Brian Austin

IMHO both those kits have their pluses and minuses, and have similar proportion problems with the body. The chassis both have problems, but if you paint them black it won't matter. :-) IMHO the PL plastic felt a little cheaper than the old off-while AMT stuff, and generally IMHO the engineering of the AMT kit seemed better. Sadly, most parts won't interchange well between the two without a bit of work. The rear bumper of the PL kit is close to stock, but not well executed IMHO, The PL kit has wheels that are closer to stock. I wouldn't mind seeing another reissue of the AMT kit. Charlie, I posted this video on another message board, and I think you'd get a kick out of it. Here's someone's '59 Miller-Meteor project car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ucAOWaMp3g (More can be found here, Note that along with the M-M is a Superior project car https://www.youtube.com/user/DrCaron1959/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=1)

(That's not art deco)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-Bel-Air-150-210-Bel-Air-/162142018610?forcerrptr=true&hash=item25c06adc32:g:3OwAAOSwIgNXjsD-&item=162142018610 Several dozen reference shots, including chassis.

To reiterate, the dioramas were built in the 1930s, the brush fire diorama being built some time shortly after the Hurricane of 1938. Project was started in the early '30s by Theodore B. Pitman, known for his realistic historic dioramas, often of military or naval theme. He had a studio along with Samuel Guernsey and others in Cambridge, Mass. (Harvard Square) but IIRC he passed away before the completion of the project. One of Pitman's dioramas can be seen in City Hall in Newton, Mass. though I have not visited there myself. The Fisher Museum building in which the dioramas have been placed was completed in the early '40s. I haven't found info regarding who built the fire truck model.

(Jeez...just when I thought I'd gotten the hang of posting pictures and links in this forum...) I didn't mention there was no admission charged, so there's no reason not to drop in. :-) (My father and I did leave a donation at the door though.)

Recently my father and I visited the pleasant small town of Petersham in central Massachusetts. In a small museum there is a series of large dioramas built throughout the 1930s portraying the history of forestry and issues faced in the caring of New England forests. (Museum website: http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/fisher-museum for captions and pictures). Most dioramas were set in periods of history preceding the advent of motor vehicles, but I did see at least two model trucks, one of which is the fire truck shown below. The other, a '10s or '20s work truck, was a background model in an "out of order" diorama that was darkened and impossible for me to photograph. I'm trying to guess in hindsight the scale of the fire truck...somewhere between 1:32 and 1:24. Forced perspective was cleverly employed in all the dioramas, so figures decreased in size toward the background. The diorama with the fire truck depicts one of the many forest fires that broke out in the aftermath of the Hurricane of 1938. A second diorama showed the same scene after the fire had been extinguished and the fire crews gone home, with the charred landscape evident. Another one depicts various land erosion issues. The lighting design in that one is beautiful, and replicates the play of cloud shadows on a hillside. A final display shows model construction techniques. Each tree was composed of strands of copper wire twisted together, while figures were formed of wax sculpted over wire armature. Leaves and pine needles were fashioned from etched copper sheet. My photographs give only a taste of the dioramas and their compositions, as I took mainly detail shots: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_w_austin/albums/72157671112596566

Neat project. How is it progressing? I happen to have a Superior-Cadillac hearse brochure for 1963. There was some discussion early in the thread regarding the relative length of the doors. Perhaps the drawings might help somewhat. What the drawings don't show is the taper of the body width from front to rear that IMHO neither of the Ecto kits gets correcty. The front sheetmetal is as a stock sedan, then widens at the doors after the A-Pillar. The rear body is 3 or 4 inches or so wider than stock. Commercial Chassis rear bumpers have filler pieces to widen them. Anyway, just trying to help. Build on!

Neat concept. Reminds me of an AC Aceca coupe. My custom project is based around Monogram's 427 Cobra, while AMT's own Cobra kit would be a better donor for a stock version. The roof shown in the original post reminded me of a '50s Chevy.

One more <img src=https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1639/25869954924_33b2109050_b.jpg>

This creation represents an Argentinian-market Ford Model A Phaeton (four-door convertible) that had been been modified at some point in its career into a pickup, as was common there. Mine is a composite of several I've come across on various vehicle sales sites. Condition of vehicles in those listings vary from nice restorations to rusted out hulks. Mine is somewhere in the middle. This project is a combination of Revell "Rat Rod" pickup and AMT woodie/pickup kits. Because of the mix, some components came out a bit less than straight and true, such as the front axle. It would appear that cars in Argentina were assembled with RHD up until the '40s, so I converted the Revell front axle and steering gear to RHD. The curved cab back wall is actually the front seatback panel. This was represented by a Monogram '60s Corvette Stingray windshield. Modern aftermarket turn signals have been added, and weathering was accomplished using rust-colored paint along with artists' pastels and colored pencils. (BTW: I have no real connection to South America...I'm just fascinated by the variations of vehicles down there.) More images can be found here... https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_w_austin/sets/72157634893359388/page3

Interior not stock, but neat... http://www.motoexotica.com/inventory/listing/1947-ford-business-coupe/

One of my favorite architectural references is the HABS/HAER archive, which catalogs historical US buildings of all types. Just some random examples... Some drawings can be found here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Drawing: va0041&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co =hh&st=gallery&sg = true This one is a little far gone: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Photograph: ga0953&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co =hh&st=gallery&sg = true A disused one in Georgia: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Photograph: ga0529&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co =hh&st=gallery&sg = true Another rural one: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/hhh.la0390.photos.335758p/?co=hh More drawings: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Drawing: va1803&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co =hh&st=gallery&sg = true A cottage type PURE OIL station: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Photograph: nj1636&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co =hh&st=gallery&sg = true Many more can be found here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=service+station&sp=1&co=hh You can do searches using the terms "service station", "filling station", "gas station", "garage", etc.

Johan's '61-'62 Oldses were mentioned in the initial list. They are four-door hardtops, as opposed to being sedans. The '61 is a Super 88, as is the '62, I believe, not a Ninety-Eight which was a longer body with a different roof. That said, It would be nice if Moebius could consider doing a two-door sedan version of their '61 Pontiac. :-)

You can see this guy at work in this recent profile on Boston's WCVB-TV's long-running "Chronicle" magazine-type show. (It's the second of two segments in the video linked below.) http://www.wcvb.com/chronicle/chronicle-the-tale-of-a-tower-and-creating-an-imaginary-town/38221382

Hi guys, I just signed up to this forum and thought I could help this discussion a little. There's a wealth of automotive texts available online dating back to the early days of motoring. This book, scanned as part of Google's book search program, discusses the design of automobile and truck bodies as of the early 1920s. There is a section on the design of door hinges (there's more to them than you might think), and some comment on their placement: "...The most used method used is to hang all four doors at the front. The next method, and really the best one, is to hinge the front doors at the front and the rear doors at the rear. Hinging the rear door at the rear gives a much better opening to get through and offers some protection from the rear fenders." (P.63). http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002942632;view=1up;seq=67 The principles of automobile body design, covering the fundamentals of open and closed passenger body design, (1922). As a side note, this volume also discusses various body types. Some such as the coupe are familiar, while others have passed into obscurity.