By Bob Steinbrunn
I
’m not certain what possessed me to build this metal kit from 1963, some 50+ years after it was first released. The elegance, the grandeur, the imposing stance of the original car had a lot to do with it. Also, I like working with metal kits since I have a number of metal-working tools and machines. And when completed, metal models feel more substantial to me than plastic kits do. I like this aspect, even though metal is somewhat more difficult to work with than plastic. Last, I had built the Hubley Duesenberg Town Car many years ago, and I wanted to see if I could improve on that effort with this phaeton version of that kit–and my current skills.
My model represents a 1929 Duesenberg SJ LeBaron dual-cowl sweep panel phaeton. What this cryptic description means is that the car Retrospective Modeling: Building the 1/18 Hubley Duesenberg was a supercharged model (SJ), the body was designed, built, and installed on a Duesenbergsupplied chassis by the LeBaron coachworks, and the car had two cowls–one in front of each windshield (the rear one hinged with the windshield to allow easier entry to the rear seats). The side panels of the car incorporated an elegant reverse curve or sweep which lent itself beautifully to a two-tone paint scheme. And a phaeton was simply a touring car with front and rear seating that had a convertible top. Based on photos supplied by the ACD (Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg) Museum in Auburn, Indiana, of a beautiful SJ that was on display there at one time (Chassis 2151, engine J-129), I decided this The Hubley kits were first released in 1959. This kit was first issued as Hubley was the car for me. kit #4864-1000 in 1963. In July 1965 Gabriel Industries took over the Hubley After about 450 hours of building time spread over a year and a half, 2,690 pieces (many scratchbuilt), and a little help from my friends, I was finished. Was I successful wrestling with this ancient metal kit? I think I mostly was, despite the age of the kit, but I’ll have to let the readers decide for themselves.
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Model Cars #192 • January 2015
operations and produced these kits (including the one seen here) until 1980, when the rights were sold to CBS Toys. Ten years later the kits reappeared under the JLE (Joseph L. Ertl) label for a short time. This kit has been out of production for many years, but may still be found on the collector’s market.