Bernard Kron

Brilliant! Perhaps you are aware of him, but one of the greatest scratch modelers of automobiles was the late Manuel Olivê Sans, and one of his masterpieces was the same car you are building. The techniques he used were the same you are pursuing, and from the looks of things you are on course to equal his remarkable work. The extraordinary thing is that your are doing it in 1/24th scale, even smaller than Sans' 1/10th scale rendition. If you haven't discovered him then I think you'll find him inspirational. I have no doubt you're finished product will be on a similar level! Here are some links: Manuel Olivê Sans Foundation CMA Article on Manuel Olivê Sans And a couple of pics of his Gus Andrey Tipo 61:

I often get asked what software I use, particularly by car modelers who either want to design their own graphics (for decals fro example), or who want to improve their photographs. The problem I have had is that my software of choice has always been far too expensive to recommend to casual users. I am a long-time user of Photoshop, starting years ago when I bought a copy for the business that I had at the time. But its tremendous cost barrier has always made me hesitant to recommend it. Recently I downloaded a copy of GIMP, a professional grade image program that is available free of charge (GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program where GNU is the acronym for a free Linux-like kernel of basic code that is the basis for many of the powerful free software applications available today). I have known about GIMP but up to now have never taken the time to install it and use it. To be clear, I consider Photoshop an excellent program rich with techniques and approaches to serve the needs of virtually anyone who works with bitmap images, Its one disadvantage is that it has always been enormously expensive. Even when you could still buy it, a full copy would set you back several hundred dollars. And nowadays Adobe won't even sell you a copy - you have to rent it at a cost of upwards of $30.00-$40.00 per month for a suitably powerful version. Are there any long-time GIMP users in the MCM community who would care to comment on their experiences? Now that I've had a chance to spend time with GIMP I must say that I'm impressed by it. It's quite powerful, and while in detail the user interface and functionality is somewhat different than Photoshop, I can see no reason why someone just learning this kind of software shouldn't learn GIMP instead of Photoshop. This is especially true of more casual users and hobbyists for whom the cost of Photoshop constitutes a huge barrier.

Definitely "looks the business" Curt, Captures the vibe just right!

Thanx Rob! The completed model along with a full write-up and tons 'o pics can be found here in the relative obscurity of Under Glass: Pickups, Vans, SUVs: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/117939-34-ford-pickup-bare-metal-bobber/

’34 Ford Bare-Metal Bobber This was built for the Traditional Rods and Kustoms in Scale AMT/Lindberg ’34 Ford pickup CBP (TRaK: http://trakinscale.proboards.com/ ). It’s a prime example of what Tim Boyd calls “extreme kitbashing”. In fact the only part on the car from the AMT ’34 Ford Pickup kit is the grill shell and grill – and even that got chopped. But the resin body I used is based on that kit so the members graciously let me participate. It’s a pretty radical channeled fenderless “bobber” dropped on a heavily modified ’37 Ford truck chassis with Buick Nailhead power. The bed is a shortened Revell “rat rod” ’29 Ford piece, also channeled over the z’d frame. The bare-metal finish was achieved by rubbing the Duplicolor metallic Silver paint with Kosutte Ginsang metalizing powder. Below are the details of the kits used and more photos. Thanx for lookin’ B. AMT/Lindberg ’34 Ford Pickup Kit: Grill shell and grill (chopped) Basic Body: Resin chopped ’34 Ford pickup cab by Ed Fluck at Drag City Casting (lowcab36@epix.net, Tel. 570-289-4345). Other Aftermarket Parts: 8” Dirt track rear tires, Buick Nailhead accessory drive, oil pan and transmission by Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Maryland (replmincomd@aol.com, (410) 768-3648). Pre-wired distributor by Morgan Auto Detail (http://www.madmodeling.com) AMT ’34 Ford Pickup kit: Grill shell and grill (chopped). Revell/Monogram ’37 Ford Panel Delivery kit: Chassis (narrowed, shortened) front axle, steering tie rod, wishbones (split), front shocks, brakes. Revell ’32 Ford Sedan kit: Fuel Tank (modified), firewall (modified), rear suspension, driveshaft, radiator, tail lights and license plate bracket, headlights, dashboard, steering wheel and column. Revell/Monogram ’29 Ford “Rat Rod” Roadster Pickup kit: Pickup bed (shortened), front transverse leaf spring. AMT ‘39/’40 Ford Tudor Sedan kit: Intake manifold, carburetors, exhaust manifolds, fan belt and generator. AMT ’36 Ford Coupe kit: Wide-5 wheels and front tires. Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit: Buick Nailhead engine block, heads, valve covers. Scratchbuilt items: Decals, floor pan and transmission cover, mufflers and tailpipes, window glass, pickup bed floor. Paints & finishes: Basic body color: Duplicolor Metallic Silver. Bare-metal effect done with Kosutte Ginsang metallizing powder. Accent color (interior, engine block and heads, rear axle, wheels) Duplicolor Dark Toreador Red Metallic.. Miscellaneous parts finished in various shades of Testors Metalizer.

