Bernard Kron

Well, it is a nice thread over there on the H.A.M.B., full of great photos of drag racing cars in action...

I've had that H.A.M.B. thread bookmarked for some time now, and I often go to it for a little pick-me-up! I was looking for NitroNeils' recreation of the iconic "Determination" photo. Still one of my all time favorite drag-,moments-in-scale builds! A beautiful model of an exciting car just barely under control...

None better, IMHO. Here are some images you all might find interesting: If I recall correctly, in 1964 Monogram commissioned Darryl Starbird to design the 1:1 upon which the kit was to be based. The kit allowed additional variations: (Original build by Irv Arter - from John "RatRod" Bissinger's orginal thread on his build http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24398 ) (Original build by Bill "jbwelda" Just - see http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39104 ) Here's an exploded view of the parts from the original instructions - a treasure trove! Here are parts no longer included or changed in the recent versions:

Looks great and I love the really-real race car touches like the rolling stock and stance. The decals look good so far. Looking back through the thread it seems like you have done all your own decals. How are you managing the white parts? Are some from various decal sheets? A few pages back you showed the graphic for the CP race number shield and it seems like you were printing it yourself. Do you have a printer that will do that or are you using an inkjet and layering clear and white decals? Whatever the combination the overall decal scheme has great impact and complements the car beautifully.

Hi Bill, I'll post this in the "usual places" so you see it one way or the other. Link: http://public.fotki.com/davetoups/aftermarket_model_parts/replicas_and_miniat/bodies_and_transkits/page2.html It has several pictures including interior bits and multiple angles. Sample pics: Mastered by Lyle Willits, an active member on this forum.

I’m making slow but steady progress on this thing. I was afraid it would land up back in its box for another 5 years but I think it will get done now. I managed to work out the posable steering issue by fabricating my own tie rod from .020” piano wire. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done. I am stoked and relieved because it was a feature I feared I might have to give up. The rest of the steering is from a Revell ’29 Ford RPU, the same source as the front axle and backing plates. The front wishbones are installed and are from a Revell ’32 Ford 5-window which is also the source for the shocks and headlight brackets. The grill and radiator are completed now. The shell and radiator are a resin set from Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland and are designed for the p/e grille from Model Car Garage. The grille proper is painted Duplicolor Bright Red over red primer with the outer trim left in stainless steel. This would have been pretty standard procedure in the mid-50’s for a Deuce of this quality and color. In the pictures below the grill shell and hood are mocked up and will still require some fettling to sit right. With the grill and hood sides in rough position the stance really comes into place and is a significant improvement over the original version from 5 years ago. Major work left to do includes scratch building a muffler system and perhaps chopping the windshield (or not..). The taillights are the standard pieces from the Revell Goodguys Roadster kit and not worth a special mention except that I thinned them down to half their normal thickness. I might have used some other taillights except that when I painted the car 5 years ago I failed to notice the marks on the rear panel below the trunk lid that Revell had kindly provided to help the builder locate the license plate and taillights! So I had to stick with the kit lights. Thinning them down improves their appearance enormously. For this reason I’ll be sticking with the kit license plate surround, but also thinning it down. I’d love to get this car completed in the next week or so, but I’m trying to stay focused on getting this thing done right this time… Thanx for lookin’, B.

Oh, if only Revellogram could find a way to restore the subsequent variants (i.e. the Boomer T, etc.) to its former glory. Great build John - I can't recall if yours is a recreation or an original release, but a fine result indeed in either case! I now some of the 1/24th parts can be found in other kits but the wheels and tires, and the headers, I believe, are long gone...

Thanks for the comment, Erik.

Hi everyone. Since this thread has united so many avid decal makers and Papilio is so highly recommended, I thought I'd piggyback a question.I do a lot of decal work and I use the the decal paper BMF offers . I've had good results. However, I've been avoiding using the white decal paper because it is too thick. The problem is that when you cut it out the decal is thick enough so that the white edge shows. Is the Papilio white thin enough to avoid this? I would like to use white paper rather than clear in certain applications where I need bright, undiluted colors. The clear stuff, while simpler to use, suffers over darket colors where the transparency of inkjet ink gets affected by the underlying color. I'll probably go ahead and order a sample of white Papilio but I thought I'd ask what your experiences have been. Thanx in advance.

This is top drawer in every way. A first rate rendition of a modern street rod from the period when you built it. Anyone who models hot rods would be proud to have conceived and executed something this nice.

