Bernard Kron

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 Bob! 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...

Very nice indeed. One of the classic designs initiated with the DB-2, perfected with this one and the DB-4 Zagato variant, and quoted endlessly, and surprisingly successfully often enough, by Aston Martin ever since. Shows what a profoundly important car this is. This model certainly does it just! The wheel/tire swap makes all the difference. FPP = Fernando Pinto?

Broken Photobucket links repaired.

Thanks guys! I use Photoshop to design my decals. It's very powerful but very expensive. Fortunately I've had a copy for years. There is a wonderful freeware program called Gimp (go to: https://www.gimp.org/ ) that's just as powerful. The learning curve on both these programs is steep, but the results make it worth it. And decals can be a powerful creative tool in your modeling. Highly recommended. All the broken Photobucket links have been repaired. I hope to get back to this project real soon. Thanx for following along.

Broken Photobucket links repaired. A lotta work for a full w.i.p. thread!

I think you can probably taper the edges of that chin piece so it molds into the fenders and the nose piece, then trim back the section under the nose until you reestablish the hinging function.

Thank you Jim. I just repaired all the broken P-bucket links. It's a lotta work so I'll probably only do repairs on my older topics as they come up.

Thanks once again for the exceedingly kind comments! I've said it before, but if bears repeating, it's especially gratifying when a model I build makes a connection with you all on the board. Getting "the look" right is what it's all about in my opinion, especially if, like me. you build within a style and don't do actual replicas.

Nice kit bashing exercise. I had fun Dick-Tracy-ing the parts used. What really caught my eye and in the end stumped me is the Auburn-style engine turned dash panel. Also, the Halibrand Kidney Bean wheels, which I suspect are from the new/soon-to-return Revell '30 coupe (front used on the rears as well?), but I'm not sure. The matte finish centers are especially nice. How were they done? A cool little project, indeed.

Thanks to you all. It's very much appreciated. This turned out to be somewhat of a challenge. Despite lots of careful pre-fitting I landed up having to do several things twice-over and encountered some last minute fitment issues that required some behind the scenes surgery. But it landed up looking pretty much like I imagined it. The inspiration cars, as I mentioned, were the Kurtis 500 Indianapolis cars. The color and white panel combination is classic Indianapolis in the 1950's. In particular, though, despite the fact that it was a single color it was the D-A Lubricant Specials of that era that really struck me. Hence the black and yellow theme. Patto's Place, the Aussie decal maker, actually offers a D-A Lubricant Special set and I was sorely temped to use them. But I felt better about doing my own thing, somehow. There never were D-A lakes cars...

Looks like my older P-bucket account which was still functional has gotten the SP500 Logo Of Death treatment as well. I just got notice not 30 minutes ago. They must have pulled the plug simultaneously. Absolutely ZERO advance notice... They are stark raving mad!!!!!!! Here's the e-mail notice I got:

They don't prompt you for payment when you log on. And all your pictures will display and are indeed still there. The real issue is whether they have stopped serving your pictures up to other web sites. You need to check your forum posts to see if your images are still intact or whether you see the P500 Logo of Death. There is, however, a blue banner across the top of the page when you logon which reads "We have updated our Terms Of Service - Learn More". If you click on "Learn More" you'll be taken to bajillions of words of fine print among which you'll learn that they no longer support Image Hosting except for their top tier premium service for 399 smackeroos per annum. Lovely... Like you I have an account that's unaffected, although I have used about 40% of capacity on that one. And like you, I'm hesitant to upload images for fear it will trigger losing my image hosting. I suspect this will prove at least as damaging to Photobucket in the long run (by driving down usefulness an site traffic) as the ill-will and mistrust engendered among those who actually did lose image hosting.

The design of the fitments, not to speak of the precision of execution, is stunning. I can't recall you working in quite this manner before, but perhaps I'm mistaken.

