Bernard Kron

While I wait for decals and wheels to come from abroad for a Ferrari 250GT SWB project I've got going, I thought I do another large scale decal experiment in the form of a quick drag car project based on the AMT Chevy II Rat Packer Altered Wheelbase funny car kit. I'll be sticking pretty close to the kit build with only minor changes to the motor and wheels and tires. My focus is on the decals and paint scheme. A popular style during the 60's for drag machines was full-body candy stripe style paint jobs. The most famous was probably the Ramchargers cars but many others were done in all manner of colors. The challenge when doing these decals is to align all those stripes with the proper axis of the car and keep them parallel. Making really large sheets with all the stripes for the surface on one piece is pretty much out of the question because the large decal will buckle, bubble and wrinkle. Instead I made patterns for the roof, hood and rear deck and then printed a set of 8 parallel black stripes with red borders spaced to fit across the width of all three areas. I then cut a set for each area (hood, rood and rear deck). Then I divided each set of eight into three pieces, 2 end pieces of 3 stripes each and a center piece of 2 stripes. By applying the outer 2 pieces first I could then center the middle piece and make sure the whole set was parallel within itself and aligned to the other two areas on the body. Next up was designing (and naming) this fictitious car. With apologies to the late William Burroughs it's the Nova Express. All the decals were designed and made in Photoshop and printed to clear decal stock. Here's a summary of all the basic decal images with a schematic showing the relative areas for the hood, rood and rear deck. To represent a lightweight fiberglass body I shaved all the trim away, including door handles. I also cut the front bumper away from the grille and made a simple front pan. The body color is Duplicolor Oxford White. The whole ensemble will get several coats of clear once the decals cure. Here's the result so far: Most of the chassis and engine bits are already painted and waiting for assembly. This is a pretty simple project but a nice contrast from the meticulous attention the Ferrrari is demanding. Thanx for lookin', B.

It sounds like you have everything you need to successfully take great model car pictures. Here's a check list: 1) Brightly lit area. - The more light the better. 2) Decent quality camera - Likely to have high resolution imaging and a macro setting (see below) for closeup photography. 3) A tripod - often overlooked by some photographers, this will banish the ""shakies" forever, and, along with bright lighting and a macro lens setting, will virtually guarantee tack sharp pictures. The problem you are having is lack of "depth of field". The foreground of your photo is in focus while the background isn't. But with the tools you have available to you this is easy to solve. Most modern cameras are highly automatic, and, while manual settings have the potential to allow you to experiment for best results, trusting to the automatic settings on a good camera is, for many photographers, a good solution to getting first-rate results. So, assuming that the camera is mounted to the tripod and that your model is bathed in lots of light, look for the "macro" or close-up setting on your camera. If you have the manual it will tell you where to find it. Set the camera to Macro or Close-up mode. Then frame your shot in the display so that the resulting image looks as close to how you want the final image to look as possible. If you want to get in close and fill the frame with the model, the Macro setting will take care of making sure everything is in focus, including parts of the image that are further away from the camera. Then, rather than manually pushing the shutter button, use the camera's timer to trigger the shutter after a delay. This will totally eliminate any risk that you will shake the camera when you push the button. Besides Macro Mode, the other key is to provide lots of light. The more light the smaller the lens opening (aperture) the camera will set itself to. I'm assuming that the camera automatically calculates the ideal lens opening size (aperture) and exposure time for you. Typically on modern digital cameras this is referred to as Auto.mode. The smaller the lens opening the deeper into the background you can go and still have objects appear in focus. However, for the absolute maximum depth of field, if your camera allows it, you can set it to Aperture Priority, which allows you to lock the lens opening into a pre-determined size and then allow the camera to set the exposure time based on the amount of light available. For maximum depth of field set the camera to the smallest lens opening size (f-stop) it will allow - this will be the largest f-stop number. For example an f-stop of 6.4 indicates a larger lens opening than an f-stop of 8, and an f-stop of 11 would be even smaller still. Again, if you have the camera's manual, look for Aperture Priority (or fixed aperture) to see how to do this. Because you are using a tripod, even if the exposure time is long, if you use a timer, you will have eliminated any possibility of camera shake. But even without using Aperture Priority mode (combined with the Macro setting), as long as you are in Macro mode modern cameras will adjust everything else for you to get maximum depth of field. If hope this info is of some help.

