alan barton

Thank you all for your interest. Just today I acquired four of the five bodies necessary to build the next part of the fleet. The fifth one I hope will be on the Australian market next month. A local company, DDA, is doing the first ever injected moulded styrene models of Australian cars - model builders have been waiting 70 years for this! The first two will be an HQ Holden four door sedan and an HZ Holden Panel van. As a panel van is basically a ute with a roof, I will be able to fabricate one of the most famous of the utes, a customized HZ with extended B pillars. This was a sharp looking car so it is fortuitous that the model will finally become available. I think ten will be enough! Cheers Alan

Hi guys, I know I am blurring the line here a bit but here goes anyway. I figured racers would get more out of this post than truckers but if I get bumped into Light Commercial so be it. For over 50 years now, speedways in Western Australia have been serviced by the John Day and Co Race team. At any given track or event, up to ten bright orange John Day utes attend to do push starting, race control and recovery duties. The latest vehicle, a late model Falcon ute is Unit number 43 - that is how many John Day utes have graced the dirt since the 1960's. The cars have always been Australian utes, mostly Holdens but decent numbers of Falcons and a few Valiants along the way. The cars are always immaculate and often sport current customising tricks of the day such as wings, spoilers and body kits. They are stunning to look at, especially when you see a JD ute pacing the feature race and nine, yes, nine JD utes in three rows of three bringing up the rear for the start. This is an incredibly professional team who ensure that a race meeting proceeds with a minimum of delays. When I attended the 50th anniversary of the Knoxville Sprintcar nationals, the only disappointment was the push car team - John Day would have run rings around them in both performance and presentation. I doubt whether there is a better pushcar team anywhere on the planet! About twenty five years ago I built the HK Holden ute that was used by John to start all the races. Since the passing of The General, John Day, a few years ago, and no doubt influenced by OHS laws and lawyers, the starter no longer rides in a ute. The body of the model was a Jaymar fibreglass body. Jaymar was the only source of Aussie bodies back then and due to the brittle nature of the material they are very challenging to build. A friend obtained a can of touch up paint from the team and I used that to ensure the colour was perfect. I handpainted the complex signwriting on one side only! I modified existing figures to create the general and his driver as well as scratchbuilding his support frame in the bed of the ute. Fast forward to 2022 and our club was approached to put on a display of speedway models at the local Classic Speedway Showcase. It was an awesome event and we had 210 plastic scale models of speedway cars from Australia, new Zealand, Canada and USA. When I first approached about our participation, I decided I needed to build more John Day utes. A local aftermarket manufacturer, Tony Ashton of AAA Resin Models, now produces several Aussie ute bodies so I bought four from him. Co-incidentally a new member of our club, Jerry, is a retired signwriter and skilled at producing decals - the die was set. The models are all curbside but with detailed interiors. They were researched from images on the John Day Racing Facebook page, as well as some photos I had taken over the years. The fleet now consists of 1962 EK Holden ute 1966 VC Valiant ute 1968 HK Holden ute - The General's pace car 1972 HQ Holden flat bed - Winners parade car Scratchbuilt flatbed. 1978 XC Falcon ute. The figures on the winners ute including the driver were hand painted by my amazingly talented wife. The reaction to these cars on our display was overwhelming! A friend had brought along his FJ Holden JD ute slotcar so in some of these photos you will see six orange utes. The models are now featured on the John Day Facebook page and the wife and daughters of the late John day have given me very heart-warming congratulations on the detail and accuracy of the models. In future I hope to produce another five John Day utes, all different to the existing ones - not that hard when there are 43 to choose from! A big thank you goes to Tony, Jerry, Neville and my wife Ute (a German name, not the car!) for helping bring this project to fruition and the Day family for their support. Cheers Alan

Bill, I have been using Tamiya Pink primer under my red paintjobs of late and it seems to really make the red pop! Ha ha - that is a standard joke of mine - when someone spells my name A-L-L-A-N, I say, "No, the proper way!" It's my Dad's name as well and it has worked for him for 92 years so far! Thanks, Dan, for putting this model back on the front page. Everyone seems to like the simplicity and that is exactly what I was going for. Not trying to re-invent the wheel this time - instead, went with a proven formula that looks great on my shelf. Monogram rods rock, irrespective of the larger scale! Cheers Alan

