Fletch

You know I have no idea what color the 1:1 actually is, it could be black for all I know. I think I may want to give it some POP. It may very well end up with a House of Kolor Silver or Gold base with Transparent Tangerine top coat. I would venture a guess that I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of a 1000 different colors of fingernail polish that could be used on this build. Another option I'm kinking around is a color called Blood Red over black primer. It would be outstanding. We've got a couple of days before the need to start worrying about color. The kit plastic color would be great if the body were in better shape. The mold is starting to show it's age. Under the beltline at the rear of the top there are very noticeable sink-marks which need to be filled. So, the green unless it's repainted isn't usable.

I have no idea where I found this photo, but like so many it struck a cord with me. As CB, "They all look so alike but at the same time so different." It's another Model 'A' Coupe based off the Monogram '30 Model 'A'. Couldn't find any around town so got this one off eBay. It wasn't even in the house 36 hours before the roof got dropped.This will be a bit different than a couple of the other Model 'A' Coupe build that I currently have underway as this has the normal transverse mounted front spring. However, the spring is attached to split wishbones with the axle set out in front of the cross-member and radiator. The frame will need to be heavily reworked in order to use the kit chassis. It will need a serious 'Z' and stretch in the rear. I am not 100% what engine is in the Coupe. At first I thought it was a Chevy, but it appears that the starter is on the drivers side, just above the frame rail forward of the firewall. Any help with the engine identification would be greatly appreciated. Here's the inspiration: Here's the start of the build: The chop was aprox. .270 after the cuts and file work, in scale somewhere in the area of aprox. 6.5 inches. Hosted on Fotki The chop is a little deeper then the 1:1 car but, we're not necessarily going for a 100% replica. Stay Tuned.

Got a chance to work a bit on the engine for the Woody. It's a Chevy 454 from an AMT late '60something El Camino. The street version of the engine has what B&M calls a Street Charger with fuel injection. I need to finish up the detail painting and throw a set of plug wires on it before calling it good. Hosted on Fotki It is pretty tight quarters with this engine in the '48's engine bay, but it looks good. Off to bed for some much needed sleep.

Rodney, this is outrageous!!!!! You've got to get this one finished for the NNL, it will without a doubt be one of the most unique Hemi powered builds on the table.

IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You will never hear me ever say anything bad about a good cigar. A lot of the cigars that have the cedar wrappers come in metal tubes. The tubes are sealed and of course don't "breathe" so the cedar give the cigar some moisture so it doesn't dry out during shipment. The higher priced cigars have the cedar wrapper more for look then function. A lot of the better cigar boxes have a piece of cedar in the bottom of the box to help during shipment as well.

Got started on this project a couple of days ago. I have seen may of these built over the past couple of years but all had one thing in common the builder glued the doors shut. The goal of this project is to build a Mini-Craft '31 Model 'A' Pickup in Hot Rod Style and have opening doors when completed. One of of the other forums we're in the middle of a challenge using the artwork of Keith Weesner as the inspiration. There are several of Keith's pieces that use the '30/'31 Model 'A' pickup as the basis of the artwork. This build is going to be somewhat loosely structured around the piece called Emerald Tide. Here is where the project is as of this evening. The cab was chopped aprox 6 scale inches, the cowl and lower windshield still needs to be reattached to the upper windshield. This is most likely going to require epoxying brass or steel wire on the inside of the posts. The bed was shortened by aprox 9/16" in order to get it to the length that I wanted it. The cab and bed reunited after the cuts and reassembly. Hosted on Fotki As I get farther along in this build it becomes more obvious that the mold maker took a lot of liberties in producing the patterns for this kit. The firewall and the bedsides do not have any where close to the profile they should have. So, as modelers we have one of two choices; 1.Fix the problems. 2.Live with them. Some of the incorrect areas may get rebuilt to look more correct and others may get the that's close enough treatment. Stay Tuned.

The interior wood pieces are now complete with the exception of painting the door handles and window cranks. The interior roof piece inside the body. The floor boards have been flocked and are ready for the interior to get assembled. Hosted on Fotki It would be great if the weather decided to cooperate a little over the next few days so I can get this finished before the deadline, 1 week from today. Wish me luck.

The Exterior Wood work is not completed. Now on to the interior wood work, then to shoot both with a couple of coats of Urethane Clear. Hosted on Fotki I'm hoping to get the body color applied in the next couple of days, the forecast is calling for clearing weather Wednesday through Friday. The Woody may never win any contests but it's been a learning experience in making plastic look like wood. The box the Woody is sitting on is and old Cigar box that I've had floating around for a couple of years now. Not only will it be it's display but also it's storage box as well.

Marshal, the body was primed with Dupli-Color White primer. It provides a pretty good base for the Stain Marker to work with. It takes it a couple of days to dry as it's not anywhere close to being as porous as actual wood. But overall it works nicely.

Got started on the "Wood" for the build. I initially used a Minwax Stain Marker (#210B Golden Oak) on the raised areas. With them primed it went on ok, but not the results I was hoping for, I went back over the Stain once it was dry with some Wally World FolkArt brand Acrylic Paint (#419 Teddy Bear Tan) and it actually looks presentable. The next step was to start cutting the dried Cigar wrapper to the size needed for each of the panel areas. The Cigar wrapper is Cedar shaved extremely thin. The lower piece is what was used for the drivers side it's aprox .0105 thick. The biggest thing when working with the wrapper is remembering which side of the piece you're using as the grain is different on each side. The individual pieces are glued to the panel areas using Pacer Formula '560 Canopy Glue. Hosted on Fotki Once the passenger side is completed, I'll dry-brush a darker color over the raised areas to give them some additional depth. The last step planned for the "Wood" areas is to seal it with clear urethane. Stay tuned.

