Bernard Kron

Very cool! I've considered on of these for a streamliner project. Is this a 1/24th/1/25th kit? I thought these were 1/32nd. Is it a big enough shell to do 1/25th?

Here are some more conventional white background photos:

Revell Stacey David Rat Roaster Revisited (More pictures below) Revell’s hotly anticipated revision of its venerable ’32 Ford Highboy Roadster kit, a replica of television personality Stacey David’s flashy Rat Roaster street rod was received with much discussion and controversy. Many were impressed with the new parts (particularly the wheels and tires) and modern small block Chevy motor. Others were disappointed that Revell didn’t go all the way and revise the suspension to copy the I-beam front end and sophisticated trailing link rear end of the 1:1. The interior, too, while very striking and highly stylized, was sure to be controversial and hardly universal in its appeal. But with the old roadster kit no longer in production, and with Revell finally offering an alternative to the dreaded “Wide Fronts” (tires) which have blighted the front end of all their Deuce variants to date, there was much to like about the kit and initial sales have been brisk to say the least. Personally, I was like most modelers, conflicted with The Good (the tires and wheels, the stock style firewall, the fact that a roadster is back in production, the SBC motor, the nice dashboard, the hairpins and the chopped windshield), The Bad (the air bag rear end which refuses to die, the absence of the 1:1’s I-beam front suspension, the fact that the wheel/tire system is not compatible with most other kits’ wheels and tires, the notched frame rails to accommodate the exhaust pipes’ connection to the sidepipes, the Rat Roaster specific body modifications, particularly to the rear end, etc.) and the Ugly (the porthole infected hood, the wimpy little seats, the disappointing blower and carb setup, the integrated disc brake/front fender bracket system, etc.). So I decided to address the “issues” and see if I couldn’t come up with a version that was more to my taste while sticking as close as possible to the 1:1. Surprisingly, I landed up making only a relatively small number of modifications which I think result in a significantly different take on this car. The overall theme exploits the sprint car style elements of the 1:1 while deleting many of the cornier rock ‘n’ roll and hotrod/kustom kar themes. Listed below are the changes I made. Motor: Deleted the blower and carb setup and substituted sprint car style Hilborn injectors and K&N conical filters courtesy of TJ’s Custom Castings ( http://stores.tjscustomcastings.com/StoreFront.bok ) Interior: Drilled out all the fake holes so they’re real now, and substituted replica Speedway Motors drilled out bomber seats courtesy of ThePartsBox.com ( http://www.thepartsbox.com/ ). Finished the bare metal areas in Testors Metalizer Aluminum Plate. Made a standard ball shift lever to replace the microphone shift knob (!). Bodywork: Deleted the fenders. Substituted a stock hood. Substituted teardrop style rear railights. Chassis: Lowered the front suspension to increase the rake by shaving four leaves off the front spring. Paint and finishing: Main body color is Duplicolor #E8801589 Nightshadow Pearl metallic blue over white primer and Duplicolor Silver base. Chassis finished in body color with Duplicolor Silver floor panels. Wheel centers finished in Testors Metalizer Magnesium. Thanx for lookin’, B.

All done! Tomorrow it rolls into the studio for some beauty shots and then Under Glass. Thanx for following along, B.

Nice! I dig the combination of stock grill and louvered hood. Very hot rod! I wasn't suggesting the radical rake of my '40, the result of oversized rear tires and stock height rear suspension, and very much what I was after, It's just that you probably will want to bring the nose down to something along the lines of the rear height and I suspect you might have to add some more drop. In my case I also was using the stock front axle, so a wide range of drop can be achieved using this method. I'm looking forward to seeing more, more, more... This will be one sweet ride when you're done.

I thought I’d take some additional time to show the technique I outlined in the previous post. I was shooting a picture of the motor area I plan to use in my Under Glass post and grabbed some additional shots for the Workbench Saturday thread. So I saved some interim shots to illustrate my procedure. My workbench area showing the black plastic background sheets set up for photography. The photo I will use as taken by my camera. The photo as I imported it into Photoshop, having adjusted color, saturation, contrast, etc. to more closely resemble the actual color. The selection area I will process to darken it in order to match the black background. The selected area filled with black, using the “feather” function to fade it in. In this photo I have outlined the selected area in red. You’ll notice I smoothed the contours of the selection using the “selection/smooth” function in Photoshop to get a more natural flow. Here is the same shot as above but without the red line. The completed work ready for cropping. I touched up some light spots in the dark background and sharpened up the colors and contrast in the main image. Yes I know, there’s dust on the trunk lid! The final cropped image. The motor shot I will use in the Under Glass post. I wanted to have an image without the grill shell in place.