Yep, that is one fine Deuce! If I could respectfully suggest one additional detail that would set it off, a pair of radiator support rods made from jewellery pins or fine wire would visually tie the radiator to the cowl and add an imaginary hood line for that touch of extra style. Cheers Alan

I have been on a real mission lately to finish some of my ancient UFOs. ( Un Finished Objects) When I built the new release of the Switchers 32 Sedan Delivery that I posted earlier this week, I came across my old Tudor from the original mid seventies kit. With the sedan delivery finished I thought I would have a crack at finishing the Tudor, nearly fifty years later. It was my first ever effort at chopping a top. I decided that the re-alignment would be close enough that I wouldn't have to stretch the roof - instead I would do a stagger cut on the A pillars and blend it all together. And that was as far as I got with the bodywork. I had brush painted the fenders in Humbrol Dark Blue. As the kit does not come with a fuel tank, I chose to bob the rear fenders carefully and touched up the original paint - it polished up like glass! Most of the chassis was already assembled, if not as cleanly as I would have liked but hey, I was fifteen! I added a Moon tank to the front. The typical seventies white letter tyres came from the Coca Cola Sedan delivery kit. The funky MPC headlight bar and lights were replaced with much nicer AMT items. and a pair of 48 Chev taillights from the Revell 29 roadster kit were added to the rear The final colour for the body is Tamiya Pearl Blue with Tamiya Clear. The Switchers Deuce is not the prettiest rendition in our modelling world, but I am pleased with the finished model. It has come out with a bit of a San Diego Prowlers look in my eye. It sure is good to have it on the shelf at last. Cheers Alan

Hey, Dennis, no worries mate! I have done the exact same thing several times before, and you think, how did I miss this? And now that you mention it, I didn't do an Under Glass! The truck is finished but then I decided to do the trailer and the kiddie car. I ran out of paint just as I was finishing the trailer and I thought I could get away with it - but nahhh, it looks kinda milky and patchy. Since then we have had a very cold wet winter and I have avoided doing any spray painting at all. But spring arrived this week so I went down to my LHS and picked up another can of Tamiya Bright Red ($14.95 a can - COVID has a lot to answer for!) and will get those parts finished and put it up in Under Glass soon. Thanks for your kind comments. It was a blast being part of this exercise, even if I did try to resist for a while! I couldn't be happier with the final result - I think I got exactly the Boyd look I was after ( both Tim and Coddington!!! LOL) Cheers Alan

Thanks everyone, great to see the love for these old Monogram classics, Thanks Tim, yes, there is nothing like the satisfaction of getting a fresh build on the shelf. I retired in January and have managed to get 26 models on the shelf since then, doing about five hours every night. Of course, some of those are ten day builds, some are ten week builds and some are ten year builds!!! Doesn't matter, but they only get counted when the tyres hit the glass! Cheers Alan

That works! A real sleeper there, and right on-trend! I too have a black one, but with red steels and white walls and the look is completely different! I have also tackled an Aussie 39 sloper but getting the rear window correct is a challenge. Cheers Alan

Sensational. I have a black version from Hot Rod magazine on my to-do list. I will be coming back to this thread for clues! Cheers Alan

What they said! What an iconic build of an iconoic car! Just takes my breather away. Any minor discrepancy in scale accuracy is completely negated by the feel - and it feels good! Cheers Alan

I still have two more semi complete kits to complete maybe later this year, but this is the last one for now. I never had any intention of building the Groove Boss but I did see on the old Fred's Resin Short track forum that it was actually a real car. The only inaccuracy is that the lowered corners of the radiator scoops should have been curved, not squared off. Anyhow, I had about six sets of these panels and decided I should build one just to see how it came out. I went for an Oswego offset supermodified look, thus the tall square wing. I added extra bar work around the fuel tank that comes in the kit and used Monogram sprintcar wing mounts. All graphics are masked and painted. And blind Freddy can see that I have no front suspension to speak of - just a Monogram front axle. The GK item really wasn't going to cut it! I just couldn't come with a well engineered solution to radius rods and torsion bars on this model so chickened out and just stuck the axle on! I might have an epiphany one day and do something about it, or not. The tyres are Tamiya F1, I think. It came out better than I expected and you rarely see it built so it found a home in my collection. There is a big block Chevy wedged in there (AMT 37 Chevy I think) but after gluing the body panels together to facilitate painting, and fitting the wing, I came to the conclusion that it was never going to be seen anyway! You simply can't remove that top deck! So this is the version that AMT is re-issuing. It remains to be seen if any of the sprint car body panels are inside the box. I hope you have enjoyed my fleet and look forward to seeing the AMT Grant King builds of other modellers added to this post. Cheers Alan

