Alan Barton

I am delighted to say that Issue 216 arrived at my home in Western Australia on Tuesday December 13th, roughly six weeks from when it was posted in the USA. That is a massive improvement on the three plus months that Issue 215 took to arrive. and I am going to go out on a limb and say it is just possibly the best issue ever in the roughly twenty years I have been buying it. Dennis, Dave, Tim, Matt, indeed, everyone who contributed to this issue is to be congratulated. Hakan, I completely understand where you are coming from. I am trying to come to grips with the appalling way I and every international subscriber to the most prestigious hot rod magazine (initials RJ) in the world has been treated, or should I say ignored by the publishers over the last three years. It is not a nice feeling. To Gregg's credit, when I reached out to him earlier in the year, he made good on the problems I had experienced with MCM and I am very happy with the outcome. The mail services world wide are a joke at the moment and I don't know how much longer they can keep using the COVID excuse. I write a model column for Australian Street Rodding magazine and a few years ago, the postal authorities "lost" their entire subscriber shipment, and couldn't give a rats! It took a lot of complaining from both the publisher and his subscribers before Australia Post miraculously "found" the "lost" shipment. The guys at MCS probably just get to "talk to the hand" when they complain to whoever delivers their mail. I do hope that you end up receiving a positive response to your problems and I have faith that Gregg will do the right thing. Cheers Alan

Nice spot, Phil! That would look good on the back wall of my display cabinet. Cheers Alan

James, I would never have used that grille on a 32 3 window, and yet here it is, looking awesome! You broke the rules beautifully! Cheers Alan

I might have to pinch that colour scheme - it really suits the car! Cheers Alan

The cowl and therefore the wheelbase is lengthened. if you had recreated the swage line in that area it would have been extremely difficult to spot the modification! The sidemount spares and the Potter style trunk are nice touches. We had rare prototype of a 34 Ford 5 seat roadster here in Perth painted a very similar colour scheme to yours - it looked good, as does your model! Cheers Alan

Still my beating heart! What a wonderful collection of race teams. I loved putting race cars on trailers on the back of tow vehicles since my primary school Matchbox toy days. These are absolutely wonderful! If I had to pick a favourite, it would be the XP87 with the Elky but I could stare at all of them for hours! Cheers Alan

Be sure to post it up here when you are done, Keith. So far there have been no responses to my invite to display other Grant King models in this post. Cheers Alan

Nice work Jerry, a great guild from the most interesting era of drag racing! I love your detail work on the fuel lines. Cheers Alan

So nice to see someone putting in the necessary work to create one of the unique body styles of the day. Nice job Phil, it would look perfect at the Bakersfield Hot Rod Re-union! Cheers Alan

Dennis, you get it right every time! I can only add to every one else's congratulations. Truly a stellar Deuce coupe! Cheers Alan

I have to add my name to the list of people in love with your bare metal finish - man, magnets would stick to that thing! I have to try this on a project car for my workshop diorama. Loved the number plates and the expanded mesh as well - just a really neat model all round! Cheers Alan

You really did this kit justice, Terry. The paint detailing on the engine is superb! Cheers Alan

Gee that looks sharp. I built mine a long time ago and I don't believe I did it justice. The Tamiya Red looks like a lot better colour than the old Testors Italian red that I used years ago. I really like that you painted the grille shell s it should be - I missed that detail on mine. Cheers Alan

I'm really enjoying your work on this one, Jim, having built quite a few T bucket models myself. I'm very impressed with your brass windscreen frame. Cheers Alan

Nice work RRR! I have about four of these kits but am yet to start one - so many other projects on the go at the moment. I do hope I remember that trick for correcting the inner fender to frame gap - that is inspired! Cheers Alan

Keith, I took a look at that video and got this from it. I have been building models for over fifty years and have built this kit seven times. My guess is the video guy has not been building that long and has only built this one. This would influence his opinion of the kit. The AMT Grant King chassis is a complex creature. The chassis jig provided in the kit only goes part way towards getting the chassis assembled accurately. It will test the most basic modelling skills. If you don't clean up all mould parting lines and ejector pin marks before assembly, if you don't check the instructions closely and make sure all crossmembers are in the correct place AND the right way around, if you don't use a slow setting glue like Testor's in the orange tube so that you can massage it as it sets up, then you are going to struggle. If the chassis isn't perfectly assembled, you will then struggle to make the body parts fit, on the sprint car or the wedge. When you get everything right, it goes together quite nicely. But this doesn't mean it cant be assembled and that the kit is rubbish, just that you may need to take more time and care than we have grown used to with modern era kits. I did not have to shorten, lengthen, modify or fabricate any parts for this frame - I just had to give the existing parts my utmost attention. I completely assembled the entire frame and rollcage and painted it in one piece prior to fitting the body. I glued the side panels to the bellypan and allowed them to dry. I then assembled the nose and let that dry. Finally I glued the nose to the bellypan assembly and put it aside to dry. I discovered that the deck would not fit over the rollcage as a result of assembling the entire frame already so used a small round file to open up a slot just at the rear corners of the cockpit opening to allow an easier fit. Having also glued those Monogram wing supports to the rollcage did me no favours but I got it assembled without breaking it so all good! I then put extra superglue over any seams and sanded everything smooth prior to primer and paint. With all body sections painted, I eased the deck unit over the rollcage and down, making sure to keep the sides gently spread so as not to scratch the paint on the side panels. Once in place I glued the deck around the engine area to the side panels as this can never be removed once I glued the wing on - not a kit fault, just my choice of modifications. Now I squeezed the big block Chevy from an AMT Tobias modified kit into this model and , no, I couldn't fit the valve covers as a result. As I just mentioned, I cant remove the hood so it is of little consequence. I haven't built a Groove Boss with the kit's small block so I don't know if those rocker covers would be a problem as mentioned by the video guy - the sprint car hood certainly fits with no issues at all. Really my only disappointment with the announcing of the Groove Boss re-issue is that they didn't include the sprintcar body panels provided in previous issues. I think they have greatly decreased their market as a result - after all, the Groove Boss style car is rare to the point that few people have heard of it where as the sprintcar is a classic shape with strong appeal to race car fans and reams of reference material in books and on the Internet. Not one of Round 2's sharpest decisions. Keith, if you like the Groove Boss style, buy it and expect to spend a few evenings of careful assembly and alignment. You will end up with a nice model! Cheers Alan

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