Bernard Kron

Here's the Brizio build page including final photos which should give you all the detail you could ever want. https://www.roybriziostreetrods.com/progress/gloy_2/index.htm This is perhaps the most successful blending of contemporary automotive sophistication and authentic traditional hot rod aesthetic ever achieved in a single Deuce. From the torsion bar front suspension used to ensure practical ground clearance in such an ultra-low car, to the seats inset into the floor pan to create a practical and comfortable position for both driver and passenger (and, extraordinarily, permitting an up-top!!!!), I can't recall anything to equal it.

Perhaps my all-time favorite Deuce, extraordinary in its svelte proportions and low stance. The perfect blend of Gloy's sports car sensibilities and the Brizio shop's formula for hot rod elegance. This was an ambitious project on your part and it's come out very nicely indeed!

Thank you everyone. Your comments are much appreciated. In retrospect this was quite a challenging build, even though it was pretty much Out-Of-The-Box. This isn't a reflection of the original kit, which is extremely detailed and quite well engineered. It has more to do with the fact that this style of build is not what I usually do (I'm a confirmed kit-basher, working mainly in hot rods, kustoms and staightliners). But I intend to do more projects in this vein and I suspect I'll become more accustomed to the discipline it demands. Again, thank you all!

Thank you so much, Matt! The project is now completed and can be seen Under Glass here:

Porsche 904 GTS Carrera This project was based on the old Aurora 1/25th scale Porsche 904 kit first issued in 1965, re-released in 1991 by Monogram and once again by Revell of Germany in 2003. It has a reputation for being “fiddly”, and indeed it is. But that’s because it is extraordinarily finely detailed and because the Aurora designers engineered the kit to assemble much like the original 1:1 car would have. Unfortunately much of the beautifully rendered detail is eventually buried under subsequent parts and will never be seen once the model is completed. But what a delight to assemble! It’s a 3D journey through one of the most significant sports racing machines of the postwar era. It was a true road licensed GT with over 100 copies produced to comply with the FIA Gran Touring regulations of the era (the car was first introduced in 1964). Many were raced, but perhaps just as many were used on the open road. The version I modeled is based on a fictitious privateer team, “Ecurie Lutéce”, in the tradition of the great mid-century privateers like Ecurie Ecosse from Scotland and Scuderia Serenissima from Venice, Italy. The decal scheme is based on the layout from the Serenissima 904 with the large rondels, but that car was, of course, Italian racing red. This car is French racing blue (Tamiya TS10). It is inspired by a 904 currently being run by the French business man and collector Jean-Marc Bussolini. Like his car, I went with the upper body panels in blue with the lower bellypan molding in silver. “Lutéce” is the ancient Roman name for the city of Paris, home base for my make-believe privateer. This model is virtually 100% out of the box. The complex detail you see is entirely the handiwork of those inspired Aurora designers back in the day. Definitely not the kind of kit we would normally associate with that brand. The parts fit is very good. The only reason it’s “fiddly” is because of high parts count. But the result is well worth the work. The only additional parts I added were the wiring and plumbing, a couple of ignition coils from Morgan Auto Detail, a rudimentary throttle linkage and some seat belts. Otherwise, it’s all in the box! And with virtually no flash in the 1992 vintage Monogram edition I used. The decals are a mixture of homemade (the French racing stripe down the middle, the Ecurie Lutéce badge and the Dunlop logo), and numbers and rondels from Go-Fer Decals. Thanx for lookin’, B.

