Bernard Kron

You're right. The script dates back to the early 20th century. Loewy consulted on the logo tweaks for the patented version of the script in late 50's. As a result he's associated with logo, a misconception I apparently share. I stand corrected! He (his firm, actually) designed the fountain dispenser, the can and the slenderized bottle (he considered the original bottle a "perfect" design but was hired by Coke to update it). He sometimes claimed the "wave" as his, although it is generally credited to others.

That would be the great Raymond Loewy, often considered one of the founders of modern industrial design. Among other things he is largely responsible for the phenomenon of the corporate logo. Here's perhaps his most famous work: Here are some other examples you might recognize - and in some circles he was acknowledged for being a pretty dapper dude, too... Sorry for the digression... Here are a couple of Alfas that push my buttons: Superflow II by Pininfarina from 1956 Canguro by Bertone from 1964

True period funk from start to finish. The kind of car that will probably never make it into TRJ - an accurate representation of a one owner (well actually 2 but just barely, given it's 55 years old...) daily driver. From the classic East Coast 50's channel job, fenders, paint, and striping, to the sporty car luggage rack, stereo speakers and rubber floor mats, just looking at the pictures shows all kinds of "fingerprints" of the various eras where it has been used. Sure the radials are wrong, wrong, wrong, but ya gotta love it! And a female owner who couldn't have been much out of her teens when she bought it in '63... Fascinating! Thanx for posting! P.S. - The stuff about the fiberglas body is very interesting. I'd love to know more... P.SS. - The full dress Tri-power Nailhead is beyond cool, too. What a car this must have been in '58!

Beautiful photography. Having been experimenting with black backgrounds and reflective surfaces lately I can appreciate what went into this picture. A well turned out model doesn't hurt either!

Yes, about a year ago after I told them about a problem I had with sagging in an earlier version I had used,

The AMT Deuce Roadster has always had plenty, plenty soul and for more than 50 years now has screamed "channel me!!!!". You have received the message loud and clear and it looks real sharp so far. Go to ThePartsBox.com and look under "Exterior", then "Suspension" and you will see every dropped axle variant you will ever need, all beautifully cast and wire-reenforced. Stuff like this:

Just going through my old posts and I discovered that in my haste to scuttle off to the NNL I never gave proper Thanx!! to all the kind comments that followed. So... Thanx again for the appreciation. It means a lot to me. B.

Shame on me for not saying Thanx!!! one again for the kind words. So please accept my belated thank you for the appreciation. B.

Thanx guys, both for the "rediscovery" and the compliments! I'm glad you like it.

Thanx for the compliments. I'm stoked you all dug it! I've only been back to modeling for less than 5 years so I'm still at the stage where a project involves lots of new techniques or perfecting those with which I've only recently gotten comfortable. This project was especially satisfying that way because it involved a lot of fine detail work and an overall clean look. In particular, since I can't use CA (I'm hyper allergic to it) I've been teaching myself to use very small amounts of 5 minute epoxy in the same way I once used CA. There was a lot of that on this build and mastering it allowed for more detail, which suits the rail dragster style quite well. And for once there wasn't the usual high drama during the last 10% or so of the build where I discover thumbprints, paint flaws, fit problems, missed parts, etc. This one seemd to want to build itself for whatever reason... So thanx again to you all for the kind words and interest, B.

Great idea for a topic. And the interpretation people put on it is interesting, too. Is it a "cool pic of a model" or is it a "pic of a cool model"? Either way, it's cool! I'm a particularly a fan of the subtle photo manipulations that John Bissinger (ratrod) gives to his models. It really gives his already fine models an extra dimension. Personally, I love working in Photoshop to frame my completed models. Still a lot to learn in that regard but here are some attempts I thought came out OK:

Thanx! Glad you like it. Here's another pic of it in the same style. The link to the Under Glass post will take you to more conventional pictures and full build details: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59662