At Slim's Last Chance Saloon in Seattle, Wa. today, the Gr*****ll Car Show. Prizes given in Clean and Dirty classes of Cars and Bikes, People's Choice and Best Of Show. More pictures here: https://ibb.co/album/nrjQaa?sort=date_desc&page=3&params_hidden%5Blist%5D=images&params_hidden%5Bfrom%5D=album&params_hidden%5Balbumid%5D=nrjQaa

The top idea is a keeper. Go for it. My only reservation in this marvelous project is the rear suspension. Given the studiously Old School aesthetic of the rest of the car hopefully the coilovers won't be that visible when she's completed. Of course from a ride and handling perspective this setup is superior to older style transverse leaf spring arrangements...

This has the potential to be a very interesting question indeed, once you consider that the amount you spend on kit, parts and meterials can be part of your design influences themselves. This has happened to me many times. For example, sometimes I'll set myself the goal to build a project 100% from parts, materials and paint I already have. In a sense the project has $0.00 marginal (additional) cost since the "money has already been spent". Of course this is an illusion, a little white lie I tell myself, but it means I haven't gone out and spent any additional money for the project. A good example of this would be the Rat Rod I built for the 2016 NNL West. The body was a leftover from an AMT/ERTL '29 Ford Roadster kit which also contributed the seat, dash and windshield, the wheels and front tires were leftovers from an AMT '34 Ford Coupe, and the rear tires leftovers from a Revell '40 Ford Deluxe kit. The front and rear axles came from a Revellogram '37 Ford Sedan Delivery kit. The motor wasn't purchased for the project as such, but it did come from a discreet source, a Revell Parts Pak. The chassis and gas tank were scratch built from styrene stock which I already had, the paint is leftover Krylon Purple from another project, and the weathering powders have been with me for years. The decals were homemade. So, allowing for the fact that all these "leftovers" have some sort or pro-rated marginal cost, as did the .styrene and paint and that I bought the Parts Pak for less than $5.00 on eBay the most expensive part of the build would either be the motor or perhaps the headers which are aftermarket parts bought on eBay for around $7.00. A guesstimate would be this is a $30.00 project and close to as little as I am likely to spend on a given project these days. $30.00 Out The Door? At the other extreme would be a project where I've actually purchased a specific kit, parts and materials in order to be able to build it. A project I'm doing right now would be an excellent example. The source kit itself wasn't all that expensive: the often denigrated ESCI/ERTL/AMT Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta, bought very cheaply on eBay for $15.00 + $10.44 shipping = $25.44. The silver paint, gray primer, and clear coats are low-end Duplicolor items currently available at about $6.00 a can. They're big cans so figure 1/2 can each + 10% sales tax = ~$12.50. But here's the zinger. In order to make this model look decent you need need to replace several horrible modeled and highly visible parts/ One requirement is for decent wheels. The kit wheels are a joke. Careful shopping for proper Borrani wire wheels and believable tires reveals even K.A. or Fujimi p.e. wheels and decent aftermarket tires are a $50.00 event at best. The nicest true wires in 1/24 scale are from Fernando Pinto at FPP Modelo. I just ordered some at a cool $63.00 a set, but they include really nice tires and are exceptional - if I don't screw up they will make the model. Also, in order to get the carburetor stacks to look proper I landed up using a set of Detail Master Weber carburetor trumpets. They were from my parts stash but they would cost me $12.99 plus shipping to replace. I also am using two Morgan Auto Detail Scintilla/Vertex style magnetos to model the Magnetti Marelli distibutors which are mere blobs in the original kit. They cost $4.95 each plus shipping. Throw in another $11.00 including shipping for some metal transfer decals of the Ferrari Prancing Horse and script for the grill, valve covers and trunk lid and I'm out to $175.00+ at this point, not including decal paper and miscellaneous acrylic and Metalizer paint used on the chassis, interior and motor. While some of this might seem excessive, this is a Ferrari after all and the whole point of the project is to make a well-detailed and believable model. I don't think this is any different than many of us do for this type of car, and my kit cost is a fraction of what many of us spend on various rare and desirable specialist kits. $175.00 and counting: Metal Transfers: Borranis from FPP Modelo (2 pairs): Detail Master Weber Stacks: The cheap stuff ($25.00 kit and $15.00 in paint and decals):

Pretty darned detailed for a humble diorama model. Love the finishes on the blower and the interior and the bracket holding the fuel tank. I prefer it without the towel because the motor looks so good, but the towel is well done, too, LOL! Very realistic looking AWB.