The upper body assembly and fitting is completed. This is where the kit earns its reputation as fiddly, even more so than the suspension and motor assemblies. Even in the 1:1 904 panel gaps are not the tightest, but in 1/24th scale, on a model that’s been engineered to closely resemble the original car in terms of parts and subassemblies, getting the upper body to mate with decent alignment is a hit or miss proposition not so much because the parts are molded accurately to size – they are – but because of the way the original car was designed. The rear engine cover and the front body assembly simply rest on top of the bellypan with no interlocking surfaces. The front fenders and main body structure are molded in one piece and fitting the front compartment cover is very straightforward and the fit good. But the rear cover will always “float” and shift because it has nothing to definitively align it. There are two sets of hinges that allow the cover to pivot rearwards to reveal the motor, but they are loosely retained by pins and don’t want to hold in place, so the cover can shift regardless. When displaying or photographing the model it will always be necessary to set the cover in proper position. The hinges don’t let the engine show all that much so I’m leaving the hinges taped away inside the cover if I ever want to use them. The picture below shows the hinge pieces and the cover pivoted open on them. Also included are a side view and a view of the front compartment. I still need to make a proper prop for the front cover since none is included in the kit. Here are some views of the assembled body. The body work has picked up a good deal of dirt and polish residue during construction and will need a thorough cleaning. I also have to decide on how much of a race car look, as opposed to a show car, I want to give it, which will determine things like numbers and trade decals. So, along with mounting the wheels and minor details, there’s not much left to do Thanx, for lookin’, B.

Hi Kurt, I finished it and posted it Under Glass here: I'm still on the lookout for a proper Italeri or Gunze example at a non-eye-watering price for another bite at the apple.

Thanks again guys. Your encouragement is appreciated. The main chassis and belly pan are all buttoned up now so the front suspension has now disappeared under the fuel tank forever. But before it’s gone here’s the photo I took of it without the “ghost” overlay in my last post. The exposure is boosted somewhat to highlight the detail And here’s the final summary of the interior, front end and motor before most of them disappear under the bodywork: Now comes the tough part – fitting the upper body panels. This is truly the make or break moment for this project. Wish me luck. B.

Thank you all, once again. I very much appreciate it when a project of mine can make a connection.

Thank you everyone! After being sidetracked by two new projects, both completed, I’m finally getting back to the 904. I continue to be impressed by the fine detail in this kit, and by the similarity in construction to the 1:1 the original Aurora kit designers chose as their strategy. The kit has a reputation for being “fiddly”, and that’s why. Lots of very small parts made to emulate the corresponding parts in the real car. It’s not quite the exhaustive detail you’d find in a large-scale model, but more than sufficient to create the experience of “constructing” the car. What has surprised me is that for a kit that’s over 50 years old the parts fit and alignment is really very good indeed. And this 1992 edition from Monogram is totally flash-free. One outcome of all this detail is, just like in a real car, much of it is hidden under other parts or bodywork. Once the model is completed much of it will never be seen again. So it’s there for the enjoyment of the model builder and, ultimately, no one else. I’ve managed to complete the entire front end and the interior. The composite photo below features a “ghost” shot of the front compartment showing some of the highly detailed suspension which is hidden behind the fuel tank. Oddly, despite all this detail the kit doesn’t come with a spare wheel and tire as required by the FIA rules of the period. The spare you see in the picture is from a Gunze Sanyo Beetle and is the closest thing I have to a 904 spare. The interior is simple, but a faithful rendition of the race-car interior of the 1:1. At this point what’s left to do is install the glass and lighting and complete the final body assembly. My main concern now is with body panel fit. The front upper half of the body, comprising the front fenders, doors and roof, has been repeatedly test fit so I’m hopeful it will go in place with minimum drama. But how well the huge hinged rear body panel will align with the front half of the body will remain a total mystery until the final stages of assembly. Fingers crossed all goes well! Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks guys! The completed model can be found Under Glass here:

Thanks again for all your kind comments. On the TRaK board it was suggested that I could have done a more polished stainless steel look to the grill, perhaps using photo-etch , and highlighted the louvers with fine detailed black paint or a Micron pen. My reply included some more thoughts about this project and what I had in mind so I thought I would post it here for those who might be interested: "I thought about using various metal parts alongside the plastic, notably a handsome (although inaccurate) machined aluminum Moon Tank I have, as well as a p/e grill. But in the end I decided to focus on one (although not the only) theme of the project - a believable steel bare metal finish. So I did the darkened bare steel grill you see, and made a kit-chrome Moon tank to add mass and contrast to the front. Development of a sense of mass and bulk, one of the keynotes of lowered Highboy roadsters, especially with chopped windshields, was the other design goal I was after.* This is a natural outcome of the monochrome bare metal look combined with the lowered z'd frame and deep drop front end. It drove the choice of motor, and the addition of a hood panel and Moon tank. Initially I thought about doing this car entirely in rough raw metal tones, but in the end I chose to include contrasting chrome highlights. The windshield, in particular, would have looked awkward and overdone if stripped to a bare metal look. So the car is in a state where most of the chrome parts are back from being plated. If I have a spare weekend, sometime, I'll see about hitting the louvers with a Micron pen... *I'm a fan of the 80's/90's "Ohio Look" Deuces, as exemplified by the cars Barry Lobeck's shop turned out. This look has evolved since then with the influence of the more purist Traditional look popularized by TRJ. This build blends the two, with its narrow bias ply tires and flatter stance. The precursor for the Ohio Look, of course, was the Tom McMullen roadster which contributed the idea of the Moon tank."

