alan barton

Its rare for a builder/s to capture every angle, every nuance when building a replica. This one nails it - congratulations to both builders! Cheers Alan

Yeah, its all good!

Stumbled on this old thread while looking for something and else and thought I would post my builds since 2018 so that people can see what these cool little models look like built up. Note that the green roadster and the cream and red roadster began life as Scat Cats but were modified from incomplete glue bombs. In fact, of all these models only the maroon Scat Cat and the Old Ironsides were built from minty fresh kits. I have a Hearse with A Curse coming shortly from the USA so am looking forward to completing the whole set this year! In order of appearance they are as follows. Chevy Pickup Hot Surfer Old Ironsides Scat CAt x 3 Ram Rod Demolition Demon Meatwagon Cheers Alan

What a beautiful build - so contemporary! I wouldnt change a thing. Cheers Alan

I would love to see all the conversion work you did to create the master! You have really captured the lines of those pre-war Buicks very well indeed. Using the 41 Ford chassis is a great idea as cars of that era had many similarities in chassis design and as long as the owner of a real 41 Buick doesnt turn it over, you would never know!. So cool!!! Cheers Alan

Nice job, Michelle. You really have the knack for these Aussie classics. If you ever get the chance to buy the AMT Falcon Ranchero kit that came with the NHRA Nationals decals, blue box with a white car, it includes the correct XK grille. Only the XK Falcon shared its grille with the American car. All other early Falcons, XL, XM and XP had unique to Australia grilles. The American grille you have used is similar to, but not the same as, the XM grille. Cheers Alan

A very inspired transformation! Cheers Alan

The contrast between hi-end and crusty finishes really works! Cheers Alan

I really have to do this! I knew that already but seeing these two finished projects convinces me big time! Cheers Alan

The biggest weakness in any of the Tom Daniel kits, by modern standards, is the tyres. Your upgrade improves the attitude significantly! Cheers Alan

Hi Jim, Yes, that is basically all there is to the Hot Shot so I went with it. If I remember correctly, I used the rear wheels and tyres on the front and then found some bigger ones for the back. The thing with this kit is, the body was very accurately scaled ( it looks right at home next to the modern tool Revell midgets) but the wheels and tyres were undersized and the driver was massively oversized. Built out of the box it looks like a T.Q. or quarter midget rather than a full sized midget, if that makes sense. I believe there is now a slot car company making an injection moulded replica of the hot shot but I have no details to pass on. Cheers Alan

a subject dear to my heart - I may be the hot rod guy amongst my model building friends but I have an enormous soft spot for any kind of dirt racer. Here's some of mine. Monogram Hot Shot racer - curbside, 1/24th scale. Upgraded wheels and tyres, modified sprint car driver. Two modern era midgets modified from Monogram sprint car kits. The white and red one was built by my good friend Dave Whyte, while the yellow one was built by me after being inspired and tutored by Dave! They were both built from Monogram sprint car kits. They are shortened but still the stock sprintcar width - I intend to build a new version by narrowing the frame as well. The WIP model is my first attempt at building a classic LRC VW midget using the Revell Kurtis Kraft as a basis. Cheers Alan

Who says you can overdo weathering?

Ive been using the Vortex style paint mixer for about twelve months and it is easily the best tool I have added to my arsenal. My brush paints are Humbrol enamel in tinlets and Tamiya acrylics in the glass jars. I use glass marbles out of spray cans and yeah, I know the can says it mustn't be punctured but there is a safe way that I have been using for twenty years or more without drama (or trauma). It is amazing how well any brand of metallic paint is mixed after ten seconds or so on the test tube mixer. I had a twenty year old jar of Tamiya flat white that I should have thrown out years ago - it was a solid lump with some clear on top. Every time I used the mixer I chucked the Tamiya white on just for giggles. After a week or so it was usable again. Amazing! For me the most obvious benefit was no more messy popsticks and way less waste. You dig up a lot of paint when you only want to, say, touch the tips of spark plugs with white or bolt heads with silver. The ratio of paint used to paint wasted on the popstick is terrible. I predict that I will get most of my paints to completely empty before discarding, something that almost never happened with my previous efforts. In other words, the reduction of waste will pay for the mixer in a few years. At $80 Aus it was expensive ( the price of a new Revell kit here in Western Australia) but I have no regrets at all. If you have the budget to buy one I would definitely recommend it. It sits on the front left corner of my bench and takes up minimal space for the benefits it provides. Cheers Alan

I am in full agreement with Bill in regards the seriously undersized Red Ram Dodge in the modern tool Ala Kart. To back up my beliefs I give you my recent hot rod build based on a previously glue bombed Aurora Scat Kat, in 1/32 scale. As you can see, the engine I used is the very same undersized Red Ram Dodge. It fits the 1/32 scale Deuce like it was made for it! I rest my case!

Good looking Charger there, Michelle. Cheers Alan

Really like the shades of metallic green - suits it nicely!

