Bernard Kron

Some Fine Scale Modeling, Phil!

Now that's what Factory Stock is all about. Superb! All the best to you in 2018, hoping we'll be treated to at least one (or more - can we be greedy?) like this in the coming year.

Maybe just one, and certainly long in getting there, but in the end some of your finest work. In scale, or indeed in 1:1, a truly classic custom. All the best to you and yours in 2018, hoping we'll see more masterpieces from you.

Oh yeah! You are the Weather-Master for sure. Love the realistic textures. Terrific stuff! I hope we'll see more from you in 2018! All the best...

Another great year from you. I got the SPAM newsletter this morning and realized I had missed the TROG builds. I'll have to look for links to them. You totally nailed the colors and finishes on the A-bone. But, in the spirit of "the grass is greener..." I always especially enjoy your sportscar projects. The Bardahl car is masterful. All the best for 2018 to you and yours!

A fine piece of showroom stock style modeling - carefully detailed and realistically convincing.

Nice models one and all. The lead-off Buick done in gold really pops for me. Looking forward to seeing more from you in 2018 - Happy New Year!

Your sharp, up close photography and natural lighting is a stern judge of your modeling style - but since it's as crisp and clean as your photography the two complement each other perfectly. These are immaculate, no stories builds one and all. The muscle car era classics especially benefit from this, but my own tastes run to the funny cars which look great done this way. May fave is the Rattle Trap with its many fine details. I hope to see more of these high caliber models from your bench in 2018 - all the best.

'29 Ford Roadster Pre War Lakes Style - The Race Of Gentlemen Beach Racer This is my last one for 2017, just under the wire. I built this '29 Ford Roadster for the upcoming NNL West in Santa Clara, California. One of this year’s Theme Tables will be dedicated to the wildly popular The Race Of Gentlemen (TROG) meets that happen once a year in Wildwood, New Jersey (the original one),and now in Pismo Beach, California. It’s dedicated to recreating the early days of hot rod speed trials and entries are limited to hit rods and motorcycles of the immediate pre and post-war era. Racing is in short, straight line contest on public beaches, along with various demonstrations of driving acrobatics and daring do. There’s even a kustom car parade and show that’s now included on Saturday night. It’s a long-weekend affair and draws huge crowds. One popular style of car that the organizers have always included is a pre-war style 4-banger dry lakes style car, very often a ’29 Ford. Quite often they’re festooned with period logos of racing clubs, garages and speed equipment. In point of fact this is not totally “accurate” in that, while cars decorated in this manner existed at the time, they were generally promotional cars used in parades, as starter’s or pace cars at race tracks, and for display work in showrooms and at trade shows. Race cars were somewhat simpler in their décor: while permanent painted on race numbers were very common, trade logos and trade names were used sparingly, and if you had a sponsor you usually acknowledged them by naming the car after them – in this case it’s the Gilmore Red Lion Special. Gilmore Oil Company was a major regional oil and gasoline company based in Los Angeles. They were both drillers and refiners. Most of their drilling rigs were in the Signal Hill area down by where Los Angeles International Airport is now. They also operated a chain of gas stations. In the 30’s they sold a high octane ethyl gasoline called Red Lion and promoted it by sponsoring racing cars, speed boats and airplanes. This model celebrates Red Lion Gasoline, which featured some great graphics. All the decals on the car are home-made and the logos and trademarks are all authentic, lifted directly from period advertising. I tried to keep the color scheme and details as period correct as I could, inspired by Gilmore sponsored machines of the era. The car itself is based on the AMT ’29 Ford Roadster. Like the real race cars of the period it is largely stock, with stock chassis and suspension. The motor is hopped up with a Riley 2-Port high compression head with overhead intake valves (an F-head design). The Riley 2-port comes from a Revell ’30 Ford Sedan kit. The wheels and front tires are from an AMT ’34 Ford 5-window coupe, the rear tires from a Revell ’40 Ford Standard kit. The whitewalls have been blacked out. Otherwise the kit is the only other source for parts and, with the exception of modifications to accommodate the fenderless aspect of the car, it’s pretty much out-of-the-box. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Here are my models for 2017. I just finished the last one. 9 in all. Of course, more decal experiments, and the usual complement of '32 Fords. But this year was notable to me for my first non-hot rod, drag or kustom model, the Ferrari 250GT SWB. There will be more. It's my goal to broaden my range of themes and subjects as my skills continue to improve (which, thankfully, they still seem to be). Thanx to you all for your interest and support. All the best this holiday season and for a happy and fulfilling 2018. B. "Little Red Roadster" Revell '29 Ford Pontiac "Club Bonneville" LSR car '32 Ford Fordor Jalopy Racer "Little Feather" Jr. Fueler "Nova Express" AWB '32 Ford Full-Bellypan Lakes Racer AMT Ferrari 250GT SWB '32 Ford Tudor Hi-Boy The Race of Gentleman Beach Racing Pre-War Style '29 Ford Roadster

