Bernard Kron

No wheels but who cares! Totally seductive and charming. And what an appreciative gift to give a fellow artist. Everything about it is just right and the craft and detail to achieve it just makes it better! Bravo! A creative as well as technical tour de force.

This thing gets more real with every detail and cut you make. The front wheel flares fit beautifully around the tire and the Group C flavored rear section is superb. Can't wait to see the sketched in headlights become "real", too. Then that front end should really come to life! I get the feeling this is a very improvisiational build where the sculpture that became the body has in turn become the canvas on which you are "drawing" a completed automobile. What fun!

This is coming along very well indeed! Worthy of the best of the Fisher Body contests updated to the 21st century!

The Alpine A110 is one of may alltime favorite cars and every time someone builds one of these kits I fall in love all over again, especially when they are nicely done like this one. Gotta build one for myself...

Every one a standout. I've enjoyed them all. Four for '09? Go for it! I have one more to finish and them I'll post my builds for the year, too. I remember this as an end-of-year tradition from last year and I think it's great. It allows us to enjoy all sorts of look backs at some of the great pleasures of the past 12 months and even some knockouts we may have missed.

All that blah blah about the structural integrity of the taller windshield sounds like rationalization to me, Bill! I think I would go ahead and do it however it strikes you at the moment (which I suspect leans toward blasphemy...).

'Caps, color, RepMin accessories and lowered stance all add up to one sweet build!

Personally I loved your little bug, but I hafta admit it did drive me buggy...

Thanx! I guess I was too lazy to go and check... I just tried it and the only downside I can see at all is that once you crop the image you can't make it any bigger, just smaller, when you resize. Can anyone clarify if Fotki has such tools? Fotki is extremely popular in the car modeling community.

Hey Jon! That sig pic is still plenty big to read and actually looks better on the page resized down. It's "only" 246 pixels tall now so I don't have to scroll down the page to read the text. It looks like Harry cropped out some of the black so the picture and text aren't that much smaller. But that's what I mean about having the tools and inclination to do that sort of thing...

Nice work on the body. Glad to get some more specifics on the Archer decals from both you and Curt Raitz. They really add an extra dimension. In the case of the welds I can't imagine any other way to get it done. I'm away from the workbench until the 14th so I'll have to hustle to make the deadline with my build. But it looks like there'll be at least one competition rail at the finish line for this one!

Your current "sig pic" is 600x480. Unfortunately sizing it down to say 160 height would lead to a width of only 200 and some small type on the text. I think the signature area demands a wide and skinny shaped image to avoid hogging too much vertical space between messages. I use Photobucket and their software allows you to resize the image. However they don't include a cropping ability which is key to creating a signature friendly image. I'm not a Fotki user so I don't know whether they provide photo editing functions. I use Photoshop to crop and size all my images for posting. Maximum width for main post pictures is 800 pixels which is friendly to older, smaller monitors and screens. And I "worry" about things like avatar friendly images and, as discussed here, signature images. Photoshop is quite expensive software however. Perhaps someone can recommend freeware or inexpensive shareware that will achieve the same thing. But the bottom line is unless you have the inclination and ability to crop and resize images things like avatar and signature pictures can be quite problematical. The MCM board software automatically resizes your avatar for you. This is really great. But the method by which you insert a picture into your signature doesn't have this ability. If it did I would enforce a maximum height of 200 pixels at the very most, and even less IMHO.

I agree that signature pics are getting out of hand. But I do like putting a picture in my signature; this area allows a little more freedom than the avatar. Having said that, the issue is vertical height more than width. I have had to really wrestle to make it any kind of acceptable vertical height at all. My current one is 150 pixels high, the same as the max for the avatar, but I almost think 100 might be a better max for signatures. Width is a different matter altogether and you can easily go 300+ pixels, but the result is a very odd shaped image. The bottom line is that standard sized images from your camera of computer screen won't work. I would miss not including an image in signatures but Harry might be right if folks don't have the editing software and/or chops to make it work.

