Bernard Kron

There seems to have been a major revision in judging rules in 2011. But I wasn't able to find any discussion as to whether a specific cap on the year was instituted then. Certainly the pure show cars of the late 60's and early 70's, cars like Don Borth's Invader, Art Himsl's Alien, and even Joe Wilhelm's Wild Dream are hardly even quote a specific year's Traditional body style. They share the Traditional roadster's open wheel, side-window-free elements, and perhaps quote a roof style, but the builder's palette is pretty wide open. These cars are a far cry from the rigid criteria evidenced in current cars. I think the last time we saw a truly impactful design change may have been with the "High-Tech" and billet movements starting with Buttera and Coddington's cars in 1980 and culminating 15 years later. The Brizio shop and Rodder's Journal, along with the HAMB, have really influenced trends since, although the glitzy bib-bucks look of the late 90's certainly refuses to die! So I agree that this sort of thing has been going for quite some time now and to that extent it's the "same old same old". But, as I said, maybe we should look to some other shows for more cutting edge design work - if it even exists...

I didn't realize there was a cap on the year of the car. I checked the rules and any reference to a streetable roadster is to "pre-1935". Is this what you're referring to? If so, what a bummer! As much as I thought the Mumford '27-T win in 201 was an inspired choice, I'm now questioning what it actually portended. No pure creativity allowed anymore, just the same re-interpretation of received orthodoxy. No car among the contenders that I've seen seems particularly inspired. But then I guess Traditional means Traditional, even if it's mainly about the donor body, and we need to look elsewhere than the AMBR for a different sort of Dream Car. BTW, those five slots look to be 19" fronts and 20" rears with modern tires. They don't even vaguely look like original Halibrand 5-slots, which I don't think were ever made any larger than 16"... In general that flamed '34 (?) looks like a late 90's throwback.

Hot Rod Streamliner from Bonneville’s Early Years More pictures below. This is the simplest model I’ve ever built. I made it for this year’s NNL West Bonneville Racer theme. It’s based on a Testors Bonnie Buggy 1/32nd scale streamliner car. These little plastic models were originally produced in 1961 by Hawk as rubber-band powered toy cars. They are ultra-simple model car kits with no underpan or internal parts other than four wheels, two axles and a basic streamliner body. Hawk, and later Testors, made four variations, the Bonnie Buggy, the Dyna Moe, the Alky Saltzer and the Turbo Go (seriously…). The only difference between them other than the color they were molded in is the long rectangular plastic strip which runs down the middle of the topside and the related bubble top. These determine whether the car is dual engine, single engine, front engine, rear engine and where the driver is located. I bought mine on eBay for less than the price of a resin body. My original intention was to build a full-detail model with a complete chassis, motor, suspension, drivetrain, etc. But I only got started on in December and quickly realized that, although the 1/32nd scale body can be easily adapted to make a 1/25th scale streamliner of the sort entered by California hot rodders starting in 1950 at Bonneville, there was no way I would get it done in time for the NNL West on January 31st. So I decided to build a curbside version and then continue on with a full detail build after showing it at the NNL. My plan was to do all the bodywork, paint, decals and driver figure for the NNL, leave the various body panels accessible for the full detail version, and assemble the curbside using temporary adhesive. Really this is more of a slammer than a curbside since it consists of the completed bodywork, windscreen, driver figure and tires. It doesn’t have any internal structure or even wheels. The tires are taped to the body sides. Using styrene strip, the body sides were filled and extended slightly to create a properly proportioned 1/25th scale body. A full bellypan was fabricated from styrene sheet and a properly streamlined blunt nose was added to correct the original body which had a sharply tapered nose, similar to the tail, which would have generated huge amount of lift at speed. The tires are the standard AMT blackwalls that we all have by the dozens. The headrest was sculpted from styrene strip and the driver figure is from the recent Monogram Slingster kit. Paint is DupliColor Oxford White over white primer. The decals are homemade. That’s it! After the NNL I’ll build a tubular chassis and a hopped-up Ford Flathead for it. It is actually a pretty complicated build because of all the internal tin work, coolant and fuel tanks, etc. that have to be scratch built for it. But after the show I can take my time with it. Thanks for lookin’, B. All the pieces for the model with exception of the driver’s arms. The blue surfaces are from the original kit, everything else is styrene stock.: And a little Photoshop Phun:

OK!!! She's done, and with 3 days to spare. For starters here's a Photoshop teaser. I'll post the official "beauty shots" in Under Glass. Thanx to everyone who followed along, B.