Thanx! Yes the wheels and tires came from the Revell/Monogram '29 Ford RPU with chrome center spiders from Modelhaus.

I've only ever done one streetable T-Bucket and it's the ex-Monogram "Boomer T", largely out of the box but with back-dated rolling stock. I agree with Bill, the sweetest T-Buckets are the old school lo-boys which are virtually never modeled in scale. I have one on my to-do list but, who knows when I'll get to it. I did do a '27 T lo-boy a couple of years ago but I assume that's not relevant to your request. Anyway here's my T-Bucket:

Thanx everyone! I hope to have more on this later this week. Yeah, I consider the photography an integral part of the expression. A few months ago I started using a tripod for everything but raw workbench pictures. Now that I've banished "camera shake" and can perfectly reproduce a camera angle repeatedly, I can do these "cutaway" shots, which I have always thought were pretty cool. At some point I'd like to do a project featuring removable body and subassemblies so I could do a whole series of “cutaways”. A racing car is the logical choice, but a full on sedan with removable interior as well would be really impressive! More generally, the Internet has been a revolution - sharing photos of one's models across the planet was unheralded and unanticipated when plastic car modeling was invented more than a half century ago. It adds a whole additional dimension to ones enjoyment, I think. So why not put some effort into taking photos, alongside the other skills that can translate "the pictures in your head"? Besides which, I use it to distract people from my still frustratingly persistent flaws...

The planets are starting to align on this thing! Now I know what to do with all those phantom vic bodies I have gotten from one of my favorites parts kits! The basic idea was kool, and the paint scheme just took it up a notch. Looking forward to more, more, more...

Here's thepartsbox.com resin Nailhead. It's excellent. You'll notice that it includes a very nice set of Nailhead correct Limefire headers. The best basic Nailhead block and heads in styrene are from the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster and Tommy Ivo Showboat kits. As mentioned earlier the Showboat has a fine set of injectors. Replicas and Miniatures Company of Maryland makes a re-pop of the accesory drive, oil pan and transmission from the old Revell Parts Pack Nailhead which can be used to update the 22 Jr. and Ivo Showboat Nailheads to a street motor. The Showboat motors in particular have slanted oil pans which either need to be modified or replaced. The RepMin Nailhead modification kit is not offered in the catalog. You'll have to ask for it. If you require more steetable carburetion, this is where AMT comes in, offering dual quads and even the already mentioned Latham blower setup in the various iterations of the Riviera kit, and a tri-power manifold in the '40 Ford Sedan Delivery and certain coupes (Cocal Cola and ?). Also as mentioned the exhaust manifold from the '40 Fords is quite useful as it is a block hugger design. The AMT kits are also great for accesory drives and fan belts and pulleys. Here's a picture of a Showboat block and heads modified with an AMT tri-power manifold and limefire headers from thepartsbox.com. The transmission, pan and accesory drive were from Replicas and Miniatures with AMT generator, pulleys and belts. Apologies for the funky finish on the headers which are actually quite smooth and deserved better...

Thanx everyone! I’ve been working on this in between stints building the Willys coupe that I just finished. As I work on this I’m remembering why I stepped away from it the first time. There are countless parts that are damage or would have required more chops than I had back then to correct. The most important work has been correcting the stance which has involved not only modifying the front crossmember and the spring but moving the steering arms from above the kingpin to below it on both sides. I have yet to attempt installing the steering linkage so posable steering remains an opening question as to whether it will work. This is the steering arm modification. The stance is much improved with a nice subtle rake that will be more apparent once the grill shell and hood are installed. The motor has been considerably changed from the first pass. I “detuned” the motor by switching to dual carbs instead of tri-power. I felt it was more in keeping with the classic street rod that this model is supposed to represent. Several of the original parts were broken and had to be replaced, including the front motor mounts and the ignition. To keep things clean and simple I switched to magneto ignition using a combination of a Replicas & Miniature 59A style ignition drive and a Morgan Auto Detail pre-wired magneto. The fan belt and accessory drive is adapted from an AMT ’49 Ford kit. The rear suspension is largely as it originally was, the only major change being to go with stock style wishbones instead of the split wishbones I had originally planned on. Once again this is keeping with the early 50’s street rod theme. The wishbones are from a Revell ’30 Ford sedan kit. The drive shaft is scratch built and feeds into the Replicas and Miniatures quick change rear end. The front suspension was quite damaged, but I managed to repair it rather than replace it. The kingpins had to be drilled out and wires inserted to replace the plastic kit pins which had snapped off. The brakes are Replicas and Miniatures finned Buick drums with the Revell ’30 Ford sedan backing plates fitted to them to be compatible with the Revell dropped axle. Next up will be completing the front suspension in the hopes that it can remain posable. After that is final assembly. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Welcome back to the hobby. Obvious this is an old dog who still has a few tricks up his sleeve! I'm posting the final picture from your Fotki account so everyone can easily appreciate what a fine job you've done with this diorama. The scale, texture and detail capture your inspiration photo beautifully and the result is "really real" looking. Bravo!