Very nice indeed. Immaculate black paint is the keynote which sells the whole vintage look. The interesting thing about both your model and the original Fran Hernandez 1:1 is that the chassis is just barely modified, leading to an unusually high stance with virtually no rake, and yet to get it to look right you do have to lower it front and rear (via lowered spring mounts at the rear and a mildly dropped front axle). That's the key the car's "old timey" vibe. Regarding the radiator bracing, many of the Ace Hardware stores in my area carry the K&S line of hobby and craft metal tubing and rod. That's where I got my supply of .020 music wire that I use for radiator bracing. It's also commonly carried in most decent full-line hobby stores and railroad modeling stores. Anyway, I love how much detail from the very few photos of the original you managed to include in your build, right down to the blacked-out windshield fram and the single windshield wiper mounted on the upper edge. I hope to see more from your bench in whatever style you choose to tackle next.

’32 Ford Roadster Dry Lakes Racer with Full Bellypan I’ve always admired the sleek look of an open wheeled hot rod with a full bellypan. The sheet metal paneling just below the body line ties the whole car together and gives it a grace and purposefulness you can’t get any other way. Unfortunately there are very few kits that include a belly pan and, of course, they are customized for that individual car. So, if you are going to build a bellypan hot rod you’ve pretty much got to scratch build it yourself. The only upside is that the bellypan hides all of the chassis detail except what might be visible under the hood or in the interior. So it’s kind of a “modified curbside” build. That’s the approach I took with this project. This is my 4th full bellypan Deuce and I’ve developed a technique where I build up the sides of the bellypan using strips of straight and ¼ round styrene and construct what is effectively the chassis for the car. It’s almost as if it were a highboy. I’d say that well over half of this model is scratch built and much of the rest is aftermarket or from the parts bin. The base kit I used is the old 1/25th scale Revell ’32 Ford Highboy (and later Good Guys) Roadster. It supplied the main body and much of the front suspension. The overall look is inspired by the classic Kurtis 500 Indianapolis Roadster of the 1950’s. To “sell” that concept I used those fantastic resin 50’s Halibrand wheels and Firestone Indy tires courtesy of IndyCals. The 2-tone paint job and the bold number decals are also 50’s Indianapolis styling cues. Here’s the breakdown with lots of pictures immediately below: Thanx for lookin’, B. Bodywork: Scratch built full bellypan and rolled rear pan. Basic body and grill shell from Revell ’32 Ford Highboy kit. Blank grill and hood sides from Revel ’32 Ford 5-window Coupe kit. Scratch built tonneau cover. Roll bar scratch built from aluminum tubing. Homemade decals. Paint is Testors Daytona Yellow lacquer over Duplicolor Oxford White lacquer. Motor & Drive Train: Revell Parts Pak Chevy 283 small block with GMC 471 blower and Hilborn 2-port injection from AMT Double Dragster kit adapted for top mount. Chain drive from AMT ‘39/’40 Ford Tudor kit. Tubular headers courtesy of VCG Resins, modified to clear hood sides. Front suspension and steering modified from Revell ’32 Ford Highboy kit. Wheels and Tires: Vintage ‘50’s era Firestone Indy Tires and Halibrand Solid magnesium wheels courtesy of IndyCals (see http://www.indycals.net/parts/indyparts/55roadstertires.html ), reversed to show the inner ribs. Knockoff spinners from Revell ’32 Ford Highboy kit. Interior: Scratch built aluminum panel style interior made from styrene sheet. Cut down aviation-style ’29 Ford steering wheel from my parts box. Drilled out aluminum bucket seat courtesy of Crazy Scale Auto Parts (see http://crazyscaleautoparts.cybrarygoddess.com/ )

Thanks everybody. I'm stoked you all dig it. Bad news on the milk truck wheels on the blue roadster - t hey were from Modelhaus and so are now no longer available. This project is now done. Here are some final details including the finished out engine compartment and pictures of the idashboard and steering wheel and seats inside the bodywork as well as the final installation of the underside panels. Thanks to all who followed along. I’ll post the final “beauty shots” in the next day or so. Thanx for lookin’, B.