Very cool concept nicely done.

Thanks you guys. I hope to see some of you (and my streamliner, fingers crossed...) at this year's NNL West! I now have a “body in white” with the major bodywork completed and white primer laid down, ready for finish sanding. I added a splitter panel in the middle of the rear vent slot. The basic color will be Duplicolor Oxford White, a shade similar to the Duplicolor white primer you see in the photos. There’s some minor touchup still required but I should be ready for the initial color coats tomorrow. I’m fast running out of time with only 8 days left to button things up. My decision to keep it as a slammer for now seems to have been a wise one. I’ve designed the decals and have made some Photoshop mockups. If time allows I’d like to add some red trim color, but whether I do or not will depend on how the color coat goes. The two décor options are shown below. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thank you for the nice comments. It's hardly flawless but I can say that it did come out much as I had envisioned it which I must admit is source of some satisfaction.

I'm thinking this will sell well worldwide. I dig the free-standing front door glass. Nice touch if you're going to do this model with opening doors. Here's hoping the panel fit will be as good as on the sample models! Incidentally, I wonder if the rear fenders come off with one bolt...

Thanks everyone. The first time Alex Xydias and Dean Batchelor ran the SoCal Speed Shop streamliner at Bonneville, in 1949, they started on the first day with a V8-60 and it managed to run an average of 156.39 mph. The same motor had already gone over 135 mph on the dry lakes. But then Bobby Meek's from Edelbrock's shop suggested they drop in his full-race Merc. They got the conversion done over night and ran the rest of Speed Week (the first Speed Week ever at Bonneville) with the big flattie in it. With an extra 100 hp, by the end of the week they were doing north of 193 mph. The next year they came back with their own full-house Merc and with it were the first to break 200 mph with a hot rod. They only ran the V8-60 in the first few months they had it. The speed of the car wasn't actually the result so much of raw horsepower - most full-size flatheads were lucky if they saw the far side of 300 bhp no matter how much carburetion and exotic fuel mixture you threw at them - but rather of low frontal area, smooth lines and low weight. Dean Bachelor had based his body design on the pre-war Mercedes Benz and Auto Union streamliners. It was a superb piece of intuitive aerodynamic design. I considered using a V8-60 because it would sit a bit lower and I wouldn't have had to mess with the headrest quite so much. I've got one but I'm saving it for a really tiny belly tank I have. In any case it doesn't really matter since it will be all I can do just to get this one done as a slammer in the next 2 1/2 weeks.

I'll be there. It's my 6th year in a row! Who else is planning on showing up?