Thanks so much, Dan. I still haven't taught myself to handle real metal the way you can, so this is my approach to dealing with a material I know better, styrene.

Thanks to you all for the kind comments! Thanks so much, Bill. You are far too kind! I still can recall being floored by the effect you achieved on your creation of the bodywork for the original injected version of the Mickey Thompson Challenger. Bare metal is a mysteriously beautiful thing. In my case I was trying to reproduce the look of the steel tub on my frogeye Sprite when we were building it up from bare metal. I wanted it to look a little shop worn. I accidentally discovered this technique a few years ago when testing the metalizer powder over various paints. It was being hyped as a chrome finish, something which I failed miserably at achieving. But... by varying the brightness, texture and color of the underlying metallic paint, and how much and how you add and remove the black wash after applying and polishing the metalizer powder you can imitate anything from brushed or polished aluminum to old worn steel. It's definitely worth the time to fool round with it and come up with the look(s) that are appropriate to your project. . If you omit the wash completely it becomes quite difficult to get a proper steel look, and you are more likely going to get an aluminum effect. Also, I should note that this was a particularly hard subject to photograph successfully. The interior in especially tended to act like a black hole and I had to resort to adjusting the exposure of that area during post processing. The color, too, was hard to nail. It tended to be too blue and saturated looking. But the final photos capture the result fairly well. I'm glad you all enjoyed it, B.

Bare Metal ’32 Ford Highboy Roadster This is a kit-bashed Deuce Highboy featuring a bare steel finish utilizing a technique I developed consisting of a base color coat of silver lacquer metallic paint (Duplicolor Silver Metallic), Kosutte Gin San metalizing powder and Tamiya Black Panel Line Wash. Everything is plastic except the grill shell support struts (.020 piano wire) and the driveshaft (aluminum tubing stained with black wash). Non-steel surfaces are finished in various combinations of Testors Metalizer paints and Molotow Chrome or are kit chrome. The only color besides metallic tones are black rubber and the blue-gray seat belts. Here are the details of the kits used and the scratch built or modified items: Revell ‘32 Ford Highboy kit – Chassis rails, front cross member, radiator, grill shell, hood, main body, knock off hub spinners, head and tail lights, license plate frame. Chassis z’d 6 scale inches at rear. Model A cross member and buggy spring from Monogram Model A Ford kits grafted in place. Front suspension from Monogram ’32 Ford Roadster kits. Revell Stacey David Rat Roaster: Hairpins, Moon tank sides, miscellaneous small parts and steering gear. Revell/Monogram ’37 Ford Van kit: chassis K-member, exhaust mufflers. AMT ’53 Ford Pickup kit: 8-carb DeSoto Firedome Hemi V8, shift lever. AMT Phantom Vicky kit: Halibrand front mag wheels used as rear wheels, dashboard, steering wheel, front spot brakes. Polar Lights Funny Car kits: front wheels. Aftermarket parts: Modelhaus T120 front tires, Herb Deeks bias-ply rear truck tires, Halibrand quick change rear suspension, ’40 Ford rear brakes and Schroeder cowl mount sprint car steering by the late Ron Royston at Early Years Resins, louvered rear deck and stock style ’32 Ford firewall by Ed Fluck at Drag City Casting, bomber style seats by Big Donkey Resins. Scratch built parts: Interior tin work, steering bell crank and tie rod, exhaust system. Chromed Moon tank made from Revell side pieces and AMT ’49 Ford center barrel to avoid a tank seam and preserve kit chrome. Thanx for lookin’, B.

