Hubley 1/20 metal Ford Model A

[Ron Bell]

I have a weakness for these kits for some reason. I built a few as a kit and one or two more along the way afterwards, but they have largely disappeared from the market and are getting harder to find. The main body and suspension parts are metal while the smaller more delicate parts are injection molded. They also have a small sheet of clear acetate from which you are to use the patterns provided to cut out the 'glass' for the windows. These aren't super, or even moderately, detailed kits and I have no idea why Hubley ventured into this area other than they were already making cast metal toys and I guess it was no big step to just put the component parts into a box and call it a kit. This one originally dates from around 1962 but this is its 1974 release. They were/are covered in flash and molding lugs that need to be removed and a small file is provided for that purpose. The edges are sharp and care must be taken to avoid cut and scrapes. One photo shows some parts for examples but note that they were some of the better ones as far as flash removal is concerned. The other pictures show the car basically assembled but not painted. This is necessary as the holes that accept the screws for assembly are sometimes plugged or need to be reamed out to fit so it's best to put the whole thing together to make sure it all goes together properly and to avoid hassles with and damage to painted parts later. The engine doesn't have its fan or radiator hose yet. If there is a any advantage to these kits it's in the fact that since they are metal, the whole range of lacquer car paints is available for use. Next up is cleaning all the parts with a wire wheel and then primering.

[tomqvaxy]

impressive undertaking.

Santa Claus brought me the woody around 1962. i scraped flash with a 3 corner burnisher until Memorial Day and finally gave up.

[Ron Bell]

It's been a while but as anyone who has worked on one of these kits can tell you, they are no "weekend special" and working with gloss and chrome paints necessitates long times between steps to assure the paint is truly "set' and that the finish doesn't get marred. Anyhoo, this is the point I am at. Everything finally got cleaned up, all the metal parts were brushed with a wire wheel, the body halves were put together so they could be painted (which also required some body work at the seams) then everything was primed and now I've gotten the first round of painting done. The body is a metallic deep red and looks pretty nice even at this stage. Trim and detail painting up next. 

[noelsmith]

Nice model taking shape here Ron.      Looking forward to seeing the finished result.

I built the Hubley Duesenberg a few years back. You have to adopt a different mindset when building one of those old Hubley kits as they are quite wanting in places. When built they certainly have a very different 'feel' to them due to the sheer weight alone.

[Ron Bell]

It's done. I was surprised how easily the final assembly went but I put that down to the extensive prep work I did in advance. These kits are not meant to be accurate replicas but rather as sort of "reminders" of when cars actually looked like something other than a lump of dough going down the road. They had real spirit and feel and you could maintain them with an oil can, screwdriver and an adjustable wrench. It ain't perfect, but I like it. 

 

[WardEss]

Thanks for posting this thread, Ron! I had a memory (vague) of having built one or two of those, back in the 1970s or so, but I could never remember what the brand was; and I didn't really remember anything specific about them other than how much flash they had on them (that required way too much patience, from a Kid's Mindset) and how heavy (and large!) they were. Good memories, sir! I don't think I ever got around to painting any of mine? So it's double cool to see that someone out there went that extra mile!

[noelsmith]

Those kits were marketed under a few names over the years Ward.

Firstly Hubley,  then Gabriel but cannot remember the third name they were marketed under.

Scale Models possibly ?

Edited May 19, 2025 by noelsmith

[WardEss]

Thanks for that info, Noel!