Another project I’ve been meaning to get to for quite some time. The AMT ’53 Studebaker kit contains some of the most tasteful and appropriate customizing parts in any of their kits. This is fortunate because Raymond Lowey’s basic design is so graceful, well integrated and original, that these Studes have often suffered badly under the customizer’s torch. I’ve always wanted to do one of these using the kit’s full custom grill pieces and customized rear bumper/tail light assembly and otherwise just clean the body up, lower it and give it a nice paint job. So here is the start of one that I hope will meet my goal of doing a restrained, tasteful full custom. This will be a “Studillac”, a fairly common hop-up from the late 50’s, substituting the big cubic inches of the Cadillac 354 for the rather anemic factory V8. The car will be pretty slick and showy so I'm using the Revell Parts Pac Caddy and retaining a good deal of chrome on the parts. The block and heads are finished in the same white as the roof and coves to contrast with the green fender liners and firewall. I’m running the 4-carb manifold. The interior will be white tuck ‘n’ roll with bucket seats. The bodywork is done and the car is painted. Colors are Duplicolor Hampsted Green Metallic and Wimbledon White. It’s been fully shaved, including the chrome trim along the rear fender tops. The headlights have been frenched using the kit’s dome shaped competition headlight covers, which I drilled out to make frenching rings. The car is lowered 2.5 scale inches all around, using the kit supplied dropped spindles at the front and at the rear by cutting out the leaf springs from the rear axle and inserting lowering blocks. It has a subtle forward rake which complements the frenched headlights and two-tone paint nicely I think. Compare this car to virtually any 1953 U.S. production car design and you’ll get an idea of how truly radical it really was. That’s probably why it was so hard to customize successfully. The hubcaps are the original Loewy designed stock covers which to my eye are ideal for the car. I'll add Cadillac crests in the centers. Tires are Modelhaus T-193’s which are repops of 1961 vintage AMT whitewalls. Thanx for lookin', B.

Here are the body-on "beauty shots". Thanks to those who followed the initial build up and welcome back to all! Thanx for lookin', B.

With the forum being down I was able to focus on bench time! I've gotten this project completed. Below are shots of the motor and the bare chassis. I used Ambroid Tac ‘n’ Place temporary adhesive to locate the body. It stays tacky forever and yet holds quite firmly so I can remove the bodywork whenever I want to show off the chassis. I'll post the completed car in the next post to avoid the dreaded 10 picture limit! Thanx for lookin', B.

Thanx Charlie! Progress is being made… I finished up the graphics and made the decals. In keeping with the simple lines of the bodywork and paint scheme I kept the graphics basic, just a logo for the dragster’s name. The trade decals are from the Ramchargers kit. I decided to keep the cowl unadorned to “sell” the simplicity. The decals have all been applied and final clear coat sprayed over them. I’ll wait a few days and then give it a final polish. The chassis is well along and pretty much out of the box. As noted in my opening post, I had intended to use alternate tires because I felt as if the kit tires looked too bulbous and large. It turns out the ground clearance on this car is so low that if you use any other 1/25th slick from the mid-to-late 60’s period the body will drag on the ground! In order to diminish the apparent size of the kit tires slightly I substituted a set of Revell Halibrands from the Tony Nancy double dragster kit. They are somewhat larger in diameter than the similar but smaller MPC pieces. I think it pretty much solves the problem and the car looks OK with the kit tires. The remaining major job is building out the motor which is next up on my agenda. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanx! I've heard that a few of them actually got down to around 800 lbs. Scary stuff! The Enderle rig is from Speed City Resin. I have one and he did a first class job. Here are some pics from his web site:

Thanx guys! Good point. I had forgotten about that. I was distracted by Howard Johansen's 550 cu. in. solid aluminum hemi monster which was anything but a Jr. Fueler and served as a distant inspiration. I do plan to us some M/T valve covers so let's consider this a de-stroked trick car... On the boards for later this year, however, is a true small-block Chevy with Enderle injectors that's targeted as an ultra-light with minimalist bodywork. This one is more in the vein of a showboat. Your reminder also makes the performance of these cars all the more impressive and demonstrates the value of controllable torque and a good hole shot. They quite commonly made it through at least early elimination rounds in Top Fuel and even occassionally took home the trophy!

