Bernard Kron

Thanks again guys! Thanks Dave, you are too kind. This was a real "action build" with virtually everything about it done on the spur of the moment. The only exceptions were the basic chop and channel and chassis . Starting with my second post things which now dominate the result (color, flames decals, even the white accents) were done with no planning, just a moment of inspiration. While I'm pleased with the overall look I'm a bit frustrated with all the rough edges. The "clean build" thing is a never-ending battle for me. Thank you Glenn. Way back a dozen years ago when I got back into car modeling I commented that when it comes to hot rods Stance Is Everything. If a closeup side view like than can be convincing then I must be doing something right, LOL. So I consider that a major compliment.

Thanks Bob. Old skool is mainly what I do.

Thanx again, everybody! ?

Thanx KK!!!

Your style and skill will always be welcome here. Kool lookin' model!

Thanks Paul and Alan! Thank you, Joe. I've said it before, but it's always special when one of my models can make a connection. And keep those hot rods comin'! For those who are interested, the completed model is here Under Glass:

Just got another Deuce done, this time a radical late 50's chopped and channeled 3-window show car:

Thank you, Steve.

Thanks to all of you. I'm glad you dig it.

Thanks Gary. Researching this stuff is part of the fun of car modeling for me - it helps me get the "vibe" of these cars. Postwar Europe was just crawling out from the rubble about then. Racing these cars was an incredible status symbol. That's why they drew such large crowds. People were struggling and these open road long distance races, of course, were free to attend, much like professional bicycle road races are today. Looking at the foreground of the arrival photo shows that it really was a different world from today: there's a woman smoking a cigarette as she cranes her neck to get a view and the men in the crowd are all wearing suits and ties (in contrast to the handsome and glamorous Musso casually attired in racing coveralls and a polo shirt - the prerogative of the privileged few). Here's as photo I found when researching this build that I found especially interesting:

Thanks to you both. It's much appreciated.

Radically chopped& channeled ’32 Ford 3-window coupe, done late 50’s show car style I was looking over my stash of Revell ’32 Ford kits and I thought it would be fun to build a radically chopped channeled Deuce coupe. I chose the 3-window style because that’s the classic “Little Deuce Coupe”. I also decided to save as many of the kit parts that I knew I could use for future hot rod projects as I could. With so many of us being home bound under the current difficulties model kit prices have skyrocketed and I decided that the kit chassis, in particular, would be best saved for a highboy build since the chassis on a lowboy channeled rod is virtually invisible except for the front half of the frame. As a result I landed up tracing the shape of the Revell Deuce frame rails and scratch building my own deeply z’d and dropped frame. This set the tone for the rest of the build which features a lot of scratch building and kit bashing. Here’s a breakdown of what I did. Modifications to Revell 3-window Coupe donor kit: Top chopped 3 ½ scale inches, windshield chopped to fit. Grill shell chopped 4 scale inches with customized grill. Dashboard modified for custom gauges. Interior re-skinned with styrene sheet to simulated diamond quilted and tuck and roll interior. Rear suspension adapted to fit scratch built frame (see below). Kit headlights and taillights and front shock mounts used. All other parts either kit bashed or scratch built. Scratch built parts: Chassis with 4 scale inch rear “z”, replicated Ford ’32 Ford shaped front frame rails, scratch built floor pan and k-member, all made with styrene sheet and styrene strip. Visible interior surfaces made from styrene sheet. Kit sourced parts: Hemi V8 from Revell ’32 Ford 5-window coupe with carburetion from Revell Stacy David Rat Roaster, exhausts from AMT ’25-T kit. Chromed reversed wheels and ’40 Ford brakes from Monogram 1/24th scale ’32 Ford Roadster. Hairpin wishbones from Revell 5-window. Aftermarket parts: 4” dropped axle and wide-white big ‘n little tires by ThePartsBox.com. Bucket seats of unknown origin from my parts stash.Paint and decals: Tamiya TS-52 Candy Lime Green over white primer with Tamiya TS-7 racing white accents. Decals adapted from Revell ’32 Ford 5-window coupe. Frame finished in Racing White. Interior in Tamiya Racing White and Titanium Gold. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks Carl and Bob! I’ve gotten all the subassemblies done and now it’ll be time to put the whole thing together. The photo below shows the completed motor chassis and interior parts. I also made some grill graphics from pieces of the Revell 5-window kit decals. My next posting will be as a completed model. Thanks to all who followed along. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Tasty! Bravo! And thanks for the discussion on the windshield frame!