Best aftermarket: ThePartsBox.com They offer two flavors: Mild Drop: Wild Drop (with or without spring and also as a full "Axle Pack" with Buick finned drum brakes): They also have introduced a straight axle set, with our without springs, although I haven't used it yet: Best styrene kit axles: Revell '40 Ford Coupe and Convertible and '48 Ford Custom Droppped Front Axle (no spring - it's what ThePartsBox.com used as the basis for their Wild Drop - see above) Revell/Monogram '37 Ford Sedan kit axle, also found in '36 Ford Coupe/Convertible and '37 Ford Pickup kits: Example with spring reversed to place it behind the axle Revell "Rat Rod" '29 Ford Roadster Pickup and '30 Ford Sedan Dropped Axle. This is chromed and offers posable steering. Not as deep a drop as the '40 and '37 Ford axles but includes a molded-in spring. I have used it but don't have a decent picture of it.

Oops, I didn't notice that! In this regard it's still very useful and doesn't dimish it's importance one bit. If anything, it's information that's in danger of being lost over time. Wish I had been around in '06 to discover this wonderful chart...

Beautiful work and very nice stance. I'd love to know more about the detail and bracketry for the rear suspension and the the front suspension mountings work. Very nice fabrication! Do you have any more pictures, especially of the rear area. I'm unfamiliar with "dirtmodeler" parts(?).

Thanx to both of you for this. I land up flipping through the Modelhaus web pages and clicking through my saved Modelhaus images every time I place anorder. Now I have my "go to" all in one place! Saved to my "Modeling Suppliers" bookmarks, One question, though. The chart implies that the tires are once again branded. However, I don't believe this is the case and that the chart simply serves to remind us what the brands on the tires were originally. Yes?

That'll work. Most of the lower half will be gone anyway... For some reason those 3-window kits, at least here in the USA, are not desired by builders and can be had more frequently and cheaply than most other Revell Deuces. Perhaps it's because it's an early, "pure", Revell Deuce with only the small block Ford engine and "Torq Thrust" wheels. The older Good Guys/HIghboy Roadsters are becoming fairly uncommon and people are starting to ask real money for them. They are still generally available on e-Bay but are largely gone from the shops and model car shows. As a result I;ve begun a small stash of the "old" roadster to avoid the body and chassis modifications the Rat Roaster requires and to get a more universal interior. I still buy the 3-window when I can find it cheaply, as well. I use the frames from Revell Deuces quite a bit in my hot rod builds. And thanx for the nice words on the lo-boy. I still think it landed up too low. Yours looks like it will sit just right.

If you have any old style firewalls I would save the Rat Roaster one for a highboy build. Why waste all that detail when you'll cut away half of it? Besides, you may need some of the space that the old style one provides for the back of the motor...

Nice so far. Glad to see you hid the step behind the firewall (a pet peave of mine). I did one like this earlier this year based on the old pre-Roaster kit. I threw every lowering trick in the book at it and it turned out almost too low (see: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=73674&page=2 and http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72032&hl= ). Looks like you are right in the pocket on this one. Looking forward to more. My only gripe with the Rat Roaster kit is that there's too much about it that draws you to its origins. Channeling helps this a lot. The interior is another "problem" because it's so unique. For various reasons like this I've begun a small stash of the older Highboy kit even though it has its own problems.

Wow! Thanx for all the nice words! As always, it's much appreciated. I'm glad this car could make a connection. I definitely was working on a sort of post-modern New Traditionalist style with this one. With those huge meats and the beautifully detailed modern chassis there was just no way around a more contemporary look. But with all the gorgeous modern machines being shown of late (Arno's (Dinky) jet black knockout got me started on building this one) I found myself inclined to try something different. I wanted to find a way to play to my strengths and still come up with something a little closer to the second decade of the 21st century. This is an evolving thing with me. I hope to pursue other projects that explore this challenge. Thanx again!