Bernard Kron

Nice details to this one. Really nicely executed, too. I'll be following this build for sure!

Alright! This is the stuff in your work I like almost as much as the design vision - how you fabricate those ideas. It's that totally unique intersect of yours between what you "see" and the desire to dig down and execute at the detail level. I guess that what me mean by "modeling"!

Going back to the original question, ironically the styles that will be associated most strongly with the current era will be those that survive and evolve least successfully! If, for example, the cost of customizing or hopping up becomes more of an issue in the years to come, then the current fashion in "Tuners", the highly customized and accessorized imports so heavily promoted on television and at trade shows, will have to be reassessed. Either they will become symbols of bad taste and excess and fall out of favor, or will be idealized as symbols of glamor and a boom time now gone. Probably it'll be both, logically first falling out of favor and then being rediscovered for the elements that that people find attractive about them. The reason I mention this is that this is the way that most styles ebb and flow and evolve. They are revived in new forms at a later date. Those styles that have the least going for them, have the least to offer in terms of potential future appeal, are those that we associate most specifically with a given era. But absolutely everything is reassessed in some form by future generation. Everything is grist for the creative mill.

Both supppliers provide their tires in black resin. They're black, so that's the good news. Getting the tread surface to look properly scuffed is not as easy as on soft "rubber" tires but it can be done with careful sanding. Hard plastic tires that come in white or other non-black colors, and resin tires that come in typical resin colors such as tan or white can be finished in various shades of flat black and can be quite convincing. The few times I've done that I've been surprised at the very decent results I've gotten. Testors makes an enamel paint called "rubber" ( http://www.testors.com/product/0/1183/_/Ru...-_14_oz._Bottle ) which people say looks very convincing. I have never seen it in any of my LHS's so I haven't had a chance to try it. Tamiya apparently also makes a spray on Black Rubber which comes well recommended ( http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...LXUGV3&P=FR ). Tim is on the money about the floor technique. I think many of us will take the AMT '29 much more seriously now that you've shown us how to capture that tasty floor. The AMT kit is chock full of very nice detailing. It's only let down by their misguided and now outdated hot rod parts. B.

Great topic which I've carefully stayed away from for fear of seeing way too many great models. I was right, too! But I must say that people's reason for their favorite pic vary wildly from being their best build (or favorite build) to great picture, contest winner, or special reasons, etc. I love the variety. Here's mine: This was the first model I completed last year after several decades away from car modeling. By no means my best build since I started up again, but it was definitely a case of "beginners luck" and this picture just nails what happened right with this first attempt. It's got just the right stance and old school flavor. And I'm sure it being my first comeback completion has no small amount to do with this being my personal favorite photo.

Still not sure. Somehow I acquired a Stone, Woods & Cook Revellogram Willys ( ) that would yield a great chassis for a detailed out gasser. On the other hand the AMT kit comes with a very nice blanked grill shell that just screams Bonneville. A full custom, on the other hand would take massive bodywork intervention. And I think the kit body is too pretty to risk that sort of thing. I doubt that I would rat it out either. One thing I'm certain of, it won't be box stock because nothing I build ever seems to be that way.

To the best of my knowledge no slicks in '48, or drag strips for that matter... just dry lakes and street racing. Check out Modelhaus in their nostalgic street rod tires section. They have very specific descriptions as to width, diameters, styles etc. Pretty much the gold standard in Old School aftermarket tires. Here’s the link: http://www.modelhaus.com/index.php?y=&...p;Submit=Search Unfortunately they don't include pictures, but here are links to two great sets of reference pics for Modelhaus tires and other stuff: http://s223.photobucket.com/albums/dd211/O...Pics/08%20pics/ http://public.fotki.com/jsharisky/modelhaus_resin_items/ In addition I recently got a set of Replicas & Miniatures Big ‘n’ Littles that are quite nice. They are on my ’29 A-V8 that I still haven’t finished… (Click on picture for larger image) Lastly, if you carefully pick your way through older AMT kits you can assemble a set, but finding the narrow front ones is quite difficult, let alone, as John poiints out, matching ones to the larger rears! B. BTW, I just noticed that my '29 has more rake than I would like, too! And it's too late for me to do anything about it either... What can this mean?

I posted some sttuff on you Test Pic thread you might find useful (or not... ) The Merc looks nice, BTW.

Chris: It works on my end, too. Only thing is it's a VERY BIG picture (1024x768). I have to scroll right to see all of it. This is because the basic layout of the forum uses up quite a bit of the left hand side of the screen. If someone has a 17" or smaller monitor, or are running a screen resolution less than 1024 x 768 this can be a PITA. This is still quite common. I would suggest a smaller image, either 800x600: or even 640x480 The 640x480 is handy for workbench threads because is scans easily when you have lots of pictures. Also useful is the clickable thumbnail option on Photobucket: Click on the picture above for and a window will open with a larger image. Unfortunately, as you can see Photobucket has recently changed the code so that you get the whole Photobucket page with all the ads. I figured out that if you edit out " ?action=viewcurrent= " from the code you get a nice clean image without all the ad garbage: (Click on picture for larger image) See? You can lay the thumbnails side by side by editing the image code by deleting the line return at the end of the string for each image and substituting a space. This gives you a nice side by side layout which eliminates lots of vertical height: (Click on picture for larger image) I use the thumnails for workbench posts. I use the 800x600 size for Under Glass posts. I usually edit my posts in Microsoft Word so I can use the search and replace and spell check functions. I generally stick "(Click on picture for larger image)" underneath the pics so people know they can see a bigger image. I hope you find this useful. Judging from that Merc this photo stuff should be a piece of cake!

