Danno

I've often been accused of not building enough. Or, at least, not finishing enough. In fact, I've even resorted to calling myself 'The Unfinished ModelKing,' just to deflect and deflate some of the painful truth. My new year's resolution is to turn that train around. [i won't tell you what year I made that resolution, but I am determined to achieve it this year.] Viewing all the great builds on this board made me think to myself, 'Self, I need a jump start!' So I've decided to post some of what I have built, in order to maybe get the juices flowing again. Having said that, here's my kick-off. (Yes, I have the Super Bowl on my mind. Go Broncos!) The Revell 1931 Ford Model A Woody, kit# 85-7637. This kit has to be about the best representation of the factory stock Model A ever done in 1/24-1/25 scale. Built to represent a staff car for a period fire department. Sheet metal body parts were painted Krylon Banner Red and Basic Black. The wood components were first painted with Sun Yellow spray, then hand brushed with tan and wood, and coated with clear amber. All the rivets, carriage bolt heads, and hardware were picked out with black paint on a toothpick tip. Chassis was Krylon Satin Black. The engine was painted with American Accents Satin Hunter Green and completely wired and plumbed, with my 1:1 as a guide. Mechanical brake levers, cranks, and actuator rods were scratched and everything was finished to match Model A Ford Club of American judging standards specifications. By the way, the American Accents spray bomb came from the nearby WhaleMart, and when compared to my 1:1, it matches perfectly. So much for buying big buck authentic original Model A paint! A clear turn signal lens from the '55 Cameo kit became the fuel filter bowl (with a little shaping and some clear amber coloring to represent gasoline on board) and the fuel line was routed to the downdraft carb. Throttle, spark advance, and mixture rods were fabricated. Flattened copper wire strands connect the distributor terminals to the spark plugs. A coiled guitar string was painted black and routed from the distributor to the firewall, representing the armored ignition cable. Some small gauge braided steel cable (think tiny picture hanging wire) was used to represent the armored headlamp cables. I learned a disappointing lesson after the fact: the cable looked perfect, but was just unwilling to take the bend gracefully. After a couple of days, its self-straightening torque forced the headlamps forward, causing the downward tilt seen in this view. Future Model A builds will use a different material. Some micro-sized (but expensive) brass piano hinge was sourced from England, and it was perfect for hinging the butterfly hood. It took the fire engine red paint well, and has suffered many manipulations of the hood without failing. Great stuff. Of course, I can't find it any more. The hood mimics the operation of the 1:1 Ford's engine cover perfectly. Either side can be opened to display the engine detailing. Model railroad decal letters were cut out and placed individually to spell the city's name. The cowl lamps were filled with clear red tinted epoxy. Tires were sanded just enough to look the part. Their treads and interior sidewalls were dull-coated while the exterior sidewalls were gloss coated ~ just as any proud firefighter would keep them sparkling with armor-all type polish. A computer-generated custom license plate was attached (and wired) at the rear, bringing us to the end of this fun project. She's one of my favorites. Thanks for checking her out. (PS: Another of my resolutions is underway. A spring-cleaning of the model room, reorganization of displays and displayed models, and fresh new photography with my new and much better camera. In the meantime, thanks for bearing with these pix.)

It's all good, Craig.

More money than brains.

More than a thousand views in less than 12 hours. Like Mike said, how could this not be a good seller?!

Looks good, Bradman!

That's pretty nice!

Strapping in for the ride.

Wowzers!

Love the color. Love the Regal. Don't care for hoppers. But it's still a nice build. (It's your car, it doesn't have to be my kind of car.)

I like HRM for the gurlz.

Beautiful!! Certainly have been a lot of gorgeous models showing up with Rustoleum paint lately. Must be much better formula than back in the old days!

Oh, I don't think they'll have to worry about whether it will sell or not. More likely they'll have to be concerned with how many (more than they planned) it will sell.

Nice.

Nice!

Yeee hawwww! This will appeal to everyone, from cocacola cowboys to real deal wheels! Long overdue! It even has a bay window pigpen for Arnold!

Steve! LV to MN? You're going in the wrong direction! Seriously, welcome aboard.

Absolutely stunning! If not the finest stock build of that kit I've ever seen, it's the other one.

Nice . . . thrice!

Nice.

Nice.

Looks much better, Chris.

Nice looking.

Nice.

Great cars!