Bernard Kron

Spectacular.... Or is it the undeniable romance of these cars? Either way... Spectacular build. Love the number 14. Is that a decal set or....

Here’s an update. It’s a real challenge building this car working from a kit with absolutely zero hot rod parts. Virtually everything has to be either kit-bashed, built from scratch or heavily modified. The pics don’t show it, but the frame required extensive mods to accommodate the Cadillac engine, and the front cross member landed up being virtually scratch built. Even the front axle had to be reheated and dropped just as if it were a 1:1. Frankly, I’m relieved that the stance of the original mockup survived all this cutting and fabricating! The front shock towers and shocks come from the AMT’25 Ford. They just went in and currently interfere slightly with the grill shell which accounts for the daylight between the shell and the radiator in some of the pictures. The overall look of the car involves a minimum of chrome. For this reason I mixed up a combination of Testor’s Acryl Gold, Jet Exhaust and Falt Black to paint the front axle and spring, as well as the rear spring. The front and rear locating arms are semi gloss block, and the rear axle is gloss black. The brake drums are jet exhaust which is a kind of dark bronze color. The interior is heavily sectioned and the kit seat has been sectioned and set back; again, just as it would be done on a heavily channeled 1:1. As the pics show the interior is still pretty rough. The tuck and roll is scratch built from Plastruct corrugated siding sheets. The dash will get p/e gauges. I’ll probably use a 50’s style steering wheel and the blue trim will be rubbed out and painted with clear semi-gloss once it’s cured. The color matches the engine block. I still have to make some decisions on the exhaust system. Most likely the headers will be tucked inside the frame rails. I’d love to figure out how to get the tailpipes to hang below the rear axle. I thought about more carbs but I kind of like the three stacked ‘97’s from the new RMC’49 Merc kit that are installed now. They complement the rake of the car. The poor detail of these carbs is hidden beneath the air cleaners. I may decide to ditch the chrome valve covers and go with the stock Cadillac script valve covers available from Replicas and Miniatures. Also still to do is installing shocks on the rear suspension, installing a driveshaft, putting in a fuel and electrical system, and wiring and plumbing the engine. Obviously I need to paint the car (I guess with the rat-rod thing going on maybe painting it isn’t so obvious). The color will be Tamiya Deep Metallic Blue TS-53. Figuring out how to mount the front fenders with a minimum of plastic showing and mounting the headlights promises to be fiddly and time consuming, too. I plan to do this once the main paint has been completed and it’s thoroughly cured. The frame rails and cross members will be painted the body color. The rest of the undercarriage is flat black. Click on a picture for a larger view:

Looks very interesting. I can use this stuff! Are those Moon Discs full wheels w/ backs?

1) There’s never anything simple about a chop or a channel – it’s called “collateral damageâ€, especially channeling! 2) I find the chassis a major annoyance. Replicas & Miniatures has a conversion chassis created by Rik Hoving that uses the Revell Model A variant’s suspension bits. That’s why we have an after market! See : http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/model_cars...m_frame_01.html and http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/model_cars...cm_frame02.html. It looks like it would solve a lot of headaches! 3) Once you’ve channeled one of these babies it pays big dividends to obsess over the size and location of the grill shell. Glad it worked out. Looking forward to seeing it. 4) “Mega-pipe†= “collectorâ€. It looks gorgeous. Unfortunately I suspect it will some very careful cutting to bring it up and in against the frame rails. The “phaeton†highboy really rocks. Where do those lovely “Divco†style wheels come from? B.

I was really looking forward to seeing this completed. It delivers on so many levels. It sits perfectly. The colors show the car’s line off to perfection. And the detailing achieves a realism that complements the tasteful classicism of this scale replica. Love those chrome reverse rims, BTW! B.

Nice choice of seat to go with the stock side panels. The photo also shows off the nice clean work on the frame rails. And what is their to say about that beautiful engine?! You're taking the post-rat-rod look to a new level. Looking forward to seeing more. B.

