Bernard Kron

Thanks one again to you all! I don't know about beating out the Ala Kart, but that era of show cars, with their obvious 50's hot rod DNA, certainly inspired this build.

Thanks Gary. Your great fade paint jobs were, and remain, the inspiration for my experiments with this decal technique. As I've said elsewhere, I gotta solve the ventilation problem which is preventing me from learning to airbrush!

Thanks so much to all of you for the exceedingly kind comments. I'm a pretty improvisational builder so I never know for sure how these things will come out. I'm glad it's made a connection with you guys. Now that the dust has cleared on my workbench and it's found its place on my shelf now I'm starting to dig how it looks.

Thanks to you all for the kind words and appreciation. This started out as a casual project to get rid of some spare plastic in my stash but turned out to be a far more ambitious build than I had counted on. The turning point was the wheels and whitewalls which, along with low profile Phantom Vicky Duval windshield, pointed the car firmly in the show rod direction. A 50's style traditional rod would have been far simpler to do. The high-risk stuff included the tonneau cover and the large decals used to do the fade panel paint job. Frankly I'm surprised it came out as well as it did. And I know this style of rod isn't to everybody's taste, so I really appreciate all your comments. Thanks Dave! This was a true Kitbash-Deluxe project so listing the parts was the only way to give a sense of what was involved. For those who want to see some build details, including the model that inspired it, the decal art and the chassis, here's the w.i.p. thread:

Here's my latest Deuce, just completed. A decapitated Revell Tudor to make an early 60's style "Tub" show car: More pics and build info Under Glass here:

’32 Ford Channeled “Pseudo-Tub” Show Car More photos below Many moons ago, ago about the time it was first introduced, I attempted to chop a Revell ’32 Ford Tudor. It went ago until I lost a part of the “A” pillars. The rest of the kit was picked clean of virtually all its parts as the half-cut body traveled from one parts box to another, homeless. Recently I decided to remove the top altogether, making what a TRaK member name “Dub” had christened a Pseudo-Tub at about the time of my original ill-fated chop. Dub had built a fine traditional style Tub hot rod from his decapitated Tudor and I had always intended to try something similar. But as I gathered parts for my Pseudo-Tub project I encountered a gorgeous set of resin diamond-tuft quilted bucket seats. This caused me to do a full 180 from a 50’s style traditional street rod to an early-60’s style show rod with a Duval style windshield grafted on from an AMT ’32 Ford Phantom Vicky which also contributed it’s chassis and cowl. Instantly this turned into a monster kit bash. All the parts sources and details are listed below along with more photos. Revell ’32 Ford Sedan: Main body (top & cowl removed), firewall, front shocks and headlights, taillights, license frame, coil springs and shocks AMT ’32 Ford Phantom Vicky: Chassis (2 scale inch Z at rear), front half of floor pan, Rear axle and suspension, grill shell, cowl, dashboard, DuVal style windshield Monogram Lil’ Coffin: Wheels front and rear, rear slicks, shift lever Revell ’29 Ford Roadster: Buick Nailhead motor including carbs and exhaust headers Revell ’30 Ford Phaeton: Steering wheel Aftermarket parts: Drag City Casting: Diamond tuft quilted seats, front Buick finned drum brakes; Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland: Carb scoops; ThePartsBox.com: wire-reinforced resin ’40 Ford 4” dropped front axle; Modelhaus Tires: T120A front whitewalls; Aurora Plastics Corp.: "drawer pull" grill from vintage #592 Custom Grills & Trim 1/25 Scale Customizing Automobile Parts Scratch built parts: front leaf spring, tonneau cover, interior side and rear upholstery panels, rear half of floor pan Paint and finishes: Duplicolor white primer and Duplicolor Universal white base coat, Tamiya TS65 Pear Clear (3 coats), “Fade” panel paint job done with home-made decals, all sealed with Tamiya TS-13 clear (5 coats). Thanx for lookin’ B.

I guess I'll have to differ with comments so far regarding Tamiya Pearl White. I agree that it's very transparent and sensitive to irregularities in the color underneath It is absolutely mandatory to put down a good, even coat of white underneath. The comment above to seal the body with an even gray primer before applying white primer is excellent advice. Where I differ is that I've always considered Tamiya Pearl White TS-45 not iridescent enough. I've done a few cars using TS-45 and it always comes out looking more like Just Plain White than anything. That is to say it doesn't sparkle or color shift enough when it catches the light. It's not a very strong pearlescent. I'm just finishing a project where the base color was Tamiya TS-45 over Duplicolor white primer and Duplicolor Universal White. Like all Tamiya spray paint it when down smooth and even with no trouble, but even after three coats of TS-45 it hardly changed in depth. I plan to experiment by laying down several coats of TS-64 Pearl Clear over TS-45 to see if it improves things. I tried that briefly on some scrap plastic but didn't get past 2 coats of pearl clear, although I didn't experience any real improvement. I also want to try TS-45 over a coarse siver flake followed by TS-64 to see what that does. In all these cases I followed up wth at least 3 coats of TS-13 gloss clear and that only added a bit mor depth, but no iridescence.