Thanks Tom. Actually I had decided to do this modification years ago when I first took up car modeling again. At the time I was knee-deep in reading about pre-war proto-hot-rodding. I was fascinated that this great American motorsport was born in the depths of the Depression and I always wondered how it had come about. In any case the equipment these early hop-up enthusiasts used was an important part of understanding what went on. During the 1920's, before the financial collapse, there had been a burgeoning little world of speed equipment that was starting to take off. Then the Depression struck and the market for these parts collapsed. But quite a few speed addicts owned some of these early parts (such as Rajo and Winfield high compression heads, Winfield and Miller carburetors, etc.). In Southern California the earliest "speed shops" mainly sold and traded used equipment, essentially functioning as a kind of pawn shop or consignment sales hub. It was all centered in SoCal because of the availability of broad, flat and smooth dry lakes for speed runs. Real racing cars, the board-track Millers and Duesenbergs of the 1920s, were incredibly expensive, easily costing the price of a large upper-middle class home such as one that a rich doctor or lawyer would have (in the 1920's this would have been around $15K before thinking about buying the spare parts and a hiring a competent mechanic). Most of the parts on those cars were hand made, often to order, and rarely were seen on anything other than the ultra-fast and pricey speedway cars. This world came to an end with the Depression and the production-based "Junkyard Formula" which formed the basis for the expansion of hop-up parts for passenger car engines. What does this have to do with Wico Magnetos? Well Wico Magnetos were industrial and farm equipment magnetos and familiar to people who were around pump engines and tractors. So it was not unusual to see them adapted to hop-up use on 4-cylinder Fords, Chevies, and Olds motors. But the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of hopped-up 4-bangers didn't use magnetos but, rather, plain old generator and coil spark ignitions. So what I did was not the usual practice on these cars, although seen often enough. But it was something I had promised myself I would do someday, build a mag-fired 4-banger in the old style. It turned out to be relatively easy and I'll probably do it again. But you're right, it's pretty invisible and probably hardly worth the effort. But it's fun!

Thanks everyone! This is a micro-update, but the distributor cap came today and I was able to finish off the darn Wico magneto. Now to button this baby up and call it a year – my last project of 2017. I’ll probably get ‘er done tomorrow and post a completed model in the next day or two. In the meantime, thanx to all who followed along and here’s hoping you’re having a happy holiday season and wishing you all the very best for 2018! Thanx for lookin’, B.

Very nice indeed! My faves are the Corvair and the Pink '47 Chevy but they're all impeccable. Wishing you the best this holiday season and looking forward to more from your bench in 2018!