Great question! I basically agree with David. Certainly the examples he gives (donks, pro touring and rat rods) all share the characteristic of an exaggeration or recapitulation of an older style while, in actual fact, looking different from it. For example, rat rods don't actually look anything like the jalopies and hot rods they are referring to. This has always been the underlying approach in rod & custom styles, at least since the early 1950's when "customizing" lost its earlier meaning of creating a luxury car look from a cheaper car. Each time we go through this we develop new looks and techniques which are original for the period and which we eventual associate with it (for example trick paint techniques of the 50's and 60's, the clean look of the 90's billet scene, etc.). One characteristic of the current decade that effects many of the contemporary styles is the huge after market industry that is a powerful influence on the evolution of styles - many modern styles have a dominant component of assembling major pieces from the aftermarket. Pro touring would probably be impossible without this, and certainly the advent of the steel reproduction body has strongly advanced the cause of New Traditionalism during the recent economic boom, i.e. the Rodder's Journal look. Currently, I find myself wondering how the world of rods and customs will free itself from the slavery of the checkbook and charge card that it has created of late. I have no doubt it will and it will be fascinating to see how it does it. Other areas of automobile enthusiasm are having to face the same realities. For example, observe the world of road racing and the challenges it has had to face for at least the last decade or more. Now F1 finds itself in this soup and is struggling for a new vision besides being a giant billboard for global financial expansion. We live in interesting times...

WOW!!!!

It's a winner!!! Great to see the back end with the lights and number plate at last. Lotsa of great angles in the photos. The front 3/4 view of the Hauler shows just how perfectly proportioned and balanced this customized truck came out. All that subtle fine tuning that went into sectioning the hood, finessing the cab and roof sections, and moving the front wheel arches really paid off in integrating the custom nose into the rest of the bodywork. And the matching interior really complements the stripes and general color scheme. Finally, the four ensemble shots, particular the front and rear 3/4 views, highlight how successful the whole concept turned out to be. An epic it may have been, but one that was worth every bit of time, thought and skill invested in it.

I agree on both counts. This is such a cool concept. returning these rally cars to street stock versions - it shows off what great basic styling they have. Maybe you could post the box art.

Welcome Rick. The website for your club, 4 State Modelers Club, which you linked in your signatuire, is very nice. Lotsa great builds in the gallery section including your excellent trucks and you sweet merc. There also seems to be a relation, Venus, with a coupla cool rides, too. The Hades rod looks like a radical build in the making. Loking forward to more!

"...going for the glamour shot?" - Heck yes!!!! And you just know if they ever put a class of these things together road racing would make a massive comeback! Am I right or am I right? Is the '31 the too kool orange sedan you were working on in '08? PS The rear wing is insane! B.

John, Oh John...

I agree, it doesn't look bad at all! Once you get some color on the car the total look should hook up and settle in. Build shots in raw plastic are the crueliest of all, but at least they keep us honest...

Welcome John! Nice build! I like the wheel combo - nice touch. I think I have rarely read anything as on the money about the basics as what Casey just posted above! Read it and believe! Every one of the tips Casey points out are "great equalizers" in their own right. Many of the fine builders on this board trade on just these items alone and deliver wonderful models time after time. Sure after market parts, super detailing, and spectacular airbrush artistry are a trip, but in many ways a clean out-of-the-box build is as good as it gets when it comes to fine modeling - people like me who find it impossible to build stock out of the box are constantly amazed, delighted and more than a little envious of these clean OTB builds. Keep on buildin'!

Voluptuous and beautiful. I dig it!

Thanx for the kudos, Mr. Banes! Very much appreciated. That spare blower setup from the HemiSphere that someone gave me, with the really sweet belt drive detail, sure made the difference in bulking up the Caddy to right degree of Beastliness... There's still a '37 Chevy in my future after the run down the coast to the NNL!

Really nice interior. I agree that the front looks better dropped down a bit more. However, just my opinion, but I would consider lowering the rear just a tad. One way to accomplish that is to locate the spring mounting at the O'Clock position on the backing plates instead of 12 o'clock as is normally found on most model kits. The only problem is that this moves the rear axle forward a bit which can be a serious issue if you can't adjust the rear crossmember location. On my '29 I changed the frame from the '32 Revell rear setup to one using the AMT '29 costsmember so I had the ability to do this and lower the rear slightly in the bargain. The build looks terrific so far. B.

Everything looks cool. In primer you can see that al the lines are nice and crisp so the bodywork will pop in final paint. That Duplicolor stuff is impressive. You might consider their Gold version of the same stuff for El Blingy Dingy.

I agree. the work on the front fender and hood really paid off from this angle (as well as from the front view). Really sophisticated and atrractive surface development. I'm still waiting for the payoff on the backside when you add the detail, as pretty as the basic curvature is!

Cool detail WIP - vewwwwy edoocayshonal! Between your custom plating rig and and your climate controlled walk-in paint booth* you have a little model-making factory operating here. And good suggestion from Raul which I will remember come painting times in the future. *Very useful in the damp, cool climate of the PNW!

Thamx Don!