Bernard Kron

We have color! The Carson top is Duplicolor Wimbledon white over white primer with a top coat of Testors DullCote. The body is has a base of white primer, then Duplicolor Gold and finally two coats of Duplicolor Cherry Metallic. It'll get three coats of Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear gloss before a final polishing. The interior and headliner will be white with red accents. Thanx for lookin, B.

I got the interior and seats sectioned down (5/32") and the doors and sides "upholstered" using Plastruc corrugated siding which is very thin and flexible. I'm thinking of leaving the seats untouched except for some trim work on the accent lines molded in to the stock units. The Plastruc looks too bulky and out of scale for the seats. Colors will be white with dark red/brown trim, '40 Ford steering wheel and floor shift. Thanx for lookin', B.

You're right, he's a "pro", but in more ways than you might think. He has a company called JSS Software Solutions which "…designs, develops, and markets custom databases for the collectible/private market." (http://jsssoftware.com/index.aspx ) If you go to his website you'll see that he's a real die cast cars buff and has developed cataloging software for collectors. On the JSS site there's a far more detailed description of his work, going some eight pages in all with full descriptions of all the various models of houses, stores, streetlamps, garages, etc. he has built. Included are interiors and photos of furniture pieces that are not shown in the Flickr slideshow. Here's the link: http://jsssoftware.c...ith/diorama.htm . And don't forget the seven more pages linked at the bottom of page 1!. It's all not to be missed. He all hints at his background when he writes "…I had changed jobs from Advertising to Architectural Model making", so I suspect he has been and may continue to be an advertising photographer and architectural modeler. While the impact of this is to take some of the mystery out of what he has achieved, his talent is still admirable regardless. For the whole enchilada of his astounding photographs go to his Flikr page here: http://www.flickr.co...ith/2346008881/ This is what he says about his dioramas: "Our past is a powerful draw and in so many ways we try to capture it in order to explain it to ourselves. What started out as an exercise in model building and photography, ended up as a dream-like reconstruction of the town I grew up in. It's not an exact recreation, but it does capture the mood of my memories. And like a dream, many of the buildings show up in different configurations throughout the photos. Or sometimes, the buildings stay put and the backgrounds change. Visually, this is heading towards the realm of ART. NO PHOTOSHOP WAS USED IN THESE PICTURES. IT'S ALL STRAIGHT FROM THE CAMERA. It's the oldest trick in the special effects book: line up a model with an appropriate background and shoot. The buildings are 1/24th scale (or 1/2 inch equals a foot). They are constructed of Gator board, styrene plastic, Sintra (a light flexible plastic that can be carved, and painted) plus numerous found objects; such as jewelry pieces, finishing washers and printed material."

The wheels amd windshield make for a great silhouette. Given the block 'o resin nature of this Flintstone kit I'm assuming its a curbside. What are your plans for the interior and front suspension details?

The chop and bodywork look real sharp, Fletch. Can't wait to see it up on those long rails! The engine choice seems odd given the old school funk of the inspiration car but I'm sure you have a picture in your mind's eye that will make sense once we see it.

Thanx guys. It's finally starting to look "right" to me. Looking at this some more I decided the rake was a little too radical so I adjusted it some more by lowering the rear. Now it sits like Cushenberry's El Matador which isn't necessarily a bad thing… As you know sectioning, even on a simple slab-sided body like this one can result in a lot of collateral issues which need to be addressed. I think I understand why Revell chose to mold the front fenders in one piece with the main body - it's far stronger than the AMT approach, at least on the Tudor. The fender set from the AMT '39/'40 Tudor kit is very fragile at the front. They left a big hole there to take either the '39 style Standard grille or the '40 style Deluxe grille. It's held together by two small thin strips and is very weak. Because I removed the running boards and filled the front pan, a lot of bodywork had to be done to the fenders. As a result these two strips eventually twisted in a parallelogram shape like so:/_/. They finally snapped and I put in a small re-enforcing strip across the top between the tops of the fenders. Unfortunately I created a gap in along the edge of the fender on the passenger side. Ed Fluck pointed out the gaps around the hood to me (although I knew about it already I had been putting off fixing it since I had already finished the fenders…). But, since the master had spoken I had no choice but to fix it post haste! So… I broke apart the re-enforcement on that side, re-aligned the edge of the fender with the hood (the kit comes with two hoods, a standard and deluxe one) repositioned the brace. Still some fitting work to do regarding the grill but basically I think it's fixed now. And I'm trying to get this one done for NNL West which is on the 22nd! Yikes! Don't do it! It looks fine just as it is, and anyway it's already in paint. The flow and weight of the fenders balances out that step down. If it really bothers you make a tonneau cover to add some height to the bed area. But IMHO I wouldn't change a thing. Get her done so you can show it at NNL West!

