza red with Snow white roof.

Check out the showroom for my first completed XE Falcon build.

Cheers SS

Ya just picked my jaw up off the floor.

Hi guys,
I have managed to make some serious progress on the second XE build- the first of the S Packs. I have finished the underside and only have the decals and final assembly left on the body. I'm only finding a few hours a week to build at the moment so progress on all of my current projects is slow.
Here is the chassis plate with extra detail and weathering.


I guess if all goes to plan, I'll be back in a few days with pics of the finished model.

CheersSS

Look's good
Had a XD Falcon sedan biggest mistake selling it and buying a HZ Holden wagon, wife still P----off at me selling it.

Have you any plans to do a ute,wagon or van.

Nice work indeed👍

allan wrote:

Have you any plans to do a ute,wagon or van.

Thanks, Yes Allan I have plans - lots of plans, just not enough time. If I found the time I would do the XF ute first. Unfortunately it would require a whole new body as there would be way too much work to convert the sedan to a ute. I'll give it a go one day.

CheerSS

After such an epic build, I'd love to see another Aussie classic. The XF ute ticks a lot of boxes.
cheers

ozmodeler wrote:After such an epic build, I'd love to see another Aussie classic. The XF ute ticks a lot of boxes.
 cheers

Yeah it will most likely be done sooner than later.

Ok, for those who want to see a finished S-Pack please head over to the showroom for the world debut of the XE Falcon S-Pack model car.

CheerSS