Bernard Kron

The '49 coupe kit has the nicer chassis, with separate dual exhaust systems, as opposed to a molded-in single exhaust system on the '50 convertible. When I'm inclined to go full detail I tend to start with the '49 kit chassis whether it's a coupe or convertible, but this generates a surplus of '50 chassis which I tend to use up when the external appearance is mainly what counts. The earliest releases of the '50 convertible come with an amazing number of customizing options and it's been a source of frustration that recent Round 2 re-issues haven't revived them all. For doing the Copperhead the '49 Coupe should do just fine, along with the '50 convertible kit stock grill which fits with no modification. This HRM Kopperhed article seems to have some detail to it, although you've probably found it already. From pictures #6 & #7 it looks like they lengthened the doors.: http://www.hotrod.com/articles/42141-1950-ford-five-window-coupe/

Ooh nice! Simple is good... I like the fact that you kept the styrene fairly thin and small, which is to say in scale, but unfortunately looking like it will fall apart at any moment. Have faith, things will firm up as you add crossmembers, etc.

The Vallellunga was part of series of designs Allesandro DeTomaso did in the early to mid -60's, quite obviously in response to Colin Chapman and his radical work in simplified, ultra-light sports and racing cars. The Vallelunga from 1964 had a pressed steel backbone chassis which was a close cousin of Chapman's design for the Lotus Elan, from 1962. However, the Vallelunga was rear-engined so De Tomaso resorted to a tubular sub frame at the rear to locate the Ford Kent 4-cylinder 1500 cc motor and rear suspension. The car used a VW-Hewland gearbox. It is considered the precursor to the 5 liter Ford powered Mangusta, which in turn was the basis for the most successful and longest enduring De Tomaso, the Pantera. During these years DeTomaso produced several radical designs exploring variations on the central-spine monocoque concept including a cylindrical, cast monocoque chassis for small formula and sports cars. Later in the 60's De Tomaso employed Gianpallo Dallara, already a rising star in the racing car firmament, having done work for Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. Dallara would pen several somewhat more conventional formula and sport racing designs for De Tomaso during the late 60's and early 70's before establishing the now world famous company bearing his name. It is currently the largest producer of racing cars in the world and makes chassis and complete cars for the majority of the single spec racing series on the planet.

I'm sure it is, and not just the detail work, but the impact of the monochrome style of the build itself and the disciplined execution.

I watched this coming together over on the TRaK board and from the very beginning I was captivated by the sophistication and sensitivity on display as the decisions were made about what to do while still leaving the basis of this survivor intact. The result, as pleasing to the eye as it most certainly is, is many times more impressive because it so succesfully preserve the essence of the original build.

Thank you Jim!

Beautiful work! The stealth look is, in its way, very impactful and certainly plays to the strengths of the basic design. But you're right, it does serve to obscure much of the terrific work you put into this. After years of building traditional hot rod,custom/drag racing subjects I'm just beginning to explore the world of sports cars, both historic and contemporary, a subject in the 1:1 world I know a fair amount about, but, at least as an adult modeler, new to me in scale. The older subjects are pretty straightforward, they're largely about building replicas or interpretations of a period, of communicating the historic significance of the particular car. But the contemporary cars are far more challenging, IMHO, at least aesthetically. What to do to emphasize the strengths of the design and give the model that extra-special "zing"? Add the further challenges of doing it in miniature, and the challenge of getting past the potential "ordinariness" that's always a threat when a car is overly familiar is quite considerable. But this you have done so very well. What a bear this must have been to photograph!

Thanks Lee. Glad you dig it!

Thanks again guys! I have a Fujimi 250 Test Rossa in my stash that was the reason I built this one. Starting with a low buck kit kept me focused on the project at hand. I hope to do the TR in the no too distant future...

Super nice modern custom. So that's Raul's bodywork combined with your magic touch, yes? His fairly unique contemporary style is missed. Your strategy to bring it to completion did the trick, for sure.

Lovely!

Cool! I like the stance and the wedge body shape.

We're headed into some sort of "peak technology/peak complexity" nexus. As automobiles become more "sophisticated" and designers enlist technology to play an endless game of wack-a-mole, vehicles of all kinds become ever more complicated, bogged down with feature bloat. The rear view mirror is about to be legislated out of existance and replaced by a TV camera. What possible purpose can this serve? Marketers are desperate to come up with something "new" to talk about and designers and engineers long ago abandoned any desire to achieve technical elegance. Efficiency is an illusion, hiding behind spiraling design and capital costs. The global auto industry's "solution" to the conundrum of price and feature bloat is to turn it's back on the problem and have us rent space on a networked grid of autonomous vehicles, the subscription to which will prove to be far more expensive than the cost of ownership of a simple automobile, but hidden in the steady drip, drip, drip of incremental use payments. But already the subscription model is under attack in the entertainment and communication spaces where sales are rapidly shrinking for cell phone operators and cable companies alike. The cost/price/feature spiral of the iPhone, for example, seems to have hit its peak, and soon Netflix will find itself under attack by every other "network effect" technology play (think Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al) vying to turn itself into the next Disney. Comcast may very well have already joined AOL and Yahoo in the dustbin of history, but we may have to wait to see how/if they survive. Will the auto industry make it all the way to self destruction with autonomous driving networks or will it all get too expensive too fast to play itself out?

