Paul Payne

Great little truck! Good colors, and I too cannot decide which wheels I like better. I like your background too!

Progress- fitted and glued the top and bottom halves of the boat tail. Airplane wing sections will continue the contour to the passenger compartment. More soon.

Unless I missed it, I didn't see what the front tires are- I am guessing the old Monogram solid rubbers turned down.

I think you ought to leave the body off and display it as is! Then build a second one with the body! What are you favorite metallic finishes and how do you apply them? Thanks for sharing the great pix.

So glad you shared some build photos and your thoughts on what you were going for and how you accomplished it. I am sure many of us would like a bit more info on the metal finishes you used- are they your own mixes?

Great weathering- Check the air in the tires, pull the dip stick, and drive it to the shop!

Fantastic build- well thought out and executed! Paint is awesome! What was the inspiration for the bed top design? Looks really art deco!

Earl, that is an Offy I got from Etzel's Speed Classics. I was inspired by Lou Senter's Offy powered T tracknose roadster.

Almost forgot- I modified the bottom contour of one half of the fuselage for better lines. The half on top has a pie cut section removed, which will be duplicated on the bottom half. You can really see the difference. I had also grafted in patch pieces from a donor fuselage, again to smooth nd refine the shape. Still need to add filler slivers in some gaps. I want to get these pieces as close to final shape as possible before grafting them onto the body, to reduce the chance of things coming apart from stresses. Another opinion poll! What shape for the wheel arches, or perhaps none or only minimal ones? If the wheels won't show, I will change out the wheels for different ones- however I do like the wires but perhaps only a portion peeking out?

A little progress- the styline tail light openings were very deep. I filled them with plastic so I would have solid material to rework this area- no firm ideas yet, possibly similar to the Buick Y-job. I also decided to use the Corvette bucket seats, so I cut them apart and sanded them , refining the shape of the top of the backs since they were definitely left hand and right hand, not evident before separation. I wanted very cushy seats for this ride, and I like the detailing of the little creases and wrinkles in the upholstery. They will get new sides and backs- pix when that is done. I added some more to the grille as well. Here it is against the center profile piece. A lot of repetitive work to be done before the shaping begins. After all, the grille was the reason this project started in the first place!

Here's some of mine. The Monogram sport coupe was purchased built. I had to rebuild a hairpin radius rod, otherwise as built who knows how long ago?

Here are some of mine:

Tim, masterpiece! Drive it away!

Steve, this is a great build of a great car- fast and beautiful! I built a 36 inspired by this car.

Joe, all that work is really paying off! This is a great project. Will the front seats be poseable? The hood scoop looks very interesting- I suspect this will not be a Barris type build! Looking forward to more! Check out my egg crate grille thread- then you'll know what nuts really is.....

I have a couple sets of resin wheels and tires- tires are two piece. Let me know if they are of interest to you.

Tom, thanks for the encouragement! At this point I'm still debating the engine, since I would like to finish this project in this decade! I will post more as I make progress- right now I am pie cutting the fuselage halves to adjust the outer contours.

Harley Earl's vision for American cars was "longer, lower, wider". Dream cars, idea cars, concept cars- most were never built, but exist as drawings, renderings, and paintings, with a few major exceptions. The Buick Y job, the Phantom Corsair, as well as customs by Harry Westergaard and the Barris brothers all come instantly to mind. Modelwise, Ted Chopper Lear's customs as well as Doug Whyte's 53 Studebaker are great examples of concept cars. The egg crate grille- initially I had no idea for how to fabricate something like this, but after some thought I felt styrene structural shapes glued together might just work. I found possible shapes to use- here are pictures of the beginning of what might just work. In addition, I created a profile for the grille center from laminated styrene sheets. At the Hoosier model club show I came across a junk airplane fuselage as well as some 40 Ford hoods- now I got ideas for shapes and how to create the front prow, rear boat tail, and side contours! A junker 61 T-bird body gathering dust suddenly became a starting point. I also swapped for some additional junk airplanes to use for more shapes and patch pieces. Wheels and tires, a steering wheel, dash parts, and two possible bucket seat donors- one from an early Corvette, the others from a Bugatti royale- and things came together even more. Now- what about an engine? At this point, I don't know if this project will be curbside styling excersise or a more detailed version. I was thinking of creating a dual overhead cam V-16 from two blocks and some top end parts. OK, fellow modelers, what do you think?

This thread will be a weathering reference for years to come! Great work so far, and as usual, can't wait for more!

That is a really fun build!

Wheels and tires from the Monogram Green Hornet might be a good starting point. Replicas and Miniatures has loads of period speed parts. Monogram's Duesenbergs have superchargers which might work.

Steve, I got the upper body and belly pan in a trade. The belly pan was too damaged to restore, so that is from Norm. Everything else is scratchbuilt or from the parts box.

Here's a tip for the salt flats discs: grind down the discs found in the AMT Avanti until the centers pop free of the rims. That's how I made the discs for my little streamliner.

Dioramas are like hot rods- they are never really finished- there is always something to tweak or tinker with. Yours is inspiring me to get mine out and rebuild it!

This is a really good tutorial- love the way this truck is looking! How about a patch panel or two? Maybe an old license plate?