Bernard Kron

Thanx again!!! Got some work done on the motor and wheels so I thought I'd put it up. The exciting thing about this build is all the cool parts I get to use. Including the hippest injectors ever made, the Scott Super Slot, courtesy of Altered States Models. Here are a couple of quick snaps. The Dragmasters are from Early Years Resin, the wheels from the old MPC Ramchargers FED kit, stripped and finished in Testors Acryl Jet Exhaust. The motor was likewise stripped of all chrome and finshed in various metalizers. Still lots of drilling and plumbing, touching up, clearcoating and polishing to do so this is a very rough mockup. Thanx for lookin', B.

Thanx! I got the basic paint down. Candy Red and Silver stripes, Duplicolor Metalcast Red Over Duplicolor Platinum Silver.

As I battle my way through building a belly tank lakester, most of which is requiring extensive scratch building, I find the need to do something a bit more basic and recreational. The blown fuelers of the mid 60’s were brutally simple devices so I thought I’d do one in as basic and uncomplicated a style as I could in the hopes a creating a little side project with maximum aesthetic bang for the buck, as it were. I’ve started with an AMT Too Much which shares it’s nearly 200 inch wheelbase chassis with the Digger ‘Cuda and the Tommy Ivo dragster. I used one of these chassis last year to build a Junior Fueler and found it to look a bit too long when running it without any front bodywork. So I thought I’d shorten the wheelbase on this one by removing two bays in its tubular frame. The result is an approximately 160 inch wheelbase, virtually identical to the Ramchargers dragster and typical of the transitional wheelbases of 1962-1965 as diggers gradually evolved to the ultra-long cars of the late 60’s into the end of the FED era around 1972. I’ve always felt that the 160-180 inch cars were the most beautifully proportioned, and often looked better without a nosepiece, the bare chassis giving them a superlight utilitarian character that’s irresistible. That’s the look I’m reaching for with this build. To respect the simple, recreational aspect of this project I’m using as much of the kit as possible. I’ve substituted an Altered States Models “shorty” body which I’ve made shortier by removing the side panels covering the engine bay. The kit blown 426 Hemi will be used but I’ll substitute a more interesting set of injectors. Other than that it should be pretty straight forward. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Came out very nice indeed. Superb fit and finish and very nice detailing. The body re-do came out super, as well. The color choices are especially effective. Do you have additional photos showing the car in full length? I know you had thought some about this chassis' very long wheelbase and it's effect on the overall look. The front 3/4 view seems to look OK, especially with the tall blown motor and coupe body. I know when I did a Jr. Fueler last year based on the same kit, I later felt I might have been better off shortening it a bit, at least with the bare chassis look I chose. But my body was very minimal and I didn't have the mass of the big blown Hemi since I was using a small injected mill instead. These end-of-era 200"+ FED cars seem to need a full body, at least to my eyes, so I'm curious to see the effect of the elements you used on the overall look.

Once again, Thank you! Small progress is being made on multiple fronts. I’ve gotten the motor started with the block painted Ford Engine Green. I’ve decided to go with Hilborn injection to keep the engine height down. I want to do this tanker with just the pure belly tank shape with no headrest. By 1952, the rough target date of this build, Hilborn injectors were being installed on a broad range of competition engines. As with just so much with this project, I’ve had to fabricate almost everything. I made a ribbed valley cover and fuel block from styrene strip shapes of various kinds and have begun mocking up the injectors. The stacks I’ve gotten, although the shortest I’ve been able to find at 7 scale inches, will need to be cut down to about half their height. They’re aftermarket pieces from Speed City Resin, very thin and beautifully made of silver plated copper. I’ve sent them an e-mail asking for any tips on how to accurately shorten them without butchering them – or, preferably, if they could cut me some shorter ones… The other area I got done was to cut the cockpit opening into the upper half of the shell and fabricate some trim for the edges of the opening. I managed to do it without butchering the body by making a template and then carefully cutting out the main hole, then covering it over with a similar shape, although slightly larger, in .010 styrene sheet, and then removing the material in the opening itself, leaving the trim piece behind. Here are a couple of pictures. Thanx for lookin’, B. ]