Here's a picture of the set showing the front axle detail:

That body is from Altered States Models and is a really nice piece. Top quality. I built one a few years back as part of a race team set along with a matching trailer and shop truck. The basic chassis was the AMT '34 Ford 5-window coupe. I used the dropped axle from the Monogram '37 Ford Sedan and Pickup kits. As Espo said, Replicas & Miniatures makes a really nice Tri-Carb manifold that would be ideal for your concept. Here's a link to the w.i.p. for my model, it might give you some ideas: '34 Ford Highboy Dry-Lakes Roadster.

I got it done today and took some photos. I'll do a write Under Glass tomorrow. In the meantime here's a Little Pages b&w teaser:

I’m ready for final assembly. I got a lot done, including re-doing the fuel tank so it looked a little less like a recycled ’32 Ford tank (which is what it is…), fabricated a muffler system because nothing in my stash would fit the cut down chassis, fabricated stanchions for the Revell Deuce headlights and mounted them, painted and finished the grill and painted and installed some seats from my parts box, as well as installing a dashboard and steering wheel from a Revell 3-Window Deuce. I cut glass and glued it into place, too. Now, other than selecting and installing some taillights and making a license plate, it’s ready for gluing together. With luck it should be done in the next few days. Here’s some pics where it stands now. The assembled car is a mockup so the alignment of the body and bed aren’t precisely where they’ll be, but with everything still loose I was able to do a “cutaway” photo. Thanx for lookin’, B.

The more I build model cars, especially of the scratch and bash variety, the more I do these very same preliminary mockup routines to determine parts selection, body and chassis mods, and fabrication details. Far too many times have I had to hack and grind away at fully finished and painted parts that just wouldn't work! Lessons learned... Build on Bill!

Oops! My Bad!!! It's Postimage.org. And it's alive and well. Their in fund raising mode and money seems to be coming in at a healthy clip since they announced their issues this AM. Apparently they've been around since 2004 for the specific purpose of hosting images for bulletin boards, forums and e-commerce. Here's a screen image of their home page I just took, and here's the link: https://postimg.org/

4:14 PM PDT: Photobucket is down again.

Testing to see if Photobucket can serve up the last image (posted above via Postimage.org) successfully. Success! Now we'll see if it lasts...

11:46 AM PDT (2:46 PM EDT) I confirm it's up again and working far more smoothly that it has in many days. As usual with these web businesses we will never know what happened are whether it's a real fix or temporary. Only time will tell... EDIT @‌ 11:50 - Oops. Still buggy. Page loads still crash and must be refreshed. Darn! EDIT @‌11:55 AM - Successfully posted test image from P-bucket to previously buggy MCM thread... - fingers crossed...

I run Internet Explorer 11 under Windows 10 and it is generally very robust and stable. I use ad-blocking as well. But I still have chronic instability with Photobucket, and historically Photobucket goes down entirely quite often, as it has today. Generally on the order of at least once every 90 days, and in some stretches, far more often. Your comment about serving ads to excess is the key, IMHO. The main reason I use an ad blocker is not because the ads offend me - if they were served up quickly and smoothly and were seamless with my web experience I would have no problem. But ads in their current form radically slow down page loads, are intrusive. and often render the web page unstable. Wed video with audio is the worst in all these regards. It underscores that the basic reality of "high tech", especially on the Internet, is that it's based on a model based on free or very low-cost market prices supplemented by value-added services such as web-stats and advertising. It's a poor way to run businesses that are often based on expensive, crude, complex and high maintenance technologies. A market clearing price of $0.00 has never been a sure-fire formula for success.

I'm a huge Speed City fan. I've used his stuff for years. Pretty much as good as you can find in resin casting quality, and since he makes many of his own masters, often from scratch, he has many unique parts you can't find anywhere else. If you build 60's-70's drag subjects he is, along with Altered States Models and Competition Resins, one of your go-to resin parts suppliers, IMHO. As mentioned, too, his service and communication are lightening fast and crystal clear. Big Thumbs Up!

