Bernard Kron

Thank you everyone!

Again, much thanks to you all. It's great to hear from so many modelers whose work I respect and admire. I'm really pleased you like the result. Thank you Roger. Coming from a master of Sanitary Execution I'm pleased you dig it! Thanx Curt! Dunno. I had started a Chaparall 2e but I've somehow "mislaid" the motor, believe it or not. Maybe another hot rod of some sort,,,, Thank you! My intention was to get as close as I could to the archetypal Deuce street rod as it is currently defined in this era where TRJ is so influential.

One again, thank you all so much. I'm glad you dig it. You can check out the final "beauty pics" here Under Glass:

Nice collection! What wax do you use?

Nice one, RRR. Two smooth side hooded Deuces to kick things off. Gotta get me one of them Fordors...

I thought I'd give this thread a bump with my latest Deuce, a shiny black traditional roadster. Post up your Deuces when you get a chance!

Thank you, everyone! Your very generous appreciation is most encouraging and welcome. Battling to keep this build as clean as possible, given my very improvisational build style, was, as the expression goes, quite a "learning experience". For years that up-top sat in my stash waiting for the day when I could use it properly and this is certainly the build for it. Even the little oval window gives it a slightly contemporary touch that fits it. The shiny black & chrome theme was inspired by the Doane Spencer roadster and Bob Morris tribute to it built in the 90's. Despite the iconic status of the hardtop on these cars I preferred a cloth top and that's when I was inspired to use the CCR top I had. Speaking of up-tops, Ed Fluck at Drag City Casting, who I mentioned in my write-up, will soon be offering a handsome bop-top style up-top for the Revell Deuce roadster. It's being mastered by Dennis Lacy and he's shown some pictures of his w.i.p. I'm in for at least 3 which I'll finish in buff, white and black and circulate on various Deuces on my shelves. Can't wait!

’32 Ford Highboy Roadster Street Rod This is a Deuce Highboy I just finished done in what I think of as the contemporary Traditional style. It’s got all the Right Stuff: a period correct full dress Flathead, 50’s style solid Halibrand mag wheels, skinny big ‘n’ little bias ply tires, quick change rear end, and a deluxe custom stitched leather interior with a Bell sprint car steering wheel. The stance is raked and the bodywork and paint is straight and shiny. The base kit I used is the Revell 1/25th scale ’32 Ford Highboy. The Flathead V8 and finned oil cooler are from the Revell ’32 Ford sedan kit. A Revell ’32 Ford 5-window provided the tail lights, hairpins and smooth hood sides. The Halibrand mags, front and rear, are from a Revell Orange Crate which also supplied the front tires. The rear tires are from Herb Deeks. The distributor and coil are aftermarket bits from Morgan Auto Detail. A Revell ’29 Ford Roadster Pickup provided the chrome rear axle bells, rear radius rods and the headlights (modified with clear epoxy lenses). The quick change is from my parts box, as is the fuel block under the hood. The grill is a photoetch piece from Model Car Garage. The cool up-top is an old resin aftermarket item I got many moons ago from the now-defunct Carbon Copy Resin. It’s finished with Testors Acryl Radome Tan applied to simulate a twill weave fabric top. Recently I learned this top was originally cast by Ed Fluck at Drag City Casting which explains the superb quality. (Drag City also did the stock appearing firewall I used.) I chopped the kit windshield about 1 ½ scale inches to fit the top. The kit interior is lightly modified. The dashboard was smoothed and filled to accept a 6-gauge photoetch panel from Replicas and Miniatures Co, of Maryland, the Bell steering wheel is from a Revell ’29 Ford roadster, and the rear seat bolster notched so that it sits above the cockpit molding. The faux oxblood leather finish was done using Testors Acryl Insignia Red paint and various black washes. At the front a v-shaped spreader bar was fabricated using butyl covered wire. At the rear the stock fuel tank has been deleted, the rear ends of the frame rails shortened, and the rear pan rolled using ¼” quarter-round styrene stock. The body is finished in Duplicolor Universal Black and Krylon Gloss Clear. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thank you, David and Alan! This will be the final update. I got the front end completed. It features a Model Car Garage photoetch grill and headlights from a Revell ’29 Ford Roadster Pickup “Rat Rod” kit. The reason I used these headlights was because they have separate buckets from the chrome rims. I stripped the chrome off the buckets to paint them black to match the body. The Revell ’29 RPU kit is a very old Monogram kit and it doesn’t come with clear headlight lenses, although it had nicely engraved lens detail on the chromed plastic. To give the headlights a proper modern kit look I flowed 5-minute epoxy over the kit lens surface. The result is the clear lens effect you see in the photo below. Next up it’s time to post the requisite “beauty shots” of the completed model Under Glass. Thanks to all who have followed along with this build. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Great topic and some nice models to show! My collection of Deuces is AMT-free, I'm sorry to say, I have 2 models, however, that almost qualify, First, and more closely in the spirit of this thread, here's my "fake" AMT box-art build,based on the street rod version of "The Deuce" on the original issue box art. It's constructed with virtually no AMT parts (except for the valve covers, Moon discs and fenders) from the Revell 1/25th scale '32 Fords: The other is a tribute build I did in honor of the fine folks at ThePartsBox.com in Australia. It's based on their AMT-based chopped 5-window coupe resn body and it's right-hand-drive, naturally. Almost everything on it is either from their extensive catalogue or scratchbuilt except for the wheels, grill shell and rear axle:

Thanks everyone! Your kind comments are much appreciated. Here’s a small update. I got the rear end and rear suspension finished up. The taillights are the little tear drops included in the Revell 1/25th scale ‘32 coupes and sedan kits mounted to the photo-etch backings provided in the Model Car Garage photo-etch detail set for these cars. The exhaust system was run out to the back end using butyl covered wire painted stainless steel and polished tips made from aluminum tubing. The engine compartment is completed. Most of the parts are from the Revell Deuce Sedan kit but the chromed fuel block is a mystery part I found floating in the bottom of one of my parts boxes. Proper grill shell braces were made from stainless piano wire (a pet peeve of mine is that awful “curtain rod” center brace that comes in the Revell Deuce kits). Left to do is completing the front suspension, installing headlights and gluing the windshield in place. Really not much… Shouldn’t be long now. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks to you all. I'm glad you like it. I’ve gotten a good deal done in the last couple of days. The front and rear axles are now glued in place and the wheel mountings finalized. This permitted me to do a stance check and the car sits pretty much how I imagined, so now I can focus on the final details and assembly. The pictures below are with the body parts wheels just loosely tacked in place. There’s no interior so the back half of the main body may sit slightly higher but the difference, if any, will be slight. I chopped the windshield about 1 ½ scale inches and I got the top painted, using Testors acryic Radome Tan. I used a similar technique to paint the fabric top as that used on the upholstery, hand brushing light coats, cross hatching the brush strokes as the paint layer dried to achieve the desired texture. In the case of the “leather” for the upholstery the strokes are random, alternating between diagonal and right angle strokes. The effect on the top I was going for was a matte weave and so I stuck primarily to right angle strokes. Black is notoriously difficult to photograph, and a light tan like I used on the top is no easier, but the photos capture the overall look fairly well. The contrast between top and main bodywork came out OK, I think. In the second photo below there’s also a group shot including the only 2 black Deuces in my collection. I was surprised I had so few, considering I have probably a couple of dozen ‘32s on my shelves. I seem to tend towards reds and maroons more than other colors. The chopped Tudor highboy is a model I built a couple of years ago. The full-fendered roadster was built to a description of my ideal Revell kit bash I wrote in a forum post at least 10 years ago. My friend Raul Perez built it as a surprise gift after he read it. I still refer to this model from time to time as an inspiration of how a precisely built and thoroughly detailed model car should be done. Since cleanliness and precision are the main goals of this project, now come the dangerous part – final assembly. Fingers crossed all goes well… Thanx for lookin’, B.