What a pleasure to see this done. I followed along from the start, captured by the skills and approaches you used to reach your goal. I was always surprised how closely your were able to copy many of the detail parts and proportions necessary to make such a(n) (in)credible replica. Throughout its journey this project was always an inspiration. The result is a beautiful model Bravo!

Thanks to you both, Dave and Alan. I'm glad you're likin' it! As if I didn’t have enough radicalness happening with the ultra-low stance, deep chop and channel and candy lime paint, I felt the need to add some flames and graphics from the Revell ’32 Ford 5-window kit. They’ll get clear coated during final paint and polish. The motor is painted and mocked up for these photos. I thought the Revell 5-window Hemi carbs and air cleaners were a bit undersized so I swapped them out for the carbs and air cleaners from the Revell Stacey David Rat Roaster kit. The interior parts are modified with tuck and roll and diamond tuft details and bucket seats. I’ll post them along with the final chassis details in my next update. My suspicion that this project might be Big Fun is holding up pretty well so far. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thank you, Larry! I thught I'd share some period photos from the 1954 Mille Miglia showing the A6GCS Barchetta in its native habitat. Luigi Musso during scrutineering for the 1954 Mille Miglia surrounded by only some the 14 A6GCS Maseratis entered. 5 AM, Viale Venezia, Brescia Italy, May 2nd 1954. Viale Venezia, Brescia Italy, 12 hours and 10 seconds later, and only 9 seconds short of second place...

I was looking at the parts in the blue plastic original issue kit trying to figure out what made the Atlantis test shot look as good as it did. Monogram got the chassis details of the Californian pretty right, especially the side rails, hairpins and tie rod. The upper half of the motor is pretty good too. In uniform gray plastic and and photographed at an angle where the rudimentary front axle doesn't show so much, it all looks pretty darn good. The bodywork is "incorrect" compared to The Californian, with the weird vertically extended rear section and the roll over bar brace mounted outside the body shell. Despite this I think if you wanted to make a full detail, accurate replica of The Californian this kit gives you plenty to work with. The chassis could be extended and completed using the supplied frame rails without too much trouble, and even reshaping the body, since it mainly involves tucking it under, is quite doable.

Thanks Ray! I got the paint started. The body and grill shell color is Tamiya TS-52 Candy Lime Green over a base of Tamiya TS-7 Racing White with masking using 1.5mm Jammy Dog tape to get the accent stripes. The chassis is TS-7 which will also be the main color of the interior. Lots of touching up to do before it gets its clear coats and polish. Meanwhile the motor and interior are next. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it. Thanks! These small-production, smaller engined Italian sports cars from the 50's and early 60's are sometimes referred to as "Etceterini", somewhat obscured by the big Ferrari V12s and Maserati V8s of the era. But that very obscurity gives them a lot of romance, particularly when they have curvaceous Italian bodywork like this one. There are plenty of A6GCS die casts out there, even if they tend to be quite pricey, but I'm a confirmed kit builder so when I saw this one on eBay I knew I had to get it. Surprisingly, there were actually 3 bidders for it. I'm glad I won it... Thanks Gramps. Your superbly rendered sports racing car builds have always been an inspiration to me, and convinced me to try my hand at this sort of subject matter in contrast to my usual rod & custom fare.

Thanks everyone! Stoked you all dig it! Thanx Dave! I always wanted to capture the Weezner vibe, but had to grow enough as a modeler to get "loose" enough to do it. I guess this is the one... No, it's the modern Revell Deuce 5-window coupe "Hemi" with aftermarket resin Chrysler Firepower re-pops, I believe from Drag City Casting. I'm still debating the valve cover treatment, depending on paint and decal choices... Thanks! Yeah, it gets door handles because, as you point out, it "sells" the suicide door detail - that's why I left the hinges in place, including on the chopped top.

