Bernard Kron

Michael Delaney (Steve McQueen): A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it... it’s life. Anything that happens before or after... is just waiting. Steve McQueen’s Le Mans movie documents the peak of an era in racing that a few years later would be gone, a time when the pay was poor enough that it was difficult to imagine racers did it for the money, especially since it was absurdly dangerous. Motor racing was held to be a blood sport, like bull fighting. Europe was just 25 years away from having been literally burned to the ground and was just emerging into some sense of prosperity. The dominant spirit of McQueen’s generation was a sort of downbeat skepticism, “existential” as it was called. You see it in all the auto racing movies of the era, A Man and A Woman, Paul Newman’s Winning, even in the otherwise corny and silly romance of Grand Prix. The mediocre pay obliged top drivers to adopt brutal travel schedules and compete constantly in a variety of different series and disciplines, from NASCAR to Grand Prix racing, from circle track and Indy to international rallying. It was the New Golden Age. Stock car racers seriously considered Formula 1 careers and hot rodders and drag racers like Gurney and Ongais went road racing. Auto racing was everywhere, even on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Of all the racing movies of the period McQueen’s Le Mans (and it is most definitely his project in every way) captures that racing world as no other film ever had or ever would again. But in so doing it lost its way. As the money men watched the dailies, particularly the staged racing scenes and the footage from race weekend, and paid the heavy bills that resulted, they realized the film’s makers had gotten so swept up in that world they had neglected to include a conventional plot. So the producers brought in their own man who took over control of the film and patched together a distributable product before any more money was spent. The result is as pure a racing film as you are ever likely to see. If you’ve been to any endurance race, particularly in the pits, you know it contains long stretches of boredom punctuated by tension and excitement. For better or worse, McQueen’s Le Mans encapsulates that almost perfectly. And I don’t believe there have ever been any better racing scenes in any film. But I agree, you don’t watch Le Mans for the plot…

I test fit the shell to the Ramchargers rail chassis and it fits like a glove. This is the same chassis found in the MPC American Graffitti rail kit as well. For you replica builders you'll have to back date the motor to a 392 type, convert the steering from the kit center pivot to the classic external type, and change over to hairpin wishbones. But the wheelbase and leg-under set up are pretty much there. This is the classic FED era in its purest form. There was never a tougher lookin' rail:

Thanx everyone. This kit looks good no matter how you build it, but it really responds to a little extra detailing and upgrading. It's got great "bones", it's just that Revell dropped the ball here and there. Nothing a little TLC couldn't fix. Extra special THANX to my mystery source for gifting me the awesome wire wheels. They got the whole project going in the right direction to begin with. Those wheels really set the standard in detailing this build properly.

Mostly Deuce shells... ( I have lots more but these are the best shots showing the effect) '29 Ford Early Drag Roadster: My first - a Revell 3-window Deuce coupe: '32 Ford Tudor LoBoy: A few non-Deuce mesh grilles. Revell kit p/e from Stone-Woods-Cook on Revell Street Rod: Aftermarket p/e mesh on '57 T-Bird custom: Aftermarket p/e mesh on '35 Ford 3-window

Thanx guys! Much appreciated.. All done! This will be My Slingster No. 1. I'm sure there'll be more! It sure was fun to build. Here all the final pics:

Skip, I just received my order from Chuck on Thursday. It included the Surfers body. It's clean and nice as always. I haven't had time to figure out which kit chassis it fits best, though. The Surfers car was a "leg under" car so I'm hoping it fits the Ramchargers chassis OK. I agree that Chuck hasn't done enough to promote himself. On eBay established modelers would benefit from knowing that those are Altered States products. And since he's expanding into parts for hot rods he should include that on his website. But Chuck's aware of all this I'm hoping he gets around to a website update and perhaps brand his eBay stuff "Altered States Models". Please note that Chuck's eBay handle is "olmandowntheroad", no "d". If you enter it with the "d" it won't work.

Thanx for the "revival" guys! I'm glad you all dig it. I gotta admit it still looks good to me on the shelf two years on, flaws and all. It's gonna be time soon to do another belly pan build...

