Bernard Kron

Thank you everyone. "Slammer" projects are ideal for focusing in on the total look you're going after without getting too sidetracked by fine detail. On the other hand, that's what makes them so challenging, since in a way your out there without a net: there's virtually nothing to fall back on except the total impression the completed model conveys. It either works or it doesn't... There is no possibility of extra points being given for effort (or detail, or complexity, etc.), LOL! So I'm glad my model could make an impression... Thanx again!

Chopped Dry Lakes ’32 For 3-Window Coupe – Early 50’s Style for TROG Theme at NNL West 2018 The Race of Gentlemen (aka TROG) has taken the hot rod world by storm. Held every year on the beach at Wildwood, New Jersey, it was established in 2012 by the Oilers Car Club as a race for vintage motorcycles and hot rods. and immediate post-war funky stripped down performance machines. These come in a wide variety of styles, everything from bare-bones 1920’s gow-jobs to fairly slick and well-turned out early 50’s street rods. One of this year’s theme tables at the NNL West in Santa Clara, California on February 3rd will be dedicated to TROG. A popular style of car seen on the beach in Wildwood might be termed a “Preservation” rod, where a true vintage machine is lovingly restored to full safe and sound running condition while leaving the original patina of the car untouched from the day it was found. This ’32 Ford Coupe is done in that style for the NNL West theme table. I started with a Jimmy Flintstone resin body; a ’32 Ford 3-window with a vintage dry-lakes style chop job featuring the characteristic angled A pillar. This was done to cheat the rules and make a car with as sever a chop as possible to minimize frontal area, while leaving the windshield large enough to pass inspection. It was perfect for what I hoped would be a simple project that would allow me to concentrate on the overall look and keep the technical challenges under control. Because the Flintstone body is a one piece unit comprising the grill, hood, main body and sides of what would be the bellypan, I determined that I would build it as a curbside. If the tinted windows I was planning on using were dark enough I would even build it as a slammer, with no interior detail at all. I started by painting and weathering the body. The base coats were two coats of primer, the first red oxide and the second white. Then came the color coats of Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze enamel. Once the paint was thoroughly dried and cured I sanded various areas to the appropriate degree to simulate worn paint and the beginnings of light rust. Then I followed up by designing decals for the sponsorship and race numbers using Photoshop. The decal designs were further processed in Photoshop to make them look weathered and worn before printing them Once the decals were applied I finished the weathering off with application of various shades of Bragdon weathering powders, simulating rust with reds and browns, and ground in dirt with blacks and grays. The final step was to seal the whole thing under Testors Dullcote and give it a very light buffing to look like the natural patina of well-worn paint. The other main design element would be the wheels and tires. Narrow bias ply tires were the order of the day in 1951, which was the target date of this car. My current favorite rear tires for early 50’s street rods and dry lakes cares are aftermarket 1/24th scale truck tires made by Herb Deeks. You can buy them from him on eBay but I put in a year’s supply each year from Herb at the NNL West. Paired up with a set of the skinny ribbed tires found in various Revellogram ’37 Ford delivery vans and pickup truck kits, they make for an ideal period set of big ‘n’ littles. A period detail I wanted to include were the very basic flat steel or aluminum wheel cover discs often seen on immediate post WWII dry lakes cars. They were the inspiration for Dean Moon’s iconic domed spun aluminum discs which would be his namesake on hot rods to this very day. As I said they are dead flat and cover the entire wheel. For this reason any wheel would do since it would be totally hidden. It just has to be the right width and size for the tires. Frankly, the less likely I would ever use them for any other purpose the better! The perfect wheels turned out to be a set of billet-style mags I found in a Monogram ’37 Ford Sedan street rod kit. Stripped of their chrome they disappeared under a set of scratch-built discs I cut from .020 styrene, using a craft store circle cutter made to cut paper and thin plastic. I then painted them in silver lacquer and metalized them using Kosutte Gin Sang powder and weathered them using the same powders as on the body. The final touch was the red plastic windows. As I had hoped, they were dark enough, and the windows small enough, so that no interior detail of any kind was necessary. A slammer it is! The rear suspension is non-existent, too, since it is entirely hidden inside the body, leaving only the front suspension cobbled together from my parts box, and a bellypan cut from .020 styrene sheet and finished in weathered steel in the same matter as the wheel discs. So here it is, my vintage early 50’s “Preservation Style” TROG beach racin’ slammer. Thanx for lookin’ B.

