alan barton

Hi guys, First off, with all due respect to the moderators on this forum , I think you do a great job and can't begin to imagine the work involved to make it such a fun place to visit. But I do have a suggestion that perhaps could suit the interests and passions of modellers on this board. Recently I posted a hot rod pickup in Model Cars Under Glass and it got moved to Trucks, Light Commercials, Pickups, Vans. I always look at hot rod pickups as cars, not trucks, and I think there are some other hot rod modellers out there that think like me. I've done it before and had them moved before and it is simply because I forget that on this forum they don't fall under cars. Rather than re-arrange the categories, which would force extra work on our moderators, could we consider doing this. If a light commercial vehicle has passenger car front sheetmetal, it goes in Model Cars - ie - pre war Ford and Chevy pickups, Rancheros, El Caminos, Aussie utes and Panel Vans, Sedan Deliveries. If a vehicle has truck front sheetmetal only, ie F-100s, Chevy C series, Dodge Sweptsides, Box Vans and the like, it goes in Light Commercials. To my mind this would be more logical - I think of the above vehicles to have more car like qualities than truck-like. But if I am simply having a middle aged rant and everyone else thinks I am crazy, that's fine too and I will try to remember to put my utes and hot rod pickups in the correct place in future. Anyone else got an opinion on this - let's discuss. Cheers Alan

I first built this kit as the Truckin' on Down version from the seventies and as one of my first metallic spray paint jobs, it was a bit rough around the edges. When the Coke version was re-issued I thought I would give it another try, staying as close to the original concept as I could but hopefully removing some of the funkiness. I used an AMT grille and hood and this improved things noticeably. I also cut and re-arranged the windshield frame to remove that overweight bottom section and grafted an AMT fuel tank to close up the rear. I cut the outside edges of the same AMT fender unit to complete the inner edges of the rear fenders that MPC abruptly trimmed for no apparent reason. It still has some proportion issues - too tall/ narrow - but I am much more comfortable putting this on the shelf than my fifty year old rendition! Cheers Alan

The black and white contrast is sooooo sharp! I build a cabrio years ago but it is now in a very dated style - this might be the inspiration for a freshen up! Cheers Alan

Rodney, this really is a complete package. While the engine does sit high and well back, it suits the build - it adds a touch of drag car to a show car. It might not be what you expected but I don't think repositioning it would improve it at all. The colour combo is luscious! Cheers Alan

That roadster pickup grabs me by the throat as much now as it did when you first built it. I don't think it could be done better. It is sublime! I turned the Vampire Van into a fully fendered pickup when I was about fifteen. I used cereal box cardboard smeared with tube glue to finish the back of the cab - what can I say? Turns out we have better material these days! Cheers Alan

That explains it - I have never owned the Exterminator! Cheers Alan

Nice work Brian. I am going to an event in three weeks time called the Red Dust revival where exactly 100 old speedsters just like yours will be racing in the Australian Outback on a dried up red clay lake bed. This would fit in perfectly! Cheers Alan.

That is sixties goodness right there. This one really takes some extra viewing to appreciate all the period perfect details. Nice work Phil, hope Deuce Days went well! Cheers Alan

Charlie, I don't think I have ever seen that grille used so effectively! It suits the car perfectly - nice chop, by the way! Cheers Alan

Kelly, I wish I could tell you! I have a little bag of them that I use to store every example I find - the voices in my head say a Monogram kit but that is really of very little help to you. If I find a clue I will let you know. Wow Craig, that is very special. Here is my version of Blue Beetle as distinct from the survivor in my photos - you see, when I was a teenager I bought the Bandai version from K - Mart so i thought it was meant to be dark blue. I built this dark blue one a few years back using Tamiya paint and a shortened pickup bed bit otherwise true to the original. I also chromed the running boards as the original pickup boards were stamped steel without rubber and I thought chrome would be fitting for a rod of this era. Cheers Alan

It's great when someone bumps these threads and you see a model that somehow you missed originally. That colour is sooooo creamy - I love it. It is tough to get an even shade of white over a car with many separate components, - you have done a masterful job on this one! Cheers Alan

I have to build a yellow and white fifties car one day - man this looks sharp. Your foil work is exceptional!!! Cheers Alan

They are both real nice but I LURVE the ice cream coupe - it's delicious! Cheers Alan

I am a big fan of T coupes and this is a beauty. I have this crazy goal of collecting and building at least one of every pre-war hot rod kit ever made and this is one of the few that has eluded me. I even bought a spare Switchers bucket in the hope of finding a gluebombed coupe body one day to satisfy my dream. This is one of the very few I have ever seen built and I like it a lot! Cheers Alan

Love it! Nice to see a channelled car without a "broken" chassis for a change! I have a spare 1/8th scale Deuce waiting for exactly this approach. The scoop is sharp also - I don't recognise that part! Cheers Alan

