Fletch

Alyn, it is indeed something that I am concerned about. The Tamiya Matte Black is so black that perhaps it's to black. I have some nail polish that is called Midnight Satin that is super dark Blue/Purple, it is so dark that in the right light it looks black but not a black as this Matte Black. A couple of coats of the nail polish might be an option to tone down the black. The Tamiya Matte Black would be prefect for '60 and '70 Muscle Cars but as the single color on a body I'm beginning to feel it's a bit much. I have other bodies floating around that are in black primer and they are not as dead black as this Tamiya color. I think before I go much farther with the assembly I am going to get the interior panels and seat painted and see if with the top opened as it is if that will make a noticeable difference. The dash from a Revell '40 Ford Coupe is getting added to the interior and will be the same HoK Blue Blood Red as the wheels and engine so that might help with the Matte Black. One other thing I have thought about is adding a rolled up piece of Linen to the roof to replicate the insert being rolled back. Even though that is not in the original photo it's something that may have been there at some point in time.

All my scrap Evergreen goes into an almost empty bottle. Depending on the size of the scrap the styrene "putty" is ready to use in a couple of hours. As you add more scrap you have to add more cement to the mix as well or the process stalls. I apply it just as I would spot putty, it dries harder and with the Extra Thin as the solvent it melts into the plastic just like you were joining 2 pieces together. I thank you Guys, for all the encouragement on the build of the coupe. It's turning into one of those spread your wings kind of projects. I've often avoided using the Revell pose able steering axles because of their fragile nature. Replacing the plastic nubs with wire was no big deal at all, just a matter of doing it. Same thing with the chassis, toughest part was getting started. As noted elsewhere, no fancy tools were required just a 3"X4" square, a scalpel, a few sanding sticks and Evergreen Styrene. Very good chance the engine and wheels will get painted later today. They will be painted House of Kolor SG105 Blue Blood Red: Hosted on Fotki Hopefully, weather permitting there will be photos of them up later.

Tom, I totally agree with Harry, both builds are outstanding and look fantastic. But, the stock version is way to cool, not very often we get to see a well executed stock Model A build. A stock Phaeton build is even more rare. Well Done all the way around.

Yeah, B you caught me with the BIG supply of Tamiya Extra Thin. Actually, there is only about a bottle and a half of cement there the one bottle is my Tamiya/Evergreen styrene putty. All the finish filling work gets done with that, I changed from red spot putty last year and have ZERO regrets. It dries hard and has the advantage of melting into the kit plastic and not being something on the surface, I doubt that I will ever change back. I'll bring it to the NNL to show you what it's all about.

Not a productive weekend for the Shadowbox Coupe Project. Better know as nothing got accomplished. Today however, back to working on the build. The drop axle from a Revell '31 Sedan was added to the Coupe's frame. The spring hanger was reduced in height by aprox .060 or a scale 1.5 inches. The next bit of upgrade in the axle was to replace the plastic nubs (king pins) that allows this axle to have poseable steering. The centers of the nubs were located then opened up with a #73 drill bit. Pieces of .022" brass wire were then added to the axle to provide years of steering without failure. The spindle/backing plate assy were epoxied to the steering arms with the tie-rod then attached. The assembly was set aside to cure for the better part of an hour. Attention was then turned to the interior panels and seat. The door panels were shortened by aprox 1/8th of an inch using the bottom of the center cast in panel. The upper is the modified while the lower is a stock kit piece. The bench seat also had a similar 1/8 inch piece removed from the bottom of it as well. Once the interior floor pans, transmission cover and driveshaft tunnel are in place, couple of the ribs in the center of the seat will be removed and the back of the seat will be cut to match the driveshaft tunnel contour. Poseable steering in place, it does clear the Hemi's oil pan when turned full left or right. If I have time before the NNL, I will most likely replace the plastic tie-rod with one made from brass. Since the last post the wheels from the Revell '50 Ford Pickup have given way to those from the AMT '62 Catalina as well as the rear tires. The Catalina wheels have better depth and the caps for the front sit better in the wheels as well. Hosted on Fotki That's it for today, come on the way soon. Thanks for looking.

Dennis, I suspect that you are right about the chassis from the original build being a butcher job. Unfortunately, all I have to go off of is the single photo and documentation about the Coupe at all. So, that left me to my own idea of what would be needed to support that big chunk of iron and not twist in half when the driver stepped on the loud pedal and dumped all the Hi-Test down into the cylinders.

Dick, the kick-up on the rear of the frame is an actual 1/2". Seeing how the body is 1/24th scale that would make the kick-up 1 scale foot. The front 'Z' is the depth of the .080X.125 Evergreen plus a piece of .040X.080 glued in between the main frame rail pieces. In scale that comes out to aprox. 4 scale inches. Raul, you are correct it is a fair amount of work but it is something that I think most of us are more then capable of doing with the bare minimum of tools. For this I used 3"X4" square, a couple of sanding sticks, a scalpel to score the styrene and a good quality styrene cement. The toughest part of building this frame was convincing myself that I could do it. Once I got started I wondered why I ever doubted myself in the first place. After all, it's just plastic, if you screw it up you just get out another piece and start over. Hoping to get paint on the frame over the weekend and get the interior side panels cut down and basic floor laid down in the next couple of days. Stay tuned.

