traditional

I must admit, this is a very impressive model. Although Neo's resin models don't have opening features, the finish and presence are outstanding.
I noticed that as soon as I bought the model (during American Excellence's recent sale), the model disappeared from their website, so it may have been the only example that they had in stock. It is still available on other websites, but seldom at a sale price.

Yeah, I know.....too much time on my hands.
The 1/87 is Wiking, the 1/43 is Welly (I have others from various manufacturers, but Welly's is here because its side door slides open), the 1/25 is also Welly, the 1/18 is Schuco, and the 1/14 is Dickie (a toy division affiliated with Schuco).

A few months ago I built a 1/24 scale 1951 Studebaker as an NHRA '62 era drag race legal C/GAS coupe. My brother, Larry, pointed out that this might be an appropriate time to construct the 1948 Studebaker M16 truck he had been casually planning, but now build and outfit it as a '62 era race car hauler.

A couple of the following pics describe the array of parts...brass, styrene, and diecast that he used, modified, and scratch-built over the month of February. He brought the assembly to my paint booth about 2 weeks ago and the truck has now been assembled. The starting point was an Ertl 1947 Studebaker pickup that did not have an opening engine hood and the doors had incredibly long dog-leg hinges. Using plenty of acquired reference material, the first step was to modify the cab appropriately and proportionally by separating the engine hood, raising its front profile and adjusting the lower hood gap angle, widening the fenders and enlarging their radiussed opening, creating correct door hinges (exposed at the bottom but hidden at the top), enlarging the height and width of the windshield, creating the engine firewall, etc. The axle and working steering is made of soldered brass, as are the bumper, upper hood latch, complete ramp frame and body structure, door mirrors, directional lights, tail lights, etc. The interior is detailed with inner front panels, levers, door panels with separate cranks and handles, editing of the dash radio but inclusion of all dash knobs and vent lever. Heater and ducting are present. The chassis structure is scratch built as are brake drums, booster brake assembly, master cylinder, safety brake, gas tank, PTO to the winch, all drive shafts (3), exhaust/muffler assembly, body to chassis attachments, and more. The Commander 226 cu. in. flathead six has all its hoses, lines, wiring, manifolding, and oil bath air filter. The hood opens with real spring scissor action, and the hood 'stay' rod pivots from its central 'under hood' position. The vent windows open and close using the unique front-pivoting action present on many Studebakers. The truck is painted in commercial colors...Studebaker Iroquois Blue with the black fenders being standard on virtually all Studebaker trucks of that era. 

Larry claims he put in at least 9 hours a day for a month and a half, but was patient and found it was inspiring for the most part. He's excited and pleased with the final result. I'm also very pleased to see it with my '51 GAS coupe mounted on the ramp body. I hope the resulting concept may work for you too.

I've had one of FM's police trailers (came with a goofy '33 Ford police car, based on their great stock '33) for some time just waiting for the right project on which to use it and since the trailer uses fat fenders not unlike a '40 Ford, I decided to modify it for my recently finished '40 Ford rod. The skirts were ground off, the broken rear hinge replaced, and the '33 Ford bumper/ tail-light details removed and replaced with units to reflect the '40 Ford rod.
Paint and interior now also follow the coup's theme, and a more realistic hitch detail was fabricated in aluminum to replace the simple pin used on the FM version.

I've just completed building this traditional '40 Ford Custom rod using a $24 1st Gear CarQuest Auto Parts promo as starting material. This promo from a couple of years ago is, in my opinion, the best proportioned '40 coupe ever.......better than any of the plastic kits and considerably better proportioned than even Danbury Mint's coupe.

The promo comes as a Chevy powered, relatively hi-tech, '90s era rod with updated suspension, steering, interior, and trunk, but since I'm partial to more traditional rods from the 50s and early 60s, I decided to modify all those components back to the simple transverse spring, I-beam axle, old-school pleated interior, and traditional wheels/wide whites etc.

The model was completely disassembled, stripped of paint, any unused holes filled, and the unwanted hi-tech components went into my parts bin for possible future use.

The original dog-leg door hinges were ground off and discrete original Ford style hinges fabricated to replace them.

The engine is now a super detailed 50s Cadillac (starting from a basic Revell engine kit) with hand made tri-power manifold, mesh filters, fuel lines, and linkage. The double core rad is fabricated from polished sheet brass, the transverse springs/shackles (front and rear) are made from individual leaves of aluminum sheet, and the steering front i-beam axle is done in soldered brass starting with a model RR brass rail.

The interior pleated panels are done from model RR grooved styrene siding, the carpet (interior and trunk) is done in white felt, and the custom exhaust is fabricated in polished aluminum tubing, as are the '50s style front and rear nerf-bars. The front and rear windows are made in poly-carbonate sheet with the gaskets done in black wire from a craft store.

Paint is custom mixed automotive two-part basecoat/clearcoat. 

Like all models, I'll probably fiddle with a few details over the next while but for all intent, the model is now complete.