This just might be my current favourite of the bunch. I lowered the V8-60 part of the nose even more this time and filed the lower edges of the hood to make a tapered, sleeker hood line. I think the front wheels are old slot car items while the rears are from early issues of the AMT double dragster kits. The engine is from the ancient Monogram Kurtis Indy car - it is very crude and basic but it fitted easily and gives the right look. The car is too beautiful to ruin those lines by opening the hood anyway! The exhaust is fabricated from K&S aluminium tubing and solder. This to me is what a sprintcar should look like.

I think this was the first GK I ever bought but not the first to be completed by a long shot! I saw a beautiful model build by a Swedish modeller in, I think, the very first SAE Contest annual, the one with the green tinted pages. Immediately I wanted to build it! It uses a flathead from the AMT 50 Ford kit, wire wheels from the AMT 34 Tudor and scratchbuilt aluminium nerf bars, roll bar and exhaust headers. The nose has the front i/4 inch or so of the V8-60 node blended in to it to allow for a lower fitment of the V8-60 grille.

I wanted this cutey to look a bit older so I used much narrower rolling stock. I modified the GK nose to take the beautiful chrome grille from the Revell V8 60 midget. This is a beautiful part that transforms these cars. For accuracy I should make a front nerf bar but I can't bring myself to hide that beautiful grille! The injector stacks are aluminium electrical crimp connectors. Front wheels are AMT parts pack while the rears are from the Revell Mickey Thompson Attempt 1. This car was built from more of the parts sent to me by Fred and I used radius rods from my parts box and extended the headers with K&S aluminium tubing.

I went a bit tougher with this guy! Removed the rollcage, modified the nose, added scratchbuilt nerf bar and roll bar from aluminium TIG welding wire plus rear tyres from thepartsbox.com. The wheels are beautiful resin examples from Fred's Resin Workshop. The injector stacks are crimp connectors with small aluminium caps perched on top. The steering wheel comes from any issue of the Monogram Blue Beetle/Boss A bone/ 29 roadster pickup kit - it is made for the job! Fred once sent me a very generous care package that included a bunch of the major parts of the Grant King kit and this one was built from some of those leftovers.

I've heard that expression before! Thanks everyone for the responses - they mean a lot to me! Cheers Alan

Next, in a similar vein I built this to emulate the first sprintcars that raced at Claremont speedway. Australia had cut down supermods for their V8 open wheel fields, and true American sprintcars did not appear til the late seventies when Johnny Anderson brought one out from the USA. This was purchased by Garry Rush who went on to dominate the Australian scene with it and become the most successful Australian sprintcar driver ever - an Aussie Steve Kinser if you like. The first wings saw a lot of experimentation in size and shape and I particularly liked the multi element style. I have good intentions of scratchbuilding some side pods for this model, much like those that appeared in the Pole Cat or Drifter version of this kit.

First up, the closest I have ever built a Grant King to box stock. I scratchbuilt the aluminium wing and the front and side nerf bars and took wheels and tyres from the parts box. The paint schem is inspired by that of a local racer here in PErth, Bob Currie. The driver is modified from a Monogram sprintcar figure.

Seeing that AMT is about to re-release the old Groove Boss supermodified, a spin -off of the old Grant King sprint car kit, and seeing as how I have just finished a bunch of them over the last couple of years. I thought I would start a new thread. I figured this might be a new kit for a lot of members here and the box art rarely does much to sell this model. As people in other Grant King posts have commented, it is a challenging build. The multi-piece chassis works well eventually but can try your patience. The alignment of body panels, for me at least, seems to have been different on every one! So here are the seven I have built since the early nineties, in no particular order. Plus they put those humongous slicks in the kit that were fitted to no sprint car EVER and the nose ahs a bad case of "wide mouth frog" so there is much room to improve these models. Feel free to add your builds to this thread so that people have some inspiration for the new kit. When I did a Google search, it seems like a lot of the Grant King threads on this year are over ten years old so it would be good to give them a new home. Cheers Alan

I think I am experiencing a similar or related problem. Since about 14 hours ago, I receive notifications that someone has responded to my posts but there is nothing to see when I go looking, no matter what route I take. Some are appearing, some are not.