The overall look of this build just hasn't hit me right up to now. I love Ed's chop and section but I just haven't been able to get the stance right to set it off. Now I think I've got it. To begin with I've gone with more of an early 60's rake rather than the 40's look I was working with. I switched to smaller Modelhaus T246 wide whites to bring the car down and removed the fender brace which was holding up the nose. As you can see I had radically lowered the AMT chassis by shaving the front crossmember and setting in the rear spring deeper into the rear crossmember. Now the car has a more extreme "in the weeds" look And here are a couple of pictures comparing the chopped and sectioned coupe to a '40 Fordor I did last summer that has a similar lowering job but where the body is uncut. The coupe really looks tight and compact compared to that big sedan! Now I'm ready to finish this one up because it's finally got the hot rod vibe I was after even though for quite a while I wouldn't admit it! Thanx for lookin' (and putting up woith all the stops and starts on this one!)… B. A yes Raul, I will get this one done in time for the NNL! Thanx for askin' - now I'm committed...

Thanx everyone! The finish work is completed on the body and fenders and nearly there on the hood. The fenders and body have two coats of Plastikote semi-gloss black as an undercoat. The undercoat has been polished out in preparation for two or more coats of DupliColor gloss black followed by two to three coats of Duplicolor Clear before final polishing. I changed over to an AMT chassis because I've got so much time invested in bodywork that I don't want to risk cutting up the fenders to get the Revell chassis in. The car will sit slightly lower than the current mockup because I still have an internal brace in place across the fenders behind the engine compartment to keep things stiff for sanding and polishing. It lifts the fenders about an 1/8 inch. I also switched over to Modelhaus T160 Commander 78 4 ¾ inch wide whites for a real 40's custom vibe. The hub caps came with the body when Ed sent it to me. I like their simplicity. I'm going to keep the whole thing ultra simple with no bumpers, just a little bit of chrome trim around the windows, down the nose of the hood and along the beltline, '39 headlights and a splash of red paint on the wheel rims under the hubcaps. Power will be a nearly stock flathead. Here's a photo mockup of the rear lights and license plate. And I've got the interior tub cut apart to start a black and white tuck and roll job based on the stock seats and dashboard. Thanx for lookin', B.

This is a stunning build. Amazingly, it doesn't look the least bit odd or quirky. Great proportions and stance, super details and textures, awesome concept. Two thumbs up!!

Beautiful work. Great impact. Looking forward to seeing it at NNL West.

Nice crisp conversion work. Looks like a little touch up is needed on the right side rear window in the center up by the roof (3rd picture). I'm no expert on this period of Fords but this looks like it could be a gorgeous master for a resin body.

Great stance and wheel/tire setup. Sweet lookin' little roadster... Since it sounds like you used the kit chassis, what did you do to get the car to sit like that?

The chassis is massively, brutally cool! Great scratch building. Looking forward to more.

Looking forward to more pics. I'm curious about the "second" chrome tree. From various comments it sounds like it may duplicate parts from the other tree but with different front wheels for the Fiat.

The modern Altered chassis is one of the prettiest things in drag racing, IMHO. You've really captured it. Superb! I thought I spotted some mill marks on the wheels. Do you machine most of your stuff? There's nowhere you can go examining the two pictures you posted where everything isn't a delight to the eye! You've taken full advantage of working in big scale. I've saved these two pics, too, so I can sit back and take it all in. Do you have more pictures, or a link to a photo sharing site where we can see more?

Thanx Matt. Actually I'm still trying to keep things simple on this one. Got the body mods such as they are done during this week. Mainly shaving the emblems of the nose and trunk lid and shortening the side trim to an area just behind the middle of the door. Final cleanup and paint should be within reach, weather permitting, this weekend. I've had my share of emergencies this past week and so I haven;t gotten as far along as I had hoped. I'm looking forward to what you come up with. If you draw a blank I'm sticking with the official seats!

Unfortunately some emergencies on the homefront have slowed progress to a crawl on this one. Hopefully I can give it some time this weekend. Thanx for askin'!