Thanks to you both. Bill, hopefully I can make a decent effort at getting this much-maligned kit to look respectable! Progress is being made, mainly in areas that are proving to be pretty straightforward. When I was doing the bodywork and paint I had planned on using the kit prancing horse shield decals that go on the fenders between the leading of the doors and the side vents near the top of the denders. But it turned out they were pretty vague in detail, printed on clear stock so that the underlying paint affected the final colors, and were visibly undersized. Other than that they were perfect! So I got a nice sharp image of the classic Ferrari shield and made my own version in a slightly larger size and printed them on white decal stock. While I was at it I scanned the instrument dials from the kit decals and made additional copies. And finally I found a properly proportioned actual vintage license plate from Modena, Italy (home of Ferrari) and made front and rear license plate decals. One of the nice things bout printing your own decals is you can cheaply and quickly make spares. I new that cutting out the shields accurately would properly be hit or miss, and that for sure the tiny gauge faces would give me trouble, so, after making the decal art I printed evrything out in triplicate. It turned out to be a wise move! Here's the decal art I made: Model kit chrome often bugs me because it has a tendency to make parts look overly thick and heavy. On the ESCI/AMT 250GT SWB this is especially true of the egg crate grill. It's actually a very nicely done piece, but the reflectivity of the kit chrome makes the grill look far too thick. Along with the flat nose this is one of the things about this kit that attracts criticism. The actual Ferrari grill I believe is polished aluminum and not as shiny as the kit piece. But before going all the way to stripping and refinish the kit grill I thought I would apply a coat of Testors Aluminum Plate Metalizer to the egg crate portion of the grill. I'm inclined to preserve the chromed grill surround because it offers a nice contrast to the silver body color. My hope was that refinishing just the interior of the grill might thin and lighten its appearance. I think it might do the trick. Below is a comparison of the grill with the all chrome original (A) and the refinished grill bars (B). The prancing horse shield can be seen as well. And lastly the interior bits have been painted. I used my usual trick of using Testors Acryl acrylic paint which I cross-hatch with my paint brush as it dries. Combined with a light coating of black or dark brown wash it creates a reasonable facsimile of a distressed leather-like surface. The interior surfaces of the roof and cab have also been finished in this color. The dash panel top on the 1:1's is generally the same black crackle finish as the cam covers, with the lower portion of the dash finished in body color. That's what I did here as well. The foot well assembly is part of the firewall in this kit and mounts to the fender liners and raditor assembly, so I'll wait until chassis assembly time to mount the firewall and dash to the rest of the interior bucket. Here's where I at so far: Thanx for lookin', B.

I followed this as a w.i.p. The final cleanup and detailing really makes all that delicious tinwork really pop. Cool, all-business, competition machine.

Thanks for all the interest. This is a brave new world for this died-in-the-wool old skool rod & custom guy. I'm using generic white water slide decal paper, lowest cost buy-it-now on eBay. The important thing to control the white-edge problem with this stuff is to cut right up on or even into the colored edge of the decal. But the thickness of the decal paper still has the potential to show. I find that by using decal solvent after applying the decals and letting them dry in place works very well. I use decal setting solution to place and set the decal in position, let it dry completely (usually 30 minutes is more than enough) and then apply decal solvent which "melts" the decal down into the surface below. I apply a generous coat and them without touching it, let the solvent dry completely. This thins the edges somewhat and seems to get rid of most of the white edge problem. The result is slightly dull and orange-peeled so then I clear coat the paint and decals with 3-4 thin coats of clear. That's what you're seeing in the photos. I use Microscale products. They seem to work just fine. I've never used anything else so I can't make any comparisons.

Immaculate, and he was careful to include all the special touches and details the kit designers had included. Shows he was sensitive to what the kit had to offer and was serious about getting it just right. Impressive.