This project is now completed. I’ll post the final presentation photos tomorrow but in the meantime here are some last construction notes and detail photos. The Revell Stacey David Rat Roster contributed most of the final detail bits, including the hairpins, chopped windshield, most of the steering bits in the front end (except, of course, for the bell crank and steering rod which I fabricated), headlights, and things like the rear view mirror and radiator cap. The taillights and license plate frame are from a Revell’32 Ford Highboy Roadster, thinned down to look more to scale. Here’s a detail composite photo: I’ve left some parts removable to present several variants. I made a small Moon tank from thecenter piece from an AMT ’49 Ford Moon tank and the two side plates from the Revell ’32 Ford 5—Window coupe Moon tank. Doing this eliminated the annoying horizontal seam of the Revel tank which results from the two piece center barrel. This allowed me to preserve the chrome, which I wanted to do in order to contrast with the bare metal grill and frame horns. Here are the 4 variants: Next up the final “beauty” pictures and a post Under Glass. Thanks to all who followed along and for your comments. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks Andy! As I was looking at my last post I was noticing that the body wasn’t set straight on the chassis. The driver’s side rear was skewed high. In addition I hadn’t set my camera to shoot RAW format and shot regular JPG format instead. RAW format is the basic data your digital camera generates before it compresses the color and pixel density information into a smaller file. Most cameras don’t offer you the option to save pictures in RAW format. It’s a feature mainly reserved for high-end professional and semi-pro cameras. But my cheap little Fujifilm ES900 9 megapixel compact camera will save to RAW, and the result is truer colors and sharper details. So, since the body was on crooked anyway, I decided to reshoot my last post with the body on straight and a more faithful presentation of the bare steel effect. I also adjusted the white balance to represent the true white of the background I was using. Here’s a comparison of the side view from the last post and the new image with the body on straight and the higher quality photography. The red circles highlight the effect of the crookedly mounted body. And here’s the re-do of the last post. And finally here are some additional details omitted from the last post. The undercarriage shot is only missing the front wishbones and steering tie rod. The interior shot shows the Schroeder sprint car steering underneath the cowl. And the two top photos show how the motor will look behind the grill with the carburetors in place. The top right photo is a little Photoshop-Phun with a ghost shot of the carbs showing through the hood panel. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks guys! The chassis work is now complete with the exception of the steering tie rod and hairpins. At last I could check the stance by temporarily attaching the wheels and tires. So below are 4 photos which amount to a stance check. I came out as I wanted, with that characteristic tough and slightly fat look of a classic highboy. I fabricated a steering pivot arm to connect to the largely hidden Schroeder sprint car steering (a lovely resin piece from the late Ron Royston at Early Years Resin). The tie rod is done, fabricated from styrene rod and “plated” with Molotow, and the hairpins are the Revell Deuce ones from the 5-window coupe kit. Lot’s a fitting, fettling and adjustment right now, but it shouldn’t be long before this project is completed. I’ll include detail photos with my final update before completion. With only black to contrast with all the bare and plated metal tones it looks very monochromatic, which is what I like about the baremetal look. Thanks for lookin’, B.

