Bernard Kron

I'm sure the owners are enjoying it. It's a nice example of photorealist painting. You can always make yourself another one, that's the inherent advantage of being the artist...

A delightful surprise. I really like the chrome molding on the boat tail and how you carried through to the fenders and the body sides. It serves to unify what would have otherwise been a difficult transition. The whole thing comes together really well, especially in glossy black like that. Bravo!

Nice! Your father must be pleased. Would you have a picture of his car?

OK! The posable steering will look great on the finished product. And you gotta dig the "chassis". cum lower engine detail thing happening. The crisp and accurate period detailing on the suspension parts and brakes already hint on what a fine model this is shaping up to be. I love the utilitarian colors. I was trying to remember how I handled the stance problem so I went back to look at my build and, while I didn't go whole-hog and cut out the chassis details like you did, I did land up ditching the kit rear end and substituting a separate Revell 1/25th Deuce piece while keeping the Snaptite radius arms and springs, lowering the whole thing a couple of scale inches. At the front, like you, I relocated the kit front suspension mounting tab, in my case lowering 4 scale inches.

Thanks! This was one of those fortunate projects where things generally went as well or, sometimes, even better, than I hoped for. I love the radical simplicity of Jr. Fuelers and this seemed to capture it. Thanks Curt. Yes, yes, yes. Your wire wheels add a quantum leap of realism that my diggers badly need. I sent you an e-mail with more about this...

Hi Dan. Nice to see you posting stuff again. I always have been a fan of your work, especially the fabrication stuff. It always adds some depth and realism to your models. The sheet metal forming is something I have yet to master. This looks simple and on target, which is no doubt the point of the exercise. I'm looking forward to seeing this come together. I did one of these a few years back for exactly the same reason, to build something that's creative and beyond a mere kit build, but simple enough that it could quickly come together. Mine was fenderless too, and backdated from the 80's style Monogram original. Like you I discovered the key was the stance and front axle position. The rest was surprisingly straightforward.

Super cool idea and execution. It serves as an inspiration to me for the Engine Build-Off on the TRaK board. Fantasy engines are always Big Fun!

Thanks Randy. It's always good to hear from you. I hope to see some more "adventures in soldering" with the Maser Birdcage coming up!

Thank you, guys. I 'm glad you like it!

I'm not building this one, Vince, Howards is.

Looking very nice indeed so far. It must have taken patience and care to get all that BMF to lay down smoothly. Bravo! I just finished a modified version of this car, a Jr. Fueler featuring a "shorty" body from Altered States and a SBC injected motor. You can't beat this kit for detail and period authenticity. Revell really brought their "A" game when they engineered it back in the day. Interestingly, on my build I opted for a bare aluminum look as well, although in my case I used Krylon Premium Chrome paint to get the effect. I may have to consider posting future drag builds on the regular On The Workbench pages rather than under Drag Racing models 'cause it can get mighty quiet over there, LOL!

Thanks guys. Michael, you're too kind... All done! The injectors are Hilborn pieces from the Revell Slingster kit. The parachute from my parts box. Thanks to all who followed along! Here are the final "beauty pics". Thanx for lookin', B.

Enderle Big Block Chevy setup - courtesy of Speed City Resin Scott Slot Injector FI courtesy of Altered States Models: Enderle Barn Door Injectors - Scoop courtesy of Altered Sates Models

Thanks guys! Moving right along. The motor’s nearly complete, with most of the wiring and plumbing in place. The chassis only needs the steering and radius rods to be done. Here’s a rolling chassis with the body and motor mocked up into place. You can really spot the early 60’s 108” wheelbase now that the motor is in place and it’s up on its wheels. The front wheels are finished in Tamiya Gold Leaf on the rims to simulate anodized aluminum lightweight pieces as often seen on these featherweight diggers. The distributor on the motor is a new item from Morgan Auto Detail, a Cirello (or prior to that Schiefer) “Frankenstein” magneto. The headers, wheels and tires are all from the Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit and the fuel pump is courtesy of Altered States Models. Thanx for Lookin’ B.

Oops!!!! It's an MPC kit, so its a Round2 release. Duh.... The cover art reminded me a lot of Revell kits. Anyway, now if Revell did get the message about how brand detail really adds value to the kits...

Thanks once again for the clear, succinct review, Tim! An interesting kit from a marketing perspective. It would appear that, perhaps thanks to Round2, Revell has recognized the importance of authentic branding in their kits. Goodyear tires, printed on the sidewall yet???? The decal sheet, too, contains vast quantities of trademarked logos! Hallelujah!