Now that's hard-core auto modeling! Nicely done, too...

This project constitutes a first for me, or maybe a couple of firsts. After nearly 10 years back into auto modeling this is the first non hot rod/custom/straightline racing subject I have started. It may also be the first Ferrari I've ever done, unless you count a Merit Lancia-Ferrari D50 when I was a kid. I was fairly conscious about what model to pick for my First Cavalino. I had scored a Hasegawa 250 TR incredibly cheaply on eBay by being essentially the only bidder but, frankly, that was way too nice a kit to cut my teeth on. Then one of the dreaded ESCI/ERTL/AMT 250 Berlinetta SWBs popped up for cheap and I thought I'd start with that one. It promised to be less intricate and perhaps would look OK with less finesse than the Testa Rossa. Building iconic cars that are well known to everyone is not what I normally do. I build hot rods, lakes cars, customs and drag machines strictly from imagination. I'm a hard-core kit basher and I almost never have built a replica. In fact except for a few months as a child I've actually never built an airplane or ship model or gotten into model railroading. So even this relatively straghtforward project is quite a departure for me. My plan is to build a street Gran Turismo Berlinetta as opposed to the Competitizione variant, so it'll have bumpers. One reason for this is because the little vent nacels on the corners of the front valence of a bumperless SWB are not on the ESCI molding and I couldn't figure out how to model them. So bumpers it is. I'll try to detail it as best I can within the limits of my abilities, but you can be sure that it won't be up to the standards I've seen for many a museum-quality full-detail Ferrari build (Alex Kustov for example). So clean and simple but with enough detail to be somewhat convincing will be considered an overwhelming success by this humble hobby builder. The kit isn't quite the horror-show that many led me to believe. It's got plenty of parts and detail to work with. But I can see the deficiencies in the body shape. I tried to re-contour the areas around the grill opening where they meet up with the ends of the fenders so it didn't look quite so flat faced. It seems to have helped a little. Other than that I cut open the hood and the roof vent but forgot to do the same for the rear fender vents. It's small and dark enough in there that hopefully it won't be noticed. I went with a metallic silver color to emphasize the voluptuous contours of this extraordinary design (the paint is Duplpiocolor Silver over dark gray primer). It happens also to be a classic Gran Turismo color for these cars. I made Italian Tri-colore decal stripes that extend from the grille to the edge of the rear pan. The whole thing is sealed in 4 coats of clear. I'm going to let it harden thoroughly before any polishing. The kit is engineered so I can set the body aside and install it on the chassis and interior at the very end of final assembly, so now I'll focus on motor, chassis and interior detailing and paint colors. I'm resigned to having to spend real money on decent tires and wheels, too. But I'm no die-hard Ferraristi so I'm sure there will be plenty of mistakes. Nonetheless, I've been around these cars all my life so hopefully I've picked up a few things that will aid me in making a respectable effort. In the meantime here's where I'm at thus far. Thanx for lookin', B.

Very nice. A nice assortment of trade decals to balance out some of the still-available space and she should be ready to go. As I suspected, the posable steering and the crisp tin work details really add to the impact. Love the tach!

Attention all Ferraristi! I'm starting the dreaded ESCI/AMT Ferrrari 250 GT SWB. Where can I get scale metal emblems, i.e. the prancing horse for the grille and script for the valve covers?

Broken Photobucket links repaired. For now I'm only updating completed model pics. Updating w.i.p. links is just too huge a task! I'll update them on request...

Broken Photobucket links repaired. For now I'm only updating completed model pics. Updating w.i.p. links is just too huge a task! I'll update them on request...

Beautiful models. Whether Bill Engwer's rumination about their aerodynamics would prove true or not, their beauty and the shear racing purpose they project is undeniable and have cemented their positions as icons of what would prove to be the very peak of automotive culture.

Broken Photobucket links repaired. For now I'm only updating completed model pics. Updating w.i.p. links is just too huge a task! I'll update them on request...

Thanks guys! I'm glad you dig it! It's till one of faves on the shelf years later.

Broken Photobucket links repaired. For now I'm only updating completed model pics. Updating w.i.p. links is just too huge a task! I'll update them on request...

Broken Photobucket links repaired. For now I'm only updating completed model pics. Updating w.i.p. links is just too huge a task! I'll update them on request...