Thanks for all the interest and nice comments, everyone! I’m in the “bitsa” stage of this project. I’m doing some “bitsa” this and “bitsa” that, a natural outcome of my improvisational kit-bashing build style. I didn’t care for the thick look and stiffness of the interior panels so I landed up redoing them completely from .010” and .020” styrene sheet. The original was done from .030” styrene sheet as a base with .010 and .020 strip to construct the details. So the overall thickness is now about ½ of what it was. Because it’s so much thinner it’s flexible and rests snuggly up to the interior surface of the body. I also cut out the triangular areas so that the interior body surface is now revealed, creating a far better depth effect than before. I like it much better, now. I also added a dash panel from an AMT Phantom Vicky kit. Both the new panels and the dash are shown as part of the composite summary photo below. The rolling stock is now complete, too. The wheels are a combination of Halibrand mags, the fronts coming from an MPC funny car kit, and the rears are the front mags from the AMT Phantom Vicky kit. The wheel centers have been painted in Testors Acryl Jet Exhaust to simulate a Dow 7 coating. The rims were left in the kit chrome. The front tires are Modelhaus T110B’s and the rear tires are my favorite Old Skool hot rod rear tires, Herb Deeks bias ply truck tires. Next up, the motor. As I mentioned I wanted a big, powerful looking motor, and considered several of the currently fashionable “alternative” Old Skool power plants, like the Buick Nailhead and especially a blown Oldsmobile. But in the end I decided on the massive looking DeSoto Firedome from the AMT ’53 Ford Pickup Trophy Series kit. Those 8 Strombergs really command attention! And lastly I’ve included a photo of the front and rear axles. The front is the dropped I-beam from the Revellogram 1/24th scale ’32 Ford Roadster kits. I shaved the spring to bring the front end further down. The spot brakes are from the AMT Phantom Vicky kit. The rear is a resin Halibrand quick change setup from parts stash. The rods you see protruding from the ’40 Ford brake backing plates are the mounting pins for the rear spring. They’ll be trimmed away to a shorter length once everything is assembled. With the “bitsas” all cleared away it’s time for final assembly. The exhaust system and driveline will take some fiddling but it shouldn’t be too long before this project is completed. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Brilliant concept impeccably executed. It hits all the right notes!

I'm highly allergic to superglue so I've had to become knowledgeable about alternatives, In the realm of styrene to styrene bonding my preferred weapons of choice are Testors "Red Tube", Testors Liquid Cement, Tamiya Thin liquid cement, and MEK. As a cheapskate S.O.B. I was attracted to MEK because it can be bought for pennies an ounce in the pint cans at most hardware stores. It's so cheap that you can Do The Right Thing by throwing it out the moment it gets cloudy (and much weaker) from dissolved plastic residue. It penetrates very well, but is slower to bond than Tamiya Thin or Testors Liquid, neither of which penetrate as well or dissolve the plastic as aggressively. Also MEK will damage surrounding surfaces more than the other two liquid cements. Testors liquid is good where you need some initial "tack" to locate things. Tamiya Thin is a little less tacky, because it's thinner, and MEK has almost no initial tack, so it generally requires an initial softening application to both surfaces and then a second (or more) pass for a dissolving bond.. For really near-instantaneous tack Testors Red Tube is my choice, but it's thick and doesn't offer as clean a joint unless you are very sparing with the amount you apply. . But Red Tube is great where the glue joint is totally hidden, like flat surfaces. Where you can clean up the surfaces afterward I recommend using a more tacky glue for the initial locating bond and then following up with several wicking passes of MEK for a truly permanent "welded" bond. Edit: As an afterthought, but useful if you're using liquid cements, I recommend buying Tamiya Thin and saving the bottle when it's empty for your other liquid cements. The low, squat square bottle won;t tip over and the applicator brush seems to resist even the harshest solvent glues. My Tamiya bottles have lasted many years.

