gbritnell

Hey Jody, I think you forgot to post the link to the picture. gbritnell

Thanks for looking and commenting. I don't have a shot with a quarter but I have one with it next to a 1/25 Ford pickup for a size comparison. gbritnell

Awhile back I posted a thread on the conversion work I did on one of the old Revell 1/48 pickup trucks. Here's another one that I did. This one has the frame area modified with the cast in exhaust removed, a new driveshaft made, the engine compartment modified and firewall filled. I cut the rear wheel/tires in half and added a filler piece to widen them. The centers were machined out and aluminum baby moons and beauty rings were machined and polished. The fronts were then turned a little and a new tie rod was made. I cut the passenger door open and added door panels and interior detail. A buck was made for the windshield and a windshield was made out of sheet plastic along with the side and rear windows. The original never had any. I discarded the original basic Y block engine and made a new 302 Ford for it. The air filter was turned out of aluminum and polished. A complete dual exhaust was made. In the rear end a bumper was made and a duplicate tail light created. The finish is Boyd's blue with Bare Metal foil added for all the shiny parts. The wood strips in the bed were masked and hand painted with an added wood grain texture. gbritnell

This was done from a reference picture I took at the local Saturday night car show. Usually you can't get a car by itself so when I saw this Chevy and all the reflections on it I took several shots hoping to get something to use for a picture. I cleaned up all the clutter and ended up with this. It's about 12x14 done on white Stonehenge paper with Prismacolor pencils. I have about 40 hours in it. gbritnell

Great looking build. Excellent engine detail. You don't see many of these Mustang II's built into anything, stock or otherwise. How does the resin body compare to the production kit? gbritnell

You gotta be kidding me right! That's the real bike not a model. Outstanding work. Excellent job on the exhaust and well everything. Love those Tamiya motorcycle kits. gbritnell

What a great set of fire and safety vehicles. The finish and detail is great. Who makes the fire truck model? gbritnell

Here's another one of my classics. I took a pair of Packards and added them to a picture of a bed and breakfast my brother-in-law owned in Georgia. I wanted to keep the feel of the cars and the background the same. This is another colored pencil work about 13x17 inches. gbritnell

Looks good so far. I like anything from that era being as I was racing at that time. You say you are using the Belair as a starting point. Is the roof off of a 63 Impala? gbritnell

I retired the first of July after 38 years as a metal patternmaker for the Ford Motor Company. I spent the final 12 years as a computer solid modeler and cutter path creator for our pattern shop. We made and maintained all the pattern and corebox equipment for the iron foundry in Cleveland, Ohio. gbritnell

Excellent build James. It's nice to see something different. What kind of engine did you use? gbritnell

Thanks guys for the nice comments. I'm an old timer (63) so I grew up in a time when most of the drag racing machines were made from stock cars, except the factory stuff, so cars like this and almost anything that you wanted to hop up from Chevys to Packards was fair game. I still enjoy drag racing but I have to admit I get tired of seeing Camaros or Chevelles in every class. gbritnell

Here's something a little different from my normal colored pencil work. This is an airbrush piece using Createx acrylic paints. Some of the detail work is picked out by hand with brush and acrylic. The finished size is about 14x20 inches. gbritnell

That's some outstanding work Jeff. What brand of brush and paints do you use? The last airbrush work I did on a bike was my buddy's Harley. Nothing fancy just his own idea for a tank logo. I use Createx Auto Air colors for that. gbritnell

Here's one of the Revell 1/48 pickup trucks done to today's standards. The original kit which was issued in the late 50's or early 60's was a basic kit to say the least, snap on wheels, no window glass and a pan type undercarriage. I still had the one that I built from that era but is was pretty crude. When they reissued it a number of years ago I bought a couple of them and figured I would do a build with some impovements. With this one I wanted to build a mean street machine. I started by cutting out the center of the wheels and building my own Cragars. I turned the plastic rod with a taper and then filed one side flat and glued them to the center section. Once the spokes were assembled I mounted them to a fixture to get each spoke the same length and then glued them to the wheel/tire. The rear tires/wheels were split in half and a piece was added to give some extra width. The wheels were finished with Alclad chrome. The front axle was dropped and new steering arms and tie rod were built. I threw out the stock rear axle and fabricated my own 9", copying the 1/25 piece from a NASCAR model. This is tied to the frame with a 4 link setup. A completely new dual exhaust was built along with the driveshaft. Now for an engine. The tiny representation of a 'Y' block had to go. What to build? How about a SOHC engine? Now you have to keep things in perspective. This engine is only a little larger than a dime. I took my son's large scale cammer engine and scaled it all down and built it from plastic stock. The round bits were turned on my lathe and the basic block was a glue up and then milled on my milling machine. I tried to get as much detail in it without going blind. Now on to the interior. I cut the bench seat in half and made 2 buckets. I added a console with gauges and shifter and although the dash is quite simple I added a radio and detail painted it some. For the body I built a new firewall and added to the inner fenders to get a nicer fit. I also crafted a wood buck to shape a piece of clear plastic for the windshield as the original kit never had windows. It's painted with Testors candy apple red with Testors silver for the fenders and bed cover. The trim and emblems were finished with BMF and then a little paint in the middle of the emblems. I am posting several pictures and the link to my Photobucket account so you can look at the complete build if you like. gbritnell http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v43/gbri...0Ford%20Pickup/