And the hits just keep on comin'!!!! Great stuff from everyone across the last few days and 2 pages!!!! I'm plugging away on rebuilding my Photobucket links and it's painfully apparent that ebormous damage has been done to to this epic thread. Some of my favorite Deuces by the many gifted modelers who have graced these pages are now M.I.A. As I plug away at my missing images I've noticed I skipped a Deuce I finished earlier this year. It's a mid-west style dirt track jalopy based on a Hendrix resin Fordor body:

Beautifully put John. As a past and future master of this style of model Ron, this one is sort of your minimalist Zen masterwork. My only frustration as that I crave additional photography!

Electric vehicles have always been attractive from the point of view of silence and ease of operation. At the dawn of the automotive age they were considered ideal for women drivers because they started up immediately with no physical effort and because they ran smoothly and silently. And yet they never became popular even though for several years they were among the safest, and highest performing cars one could buy. The Achille's Heal was battery charge time and battery size and weight. It severely limited both range and the real operating time of the vehicle. Range was often little more than 20 miles and charge time was typically overnight. Surprisingly little has changed in the 100+ years since those early days. Tesla assures you that their cars have a range of 265-300 miles, with other electric car manufacturers now making similar claims. This is only the case in relatively ideal of conditions. Electric vehicles operate best in moderate temperatures with battery function rapidly being compromised in either near-freezing weather or exceptionally high temperatures (over 100 degrees F). In the winter of 2013 a New York Times reporter was given a Model S to drive between Washington DC and Boston (he only got as far as Milford, Connecticut) in the middle of winter (see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?mcubz=0 ), While Tesla warned him that he would need to recharge the car at least twice along the way because of the cold temperatures, even their vaunted engineers got caught out, as the effective range of the car plummeted to about 45-55 miles between charges. Additionally charge times for these cars remain severely impractical even under ideal conditions. Tesla has been obliged to place their Supercharger stations next to coffee shops due to the typical 35-45 minute charge times. The charge time for a model S on 240 volt current, assuming a 10-20% residual charge is in the range 5-8 hours depending on ambient temperature. The capital investment for the equipment to do this in your home is in the $3-4K range. Charging your Model S using 120 volt current can take upwards 8-16 hours depending on residual charge and ambient temperature. So it's not just infrastructure that is a roadblock, but major shortfalls in orders of magnitude in battery performance that have yet to be overcome. My own feeling is that Tesla has done an impressive job of creating an attractive high performance luxury sedan which functions admirably as a prestigious second car. However, long road trips, for example business trips between major cities, or family vacations, are out of the question. But these types of cars are almost never used for such purposes. The true test comes with the Model 3, which is being hyped as within reach of middle class families with a promised sale price starting at $35K. The form factor is that of a BMW 3 series. Expect big trouble for Tesla as pioneering single car owners take the bait. 2018 promises to be an exciting year as Elon Musk either foolishly or courageously pushes the envelope of practicality. Marketing types believe that charge times on the order of 15 minutes or so will be the breakthrough. Compared with the 5 minutes or less it takes to refuel and pay at a typical gas station this seems like an eternity. But perhaps the efficiency, simplicity and cleanliness will prove compelling enough. I remain skeptical, to some degree because Mr. Musk and others are so anxious to press us into the electric age at a rate that portends some pretty big snags along the way.

The momentum is definitely with you. It's continuing to look super tasty. Regarding heads, intakes, etc., a really good source that people sometimes don't consider is Model Car Garage. They make a nice variety of historically significant finned heads, including Evans, Offenhauser, Sharp and Edelbrock, each in both center port and front port configurations. They are beautifully cast and incredibly crisp. The only downside is that they are 1/24th pieces and very slightly oversized for 1/25th Revell flatheads. I find gluing a strip of .030 styrene on the deck between the piston banks raises the intake manifold just enough to solve the problem. MCG also makes a very nice Edelbrock style twin-carb manifold with optional classic old school risers if you want to go totally retro. Prices are compatible to stuff and they generally have everything in stock and ship promptly. These are the Evans heads with a Revell tri-carb setup on a Revell '40 Ford block: The carbs, air cleaners and exhaust manifolds are from Replicas & Miniatures.