Well, that's a lotta links!!! I'm familiiar with with a few of them but some are new to me. Many of the scale model tankers you link to are based on the old California Model Works resin kit you have pictures of, and which is no longer available. Also you have pics of some of the pretty little tankers someone at last year's NNL West was showing, most of which were missing a chassis but which were beautifully done none the less. My favorite perimeter style frame of the ones you linked to is this one: I got the body cut out and fitted today. Unfortunately the plastic in the lower half of the body has gotten very brittle over the past three years and fractured badly in several places. Happpily the body is relatively inexpensive and Early Years gives excellent service so I have gone ahead and ordered a replacement. In the meantime I am using this one to gain experience cutting and fitting a vacuum formed styrene body and it will be short work to make a duplicate once its replacement arrives. In the meantime here are pics of the real deal, no Photoshop this time, at least in terms of of faking the actual body. I did do a couple of colored body versions with a mocked up cockpit opening to get an idea of the final look. I’m working on a yellow and black color scheme. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks again! Thanx Jairus. I had seen this car but not quite so many pictures. The shift linkage detail is particularly useful. Go ahead! The wheels and tires have been selected. They’re the LSR Big ‘n’ Littles from Early Years Resin with they’re smaller moon discs. Here are some pictures showing the resulting stance, including a Photoshopped mockup of the completed body shell. Thanx for lookin’. B.

I’ve gotten the basic work done on the engine and suspension mountings. Below are pictures of the preliminary mockup. The motor is a Revell ’40 Ford block with resin heads I got a few years back. I will have to trim some material off the back end of the transmission in order to make room for an angle-mount magneto on the front of the block. The fit is very tight! The good news is that Ardun heads came with 3 water outlets on each head, one on the front, a center ne and a rear one. You chose which you wanted to use and blocked the other two. I plan to put the water overflow tank behind the motor using the rear outlets. The front axle and spring are AMT ’29 Ford with the spring relocated behind the axle. Once I determine the wheels and tires I may have to raise the axle height (lower it relative to the suicide bracket) to dial in the stance. The pretty track-style quick change is a cast metal piece from Herb Deeks. The axle tubes are 1/8” aluminum tubes. The axle assembly is held in place by side plates welded to the main chassis tubes. I’m looking forward to getting some wheels and tires picked out and mounted to see this chassis up on its wheels. I’ve accumulated several options to try on, keeping in mind that I must reserve some of them for the other two tankers. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanx everyone. I just started on the suspension and motor and I can tell you that this promises to be a real challenge, of that I have no doubt. Curt's SoCal replica only impresses me all the more as I slug my way through imagineering this one. Despite the fact that this is the slightly overscale version of the Early Years bodies it's still pretty cramped, and, of course, absolutely nothing was ever designed specifcally for these things, in either world, 1:1 or scale... Thanks so much, Bill. You nailed the spirit of these things, pure race machines, one off engineering improvisations. Incredible! I found this great web page which reproduces a terrific article about the Beatty belly tank from the 1952 edition of Fawcett Publications "How To Build Hot Rods". ( http://www.bellytanks.com/?p=283 ) . Notice the byline is Tom Beatty himself! The thing I found interesting was the impression I had that I had patterned my space frame after the Beatty ,tanker. But nothing could be further from the truth. If you look at the Beatty car you'll see that he built a space frame that extends above the lower half of the tank body and that all the front-to-rear structural members are straight: My "design" owes as much to Bill Burke, the "father of the belly tank lakester", who's cars used a simple perimeter frame that conformed to the upper edge of the lower half of the belly tank shell, and no small dose of inspiration from the great British space frame designers like Colin Chapman (more than a little Lotus 18 in my frame, I'd say...), Frank Nichols (Elva) and Eric Broadley (Lola). But when one appreciates the fact that the Tom Beatty tanker dates from 1950-51, his design is especially extraordinary. The other thing to notice is that Beatty's car has rear suspension, whereas the Burke cars all had the rear axle welded solid to the frame members (BTW, prior to the recent revival of interest in belly tank lakesters and the advent of modern reproduction bodies, it was estimated that no more than about 50 of these cars were ever built and that the majority of them were either built or designed by Bill Burke.) Anyway, this build may not be exactly a walk in the park, but it sure will be fun! Thanx for following along, B.

Lovely, lovely stance and proportions right from the git go, which you obviously wanted to conserve as evidenced by the strategy you chose to construct the rear of the frame (an approach I promise I will steal at some point in the future... ). I hope we'll see more on this one.

These are extraordinarily good looking, sophisticated, contemporary machines, with a no-holds-barred approach to design and engineering lacking in quite a few supposedly "superior" racing series. Love the chassis work and design drawings. Can't wait to see more!!!