Thanks Harry, it's been quite awhile since we raced in 1962 and I can't say for sure whether we had taken them off or not. I know that the drive motor was removed. For the gas classes at that time the cars had to resemble a street type machine with the allowances that the NHRA mandated. I know when we made the front end into a one piece unit or at least it was all bolted together, hood and fenders, to resemble a one piece unit, the NHRA would stick a magnet on it to make sure that it wasn't fiberglass or else you needed a full rollbar. When I see my brother-in-law I'll have to ask him about the wipers. gbritnell

Hi Mike, originally it was a photo but it's been moved around so much and I reposted it from my Photobucket account so it's hard to say about the contrast on it. I have the original hanging on my wall right in front of me and the detail is great so I should probably take it down and reshoot it with my new camera and shooting setup that I made. gbritnell

Great work Harry. I'm afraid I've been away from my airbrush for so long I'd have to almost start over again. The only thing I use it for now is painting models. You certainly don't need 'the touch' for painting plastic models. gbritnell

Nice renderings Harry. They have the feel of brochure illustrations, sketchy but detailed. I'm sure you could still put some nice work on paper. I had been away from it for years and the only thing I got fuzzy on was the process not the mechanics. By that I mean, if I was doing an airbrush piece I would forget about what was the easiest way to pull and replace masks etc. or in watercolor what would happen with certain colors washed over others, if you get my meaning. You never forget perspective, ellipses or general proportioning. gbritnell

That's some very nice work Jeff. I'm sorry you've had such bad luck losing your work, especially twice. Were you ever compensated for it? I know that I have exhibited a couple of times and they always have the disclaimer about theft and damage but I would think if just one piece of art was taken something would sure be fishy. Anyway, what are you up to now? Are you still doing car art or just art in general? gbritnell

Gentlemen, here's another of my pencil works. I hope that the size isn't too big to display properly. I apparently have run out of room to post more pictures here, there must be a limit. If it comes out too big I'll resize my artwork before my next posting. This is posted from my Photobucket account. Anyway, it's of an Auburn Speedster. I took the picture at a car show and then went on line to find a picture of the aircraft that won the national air races that year. I made my composition using the car, the plane and an old style hanger from that era. The artwork is about 12x18 inches and is also done with colored pencil. gbritnell

Thanks Raul and Dennis, I can't remember what I paid for the decals but it was quite reasonable and the quality was very good. I'm including the link to his website so that you can contact him if you desire. gbritnell http://www.sparetimehobbies.com/

This is a model that I built to replicate the "D" gasser that my brother-in-law and I raced in the 60's. The kit is the AMT 49 Mercury. I one pieced the front end, built the solid front axle and ladder bars. It has the 302 engine out of the Revell 32 3 window coupe with wiring and Weber carbs. I scratched the headers from plastic round stock. I created the artwork for the decals in Corel draw and had Spare Time Hobbies out of Canada print them for me. The color is Boyd's pearl blue with Tamiya clear blue for the window tinting.

Hi Ray, thanks for the kind words. The 32 Ford is in a separate posting, I just replied to Mike's question on both of them here. Thanks Harry. It's nice to have a forum for car art. Other CP artists appreciate the work but car guys can really enjoy them. I'll have more in the coming weeks. George

Thanks everyone for looking and commenting. The 32 Ford is 16x13 inches and the Chrysler is 18x15 inches. Harry, you're right about the time element. For anyone who hasn't worked in colored pencil the time compared to say a watercolor or oil painting is 2 to 3 times as long. To get the full impact from the colors one needs to lay down successive layers of color. Being transparent, generally the more layers, the more intense the colors can become. I got hooked on colored pencils about 5 years ago and although I still do some work with an airbrush I find this medium to be very satisfying. gbritnell