Bernard Kron

Super idea. For Photoshop users you can create or aquire seamless patterns that will repeat across whatever layers you want to fill with them. Here's a Google seartch I did for such patterns: an entire page of free wood patterns of various sorts for Photoshop: http://www.google.com/search?q=photoshop+wood+grain+patterns&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1. As an example of what's out there here's just the very first result on the page: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/28-high-resolution-wood-textures-for-designers/. And an example from that page:

Love the re-chop and the color. Now that's a kustom!

Revell has finally given us a new tool Deuce Roadster in the form of the Stacy David Rat Roaster. Just in time, too, as the old highboy roadster kit has become quite scarce. Recently, when I was at the NNL West there were absolutely none of the old kit to be found! So the Rat Roaster is what we will have going forward. I must admit to mixed feelings about this kit. The 1:1 is highly stylized, a very contemporary vision of a 60s style 32 Ford highboy roadster. Definitely one mans taste, with its massive exhausts and intake trumpets, the B&M blower, the polished bare metal chrome molding along the bodyline, and the oval ports atop the hood. Unfortunately, many of these details are not to my taste, and some, like the hood top ports, are not easily undone without either extensive bodywork or reaching into the parts box. The interior, too, is aggressively done and very much in the modern style. But it is more to my taste than some of the other details. So I decided I would do a version of the Rat Roaster, keeping the details that I like and changing the details that I dont like. This isnt a backdating of the car, but rather a revisiting of the basic style of the 1:1, toning down some of the details, and emphasizing some of the others. To start with I was surprised to see that the holes in the interior were missing from the kit. At first I thought Revell had wimped out by leaving the holes filled and including decals to indicate the dark areas on the original car. But more close examination of the 1:1 indicates that these holes are not holes at all, but indentations which are then filled with padded upholstery material. In my minds eye I wanted holes. So I drilled out all the holes so they are now holes, period. My vision of the interior was more along the lines of a bare metal look with just a smattering of upholstery. So I decided on finishing it out in Testors Aluminum Plate Metalizer with the black diamond pattern panels of the 1:1. To emphasize this look I have replaced the kit seats with drilled out resin items from ThePartsBox.com, again finished in Aluminum Plate. One of the most successful details of the 1:1, something which Revell has translated quite well in kit form, are the wheels and tires. To give the wheels a bit more realism I painted out the centers in Metalizer Stainless Steel to mimic the finish on the 1:1. These details have set the tone of the overall look. Ill keep as much of the rest of the car as I can, sticking with the kit Small Block Chevy, but changing the hood to a more stock appearing one. The blower is a problem for me, lacking definition and personality, so Im looking into alternate carburetion and/or blower setups (GMC 671, a brace of 97s, injection? not decided yet). The exhausts are problematic too. Do I keep them to emphasize the link with the 1:1, do I refinish them to tone down the kit chrome, do I substitute block huggers for them and go with full side panels, or do I build out a set of Limefires (which I have started on)? Again Im not sure. Meanwhile, Ive settled on a color. At first I considered a deep red metallic, but it didnt go all that well with the strong silver and black interior. Then I considered a black car, but I decided it would just be too black all over. So Ive gone with a rich, deep blue metallic, Duplicolor Nightshadow Pearl, applied over white primer and a silver metallic base for a candy effect. Below is a color check I did. I think the overall look will be far more conservative than the 1:1, but Im trying to avoid backdating this car too much, partially because Im planning a straight-up traditional highboy for later this year, complete with buggy spring rear end, juice brakes, either flathead or early OHV power, tuck and roll interior, etc. That car will almost certainly be done in black, another reason I wanted to avoid black for this one. As usual, this build is somewhat of an improvisation, so well see where it takes me. In the meantime Thanx for loookin, B.

Super classy work so far. A great selection of kit and aftermarket parts carefully assembled. Replicas & Minitaures of Maryland has them. Unfortunately they don't have a website. PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send you a PDF file of the latest catalog (2012). Incredible stuff. Huge selection and the best resin parts made anywhere. Unfortunately they are pretty much a one man operation (Norm Veber) so orders take 6-10 weeks to fill. Here are somelinks to pictures of some of their stuff: http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/1/2/1/after-market-source/replicasminiatureof/ http://public.fotki.com/crstan/replican-and-miniat/ http://public.fotki.com/davetoups/aftermarket_model_parts/replicas_and_miniat/

Nicely done. I think this style is what the new Rat Roaster kit is best for. It suits the details of the kit better than a more traditional look. I especially like the color and the flames. The modern oversized wheels and rubber band tires complement the exagerated look of the carb stacks and exhaust pipes.