Thanks Phil! The back half and interior of the car are now done. The to-do list is still fairly lengthy, with details like the exhaust headers, front radius rods, steering gear, windshield glass and headlights left to install but really this project is about done. Below are pics of the interior (minus shiftlever), and rear end of the car. The taillights and license plate frame are from the inevitable Revell Deuce kits. This should be the last post as a w.i.p. Next time it’ll be a completed model! Thanx for lookin’, B.

Lovely, lovely work. How I missed this last September I'll never know. I have 2 in my stash waiting to be built, an unbuilt Merit and a resin body with a full open interior. I have long wanted to build a full detail version with the aluminum panels, a little Coventry Climax and the space frame. But I have concluded that this is most likely a fool's errand and simply means I'll never build them. A superbly rendered curbside of this spectacularly beautiful car should be a more than satisfactory achievement for any modeler. The revised cockpit fairing is a brliliant touch. On a side note, the full bubble-top version of the 11, the Monza streamliner, sat on the showroom floor of a vintage car consignment dealer here in Seattle for what I remember as being something like three years before it sold. I didn't mind, of course, because it was on the way from where I parked my car to my office and I got to lok at it every day. But I always wondered why it took so long for someone to buy it.

Thanks! And thanks for the detailed explanation. The back of the seat is the #1 challenge on these 27T's and is the main reason I've only ever done 2 street rods using that body, even though I think a well done 27T looks better than just about any other fenderless street rod, even Deuces, of which I've built far too many, LOL. The windshield is from the AMT '27T Touring and is a perfect fit and proportion for virtually all the resin 27T buckets out there. It's simply the lower half. IIRC it was given to me by Bill Engwer (Ace-Garageguy) after someone else (who I have since forgotten) told me that's what they used. It's times like that that I wish I had mastered resin casting, because, along with a proper generic seat back back module, I would cast these up and build lots more 27's. Regarding the headlight brackets the easy option should be the one's from the Revell 1/25th Deuces, with or without the tubular shocks, depending on your requirements. That's another resin cast wish list item for prolific hot rod builders like myself. The other generic solution is the bracket and headlight combo from the AMT 25T's. They have been re-popped by ThePartsBox.com. BTW, the Revell Deuce rails under my 27T are z'd as well. Adapting them to the narrower 27T is simply a matter of cutting them from the molded in floor panel. I even re-used the Revell floor once I had narrowed it. I had thought this would be one of the bigger challenges in the project, but actually it was all pretty simple and straightforward. 27T highboys aren't that common, but if you can get the stance right they are very cool indeed!

Sharp-As-A-Tack!!! Richie turns out one sanitary build. Bravo!

Beautiful work you're doing here. I did a 27T hiboy several years ago and I can report that this was among the most challenging projects I gad attempted up to that point. In particular is the fact that there are virtually zero parts that are a straight fit for the body shell, not chassis, nt interior bits, nor windshield. That model has I built has suffered over the years and needs either a re-do or perhaps an entire second version. I've already noted the gorgeous interior you've crafted and I'm looking forward to you tackling the windshield. How did you maintain the curvature of the seat back during fabrication? Here's a composite pic of my first attempt, which was on Revell '32 Ford rails.

Very nicely done with lots of original details like the skirts and the rolling stock. Do you remember how you did the retaining strap for the spare? The strap is scaled just right and the buckle is very convincing.

Hi Phil, I use Photoshop. I start by laying out the shapes in masking tape on the model. I then pull them up off the model and stick them on sheet of paper to scan them. I mark them up with an eye to what I'll be doing later. I then "cut" them up in Photoshop to individual images for each decal.: Then I process them in Photoshop to get the effect I want. In this example you see the cowl decal made by taking the cowl part of the scan, cutting out the right half of the cowl, cleaning up the edges, applying a Photoshop effect (a "Layer Style" in Photoshop lingo) called Inner Glow going from purple to transparent (or white in this image). I then flip the right half to make the left half to make sure it's symmetric. When I print on clear decal stock it allows the base color (in this case pearl white) to show through. I usually make an initial set and actually apply it to the model to test for fit and effect. In this case most of the decals had to be adjusted for final fit.