Use the sectioned grill, but it needs to be slightly lower to align with the mild rake of the body (i.e., a straight line from the cowl forward). The overall stance of both mockups is gorgeous - you've nailed it - so just this slight detail of lowering the grill, allowed by using the sectioned piece, will really "sell" the look you've achieved. Judging from the headers I'm assuming you won't be running a hood on the car. BTW, those headers are really nice, but I'd probably tuck them up closer to the frame rails. This is a really sweet build. Amazing how many variations people are coming up with from this one kit. It's probably a testament to both the classic good looks of the 1:1 and Revell's successful interpretation of it. I hope they're selling the cr*p out of it a just reward for their efforts! B.

Here are my anticipated initial purchases: AMT '51 Chevy Convertible - 1-2 Digger Cuda /Hippie Hemi - 2-4 (Donors for front engine fuelers) '49 Ford - 3 '60 Ford Starliner "2 In 1" - 2-3 Comments: The Starliners will be built as period mild customs. Would love to see 59-61 Chevy, Pontiac, Buick hardtops for similar projects. Also, I would consume "Forward Look" big fin Chrysler Corp. hardtops at a pretty fair clip! The HemiSphere tooling is really tired and makes using it as a donor kit difficult. Also, would love to see a longer wheelbase front-engine digger chassis. Perhaps you can create a new true front engine fueler from some of the existing tooling? Great to see early and frequent updates on the revival. It should pay off in increased interest and excitement and serve to burn off a little of the cynicism and despair. Most exciting would be the release of the first new kit, either from creative use of existing tooling, or. ideally, all new tooling. But in the meantime keeping core buyers "ïn the loop" should help a lot. P.S. I dream of the day someone comes out with a proper '29 Model A Ford Roadster kit as a "3 in 1": classic, street rod and straight line racer! Revell has done everything but this! The remaining AMT kits out their are funky and increasingly rare and expensive. The resin world, on the other hand, is expensive enough to only allow a carefully considered build.

oops - "you would have shot clear over the whole thing... (although I think the satin is just right, not too matte)."

So the "secret" is to shoot the transparent over pearl to get that in-scale metallic effect? And if you had wanted to go for high gloss then you would have shot over the whole thing... (although I thnik the satin is just right, not too matt).

Oh so tasty! Wonderful choice of colors. What is the off white you used on the firewall and perhaps the exhaust and undercarriage details? It complements the metallic orange beautifully. And is that a satin finish or just the result of an impeccably smooth metallic paint job and very diffuse lighting? BTW, you have to like how in-scale that metallic turned out. Any tips on how to achieve that?

I thoroughly enjoyed the race. The inevitable instability and confusion of new rules and a new season brought out the best in the drivers who drove like the racers they truly are. The race was full of many stories. Alonso was saddled with an evil handling car and showed the form that brought him two world championships. Raikonnen was as impressive as always, driving with great panache and never giving up despite making mistakes related to not keeping in mind the effects of losing traction control, until his car let him down at the end. Williams, having held on to the gifted Nico Rosberg, continued on their comeback trail, at last with a 3rd place podium finish as a just reward for it (and Nico showing tears of joy). BMW confirmed that they are a potential race winning team with a fine second from Heidfeld and a blistering pace from Kubica all weekend long. And what is there to say about Hamilton? He delivered a perfect drive from what he said was a perfect car, showing he will be a daunting threat all season long - and his new teammate Kovalainen is confident and happy in his new home and showed brilliant pace and driving before being caught out by a late race pace car. But perhaps the most impressive drive was by Sebastien Bourdais. He was a definitive fourth place as a result of all the maturity and race craft that brought him his five ChampCar championships and thus demonstrated his determination to make the most of his desperate last chance to achieve his dream of being a winning F1 driver. His Ferrari engine appeared to blow up with two laps to go so we might surmise that Scuderia Torro Rosso may have some work to do to give the the Ferrari lump a fighting chance, but as Gerhard Berger pointed out in a post race interview, in Vettel and now Bourdais, they have the drivers to be a winning team. So for me F1 continues to entertain. Yes, Ecclestone's meddling and greed has lead to a schedule littered with global nouveau-riche non-entities like Bahrain and soon Singapore, to cookie cutter tracks that look like video games, and senseless politics in the name of cost cutting (this in a sport where a winning team still must find 200,000,000 USD to achieve the final prize). Perhaps this will doom F1 in the end. But despite all these handicaps, the drivers always find a way to overcome them and demonstrate the passion that is really no different than it was in the days of Farina, Fangio, Moss, Clark, Andretti, Hill (father and son), Villeneuve, Piquet, Mansell, Prost, Senna, and Schumacher. Racers will always be racers. Just my 2 cents worth.