Well, I guess those styrene clogs are responsible for another kickin' build!. I love the stance and proportions, the beefy looking engine and the interior. Combined with the bare metal finish and the fat tires and wheels, this car sits just right.

Yegads! Could I be more wrong!!!! It is, after all, an Austin Healey, not a Morris Healey. I tried to be lazy and cadge an image from the net. I should have noted the lack of foot boxes and the open rear deck rather than the integral piece on the Sprite. Both of these parts are critical elements of the Sprite structure. I've always noticed how near-monocoque the complex structure of the big Healeys can be, despite their separate chassis. Here's a scan from the book. I have also corrected the original post. The confusion regarding the Morris Minor is in part due to the Sprite's use of the Minor's rack and pinion steering, another element of the Sprite's sharp handling.

In 1961 Michael Costin and David Phipps published their superb book, Racing and Sports Car Chassis Design, a relatively short but exhaustive summary of the state of the art at the time, complete with exploded views, cutaways and schematics of chassis and suspension systems. Michael Costin (brother of famed aerodynamicist Frank Costin and designer of the slippery bodywork on, among others, the Vanwall, the Lotus Eleven and the Lister Jaguar) was Colin Chapman's main collaborator at Lotus. At the time Chapman and Costin were working furiously on the first all-monocoque Formula One car, the Lotus 25. They would gain infamy over the winter of '61-'62 when they sold their tube framed Lotus 24 to several privateer F1 teams while proceeding with their top-secret project, finally revealing the 25 in early '62 immediately prior to the start of the Grand Prix season. When writing their chapter on monocoque chassis design, Costin & Phipps couldn't discuss the upcoming Lotus 25. Taking Jaguar to task for producing a hybrid design in the form of the D-Type, with its unit body rear section and space frame forward of the firewall, they used the Mk. 1 (Bugeye) Sprite, a true monocoque, as their example, publishing an exploded view of the chassis structure. The monocoque structure is the secret to the Sprite's legendary quick handling, flat cornering and ultra-low weight, despite its humble Morris Minor (motor and suspension) roots.

And finally this next chassis is what I consider to be my best work. It's very simple but looks quite true-to-life to my eyes. It's a simple '40's style dry lakes modified. The entire frame with the exception of the rear crossmenber is scratch built from styrene strip, including the split wishbones. The rear crossmember is from a Revell '29 Ford RPU. The exhaust headers and pipes, most of the interior, and the fuel tank in the final pictures are also scratch built.

I also like to build traditional style hot rod frames. This is a lo-boy Deuce sedan based on a Jimmy Flintstone resin body. because of the thivkness and dimensions of the Flintstone body which is based on the Revell Orange Crate, I couldn't modify an existing styrene Deuce frame. It was actually easier just to make my own! The interior is also largely scratch built I'm haven't shown it here. The frame rails are made of Evergreen styrene strip. The rear cossmembers and diagonal braces are Evergreen styrene rod. The center crossmember is a Revell Deuce piece and the front crossmember is from an AMT '29 Model A Ford roadster chassis. The taper at the front of the rails was traced from a Revell Deuce frame and sanded and filed into shape.

This is awfully simple compared to a lot of stuff on here, but it came out pretty nicely so I'm pleased. It's a trailer that's part of a late '40's dry lakes style race set that includes an AMT '40 Ford Sedan Delivery and a resin '34 Ford Roadster body on a modified AMT '34 Ford 5-window chassis. I love scratch building parts that I can't easily find otherwise. The trailer was primarily made from various Evergreen and Plastruct plastic shapes with the wheels and springs coming from an AMT '37 Chevy kit and the fenders from an AMT '25 T double kit. I built it freehand, just measuring and cutting as I went, based on the dimensions established by the roadster's track and length.

I own an all-steel, left hand drive, 1960 Frogeye Sprite. Although heavily modified (116 hp 1380 cc motor, Datsun 5 speed, lowered suspension with progressive rate front springs and Heim joint struts and Panhard rod in the rear, Minilites, deleted front bumper and tilt-forward front end), it looks pretty stock from the outside and we tried to preserve all the original parts and/or engineer it so they could easily be re-installed. This is a superb replica of the stock version. Beautiful!

