OldNYJim

Checked out the local comic book store this week, because I saw online they they carried supplies for miniatures - those Warhammer type tabletop games. They had some interesting stuff that I picked up to play with…some interesting acrylic paints that I hadn’t tried before, some materials that will be useful for diorama type projects plus some interesting tools…I grabbed this weighted handle, which is spring loaded to allow you to hold a small whatever-you’re-working-on for painting and detailing.

You’re doing a great job on this build - nice work!

Thank you @BK9300 - I enjoy your work too! A little more this weekend… Got the bodywork mostly finished I think…needed a little filler on the nose to blend it all together but it was pretty painless for the most part: Took a couple of rounds to get it as straight as I’d like, but I think it’s close now… When I get to the paint I’m going with basically that design I showed in my last post…fluorescent pink scallops over a gunmetal pearl. I was gonna go subtle with the frame and running gear…and then this happened: The pink is bright enough it messes with my camera…I love it! Not your typical traditional hot rod color… Painted a bunch of chrome today too: Just Molotow chrome over Army Painter black base, nothing too complex… And I made a start on shooting the wooden bed floor - I picked up some figure painting paints, and they have a bunch of interesting tan and wood colors that are useful, and their paint airbrushes like a dream: Once this has dried overnight I’ll mask every other slat, add some grain and then remask, add a very slightly different color to the remaining wood and then grain those too. And that’s it for another weekend - thanks for looking!

Not ON the road…but in the back corner of the parking lot of a store we went to today…plus a Falcon in the same lot, and a coupla cool trucks that I’d be happy to take home:

…and cheaper! 😂. I’m envious though, I’d drive one of these for sure! Those look great! Nice work! Yeah, that kind of look! Thanks for sharing! No big updates to report…it’s primer-hell-week this week. Prep, prime, sand, prime…but I’ll have a bunch of fun stuff to paint at the weekend. Got the frame smoothed out ready for primer and color: And smoothed out the body also - adding some separate wipers, plus some printed door handles too so that stuff had to go: I’m excited to get the body in paint…been figuring out some paint mask designs: Now, mine won’t run a hood, so ignore the fact that the hood looks pretty bare and uninteresting in that bottom pic there…that’ll be full of shiny engine and blowers and whatnot. Excited to get to where I can start paint on this, soon as I’ve finished getting the body and bed straight. Thanks for looking, and for the nice comments!

That’s actually what I started with - left it overnight, in fact, but had a couple of spots that didn’t wanna go. You’re braver than me… Good tip, thank you! So, I got stuck on a couple of dumb little issues that it took me a straight week to resolve to my satisfaction. One was front shocks, but I figured those out, and the second was the headers. I really had in mind, some simple flowing Lakes headers in that engine bay with angles complimenting the natural lines of the tinwork around them and the lines of the truck when viewed from above. Problem is, of course, that they’re pointing right at the firewall if they were ACTUALLY lakes headers, plus the wider heads on this flathead made it tough (impossible) for any of the styrene ones I had in my stash to actually fit. I tried a bunch of more conventional block-hugging designs, tried a 4-into-1, tried a bunch of stuff that didn’t look as clean as I wanted…so eventually this weekend I took some photos of the truck from the top down and designed some that did exactly what I wanted: It’s actually nothing crazy…I just couldn’t find exactly what I was trying to find with them following those inner fenders and kinda disappearing mysteriously under the firewall. Of course, you wouldn’t want them ACTUALLY running into the firewall, so the underside is straight pipes hidden from normal view: I think I want want those pipes to end with some fish-mouths like you see on a lot of motorcycle pipes, but I’ve never seen those on styrene…leads anyone? Anyway, that was a stupid design problem to get hung-up on for a week but I’ve made a career of exactly that so I guess it won’t be the last time… Next up, was the steering wheel. I found this in my parts stash, and the design (there’s that word again) ties in PERFECTLY with something I’ll be doing later…you’ll have to bear with me on that, but I was excited to find this wheel anyway. I wonder what it’s from? The rest of the kit interior is pretty basic…in fact this is pretty much basically everything else there is to it, from the kit: Made some door cards with printed handles (that reversed door handle is another intentional feature that will make sense later), switched out the plain-Jane bench seat for a couple of AMT buckets from something else, resin cast a Moon pedal and a skull shift-knob, and carved a shifter boot. Will probably hide the kit-supplied fire extinguisher in there also: Speaking of kit-supplied geegaws, I wanted to include the tools that come in the kit with this build, so I dug out a spare toolbox from the 34 Ford truck kits, and also replaced the bed floor with something that would be easier to paint: And I’m almost done with the fab now, at least enough to start prepping the body for paint. Before I start that work though, took some templates so I can make paint masks this week: And then blew the whole thing apart so I can start getting some major components prepped for primer…the frame was particularly bad with the sink-marks but a little de-caff Bondo will level it off the sixty-fourth that I need to make it nice: Thanks for looking all…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Huh? 🤔