I’ve shown these before so apologies in advance. The AMT Double Dragster kit is a venerable classic with a very high level of detail and an accurate representation of early 60’s ¼ miler technology. The recent Round 2 re-issue was first released in the limited edition tin box and then in a cardboard box version. The two releases are largely the same with the important difference that the Tin Box comes with extra wheels, colored glass options, and a second copy of the chrome tree that contains the Chevy V8 blowers, injectors (both types) and exhausts, 12-spoke front wheels, front suspension, quick change, dragster rear wheels, etc. This is a significant uograde, IMHO, and makes the Tin Box well worth the extra cost. Both kits benefit from an excellent crefurbishing of the molds which make the kit largely crisp and flash free. The extra parts allowed me to come up with a strategy to get 4 builds out of the Tin Box and take advantage of the extra dragster chassis rails to build a second digger as well as a second altered. For me the importance of this kit is in its excellent period detail and well-engineered construction quality and not its nostalgia for a kit that I might have built back in the day (although its potential in this regard is enormous). Here’s the family picture of all four builds: Here’s the breakdown on the four builds: Tin Box #1 – AMT Parts Pack ‘25T Altered featuring the Altered chassis from the Tin Box and body and Pontiac motor from the AMT Competition Parts Pack. Tin Box # 2 – Fiat Altered featuring the wheels, tires, roll cage, interior bits, Chrysler motor and Fiat body from the Tin Box with a scratch-built chassis. Tin Box #3 – Side by Side Twin Engined Dragster – Almost entirely from the Tin Box with top mounted blowers. Tin Box #4 – ’32 Bantam Competition Coupe with Tin Box chassis, aftermarket resin body, and hemi from my parts box.

Thanx everyone. This should be fun! The only part that really scares me at this point is cutting up the body shell. I keep repeating to myself: "measure twice and cut once, measure twice and cut once, measure twice and cut once, measure twice and cut once..." I think I'll tackle the motor and suspension next, since that's pretty familiar territory. I think getting to the point where it actually looks like a lakester has got to be quite a buzz. Imagining it is what's got me back on this - that and the experience I've gained in the ensuing years building increasingly scratch built models. Thanx Drew! Yeah, Evergreen rod and tubing: 9/32" tubing for the main rails and braces and .060 rod for the diagonals. The 9/32 tubing was used because it was what I had around in quantity. The frame was largely built by trial and error so I knew I would go through quite a bit of it. If I had to do it over I would use .080 rod for the main tubes because I think it would scale a little better and the solid rod holds up to the MEK I used a little better than the tubing. On the other hand tubing is easier to fish mouth. BTW, I'm also going to be starting a front engined dragster project based on your terrific article on modifying the Ivo/TooMuch/Digger 'Cuda chassis. Thanks for that!

In the spring of 2009 I started a belly tank project. At that time I had only resumed modeling for about a year. To say I was in over my head would have been an understatement. Modeling belly tank lakester is not for the faint of heart. The only kit available at the time was $100.00, all resin, and rather fragile and fiddly. Otherwise, Early Years Resin had just announced their first vacuum formed body shell and the rest was up to you. Well, I ordered the Early Years tanker. A nice clean piece but with zero experience with vacuum formed bodies the whole thing seemed a bit daunting. The fact that it was somewhat oversized provided my with the perfect excuse to keep looking. Next up was a 1/24th scale P-47 tank in styrene I scored from an airplane modeler at my LHS. Now, most lakes belly tankers used P-38 tanks which are larger than P-47 tanks. When confronted with the styrene piece I realized I had gone from a little larger to too small! At this point I set the project aside… Now, 3 years on, I’ve picked it up again. In the meantime Early Years has released an accurately scaled P-38 tank, complete with an array of headrests, Steve Kohler at Star Models released a full kit based on his own version of a vacuum formed P-38, and I have quite a few scratch built chassis under my belt. I’ve decided to eventually build 3 tankers based on the 3 different bodies: the larger Early Years body, the scale-accurate P-38 tank from Early Years (a copy of which I have obtained), and the little styrene P-47 tank I’ve got. The plan is to do the larger body with an Ardun headed Ford V8, the to-scale tank with a full-house flathead, and the little guy with a V8-60 from the recent Revell Edelbrock midget. First up is the larger body from Early Years. About a year ago I had marked out the lower body half into sections for the front suspension, cockpit, engine compartment, and rear end. So yesterday in a frenzy of styrene madness I put together a tubular space frame inspired by the remarkable Tom Beatty belly tank. Here’s the result: Here it is laid into the lower half of the Early Years vacuum formed body: Here's hoping I don't put this one aside for another 3 years!!! Thanks for lookin', B.

Nicely done. I especially like the stance and the under hood detail.

