Bernard Kron

The belly tanker should have taken a lot of time, but it was more than worth it - it's the star of your year's work, taking full advantage of all of the things you do well. The wedge streamliner is pretty impressive too. And I really like the wheel/tire setup on the V8 modified - crisp! Thanx for a great 2017 - it's good to see you and Wes hangin' around. All the best for an equally inspired 2018.

I generally use the least expensive generic clear decal stock I can get on-line and have had zero problems with decal setting solutions, solvents and clear coats over the results. I do a lot of decal work; I build at least a half a dozen models a year and virtually all of them have home made decals, and it's simply not an issue. Even with white decal paper, which is thicker and doesn't respond to setting solutions anywhere as well, if the decal is well set and stable my experience is that the clear coat will have no effect on the decal, and vice versa.

All 3 very nicely turned out. I don't think I've ever seen the S'Cool Bus done so crisply, and with the window decals (?). It certainly is impressive. I hope to see more from your bench in 2018.

Welcome back! I'm good friends with Curt Raitz from Hollister and with Raul Perez. Perhaps you know them. In any case, where are you in WA?

Maybe just one, but it's so well done that it scales perfectly. Models like this are why I'm such an admirer of showroom stock - the skill and discipline required is epic! Thanks for sharing and all the best in 2018.

Now this is why I like the End of Year thing. Unlike Bob I believe I managed to miss every one, and they are all so well done, too! How did I manage that? Anyway, your had a great 2017 and I hope in 2018 I can catch more from your bench, this time the first time around!

Yep, super clean every one. And I'm glad an earlier poster counted them - 25... And all of them fine models. A solid, prolific 2017. Here's hoping for more great work from your bench in 2018!

All very well done - crisp and self assured. I especially like the "abstract" pieces at the start of the year, the simplified, brief bits of modeling expression. I've often thought about trying this approach - a kind of modeler's action painting. They must be tiny indeed, given the lanyard in January's little cart. Because the detail is so well done it's hard to determine the scales of most of these models, but in general they look quite small, so the execution is especially impressive to my eyes. The Porsche, for example, would look attractive in any scale. 2017 was a creatively fulfilling year on your bench, I'd say. I don't recall encountering them during the year on the Forums so it's nice to see them all here. All the best in 2018.

All postwar Fords, all the time. I hadn't noticed that about your work. has that always been the case? In any event, it's always a pleasure to see your stuff. It's impeccably detailed and turned out. I always thought of you as a Showroom Stock builder so I was surprised to see so many street rods, several of which I missed during the past year. All the best in 2018.

The proliferation of categories assumes that people visit the forum and only view specific categories, for example NASCAR or Drag Racing or Pickups, Vans, SUVS, Light Commercial. Or, even worse, they specifically ignore these categories. Why "even worse"? Because it creates the possibility they'll miss something that would have interested them. For example I'm into Hot Rods, Customs, etc. But if there's one area I'm actively uninterested in, it's SUVS and Light Commercial. So, if I "shop" the MCM Forum by category I'll rarely if ever see that '29 Ford RPU lost in the Pickups, Vans, SUVS, Light Commercial category. Fortunately I don't depend on categories. Instead I simply ask for all posts since my last visit, read or unread, regardless of category. I then scan the title and read what attracts me. But that's where the problem that the OP raised comes in. During "My Year In Review" time, fresh posts of new completions or interesting w.i.p.s or frankly anything else, get pushed down onto the Dreaded Second Page. Normally that's just the nature of things, but "My Year In Review" content is by its very nature redundant, and that's what the OP is objecting to. It's tempting to think that there's nothing "new" in these threads. But that's where I tried to point out that the summary in itself is "new", interesting and useful. But the "problem" or "inconvenience" is real, at least if your not interested in these Reviews. It creates a volume of traffic unique to that time of year that competes with everything else. So I agree with Xingu, this issue doesn't merit any special treatment. At its worst it's about as bad as having to listen to the same Christmas songs every year during holiday time, a pleasure for some, an annoyance for others, and something that will pass with the seasons. Note: Via personal messages the late Harry P and I used to debate the proliferation of categories. While he and I both agreed that creating too many categories was damaging, I was much more of a purist than him. My feeling was that there should be little or no categories at all. Harry felt that every once in a while a new category needed to be created to respond to member's needs. But we both agreed that over on the SA board they had let things run away from them and their Forums were gravely harmed by an excessive number of categories. I think the ability to screen posts according to parameters you can set and save, a feature that was augmented on the MCM board with the recent upgrade, is one of the main reasons I find the MCM forums so useful. But Harry was right, the member's wishes need to be respected and responded to, but with moderation and an eye to the larger issues that must be taken into account.