Bill, you may want to check in on ThePartsBox.com. They make very nice dropped I-beam axles. Like all resin axles, in the past they drooped over time under the weight of the completed model. Recently they added wire reinforcement which hopefully should remedy the problem. Unfortunately they are fighting the strong Aussie dollar which creates an opportunity for a domestic USA product. I have used a good many of their products, including the old production of axles which have since drooped, and the quality is first-rate throughout. The only parts vendor who exceeds their quality is Norm Veber at Replicas & Miniatures. Below are a link to their website and some pics. Also, in 2008 I wrote a review of the Replica's & Miniatures A-V8 transkit which uses the Revell 1/25 Deuce suspension bits, It will give you an idea of the exceptional quality of his offerings. Here's a link to that post: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11731 . Link: http://www.thepartsbox.com/ (Oddly, look under "Exterior" for front suspension parts) Pics: 1137 - Axle pack (I-beam wild drop) Now reinforced with a hidden wire insert! 1136 - Axle straight, adjustable shackles plus spring pack Now reinforced with a hidden wire insert.. Here's their 2298 - Axle ( I - beam wild drop) which I used on a project that featured a large number of their products including a complete Nailhead Buick V8

Yeah, that's h how it was shown at this years show. In his post he says "the Lincenstein has come a long way from last years model". So true. This year it was a knockout!

Below is a picture from last year's NNL. I haven't had time to look at my 2013 pics yet so I don't know if I photographed it this years with the alternate injector setup. BTW Bill, I really enjoyed seeing the Tognotti King T, Wilhelms Wild Dream, Surfite and the little roadsters "in the flesh" as it were. Nice stuff!. And I'm sure I photographed them!

Totally cool re-do/update of this kit with an eye to all the right changes to achieve your vision. Really well executed too! Shows what happens when you know what you want and have the skills and knowledge to get there.

Excellent! I dig the blown Big Cammer Eight (Alfa 158?) .And the worn paint is quite succesful - dramatic and emphatic as is appropriate for a rat rod, but not over done. You say it went quickly - it's obvious from the results that you had your groove on. Congrats!

Congrats to Art and Ira! Can someone post some pics of the winning models? The unequivocal admiration and appreciation of his fellow modelers! It's an NNL.

Along with NormL's thread on modeling his Atom, this is a great thread helping to flesh out the issues surrounding this rapidly progressing technology. It's following the general path I've seen with other computer-based technologies which eventually migrated to the home computer platform. I can remember the early days of Aldus Pagemaker and Photoshop, running them on 386 computers and sending the results out to service bureaus for output of acceptable quality. Even with today's powerful home computers, cheap data storage, commonly available photo art and drawings at little or no cost, and even high speed cloud (on line) computing, it's still advisable in many cases to use a service bureau for certain types of high quality output when the front end capital investment (for printers, materials, etc.) doesn't make sense or is simply unavailable. In our world consider white or metallic colored decals. You may be able to create the original art on your home compuer, and even look at a proof by printing out in high resolution on your home inkjet or laser printer, a printer which may have cost you as little as $50.00. But you still have to go to someone who has a Micro-Dry or die sublimation printer (Alps, Oki, etc.) to get final output on decal stock. The cost of printers and supplies is prohibitive for the home hobbyist who may print 10-15 sheets of decals per year on the outside, and even fewer that actually require this technology. So, while making and printing decals is now a common part of our hobby, it still makes sense to job out parts of the process. And very importantly, cheap printing didn't destroy the aftermarket in decals or remove them from the inside of model kits. Rapid Prototyping and 3D printing have evolved at breakneck speed. Home printing is a reality. High strength, high density print media are starting to be a reality. (Some F1 teams are now printing work parts in the pits during race meetings to mount and use on their cars immediately.) High resolution output is a reality. Over time all these key elements will continue to cheapen. The time it takes to process and print output will continue to shrink. But video game enthusiasts don't generally create their own game objects, any more than we car modelers make our own decals or mix our own paints. The key issues to watch going forward are printer resolution at low prices, and the general availability of fused media technologies and high density print materials. For the hobbyist modeler cheap, fast printers, smooth surfaces for larger objects (bodies), accurate and finely detailed small objects and easily produced and/or readily available 3D drawings will be the pivot points that make the promise of this technology a reality. It will be at that point the Harry's vision will become something that we will add to our world, but not necessaily to the exclusion of the ways we do it now (purchasing complete kits and aftermarket parts). Having said all this I gotta say, those Vector wheels are gorgeous!!!