Thank you, everyone! Having just come off a couple of shiny Kandy and Krome hot rods, I had originally intended to build this one as the kind of drag car you often saw at the car shows during that time; the slightly out of date diggers, altereds, competition coupes and gassers that had been retired to the show circuit with plenty of shiny new paint and bright plating to spice them up. Perhaps the most extreme example of this trend was George Barris' notorious re-do of the Chrisman Bros. '30 Ford Coupe, the "Dobie Gillis" XMSC 210 (see pictures below). But as I progressed with the build I got into the race car side of things. If I achieved any degree of realism with this model I think it may be because it straddles the line between slick and shiny and rat rod rust and dust, but the effect is somewhat accidental. The Lime Gold and White paint scheme,for example, is a hold-over from the first stages of this build. The turning point came with the choice of rear wheels, finishing them in Burnt Metal Metalizer, and, as a result, dumping the shiny chrome front wire wheels to go for the 12-spokes. Then, when I buried the showy paint job in trade decals, I knew I was committed. I even tried to remove the Drag News stickers because I thought I had pushed it too far, but they wouldn't come off. Now I think it looks OK... Drag car modelers are among the most technically demanding out there, the result of their emphasis on both historical correctness and highly detailed builds. While both correctness and detail interest me, I come from a somewhat different orientation. For one thing, I'm not inclined to build historical replicas, and I still have a great deal of progress to make on the technical side, so for the time being super-detailing isn’t part of the “message” of my builds. But I try my best to capture the spirit of the subject matter, while remaining faithful to the period details wherever possible so as not to “break the spell”. As a result, it’s especially satisfying to me if I can make a connection to others with the “look and feel” of my models. Thanx again for all the kind words, B. The Barris XMSC 210: The Chrisman Coupe in its original form:

Early Years Resin's Stromberg 97's are pretty nice, too. Here's a build up using them with home-made stacks: Among the nicest stacks are the curved stacks from Replicas & Miniatures (Part No. FH-40): but ThePartsBox.com make really nice short and long varieties as well: Here are the short stacks on their Nailhead:

I was looking forward to the completion on this one since I knew it was right in your sweet spot and would totally rock - which it most definitely has!!!! I'm diggin' all the technical questions in the responses. It's clear that it's not just a cliché when we say you are an inspiration to many of us, it's the real world truth. Keep on pushin' us, John...

Thanx a lot, guys! The beauty pics are over in the Under Glass section here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=62079&hl=. Meanwhile, here's a teaser:

Early 60’s digger based on a Dragmaster Mk. IV chassis This is an early 60’s dragster based on the Dragmaster Mk. IV chassis in the Revell Mickey Thompson Attempt I kit. The Attempt I was a fully enclosed streamliner designed to capture small displacement acceleration records in to two different classes using a couple of blown 4-cylinder Pontiac Tempest motors, which Pontiac had essentially made by taking their V-8 and cutting it in half. For this project I omitted the outer body, wheels, front axle and motor(s) from the kit. The inner body was cut down slightly and a front axle from the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit substituted – the Attempt I had a narrow front axle to keep the frontal area of the streamliner to a minimum. I removed the front roll bar hoop from the dual hoop setup that was a Dragmaster option. Most racers ran a single hoop. The Attempt I kit is from the high-detail era of the early 60’s from Revell, a period with a reputation for fiddly, ill-fitting parts. This was definitely not the case for this kit and I recommend it highly for this sort of build, especially considering what Mooneyes Parts Pacs are trading for on eBay. The blown Pontiac V8 is from a Revell Parts Pac with a Hilborn scoop courtesy of Altered States Models who also supplied the highly detailed Hilborn fuel pump. The headers are from a Revell Chevy V8 Parts Pac. The Halibrand 5-window mags and front 12-spokes are resin pieces from the infamous gregory23sc on e-bay, who did beautiful work until he stole everyone’s money and disappeared into the night… The very nice M&H pie-cut slicks are from Ma’s resin and the front tires are the little Pirellis that come in the Revell ’31 Ford Sedan “rat-rod” kit. Paint is Testors Lime Gold Metallic enamel and Duplicolor Wimbledon White with most metal surfaces finished in various shades of Testors Metalizers. The Dragmaster Logos on the cowl are homemade decals. It was great fun attempting to capture the look and feel of this era of drag racing history. Dragmaster offered the Mk. IV as a turnkey dragster kit and sold a ton of them all over the US and Canada which is one reason this design is so iconic of the period even today. The w.i.p. for this project can be found here: http://www.modelcars...showtopic=61756 Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanx! This project is finished. Time for a formal photo shoot. I thought I’d take a moment to wrap up with some final details, build notes and comments on the Dragmaster IV and its role in the evolution of the dragster. The Dragmaster IV is the best known of the designs out of the Dragmaster shop owned and operated by Dode Martin and Jim Nelson. The best known of the Dragmaster IV cars is no doubt the Mooneyes dragster, but the most successful was probably Pete Robinson’s ultra-lightweight giant killer which won the 1961 Nationals. The Pete Robinson car: The Mooneyes dragster One reason the Dragmaster IV was ubiquitous in the early 60’s is you could actually order a complete race car from them in kit form! Eventually the Dragmaster IV would be eclipsed by the radically .simplified lightweight designs of builders like Kent Fuller and Don Long. The Dragmaster IV was clearly influenced by the Kurtis Kraft school of parallel tube frame design as seen in the Indy cars of the 50’s and early 60’s, right down to the dual torsion bar front suspension. It’s also unusual in not using split wishbones or hairpins to locate the front axle. Instead they used a single v-shaped wishbone mounted to the center of an x-brace. The Mickey Thompson Attempt I used a narrow front axle to help keep the frontal area down on the streamliner body. In converting the Attempt I to a full-on big-engined dragster I switched the narrow kit axle to a wider one from a Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit. This necessitated fabricating a wider wishbone: Dragmaster eventually produced a more modern frame design, the Dragmaster Dart, with tapered frame rails, while still retaining the signature Dragmaster roll cage design Here’s a picture of Dode Martin and Jim Nelson with a Dart car in 1962. And finally, here are a couple of .photos of the interior showing some of the details of my build: Next stop, Under Glass! Thanx for lookin’, B.