I haven’t done a hot rod or drag car project since the Autorama contest on the TRaK board last December. This is quite a dry spell for me, but I’ve been working on several sports car projects since then, including a couple of Porsches. This project, however, has been percolating in my imagination for quite some time. It’s a ‘32 Ford roadster which will be done entirely in bare metal tones with the exception of the tires and any non-metal items like hoses and seating surfaces. The stance will be that of a “low Highboy”, with a Z’d rear end and severely dropped front axle, providing for a low overall ride height despite the body being mounted atop the frame rails. I’ve done the basic chassis work, based on a Revell Deuce chassis. I’m incorporating as many details that will emphasize the bare metal appearance as I can think of, so I grafted a ’37 Ford truck X-member to the Deuce rails. The rear end has a buggy spring from a Monogram ’27 Ford. The rear axle will feature a Halibrand quick change which will be visible from the back end because I won’t be extending the rear pan despite omitting the stock fuel tank. The interior will be all bare metal except for the upholstery on the bomber-style seats which are resin pieces I got from Big Donkey Resins. The picture below shows a rough mockup of the interior bits. The interior side panels will be glued and clamped into place to conform to the body shape. Below are some body photos showing the basic setup. All the metal finishes in the two phtos consist of Duplicolor Metallic Silver lacquer which was treated with Kosutte Gin San metalizer powder and a some thin black acrylic wash. Still to be determined are some pretty major items, like the motor and rolling stock, but I wanted to get the basic look started in my belated re-entry to things of a hot rod nature. The motor will most likely be something big and powerful, not a flathead, and the motor will determine whether I include hood panels or not. The wheels will most likely be traditional Halibrands of some sort, with skinny big ‘n’ littles. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks Bill. I'm only now discovering kit lore - model kit history is not one of my strengths. With my expansion into the sportcar world I'm discovering both modern kits and the surpsing group of early kits with truly impressive styrene engineering. This ex-Aurora 904 kit is definitely one of the latter. It may get a knock for "fidliness" but from my limited exposure to high-detail modern kits, it's certainly no worse than those. And it appears it will reward those ambitious enough to add some contemporary detail and to spend time worrying about colors, textures, etc. I've had to do a lot of research to get this thing to look "real", but Aurora gave you plenty of detail to work with. Now if I only could find a full-detail kit of it's successor, the 906, which I consider to be Buzi Porsche's most beautiful design... Thanks! This kit is right up your alley, Dan. Some research will provide tons of fodder for your fabrication magic. I would love to see you tackle something like this in your build style! Thanks Curt, this isn't my first sporty car, I finished a 356A a couple of weeks ago. But it's certainly my most ambitious attempt. I know a thing or three about this era of sports cars so it's nice to be branching out. I wish I could go the GSL, and you're right, the last one will no doubt be a must-do! AND... Thanks to all who are following along. Hopefully I can see this project through successfully...

Thanks to you all for the interest and kind words! It’s been several weeks since I last posted on this project. I got sidetracked by a second Porsche project, a 356A Speedster, which I completed. In some ways that distraction was a good thing since the funky Revell kit I used required more of the kit bashing style that I’m used to from my hot rod modeling and served as a transition to this far more sophisticated and higher parts count kit for the 904. Researching the detail for that project also got me more firmly ensconced in Porsche lore in general. Having has some time to study the history of this kit I am surprised by the ambitious detail it has, especially now that I know that it was originally an Aurora kit from 1965. Aurora is not a name I associate with kits of this order. This update is about the back end of the model, the engine compartment, transmission and rear suspension, all modeled from a complex array of small parts, which, with care, present a fairly faithful replica of the 1:1. Given than this is the only 1/24-1/25th scale full detail kit of the 904, I’m grateful for the care and effort that Aurora put into this kit well over 50 years ago. The rear portion of this model constitutes a model in itself. I spent time researching the 1:1 and added some small details and modifications, but most of what you see comes in the box. I added some 4-cyclinder pre-wired distributor caps from Morgan Automotive Detail which I grafted to the kit’s twin distributors, along with dual ignition coils, also from Morgan. I replicated the correct ignition wiring, which turnout out to be challenging since, with the dual distributors, each distributor is wired to both cylinder banks. I also fabricated a simple facsimile of the carburetor linkage. The combination firewall and suspension brace cum roll over bar that comes in the kit is an odd piece. It’s designed to extend above the rear deck into the rear window area to act as a roll hoop, but it’s too short and narrow to conform to the roof panel and floats somewhere in the middle of the window opening. Research showed that 904’s often either had no firewall brace/rollover hoop at all, or if they did, it was a shorter piece that served primarily to act as a structural brace and ended just below the rear deck. I decided to fabricate my own replica of this shorter hoop using butyl coated wire and styrene rod. The shorter version is what you see in the composite summary picture of the rear end posted below. Next up is the front suspension and interior., much of which has already been painted and detailed. This should prove somewhat simpler that the back end. Then comes the final assembly. In some circles this kit has a reputation for being fiddly and difficult to assemble. Hopefully the multi-piece body will go together without too much melodrama. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thank you everyone, for all the kind words. A great warm up for future Porsche projects in particular and sport car builds in general. Research was half the fun on this one, and the build style it required more like the kit-bashing style of my hot rod projects.