One of the themes of this year’s NNL West is LSR cars. LSR is a loose term referring to “Land Speed Record” cars. Over the years the expression has broadened in its meeting from specifically cars designed to go for the world Land Speed Record to more generally streamliners and streamlined cars designed to run on dry lakes or salt flats. For example a streamlined modified ’53 Studebaker coupe can be referred to as an LSR car, as can old school belly tankers. In this spirit I decided to build an early postwar period hot rod streamliner, in the style of cars like the SoCal streamliner from around 1950. The idea came to me when browsing on eBay and encountering the Testors EasyBuilder streamliner cars. These are little 1/32nd scale plastic models originally produced in 1961 by Hawk as rubber-band powered cars. They are ultra simple model car kits with no underpan, four wheels, two axles and a basic streamliner body shared by all four variations. The only difference between them other than the color they are molded in is the long rectangular plastic strip which runs down the middle of the topside and the related bubble top. These determine whether the car is dual engine, single engine, front engine, rear engine and where the driver is located. Here’s a picture of the kits. I bought the Bonnie Buggy for less than 10 dollars including shipping. I figured it was like buying a resin body. Here’s a scan of the instruction sheet. Beyond basic! My plan was to build a 1/25th scale model from this 1/32nd scale kit. The original Hawk models were supposed to represent the big aero-engined LSR car like Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird. So they have tiny little bubble canopies to create that illusion. But you can easily fit 1/25th scale tires inside the body and the overall look is that of the hot rod streamliners I referred to earlier. Here’s a picture of the iconic SoCal streamliner in 1950 with the driver standing up in the cockpit. These cars were incredibly compact with small frontal area and low weight. That’s how this flathead powered car could average 208.927 mph at Bonneville that year. I started on this car in December, but between the Holidays and finishing my 3-window Deuce Coupe model I had going at the time, I didn’t get much further than some basic fitting and modification work. I determined that a flathead Ford motor could fit, albeit with clearance for the carburetors which would stick up slightly above the deck line. My original plan had been to build a full detail model for the NNL West but I soon realized there just wasn’t going to be enough time to scratch-build a chassis and suspension, let alone do all the bodywork I had planned. So I decided I would do a slammer style build using the driver figure from the recent Monogram Slingster release, which has a nicely detailed face and the right period style helmet and goggles. I would make sure that everything I did would allow me to go back and add the chassis later. The first thing I noticed about the Bonnie Buggy was that the shape of the nose would virtually guarantee the car would get airborne due to front end lift. So I decided to modify the nose so it would be lower and more blunt. The body also has an indented lower panel that runs front to rear that would need to be filled in order to allow me to extend the sides downward a few scale inches to adjust for the additional ground clearance the 1/25th scale tires created. And lastly, I would have to discard the kit center strip and create a new central panel in order to control the driver and engine locations. Here’s where I’m at today with less than 3 weeks to go until the NNL West. It’s going to be a real thrash just to get a slammer done in time. I think I can do it but it may show up in white primer with some red numbers and Sta-Lube decals rather than a proper glossy paint job. We’ll see! Here are the basic parts for my slammer. The driver will get his arms and depending on the final size and shape of the cockpit opening I may add a steering wheel. The headrest and engine cover was sculpted out of styrene strip with my Dremel. The underside of the headrest was open up to allow for clearance of carburetors when I go back and build the full-detail version. The bellypan was made from styrene sheet and the central panel will be glued using temporary adhesive. This is a side view with an inset showing the original shape of the nose. All the white plastic is styrene strip and sheet I added to fill the side panel inset and form the new nose shape. Below are a couple of final shots. The tail will have the opening slot you see to allow for exhaust of internal air pressure, rather than using louvered bodywork. I have a lot of work ahead of me. The center strip needs to be cut into individual panels and the end pieces glued into position and smoothed into the bodywork. The side surface, nose area and tail still need some more filling and shaping, too. It should be an interesting 3 weeks! Thanx for lookin’, B.

DS is pronounced deh-ess in French, or Déesse, the French word for goddess. It was designed in-house by Flaminio Bertoni, designer of all significant Citroens from the original Traction Avant in 1933 through to Bertoni's death in 1964. Virtual all are iconic to this day. They include the 2CV, the H Van and the AMI6. The DS was all that was avant-garde and modern in 1955 when it was introduced at the Paris Motor Show, and Citroen displayed it accordingly. I'm totally stoked that this is coming out. I hope I remember to keep track of it so I can put in my pre-order when it's appropriate.

I'm assuming you'll brings all these yummy parts to the NNL West like you did with the Willys. Can't wait! C U There...

Bill, I believe time and opportunity play a very large role in most things. That's the basis for my "work in progress" comment. Just because we can imagine something doesn't mean it won't be a time-consuming process to see the change. I agree with you completely. Well put.

Shall we start a pool as to how long it takes for this thread to get locked?

Bill, our posts crossed each other. I guess we're on the opposite sides of the (ahem) "conversation", to use that terrible modernism. Nurture or nature...

All of us are the product of our upbringing and what's called "acculturation". We are pretty much blank slates when we start out and are the result of what and how things are done around us. Only in recent decades have women been allowed the opportunity to experience roles other than those which were set many, many decades ago. So, for example, many modes of activity are still reserved largely for men even as they are changing. Banking and finance, high tech, mathematics, physics and the "hard sciences", machining, engineering and manufacturing, the military-defense complex, and motor racing are all examples. In every one we can point to increased participation of women and yet it's relatively easy to show there is a total lack of "diversity" in any of them. The same is true on the other side of the ledger. Just go to Hobby Lobby to see what I mean. Talk about lack of gender diversity ! I guess I just wasn't raised to appreciate dried flowers... So it's a work in progress all the way around. But I totally agree with Rich, the diversity here is one of the site's great pleasures for me. I think it's critical in maintaining the forums' vitality. I'm a member of several specialist forums and sometimes it's a struggle keeping a sense of energy and involvement within a relatively narrow range of interest.

