Bernard Kron

Thanks Alan!

only knew Ron through the modeling forums. As a modeler he had a keen eye, knew what he wanted, and the skills and insights to guarantee a satisfying result with each build of his that graced these pages. When he decided to step up and lend his steady hand and straightforward approach to solving challenges in running TRaK and DPMCC he showed immediately that he was the right man at the right moment and his time at the helm helped us navigate through a difficult period. It's a cliche to say that someone who passes away will be missed, but I for one will miss his clean, on-the-money build style, his knowledge and enthusiasm for the hobby, his exceptional box art models, and his presence among us. Rest in Peace Ron Savoie.

Mid-50’s style Channeled ’32 Ford Roadster Street Rod A few weeks ago I bid on and won a huge box of spare parts from the Revell ’32 Ford series of kits, enough parts to build 9 or more complete Roadsters, 3-window and 5-window coupes, with a ton of extra parts left over. The only parts missing were from the Tudor Sedan and the Dan Fink Speedwagon (no flathead V-8’s, wire wheels or sedan bodies, for example). The original builder, however, had the odd habit of mocking up his projects using super glue which meant that several of the chassis I received, for example, had fenders bonded to them, and in one case there was a nicely channeled roadster with the main body, full hood sides and grill shell all securely glued to each other and to the chassis. While I was able to liberate the various chassis from their fenders without damage to the chassis, the channeled roadster was another matter. I did manage to pry the grill shell off but the body and hood sides were bonded quite permanently to the chassis. As I said, the original builder had done a very nice job on the channel and cutting the hood sides to drop over the frame rails, so I decided to accept the challenge and build a mid-50’s style channeled street rod, the kind often featured in the Little Pages back in the day. With a few, although significant, exceptions the entire build is from the box-‘o-parts. The wheels and tires were assembled using ’58 Dodge Lancer hubcaps from Modelhaus with various backing plates from my parts box. The rear wide-whitewall tires are Modelhaus T-160 Commander 78’s and the front tires are of unknown origin from my parts box. The other major part substitution is the 4½ scale inch deep drop I-beam front axle from ThePartsBox.com. This is a resin re-pop of the Revell ‘40 Ford Street Rod item and features a cast-in wire reinforcement that prevents the axle from ever sagging the way un-reinforced resin axles eventually do. It is my go-to dropped axle for a real in-the-weeds stance and I highly recommend it. Otherwise the only non-Revell Deuce part is the steering wheel, an AMT ’49 Ford part and a home-made gear shift lever. The Revell Highboy Roadster windshield is chopped 2½ scale inches. Because the motor is completely hidden by the glued-in-place hood sides, I chose to use the ubiquitous Ford small block that comes in all these kits, although I sanded off the Ford Motorsports logo from the valve covers and moved the distributor to the back of the block to create a kind of generic V-8 look. The paint is Plastikote Baby Blue lacquer over white Duplicolor primer. The interior is finished in Duplicolor Universal White lacquer with blue accents. The original builder did the hard part, the 4 scale inch channel and adapting the hood sides. I did have to mask out the floor pan area because everything was glued in place but really this was a pretty straightforward project that went together with a minimum of drama. And because the original builder had a good eye for stance and proportion it landed up being a pretty cool representation of a classic 50’s lo-boy roadster, in this case a California car because I chose to leave it fenderless. Thanx for lookin’, B.

This project is now done. A summary write up and final "beauty shots" Under Glass can be found here: Here are a couple of teaser shots...

Thanks Carl. If all goes well I might be able to post Under Glass tomorrow evening.

