Bernard Kron

Thanx guys! I was surprised at how much work it took to get the rest of the car to measure up to Ed's chop and section. And it's true what they say about black paint, it shows everything...

Just gorgeous! Awesome proportions. Gotta get me one before the mold gets beat to death and Ed stops pouring!

Thanx guys! It was great hanging out with the West Coast crew at the NNL. The car is now posted Under Glass here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28307&pid=271569&st=0&#entry271569. I'm not sure the more formal pictures are any better than my quick snaps taken at Santa Clara! But at least the paint turned out nice and glossy to show off Ed's slick lines!

I spent quite a long time and burned up many pixels studying and photographing your models at last weekend's NNL West. I was so glad you brought them. I had no idea this Allison powered beast was an actual historical car. It looks nearly as good in your superb photos as it did there in front of me on the table. I think your builds bring something more than great detail and execution to the model, they all have a flair and a passion about them them gives them a realism that makes then stand out no matter how they're viewed. Thanks so much for sharing them with us all!

Par for the course on the wrapup for this one! Thanx for using it to such good effect... I'm flattered that you think so. Thanx for spending the time walking me through the details on the elusive 'Vette LSR car. Fingers crossed that she gets done in Oh-Ten so I can see her on the tables next year in Santa Clara!

'40 Ford Coupe, Chopped, Sectioned and Lowered Early 50's Valley Custom Style (More pictures below) The basis for this build was a beautiful chop and section job Ed Fluck III (Drag City Casting - http://dragcitycasting.com/) did on an AMT '40 Ford Coupe last summer. I bought it from him and adapted it to a set of AMT '39/'40 Fenders with a Revell '40 Ford Standard grille shell. The chop and section are very tasteful and well integrated into the basic design, but in fact they're quite radical, representing about 4 scale inches of section and more than 3" off the top. The running boards were removed and the bottoms of the fenders extended and molded, the '39 hood sectioned to match Ed's section job, and the AMT chassis slammed hard down into the weeds with the whole thing sitting on AMT '53 Studebaker Hubcaps and Modelhaus #246 wide whites. The kit interior was cut up and a scratch built tuck-and-roll job created including custom seats. The dashboard and steering are kit stock. The engine is the kit Olds with 3 deuces. Paint is Duplicolor dark grey primer followed by a base coat of PlastiKote Mr. Spray matte black, 2 coats of Duplicolor Universal Gloss Black and 2 coats of Krylon Crystal Clear. I color sanded and polished between each coat to get as smooth and high a gloss as possible. Headlights are AMT '39 Ford and taillights are from the Revell '32 Ford Five window. Everything else is from the AMT '40 Ford coupe kit. I went for a simple look, just jet black paint and wide whites with a little chrome trim and a classic cream and white interior. I didn't want to distract the eye from the great lines that Ed had given me. Thanx Ed! And also a special thanx to Raul Perez who picked up the torch at the last minute when I rushed to get this done in time for NNL West and blew out the foiling (you can get the whole story on the W.I.P. pages here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24225 ). Thanx for lookin', B.

Well, Ed's chopped and sectioned '40 is done and made it on to the tables at the NNL West … just barely! Thursday morning, too tired and the victim of never used but slightly oxidized (and thus dulled) 18 month old #11 blades (lesson learned on that one), I managed to totally screw up the foiling on the hood. I switched to other final details and tried to forget my little disaster. Then I packed up the ready to assemble build and headed for Raul Perez's house in Central California on Friday night. Travel weary and more than a little nervous about screwing it up again, I asked Raul to take over the reins. He foiled the hood and side trim, black washed the grill and glued it together. My bacon was saved! (Thanx Raul!) Here's a couple of snaps of Ed's '40 on the tables in Santa Clara. I'll post some more formal pics on the Under Glass forum later. In the meantime, thanx to everyone for the comments and encouragement along the way, to Ed Fluck III for providing the beautiful "bones" for this build, and to RP for the last ditch effort on Saturday that got her done. B.