Bought my plane tickets and getting my stuff ready. I'll be sure to stop by to put a face on a name. And likewise for anyone else I bump into!

Thanks! Just about done, which shouldn’t be surprising given overall there wasn’t a lot to do. The front and rear suspension is installed and so it was time for a stance check. Things look like they turned out OK, with a racy rake to go with the lakes-style angled A-pillar, emphasized by the weathered molding on the body. The wheel covers were re-done to match the bellypan (see below) – I felt the first attempt was too bright to go with overall worn look. The red tinted windows have been installed: As I suspected the small window openings combined with the relatively dark plexiglas, completely obscures the interior, so the model is now a full slammer with absolutely no inside detail whatsoever. I made a blanking sheet to seal off the interior below the beltline, avoiding any possibility of seeing the rough resin and crude structure. It’s a sheet of styrene painted flat black and taped in place. The bellypan was fabricated from .020 styrene and finished in Duplicolor Silver metallic lacquer. Treated with Kosutte Gin Sang metalizing powder it looks like bare metal steel. Followed up with some weathering powders to match the body work and it all tied together well. At this point I re-did the wheel covers with the same treatment to match. The bellypan will be fastened in place using the L-shaped tabs on the reverse side as glue points. The T-shaped strip down the middle of the reverse side is to give the thin .020 styrene some structure. The notch is to clear the rear "axle". In the composite photo below, besides the shots of the bellypan construction and placement and the interior view showing the sophisticated rear suspension system and the blanking sheet, I’ve included a detail shot of the front axle installation. I actually went to the trouble of fabricating a leaf spring from strips of .020 styrene, but on completion it turned out that the width of the spring was exactly the width of the slot in the bodywork to accommodate it, so it is totally invisible on the completed car. Oh well... All that’s left to do now is to fabricate the steering and suspension detail. The rear shocks will be nonexistent since they are hidden in the bodywork, the front shocks being Revell ’40 Ford Standard vane-type units. The radius rods will be split from those found in the Revell ’37 Ford truck and van kits. The steering will have a side mounted bell-crank and external tie rod. With that it should be done! Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks Richard and Tim. Richard, even though I don't remeber I I can't see how I didn't "abosrpb the image below in doing this car. The coincidence is just too great, even down to the color choice... Tim, I'm glad you liked. I'll be sure to check out the article. You're always such a trove of modeling lore, especially for us kit bashers!

Thanks Mark and Ken! Ken, I was looking for a Washington state based Chevy dealer from the period. There's a town about 50 miles northeast of Seattle, where I live, on the eastern slopes of the Cascade mountains, called Arlington, which has always had a fair number of big auto dealers - Seattleites have often gone there for a "good deal". I Googled Arlington Chevrolet dealers and came up with the image of the Bob Peck Chevy dealership below, with its classic mid-century architecture, and thought it would be ideal for my decal scheme. Unfortunately I failed to notice I was off by one letter in the alphabet, and an entire continent!

