Mr. Metallic

By now most of us are familiar with one of the iconic kits of our hobby the Little Deuce (LD) and it's 1/8 scale brother, the Big Deuce (BD). The LD kit in various forms has been around for nearly 60 years. I've even built 3 recently myself (as some of you may recall), all with a twist. Well, this one is another one with a twist. If you are familiar with the LD and the BD kits you are aware that there are quite a few differences between the two as far as parts content. For whatever reason when Monogram decided to tool up smaller version of their highly successful Big Deuce kit they made quite a few changes. Several of these were probably done to reduce complexity, but others (especially the switch from a quick change rear to a stock style item) kinda make you scratch your head. At least they made me scratch mine. I have had this build floating around in my head in various iterations for nearly 13 years now. It started out as being on a mission to find the LD parts and adapt them to the much more readily available Revell 32 roadster kit. That was done out of budget considerations. I even started that build, but abandoned it after a painting mishap, trying to match the old Monogram red plastic color. It went through various starts and stops over the years, and then I got bitten by the vintage Monogram hot rod kit bug. That's when I started to notice all the differences between the Little and Big Deuce kits. I set about mastering a set of the American Racing LeMans wheels for Drag City Casting to cast back in 2018. Last year I got on the kick of building up kits molded in color, and that's when the project evolved into it's final form. Unlike the other 3 kits in the Monogram hot rod series which came molded in multiple colors of plastic(Little T, Woody Wagon and Blue Beetle) the Little Deuce was all in white. This build proposes, what if they had molded it in color (yellow), and also steered closer content wise to the Big Deuce... After a lot of words, here we arrive at the "proof of concept" mock up. And here's a couple pics of the parts I have accumulated for this project. The yellow parts are actually from my parts box, not the virgin 80's kit seen in the background. Apparently the molded color of this kit when it was in the Monogram catalog back at that time varied quite a bit. The example in the box is a much darker yellow, where this one steers closer (but still a bit darker) than the color of the 2nd issue Big Deuce yellow. This is close enough for me. The usual suspect parts from the various retools of the Little Deuce have been gathered together, with these additions QC rear from the Little T (wide enough?) Molded in yellow rear crossmember from a Monogram 29 Ford pickup Spare tire cover and bracket from an AMT 32 Ford (Vicky?) Air cleaners from the Revell new Model A kits parts box seat belts (may not use) Drag City Casting Lemans wheels parts box 2 blade knock offs horn from the Monogram 29 Ford pickup Bumper bracketry from a Revell 32 Ford (may not use, but the ones on the Big Deuce were chrome) I need to find a better Little Deuce pleated firewall. The only one I have is badly discolored. I need to find a better brake reservoir I was hoping to find a plastic 5 gauge insert for the dash, but have given up on that. As always, comments and questions are welcome.

You must have accidently hit this tab when you were making your post? If you click on the three dots over on the far right above your post you should be able to edit it.

Nice repair work. Love using old bodies because the scripts and such are usually so crisp. Cool to see that set of rear Venture Flag wheels on the original builtup. Such a cool wheel, I'd love to have some. Only kit I know of that had them was an obscure issue of the Deora

It looks great, but be forewarned, it needs to cure for a long time (weeks) before it can be handled. Otherwise the finish can get diminished. And it's not a paint, it's an ink. Don't get me wrong, it's a good product to have in the toolbox. But I only use it on parts I know I won't be touching again. The Bare Metal Foil Company is aware of the issue. They have recently received a new supply of the material they use to make BMF. If you contact them directly you can get new, good product. Sadly, they apparently made no attempt to differentiate the packaging at all so buyers don't know if they are getting the new-new product, the good old stuff, or the new BAD stuff if purchased from an online retailer or your LHS. So, buyer beware if you don't buy directly from them.

BTW, got my most recent Shapeways order and got the wheels/tires. They are stunning in person. Now just need to find something cool to put them on.

Got my most recent order from Shapeways the other day, and here is the stuff I got from Maple Leaf ModelWorks @Spex84 Little gem of a QC rear setup for the Revell Model A kits Checking the fit Buick Nailhead headers Olds block letter valve covers and exhaust Love Chris' designs. Buy his stuff with confidence.

Just goes to show how much wheel and tire choice effects the look of a build. The changes you made really sell the traditional custom feel. Nicely done.

In the upper right corner of your post there are three dots. If you click on those the options for that post should pop up. I think there used to be a time limit for how long you could edit a thread, but not sure if that is still a thing. If you are still allowed to edit your thread lick edit and then change the subject of the thread. Then save it.

Are you sure you're not thinking of the OneCoat line (now Extreme lacquer)? Some say that those paints hard a "too large" flake, which honestly varied quite a bit from can to can from truly too-large to acceptable (in my opinion). But also in my opinion the Model Master 2 part lacquer paint line had reasonably small metallic particles.