I’ve gotten the interior and drivetrain completed and assembled. I decided against the ’40 Ford dashboard shown in my last post because it took up too much space in the cramped quarters of a channeled car. I substituted what has grown to be my standard modification of the Revell Street Rod Deuce Roadster dashboard: cut out the dashboard main panel, the one with the eight track and air conditioner outlets, glue in a blank panel and then install a gauge cluster, in this case cut from the roadster dash panel. Here I painted the backing panel body color with the dash surround and gauge cluster painted white to match the upholstery. The blue piping on the seat and side panels is colored wire. I don’t think the original builder intended to include much detail, if any, to the drivetrain and undercarriage. As I mentioned earlier, he had simply glued a styrene tube in place to act as the rear axle, I landed up installing a full detail undercarriage using primarily Revell Deuce kit parts except for the front axle which is my favorite go-to dropped axle for hot rod builds. It’s from ThePartsBox.com and it’s a resin re-pop of the 4 ½” dropped I-beam from the Revell ’40 Ford kits. Besides the fact that it’s a lovely I-beam with a really deep drop, the Parts Box re-pop is unique in that it is reinforced with an internal wire which keeps it from sagging over time the way unreinforced resin re-pops do. Highly recommended! The motor is based on the kit small blocks, of which I have dozens. I smoothed the “Ford Motorsports” valve covers and even moved the distributor from the front to the back of the block, so, at this point, it’s definitely a generic V-8, LOL. But, with the .hood sides permanently glued in place by the original builder, it is buried deep in the engine compartment, so I decided there was no sense in doing something special with the engine. All that’s left is the lighting, windshield and any small details I may have overlooked. My next post will be as a completed model (with the wheels mounted, obviously). I’m pleased with the overall look – it’s got that Little Pages 50’s vibe goin’ on. Thanx for lookin’, B.

I’ve completed the interior parts and painted both the interior and the body parts. The interior consists mainly of the basic Revell ’32 Ford Roadster Street Rod setup with the seat and side panels trimmed to accommodate the chassis rail depth channel job. The bolster on the seat back has been notched and reshaped slightly to sit above the rear cockpit molding. The dashboard is a modified AMT ’40 Ford piece. The interior color is Duplicolor Universal White. It will receive some blue accent color before final assembly. The body is finished in Plastikote lacquer, a 12 year old can of Baby Blue from my paint stash. After a few days to cure I’ll rub it out and clear coat it with Tamiya TS-13. The motor is nearly completed. I’m very close to final assembly. Thanx for lookin’, B.

The interior panels on the rendering look are different from any other of the 1/25th Deuce series. The rolls are narrower than on the 5-window coupe although the seat layout is similar. It looks like a modification of, or new tool based on the roadster interior panels.

Thanks for the excellent coverage. It was my hope that with the recent energetic Atlantis announcements will serve to encourage and support the Revell USA side of "New Revell" marketing and distribution. So the comments by Ed Sexton about the impact, expense and frustration of the Covid-driven global shipping logjam were, in their way, encouraging. It means that much of the lopsided Revell of Germany activity we have seen from New Revell is at least partly due to the Revell USA side of the business being impacted by trans-Pacific shipping problems. Atlantis aggressively promotes "Made In USA" but even more importantly Revell is seeing the impact of diversified molding sources, i.e. Atlantis' ability to move fairly quickly into the marketplace. Ed Sexton's frustrations must be epic. The Rat Roaster re-do is a significant move towards a more universal kit away from the Stacey David oddball. Still not the in-the-pocket hot rod that putting the old Big Deuce through a shrink ray would have been, but a very positive step none-the-less. My only fear is related to the loss of the chopped stock windshield already mention. Far worse than omitting a stock style windshield (chopped or otherwise) is the change that modifying the actual cowl area to take the DuVall as was done on the old Ertl Phantom Deuce Phaeton kit. RRR's comment just posted regarding the indents required for the stock windshield is much more to the point and only make me worry more that the basic Deuce roadster body of the original Street Rod will be further bastardized. BTW I can't possibly imagine that including a stock Deuce windshield, even chopped, would be a violation of the Stacey David copyright. But what do I know about these thing?. Old Street Rod Deuce Roadster kits will only keep getting more expensive... And who would have ever expected that Atlantis' purchase of all that decrepit old 60's tooling would re-emerge in the form we see here? Wise decision IMHO for Atlantis to resist the romantic allure of the parts packs and stick with whole kits. The low unit dollar profit yield vs. whole kits has always been a problem. Including two motors is a smart offset in my opinion. The Miss Deal 392 appears to be still there and I can only hope it will be included in future other offerings.