Paint is now done and I'm glad to say it's shiny! But it's really true about black. It is indeed a cruel taskmaster. It shows every paint flaw and surface irregularity. Smoothing things out to an acceptable degree easily added an extra week to this build. Raul Perez's advice to color sand after every coat is mandatory when trying to achieve a decent gloss black paint job. And I did (not necessarily voluntarily either). Anyway here's the result: Now all that's left is assembling and installing the glass and interior, headlights, taillights and foiling. Since I leave for the NNL West Friday I might just make it. Then again maybe assembly and foiling may have to be completed at Raul p'lace in Cali. on Saturday... (the NNL is on Sunday this year). Thanx for lookin', B.

Great idea beautifully done. The graphics are outstanding! (I suggest a visit to the website for the real skinny on Lindsey Oldsmobile .) A strunner in every way!

More progress has been made. The chassis and engine are nearly done. They're both modified kit pieces. To "get her in the weeds where she belongs", the front cross member was radically shaved and the rear cross member was relieved and the rear spring was shoved up into it as far as it would go. Right now the final coats of color and clear are going on the bodywork. Here's some chassis pics and the main body shell sitting in position with the final stance. Looks sinister with the windows masked out, don't it! Thanx for lookin', B.

Nice take on what's in the box. It neatly overcomes some of Revell's compromises by drawing the eye to all the cool ol' time hot rod cues. Those aren't the kit front tires are they? And are those the kit wheels? If they are they look so much better without those big bulging dog dishes! Anyway, this is a real tasty build. Thanx for sharing it!

The fade paint job really amps up the impact. Super color choices, detailing and execution all add up to a great model.

This is a neautifully executed and conceived build. Everything about it is immaculately turned out. I'm not knowledgeable in this area. Could you tell us more about which kit you used, the origins of the spectacular engine & chassis, the underhood detailing, etc. Thanx!

I added pleats to the seats. The interior is painted out and ready for final assembly. The pleats were made by cutting up a set of seats as shown in the pictures below. Next up is the engine and chassis, then final paint and foiling. Thanx for lookin' B.

No, actually I was mis-remembering this one. For some reason I thought it had a molded quad headlight nose... Still, it defiinitely qualifies as Modern vs. Old Skool!

Re: 1/24-1/25 ("small scale") products, thanks for the comment about limitations of current affordable printer technology. Obviously, for many of us larger scale models are unattractive due to the dual issues of expense and space consumption. So we'll just have to wait for higher resolution printing technology to trickle down to a lower cost factor. Having said that, I can only encourage you all to bring the sense of detail and accuracy of proportion with relatively rapid turnaround that this technology affords to the small scale world by producing more bodies as soon as is practicable. It will help establish the brand in the small scale space while high resolution output comes down to small market levels. Also, besides printing output, what are any other limitations with the CAD work you have already done on mechanical bits with regard to scaling down to small scale? One workaround might be to produce rough small scale parts and then have them hand finished to produce the final master. Just some thoughts. The products you are producing are so exciting that I'm quite sure it's already drawn more than a few modelers into the larger scale world.

Another immaculately realistic model from you. You really have an eye for color and scale. Your builds are always a pleasure to view.

Thanx for the kind words, guys! It felt good to finally get off a successfully deep and glossy paint job, especially here in our cold and damp Pacific Northwest winter. I preheated everything: paint, bodywork, even ran the dehydrator for a while in advance so it would be nice and dry and toasty. And color sanded every coat! Amazingly, all the paranoia paid off! As you'll no doubt have noticed from the pics, the actual color is hard to photograph. Probably the best representation is in the first three pictures. Yeah, and if I recall correctly yours is a full custom with one of the AMT molded nose pieces. Should be quite a contrast. Now if I can just get the Ed Fluck III chopped and sectioned '40 Coupe done we could have another pairing, this time Old Skool vs. Modern!