Way to see the silver lining. ? My comment wasn't to say it was necessarily a detriment to the product, just that the result would be a similar loss of fidelity like we already experience with kit supplied chrome. Which is sometimes no noticeable loss at all as long as the undercoat isn't applied to thick.

That stuff for nails is interesting. I'm making an assumption that the UV cured resin should be similarly as thick as the lacquer undercoat on our kit supplied chrome parts. So there will be some minor loss of fidelity in the part. From the video it looks like some parts are quite reflective, but not an overall mirror finish. I wonder how much of that is the finish of the part itself? That video featuring the MOMO chrome paint is interesting. But I'm not sure what benefits it offers over Alclad II. Really thinking about pulling the trigger on the Alsa Chrome, but it's an expensive pill to swollow

Man this thing is wicked cool. Great save Mr Goscke, although now I'm seeing this it from 12 years ago. Still, I'm glad it got revived so it can get more eyballs on it. I love the taillights, headlights and stance.

@John Goschke

Very clean build. Nice job making it more accurate to the real car too. I've been thinking about doing the same since the RJ article came out. The front wheel solution is a great idea!

Anthony, I totally understand the conundrum you're faced with. I'm not a person that believes everything old should be 100% preserved when it comes to models. Sometimes it's better to "fix", finish, alter or completely blow apart an old build. For me it's on a case by case basis. I had not noticed the tire melt when I first saw the pics. If it was just the roof I would body work it and paint it the same off white, but since it's on the hood too trying to match that blue paint will be near impossible. So I understand your want to modify it or recreate it. But once you do that you lose all the charm of the original. Like I said, a conundrum. In this case I would build my own new version of it because the style points are what really make this one work for me with the appearance of the top chop and the blue beetle wheels give it such a kool attitude.

Oh man, I wouldn't touch that thing, it has so much vintage cool factor. The hand painted pinstriping, the use of Monogram Woody Wagon wheels. Nice little time capsule

The came out of my parts box. so I don't know with certainty, but I think they may have been from the Johan 30 Mercedes coupe?

Since the A roadster has been back for 18+ months and the 5w less than a year I'd say we're probably at least 2 years away from any modified tooling of those kits. A different body style with a flathead would be great (please Revell, no more Edelbrock flattie speed parts. Something different please. The Navarro heads in the 48 coupe were a step in the right direction ? )

While I was wrapping up completion of the "Simple" 30 Coupe build I remembered that I had completed another 30 coupe 5 years before so I took a couple pics of them side by side. Then I realized that I hadn't really shared that build on any of the forums that I frequent because I wasn't happy with the pics I took at the time. So I took some new pics, and can now share it with you. (I apologize for the dust) Here's a summary of the parts I used. (It's been 5 years, so I'm doing this from memory) If you have any questions feel free to ask. body- Altered States further chopped top, Tamiya military color frame- Revell 40 Ford x-member front suspension- Revell 40 Ford rear suspension- Revell 40 Ford Grille- Revell 29 Ford pickup Engine- Model Car Garage Offenhauser intake, AMT 49 Merc Offenhauser heads, Replicas and Miniatures of Md Edmunds air cleaners, scratchbuilt right angle distributor. wheels and tires- Modelhaus Here's link to the build thread if you're interested. https://trakinscale.proboards.com/thread/17862/30-coupe-ala-dennis-finished

Thanks for sharing these Tim. What a great throwback. In your notes or do you recall what Jack used to create the rear bodywork on the 34 cab? It's obviously based on the Monogram (ZZTop) 34 Body. i started a similar conversion based on the AMT 34 5 window body after seeing Jesse James stunning 34 RPU. It's been a few years so I don't recall what I used for my rear bulkhead, but I remember not being completely happy with it. Jacks looks great, so I'm curious what he used.

I wanna play too @tim boyd and i know @NitroMarty has seen this in person ?

This is looking great Chris. Really like how you extended the steering column for mockup purposes so you can see where the steering wheel ends up. The tires look really good. It's hard to tell from the angles but they are big n' little's, no? In my opinion the offset on the front wheels looks a little deep, but could be a camera trick or something. I'm very interested in the wheels/tires as they are right up my alley as far as build style.

I have a Shapeways order coming that has one of these QC's in it. Chris @Spex84 designs some killer stuff, so those of you into hot rodding should definitely check his stuff out. Brian, on another forum I have also suggested to Chris he should develop a similar setup for the Revell 32's, especially with this kit coming back. Fitting it to the Revell 32 would take a little more work by the builder than the frame from the model A kits since the floor is molded in. But I think that's a modification even a novice builder should be able to handle.

I've switched to the refill bottles. Been applying it with a fine point brush, which is easier than with the pen tips anyway. It's great not having to worry about fussing with the pen tips all the time. Once I get my spray booth built i will be trying airbrushing it as well.

I've never heard of a sagging issue with solder. Not saying you're wrong, I've just never heard or witnessed that happening.