I've cooked all my life. My mother taught me to cook when I was away at school. It was a matter of survival. Cafeteria food was expensive and horrible and she was a great cook so I asked her to show me the ropes... Too many things are my faves, depending on my mood. I .cook everything from American style (gotta go for home made ice cream, a properly cooked barbecued steak or chicken, apple pie, you get the picture) to Asian (oriental eggplant stir fried in spicy pork sauce and kung pao chicken are staples in our household). I make my own chile verde and chile rojo, for home made pork enchiladas. My mom was French so I know that style too and make homemade soups and stews in the winter time (onion soup, fresh vegetable soup, coq au vin, etc.). I'll eat just about anything in any style. There's virtually no pre-packaged food in our household, but it's not because we're health food types, it's just because it's cheaper and tastes better is all. For some reason the only pics I have on-line are a couple of Italian dishes: Home made pizza - fresh heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil (ihe basil was Thai basil which tastes pretty much like the green stuff but is purple instead): And a shot in the kitchen "on the line" with an Italian classic in the course of preparation - Osso Buco (veal shanks stewed in red wine and herbs) and Risotto (an Italian variety of rice - kind of nutty tasting cooked in beef stock): Don't get me started about food and cooking. I'm as hung-up on it as I am on model cars...

Thanx! I got a few small jobs out of the way today. The headers from the Revell Chevy Parts Pac are installed. I made the art for the Dragmaster Logo decals which will go on the cowl panel with the “Dragmaster” word running along the lower edge of the white stripe on each side. As you will see, I eliminated the red and gold colored bands and filled the white areas in the cartoon character with a tan color. This is so that the decal will not look too busy and so that the figure will read on the clear decal. I can’t print white on my inkjet printer. Lastly, I changed my mind regarding the wire front wheels. As I progressed on this project it got funkier and less shiny, more like the period diggers I modeling, so I switched to 12-spoke Halibrands for a more rough and ready period look. I’ll also tone down the chrome on the headers with some washes during final assembly. Thanx for lookin’, B. Original Dragmaster Logo: Modified Dragmaster Logo

Thanx everyone! The motor is completed and ready to drop between the rails. As mentioned it’s a Revell Parts Pac 421 Pontiac. The Hilborn scoop and detailed Hilborn fuel pump are courtesy of Altered States Models ( http://www.alteredstatesmodels.com/ ), the pre-wired magneto a resin piece from Morgan Automotive Detail ( M.A.D. - http://www.madmodeling.com/store/ ), the in-out box is from a Revell Parts Pac Cadillac motor, the clutch can from the Attempt I kit, and the belt tensioner and fuel distribution block were scratch built. The block and heads are finished in GM engine blue and most everything else was stripped of chrome and finished in various shades of Testors Metalizers. The headers will come from a Revell Parts Pac Chevy. Next steps, engine installation, suspension details, wheel mounting, decals and body installation. I’m going to attempt to keep all the body panels removable to show off the cool chassis. Shouldn’t be too long to completion… Thanx for lookin’, B.