Haven't posted on this thread in a while. End of thrash on Saturday night. Working on finishing my revisit of the Rat Roaster.. .

Very nice indeed! Great stance and chop, precisely turned out and nicely conceived. Big thumbzupz! Well put! Gotta agree. Gorgeous shiny red has plenty of attitude without the now rather trite rust and dust!

Cool color and nice clean work. Sould be a real looker when you're done! I agree. Get that nose down. You're on the right track but I suspect you're being a little conservative on the drop. I think that front axle is the same or very similar to the one in Revell's '40 Ford Standard Coupe. I lowered the front end on one of those a great deal using the same technique you used but with a good deal more drop. The bottom of the spindles were above the top of the axle on mine. Here's picture of the front end and also one of the result (I left the back end stock and ran big slicks for mucho rake...).

Thanks! Without drilling down pretty deep into Photoshop I'll stick to a pretty general outline of what I did for those "dreamy" shots. First off, the original shots were just quick grab shots on my work bench. My work area looks like a bomb hit it, I'm an incredibly messy builder. So when it comes time to grab some shots of work in progress I'll shove tools, paint, parts, etc. out of the way to clear a space and then hide as much of it as possible using a plain sheet of white or black plastic or paper braced vertically, usually leaning up against a paint can or rubbing alcohol bottle. I'll put a second sheet of the same color on the workbench top. My workbench is very brightly lit, with 3 75 watt spotlamps shining on it, so there's plenty of light for photography. I never use a flash. I use the macro setting on my camera (the close up setting) and get in as tight as possible while still including the desired angle, perspective and details I want to include. Most of time the raw pictures still have some details in the background so I need to block them out in some way. So what I do is use the "lasso" tool in Photoshop and draw an encircling shape around the part of the picture I do want to include. Then I "inverse" the selection so I'm actually working with the part of the image I want to get rid of. Now let's say that I am using a white background. I fill the area I'm getting rid of with the same color, in this case white. The "dreamy" effect is the result of "feathering" the edges of the selected area. Feathering is another Photoshop setting that fades the edges of the selected area. You can control how abruptly or gradually you fade in the effect your doing to the selected area. In this case the "dreamy" effect is simply the white fill color overlapping with the image where it fades out, creating a foggy haze. Finally. I crop the image down to a pleasing proportion and save it in an 800 pixel width so it will look OK on most people's monitors. I do other things as well in order to make sure the photos reproduce the color properly and also to make sure that the fill color matches the background color properly, but that's basically what I do...

Thanks everyone! Just a quick update to show that this project is still alive (I got sidetracked building a LoBoy Deuce Roadster – sort of the exact opposite of this car…). As I mentioned earlier, I thought I’d go with Limefire headers instead of the kit sidepipes, until I remembered that the frame rails are notched to accept the exhaust pipes where they exit the underside of the car and join up with side pipes. For some reason I imagined they were mounting points for the hairpins! So…having already painted and assembled the chassis, I have had to stick with the kit headers. Which brings me to the motor. The 1:1 Rat Roaster has quite a few style elements from sprint cars, for example the front tires, wheels, exhausts, and even the exaggerated air filter stacks if you think they quote sprint-style conical air filters. But the motor on the kit version Rat Roaster disappoints me. To my eye the carbs and blower just look wimpy. At first I considered switching to an old school GMC blower. But then I had the idea to extend the sprint car metaphor to the top side of the motor. So I ordered a set of sprint car style injectors with big K&N conical filters from TJ’s Custom Castings. The picture below shows the result. I’m on the home stretch now, basically just detailing and final assembly. I hope to have this project done within the next week or so.. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanx bill. Actually those are full size wheels and white walls from the Don Edmunds Super Modifed in the old Circle Racing Classics Combo kit. Even though the box illustration shows black walls the kit comes with the same white wall tires that can be found in the Monogram Li'l Coffin kit, but with those cool Halibrands instead of the Torq Thrusts in the Coffin kit.

Thanx everyone! More progress. I’ve gotten the interior detailed, including a steering wheel from an AMT ’58 Impala. The motor is largely complete now with Limefire style headers adapted from an AMT Phantom Vicky and chromed accessory drive and generator from a Revell Parts Pac Cadillac. Now on to the exhaust system, brakes and chassis assembly. Then polish and clear the paint, install lighting and final assembly. Shouldn’t be too long now… Thanx for lookin’, B.

Now that's sharp!!!

That's what I just did on a project I have going and it makes a really sweet curve.

Beautifully conceived, beautifully executed, and beautifully photographed, all in that style which is unicamente brasileiro!