Believe it or not I haven't totally forgotten this project. Spent some time this afternoon getting the detail painting done on the chassis. Hosted on Fotki The engine for the build is not going to be the flathead as originally planned . I'm going to use the 454 from the AMT '68 El Camino, the one with the under the hood Super-Charger. Even though it's suppose to be raining tomorrow I'm hoping to get the main body color applied tomorrow. Stay Tuned.

The body that I planned to use for this build was originally slated for another project which got put on the back burner because a fellow club member was well on the way to building the same Coupe. The chop was a bit deeper then I what I thought it should be for the Shadowbox Coupe. While we were out and about over the weekend I picked up another '30 Coupe for this build. The roof has been chopped the area that use to represent the roof insert was also removed. The next step of construction for the body is to replicate the molding that Monogram eliminated in order to make the base body usable for several different body styles and replicate the bows for the opening in the roof. One of the things that I wasn't quite sure how I was going to at least get close on the build was the front cone shaped hubcaps. A fellow SABA member brought me 4 of the cone hubcaps from an AMT original issue '40 Ford Coupe. Hosted on Fotki Granted they are not exactly those on the coupe but for the purposes of this build they are close enough. Stay tuned.

Looking good Dave, for your first chop it's looking great. Looking forward to seeing it at one of the upcoming events in the PNW next year.

I knew you'd make something fantastic out of that thing. Good thing you ask if I still had it, otherwise it would still be taking up space in my garage. Fantastic build as always Wayne.

I haven't heard a thing Len. I'm holding off starting mine in hopes of someone coming out with something.

Guess I should have been more specific about the NNL. March 27th, 2010 is the 20th Pacific Northwest NNL Model Car Fest here in Portland. Going to the NNL East would be a great time but being part of the host club for the PNW NNL it's a bit difficult to be at 2 places at one time.

Finally got the Coupe underway, seeing how the NNL is a little over 100 days away wouldn't want to get started to soon. Were would we all be without a deadline looming over us. Got the initial chop completed for the Coupe. It may be a bit more then the actual car but, it's not going to be a 100% accurate build anyway as there are way to many things I can't tell from the single photo. Hosted on Fotki The frame will be built out of Evergreen .080X.125 as that's about as close to 2X3 as possible. Stay Tuned.

This should be an interesting conversion. I'll be watching along as you build.

Very Cool Rod, this is indeed a unique build, can't wait to see how it turns out when finished.

Brother John, there were some serious treasures in the 14 boxes of kits, pieces and parts that I brought home. Some went to the last swap meet as they were duplicates of the multiples that I already had. Others remained in my collection, nothing like being a plastic hoarder. I'm now wishing I hadn't given all the '41 Lincoln wheels and tires away, a set would look great on the back of this build.

Got some work done on the 'T' this morning. I don't believe I've ever used the AMT Hot Rod Chassis for a build. It's unique in that it uses a torsion bar setup for the front suspension. The frame assembles quite easily and actually looks pretty good built straight from the tree. However it was quickly obvious that it was meant for something with a passenger compartment shorter then the '25 'T' as the rear axle center line is to far forward. A couple of quick snips with the side cutters and the removal of the rear most cross member resolved the problem. The down side to removing the rear cross member to move the axle CL back is that the needed space for the engine no longer exists. So, the frame is going to need to be split just in front of the rear wish bone mounting location and aprox 1/2" of Evergreen Styrene tube will need to to be added. Hosted on Fotki The rolling stock for the 'T' has yet to be chosen, the 2 possibilities of tire/wheel combination are to use the tire/wheels from the Roth Outlaw or the Roth Mysterion. There is also a good chance the Outlaw may give up it's Caddy mill with the 4x2 manifold for the project in place of the flathead. A Revell Buttera 'T' Sedan will be the source of the radiator and surround. The rear of the body needs to have some trim work done to allow the 'T' to sit down over the frame and get the stance that I'm looking for. Stay Tuned.

One thing that can never be said Brother John, is that none of your builds are conventional. Wild and outrageous but never conventional . Should be very interesting.

Nicely done Mike, the Gunze kit is a great starting place for your replica build. One of these days when I get all these Traditional Rods off the bench I need to dig out the Gunze '56 and get it built.

A few weeks ago I got a call from a fellow modeler here in Portland, to pick-up a bunch of kits that he was going to have to get rid of before moving to Arizona. In the boxes there were lots of misc parts and pieces. One of the pieces I found was a resin version of the AMT '25 Model T. I don't know who the caster of the body was but it's not to bad except that the cowl was broken out of the body. Initially I thought it was an AMT plastic body until I attempted to glue the broken 'A & B' pillars only to find that styrene cement would not hold them together. A piece of .060 Evergreen was added to fill the opening in the cowl, the rest of the missing cowl still needs to be added. I get the impression that the body was painted without the benefit of primer. I'll sand the rest of the paint to either give it some tooth or remove it completely. The plan for the build is to use an AMT Custom-Competition Hot Rod Frame. Hosted on Fotki Chances are the engine for the build will be a venerable Flathead. I have no idea what the induction will be at this point, but it should be something flashy to go along with the Chrome Frame. Stay Tuned.