Thanks everybody. I'm glad you're diggin' it! I’ve always been interested in how different modelers solve a modeling challenge and what it says about their overall approach to model building. When I got my giant box-‘o-parts and started in on this channeled roadster the obvious thing that jumped out at me was the previous builder's habit of super gluing parts together at what was a very early stage in the project, generally before painting the individual parts. In the case of this channeled roadster I was impressed by the crispness and accuracy of the builder’s cuts and how, to quote from my original post, “He’d also done a first-rate job repositioning the kit fender liners so that the chassis mated perfectly to the rear wheel wells.” Well…I couldn’t have been more wrong! The reason “the chassis mated perfectly to the rear wheel wells” is because there is no chassis back there! Let me explain. After priming the body/chassis assembly and painting the floor pan metallic silver I was preparing to mask the floor pan when I noticed two gaps on either side of the body immediately forward of the wheel wells (circled areas in panel A below). I suddenly realized that there are absolutely no chassis rails or cross members beyond where the gaps are (see the shaded area below the wheel well liners in panel B below, where normally you would see some evidence of chassis rails). The chassis side rails are glued to the inside of the body. Then there’s the gap on each side and then the wheel well liners are glued to the floor pan. Except for the gap all the way at the rear this is a kind unit body construction. There is no separate chassis to hold the rear suspension. The plastic tube “axle” was glue to the wheel well liners and the floor pan. The builder clearly had minimal concern about further undercarriage detail. Panel C and D below show what the original builder cut away. With the work I’ve already done to insert a center section of the rear I’ll proceed to add some springs and shocks and locating rods to create some semblance of detail back there. Meanwhile, I thought you all might find my “discovery” interesting. Of course the stance and overall look that the original builder began is terrific and, if you accept his overall approach, there’s nothing wrong with how he accomplished his channel job. Thanx for lookin', B.

That's a great looking roadster done in the modern style. Without going all the way to a replica build which would require a Hemi you could get much of that tough, hunkered-down look by modifying the kit frame somewhat. The stance of the highboy on Deuce rails is by a long way the better of the two options in the Revell '29 Roadster kit but even it requires further lowering, IMHO, to get a really righteous stance. My build of the Highboy was completely different than the car you're showing, but I still had to do the work required to get it to sit low enough. I landed up z'ing additional drop into the rear end and flipping the front cross member and shaving the front spring. On my build, which was Old School, I used narrow, tall rear tires so the kick-up on the frame is more visible than it would be with fat rear tires like you show. I also modified the rear suspension which is not necessary for a modern build like the example you're showing. The wheels on the example car, btw, can be found in any Revell 1/25th Highboy roadster kit. Below are 3 photos showing the stance and the mods I made on mine. Again, an Old School style build so not totally relevant, but the chassis basics, IMHO, apply. Build on!

