Bernard Kron

I think the evidence for what is intended by the organizers of the model show lies in the title of the theme they've chosen, "flatheads & inlines", referring, of course, to the period of popular hot rod engines which preceded the dominance of the mass produced OHV V-8 (i.e. the emergence of Cadillac, then Olds, Buick, small-block Chevy, the various Chrysler Corp. Hemis, etc.). The Chevy 6 cylinder inliner that's contemporary with the Ford flathead (which is what they are no doubt referring to in their title) was an OHV design, one reason for its brief popularity in that postwar period. So I guess that puts me in the camp that the Ardun, as rare and expensive as it was, is still a legitimate period hop-up part from the "flatheads & inliners" era...

Very nice indeed. Amazing how all the Revell Deuce stuff just slips right into place and looks like it came with the kit. I agree, the Phantom Vicky looks so much better as a full fendered classic rod. Excellent clean work really got the job done... :lol:

I haven't built a drag racing car in nearly a year. I've been building nothing but customs and hot rods since last summer. I certainly have missed them! This is actually the third in a series of builds from the AMT Racing Team Special Edition "tin box" double dragster kit. I'm shooting for 4 cars out of a single kit. So far I've built two altereds and this is the first rail. It's pretty straightforward, just the side-by-side small block Chevies but with top mounted blowers. The blowers and injectors are from the AMT '53 Studebaker kit with styrene rings added to the injector stacks for a little more accuracy. The chain drives are from Competition Resins. I scratch built some blower manifolds. These AMT kits kind of build themselves and I'm not departing much from out-of-the-box so it should be a pretty laid back project. I'm waiting for some resin Hilborn injector pumps and mailbox scoops from Altered States before I detail the top side of the motors, but otherwise this should go pretty quickly. Thanx for lookin', B.

Wow! Lotsa cool rides have been posted since I first showed mine 15 months ago (Yikes!). Since then I built four more Deuces (Yikes again!). Here they are: Hi-Boy Roadster Late-80's Barry Lobeck Style Chopped & Channeled Lo-Boy Sedan Channeled Bellypan Roadster Chopped & Channeled 5-Window Lo-Boy

A fine one in the characteristic Cranky style. I really dig the detail colors you chose for the engine and firewall area and the chrome chassis is a nice showy touch. Your interiors are often passed over because of the impact of the exterior paint jobs but I like that one, too. So here's a question: With all the nice inside stuff goin' on, were you able to build the model so you can take it apart to show it off, or did you grab that last pic before final assembly? BTW, I think in general the current trend of oversize wheels and rubber band tires have a real problem, esthetically. Over the years we seem to have painted ourselves into some sort of corner. When contemporary car designers do sketches and renderings they inevitably do them with those skinny tires and huge open-spoked wheels. They proportion the wheel openings and body proportions accordingly. More and more, as those sketches are translated into sheet metal, the final product assumes those larger wheels. Unfortunately the older bodywork was designed before this trend and often those wheels and tires just look goofy on them. I understand the intent of the statement they make, but it's a delicate line in choosing the right proportions to have contemporary looking wheels and tires that look right on an Old School body. In general I've noticed that around 19" or so in the wheel department is just about all these designs can stand. And extreme lowering helps a lot by burying them under the fenders. Anyway, thanx for another cool lookin' build...

It's from this kit: Here's the full page: It's one of my grails, for sure! Special thanx to Bob Black and his awesome DPMCC Instructions archive. Go here and enjoy: http://www.thedpmcc.com/instructionsintro.html

Now that's modeling! Kudos to Norm at RepMin for providing the raw materials to create at this level (and to you and Craig Stansfield and all the other talented folks who make the masters). Now I'll just kick back for a while and gives this build the close examination it so richly deserves.

Maximum creativity, for sure. Can't wait to see how the body forms evolve. Just a brilliant concept all around! Ain't modeling fun since it allows us to explore our ideas in scaled down time and $$$$'s as well as size. 2 cool! :D Can't wait to see more, more, more...

Thanx to all of you for the exceedingly kind words. This turned out to be more work than I thought. I tried to keep it loose and fun but, boy, it sure had a lot of scratch building! When I listed out the parts I was surprised... But for sure I'll be exploring the lo-boy style in the future. I've always had big respect for the modelers who work in this idiom. It puts heavy demands not only on technique but on creativity as well...

Wonderful replica. Truly captures the spirit of the 1:1. Bravo! Under the heading of "closing the barn door after the horse has bolted", those decals came out beautifully so maybe you should have ordered up some stripes while you were at it! No matter, the build looks really fine.