I stopped trusting that guy when he said bad things about Miatas * suspicious face emoji *

Looks like it’s coming together well…this one has been on my to-get list for a while!

I’ll be getting one I I wonder if they’ll have the smart idea of chroming the body right out of the box?

Beautifully put!

Good eye! A few people on my Instagram said the same thing - thanks for the confirmation! Yep, you’re 100% right…I did some pretty lengthy research on the Ford Trucks forum…seems the consensus is that the BEST way to lower is the ways you said - I guess a 57 year truck axle has more drop than the earlier years plus some aftermarket springs make it easier too (or, less desirably, remove some leafs…) My goal for this build was something maybe in the early to mid sixties era of hot rodding - I THINK all the parts I’ve used so far (besides that rad) would have been available in this time frame and I’d bet more than a few people tried this technique on their 1:1s. I think steering geometry would be the toughest hurdle to cross, plus maybe notching the frame if this were a 1:1. Mine has about 1.5 scale inches of travel right now so I’ll probably grind a notch in there just to add a little extra feasibility. Thanks for the feedback!! A little bit of progress today…had to print the headers for my Flathead so that I can figure out engine placement, but in the meantime… Ran to Michael’s AND Hobby Lobby for mold release spray so I could pour the second half of my tire mold: Hobby Lobby was $5 cheaper for the same spray, in case you’re wondering…we’ll see if I messed up this mold tomorrow - I never did a 2 part one before… While my mold’s curing and my printer’s printing, decided to tackle the front grille. Stripped the chrome (besides one stubborn spot that even oven cleaner wouldn’t remove) and cleaned up the obvious flaws: Then had a chance to use my new reciprocating sander… …to open it up: Nothing too complex about it…just sanded until it was see thru 😂 Quick mock-up: I did play with the kit front bumpers (there’s a drilled option and a stock variation) but wasn’t wild about either. You’ve got to figure that if someone in the early-ish 60s was hot rodding one of these they might just lose the heavy old bumpers and save the weight, but I’m still thinking on if I could do SOMETHING there maybe. Ive got a bunch of old late-50s and early-60s hot rod mags here; but it seems like if most people were customizing a Ford truck back then they were going more custom than hot rod so I may have to figure it out myself… Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Thanks fellas! Me too - need to pick up some mold-release to stop the second ‘pour’ sticking to the first one… Meanwhile, a little progress at least… Modified that Revell 9” axle rear axle and started building some leaf springs and shackles: Mounts in the same spot, just lower…for the front end I flipped the front axle to be on top of the springs rather than below it and that seems like it will work pretty well (and is a trick used on 1:1s): Here’s the stance with the axles in place - I think it would be fairly feasible for a 1:1 build to have it sit like this without major frame or suspension mods: I wanted to switch out the molded-in rad for a separate piece - I have probably 20 of these puke-green ones that I got for a buck at a model show…not 100% certain what they’re from… But whatever it is, it fits in the space for a stock F100 rad just perfect: And, as you can see from that pic, I started mocking up the printed Flathead and seeing how it fits…this is an Arden conversion with a SCoT blower up top - nicely detailed files! I’m still very much in the ‘roughing-in’ stage but the list is getting shorter…tomorrow I’ll figure out filling that hole in the front clip, plus I need to work out what I’m thinking for the interior and figure out headers and exhaust. Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Agreed - and it looks surprisingly well done! Thanks for the heads-up on this!

Huh, I never saw a kit of one of these before! Cool! Is there any detail on the underside at all? Or just a flat plate?