Thanx again everyone! The set is boxed up and ready for its trip down south. I still can't believe I got this whole thing done in time... I hope to see some MCM-ers at the NNL.

I'm planning a possible TRaK group Meet Up midday. We did one last year. If someone wants to arrange a similar MCM event I'd love to be part of it. It's just a chance to put a face on a name and possibly takes a group picture. We had ours last year at 1 PM and about 10 people showed up. I posted signs at various places and we met at one of the vendor's tables which was being run by a member. The MCM photo booth would be a logical place. 2 PM?

Thanx for the clear and concise write up. Lining up the the cut with the vertical from the base of the diagonal eliminates a lot of problems with fitting the chassis parts and the body once the drop is completed. Thanks for stressing that. I agree with your comment about front Z's. I tend to avoid them as unecessary in most cases, but I also think that they have a tendancy to be somewhat unsightly, as well as raising the bell housing and transmission deeply into the passenger area. If I do them at all I like to tuck them behind the firewall, but there's a big negative, which is that it eats up huge amounts of interior space. An old technique sometimes seen that was surprsingly common in the early days, but I think is even more unsightly, is to Z the front up behind the front crossmember.

Thanx! As always, I dig that you all dig it! Here's some detail shots I forgot to post:

Dry Lakes Style ’34 Ford Roadster – Part of matched race team set Based on a resin 1934 Ford Roadster body courtesy of Chuck Mier at Altered States Models (http://www.alteredstatesmodels.com/) and the chassis, interior and front clip from an AMT ’34 Ford 5-window coupe, this early postwar style dry lakes racer is part of a race team set along with a ’40 Ford sedan delivery and a scratch built trailer. The modifications and fabrication on this car were extensive. Here’s a breakdown of the parts used for both the roadster and for the trailer. Thanx for lookin’, B. The Roadster: Body and interior: Main body by Chuck Mier at Altered States Models; hood and grill from from an AMT ’34 Ford 5-window coupe, filled front fender aprons courtesy of Ed Fluck at Drag City Casting (http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/member_dealer_directory/drag-city-casting-/). Bare metal interior modified from an AMT ’34 Ford bucket with strip styrene and a resin bomber seat courtesy of ThePartsBox.com. Chassis & Suspension: AMT ’34 Ford chassis, Z’d at rear, front and rear crossmembers shaved. Rear suspension: AMT ’34 Ford rear spring, Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster Halibrand quick change differential, AMT ’25 T axle housings, AMT ’34 Ford stock rear wishbone. Front suspension: Monogram ’37 Ford dropped front axle with spring reversed, AMT ’34 Ford front wishbone. Motor and Transmission: Ford flathead V8 and transmission from a Revell ’40 Ford Street Rod. Custom resin 4-carb manifold. Stromberg 97 carburetors courtesy of Early Years Resin (http://www.freewebs.com/earlyyearsresin/bodys.htm) . Wheels and Tires: AMT ’40 Ford front and rear wheels. Moon discs courtesy of Parts By Parks. Tires courtesy of The Modelhaus (http://www.modelhaus.com/). Paint and Graphics: Duplicolor Wimbledon White and Duplicolor Dark Jade Green Metallic. Testors Aluminum Plate Metalizer interior. Home made decals. The Trailer: Scratch built from various shapes of Evergreen and Plastruct plastic. Springs, wheels and tires from an AMT ’37 Chevrolet coupe.

I got the trailer painted and the roadster assembled today. It went more smoothly than I had anticipated. Here’s a shot of the finished out trailer and a teaser shot of the roadster. I’ll do some minor touchups and take the “beauty shots” to post Under Glass tomorrow. After that, on to the NNL West next Saturday. I can’t believe I’ve gotten this set done with days to spare. That’s a first! Thanks for lookin’, B. The completed trailer in matching colors to the rest of the set: The roadster with the front bodywork installed. More pictures Under Glass tomorrow!