Great photography of some mighty nice models. Leading off with the black background shots got my attention right off because they are so hard to get right. I have been doing that style for several years and they are always difficult to pull off and, surprisingly, often controversial. While I think they are quite attractive (why on earth would I do them, otherwise, especially considering the difficulties they involve), many people think they are too stylized and lack detail and information about the model itself. If I do plain white backgrounds I get far fewer complaints. The question I had involves the backgrounds the kit came with. You said they are flocked. Does that mean they are totally dead and devoid of reflectivity? As a result does that allow you to compose the picture entirely "in the camera" without having to retouch the background? In my model car photography I usually have to do various combinations of cropping and blurring to get a continuous neutral background such as you have achieved. I use Photoshop to do it. It doesn't look like you have to, since in the case of the Datsun, which is very large and fills the frame, you left the corners where the background curves up unretouched.

Merry Xmas, Kerry! And all the best to you and yours for a happy 2018!

It will be great watching you do a replica build. You came mighty close (certainly in spirit) with the belly tanker. Don't forget to do something about the distinctive laid-back Garlits style roll hoop so it's more vertical and Kent Fuller-ish. Otherwise that chassis is about as nice as they come for this type of build. Even the wheelbase is is in the ballpark! Can't wait to see more. And best wishes to you and yours this holiday season and a happy 2018!

It's a nice one, Bill. What exactly is involved in a "refresh" of a 30 year old model, to your mind anyway? And all the best this holiday season and a happy 2018 to you and yours.

Nice. Love the Poncho! Best holiday wishes and a happy 2018!

All nicely done. I especially the clean crisp look of the '40 Ford Pickup. All the season's best, hoping to see more from your bench in 2018.

Maybe only one, but like last year, a good one. A real improvement on the Badman. As has been mentioned, quite realistic - obviously taking advantage lots of "product knowledge" gained by all that seat time at the strip come the long days of summer! All the best to you and yours this holiday and here's wishing you a fulfilling 2018.

Masterful metal bashing. I particularly like the trucks which I missed seeing if they were posted earlier. All the best for 2018 and here's hoping for more die-cast magic from your bench!

Here’s what I’m hoping will be the final update. I’d like to be able to include this one in my 2017 builds. The “long pole in the tent” right now is that I’m waiting on a 4-cylinder distributor cap for the Wico magneto I’m modeling, as explained below. Other than that everything is pretty much wrapped and requiring a pretty simple and quick final assembly. It turns out that I was totally wrong when it came to mounting a 30’s style magneto (the big brands of the time were Eisemann, Wico, Edison, and Bosch) to a Ford B-block 4-cylinder. It’s true that on a lot of farm equipment, tractors and stationary motors they were driven off the flywheel, but in 4-stroke applications they were either stepped down to half speed (for example on John Deere tractors), or in low-stress applications like stationary pumps the magneto simply allowed to fire on the exhaust stroke. But in racing 4-banger Ford applications the magnetos were invariably driven off the cam drive so that they ran at half speed. This was usually accomplished using some sort of adapter. In the summary composite picture which follows I’ve included a photo of an Eisemann magneto in a lakes modified with the magneto driven by a short quill shaft off an adapter case. A water pump is mounted to the front of the same casing. In any case this created a problem for me because, as you’ll see below, I had already created a Wico Magnetos decal and applied 2 of them to the painted and finished body. The placement helps balance things out graphically, and besides I wasn’t inclined to risk marring the paint by removing them. So I’ve taken the long way around by changing the magneto mounting position. Since I had reshaped the molded-in AMT starter motor into a Wico-shaped lump this meant cutting out said lump and replacing it with a proper starter motor. Fortunately I was able to accomplish this fairly cleanly and it turned out that one of the countless small-block Ford V8 starter motors from one of the equally countless Revell ’32 Ford kit leftovers in my parts box fit perfectly. The result is in the second panel of the summary picture below. On the other side of the block I fabricated a quill shaft drive from some mysterious piece I found in a Revell ’30 Ford Tudor Rat Rod kit and various styrene bits. I positioned it on the other side of the oil feed tube in order to preserve that detail. This is further back than in the Eisemann installation and required a longer quill shaft. It’s all painted and installed and simply waiting for the 4-cylinder distributor cap from Morgan Automotive Detail, which I’ll reshape slightly and glue in place. Then I can wire and plum the motor and stick it in the chassis, followed by final assembly. The last image in the summary picture below is a view of the undercarriage. The AMT ’29 Ford Model A Roadster kits have a really nicely detailed floor panel. It’s typical of the great job they did on the stock Model A part of the original double kit, paired with the Ala Kart. Frankly, in working on this project I once again have been reminded why, in many ways, I prefer the AMT kit for my hot rods over the recent Revell kit, as nice as the Revell roadster is. Because the AMT kit is essentially a stocker kit the hot rod modelling experience is more like building a 1:1 – big fun in my opinion… In any case, I cut out the floor panels from the stock fender assembly and fabricated some small styrene panels to fill the gaps between the panels and the edges of the body. The result is shown below along with the finished chassis, which is straight out of the box with stock front and rear suspension.. As I said, all the decals and bodywork are completed. The windshield was removed, leaving the stock bracketry and dashboard in place. The interior was also finished, again essentially stock out of the kit. The side panel and seat are finished in a distressed leather effect done by applying multiple thin coats of Testors Acryl paint (the shade is, oddly enough, Leather) and then brushing it in a diagonal cross hatch pattern as each coat dries. Then a light coat of black wash is applied and lightly removed with a piece of tissue to highlight the distressing. The picture below shows the completed decal application and the completed interior: That’s it for now. Fingers crossed that the distributor cap gets here this year, LOL! Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanx! They're made from 2 sets of the kit headers which are mechanically incorrect for the Ford B-bock flathead 4 cylinder of the early thirties. The head has 4 exhaust ports and not 2 with the center two paired but not quite siamesed. I tried to capture that by taking the second header and splitting it, then pairing it and layering it over the first, as shown below. The red shaded areas were trimmed to line things up.