Thanx for pointing that out! Once you strip the chrome off these Parts Pak motors they are often a semi-transparent milky white (the other option being jet black...) and very hard to "read" as far as details are concerned so I'm always on my guard to be careful during assembly. Indeed, I did know that it would be an issue and I thought I had carefully deciphered the clues in the instruction schematics - but once I put fingers to plastic I still managed to screw things up! I have to be impressed that you spotted it from just that one little picture! As regards the water ports, I did get that much half right - the instruction schematics show two slight protuberances on the front end of the upper block halves. There's one under your arrow but the other side is correct with just the smooth plug. So I managed to get the opposite side of that half backwards even with the head on right. Maybe I should get a prize for obtaining maximum complexity out of my errors! Fortunately it's a pretty simple matter at this point to pry things apart and hopefully maintain enough presence of mind to assemble it properly the second time around! Stay tuned...

Well, after a little searching I found your review of the whole series. The original race seats are just what I have in mind! I haven;t ordered from Norm in years. I'm almost embarassed to contact him! But if he has them they would do the trick!

Thanks Tim. I can always count on you for the back story and cool detail! Actually the 427 wedge was the default choice strictly because I've never found a use for them in my car builds and I have some lying around. But its true, in my meanderings on the Internet researching the speedboat/drag-boat/ski-boat/hydro/flat bottom subculture I did see a whole lot of them which gave me confidence to use one, especially since I wanted a big 'ol blower up top - that Parts Pak 427 just screams mid-60's style to me, especially with some show chrome on it. The interior is a real issue for me. I'm wondering if I'm willing to put the work into doing a proper show upholstery job on it. I'll have to see if I can find some pictures of the original interior. The side pieces are OK on the re-issue I have, but the seats look way overscale and boxy - yechhh! But one step at a time. Right now I have to stay focused on the decals, paint and motor. Big fun working in an area I was only tangentially aware of. But then again I just finished my first Ferrari, so 2017 seems to be a year of change...

Here's a link to the build thread I just started on my Revell Hemi Hydro which I refered to above: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/126697-revell-hemi-hydro-show-n-go-drag-boat/ . This is a Photoshopped mockup of where I'm headed:

I’ve been experimenting with large scale decals to do elaborate graphics and paint effects, and nothing says paint effects more loudly and clearly than “Boat Flake”, the wild MetalFlake color schemes seen on high performance ski boats and hydros. These paint jobs are often done by embedding the colors and matalflake in the gel coat of the fiberglass giving them a special 3D depth all their own. I’ve discovered that by layering clear decals stock over a metalflake base I can get somewhat the same effect. I’ve done a dew cars with this technique, but never very large paint surfaces like you’d see on a boat. So…. I decided to build a Show N’ Go Drag Boat of the kind seen in the 1960’s at custom car shows. I’m starting with a late 1990’s issue of the recently re-released Revell Hemi Hydro. The 392 Chrysler Hemi that’s included in the kit (with Chrysler branded valve covers, even) is so sweet that I’ve decided to keep it for an automobile build and I’m substituting a Revell Parts Pack blown Ford 427. Sand for once I won’t be stripping all the chrome off. Instead I’ll be keeping most of it and even doing some Kolor Krome on some of the parts. Here’s the engine block and the Kolor Chromed valve covers, blower casing, accessory drive and ,injector scoop, along with orange ‘flaked engine block: The Hemi Hydro is pretty basic and the instrument panel is totally blank except for some weakly engraved instrument dials. So I cut the instrument nacelles out of a ’53 Studebaker dashboard and grafted them in place along with a raised trim piece which extends the length of the panel. The trim will be foiled and the nacelles finished with Molotow Chrome paint. I’ll use an auto-style steering wheel as well. The rest of the interior is still up in the air while I research show-style ski boats and come up with a plan. I’ll probably use some of the kit tuck ‘n’ roll panels, though. Here’s the dash as I have it so far: And lastly, I’ve got the graphics going. The hull and deck were painted with Duplicolor MetalCast Silver Ground paint which gives a pretty true to scale metalflake in 1/25th. I designed and printed a deck decal and applied it. It took a couple of tries but I think I have the basis for the design now. I’ve also laid out the masking panels for the rear and side panels. In the composite below I’ve included the original art for the deck decal, and a picture of the hull and deck the way they are now, with the silver flake base coat and the deck decal applied, giving the red to gold fade and scalloped pattern I’m going after. The areas on the rear and sides that will get the scallop and fade treatment have been masked and the rest of the hull and interior will be painted Candy Red using Tamiya Clear Red. The two pictures of the red boat were done with Photoshop – I haven’t actually shot any color yet, although the masking is in place. The panels you see on the sides and rear in these pictures are mockups and not the final design. Here’s where I’m at graphically at this point: That’s it so far. This project, while basically simple will move fairly slowly I suspect, since there’s lots of Imagineering and design decisions to make and I enter the strange new world of drag boats. I also have to do the matching trailer while I’m at it… Thanx for lookin’, B.