What a lovely gift. A real tour de force made for a friend whose models are always a tour de force. Is the interior paneling a scratch build?

I nearly forgot. What are your thoughts regarding the magneto? I'm building a Riley 4-port Model A block and would like to use a period magneto, preferably mounted on the side of the block - perhaps a Bosch or similar - and am comtemplating a scratch build.

Lovely, superb, wonderful! I'm sure you've been there already but here's a link to some shots of a completed Gerber Fronty: http://museumofspeed.net/Collections/Engines/E027.shtml . Looks like you've pretty much nailed it. Looking forward to the completed model.

I like wheel #4 with wheel #3 a close second. Are those reverse rims (wheel #2) the Modelhaus ones? They are real sweet... just not right for that tail draggin' behemoth! This should be a great build. Looking forward to it.

Thanx Raul. I think I'll take you up on your (as always) generous offer, it will encourage me to get back to the engine and chassis ASAP as soon as I finish the '34's interior...

I'm bouncing back and forth between this project and my '29 A Ford Bonneville Roadster. I should be able to post pics of the interior in the next couple of days.

It’s been a while since I posted an update on this project. I’ve got 4 builds going at once and I’m sort of rotating madly between them. Really nice, Jim. Style-wise on the outside it’s the opposite of my build – highboy ’32 with a pro-mod air scoop and contemporary roll cage. If I bail on the Halibrands I’ll have to consider those Moon discs. They look sharp. This little roadster is really fighting me. I intended to use a Dodge Hemi with a front mounted Potvin blower. But the Hemi’s heads stick out beyond the hood and I wanted to keep the track roadster look so the Hemi had to go. Next option was to use a small block Chevy with the Potvin setup. I though this would be pretty straightforward since I could use the Revell Parts Pack SBC that I got the Potvin rig from. But I hadn’t realized just how huge these Jimmy 671’s are, especially when you hang ‘em off several inches of Potvin gear drive! Here’s a pic Raul sent me to give you an idea (Click on the image to enlarge it): Anyway, so the front drive blower is gone because it won’t fit in the grille shell and I’ve decided to go with Hilborn injectors on the SBC and call it a day. I was surprised how difficult it is to locate injectors for the small block Chevy (I found a nice after market setup from Speed City Resin but the stacks and manifold alone cost as much as a model kit, let alone the pump and other details, so it would be nice to find a kit version if possible – perhaps the Revell Model King Anglia?). While I digested these changes I did some work on my ’34 Ford 5-window which I just put up as another WIP post. Then I got down to finalizing the chassis on the ’29 roadster. The result is shown below. I gave up on torsion bar springing because it would require too many little tiny bits of scratch built plastic for brackets, etc. And I just didn’t feel up to it. So, instead I went with a standard transverse spring setup, front and rear, there being plenty of kit parts that would move me along on this build. The major donor is the AMT ’25 T kit which provided the bulk of the front suspension and the rear axle and quick change. I will need to heavily rework the front axle to fill in the channel cut into it to accommodate the kit’s metal axle, and also to get rid of the funky “backing plates†molded into it. But the spring is nice as are the hairpin track rods. The rear spring is from the AMT ’34 for 5-window. The spring hangers, cross members, etc. Are all scratch built. I also had to completely rework the frame to allow for driveshaft movement. I landed up deciding on a kind of “k-member†setup (really a v-member) that is integrated into the rear roll bar and rear cross member structure. (A special thanx to RP for a vital care package of parts without which I’d still be scratching my head...) The result will require completely re-thinking the belly pan one more time in order to allow for rear suspension travel! As I said, this project is really fighting me but I’m enjoying the challenge (I guess...). I think I’ll relax by working on the interior on the ’34 and then get back to the ’29 in a few days. My next goal on this project will be a complete rolling chassis and fairly finalized engine installation. Here are the chassis pics (Click on the image to enlarge it):