Thanx Wes... That's the point of the exercise, is it not. LOL... Thanks to you all for the kind words!

Responding to Warren's comment, of course it's critical to let your printer ink dry thoroughly. I use a Canon MP560 and I allow a good 30-60 minutes to let the ink dry, then I clear coat it with a craft acrylic clear. The acrylic seems to be neutral to any paint I use over it. It dries thoroughly within 1 hour. I generally apply 2 coats, which gives the decal greater strength and makes it easier to handle. The issues regarding the base color of your car and how well the decal color covers it aren't directly relevant to the OP's question regarding clear coat, but they are extremely important nonetheless.A humble home printer can't print white, and the colors it prints are always somewhat translucent. That's because home printer technologies "assume" that you are printing over white paper in printing their colors. So when I do decal work on my models I'm always careful to "pick my battles". I generally will use pale colors for the basic body color to get the most out of my decals. Some printer colors, like yellow as mentioned, are "weak" and don't cover the base body color very well. Dark body colors, when using any home printer, inkjet or laser, will always effect the final shade of your decal. Regarding jaggies when using a raster-graphics program like Photoshop (which I use), this problem can be greatly minimized by using a printer that will print to high resolutions and doing your graphics using a high density of pixels. In my case my MP560 will print to 600 DPI (dots per inch) so I set the resolution of my graphics files to 600 DPI. My printer will then print to that resolution. It's also important to understand your graphics program and how it treats things like layer styles. For example, if you apply a 6 pixel outline to a layer of text in Photoshop, if you shrink the size of the text layer Photoshop will not scale down the outline (it's called a Stroke in Photoshop), so, even though the text is smaller the outline around it remains the same size as it was and therefore is proportionately much thicker. To avoid this problem Photoshop has a function to "rasterize" the text object, which basically converts the text object to a graphics object, stripping out all the font and style information. Then, when you resize it, it treats it as a unified graphic object and shrinks everything proportionately, including the outline. But all this is a digression. Obviously it's important to know how to use your tools. But clear coating over inkjet or laser printed graphics you've created yourself shouldn't be a problem if you understand your tools and your medium.