Very believable Claude! Nice job. Cheers Alan

I haven't gone through all 47 pages so this may have been suggested already. I apologise if that is the case but here goes anyway. I'm a hot rodder and really can't complain about the amazing range of model kits available to build cool hot rods from. Pre-war Fords have had a great run, even if some are dated and a bit funky. A 35 and a 38 something, anything, would be nice but its not a deal breaker. Surprisingly the Chevy side of the hot rod family tree has also fared pretty well. MPC did a nice 32 Chevy, AMT did an equally nice 37 Chevy, Monogram gave us a reasonable 39 Chevy tool and Galaxie gave us the awesome 46-7-8 tool a few years ago. That's four of the most popular generations of Chevy hot rod material. So where's the 34 Chevy? If my 50 years of attending Australian, American and Canadian rod runs is anything to go by, the most popular Chevy based hot rod by far is the 1934 version. Heck, they make fibreglass bodies of roadsters, coupes, and Tudors, a sure sign that people want them, that demand outstrips supply. So why is it that apart from a recent Matchbox release 5w coupe in 1/64th diecast and a dodgey French 1/43rd diecast delivery, they are non-existent in the miniature world? Why? Just the market for owners of 34 Chevies (or their wives and families who are hunting for birthday presents for Dad) would be huge! Never mind hot rod modellers hoping for something different to 32 Fords and 40 Fords. With the economic need for tool variants in today's model manufacturing world, you could do Tudor, roadster and 3 or 5 window coupe bodies with 33 and 34 grille and hood variations. Like the gasser Willys kits from Revell a while ago, you could have two distinct chassis formats, a stone cold stock chassis with stovebolt six and wire wheels or a pro street hot rod chassis with a blown big or small block. I'm sure police car modellers would love a 34 Chevy tudor patrol car. The mix and match opportunities would be considerable. Anyone else think like this or am I on my own on this one? Cheers Alan

I may be a hot rodder through and through but I can really appreciate a showroom stock 48 Ford and you have done an amazing job. I'm very impressed with your custom colour that is like a factory colour but with a bit more zoom! Cheers Alan

That took a lot of commitment to take so many risks! Congratulations on a successful completion of your concept - it is a credit to you. Cheers Alan

My favourite race cars - open wheel oval track. I've built numerous examples of both and I really like your version also! Cheers Alan

I missed this the first time around so great to see it today! I started one about ten years ago but got bogged down building a new frame. This is just the inspiration I need to get it going again. Great proportions and I love the colour. Cheers Alan

Your Ice T looks great - it really responds to a colour change. I never could get with the yellow (was it something to do with not eating yellow snow maybe?) and did mine in pearl white with blue fogging. Really liking the Ice Blue. Cheers Alan

I'm posting this under glass but I think after a while I will be taking this back off the shelf and doing a rebuild. The car is based on an AMT 34 Ford Tudor body, fenders and frame with an AMT Parts Pack Allison engine. The rollcage, bellhousing body mounts and front of the exhaust is scratchbuilt. It has been a very challenging build for me. The body, which I am now quite happy with, took a lot of work to get the chop right. I actually chopped it twice! The side windows in particular took a lot of reshaping to get them close to photos of the time. Like I said in my W.I.P, I changed the colours a bit, for different reasons. The darker blue body is similar to what I remember of the restored car in Garlits museum back in 1992, and I really like the colour. The real car was lighter and it wouldn't be hard to repaint but for now I am keeping it in the Tamiya Dark Pearl Blue colour. The engine should be black but I was blown away with the detail that AMT engraved into this mould back in the sixties. It is a wondrous thing and I couldn't live with hiding it in black. Instead I used some hardware store Eucalyptus Green Colorbond paint that gave a nod to it's aviation origins and I like it a lot - you can see all the detail as it deserves. Finally, the frame. It is bright red in the photos from Hot Rod Deluxe magazine but it looked a bit too loud for me so I went for a maroon instead. The reason it might get a rebuild is because of the frame. There is a lot less reference material on this car than you would expect and I had to guesstimate a lot of things, imagining how I would do it if I had built the real car. Reference material stated that it was a '34 Ford severely narrowed at the rear. I now believe I should have also narrowed the front crossmember as well and tucked the centre of the rails in much closer so that the engine mounted to the top of the rails, not inside them. I did try to correct this but it has introduced a twist into the front crossmember and the wheels no longer sit accurately in the front fenders. I found it very challenging to mock this car up prior to paint so final assembly has revealed a lot of problems. The biggest being that despite three attempts, I could not fit the Moon tanks alongside the blower or even in front of the engine and still have the body fit over them. I also had to do some carving on the exhausts and body to allow them to fit and it is very tight. No-one will ever mistake it for anything but Big Al ll but after several decades on the bench I wish it would have finished up just a little closer to the real thing in regards to the frame. If it turns out that I have a spare frame I might start a new one sooner than later. I owe a huge amount of gratitude to Vern Scholz of Calgary, Alberta, who provided much of the reference material and inspiration to build this car. Cheers Alan