Thanks everyone. “Realism” had always been something that motivated me in my modeling. But realism is a pretty slippery concept. For different viewers, and even the same viewer in different circumstances, what looks "real" vary widely. For example, ultra-detailed models full of tiny, expertly applied parts to many will look “realistic” because the expectation is to see all these superbly rendered parts just as we would see them in the real world if we chose to look at something with care and in detail. For other viewers the same model might look busy and over detailed – some might say “toy like”. A great ultra-detailed model often “picks its battles”, as I like to say – the modeler includes the extra detail where it would be observed in the real world, and perhaps omits detail where it would get in the way. Most of the super-detail modeling I admire has this characteristic. But I also enjoy more impressionistic modeling, where colors and textures and subtle scaling effects are what render realistic impact to the completed model. With so little to it - no interior, motor or chassis detail to speak of -this project I hope will fall in the impressionistic category. It’s all color, texture, rolling stock and bodywork. To me that’s the appeal of the curbside/slammer approach. The wheels and tires are done now. The rear tires are Herb Deeks truck tires. I buy a stash every year from Herb at the NNL West. They're large enough in diameter to lend themselves to setting up a set of big ‘n’ littles. They are my current go-to for early era hot rods where narrow bias plys are the order of the day. The front tires are from the Revellogram ’37 Ford pickup and delivery kits. If you find an early enough issue they’re even branded Goodyear! They have a nice ribbed tread and pie-crust markings and pair up well with the Deeks tires. Both types of tires are 1/24 and require the slightly larger diameter 1/24 wheels generally found in Monogram models and in the sports car modeling aftermarket. For this application the actual appearance of the wheels was completely irrelevant. In fact the funkier and more useless the wheel the better, since it would be totally hidden by the wheels covers. Searching through my stash I happened on a set of – to my eyes – ghastly 90’s billet styles wheels in a Monogram ’37 Ford Sedan kit. Yechhh!!! They would do nicely... I stripped them of their chrome. Ironically the narrower front set worked best at the rear, where they were paired with a pair of the wheels backs from the aforementioned Revellogram ’37 Ford pickup/van kits; this time reversed which supplied a handy mounting for the rear axle. The wider rear wheels took up the entire width of the skinny front tires, perfect, because all I needed to do was mount the inner front wheel covers to the flush wheel surface. I used a circle cutting tool designed for cutting paper and thin plastic and cut 6 .66” diameter flat discs from .020” styrene. The discs were painted in Testors Aluminum Plate, allowed to cure thoroughly and buffed out. Then the discs were weathered to go with the bodywork. I’ve found that applying Kosutte Gin San metalizing powder to Testors Metalizer Aluminum Plate makes for a very convincing worn polished aluminum finish. This was followed by a light application of the same weathering powders as I had used on the bodywork. The result is a hopefully “beach racing”-appropriate weathered finish. Below is a composite picture of the process. Now for the bellypan panel, a blanking piece for the non-interior, the “suspension” and the red-tinted window glass… Thanx for lookin’, B.

As you'll see in the next post, I chose to go with the simple flat ones that were seen in the late 40's and that they were done using .o20 styrene sheet. Richard, I'm familiar with that photo. Like everything Tom Beatty did, even the simplest details were done with flair. Besides that astounding for the era space frame peaking through, it stands to reason that Beatty would cobble up some backyard wheel covers with that extra something! Plain old flat wheel covers:

Good to see you here! I think you'll enjoy it - there's far more variety and because of the large membership there's more responsiveness and back and forth. I'm a big fan of your circle track racers and I'm sure folks here will love them!

This is my second project for the 2018 NNL West The Race of Gentlemen theme, my first having been a ’29 Ford roadster done as a pre-war style dry lakes car sponsored by Gilmore Oil. My original plan had been to do another pre-war car, a one-man dry lakes modified based on a narrowed Ala-Kart body shell. But after finishing TROG #1 I realized that this project was far too ambitious, having a heavy scratch building component, with a good chance I wouldn’t finish it in time for the show’s February 3rd deadline. So I’ve chosen to go to the radical opposite, a simple curbside build based on a neat Jimmy Flintstone chopped ’32 Ford 3-window with lakes-style slanted A-pillar. It even has a rolled pan, so all I have to do is fabricate a belly pan, rig up a front and rear suspension arrangement, and I'm good to go. I’m planning on using red tinted windows. If they’re dark enough I may even forgo the interior, in which case it will be a slammer! Here’s a composite picture from the Jimmy Flintstone web site showing the basic body shell and a really nice completed model whose builder, sadly, is uncredited. As you can see it comes with a bulging molded show car-style rear pan with molded in license plate frame. As you may know, Flintstone bodies are quite thick, so it was an easy session with my Dremel to grind it down to a smooth, trim competition style pan. Other than that the body came in fine shape and very little was required to prep it for paint. A popular style at the TROG meets is one where an old competition or street rod has been refurbished to sound mechanical state, but the original “barn find” patina has been preserved. There’s a fine example that’s featured in this year’s NNL Poster (see: http://nnlwest.org/ ). That’s the idea behind my project. Paint is Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze, a real 50’s Packard Caribbean style light blue. It was applied over successive layers of red and white primer and then distressed by sanding through the color layers in the appropriate spots. I then made homemade decals using some Photoshop techniques so that the decals themselves are distressed. Then the whole thing was sealed with Dullcote and further aged using weathering powders. Here are the results: The wheels and tires are next. I’ll be making scratch built flat aluminum discs, the precursors of the fancier domed spun aluminum Moon discs. That will be the subject of my next update. Other than that the rear suspension will be non-existent, hidden under the bellypan, and the front suspension is a basic dropped axle affair from my parts box. Even at a leisurely build pace it shouldn’t take long to do… Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks again to all of you. I'm especially flattered to see the comments from some of my modeling friends and from builders whose work I follow and admire, and also to encounter new names whose work I hope to see more of in the coming year. That's one aspect that I enjoy so much about the Year In Review posts. This really was quite a satisfying modeling year for me, I must admit. I can only hope that 2018, for me and for all of us, is a happy and fulfilling one. Happy New Year everyone!!!