Recently I scored a huge stash of Revell ’32 Ford spare parts on eBay, enough to build maybe 8 or 9 complete 1/25th scale Deuce roadsters, and 3-window & 5-window coupes, with plenty of parts left over. The only thing missing were wheels and tires. Apparently the seller has bought all these kits for the wheels and tires and was selling the leftovers – at least that was what he said in his eBay posting. When I got it, however, it was clear he had built at least some Revell Deuces and mocked up but never finished some others. His mockups were weird because he glued them together using super glue, unpainted! This meant, for example, that I had to find a way to rescue 4 chassis which he had assembled (unpainted) with fenders and gas tanks. Using MEK I managed to do that. But there was one fenderless channeled Deuce roadster where he had bonded the full body, including hood sides and grill shell to the chassis. He had done an especially nice job cutting the hood sides to clear the frame rails. He’d also done a first-rate job repositioning the kit fender liners so that the chassis mated perfectly to the rear wheel wells. The glue job was very strong and I didn’t want to risk damaging the body trying the pull it all apart. Besides it looked like the car could be built with a really sweet East Coast lowboy stance. So I’ve decided to build it from his initial work, masking the undercarriage when it comes time to paint. The photos below show the initial mockup – this time using white glue for the work I’ve done. I managed to pull the grill shell off without damaging anything, buy the chassis and the rest of the bodywork just won’t budge. Fortunately, despite the fact that the chassis is bonded to the body the interior parts can be slipped into position without too much trouble. And I managed to locate the interior side panels that he had already cut to fit the channel job. The seat is a stock kit seat that I trimmed to fit the channel job and to create a slight bolster effect. The tires are Modelhaus Commander 78 wide whites at the rear and smaller front whitewalls of unknown origin from my parts box. The hubcaps are Modelhaus 58 Dodge Lancer items. I’m thinking paint will be a classic mid-50’s shade, maybe baby blue with a white interior. The original builder did most of the hard work and this is, at this stage, a pretty simple project, so it should go fairly quickly. The motor will be hidden under the hood so I’m using one of the dozens of small-block Fords from these Revell Deuce kits I have in my stash. I’ll back date the motor by smoothing out the Ford Motorsports logos off the valve covers and plan to adapt a kit intake manifold to fit triple Stromberg 97s. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thank you Carl!

As some may know, I’m kinda hung up on the ’32 Ford, specifically the Revell series of kits, which I use for what seems to be an endless series of Old Skool modeling projects – on the order of at least one every 6 months. Ridiculous, I know… In any case, this means I’ve always had to maintain a stash of these models not only for their bodies, but for all the chassis and ancillary parts that go into these projects. Things can get pretty unwieldy as I pilfer parts from a new kit and eventually need to buy yet another kit just because I’m out of small but critical parts like headlights and headlight brackets or frame rails. A couple of weeks ago this amazing offer came up on eBay: The seller did an incredible job showing what was in the box. Actually, there was far more than he showed but his effort was first rate at showing the nature of what he was offering. The opening bid was $10.00 + $20.00 shipping. Needless to say that, with at least three 3-window coupes, three 5-windows and four roadsters along with 9 chassis and countless full and partial parts trees it was worth a shot. It would be a long time before I would have to buy a parts kit if I prevailed. There were 14 watchers so I hoped that the bidding wouldn’t get silly or I would have to beg off. As it turned out we were all very disciplined and the first bid only showed up with about 12 hours to go and most of us held are fire until the final minutes. Obviously I got it, and a week later a huge box showed up on my doorstep. As I said the photos, only some of which I posted below, didn’t do justice to what was in the box. I would say for a typical part that is shared by all the versions, such as a rear axle or small size front headlight, there are at least 14 examples included, and often far more. The only downside is that the seller had the odd habit of super-gluing the chassis to the fenders or body when first mocking up his project. And, as it turns out, he didn’t glue lightly. I haven’t been able to find a way to break these apart. (After some internet sleuthing I found that I could debond the fenders using MEK and this afternoon I liberated the four fendered chassis.) But no matter, this stash is enormously useful. The only versions missing are the Dan Fink Speedwagon and the Tudor. In many cases there are whole chrome trees that are sealed in their original bags, but, as the photos show, there are just as many trees, chromed or otherwise, that are well picked over. However, on the basis of shear volume who am I to complain? My needs are supplied for some time to come! Of course the plastic trees themselves generate a huge storage problem so I’ve spent time over the last few days breaking them up and classifying and bagging individual parts. I should be able to get the results stored in 3 to 4 standard model boxes. Here are a few of the photos the seller posted:

Thanks Carl!

Thanks Bob!

Really nice! And can't wait for the 151/3, perhaps the most dramatic front-engined coupe ever made, and one of my all time faves. Build on, Dave!