Resolution, more than anything, is the challenge and the measure of progress in the 3D printing field, much as it was in 2D. Of course 3D modeling, per se, literally adds an order of magnitude of complexity to creating source files but that's not the focus of this thread. I'm hoping you'll be able to keep us abreast of the evolving, and progressing, state of the art, particularly in the low-cost field. The benefits to our hobby are potentially enormous, and there's every reason to be optimistic that they will come to fruition in due course. Thanks for starting this thread and sharing your knowledge with us. The posts so far are quite illuminating.

I agree that the problem of Year In Review threads upstaging newly completed end-of-year projects is a meaningful one. It's a real challenge during the 4 weeks on either side of the New Year not losing them to the Dreaded Second Page. Perhaps a dedicated single thread might work, although it lacks the personal focus that making your own thread provides. In any case I look forward to these summaries each year for several reasons. First off they inevitably feature wonderful models that I somehow missed, either by happenstance or out of shear prejudice, allowing the title of the original post to deceive me. And, in fact, there are some members who only post their completed models as a Year In Review. So, as a matter of choice, I look at every one that's posted, knowing that I will find some lost treasures if I do. Secondly, among the posts some members choose to write something about there overall impression of their Year At The Bench. I find that interesting and inspiring. For me it's an opportunity to experience a broader perspective on the community we share over our common interest here on the MCM Board. I think this is fitting during the Holiday Season. In the other direction, the Year In Review ritual creates an opportunity for me to look back at my own year and summarize my own successes and failures, sharing this with those modeling friends on the board both familiar to me and who I might not have been aware of. I've noticed over the years, much as I comment on Year In Review posts by modelers whose work I have not acknowledged during the past year, there are quite a few comments by members who have otherwise not posted on my projects.

I'm enjoying the the thoughtful, purposeful approach you're taking to this re-do. You seem to be staying touch with your own instincts which is, in my experience, always a good guide. Between the rolling stock and the hooded, frenched headlights, I thing you've taken a pretty firm turn towards an old-school approach. The moldings on the trunk are gone, so that's one strong bit of "De-Foosing" already. The cowl treatment with the hood extended all the way to the windshield, a clearly modern touch, and the squared up, raked thin pillar windshield frame, are definite Foose "tells" and changing them would seal the deal de-Foosing-wise. Unfortunately the technical challenges this represents are considerable and I'm not sure I personally would have the intestinal fortitude to take it on. But, as I said, the change in appearance would be huge. Regardless, this is shaping up to be a handsome piece of personal expression. Build on!

Thanks for the interest guys. Here's a quick update of a mockup of the side view with the number and Wico and Firestone decals in place:

Hangin' it all out there with all those ultra-close-ups, but your careful attention to keeping things clean and sharp and your impactful choice of details make this a top-shelf model all the way. Bravo! A fitting tribute.

For the last several years every winter I try to make it down to the NNL West in Santa Clara, California from my home in Seattle, Washington. It’s a huge show with around 1,000 cars models on display and with some of the finest models you are ever likely to see. Each year the organizers choose 2 themes and reserve feature tables for each. This year’s themes are The Race of Gentlemen and Show Cars. I’m hoping to build 2 entries for the TROG theme table. I just started on the first of them. It’s a straightforward pre-WWII dry lakes ’29 Ford inspired by this box art illustration from the recently re-issued AMT Mod Rod: It will be built largely out of the box with detail modifications to improve the detail and authenticity somewhat. For example, rather than using the hopelessly skinny and somewhat crude spoked wheels from the kit I’m using the far nicer early Kelsey Hayes wire wheels from the AMT ’34 Ford 5-window coupe kit. The front tires are the ones found in the Mod Rod and countless other AMT ’29 Ford Roadster variants, but the rear tires are from the Revell ’40 Ford Standard kit. The whitewalls on both types of tires have been finished over in flat black. The whole setup is more like what was seen in the early days at El Mirage in the mid 30’s Over the years some of the 4 banger hop up parts originally in the ’29 Ford/Ala Kart double kit were lost, notably the Riley Type B 2-port heads. Fortunately a very nice set can be found in the Revellogram ’30 Ford Sedan kit and the fit is exact on the AMT block. I once did a project where I installed the entire Revellogram 4-banger in an AMT ’29 Ford Roadster chassis, but the Revell piece its larger in several key dimensions and it required extensive work to squeeze it in the AMT chassis. This time I’m building up the basic AMT short block, improving details where I can. Once such modification is to reshape the molded in starter motor to resemble a Wilco Magneto. Removing the starter motor and driving a Wilco Magneto off the flywheel was a standard hop-up in the 30’s I haven’t finished the work on the magneto but I’m getting close. Hopefully I’ll be able to wire up the motor in the next week or so. Here’s the status of things so far: Overall this is a very simple build, pretty much straight out of the box. As is my habit, I’m making up a bunch of period decals. The sponsor is Gilmore Oil, a famous Southern California oil company of the period. Sponsorship was fairly rare but Gilmore sponsored a fair number of circle track cars, racing airplanes and speedboats, so the theme is not totally out of the question. All the fonts and text are lifted directly from period Gilmore advertising. Below is a Photoshop mockup of the basic graphics. In addition there will be racing numbers on the doors and perhaps some additional Wilco and Firestone trade decals. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks again , everyone! Trying to keep it clean and "sharp" was my goal. This style of hot rod doesn't make sense any other way. Black on black with very little in the way of contrasting colors and detail (even the wheels are relatively dark) was hard to photograph. As it is the pictures look more like b&w than color. But in my mind's eye these mid-60's California rods were so often shiny dark colors like black, root beer or deep burgundy. So black it was! Thank you, Phil. As a fellow Deuce-o-holic I'm delighted you dig it. The "low HiBoy" style, an in-the-weeds rod with the body on top of the rails and with a relatively flat rake, has been a goal of mine for quite some time. The original project was all about that, but I messed up the body pretty bad so it sat for all these years until now. I'm far more pleased with the outcome than I thought I'd be. Usually I'm pretty downbeat about the result by the time I finish a project because I can see all the flaws and problems that occurred during the build. But this time, flaws and all, the look is so much the one that I was after that I feel surprisingly sanguine about the whole thing. Black on black may be a bit subtle but I like the aggressively sinister classiness of the whole thing. The "low HiBoy" look is something I'll revisit. The classic McGee roadster has a deep Z in the back, something many people aren't aware of because the car has the stock gas tank in the classic position. But it's the reason the car looks the way it does, so "tight" and put together looking. I plan on doing a Deuce, either a roadster or a chopped 3-window with that look - and not black next time!