Thanx everyone! All done! Here are two quick body-off workbench shots showing some of the final details. When I build dragsters I like to do them so that the body panels are removable to show off the mechanicals and chassis details. Unfortunately, quite a few highly detailed kits are actually set up so that, despite all the work you may have put into the driver’s area, the fuel system and the motor, much of it is hidden by a body that must be permanently installed. The Slingster is a bit like that. If you include the nose piece then you can’t install the kit Moon tank, because it’s too tall. So I had to fabricate my own cylindrical tank which is lower and longer. It was built up from .25” quarter-round styrene and a whole lot of filing and filling. A truly significant flaw is that the mounting pin for the steering idler arm is actually mounted on the upper rear body shell, so if you keep this piece removable you would have to remove the steering with it. So I moved the mounting pin to the frame rail and relieved the bodywork slightly to clear it. Additionally the arm is too short to line up with the steering shaft in the cockpit. I just gave up on correcting that! Next time I do this kit I’ll make my own steering arm and modify the rear body work so that’s in 3 pieces with a top piece that lifts off. This kit is missing a lot of really basic details too, like no clutch pedal, rear brakes or oil filter. I used pieces from the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit for these. And lastly I made a parachute pull cord and handle. Still remaining to do is a more formal photo shoot including full bodywork. Despite its missing parts and oddities, with a little attention to detail and some corrections, most (although not all) of which are minor, this kit can build up to a very convincing representation of a classic rail job from circa 1959-60. I hope to be able to share the results of my efforts with you all in the next day or so. Thanx for lookin’, B.

My order arrived today. It took less than a week. Very nicely done as always. Thin, white, styrene like, flash free. I've got some other projects before I get to this stuff, but the louvered '27 T will soon become a Speed Sport 1 style drag machine.

Thanx guys!

It's working fine for me. It's the only way to take everything in as far as I'm concerned.

So far I can only recall completing two vars with a purposely rough or dirty finish. A very early effort, a tube framed "ratty" rod, based on a Revell '29 Ford Pickup body shell (virtually nothing else from that kit...): And a couple of years later, a pre-war style dry lakes '29 A four banger roadster, more dusty than worn: I have done some drag cars that have what I call "race car paint", the kind of slap-dash finish seen frequently at drag strips in the 50's and early 60's. Here's a late 50's digger with a bare-metal body (it's actually bare plastic...): And an early 60's style T-bucket altered with a purposely very basic paint job:

Chuck Meier at Altered States Models has been coming up with some new items lately. Chuck has not been able to update his web site so he has been relying on his e-Bay outlet to show them. I just bought a louvered 27T roadster body from him on eBay. He also now offers a blank tonneau cover for the 27T which isn't shown anywhere. I had asked him for something like that so I could cut my own openings. Up to now he had only offered a L'il Billy/Gratiot Auto Supply salts flats style roll cage shroud for the 27T. Here's a link to his eBay stuff: http://www.ebay.com/sch/olmandowntheroad/m.html?item=121329636660&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562 His eBay handle is olmandowntheroad . His regular website, which has lots of cool stuff, too is here: http://www.alteredstatesmodels.com/ Chuck says he's working on getting someone to overhaul his site to add his new eBay stuff, which includes quite a few non-racing parts. Here are a few items that would be of interest here: 1/25 Louvered '27 Ford Roadster Slingster Resin Truckbed T Comp Dragster Body "The Surfers" FED Body 1/25 1/24 Louvered '30 Ford Roadster Burkholder Bros. "T" Touring AA/FA 1/25 1/25 Louvered '29 Ford Roadster 1/25 Louvered '32 Roadster Resin 1/8 Drilled Drop Axle

Hey Curt! Pro-built, yeah? Love it, and I'm sure Dr. Bob will, too. What's that cool hole puch you've got? Looks like to goes out to 1/2", almost big enough for scale wheel covers....

Thanx guys!! Yeah, I'd love like 20 sets of them, too!!! Unfortunately, they were made by a friend of mine and given to me at this year's NNL West. I'm pretty sure he's not anxious to get into the aftermarket parts biz. But, IIRC, he has posted a how-to on them here on the board. Here's a hint: he's a very recent poster to this thread and expressed his "admiration" for the (his) wheels. He's a very prolific modeler of great skill and imagination known for the wide variety of his subjects. Ever since he developed his wire wheel technique over a year ago he has completed several cars which feature it.