Having just completed my very first Ferrari project I'm following this one closely as it's the epitome of how to properly do these things - start with a the right kit and then improve on it where required, all the while being careful to maintain your build quality to the proper level to achieve the desired result. Excellence is what the subject matter demands and I'm sure that's where we're firmly headed with this one. Can't wait to see more on this!

I'm really enjoying following this project. The concept is so cool and the details you're choosing are right on the money. I'm sure they'll guide you to a successful conclusion. Waiting to see more, more, more...

Gerald, Alex Kustov must be Mr. Ferrari-In-Scale. He does beautiful work and his w.i.p. descriptions are invaluable for this type of project. I referenced that table of kits you linked when I was getting started to get a sense of where the AMT kit might lie in the scheme of things. But one day I'd like to have a swing at a full-on 250 GT Competizione version using the far more expensive motorless Gunze Sangyo kit and a 6-carb motor from Replicas and Miniatures. Thanks Kurt. Your sports car builds have been an inspiration and I have planned this project for a long time, as far back as your GTB-4 "surprise" many moons ago! There's no point in doing a Ferrari if it isn't going to look the part when you're done, so I've had to wait a while to attempt one. As I said, I'm grateful it came out as well as it did. That Tamiya Enzo kit is incredible in its detail and complexity. With a parts count crowding 200 and a build sequence which is virtually like assembling a 1:1 it has to be close to the state-of-the-art in modern plastic car models. Yikes. Phil, I remember a while back your three-car set of the front row at Westwood of the Tom Luce Corvette, the George Keck Testa Rossa, and the Jim Rattenbury D-Type. It was a significant inspiration to take on this subject matter. I'm certain you could do wonderful things with your homely AMT 250 GT SWB.

Thank you, everyone. I can't tell you how relieved I was that it turned out as well as it did. It fought me all the way. I kept losing tiny little parts to the carpet god, often long after I had glued them in place, although apparently not well enough. For example I landed up having to fabricate a shift lever just before gluing the interior into the body. It had been completed weeks ago! Fortunately, after referencing some on-line 1:1 interior photos the replacement came out better than the kit version, with a more correct length and a proper looking leather boot (perhaps there some sort of lesson there...). I wish the body shape was more correct because, with enough effort, it does build up into a nice model, and, as I said, generally speaking the parts fit is excellent and the kit quite well engineered. The only thing not covered in most commentary on this kit that I've seen (and there's really not much on the web) is that the kit stance is slightly nose high. I landed up having to open up the the holes in the wheel backs in order to offset the wheel position slightly upwards to bring the nose down. The front suspension is too finely cast to risk dropping the spindles, and besides I had glued the assemblies in place long before I received the wheels from Fernando Pinto. This was typical of the little things the kit requires to dial it in. But, as I said, with care it builds up to a pretty nice result, and the low market price took the cost issue off the table for my first Ferrari build.

Great thread and the perfect inspiration as I tackle my first ski boat. Alan, your boats in particular are ideal as reference to what I have in mind. My favorites are the early style race boat, the Moon River, and the blue flaked and flamed blown ski boat. I'm furthering my experiments with large scale decals to do a fogged panel boat flake paint job for a show-worthy boat like those shown in the 60's. I'm using a 90's re-issue of the the Revell Hemi Hydro, but the kit motor is so cool that I'm saving it for a car build and will be using a Revell Parts Pak blown Ford 427 just dripping in chrome. I'll post where I'm at in a separate thread because I'm just getting started. Great inspiration:

That's a pretty darned ambitious re-do and is so well integrated that it almost slips by unnoticed. And to my eyes it's quite an improvement over the kit version. Nice job! I especially like the stavked headlights and the re-profiled rear end treatment. Thanks for sharing it with us. I'm sure it will inspire others to try their hand.

Ah, the Zen of factory stock expressed at the highest level. It's always a thrill to see replica modeling done to this level. Brilliantly, and thoughtfully, done. Handsome color choice, lovely stance and just-right textures combined with a subtle realism - that's how it's done. Welcome to the board!