I've been having intermittent and serious stability issues with Photobucket for many months now, perhaps going all the way back to their "upgrade" much more than a year ago. The issues vary and P-bucket tends to come back to stability for periods of time, but every time I go their, or link to my photos, I fear there will be problems. Currently I can't load a page on Photobucket without refreshing the screen first. And the other day I linked an update to my current project here on MCM to an image on P-bucket and it corrupted the web address of the MCM page so that it eventually crashed my ability to load MCM altogether. Neither Dave Ambrose or I could figure it out, but linking to a different photo hosting service solved the problem. Thanks to Dave Ambrose for being so patient while I worked through this. Anyway, the important thing is that I may have discovered a FREE hosting service that's simple, effective, and robust. It's called Postimage.org and it appears to be growing like wildfire, probably because it's basic architecture is similar to Photobucket, and with serious technical issues a constant threat at P-bucket users like me are scouring the internet for alternatives. If you go to their home page, however, you'll see that they are in danger of closing down as a result of their success. It reminds me of Fotki a few years back, where they faced bankruptcy unless they changed their business model. I'm a long time user of Photobucket, exclusively for posting to Forums, and have many, many images in my accounts there. Necessarily I must maintain my accounts with them if my images are to link successfully from my various forum posts. But I was planning to gradually introduce Postimage.org into the mix. Right now I have less than a dozen images linked to Postimage so there's no serious problem as long as Photobucket gets its house in order, which it appears to, only to break down again in a few weeks or months. Fingers crossed that Postimage.org makes it. Besides Fotki's pay service, can anyone make recommendations for other reliable hosting services, preferably with a free version?

Thanks everyone! Tim, that's my concern with the proliferation of categories and the "gray areas" that certain styles might fall in. IMHO it ruined the Other Magazine's forums. That's why I make sure my default page I set up in my web browser's bookmarks (Favorites) is to "New Content" set to "Since your last visit". That way I don't miss topics that aren't in categories I'm "officially" interested in.

Thanks Curt. What's a truck without some serious hauling capacity?! LOL

Well, with one small procedure I’ve completely changed the character of this build. I thought I’d try applying Kosutte Ginsan metalizing powder to the Duplicolor Silver paint color. The change was immediate and dramatic, creating a strong and obvious bare metal look. There was no possibility of applying it selectively, nor of undoing it once it’s laid on. So I jumped in all the way, and one effect was that the red body stripe completely disappeared. So the result is a tougher, more aggressive bare-metal look, one which I believe works better with the funky wide-5 wheels and dirt track tires.

A belated Thanx! to you both. And yes, Michael, I'm congenitally incapable of doing a box build!

Here's hoping that your typically elegant design sensibility finds completion in this fine looking channeled rod. Perhaps the large scale and increased detail makes this project seem closer to your vocation. For some that would be negative, denying them of the escapism which can be a purpose of a hobby, but I'm speculating that in your case it may serve as motivation. In the meantime, so far so very good!

Thanks everyone! I got quite a good deal done, the most important thing being constructing the front suspension and getting the stance dialed in. The front axle and radius rod are from a Revellogram ’37 Ford Pickup/Delivery Van, the same kits which provided the chassis. The split radius rod were shortened and drilled aft of where they hook over the front axle so they could be pinned to the ends of the front spring which was attached to the flattened front crossmember. The front spring itself is from a Revell ’29 Ford RPU kit. The decals were finalized and printed, then installed and the bodywork clear coated. The motor has been installed in the chassis and a driveshaft from a Revell ’32 Ford kit cut and installed. With suspension completed and the motor installed it was possible to mock up the car on its wheels with the body in its final position to check the stance. Surprisingly everything lined up as I’d hoped it would. Next up is chopping the stock grill before painting and installing it, finishing the interior, including building some seats, perhaps making a fuel tank to go in the pickup bed, and then lights, glass and all the little details that go into final assembly. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I took a break from chassis and mechanical work and started on the paint and graphics. I wanted to do a door logo featuring a classic hot rod. Nothing is more classic than the Bob McGee Deuce roadster. I found a nice shot on the web. and then processed it, first to b&w, then to a line drawing and finally with a black fill-in. All this in Photoshop. Here's the step-by-step. Then I designed a simple but strong logo that would show up well in scale. I came up with two variations. I haven't decided which combo to use, the simple solid red or the "ball, and whether to go with "Hot Rods" or "Rod Shop". I'll probably print test decals to see what works best. Here's a photo mockup of each "applied" in Photoshop to the painted body shell. Paint is Duplicolor Silver with a Duplicolor Dark Toreador Red Metallic band. Thanx for lookin', B.

I've seen this many times over the years, at the NNL West where Steve is one of the organizers. It's still one of my all-time favorite rods in this style and deserves to be brought back. Bravo!