Yep, like 'em a lot! I did something similar recently with the bucket in red, using more of the kit components. They would make great cruising partners! Cheers Alan

So Revell does a chopped 48 and most people think,"Aahh, Sam Barris custom." Tim Boyd comes along and goes - "Cool gasser fodder!" This thing sits soooo right and it wouldn't matter if it was period correct or not! Such a great model Tim, you certainly have the knack! Cheers Alan

I missed this as well but, wow, Kelly, you really nailed the Fat Jack look. The instant I saw it I went - Hey, the Fat Jack car! Stance is perfecto! Cheers Alan

I couldn't have said it better myself! There is a warped part of me that gets more kicks from restoring tragedies than starting with fresh new models of which I have an abundance! Cheers Alan

I've been a fan of Monogram hot rod models since I was thirteen and have built multiple copies of all of them. A new member of our local model club, (an under 40 year old at that), had bought the Blue Bandito repop and asked if I might have the parts to make it into the Boss-A-Bone. To be totally honest, I was stunned that this guy even knew of the existence of this kit, let alone had an interest in it, so I was happy to oblige. It turned out, however, that I had at least two fairly clean sets of the necessary parts which got me thinking...... I dragged out a whole bunch of mildly gluebombed parts and set about creating my own Boss A Bone. I have only made a few changes from the original concept - I liked the bucket seats from an MPC Pontiac GTO as they looked racier than the custom buckets in the kit. I also felt that the weak point of all the Tom Daniels's kits were the tyres and to a lesser extent the wheels so I upgraded those with AMT parts. Also, there was no way I was going to leave that farm gate bolted to the front bumper irons. Instead, I fitted a Moon tank to fill the gap. The windscreen has been chopped and just like my 1:1 roadster, does not have a top bar. I think these small changes add a bit of realism to the model without changing its character. I'm also not a fan of the side pipes but they are such a strong design feature of the car that I decided to live with them. They are growing on me. I used thin strips of model ship building wood to detail the pickup bed, top and bottom, and used a Revell tailgate as it had the reverse image pf the Ford script embossed into it which suited my desire to have the tailgate lowered to reduce wind resistance. The last photo is of my fleet and includes a genuine survivor of the original Blue Beetle. I have two more projects based on the Monogram pickup to be completed, soon I hope! Cheers Alan

Thanks, Bill. From a tip I got here a few years ago, I carefully sliced the cowl panel free of the firewall and then shimmed it out with thin styrene until all the swage lines were in alignment. Fiddly but well worth it. The other thing I do is tack glue the top to the body with tiny drops of tube glue and when that is dry, run liquid glue along the back of the seam in an attempt to avoid boogering up the outer surfaces. Nerve-wracking but it worked for me. Cheers Alan

On a trip to the USA back before COVID< I found a gluebombed Hubley '32 Chevy five window coupe in a Pomona antique mall for $20. Couldn't leave it behind but wasn't quite sure what I would do with it. The biggest problem is that these old Hubleys are around 1/20th scale and I had very few spare parts or donor kits to suit. But then I got lucky. While out shopping one evening I checked the toy rack in Target and found a Hot Wheels monster truck based on the old Twin Mill show car. The wheels looked like they would work and as the toy was marked down to $5, I grabbed both copies off the peg. A quick mock-up showed me that a gasser was the only way to go as those tyres were never going to let it hug the ground anyway! Sadly, these otherwise fantastic wheels and tyres are too big in diameter to fit the Hubley Model A Fords, just in case you were wondering. The next win was that I still had an oversized engine from the Monogram S'cool Bus so even though a big block Chevy or a 409 would have been ideal, a Hemi would work fine! The trick with building any of the Hubley cars is to hunt through your parts boxes for the biggest 1/24th or 1/25th scale parts you can find. That's how I chose the Moon tank, hood scoop and parachute. The best part is you end up using parts that are probably too big for a normal model! Win, win! The headers are scratchbuilt from Evergreen and the headlights are the big set from the Revell Model A kits with an aluminium craft wire headlight bar.. Other than removing the fender spare tyre wells and filling some seams on the multi piece body, it did not take a lot of work to reach this result and I am very happy with it. Hope you enjoy something different in the pits! Cheers Alan

What they said! I have a small fleet of funny cars and yours would look really nice sitting alongside them! I've never built an AMC before but will be starting a replica of a local, very successful Gremlin dirt track racer later this year. Cheers Alan

I love boats and I love this one! The combination of parts you used is perfect for the finished product. Cheers Alan

Thanks everyone, your comments mean a great deal to me! Whilst it is somewhat of a "formula" car, I love it for the era it represents. My model rod and custom collection is quite extensive and I try to include models from every era from the thirties to the current day - this one definitely filled a gap! Cheers Alan