Now that is cool! I'll just kick back for a while and dig all neat little details. It must have been a lot of fun to build. Thanx for sharing!

Thanx guys! Curt, I think I'll pass on the fenders. I notice Charles Kraft didn't give them a whole lot of effort, he didn't even match the body color. The car must have weighed more than 1500 lbs. Anyway, she's all done and Under Glass here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=43302 Thanx for lookin', B.

Radically lowered chopped '32 Ford 5-window with Nailhead power (More pictures below) I'm a chronic purchaser of aftermarket parts, often buying bits I have no immediate use for if they look cool. One of my favorite suppliers is ThePartsBox.com in Australia. I live in the USA but they give excellent service and getting stuff from them is quick and easy thanks to an excellent website. Among my parts stash from them was a very extreme looking chopped AMT Deuce 5-window resin shell which just called out to be slammed as low as possible in the current "Contemporary Traditional" style. Here's the lowdown on the completed build. The WIP can be found here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42129&pid=454652&st=0&#entry454652 Parts used from ThePartsBox.Com: Body shell Complete Buick Nailhead motor including limefire headers (Header turnout tips by Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland) I-beam "wild drop" front axle (p/n 2298) Hot Rod Big 'n' Little whitewall tires (p/n 1070) Steering wheel and column (p/n 2169) Other parts used: Wheels from Revell/Monogram '37 Ford Panel Delivery (vent holes drilled out) with V8 hubcaps from AMT '34 Ford Rear suspension, grill shell, dashboard, tie rods & taillights from Revell '32 Ford kits Scratchbuilt chassis, front spring, steering and interior. Paint: Duplicolor Cayenne Red Metallic over Duplicolor Gold cleared with Testors DullCote polished to a satin finish. Motor painted Gold with various Testors Metalizer finishes. Thanx for lookin', B.

As always, the positive vibes are appreciated! This project is about done. Just some minor cleanup and detailing and she’ll be ready for some “beauty shots†I thought I would post some front suspension details. As you can see, it’s right hand drive in tribute to it’s Aussie origins. And finally, this is the Charles Kraft Deuce 3-window. It was featured in the May, 1958 Rod & Custom. The first picture is from the 50’s Years of Rod & Custom book, and it’s this image that was burned into my brain a while back and inspired this build. Next stop, Under Glass! Thanx for lookin’, B.

I totally agree, and getting the "droop" right still constitutes the biggest challenge I have when wiring an engine. I know I'm guilty of more than one "spider" myself!

IMHO, gauge and texture matter most, color less so, depending on the goal of the build you're doing. Wires that are too thin or too fat bug me when I look at a model, and the texture of sewing thread was always its weak spot. As to color, period specific builds or full-on replicas demand the right color and gauge, but beyond that what matters is more along the lines of attractive color coordination with respect to the overall look you're trying to achieve. Are you going for eye-popping detailing and aggressive color combos or are you going for a more subdued look of "realism"? Choose your wire accordingly. But I have to admit that an awful lot of the time for me it's down to what's in the parts box...

Nice fabrication work. I'm enjoying the detail your providing to us in this WIP. Thanx! A question: the driveshaft safety loop is very nicely done and something to remember for future use, but if you were to go about fully covering the driveshaft how would you recommend doing it?

Beyond cool, Alyn! Is scratch building something that's addictive once you get started? Could be... You know you're in trouble when you stare at a kit seat and a complete build emerges. This is tremendous. Incredible charm and spirit. It really captures the essence of a go-kart. Is this my fave of what you've shown so far? Could be...

The pictures are plenty BIG if you click on them, and then the skill you've shown in building this beautiful model is more than obvious. Bravo! It's superb. I agree with Jim, a photo server account so you can share with us more detail on how you achieved this would be fascinating. Paper modeling has always been a mystery to this die-hard plastic kit modeler! BTW, welcome to the forum!

Parts Packs were always relatively expensive. If the parts weren't unique to the Parts Pack it was relatively easy to justify buying the kit that contained them. But they were very cool. Today the resin aftermarket handles the Parts Pack side of things, although resin, compared to styrene, has its limitations from a structural point of view. And e-Bay and model car shows handle the "discontinued kits that contain parts you'd kill for" side of things fairly well for those that know which kits contain what. All in all, Parts Packs were always a seductive but expensive option with limited sales appeal. I do miss 'em, though... P.S., that web page is super cool. Sounds like a project that could be expanded to include instructions and comments on the contents. Thanx for posting it!