I can't disagree with you. I was surprised at the Keeler tie-in as PR, and for branding, as I would think he's pretty obscure when it comes to the general public, regardless of age. But I think the issue is a broader one, one which Revell in Germany also has to face, and that's the decline of car culture, and indeed most of the cultures (music, film, TV, etc.) nurtured in rich western countries during the postwar media golden age. For now there's no obvious replacement and these markets appear to be getting more and more concentrated and niche-like. It's hard for me to imagine these kits selling much beyond, as you say, the AARP crowd in North America, on the basis of their history, so it has to be for their kitsch or collector value for younger demographics. I'm not on the inside in the hobby industry (whereas the management at Atlantis very much is) so I don't know how they see it. But Revell in Germany is really no different, only from a European perspective, if they are releasing freshly tooled VW vans, E-Types and Land Rovers (Revell calls them "Old-Timers", no doubt translated from the German, on their web site). At least the Revell releases are status items among the burgeoning Asian middle class. Hot rods and drag racing subjects, on the other hand, function, at best, when it comes to younger Europeans and Asians, as post-punk rockabilly references. So yes, Keeler, in this context, is an irrelevance. My comments were more about the energy and commitment shown by Atlantis and their willingness to pursue licensing and to exploit their assets; I view them as a small company and have been impressed by this. This is in contrast to Revell, whose Euro-centric conservatism thus far, make them seem lethargic in comparison.

Excellent. Are the fins scratch made? And what are the sources of the windshield and rear window? Inquiring minds want to know...

Thanks so much Alan. I really should reconcile myself to being, as you say, a hot rod modeler. Of late I've been trying to emphasize the style aspect. But my love of anything fast and well engineered exposes me to all those immaculate race car builds, let alone the "grass is greener on the other side" temptation of factory stock replica. Chasing the dream, indeed!

Great news! I couldn't find it on Atlantis' press release pages. Where did you see this? Clearly It shows that Atlantis has an aggressive and active approach to it's Revell molds acquisition. They're not shy about negotiating licensing deals (i.e. Mooneyes, General Motors) to clear the boards to get maximum use out of them. And now they seem to have given Keeler a means to revive his legacy. I can only hope that Atlantis' early efforts have been encouraging sales-wise and that's why we see them reaching out specifically to the U.S.-style car modeling community. The contrast with the "New" post-bankruptcy Revell couldn't be more stark. Hopefully sales success on Atlantis; part will wake ROG up...

Thank you Gareth. Funky is right, LOL, but as long as it delivers the message... Thank you Josh. Looking forward to the reopening of VCG Resins!

The stance and rolling stock already look glorious in white styrene. I'm really looking forward to your treatment of this, my favorite of GM's radical response to Virgil Exner's Forward Look after the disaster (at least in the eye's of GM's corperate honchos) that was 1958, the One Year Models. Of course by '59 it was already too late and GM immediately toned down every one of these cars so the '59's are very special and the Invicta 2-door hardtop, to my eyes, is tops among them. I'm curious, what is it about the wheelbase that needed adjustment? It's not something I generally consider when setting things up.

Tim, I think the evidence is in by now, post bankruptcy, and that is that the German owners are extremely conservative about the risks they are willing to take in both introducing new product, and even in re-releasing proven product that are still among their assets. The team at Atlantis, whatever they may own now, seem almost radically creative in their releases compared to Revell. I sometimes wonder just how much the Germans have sold off on the cheap. The E-Type coupe is definitely in the style of what we would expect from Revell-Of-Germany pre-bankruptcy, and yet is oddly un-creative and redundant, with the additional misstep, IMHO, of releasing it in red plastic. It may hint at even greater conservatism (pre-paint red?) than I think. So, despite the near-doubling of prices on eBay for old Revell stock, I am not surprised to see them slow-walk all their releases, new-tool or otherwise. Perhaps the bankruptcy was more shocking to the German owners than we can know. A perusal of the current "new-Revell" catalog shows how disappointing this has to be be to plastic modelers of all stripes, not just car modelers. The re-release '30 5-window, perhaps the last hurrah of the old auto-model team at U.S.A. Revell, shows this. B.

Larger scale models have a way of bringing out the best in modeler's skills, and this one is no exception. Great work on detail and execution. Bravo!