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Bruce's 29/27 hiboy roadster


alan barton

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Hi guys, I just wanted to share with you this uber cool little roadster that my good friend Bruce placed on the table at last night's Perth and Districts Model Club monthly meeting. 

Now Bruce is normally a Pontiac guy and a NASCAR guy although he also strays into military aircraft from time to time. He cruises in an immaculate red 68 Pontiac GTO, a very unusual car here in Australia. So this model was quite a surprise. He said he saw a full sized version on the internet and took that as his inspiration.

He started with a Revell 29 roadster kit, using the Deuce frame which has been Z'd at the front.  To this he added a Revell Parts Pack Pontiac engine, naturally! He modified the kit headers to more accurately match the port spacing on the Ponty.  

The body is a Jimmy Flintstone item that appears to be based on the Ala Kart bucket body with a fabricated 27 T roadster style turtledeck hanging on the back. I gotta tell you, first impression was that I was looking at a 27, not a 28-29 - it is a very convincing conversion, partly disguised by Bruce's shiny black paint. Bruce said he filed the back of the cab down to suit the Model A seat. 

The grille is an AMT 32 unit that he shortened so neatly that you struggle to see the seam across the grille bars.

This little hot rod just smacked me between the eyes -  I want to build one now!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Cheers

Alan

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Totally!  It's not that he has never built a hot rod before, but this is by far the most advanced one he's built and he absolutely nailed it.  I guess if you are a good modeller you can build anything but the thing that gets me is, that resin body is not an authentic style - it  is pure fantasy.  Normally that sort of thing makes my nose wrinkle.  But what Bruce did just makes you completely overlook that.  

Interesting that the full size car was maroon - Bruce told me he had plans to do it in a very dark brown metallic but found that not one, but two cans of Duplicolor in his stash were out of air.  He hunted the city but could not find a replacement, even going to a paint store and asking them to do a custom mix - which the guy couldn't achieve without the paint code even though he had the Duplicolor part no.  In the end he just went for the black and I don't think that was a bad thing at all!

Part of me wants to replicate Bruce's model but using a JF 27 T roadster body rather than the 29 A, the other part of me wants to grab a spare Ala Kart bucket of which I have a few, and fabricate a similar turtledeck out of styrene.  One thing Bruce mentioned about the build is that the firewall ended up very tight on the block and headers.  Upon closer examination, I reckon the turtle deck could benefit from being 2-3 mm shorter, removed from where it joins the bucket.  I don't want to move the back of the car forwards but I would like to move the firewall back, without having too much of an impact on the stance and proportions.

Cheers

Alan

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Looks great. I like his use of color on the interior. The body proportions look just a little odd, like the wheel base might be a little longer placing the rear tires further back than stock. That said it looks good and what is stock here anyway. This is a Hot Rod and a great looking one as well.  

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