Thanx Hertsi! I was surprised that the Duplicolor Metallic was transparent enough to allow the gold base to show through. The trick is to use a minimum of the final color coat so that the metallic part doesn't build up enough to hide the undercoat. I also make sure to use a white primer to ensure the gold is real bright, too. Then the clear coats take care of the shine! BTW, I lightly color sand every coat including the primer. It's worth it to get a proper gloss!

Nice looking build. I can only repeat the comments about brush painting. It's awesome (the chassis shots are equally impressive.) Back in the day (a loooong time ago) I used to brush paint. To get a nice gloss I used to put it down very thin and then rub it out with automobile rubbing compound and then wax it. Today I'd use polishing cloths and plastic polish. I'd love to know what your techniques are. I know the Humbrol paint helps. There are plenty of times where good brush painting technique would be preferably to all the masking rigmarole that spray painting might require...

And here are some detail shots:

'50 Ford Convertible Candy Cherry Mild Custom - Lowered, shaved and chopped with a Carson top but with stock bumpers and grill. (More pictures below) This is for this year's NNL West, one of the themes for which is Decade Cars, i.e. cars whose dates end in zero. I thought I'd build this '50 Ford convertible from an AMT kit Raul Perez had sent me earlier this year. With other builds to finish for the NNL I wanted to keep it very simple with a minimum of bodywork and mainly a custom interior. Unfortunately I got pretty hung up on the paint job so it probably wasn't the ultra-quick build I thought it would be. I've always liked the look of the '50 Ford shoeboxe's grill with its massive chrome wraparound so mainly I just cleaned up the side trim some, shaved the trunk lid and doors and (courtesy of an awesome parts swap with Dave Zinn) used the chopped windshield and a resin copy of the original kit Carson top that Dave sent me. Thanx Dave, this build would have been impossible without these key parts! The interior is pale gold and white tuck and roll made from styrene sheet with seats from the AMT '53 Studebaker kit and a center console from the AMT '49 Merc kit. The chassis and Caddy V8 are from an unfinished build of the AMT '49 Ford coupe I had started. The front is lowered about 3 scale inches with the kit's standard alternate front axle position. I lowered the rear end the same amount using scratch built lowering blocks so that it would sit fairly flat. The white walls and Caddy hubcaps are from the Revell Merc kit. Paint started with Duplicolor white primer followed by a Duplicolor Gold base coat and two coats of Duplicolor Cherry Red Metallic and then two coats of Krylon Crystal Clear gloss acrylic. The top is finished in Duplicolor Wimbledon White with a coat of Testors Dull Cote over the top. Everything else is from the kit. The w.i.p. can be found here: http://www.modelcars...=0&#entry265757 Thanx for lookin', B.

I might even get it done tonight! But there's still Ed's Chopped & Sectioned '40 Ford Coupe to finish....

Thanx guys! I changed my mind on the interior colors. Red and white would have meant too much red given the intensity of the body color. Because of the gold base coat and the candy apple tones of the paint I decided on a very traditional custom interior color combo – white and pale gold. Thanx for lookin', B.

Thanx guys! I’ve now gotten the clear down and polished the paint out with my 4000 to 12000 grit cloths. But I’ve always been a bit frustrated with polishing cloths because they tend to leave a slightly milky finish under the high gloss making the paint looking flat and lifeless. So a while back I decided to see if I could use even finer polishes to bring the finish all the way to back to an extreme deep and shiny gloss. Here’s what I found that really works: I first use the ScratchX which is designed to remove very fine scratches and swirls marks. The PlastX is meant to polish out plexiglass and lexxan surfaces to a true clear. So I figured it would make a great final polish. I was not disappointed. Here’s one side of the car completely finished out including the ScratchX and PlastX; I’m only just getting the hang of painting ultra high gloss finshes but ScratchX and PLastX are definitely what you want if your doing a show car finish. Thanx for lookin’, B.