Likewise. Nothing but good things to day about Speed City. Top quality, styrene like, castings, great communications and shipping, and he often creates parts that are important, accurately modeled, and unobtainable from anyone else.

The car is in paint. Colors are Duplicolor Maroon Metallic over Duplicolor Platinum silver with the interior in Testors Pearl White lacquer with a Duplicolor Wimbledon floor. It has yet to be polished and cleared. The interior was made from the kit interior, cut down to allow for the channel, using part of the seat back for the rear panel upholstery and taking a pair of bucket seats from a Revell 31 Ford Sedan kit. I still have to detail it and select a steering wheel. The motor is partially assembled, I’m using the block and heads and carburetion from the Li’l Coffin with the transmission from the kit to assure proper alignment. Still quite a bit of detail work to be done but final assembly shouldn’t be too far away… Thanx for lookin’, B.

Wow! What a wonderfully chosen subject. The simplest, purest era of racing car design ('though admittedly fantastically dangerous, too...), rendered in a finely detailed model true to the spirit of the period. More, more, more!!!!

Thanx everyone. This will be very cool to work on. Actually, Bill, it's the other way around. This was inspired by your excellent Z'd frame how-to. I saw that and, despite being in the middle of my own Rodent Toaster, I knew it was time to cut plastic... But I think the Stacey David car could benefit from a heavy dose of retro-radicalizing. Don't let me stop you...

This will be an early 60’s style show rod in the vein of the Barris Emperor but with a more conservative body treatment. Lots of chrome, brightly colored paint and the obligatory tuck and roll interior with bucket seats. The work so far has been focused on getting the car down in the weeds and dialing in the stance. As the pictures below show, this required some radical chassis work, with a 3” Z at the rear,a wedge cut into the frame rails just in front of the firewall to lift the front crossmember and a shaved front axle and crossmember at the front. The front end lowering is so extreme I had to notch the frame rails to clear the front spring. I’m sticking with a full sized grille shell to emphasize the ultra low stance and also installed a small rear rolled pan to bring the back end down. The car will have a chopped windshield and the motor will be a period show motor, either the hemi from the Li’l Coffin, or a Revell Parts Pac Cadillac, in either case with 6 ‘97’s on top. For the moment the wheels and tires are from a Monogram Super Modified Dirt Track Racer unless something else catches my eye. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Very nicely done. While I've built several models from this kit, I never have built it stock. Building it this way, and to this level of quality, emphasizes what a great job AMT did in reproducing this important and classic Ford, in particular the finely detailed bodywork. Thanks for sharing your first rate execution with us!

This is definitely an example of customizing as a means to improve the lines and styling of the original car. You are really coming into your own with this sort of build over your last few projects. The side view of this thing is just lovely... Bravo!

I’ve competed all the subassemblies and paint with the exception of the motor. It’s all pretty much out of the box with some detail changes to reflect the difference between my vision of this car and the 1:1. A good example of this is the front axle. The Rat Roaster’s kit front axle is different that an all the other Revell Deuces, even though it looks virtually identical. For the Rat Roaster Revell removed the square shoulders on the center mounting tab of the axle and also cut down the two locating tabs at the ends of the spring. The result is an axle that sits lower than the other ones. It is, in effect, the “Tim Boyd drop”. But the front tires on the Rat Roaster are about .06” taller than the front tires that come on the old Goodguys Highboy, almost exactly the amount of height they took out of the front axle. So, despite the modification, the stance of the Rat Roaster is essentially unchanged from the Goodguys. Here are some pictures showing the differences: I like my Deuces with more rake than the Revell kits offer, so I generally will not only remove the corners off the tabs, as originally suggested many moons ago by Tim Boyd, but I will also shave down the spring so that there are only one or two leaves left. That’s what I did in this case. Below are some pictures showing the resulting stance, as well as the color of the paint and the contrast between the interior and the bodywork. I also decided to finish the firewall in Duplicolor Silver, the undercoat I used on the rest of the bodywork. It echoes the bare metal look of the interior. I won’t be running fenders on this car, unlike the 1:1. I want a simple, classic look to this street rod with a minimum of ornamentation. This is essentially the goal of my “revisit”; between the rich dark blue paint, the stock hood, the raked stance and the lack of fenders, this will be a far more severe and conservative looking car than the Rat Roaster. I have pretty much decided to swap out the blower for a GMC 671 and, assuming the fabrication comes off successfully, some Limefire style side exhausts. The motor remains the most elaborate work left to do. I hope to have this project done within the next couple of weeks. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Very original and well executed take on the AMT Deuce roadster. I don't I've ever seen anything quite like it. Lots of nice details, too. Bravo!