Thanks to you both. Thanks Claude. I have always tried to buy the pre-painted ones because they have generally been cheaper. The Phantom Vickie is really the ultimate parts kit, The list of items to steal is seemingly endless: headers, independent front suspension, chassis, windshield, two-pece headlights, two-piece talights, dashboard, firewall, front wheels (make great rear wheels), motor, etc., etc. The only problem with the pre-painted ones is that the paint is almost impossible to remove. When I grafted the Phantom Vicky cowl on this build I had to sand the paint down to bare plastic because it wouldn't come off in the "purple pond". Recently, too, Phantom Vickies are getting more sought after with the commensurate increase in price, pre-painted or not.

Thanks Alan! This looks a lot like the preliminary decal mockup a couple of posts back, but this is actually the final decal application with 5 coats of Tamiya TS-13 clear over them. That’s 2 coats more than I normally do so that’s there’s plenty of thickness to rub the paint out. This was actually a pretty big deal. The decal art was edited to provide a more exact fit, and a fogged strip was made for the grill shell, which was missing from the first set. As you might imagine, these are quite big decals. There are 12 individual pieces (including 3 for the grill) and a lot can go wrong between printing, sealing them, applying them and clear coating them. In fact it took the equivalent of 3 decal sets to get them all right. One of the advantages of self-made decals is you can always print more! It looks very much how I imagined it would and the application is pretty clean will no major gaps or flaws, so I’m quite relieved. Once the paint is hardened I’ll polish it out and then do the final assembly Thanx for lookin’, B.

The Aardvark kit, definitely a holy grail for any sports car modeler, I'd say. I'd also say that you did it's status as such total justice. Bravo!

Really handsome channeled Deuce. Great proportions and contemporary Conservative Traditional vibe. The color, rolling stock, and stance all come together just right, not a small mater when you realize you were starting from the old Monogram 1/24th full fendered kit which lacks a separate chassis. The strengths of the kit are in the finely molded body shell, the interior styling, and the nice windshield, all of which play out nicely in you rendition. Bravo!

Thanks Roy. Things are moving along at a nice clip now. I decided to tackle a show-style tonneau cover. It’s made from Evergreen (main tuck and roll surface) and Plastruct (diamond tuft insert) styrene sheet. The chassis is built with the exception of the front hairpin radius rods. And all the main surfaces are painted in Duplicolor Universal white over white primer and three coats of Tamiya TS-65 Pearl Clear. Now for the decals and final assembly. Thanks for lookin’, B.

Thank you, Tom! This project is evolving into a far more ambitious endeavor than I anticipated when I started it. Deciding to go with a show rod has involved a lot more in the way of experimentation and fabrication than a straight 50’s street rod would have. Since the last update I decided to go with a true 60’s style show car panel paint job. I don’t airbrush so this means doing it with decals. One reason I went this way was because I thought the car would more “flah” in a light color and doing a panel design would highlight the lines better. The base color will be gloss white, but right now Iim proofing the decal sizes and patterns. The mockup below is in white primer. There are eight decal panels so far, three side panels on each side, a rear panel and a cowl panel. I’ll also do a design for the grill shell. Here’s the decal art so far: I got the interior door and rear panels and the seats painted white. The gold tone is Tamiya Titanium Gold. I also made a “drawer pull” stye grill using material from a vintage Aurora Automobile Customizing Accessories, #592 Custom Grills and Trim. That’s it for now. Time for gloss white undercoats on the chassis and body parts and some very careful decal work! Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks everyone. Dub did such an on-the-money interpretation of the 50’s style that I’ve decided to go with the 60’s show-car version. With that in mind I’ve gotten several of the basic subassemblies out of the way. The motor is the Nailhead from the current Revell ’30 Ford Model A Coupe street rod kit. I swapped out the rather huge modern transmission for a more traditional LaSalle box for a better fit in the AMT Phantom Vicky chassis. The only other change is the intake scoops from Replicas and Miniatures Co. of Maryland. The floor panels have been made, a combination of the floor from the AMT Phantom Vicky and some styrene sheet. I also cut down a Revell Deuce fuel tank to fit the rear of the AMT chassis. I scratched together some interior panels for the body sides and a divider panel adapted from the rear of the interior of a Revel Deuce 3-window. The tuck and roll and diamond quilt patterns were made from various Plastruct and Evergreen sheet and strip. They’ll get painted in a combination of white and gold along with the bucket seats from Drag City Castings. The wheel assemblies are also completed. It was suggested that I go with a smaller looking front tire that the Lil’ Coffin ones, perhaps some Modelhaus 120’s. So here are the fronts with the 120’s. They are fitted with Buick finned brake drums; IIRC these finely detailed pieces are also from Drag City. They were narrowed and shaved a bit to fit the Lil' Coffin' wheels. They’re picked out in Testors Aluminum Plate metalizer on the fins and Molotow chrome on the backing plates, to match the chromed backing plates on the Lil’ Coffin rears. That’s it for now. I’ve been trying my best to stick with unpainted parts and temporary mockups during the fabrication and development phase to ensure as clean a paint assembly phase as I can muster. Paint, in fact, is next. Thanks for lookin’, B.