Got the remainder of the work on the chassis completed today. Added the stringers for the floor, the center X-Member and the motor and transmission mounts in place. The rear end for this build is from the Revell '50 Ford Pickup. It was chosen for a couple of reasons the first being it has the track width needed for the build and second because there are probably 20 of those kits floating around the garage, so 1 missing a rear end wasn't going to be the end of the world. The tires and wheels are a combination of slicks from an AMT '40 Ford Sedan, wheels from the Revell '50 Ford Pickup. The front tires and wheels are from the '50 Ford Pickup. So here it is the long awaited first official mock-up of the Shadow Box Coupe. Hosted on Fotki For mock-up purposes the drop axle from a Revell '32 was used, but it will give way to the poseable steering drop axle from a Revell '29 pickup or '31 Sedan. Major tasks yet to be completed, build the front fenders and mounts, convert and trim down the '37 pickup grille to that of a '35/'36 pickup. Seeing how I have no idea what dash may have been in the coupe when the original photo was taken, I'm going to take a bit of artistic license and trim down a '40 Ford dash. I'm planning on using K&S sheet Aluminum for the floor boards, transmission hump and drive shaft tunnel. The interior panels from the Monogram kit will be cut down and used to complete the interior. Stay Tuned, more to come soon.

Bernard, the front Z will sit about 4" past the body, so it will sit almost even with the firewall. The channel has the bottom frame rail sitting close to 2" up inside the body. The bellhousing and the transmission tailshaft will sit high in the interior and dissect the seat bottom but it will have a full width seat back. I am hoping to have it completed for the Spring Classic NNL down in Coburg, OR March 13th, but will certainly have it completed by the PNW NNL March 27th. Hope to see you down for the NNL

I figured being the Pacific NW NNL Model Car Fest is 5 weeks away I might as well get this thing finished. The biggest obstacle to getting this project completed is getting started on the frame. As can be seen in the original photo the chassis is far from the stock Model 'A' frame. The frame rails for this build are .080X.125 Evergreen Styrene rectangular stock, which is aprox 2"X3" in scale. The front cross member is .156 Evergreen "C" channel stacked back to back to produce a shallow "H" beam. Any bracing has been done using .060 Evergreen Angle. The frame out riggers are .020X.125 (still need to be cut to length) which will support .040 square stock which the floor will be attached to. The Monogram rear spring hanger was retained for use in the build, it is mounted in the frame so the rear end will mount in front of the spring as in later model Ford products. Hosted on Fotki Stay Tuned.

I have been trying to figure our what to use for the front and rear axles for the coupe, so I went on a scavenger hunt today to see what I could find. I opened up the box of the Revell Good Guys edition of the '40 Ford Coupe and there was my answer. The front dropped axle is perfect, the spring and wishbone assembly will require some reworking, there is a very good chance the wishbones won't even be used but replaced by some carved from Evergreen strip. The rear axle is a version of a Ford 9" rearend. The frame cross member and coilover mount should work fine in the Model 'A' frame. The track of the rear axle will need to have about 3/16th" added to allow the tires clear the body work. The ladder bars may need to be modified in order to work properly for the Coupe. Hosted on Fotki I checked with my local HoK dealer and they will have the Galaxy Gray paint in on Friday. I'm going to hold off repainting the engine block a different color until I get a chance to see how it looks with the Galaxy Gray. As for the tires and wheels the Coupe will most likely end up with those from a Revell '29 Pickup or '31 Sedan.

Bernard, at first I couldn't figure out what the engine was in the Coupe. I looked all over trying to find what is was, even though the Coupe has a Traditional feel to it the engine is more modern. The best I can figure is that it is a big block Chrysler product, so I figured why not go with something that would reasonably represent that engine thus the 440. The nice thing is that it's representative of most Chrysler big block non-hemi engines from the mid '60s. So, it is something of a break from the Traditional SBC, Flathead, Olds or Nailheads that we all expect to see in a coupe like this. It's kinda nice to be color outside the lines from time to time.

Those changes make a world of difference in the looks of that kit. My wife wanted that kit several years ago, she was so disappointed with it she boxed it up and hasn't touched it since. The Pegasus wheels look fantastic sitting next to the body as does the Smoothster windshield posts.

Well, the trip to the LHS for paint turned out to be a waste of time, effort and money. The Tamiya TS-9 British Green is no where as dark as the color chip and cap would indicate. Olive Drab is darker then the British Green. It is off by enough that the body went straight into the purple pond for a couple of days. So, we're now back in primer and ready for round #2 of paint. Round #2 is going to be using House of Kolor Shimrin Glamor Metallics BC03 Galaxy Gray. The other part of the visit that was a bust was paint for the engine, not sure why I grabbed Model Master Hemi Orange instead of Chrysler Engine Red but I did. The Hemi Orange is a great color but it wasn't what I had planned for the build, of course I realized this after I had shot the color. Hosted on Fotki So, I'll go back and modify the valve covers for the addition of the MCG Breather caps. I'm hoping to have this to mock up stage by the end of the weekend as we're doing a 3 day demo this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. More to come soon, your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

This is what you would have to call a very unique and seriously cool project. I don't think I've ever seen this kit before but I sure like what you're doing with it. Seriously cool, Mike seriously Cool!!!!!!!!!!