Atlantis refers to the dragster that Monogram originally patterned this kit, "The Californian", owned by Manuel Gonzalez and built for him by a virtual who's who of SoCal race car and hot rod craftsmen in 1959. Allen "Lefty" Mudersbach, a legendary dragster driver and mechanic of the front-engine era, did the chassis, Bob Sorrell, known for his Indy car and dragster tin work, fashioned the aluminum body and Dean Jeffries did the sharp Pearl White and Candy Red paint. It was definitely state of the art at the time. From the test shot it's apparent that Monogram actually did a fine job of capturing the original, even if it breaks all the rules of modern kit design (two-piece motor from pan to blower, plastic two-piece whells, free-floating roll cage, etc.). It should respond well to modern modeling techniques and kit-bashing. I'm curious to know what made them decide to do a "historical" version in addition to a re-issue. If they capture that Jeffries paint job with their box art and decals it should definitely help sales. Here are some pics of The Californian:

Your work continues to be inspirational and breathtaking in its focus and detail. Keep on keepin' on!

A couple of months ago I sold a bunch of my models on eBay to make room on my overcrowded shelves. They were all early builds that no longer held my interest the way they once had. But on several of them there were details, such as motors and wheels and tires that I was reluctant to part with. In those cases, while cleaning up and repairing the models for sale, I substituted more common parts from my stash so I could re-use the salvaged bits in future builds. Among them was a set of wide-white Big ‘n’ Little hot rod tires from ThePartsBox.com mounted on some chrome steelies from a Monogram ’32 Ford Roadster kit. This rolling stock inspired me to begin this project, a deeply channeled and heavily chopped ’32 Ford 3-window coupe. While reviewing my collection I noticed certain early builds that reminded me of strategies and tactics I had particularly enjoyed and that I needed to revisit today. Among them was a deeply chopped and channeled Deuce sedan based on a Jimmy Flintstone resin body that I had mounted to a scratch built chassis which featured curved copies of proper ’32 Ford frame horns. In the case of that early project I had built the frame out of necessity because I had simply run out of Deuce frames. But when I built it I realized that deeply channeled hot rods didn’t need all the detail in their frame sets that highboys did because so much of the frame is buried under the body. Details of the wheels saved from an early Deuce roadster project and the Jimmy Flintstone resin Deuce sedan that inspired this project – both from 2009-2010. Which brings us to this project. The chopped and channeled Flintstone deuce sedan reminded me that I had wanted to do a radically chopped and dropped Deuce 3 window for quite some time. Meanwhile, with the pandemic driving model kit prices rapidly upward I have become less motivated to raid and butcher existing kits in my stash. In the case of Revell ’32 Fords prices have nearly doubled and I’m inclined to reserve my Revell Deuce frames for highboy builds, where the frame detail is visible. Thus I decided to scratch together another set of Deuce frame rails, again cut from thick styrene sheet stock using a pattern traced from a set of Revell 1/25th rails. This time however I took a more direct approach to the rear z’d portion, omitting the 45 degree z of the earlier effort and focusing on how the frame would look from below once completed. The result, built from styrene strip for the k-member and the various cross members is what you see below. Since only the portion forward of the firewall will be at all visible the critical thing is to get the upward curve and the horns looking right and the frame width correct to take the grill shell and sit properly under the body. With the very deep channel (some 4 scale inches) the entire rear portion will be invisible except if the model is turned over on its roof. So I’m using a simple version of the stock kit coil-over rear end. The front suspension uses the terrific re-pops that ThePartsBox.com make of the Revell ’40 Ford Street Rod dropped front axle. I can’t recommend these highly enough, not only for their deep drop, but most especially because they are wire reinforced which prevents them from sagging over time the way most resin front axles do. Massive thumbs up! The Revell ’32 Ford 3-window body has been chopped approximately 3 scale inches as has the grill shell. Like the old Flintstone sedan I’m again using a Revell Hemi from their 5-window kit. Shown below are the initial mockups. The stance is where I want it, the motor looks right and the chop is finished out with the body in primer for final paint prep. With most of the hard stuff out of the way this should be a pretty fun project. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Don't know how I missed this As so many have said, SHARP! is the word. Beautifully conceived and executed.