Time to update this thread with yet another Deuce from my bench, this one completed at the end of the year. Chopped & Channeled '32 Ford 3-Window - My "Little Deuce Coupe"

x2 Thanks for the contact info and I agree, Facebook is limiting regarding customers potential customers and not really well designed for merchandising. Even within Facebook many users don't look beyond their personal circle of friends.

While a tag would allow us to sort for the reviews the issue Duntov points out is that the large numbers of 2014 reviews had the effect of driving Under Glass threads started in the final days of 2014 many pages back. I'm not sure how tags would avoid this issue.

Yes, I think the title is a bit misleading given what Duntov actually wrote, which was more constructive and less confrontational.

Thanks again fellas!

I've never seen anything like the number of year-end review threads that we got this year. It had a wonderfully celebratory vibe to it all that I really enjoyed! I completely agree with Duntov that it had the unintended and unfortunate effect of burying many fine individual completions many pages back. I know that many members come here infrequently and only page back a limited number of pages in each section so I think the point is well taken. Despite the fact that I think we already have far too many sections and categories, I do think it would be great if each year we celebrated the holiday season with a "My Year of 20xx" something .... maybe a pinned thread initiated on a certain date by the Admins, or a section for individual threads. a kind of bucket as it were, that perhaps got closed down for new threads at some pre-arranged date. Either would invite the opportunity for a Seasonal promotion that would create the celebratory feeling I mentioned earlier and provide a fine way to see in the New Year IMHO.

Your work is always so sanitary, with really compelling colors choices, and with an inspired simplicity and focus that makes them all tremendously effective models. It's these characteristics that make me look forward with anticipation to your next completion. Thanks for a fine 2014 and all the best in 2015!

O scale is their largest scale (it's 1/48th scale). If you're working in 1/24th or 1/25th then their O scale details are half size. The 6" O scale louvers I use correspond to 3" louvers on my 1/25th scale models. Any other scale is smaller and risks being too small. I've seen Curt's Bugatti Tank which is 1/24th scale, "in the plastic" (as opposed to photographs) and the O scale rivets show up quite nicely. One thing to realize about these parts is that they are fairly shallow in height. I wrote to Archer recommending they offer 1/24th scale versions of their parts for what I know would be a very large market where they would prove extremely useful, for example truck, race car, hot rod, kustom, rat rod and even fantasy and sci-fi vehicles. They wrote back and acknowledged they were aware of this but that the printing technology they used limited them to the thickness you see on their O-scale parts. Another caveat is that they are offered only in black. This means for very dark colors, like black, very dark navies, very dark greens, etc. they don't contrast well with the underlying color. Obviously they generally should be painted the underlying color but they need to appear darker so as to simulate the shadow cast by raised detail. If you allow for this it compensates somewhat for the shallow 1/48th scale height. I asked Archer about offering white, light gray or silver parts but again they said the technology limited them to black. Lastly, the parts are fairly fragile to apply. The good news is that Archer has published a video in YouTube (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aptnvFeEqio ) which shows a simple technique that is close to fool proof, at least for me. I use it exclusively now and always try to recommend it to new users of these products. It's critical to success with them! In closing, I'll describe some observations about using these black, shallow surface details that will help use them successfully. As you'll notice in the photo above, they show up quite well under matte paints such as the hood above, which is finished in Testors Metalizer Aluminum Plate. I've found this is generally true, so much so that they cast a nice contrasting shadow even under relatively dark colors. When applying them under gloss paints you risk burying them under multiple layers of paint. To avoid this I generally will wait to apply them until just before my final color coat or even to just before my first clear coat. Then, after applying them, I spray a light final color coat to give them some of the underlying color. Because of their raised surface some of the color paint will crawl away from them, creating a darker hue and highlighting them. In the case of the louvers this simulates the shadow of the raised surface and/or the louver slot. Then I proceed with my clear coats. If I'm rubbing out my paint I try to avoid the louvered areas as much as I can. The result is what you see on the louvered trunk lid above. I hope all this is useful and I highly recommend them for what is often otherwise an impossible task.