Got the color on the body yesterday, all I can say is you've got to love Tamiya paint. It may be a bit more expensive but it's worth every penny!! After 2 coats of Tamiya TS-6 Matt Black: Hosted on Fotki Guess it's time to get the Evergreen out and get to building the chassis. More to come. thanks for looking as always comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Just got the flier and poster for the upcoming Pacific NW NNL. The NNL will be March 27th from 9am-4pm. The NNL will once again be held at the Gateway Elks Lodge at 711 NE 100th Ave, here in Portland. This years Theme is, "Yeah, it's got a Hemi!" Hosted on Fotki I should have the vendor information and registration information in the next couple a weeks. It will be available on the SABA website at the following link: http://www.sabanw.org/pacific_nw_nnl_model_car_fest

Figured you had to wake up from that winter slumber sometime Gary. The show has been getting better each and every year. Looks like it might be time for a location with more floor space in the near future.

The best that you can hope to do with the Lindberg Tall T is to take the body and use it as the basis of a fenderless Hot Rod. Source the frame and everything else from your parts box. Then you can end up with something usable from the kit. Or better yet wait until AMT reissues their '25 T in the next couple of months. IIRC the Lindberg kit is a revamp of the old Palmer kit from the early 60s, obviously, we've come a long way since this was 'state of the art'.

Here are the choices that I have narrowed it down to. They are Tamiya TS9 British Green, TS33 Dull Red and TS70 Olive Drab which is about the closest to the color of the kit plastic. The choices are listed as my choices from most to least favorite. Hosted on Fotki The engine for the build will be the 440 Magnum from the Revell '69 Dodge Charger R/T kit with the 426 dual-quad manifold adapted to fit the 440. Progress is slow as I've been down with one of the worst colds I've had in years, but things are moving ahead. Stay Tuned.

Got the body to the point of being ready for primer. The last bit of work needed was attaching the trunk lid and the stringers in the roof opening. Hosted on Fotki The roof stringers are Evergreen .030 1/4 round stock. Seeing how the body is 1/24th scale I am considering using the engine, manifold and carb set up from the Lil Coffin. This will require a bit of modification of the valve covers by taking the spark plug cover off and adding the wells for the plug boots. Obviously, the project has a long way to go, but, is still moving forward. Stay Tuned

There is a lot of potential for this build Robert. I would be more inclined to see what the wheel choices look like after it has some paint on the body and the steel wheels. The fact that it's all gray/white right now makes it a little difficult to make a valid decision. The engine looks killer, love the carbs sticking out of the hood.

Got a little bit of work done on the body for this Coupe. One of the problems that Monogram created when they chose to make the compromise to be able to use the lower body of the Coupe for several different upper body sections was to eliminate the upper body beading or molding. It's always been one of those pet peeve things with me. In order to get the body to where it has more of the look of a Model 'A' Coupe a piece of .080 Evergreen 1/2 round stock was added above the molded on body line. The .080 is far to thick so it requires some reshaping. You could do the same thing with a piece of .020X.080 flat stock and round the edges. Personally, I prefer using the 1/2 round. The other piece of the body molding the needs to be added is the bead rail around the back of the upper portion of the body. Evergreen .020 round stock was used to accomplish this. Hosted on Fotki The final bit of fill work around the area of the chop is scrap Evergreen Styrene that has been liquefied in Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. It sands nicely and is close to the kit styrene. The nice thing about it is it melts itself into the surrounding plastic becoming part of the body when fully cured.

Got some more of the basic body work out of the way today. Having a new puppy in the house sure does take away from your building time. One of the major problems with the Monogram '30 Model 'A' Coupe is that the lower portion of the body has been used for several different kits. In order to make this possible Monogram compromised the body molding. In order to build a relatively accurate '30 Coupe the molding needs to be replaced. The width of the molding is aprox .080. With that in mind a piece of Evergreen .080 1/2 round was used. Obviously, this is going to be to thick so a bit of thinning and reshaping was required. Hosted on Fotki The other piece of molding that got left out in the compromise it the molding that goes around the back of the roof, this is represented by a piece of .020 Evergreen round stock. Also, the holes used to mount the cowl lights were filled with .047 Evergreen round stock. A little more work with some A/B epoxy putty and the body will be ready for paint. Thanks for looking.

The other problem with using the plastic and color just buffing it out is that Monogram in an effort to use the lower body on as many '30 Model 'A' subjects as possible, eliminated the body line molding where the roof and lower body sections come together. While the color works the body work that is required to make a fairly accurate '30 Coupe would require repainting. As for a "drive thru choppin' window", I've had a few requests, but so far no one has sent the bodies to get a little taken off the top.