It’s been a while since I posted a new project. Preparing to go down to each year’s NNL West in Santa Clara always involves a major thrash to get models done to show, and, as a confirmed “messy desk executive”, my work room always lands up looking like a .bomb hit it, with kit boxes scattered on the floor, paint cans and jars perilously perched randomly everywhere, and piles of styrene competing with tools and brushes for whatever space is left. On my return at the end of January I didn’t imagine that I would be actually forced to hunker down in my home for an extended period, but it was a welcome excuse to finally clean up and organize, post thrash. At last, a couple of weeks back I started another project. Speaking of the NNL West, that storied model car shows features some of the finest work of Central California car modelers and highlights a particular style of building – the “NNL West Style” as I’ve come to think of it, is one featuring impeccably deep and smooth paint jobs and plenty of kit chrome. It’s a sparkling feast of modeling eye candy and I always return home inspired and aspiring to someday build something in that style. Generally I go more for realism over shine, and almost always the kit chrome comes off straight away. But with this project I decided to try my hand at this way of building. I chose yet another ’32 Ford as my project so I could concentrate primarily on paint and finish, It’s a shiny black highboy, based on the Revell kit. Most of the parts used are from either the Roadster version (body, interior, chassis, front suspension) or the Sedan (flathead V8, .smooth hood side panels). The rear end has been converted to a buggy-spring setup lifted from a Revell ’29 Ford Roadster Pickup kit. The front tires and Halibrand mag wheels, front and rear, are from the Revell Orange Crate, with Herb Deeks truck tires at the back end. That’s rolling stock I’ve long desired to include in a project and is part of the traditional look I’m going after. The Halibrand quick change of unknown origin is from my parts box. In keeping with the shiny ‘n’ chrome build style kit chrome has been [reserved wherever it’s appropriate. A highlight of the project will be the up-top, a lovely piece I bought several years ago from an outfit called Carbon Copy Resin that came and went all too quickly. It’s a beautifully done casting and will be finished in buff colored canvas to contrast with the main bodywork. It’s displayed in the photos below on the primer black “Therapy” highboy I did a few years back, which most closely resembles this project. Like the Therapy roadster this car will have a chopped windshield and a raked stance. But this roadster, besides being glossy, has a rolled rear pan instead of the stock fuel tank at the back, and a v-shaped spreader bar at the front. The simulated ox-blood leather upholstery is done with Testors Acryl Insignia Red and lightly brushed black washes. The six-gauge dash panel is from Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland and the Bell sprint car steering wheel is from the recent Revell ’29 Ford Roadster kit. Next time I’ll show the car up on its wheels for stance check and then it will be time for final assembly. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Nicely done. I did a chopped 3-window several years ago and, oddly enough, it was candy gold, too. But it was before the Revell '29 Roadster kit came out so it's based on the '32 chassis. The new '29 kit sure is a fine parts kit for this sort of work.Looking forward to seeing more cool hot rods from your bench.

Like Dan Himmel, I remember this model from the old SLM days. I have these images saved on my computer for reference on "how it should be done". I agree completely with Dan's comments on your work. I'm so glad to see you share it here on the MCM board. An inspiration to any modeler who aspires to excel.

Thanks for the reply. I've sent Firebird an inquiry.

I TOTALLY dig this. It absolutely nails the intended look. Build on!

Looks like they do excellent work. I do tons of my own decal work. I've done it for many years but have always needed an outside source to print white or metallics. I had a supplier until recently but it looks like he'll be inavailable for a while. Do you know if Firebird will accept my bitmap artwork or do they redraw everything in vector form before printing?

That's interesting, given all the complaints about the raised wheel arches on the Revell bodies (at least on the roadster - the coupe wasn't around long enough for that complaint to emerge). Maybe it's the difference between 1/34th and 1/25th that aloowed things to come together with only some futzing around. Good to know. Thanks!

Yessiree, it's a sharp street rod indeed. I'm curious about the fender arches on the modern Revell body. Any mods required to mate it up to the old Monogram fenders?

Thanks. Glad you dig it! Curt sells on eBay here: eBay seller crtr8tz items for sale

I copied and pasted each sentence from my originally intended post. I eventually got to it all. The reason it's in 2 parts is because the paste function timed out and I had to start a second post. Unfortunately I'll never know what the offending text string was because it all (eventually) got posted. Thanks Snake!

...The other influence was almost certainly the model car show in Pasadena attached to the Grand National Roadster Show the following day, which kept some of the SoCal regulars away. But the positive aspects far overshadowed the car-count decline. For example the vendor tables were completely sold out, something I can’t recall happening in several years. And there were many new vendors and vendors who had been new last year and were back once again. Even more importantly, the atmosphere was vibrant and dynamic with the aisles crowded with modelers and visitors engaged in animated conversation throughout the day, without the usual decline after lunch. And vendors appeared to be doing very well, too. I hope to finally get back to the level of photographs I used to be able to provide when I go back next year. In the meantime thanks to all my modeling friends, new and old, who made this year's NNL West so enjoyable. B.

Below I’ve posted a few pics from this year’s NNL West which took place last Saturday, 01/24/2020. Between a substandard camera I’ve sworn not to use again and a premature battery drain, I landed up taking only a few pictures, many of them of questionable quality, for which I apologize. Additional photos can be found here: NNL West 2020 Photos NNL West 2020 was an interesting show with the usual vast selection of beautifully built models, making the photo debacle especially frustrating.NNL West 2020 was an interesting show with the usual vast selection of beautifully built models, making the photo debacle especially frustrating. The number of models actually declined somewhat, but was still enormous at close to 1,000. But, as I said, the quality was ever present.

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