I’m finally getting back to the Slingster after getting sidetracked by a ’36 Ford Roadster for a while. I’ve completed the motor. The most daunting task was fabricating a set of weedburner headers. IMHO the kit really misses the mark in the exhaust department, especially on the “Hemi”. Those bell-mouthed exhausts just don’t make it for me, and the zoomies are too modern for the rest of the car. I made my exhausts from 3 mm. aluminum tubing. Other changes to the kit motor, as outlined earlier, include a rear blower plate from an AMT ’49 Ford kit, air scoop from a Revell Parts Pac Pontiac, resin Chrysler Firepower valve covers courtesy of Early Years Resin which I BMF’d, 3-pulley blower drive from a Two Much dragster kit, a Hilborn Fuel pump courtesy of Altered Sates Models, and a magneto from Morgan Automotive Detail. Below are a couple of pics. I’m much farther along on this than I remembered. Most of what’s left involves completing the fuel system and then final assembly. I hope to have it completed in the next 10 days or so. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Let's see how quickly I can summarize this... Firstly, I'm very allergic to CA so Super Glue is off-limits for me. I used to use it and it can’t be beat for very fine work and, with Zap-A-Gap accelerator, for situations where an immediate bond is needed. It's also a great filler in shallow appplications, or, where more bulk is required, with talcum powder added to it. I wish I could still use it! In my case I use specific adhesives for specific requirements: For styrene to styrene bonding I use MEK (Methyl ethyl ketone), the active ingredient in most hobby store liquid styrene cements. I buy it super-cheap at the hardware store which means I can throw it out when it gets contaminated and cloudy. For styrene to styrene where I need some tackiness to the cement I use Testors tube cement in the red (orange) tube. For dissimilar materials (i.e. resin to styrene, metal to styrene, metal to resin, etc.) and non-styrene bonding (metal to metal, resin to resin, etc.), I use 5-minute epoxy. I also use 5-minute epoxy for final assembly and for doing windows. I buy the big bottles at my LHS. Besides providing a super-strong bond which ensures a strong model, epoxy doesn’t attack paint or plastic so any excess can be cleaned up with rubbing alcohol without leaving a trace. For temporary bonding, useful when doing mockups and where parts of the model need to be removable (for example hood panels), I use Ambroid Tac-N-Place applied very sparingly with a brush. Very strong bond, but parts can be easily separted, and it dries clear and can be removed (with some elbow grease) with water or alcohol. There, that was pretty quick… But, yeah, this topic has been beaten to death many times here…

And to complete the set:

Sounds like an excellent plan. I've done a few of these, so, if you'll allow me, here's some of what I've learned. The nicest beam axle that can be adapted with a minimum of work can be found in the Revell "Rat Rod" '29 Ford Roadster Pickup kit and the '30 Ford Sedan Kit. Posable as well. The down side for your traditional but modern spin is that it necessitates using the Ford drum brake backing plates. Another very nice kit axle is the dropped beam axle from the various Revell '40 Ford street rod kits (coupe and convertible). Disc brakes are included, but you'll have to adapt or fabricate an appropriate leaf spring to the Deuce setup. Lastly is the dropped beam axle in the various ex-Monogram '37 Ford street rods including the sedan and the recently issued pickup. It has a separate spring and it’s easy to adapt. The best (and really only IMHO - even though Replicas and Miniatures offers one) aftermarket one I have found are the various dropped beam axles from ThePartsBox.com. They're all based on the Revell '40 Ford piece and are wire reinforced resin and available in several variants, including finned Buick drums. Pricey due to the strong Aussie dollar, but very nice. With the exception of those from the Rat Roaster, any of the front wheels from the Revell kits are too wide for current style Traditional front tires. This includes the steelies in the 5-window kit. Most narrower steelies, say from an AMT kit for example, or from Modelhaus, are easily adapted so this is no big deal. Regarding the rear end and a quick change, the question is what spring medium you plan to use. The Revell kits, as you know, depend on coil spring assisted air bags. The air bags are easily removed and the rear suspension will stand firmly on the coil shocks with no problem. I've done this often and it looks credible and contemporary. Nice Ford rear end, too. Adapting a quick change will generate a lot of other changes, regardless of what spring medium you choose. Easiest is to do a Model-T/Model-A style arched spring using a cross member and the axle bells from the aforementioned Rat Rod kit. More contemporary and authentic is to adapt the '40 Ford cross member and spring from the Revell kits. Or you could make custom bracketry to adapt the kit coil springs and locating arms. I’m excited to see what you come up with. Surprisingly, given how popular this style is in the 1:1 world, few of these are attempted in scale. Can’t wait for more, more, more!!!

Super tasty! Very well executed, too! One to be proud of.

Keep it clean, keep it simple, keep it "pure" and you'll nail it. Nice classic chop! Highboy? Rat Rod implies it's channeled but a highboy is more conservative and historic. When you say "modern" are you planning to work from the basic chassis and engine in the kit? That's a pretty classy modern setup that needs just a little bit of toning down and some small changes to get the "modern traditional" look. IMHO, the details that often catch folks out in achieving it are the stance, wheels and front end rubber (the kit tires are wayyyyyy too wide with funky 90's square shoulders). Definitely one to follow...

Masterful rendition of one of AMT's finest. Factory stock done to this level always blows me away! Thanx for sharing this treasure.

This takes full advantage of what is a surprisngly nice kit, full of useful detail. Clean, slick with a really sharp color choice. Big thumzups on this one!

Immaculate. I loved following the w.i.p. on this. The result shows it was worth all the effort.

Here are the pictures on a more neutral background that I mentioned earlier. Thanx for lookin', B.