I just received a giant Porsche box-o-parts which I “won” on eBay. The box was a Fujimi Porsche 356 B/C 2000GS Carrera 2 Cabriolet. It belonged to the late husband of the seller, and judging from the items she was selling, and her description of them, he was one serious modeler, who, among other things made 1/24th scale resin casting masters of some pretty significant and rare sport racing car subjects including the 1962 Ferrari TR LeMans winner as well as the 1963 rear engine250P. She was selling resin copies of these as a set of 3 (2 250Ps and a ’62 TR) that eventually went for $225.00 after some spirited bidding, far too rich for my blood. But the Porsche box-o-parts was more within my reach, and I prevailed for the low end of the price range for a complete used Fujimi 356 kit. Her pictures and description promised a huge assortment of parts and she wasn’t kidding! The box was bulging but well packed and everything inside was intact. Included what was essentially one complete 200OGS Cabriolet including motor, chassis, suspension and interior, the parts for at least 2 more Carrera 4 cylinder motors, 4-5 sets of wheels and tires, ,both chromed Fujimi items and various resin castings the builder had made for himself and chassis and suspension parts for most of another 356. Here’s the box: Here’s the Cabriolet body, immaculate in as-new condition: But here’s the real motivation for bidding on all this stuff. A complete RS60 body, which, from the eBay pics looked thin and smooth enough to perhaps be styrene. Now that I have received it, it looks like styrene to me. I’m far from expert on Porsche scale model lore but an internet search showed only 3 1/24th scale RS60s, a Herb Deeks transkit to adapt the Aurora/Monogram 904 kit, a full detail kit from Model Factory Hiro and a slot car body from Revell. The Deeks and MFH bodies are resin, and this body is definitely not resin. You can see the mold marks and parting lines on the inside. The copy I received is pretty far along in terms of prep. The inside of the body is silver and looks like bare styrene to me. From the headlight buckets it looks like it might be the Revell body with the headlight lenses molded in and painted over. If it’s the Revell body he also opened the front boot cover and engine cover and removed the tonneau cover and cut out the dashboard area. I figured there must be an expert on this stuff here on the forum. What do you think, is this a very well prepped Revell slot car body? The pictures I’ve seen of them feature opaque plastic, rather than vacuum formed clear. Were they styrene? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks, I'm usually pretty good at checking the start date on a thread but I missed it this time. Doesn't detract a bit from how cool it is, though. I'll check out the other one, too!

What an extraordinary thread. I'm amazed it's only now that one has been started. This is such a natural topic! Thank, you., thank you, thank you. Endless surprises here. I mean, I can't recall ever seeing a Valiant done in this early Golden Age style of kustomizing, let alone multiple (often succesful) variants. It's also great to see some very skillful and sensitive restorations (and even elaborations). Bravo! I'm purely a builder and not a collector so I don' own examples of anybody else's work. But I do have one extant example from my childhood, and also a photo or two from the period. So here they are. This is my only survivor, built when I was a kid. Card stock body work, stretched FED chassis made by combining both chassis from the Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit. It once had a front wing, too, also made from card stock. The motor and most of the decals are from the Revell '55 Chevy Hardtop kit. This is in its current "as found" condition, the way I received it many years later when my mother sent it to me after she had glued it to the base of the plastic model case it's in. I keep meaning to reproduce it using modern materials and techniques... These photos don't really fit in this thread but I thought I would include them because they were shot with an Instamatic and are almost in focus. It's a Parts Pack dragster built by me not long after those parts were first released. Unfortunately this one didn't survive.

To my eyes what stands out, besides the obvious very high level of craftsmanship as evidenced by the brass work and the wire wheels, is the styling, in all the key eleements, the proportions, the stance and the details (i.e. the placement in the front step-up in the frame, the shape and styling of the grill shell, and the add-on headrest, as examples). For people who might not undetsand why we engage in this car modeling hobby, this would be one example of what we can get out of it. It's truly inspirational. For myself, who will probably never get to modeling in metal, it's also inspirational on another, more basic level, because there so much here that I can envision doing in plastic, something more within my reach. Build on! This will be one beautiful automobile when done, independent of the fact that it happens to be a miniature.