The Scale Racing Lobby forum runs an annual Southern Fryed Drag Tour, a fantasy league style racing series where members enter their models and the moderators use a random draw system to drive the elimination style drag meets that run from early February until June. I’m in the midst of a two week thrash to get the notorious fictitious “Little Feather” Junior Fuel dragster, the scourge of Lions back in the mid 60’s, ready for this years’ tour. It’s based on the Kent Fuller dragster chassis in the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit. The engine bay was set back by simplifying the tube structure in front of the driver resulting in a shorter drive train. Below is a sequence showing the original Tony Nancy design (A), the modifications (B), and the final result (C). The Little Feather gets its name from its short wheelbase and amazingly low weight, 820 lbs. soaking wet. Running over 90% nitro on its 310 cu. in. all aluminum small block it pulled 410 horsepower. The block and heads are Revell Parts Pack items finished in Testors Metalizer Aluminum to simulate the all-aluminum construction. The injectors are from the Revell Slingster kit and the scattershield is fron the Tony Nancy kit, as are the rear wheels and tires, here finished in Testors Acryl Jet Exhaust to simulate a Dow 7 finish. To keep the weight down it runs a bare aluminum shorty body, here supplied by Altered States, with just a minimum of paint accents. I used Krylon Chrome paint to simulate polished aluminum. The [paint scheme is done with decals. I used white decal stock to eliminate the “silvering” that occurs when applying clear decal stock over bare metal style paint. Here are the graphics: With barely a week to go my bench is covered in subassemblies ready for the final thrash. The motor is partially assembled, the chassis complete with the cut down interior and rear end assembly installed, ready to receive the front suspension and drive train. Here’s a shot of some of the parts: Thanx for lookin’, B.

I'll be showing up tomorrow around 11 AM. Hope to see some of you there!

Because of they are generally larger scale and have so much detail, motorcycles are a great canvas for fine modeling - and this is one fine model!

Thanks everyone. I'm glad you all enjoyed my little excursion into historical fantasy. That's one of the cool things we can with this hobby that makes it fairly unique! In this era of "Alternative Facts" I thought it might be advisable to highlight the parts of my little tale that constituted a creative augmentation... The rest is from the historical record and shows that the Club de Mer might very well be a more interesting Dream Car than many of us might have thought.

1956 Pontiac “Club Bonneville” Experimental Land Speed Record Car Some of the following is fiction. In 1955 the Pontiac division of General Motors was struggling with its image. The next step up from GM price leader Chevrolet, Pontiac was trying to decide how to stand out from in-house competitors like Buick and Oldsmobile. It was decided that it needed to emphasize both Style and Performance. For the 1956 Motorama season they would debut a radical new show car, the Club de Mer. Incredibly low and sleek at standing barely 38” high, it not only was a style leader but it featured Pontiac’s hot new Strato-Streak V8, a radical stainless steel monocoque chassis, and a sports-car inspired de Dion rear suspension. During the car’s development the design team found itself heavily influenced by European racing cars, in particular the D-Type Jaguar and the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante. As a result a group of Pontiac engineers stylists and marketing types began lobbying heavily to create a racing car based on the basic styling cues of the Club de Mer. The success Zora Arkus-Duntov was having with Corvette over at Chevrolet made it an easy sell. Two racers were planned, a road racing machine they hoped could be campaigned in Europe, and a record speed car built for Bonneville. A fiberglass mold was pulled of the Club de Mer body which was modified for racing purposes. The fin was removed from the center of the rear deck and, in a bid for sty6ling continuity, molded to the driver’s headrest. The Bonneville car was the simpler of the two. A basic, lightweight tubular perimeter frame and solid axle front and rear suspension was all that was required for straightline racing. Since the goal was to clear 200 MPH low weight, good aerodynamics and big horsepower were what was needed. In a harbinger of things to come Pontiac farmed out the motor to Mickey Thompson whop came up with a Potvin blown nitro-powered firebreather tickling 500 BHP. It was immediately dubbed “Strato-Charged”. The road racer would take more work. The monocoque would have to be re-engineered in aluminum to bring the car down to race weight. A season of U.S. based racing in 1956 was planned before facing the challenge of Le Mans in 1957. Then disaster struck when a horrific fiery crash at Le Mans in June of 1955, killing Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh and 83 spectators, created a world-wide reaction against motor sport. The senior brass at Pontiac decided to pull the plug on the racing project. The Bonneville car had been completed but was never run in anger. The sports racer never got past the design stage. After its huge success in the 1956 Motorama the Club de Mer was eventually scrapped as were so many GM Motorama dream machines. It was long thought the fiberglass “Club Bonneville” had been destroyed at the same time. But recently the LSR car was found along with a show engine intended for Motorama display. Thanx for lookin’, B.

I'm just about done. It's a curbside so there's not much to show in terms of construction that I haven't detailed earlier. However, I decided that, if it would have succeeded at Bonneville it would no doubt made the GM Motorama circuit, displayed alongside it's sister car, the Club de Mer, and they would have displayed a show engine. So I am building one, a Potvin blown variant based on the Revell Parts Pak Poncho with the front blower setup from the Revell Parts Pak Chevy. I still have wiring and plumbing to do, but at that point I should be ready to post final pictures of the completed model. Here's a photo of where I'm at right now. Thanks for lookin', B.

Crisp would be an understatement. Consistently immaculate. Your foil work is a joy to behold.

That's one heck of a nice illustration and would make one heck of a nice box build!

Yup, due out right about now - Model Roundup says "Early January 2017". Here's a link to an article on the Round 2 wed site from last September showing the cool new tiures and general upgrade they've applied to this release: http://www.collectormodel.com/round2-models/3205-amts-1949-ford-coupe-is-truly-a-gas-man/#sthash.vgWTO5PE.dpbs Included are some killer new Firestone Cheater Slicks as well as whitewalls and modern tires: I for one have no complaints about AMT's reissue and refresh policy...