X-L-ent!!!!! BTW, when is it? I wanna be there to get one.

Absolutely superb straight up build. Great foiling and color and clean execution really deliver the goods on this one!

This build more than holds its own to the scrutiny of the camera's eye. That motor is hyper-real. Superb detailing, paint textures, everything it takes to achieve maximum effect. Bravo!

I'll be there with Raul. Just booked my tickets today.

Thanks Gregg! It not longer Autocapitalizes Everything Except What I'D like it to ignore like Amt. So thanks again for listening to our bellyaching and fixing it!

Thanx a lot Gregg. It's all better now!

This is a test... Yup, it's another example of unsuccesful and uneccessary automation! Not only that, I tried correcting it by going back in Full Edit mode. I even tried putting them in quotes with spaces or dashes on either end. NO GO!!!!

I’m trying to get this build done in time for the NNL West at the end of February. One of its purposes is to act as a prototype for an AMT ‘39 Tudor Sedan full custom I’m working on. It’s also going to be chopped and sectioned. I really like the Revell ’40 Ford street rod chassis with its separate floor pan and fine detailing. Also it comes pre-lowered with a much nicer stance than the AMT chassis. So I decided to adapt the Revell chassis to the AMT fenders and body. The Revell fenders are quite differently shaped than the AMT fenders with the front pair on the Revell ’40 coupe being molded into the main body shell. So I knew in the case of the Tudor I would have to use the AMT fenders. Since Ed had already trimmed the main body of the AMT coupe to AMT fenders this was the perfect opportunity to prototype this conversion. It turns out that although the Revell frame basically works with the AMT fenders there’s a lot of cutting and fitting involved. Here’s the completed Revell chassis, finished in Testors Metallizer Buffable Magnesium with susupension and details does in Metallizer Buffable Plate Aluminum, Metallizer Aluminum, Metallizer Steel and in flat black acrylic. I’ve adapted Revell ’32 Ford Basic Builder drum backing plates to the front suspension and I’m running AMT ’40 Ford wheels with Modelhaus wide whites. The front track on the Revell chassis is a bit wide for the AMT fenders so you need to trim material off the ends of the axles and off the axle posts on the AMT wheels to bring them in. The wheelbase on the Revell chassis is essentially the same as the AMT but the Revell piece has an extension at the front which doesn’t fit easily inside the AMT front pan and needs to be trimmed. In addition the floor pan needs to have its rear fender liners and the piece that sits behind the gas tank trimmed off. The red highlighted areas in the pics below are the parts that need to be removed. And lastly the AMT fenders need to have the pieces that sit on top of the chassis rails and the cross bracing area at the front of the rear fenders cut away in order to allow room for the Revell floor pan. Also the front cross brace behind the grill needs to be removed. For this reason, if you’re using a ’39 style (or ’40 Ford Standard) grill like I am, it’s best to temporarily glue a grill into the opening while working on it since this area becomes extremely weak without it. FYI the Revell ’40 Ford Standard style grill fits perfectly into the AMT fenders and is much more nicely detailed. It will also be necessary to fabricate rear fender liners because the Revell chassis will leave a gap where the AMT fenders are cut away. I haven’t done that yet. The white AMT fenders are a sacrificial set I have going to work all this out. I’ll do a final on another set of fenders for this actual build. Here’s the result. As you can see the Revell chassis moves those big Modelhaus wide whites way up into the fenders. In fact in these pictures the car sits just a little more nose up than it actually will because I didn’t want to stress the frame too much snugging it up against the front fenders during the mockup phase. During final assembly I’ll glue the tops of the Revell chassis rails to the AMT fender liners which should bring the nose down a little more. Also, the ends of the Revell frame sit slightly wider than the AMT ones so if you want to run bumpers you’ll have to cut new slots for the bumper brackets into the fenders and fill the old ones. I’m not running bumpers so I’ll just fill the old slots. One final note, the Revell chassis sits just slightly above the tops of the chassis rail covers on the AMT fenders, effectively channeling the chassis slightly relative to the fenders. So, even if you don’t section the body sides as has been done on this coupe, using a Revell chassis on AMT fenders will require sectioning the interior bucket about 1/8th of an inch and removing a similar amount of material from the bottoms of the AMT firewall. Like I said, this conversion really requires a great deal of cutting and fitting. But if you want to build a Tudor over the Revell chassis there is no other choice! Thanx for lookin’! B.