Signature 1:18 1938 Buick Century

Actually, this Buick model is badged "Speciul". It's tampo'd on both sides of the nose. More problems with the boys on the Mainland "winging" their English are seen on the generic "QQ" plates which read "Historic of America", and on the straight-8 engine which reads "OIL COSRORCO" instead of "OIL CUSHIONED". Aaaw Hell... close enough. This whole model has to be looked at as "close enough", I guess.

Quality-wise, the body and panels are poorly finished with rough edges that cause a lot of chipping. Other chipping occurs on the parts that were chromed over, like the bullet headlamps. One of the left headlamps was touched up at the factory (poorly I might add). Overall the chrome is too thin and bright. I washed the recesses to tone things down and blackwashed the grill and side vents to make them look tolerable. Inaccuracies include the black hubs on the spares and chrome parking/signal lamps, which should be body color and body color with chrome side trim respectively. The lenses on all the driving lamps are excellent and I hazard to say the stars of the show.

The winged hood opens barely wide enough to reveal a rather crudely detailed engine compartment, but the hinging mechanism is so oversized and intrusive, I'll just leave it closed. The trunk does not operate and the rumble seat opens to reveal a compartment that could only accommodate a double amputee. The top, as well as the boot, are nicely done and fit snugly. The doors open on a realistic hinging system, but the whole mechanism is exposed and ruins the effect anyway.

Remove the top and you're blinded by a bright shiny plasticy interior. The hardware pieces are all separately chromed and I gather the floor covering is wall-to-wall rubber matting with "Buick" printed at the driver's feet. Actually the upholstery and the door panels look like shiny rubber too. The shifter is an overscaled chrome piece that includes both the knob and boot. I painted the knob white, the column gunmetal and the boot a red leatherette.

The steering wheel is thick and overscaled . It should be a thin spidery wheel with banjo spokes. I blackwashed that too to pick out the simulated banjo design.. The dash is a largely 2-D molding with stickers for gauges. You can see the poorly centered speedometer cluster on mine. I blackwashed the speaker grill and heater vents. I'm not sure what that tan color on the dash is supposed to represent. A wood trim option was available and I have a feeling that's what they were trying to simulate. The sunvisors look like they were made from 1X4 lumber and have equally thick fasteners to secure the chromed windscreen frame... a really poor design.

The undercarriage is best left unviewed. It looks like an unfinished preproduction model. The suspension works and the drivetrain and exhaust system are separately modeled. The rest of the undercarriage is riddled with melted plastic fasteners and mounting pillars and there are no brakes, just metal discs that support the ridiculously skinny tires and the wheel cover locator pins melted in to secure the pieces. All in all, there are some good features here that, with a little work, can make a presentable model. On the other hand, this model has much in common with $12 Jada models in 1/24 that I've made project cars from.

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