So nice! The colour really lightens up the bulk of the Lincoln. I have some speedboats in need of a towcar - time to crack the cellophane! Cheers Alan

Now it should be obvious that this model originated from the leftovers of my red coupe project but there was a slight twist. I once scored most of the body parts of the woody kit in a job lot. Someone had done a real nice job of woodgraining the body but painted the sheetmetal in a fetching ( retching?) shade of grass green that had attacked the plastic in places. With a bit of sanding priming repeat procedures I got the plastic into a decent state, painting the fenders in Tamiya black and the cowl and hood in Light Tan. The Kelsey Hayes wires would have been perfect but they had already been fitted to my Bud Bryan hiboy from a few years ago. Instead I used AMT 34 Ford pickup wires and hubcaps on one side and AMT 40 Ford steelies on the other side. Hey, I like ém both! Running gear is mostly stock 30 coupe with an attitude adjustment plus the full hood. Cheers Alan

There have been some nice Monogram Model As on here lately so I thought I would add my build from earlier this year. I wanted to see if I could combine the parts from the last re-issue of the monogram Woody with the last re-issue of the Monogram coupe. Turns out it works pretty well with a couple of cautions. Firstly, the woody dash with multiple gauges clashes with the model A coupe interior trim panels. Would be easier to trim before paint - ask how I know this! Also, if you glue the roof on prior to paint, the interior panels can be a struggle to fit and further trimming was required. And those headers came from the original Red Chariot kit - I had saved them for a project like this! Paint is Tamiya Bright red over Tamiya pink primer and three coats of Tamiya clear straight from the can. I cheated and left the stock rear axle in place but a nine inch would have made more sense. It was a fun build and I didn't want to get trapped in overcomplicationitis! Cheers Alan

I must confess to being too lazy to wade back through 29 pages, but, in case no-one else has said it, what about a 1934 Chevy? Go to any hot rod event in Australia, Canada or the USA and you see a bunch of them. Not sure if the 37-39 versions would edge them out in total popularity but I suspect the 34 would win. All those real car owners would probably like a model of their car, even if they never built it! Using the modern kit design requirements of multi version tooling, you could do a chopped 3W, stock height 5 window coupe, a roadster, a Tudor and a Sedan Delivery. The sedan delivery could be sold as a 2-1, to do a paddy wagon or fire & rescue van, appeasing another segment of our hobby, with stock running gear. The stock chassis would be a straight swap for a modern tube cross membered version for street rods in the other body styles. Or the 5 window coupe could get a stock chassis with a straight tube front axle for the gasser crowd. I am pretty seriously into collecting and to the best of my knowledge there is a small, funky 1/43rd diecast delivery from Minichamps, a Chinese r/c plastic knockoff of that same model, a recent Matchbox 1/64th scale diecast 5 window and a mega expensive and I suspect unobtainable diecast Mint model. Fred's Resin Workshop did a resin 34 3 window short track body of which I have two but it would take a lot of work to build anything like a stock bodied car. That's it! For a very popular revered full-sized car, as evidenced by the amount of fibreglass reproduction bodies on the market, the model world shows little love. Which means there is an unfulfilled demand for such a model. Your thoughts? Cheers Alan

To my mind , the problem with the AMT 33/34 sedan is that it is so hard to pinpoint exactly what is wrong. It couldn't be anything but a 34 Tudor but it still isn't a correct 34 Tudor. I think a very close study would reveal that it is a combination of both line and contour that is aggravating. The front top door corner is too sharp, the C pillar is too upright, the sides are too flat it may be a bit narrow and the Tudor fenders were definitely too narrow. It's not one big problem but a combination of a whole lot of little problems that makes you think Wadaminut...... Cheers Alan