Thanks Greg, you're very kind! Unfortunately the opened up louvers are virtually invisible, at least in black. I may do them again on a medium colored car like red or silver, but I fear that from most angles they'll go unnoticed The project is now completed and final photos showing the total look can be found in the Under Glass section here:

Thank you everyone. I'm glad you all like it! Looking at the photos again after a few days away I was bothered by some problems with hood fit and minor photo funkiness, so I re-jiggered the hood fit and re-shot some of the pictures, mainly front 3/4 views. I've replaced the relevant pictures in the initial post.

Resin '40 Ford Fordor (AMT) AMT '40 Ford Coupe Full Custom Revell '40 Ford Street Rod AMT '40 Ford Sedan Delivery Dry Lakes Race Set AMT '40 Ford Sedan Box Art Built

Chopped 1932 Ford Tudor HiBoy This is a project I started over 6 years ago when Revell first introduced their ’32 Ford Tudor Street Rod kit. My plan was to make a “lowboy” Hiboy hot rod with a 3” chop out of the top and a 4” z’d frame at the rear and a deep drop front axle. I was about 3 years into my return to car modeling and the chop job went badly on me, ending with me losing bits of the A-pillar so that it became impossible to proceed. I had started the chassis and completed the 4” z-job but that was about as far as I got. As the years passed by this kit was robbed of virtually all of its major parts except for the chassis, the butchered body and the inevitable small block Ford OHV V-8. In the meantime I had gotten another copy of the kit and last month I decided I would attempt to pick up where I had left .off, taking advantage of what I hoped were significantly improved skills. I started with the chop, 3” all around as on the first attempt. My idea was to do a glossy jet black street machine in the style of the resto-rods out of Southern California in the mid 60’s. I was also inspired by the recent Goodguys PPG Nationals winning Deuce Tudor built by Johnson’s Hot Rods for George Poteet. So, to make sure the paint came out right I did it first before doing anything else. Not the brightest idea since it meant being super careful when handling the body during the rest of the construction. Fortunately I still had the original butchered body shell for test fits which minimized handling issues. I decided to do a more interesting V8 than the ever-present Revell item, so I ordered a ’65 Mustang Cobra Hi-Po Tri-Power setup from B-N-L resins, which, along with a set of Cobra valve covers and oil pan taken from a Revell Buttera ’34 Ford coupe, adds a little spice under the hood. Speaking of the hood, I spent the better part of a week of bench time carefully cutting open the hood side louvers. It came out OK but is a complete waste of time, especially on a black car. The 3D effect is totally invisible! The suspension is based on the kit setup with rear coil-overs adapted to the original deep 4’ z-job. At the front, bring the nose absolutely in-the-weeds I swapped out the kit axle for the deep 4” dropped I-beam axle from a Revell ’40 Ford street rod kit, paired with the kit front spring shaved down to a single mono-leaf. The rest of the drive train is straight from the Revell kit. The chassis horns at the front were reworked so that they are the stock-style open channel rather than the solid filled ones in the kit. The interior is based on the kit pieces, with the rear seat removed and a raised floor fabricated from styrene grooved sheet (Plastruct corrugated roof material) and styrene semi-circular rod for the skid rails. It’s finished in gloss black with foiled rails. The tank is the kit tank halves glued together and flipped bottom side up, finished in Testors Aluminum Plate Metalizer. The seats are really nice basic old school racing buckets courtesy of Big Donkey Resins. The Insignia Red finish is Testors Acryl. The rolling stock is based on some super-sweet 50’s era Halibrand mags I got from Model Builder’s Warehouse. They’re made by Historic Racing Miniatures and the detail and finish is superb with gorgeous finely detailed knockoffs that come as separate pieces. The wheels are finished in Testors Magnesium Metalizer with the rims and knockoffs picked out in Molotow chrome. The rear tires are my current favorite hot rod rear tires, skinny bias-ply truck tires from Herb Deeks. The front tires are the ribbed pieces found in various Revellogram ’37 Ford pickup and van kits. Combined with the almost dead-flat stance of the suspension the result is a