Thanx for a great overview. It's good to step back and remind oneself of our invaluable friends in the glue world. It's sometimes too easy to take them for granted. I agree that thin liquid styrene cement is the way to go for all styrene to styrene work, although I still use tube cement when I need a little tack to my glue to help in parts alignment. And of course, A Little Goes A Long Way should be a religion for all modelers IMHO! But nowadays I live in a CA-free world , having developed a serious allergy to super glues (cyanoacrylate) after a couple of years exposure to the stuff. It's not talked about much, but I know it's happened to other modelers, too. It's one reason not to concentrate on any one type of glue too much, especially the high tech stuff. Those vapors can be nasty! I've had to really adjust to the change because I use a lot of non-styrene and dissimilar materials. So here are some comments from that perspective. I recently discovered 1 minute epoxy (or resin as you refer to it in the video). Very much like the 5 minute stuff but obviously it sets up in about a minute. As a result it handles very much like CA gel, with about the same consistency and quickness of bonding. The bond is much stronger than CA, too. Highly recommended. I have yet to find a substitute for thin CA, however. Another excellent substitute for CA for certain types of applications is contact cement. It can be purchased at most hardware and home supply stores. With contact cement, the rule is the thinner the better. Avoid the thick stuff (such as Whalter's Goo sold in railroad model shops). The thick stuff is stringy, drippy and slow to cure. Like all glues, it should be used sparingly with the mating surfaces kept clean. I use it just as you might use rubber cement. The cool thing about it is that you can apply it to the mating surfaces, let it dry for about a minute, and then put the parts together for an almost instantaneous bond with absolutely no drips or smears. Works great on flat surfaces like interior buckets, contact points between body and chassis, etc. If you need to align the parts, just put them together after about 30 seconds instead of a 1 minute and they'll slide around until you get them in position.Another good thing about contact cement is that any residue can be easily picked away using a pin or fine pair of tweezers with minimal damage to painted surfaces. And lastly while the bond is very strong, within the first 24 hours or so you can still pull the parts apart in most cases. On the negative side, it's a flexible bond, so in situations where you need permanent, exact and rigid alignment (like suspension parts for example, scratch built chassis work, etc.) it is pretty useless. Thanx again for the cool videos. Keep 'em comin'!

Early Years Resin makes a Lincoln flattie (http://earlyyearsresin.webs.com/engines.htm middle of the page):

Thanx guys! This build seems to be progressing at a glacial pace. But at least part of that impression is a result of the extremely precise and tight fit of the chassis and interior in the body. My usual style of build is to build out the chassis and then mount the interior and body on it. It allows me to check the overall look and stance and provides me with some satisfaction at seeing a completed subassembly along the way. In this case it's not possible to install the rear axle until the chassis is glued into place. So, no chassis beauty shots! Another issue was a super tight fit in the interior. Indeed, so tight that you need to install the motor and transmission before the floor can be glued in place. Also, the seats needed to be especially low and narrow. I made some seats by taking a pair of AMT 60's style "competition" buckets of the type found in many kits like the '49 Ford, flipping them upside down and then trimming the ends and sides down to fit. The dashboard is from a Revell '32 Ford Tudor and the steering wheel and column are Holden items from ThePartsBox.com. The rest is scratch built from styrene. All that's left now is installing the front and rear suspension, fabbing up some steering bits, installing control rods from a Revell Deuce and figuring out the headlights and taillights… Thanx for lookin' B.

Lots of 80's style updates to AMT kits come with chrome reversed rim steelies with molded-in-place baby moons, including the '29 Ford Roadster and the Fleetline already mentioned. Also the AMT '49 Merc Club Coupe in its 80's version has them. The problem is that they're very deep, even in the front, and designed for wide tires. That's fine for the rear wheels but aren't suited for narrower width front tires. The AMT '40 Ford Sedan Delivery comes with baby moons and wheels designed to take them (they're different than the wheels that come with the coupe and tudor sedan). You could use those for the fronts but they aren't chromed wheels and the baby moons aren't as shallow as those on the molded-in-place chrome deep dish wheels. The AMT '49 Ford comes with very nice deep dish steelies, but they aren't chromed and there are no baby moons. If Tom Kren reads this maybe he could tell us more about which wheels he used, especially at the front.

Also, how about some unique engine parts not offered by anyone else.... 5) 4 carb manifold (similar to Tattersfield-Baron, etc.) for Flathead V8's. 6) Buick Nailhead Hop-Up parts for Revell and AMT engines: Decent tubular block hugger exhaust manifold for Revell or AMT Buick Nailhead V8's. Various multi-carb manifolds for Buick Nailheads (3 97's, dual 4-barrels, 6 & 8 carb logs).