Great modeling and craftsmanship. Really quite ambitious at every level and a completely successful outcome! Bravo! Great lines and proportions in the modern rod style. And the scallop job is super smooth and tasteful - love the colors, the gold trim and the ghost flames (which aren't too faint at all...)

I’ve definitely got a “thing” about Junior Fuelers, those fuel injected, nitro burning featherweights that played David to the Top Fuel Goliaths during the Golden Age of front engine dragsters. I dig the purity and simplicity of design that the need to minimize the poundage imposed on them. This project will be my third Jr. Fuel digger. In fact when I first returned to car modeling 5 years ago the second model I completed, and my first drag car, was a Nailhead powered Junior based on the Garlits/HemiSphere chassis with a radically cut down body. And about 18 months ago I built a second one, using the AMT Tommy Ivo/Don Long chassis and a small block V8. It employed one of Altered States’ super minimalist shorty bodies but the chassis was way too long and I came away from the project unhappy with the proportions. Which brings me to Junior Fueler Number 3. It’s being built for the “Back Burner Nationals” challenge on another forum. It definitely qualifies since it’s been kickin’ around for a couple of years. It’s based on my favorite FED kit of them all, the MPC Ramchargers top fuel dragster. The wheelbase is ideal – front engine dragsters would never look any better than they did in the mid-60’s. I’ve always loved the simple lines of the body and the super low legs-under stance. But every time I got started on it I got bumbed out by the two-piece body shell with the gnarly glue joint down the middle. The chassis is a knockout but the kit design obliges you to hide much of it permanently between the two halves of the shell. Until I got around to fixing the bodywork issues I was never gonna build this thing... Below is a picture of what I’ve come up with so far. Being an ultra-light machine I’ve discarded the Ramchargers nosepiece. The main body is largely unmodified except that now its two pieces are the way it should have been in the first place. I glued the two halves together, reinforced the seam with plastic strip and then carefully cut the cowl piece out using the back of a No. 11 blade. Rather than risk handling the fragile body too much trying to smooth out the seam down the middle, I trimmed it out with a .020” half round styrene strip. Paint is two tone using Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver with Tamiya TS-20 Metallic Green panels. I still have to come up with some custom decals to fill things out. Power will be from a Hilborn injected Chrysler 392 hemi. I’m using a Ross Gibson piece I had, but frankly I am underwhelmed. I’m landing up substituting quite a few details from other sources. These engine kits are pretty pricey for the quality you get. I doubt I’ll be purchasing another one unless they have something unobtainable any other way. Other than that most other things will be from the kit. I will be substituting a pair of proper period M&H’s instead of the huge monstrosities that come in the box. I‘ll also be re-routing the steering outside the frame rails since there's no nose piece. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanx again, guys!

Yikes Dave! What a lineup! I always loved the pink one because it's such an effective use of the Revell kits to do something with it that isn't often modeled - the late 50's channeled roadster. And the green 5-window with the rolled pan and bobbed fenders is such a tasty standout. But I have to ask about the spare tire on the Tudor. What is the source for it and where can I see how you did it? Definitely an exceptional detail that makes the model. Big thumbzupz on all of them!

Thanx ! Excellent question! I've had very bad luck stripping resin in the past and didn't want to chance it. Initially, since I could easily polish it out, I thought it would just be a matter of additional time to let the paint harden. So I set it aside and moved on to other stuff. I didn't imagine it would remain soft for so long. When I returned to it I thought if I was careful handling it I could proceed with assembly. But holding the model at odd angles caused glue joints to pop and other nightmares. Frankly, I just should have given up on it. But by then I was just pig-headed about getting it done. I've already made a mental note to build another one at some later date using my old standyby, Duplicolor Clear.

Thanx everyone. I'm glad you all dig it, despite the %&$%*@ clear coat!