Thanks so much, once more. I'm surprised (and delighted) at just how strong a connection this vintage style of race car is making, Proof is, of course, in the enormous popularity of TROG itself, and also here on the forums with posts on cars done in this style. They really are the roots of hot rodding so its nice to see the interest they garner. Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks once again, everyone. This is one of those models where I maintained control over the proceedings long enough and well enough to actually come out the other side with the result I had originally intended. Which in itself is quite surprising since it was a save of an old project that had failed 6-7 years ago. Anyway, thanks to everyone who has commented on this car and its w.i.p. and here's to wishing us all a Happy New Year!

Spectacularly high quality array - half as many done this well would have been as impressive. You certainly have the paint thing down to the ground! My faves are the sanitary yet elaborate dio, the limo for the shear amount of work involved - and its paint of course, and the Pro Touring Dodge for its cool simplicity. Happy New Year - looking forward to more from your bench in 2018.

Happy New Year, Ron! Here's hoping 2018 proves another vintage year for you. Judging from your bench 2017 certainly was!

Sterling array of superb models. My favorite is the dune buggy because of all the exposed mechanical detail, but the Hemi Hydro is right behind it. I also dig the info cards in the pictures. The total deal! Thanx for sharing all this. All the best for 2018 with hope to see more from your bench! P.S. I wish Calnaga Castings would start up again. I'm desperate for that interior!

Thanks again guys! Jim, my car is based on the AMT '29 Ford Roadster kit the Mod Rod version of which has recently been refreshed and re-issued by Round 2, as Scott just referred to. The SA car is a chopped coupe and was built by the author of the feature, Tim Boyd. I'm pretty sure it's the temporarily MIA Revell '30 Coupe which was released last year.

Thanks Phil! Likewise for me. Dennis Lacey reports that the Pismo Beach race is no more and that they're looking for a venue further north perhaps in Oregon or even Washington! Fingers crossed! Thanks Richard. Neat story. A little web crawling yielded some interesting pictures. First off Roscoe Turner and "Gilmore the Flying Lion", flying fit and later in life...: Your dad undoubtedly flew in the 1930 Lockheed Air Express which Turner obtained for Gilmore specifically because it could haul passengers and, along with his air racing exploits in the famous Weddell-Williams 44 pylon racer, Turner added additional promotional power to his Gilmore relationship(s). With the Air Express Turner had the ability to include his pet lion cub which became a feature of the flights. Gilmore (the lion cub) grew too big in 1935 and his flying days were over, but Turner kept him until Gilmore the Flying Lion passed away in 1952, at which point Turner had him stuffed and displayed Gilmore in his home until Turner's death in 1970. In 1976 Gilmore the Flying Lion became part of the Smithsonian Institute's collection of Americana and memorabilia. Here's a picture of the two airplanes in their famous Gilmore livery: Here's a color picture of the Weddell-Williams 44 which inspired my color and decal scheme:

Thanks everyone. The AMT '29 Ford Roadster kit, particularly the newly released Mod Rod re-issue is the perfect source for doing one of these. It even includes some of the period speedparts and the stock chassis and crisp body moldings are just the ticket. I'm glad you all enjoyed my humble rendition. Thanx again!

Thanks David. I've started another project, TROG #2, not quite the Choppers '34, which if done right would take longer than I have until NNL time, but a chopped lakes style '32 3-window coupe based on a Jimmy Flinstone body that I'm building as a curbside and which is influenced by that '34. I'll probably start posting it in the next few days. In the meantime, this project is done and can be seen in final form here:

Thanks to you all for the extremely kind and generous response. 2017 turned out to be a bit of a surprise - it kinda snuck up on me when it came to car modeling. I did far more models than I thought I had, and more of them involved techniques and approaches that were relatively new to me than I remembered. Probably the most important one was using large-scale decals in lieu of paint on several of them. The green stripes on the jalopy (around the beltline), the "Club Bonneville" and the Tri-Colore on the Ferrari, are all decals. They were all done because I was having serious paint problems with a batch of white primer that refused to provide adhesion. So when I applied masking the tape would pull up the underlying color coat. So the stripes were born of necessity. But on the Nova Express and on Little Feather, decals were the only way to get the precision and detail the paint scheme required. The roof and hood stripes on the Nova Express have a fine black edged for an Op-Art effect, and the stripes are exactly spaced. On the Little Feather, the white and yellow panels and the lettering are all printed together on one decal, much as it would be in a kit. The paint problems eventually solved themselves and I was able to "celebrate" by doing the black Tudor - shiny is a wonderful thing! As far as bodywork was considered the "victories" were the relatively seamless chop on the Tudor and much of the Club Bonneville. The Tudor used a technique I learned from posts by the RRR-Kit Carson crew (Jon & Wes - Thanks!) and which Dennis Lacy posted with respect specifically to a Tudor which inspired me to have a swing. The Club Bonneville had a lot going on, including moving the fin from the center of the deck to the headrest (the headrest itslef having to be fabricated) and the tonneau cover and cowling, as well as miscellaneous fill panels where the chrome stripe and bumperettes would have been. And in 2017 I landed up doing some curbsides. The Club Bonneville is definitely one, and the bellypan Deuce roadster, despite the fact that there's a motor under the removable hood, has no real chassis, and with the hood in place, has almost no interior bits visible. It's a style of building I've always respected and I hope to do more in 2018. It promotes focus on the essential details and the overall impact. I'm sure in 2018 I'll be doing more decals. My first project for 2018 is a second TROG car and it involves some heavy weathering, which is great fun and something I haven't done in a while. I'd also like to do more sports and sports-racing cars and perhaps some modern subjects as well. I have all of those in my stash and now that the paint gods are cooperating again, I may get to them. All the best to you all for a happy and fulfilling 2018!

Thanks Art! As I think it is for most of us car modelers, making the project "about" something, whether it's a story, a piece of history, capturing the spirit of an era or style, or representing a piece of technology, is an important part of the pleasure I get from this hobby.

Thank you Eric. I really dig your "26-'27 factory stock Ford lineup you posted! And it's good to hear about the "hot spoark". In researching pre-war hop-up techniques magnetos were ubiquitous as the prferred solution to performance ignition. The prevalence of coil ignition setups I'm certain is entirely due to convenience and expense.Magnetos remained the "weapon of choice" until the transistorized ignition revolution beginning in the late 50's and their emergence in the performance world starting with Lucas units on F1 cars in '62, along with aftermarket setups from American manufacturers like Autolite. Thanks. Always good to hear from a dry lakes native, and a Wico user at that! As I mentioned, I've always wanted to include the magneto detail in my 4-banger builds. It's so evocative of the pre-war hop-up vibe!

Thanks Guy. Yeah, if I had a Deuce this is probably how I'd want to do it...

First off, congrats on getting ink in the Model T Times! It's a fitting reward. The "improved T's" - I hadn't realized that internally this was Ford's approach to these, But from my readings I know it was a matter of great discussion and commercial pressure at the time with, supposedly, Henry fighting his executives all the way to make the updates. This last bit, about Ford's conservatism, I have always taken with a grain of salt. I have always wondered how "pure" he was about the whole "people's car" as appliance thing. In any case this era turned out to be a watershed that got the ball rolling and formed the basis for Forf's "comeback" and cemented their dominance in American automotive culture until the mid-50's. This cultural dominance is manifest in the fact that virtually all hot rods with pre-WWII and early postwar roots are Fords, such was the scale of sales of Ford products to Americans until the 50's. For so many of us car modelers building these hot rod Fords constitutes an entire subculture in its own right. I am one of them. Like so many of us, I have built countless Deuces, and several examples of most of the iconic pre-war models, including a couple of 27-T roadsters. But all of them were hot rods. So it's always with the utmost in admiration and respect that I pay homage to the skill and discipline of the showroom stock modeler. Showroom stock embodies the nexus of the rigor of the replica build, the historical knowledge a replica demands, and the technical ability to create a model quite often from parts which are imperfect, incomplete and inaccurate at best. Thank you for giving us this fine set of authentic representations. A fine way to finish off 2017! All the best in 2018 and hoping for more of your replicas in the new year.