subtle rubber rake that complements the severe conservative look of the bodywork. The headlights are the big stock items from the Revell kit, but mounted low down by drilling a hole at the back of the light and inserting it over the mounting pin on the shock mounts. The cross bar is from my parts box, but I think it’s an AMT ’32 Ford piece. The taillights were fabricated from the spot lights out of an AMT '50 Ford Convertible. I filled the buckets with clear red tinted epoxy. They’re mounted to the kit rear crossbar which is mounted to fabricated tabs which drop the bar below the bottom of the body lip. Paint is 3 coats of Duplicolor Black Lacquer over hot rod grey primer, with 3 coats of clear, color sanded between each coat of black and clear and then rubbed out using Tamiya Polishing compounds. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanx again everyone. I'm glad you all are diggin' it! I got this project wrapped up today and began shooting pictures when I noticed a minor flaw that needed correcting. But not before I got some final detail shots and a teaser of the completed build. The flaw has been corrected and I’ll do a formal photo shoot tomorrow. In the meantime one final detail summary showing the rear end with the taillights and license plate installed. The taillights are Appleton spots from an AMT ’50 Ford convertible kit filled with clear red epoxy. I also got a nice sharp closeup showing the channel detail on the chassis horns, the completed motor and the hood sides in place demonstrating that all that tedious work cutting open the louvers was a waste of time, at least on a black car. I hope to post up a full set of beauty shots tomorrow. ‘Til then, thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks guys! This will be the final update, a fairly minor one at that. I’m in the throes of final assembly and so far that shiny black paint job remains intact, much to my relief. The interior was completed and glued to the chassis, the opposite of the original kit instructions, but fairly typical of what happens when you radically re-work a model like this. Below are a couple of pictures of the assembled interior, together with a final detail I added, a couple of extension tabs at the back of the chassis to mount the chrome cross bar below the bottom of the body work. I did this because the rear of the car looked a bit bare and high in the poop. It needed something to draw the eye towards the line between the bottom of the body shell and the upper edge of the chassis. When I take pictures of the completed car you’ll be able to see what I did. Virtually the whole car is together now, with the glass installed and the body glued to the chassis. There’s just the taillights and license plate to install. I hope to post a completed car within the next couple of days. Thanx to all who followed along and for all the kind words. B.

What makes this comparison so valuable is that in both cases there should be no questions as to the quality of the build. Whatever each of these kits has to offer, Tulio has gotten the absolute maximum out of it. The result is that, as Mr. Moto has pointed out, the AMT's reputation for "just looking right" despite its simplicity, shows that nearly 60 years ago (good grief!) the designers at AMT new what was needed to put the "look" of the model across. The proof is in these side by side shots. In particular the engine compartment shots show that, while there may be fewer discreet parts under the hood of the AMT model, in the hands of a skilled and knowledgeable modeler, the result can be every bit as convincing. Speaking personally, I prefer the AMT because it goes together so well without the fidliness of the Revell kit. On the other hand all those finely modeled sub-assemblies in the Revell kit are a delight to behold and a testament to the superb job Revell did with this kit.

I just wanted to make an observation about what, to my eyes, makes this project special. While the efforts to take the build beyond the level of "merely" building the kit to the maximum that it has to offer is completely successful (and remarkable), at its heart the project is an exploration and appreciation of what the kit designers had to offer for what will, in the end, be an extraordinary model. The last two photos show what I'm referring to. All the small details, fabrications, and enhancements key off the core model with the goal to amplify the impact, accuracy and realism of the final result. What a pleasure to watch this come together!