How did I miss the spats? Perhaps I was too taken by the other details... They do tie everything together nicely. I'm amazed how quickly you've gotten to this point. Will you be sending any parts out to be chromed (such as the winglets on the spats)? As for the V-10, I've got to do a better job of keeping the rear engined 'Vette and this build separate from each other in my mind. Since they couldn't possibly be more different I have no idea why it should be difficult... In any case they're both superb and, like everyone else, I look forward to each new installment.

More than a restoration, an optimization! The result is a stunningly beautiful car.

Somebody jumping in on page 2 of this thread would think they're enjoying a beautiful build of a really fine kit. Of course the closest thing that ever existed to a kit were a few drawings on a magazine page. This is indeed what modeling's all about. Bravo Curt!

Really taking shape now. Funny how in the rear 3/4 view the design is somewhat reminiscent of the 300SL coupe. and not because of the gullwing doors but because of the rear deck treatment and "scooped" fender lines. It gives the car a kind of pre & post-war blended look. Can't wait to se it with its spats. They will really tie it together. And that poor little V8 looks almost lost under the massive bonnet. It almost cries out for a couple of more cylinders on each bank!

The proverbial "killer stance" rules on this build. Has that real 1:1 vibe. Very nice indeed.

Because I have seen your work before it was definitely meant as a complement! But the original is very funky - which is part of its charm. So using your skills to capture that funk will also capture the charm. I'm really enjoying this build and will keep watching for more.

Thanx everyone! I think the 1:1 is such a beautifully built car I only hope I can capture even part of its visual impact. I'm not planning anything , just trying to get a handful of presentable builds done in time. I'd be happy with four or five but I'd settle for just one really good one if it came to it. The quality, variety and creativity at the NNL West is just staggering! The block is from Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Maryland. The heads you see are resin pieces from my parts box and are being used for mockup purposes. They're not in the best shape and I want nice clean ones to spray with Testors Metallizer Buffable Aluminum Plate and polish out so they gleam like on the 1:1. I have a proper set coming from Replicas & Miniatures that will be in here in a few weeks. They'll go on at the last possible moment so I don't scratch them up. I had originally planned to use the Ardun heads from the Revell '50 Ford Pickup kit. They're nice (though not of the quality of the RepMin pieces) but they lack the correct spark plug tubes and have their water outlets at the front. The 1:1 shows the outlets in the middle with a smooth blank surface at the front of the heads. Arduns came at various times with outlets at the front , the middle and even the rear. My understanding is that RepMin gives you the options for any of the three positions. In any case, since I needed some nice smooth, clean heads to polish I figured I'd spring for the RepMin pieces. I'm sure I won't be disappointed. Current plans are to scratch build the injectors, use the pump drive from the Tommy Ivo Showboat kit (it has an accessory drive for the magneto on it), a Morgan Auto Detail prewired magneto if it doesn't look too big, and cut down the zoomies from the Ramchargers kit so they look more like those on the 1:1. My only other concern is to locate some intake stacks that are short enough.

Very n1ce build. Has a solid realism to it that's very appealing. Changing out the wheels probably was a good move, the ones you used looking great. The under bonnet area and the chassis rail details are especially nice. Bravo!

At first glance (and if one hadn't seen your work before) you could be accused of crude and haphazard fabrication of the body. But in fact examination of the 1:1 pics will reveal that this is in fact a carefully considered, skilled and meticulously faithful rendition of the original!

Thanx guys. No, that's the kit plastic in the Revell Tony Nancy double dragster kit. It's supposed to represent the body color of the Dragster in the set. It's totally unacceptable with all kinds of funky swirl marks in it. I hope to get some paint on the body this week.

On your "something completely different" thread I referred to the excitement of "a whole new world of possibilities opening up...". Well, it looks like it's wide open now! Wonderful to watch the details of the shape emerge from the clay.

That is an incredible, incredible score. And from an (sadly) ex-builder with great skills and taste in his own right. I hope you like old-skool rods! The start on the '29 A roadster on '32 rails is particularly impressive. Go for it!