I've got several builds going at once – all of them traditional rods and racers. This one is based on the AMT 34 Ford 5-Window coupe “Blueprinter†edition. I’ve already committed the flathead V-8 it came with to another project so I decided to use the rest of the kit to build a late 50’s street rod. Since it comes with zero hot rod parts it’s required a lot of cutting and adapting of the stock bits. The ’34 coupe looks especially good with a steep rake, channeled and unchopped IMHO. So far I’ve done the bulk of the bodywork including the channel job, sectioned the interior, replaced the front crossmember, dropped the stock axle from the kit, cut the front spring, shortened the frame front and rear, and started work on the Caddy V-8 that it will use. The grill shell is the 4†sectioned piece from Model Car Garage. To fit the Caddy I’ve had to rebuild the k-member of the chassis and set the crossmember further back then stock. It'probably going to be dark candy blue with a white firewall. I’m going to keep the stock top insert, finshed in white. The wheels and tires on the mockup are probably keepers, including the funky gold paint, but I may add chrome rings and Ford hubcaps. Here are a few shots so far (click on the image to enlarge):

Very nice color combo, shows off the classic lines and your tasty chrome work. I did a web search and couldn't locate them. How did you find them?

Superb representation of the 1:1 from every angle, inside and out.

FYI for others reading this, the ever generous Mr. Perez sent me three pairs of RMC Goodgurs '32 Ford roadster hood sides which have really sweet pressed louvers molded in! Yup, I got 'em today. Sorry I didn't PM you but I was knee deep in belly pan filing . Thanx so much. There's a '32 five-window that will see immediate use of them! B.

jah bill: and Paul: Thanx! Great minds.... I’ve got some stuff to get from R&MofMd so I’ll inquire about the Halibrands when I order. Jah bill – are yours the unslotted ones? Also, bill, I ran down the ’27 T roadster build. Really nice. Love the stance and the motor. Hope you’re persevering with it – maybe getting it done for NNL West! It will be a beautiful car. I’ve been struggling with bodywork. Got the tonneau (sp?) cover done. I actually made two, Version One is flat using what would be the bottom of the windshield frame as its leading edge. The leading edge of Version Two conforms with the curve of the cowl and sits more snuggly to the cockpit edge. I will use Version One for my mockups – I already cut it to clear the roll bar, I dare not cut Version Two (I really like the way it looks) until I’ve determined the windscreen configuration and finalize the chassis details and roll bar placement. I seem to be redoing everything. I’ve made two complete belly pans. The first was too deep but the second one finally conformed to the body properly after endless trimming and filing. The tough part is I want the body parts to be removable to show off the chassis, so I’ve had to engineer the tonneau cover and belly pan accordingly – molding them into the bodywork would be much easier! The Monogram Circle Track kit came and as I feared/suspected it’s really quite horrible. However, it does have a 4-spoke Bell style steering wheel I will use, and, as I’d hoped, it has a decent steering box setup that will go in this build. The Kurtis 500 Roadster does come with the right kind of period wheels and tires but they are cast in red plastic in two halves combining wheels and tires. Today I rough painted them black and bronze to mock them up to see if they are useful or not. The front wheels from the Dirt Tracker look like they may be candidates, too. We’ll see. Also, the Potvin blown Chevies suggested by Raul arrived and I’m mocking the blower rig to one of the vintage Dodge Hemi blocks today. I modified the chassis with a t-channel crossmember to allow for more engine setback. Seems like everything comes in two’s on this project! If everything works out I’ll scratch build or adapt a manifold for the Hemi. Raul sent me a huge selection of reference picks of Potvin blown hemis that I will refer too. Thanx Raul! Lastly. I have selected a nose for the car. It’s the Model Car Garage T Track nose. It required pie cutting the hood about 1 mm but it looks much nicer than the A Track nose and gives the car a period look I like. I’m now thinking about building a street version of the car – presumably its precursor that got cut up to make into a salt flats racer! But first I have to finish this one. Here are some quick pics (click on the image to enlarge): What do you think of the wheels. Do they look in scale? Next is the suspension and engine installation.

They list several unusual subjects difficult to find anywhere else. On line they show a 31 Ford Roadster which interests me. Also, the only belly tanker I've located was on the Hapico site (http://www.hapico.com/ - under 1/24 scale kits). It's a semi-complete kit which in fact requires extensive detailing and is quite expensive. It does appear to build up quite nicely though. I would be interested in learning more about the belly tanker you bought from them. Here are some pics from the Hapico site (click on image to enlarge):