I saw this posted on another model car board (Scale Racing Lobby) whose entire graphics have been decimated by the P-Bucket screw-job. Expect to see this response from other services, but I have to say that this is pretty explicit and shows that at Fotki at least, they're up front about soliciting your trust. I originally gave P-bucket 48 hours to back out of their folly. They are is long past and P-bucket is now doomed. It's only a matter of time. But then again, all my P-bucket links are doomed as well now, so that's cold comfort.

Between waiting for the headers to arrive and the current Photobucket dustup I haven’t lacked for excuses to move this prevent me from attending to this project. Despite these things I’ve gotten the motor done, the front suspension completes and the wheels done and the rear wheels mounted. In the photos below the front ones are just hanging in place on the axles but not glued and positioned. The motor is a Revell Parts Block Chevy small block. The blower is one of small GMC 471’s from the twin Chevies in the AMT Double Dragster kit which is also the source for the Hilborn 2-port injectors. This would be a typical lakes motor circa ’59-’61. The tubular headers courtesy of VCG Resins have been extensively modified so they hug the block as much as possible to fit under the hood. The distributor is a “Frankenstein” style magneto from a Too Much dragster kit with a pre-wired cap from Morgan Auto Detail. The chain drive was adapted from an AMT ’40 Ford Tudor kit. The wheels are now complete. Oddly, IndyCals does not provide knock-off spinners for them, even though an extension search on the Internet of photos of these wheels mounted only ever shows them with knock-offs. So I adapted a set from the Revell ‘32 Ford Highboy kit that is the origin of the body. They look like they were made for them! The tiny Firestone decals were a bear to apply but well worth the effort in terms of the overall look. The details of the front suspension were all adapted from the Revell Deuce Highboy kit as well. That’s it for now. The interior panels are glued into the body, as is the dashboard, gearshift and seat. The body is now glued in place as well. Not much to left to do except fitting the grill shell and hood and the usual final detailing and cleanup. Most likely my next post will be of the completed model. Thanx for lookin, B.

Fore those of us who post our pictures to multiple forums 3rd party hosting is the preferred approach. But, yes, opening the board to unlimited uploading is a generous and appropriate response to this problem.

Fran would have approved of this immaculate interpretation of his Deuce. Those Blue Bandito fronts tires are nice.

I just updated this thread to images from my Imgur free account. Hope everything looks good. It does from where. In the meantime I will wear my Photobucket P500 Logo of Death in my signature as a Badge of Honor! Oh yeah, I have been working on this and there's a major update coming soon... despite the Logo of Death...

Yes, you have to register with Forumotion. This includes setting up a forum there. It's free but you need to do it in order to complete your registration. Then you need to login to Servimg.com with your Forumotion i.d. and password. Lovely...

I just looked on their terms of service and they're still showing $399.00 for P500. $39.99/month is $480.00 per year last time I looked. No drama here. Totally justified outrage in my book. Oh yeah, and my Photobucket served screen images are still M.I.A..

Please realize that if you have been affected by the changes at Photobucket all images linking to your account have been broken. So if you have threads or postings here on MCM that have these links they now show the Photobucket P500 Logo of Death (see my signature below) instead of the image you intended. If you have a blog that depended on these images it has been rendered less meaningful and perhaps useless by this, depending on the degree to which it relies on your Photobucket served images. If you link images to eBay or Etsy transactions served by Photobucket then you offers have been seriously damaged. If you have a commercial site with images served up by an affected Photobucket account it is now useless. In my case I have many posts and threads on the MCM board that represent nearly ten years of involvement and engagement with our community, many of which months and even years later are referred to by others; and the same goes in the other direction if I search for comments or resources on a particular topic. Any images served up by an affected Photobucket account has been impacted. A How-To posting, for example, dependent on images served up by an affected Photobucket account is now useless. This is what I call the Network Effect in reverse. Just because we have an affordable or free alternative that we can use on a going forward basis does nothing to address the huge and daunting task of repairing and updating older posts. Unless we think that anything we say or do on the internet is only of the most momentary and trivial value to ourselves or others...