alan barton

Hi guys, I was just looking at how many new Model A roadsters have been in the Under Glass section lately and thought I should get my latest effort on here and also remind any who haven't seen this thread before to get their 29 roadster builds on here as well! Cheers Alan

I imagine that paint would look stunning in the sun! Nice job Tom, should put this one in the Model A roadster thread! Cheers Alan

Thank you Phil, thank you Stephen, thank you Carl. It is nice to get so many positive responses - the fifties retro/rat rod scene is so dominant these days I was not sure if anyone would be into a late seventies build like this one. Variety is the spice of life! Cheers Alan

That paint!!!!! Cheers Alan

I feel your pain! And I do believe that the longer you have spent on a project, the less likely you are to go back and redo things. In the case of paint, stripping back to original bodywork can open all sorts of worm containers! I'm with you on this one, the finished car looks great - this is the first time I have seen this colour scheme - and you will enjoy seeing it on your shelf a lot more than knowing it is buried in a box! We can always try harder on the next one! Cheers Alan

Thanks Bill, Yeah, it's just a thing I do! My signature I guess. I started doing it about twenty five years ago on a regular basis but as a teenager I did it to all my rods, the only difference now being that I do it to everything except specifically US race cars. However, when I have to convert dashboards of the fifties and sixties cars I question the sanity of this idea! Cheers Alan

Thanks everyone for your comments! I have shown them to my wife. We don't always see eye to eye on our projects but we seemed to have a nice bit of ying and yang happening on this one, the first time she has ever actually worked on one of my cars. My wife is a very talented folk art painter, patchwork quilter and bricklayer/landscaper, to name just a few of her talents. Modelmaking is not one of her hobbies as such but she does support me in everything I do. She did scratchbuild two magnificent (and quite large) diorama modules for our club's annual display, one of which can be seen here. Recently she produced another thirty or so figures so I will get some new photos organised to showcase her work. Cheers Alan

Thanks Tim, your comments always mean a lot to me. Yes, working away does bring its challenges but the minesites that I visit are in very remote locations where there is little else to do and often very patchy and low quality TV so it seems a waste of good modelling time not to try SOMETHING! Mostly I do cut-n- shut fab work as it requires a small selection of tools and a small collection of parts. It also means that lighting is not as critical as when you are doing assembly or trying to wire an engine for example. I work twelve hour shifts so it is a solid 24 hours before you get back to something that you glued or puttied which gives things time to get nicely set. Of course, as I am days away form retirement these things won't be an issue anymore! Thank you Oliver. I'm glad you liked the colours I chose. They are not authentic to the real car but neither the maroon nor the slate grey interiors I saw in reference photos did anything for me. I really think the blue works well, especially with the blue engine to match it. Cheers Alan

That is so cool, Bernard. I bought 2 each of these four kits and have several of them glued into one piece and sanded smooth - but that is as far as I got! Thanks for a great tutorial on where to go next - I hadn't thought about it a lot but did have the Kenz _ Leslie 777 in the back of my mind - maybe by cutting and joining two long halves? Will be following this closely now that I have found it! Cheers Alan

This was a quick, almost box stock build of the Aurora "The Wurst" hot dog truck. The original kit was the Hot Surfer from around 1963 and "The Wurst" was a modified re-issue from 1969. It was purchased as a partially assembled kit, which is why the windshield frame is not dead straight - anyone who has worked with Aurora kits would know how brittle their styrene is and I wasn't prepared to risk breaking it if I attempted to straighten it up! I had an almost empty can of Testors Hot Magenta and figured there was enough paint in it to cover the limited bodywork of this model. The finish here is straight off the can and came out beautifully - I never understand the negativity I hear on here about Testors spray cans and I really miss them now that they are no longer available in Australia. Now I don't have much colour sense myself - I can look at a cool colour scheme and think, "Wow, that is great" but I am not that good at coming up with them myself. I asked my wife what colour I should do the vending body section of the model and she first suggested white and then corrected that to cream. I had Tamiya Racing White, a creamy colour in the rack so that was easy. And then it struck us both - ice cream truck! Here in Australia, the dominant brand of ice cream trucks in the 60's and 70's was Mr Whippy and their Commer vans were always pink and white. so it was a natural. From there my wife got very involved and wanted to know what bits I had to create detail in the kitchen area. I gave her a box of jewellery items and also some small domed aluminium discs that a friend of mine gave me many years ago. The three dispensers are made out of the clear protector from one of her folk art paint brushes. The base of the drink dispenser is the cap of the end of an old automotive fuse. The base under the gob-stopper jar is a bead. My wife also carved the ice cream cones from a toothpick and tinted them with acrylic craft paint. After we applied a selection of decals from my stash, she also hand painted the ice cream cones that you see on various body panels of the truck. My wife also added various items onto the shelf and used the discs to make covers for the ice cream storage. It was only when I took these close up photos that I saw just how much detail she painted onto the items that Aurora moulded onto the shelf. Further testament to her accuracy is how amazingly sharp the panels that she masked on the umbrella came out. The rest of the model is box stock except for the addition of a blower and belt. The scoop came with the kit but was meant to be glued direct to the manifold with no attempt at a carby or fuel injection of any sort - very odd! We took just under two weeks to build this start to finish and I am chuffed with how well it came out. It was the last of my seventeen Aurora rods to be completed and the first one where I attempted to add extra detail. Cheers Alan

Phil, your timing is fantastic! Only last week I threw a coat of white primer on a pair of Drag City SWC bucket seats, in preparation for an "ultimate" build of the Stone Woods and Cook Willys. So here you are with the fully detailed recipe on exactly how to do it! I knew it could look this good. The last time I built one I was in high school, and as I am about to retire in a week's time, that was obviously a long time ago! The work you have done on this one is exquisite. I especially like your idea of gluing on the chrome and foiling after - I had grave reservations about how I was going to successfully attach the kit trim to a painted body! Nice tip on the headlights and tail lights too. I had already filled the hood hinge but hadn't thought about the shifter hole - that is now on the list. This is easily the best rendition of this iconic gasser that I have ever seen. It does justice to a sixty year old tooling. Thank you for sharing it with us - it is truly a pleasure to study! Cheers Alan

Anyone Down Under got their's yet? Cheers Alan

Mate, it happens! I do all my spraying in summer if I possibly can but I once saw a friend's kid spray an AMT 40 Ford Tudor, jet black enamel on the coldest wettest day imaginable and it looked like black glass! You just have to take the good with the bad. Sorry it happened to ya but keep plugging away on your other components and it will all come around in good time. I love how your Falcon is looking already! Cheers Alan

Thanks everyone, for the compliments. it is gratifying to see people like the same things that you do. Thanks Steve, that means a lot as this is one of the legendary cars that I have yet to see in person. Bob, believe it or not I have one f those brushes for that purpose. I really thought the car was clean - it wasn't until I posted these photos that I realised just how much dust had gathered in such a short time. I think I will try again, maybe on a cloudy day! David, you might have something there - I have some small mirrors that might do the trick nicely. Michael, that front end was easily the hardest part to build on the car. I am 90% happy with it - the right hand coilover has a a bit of a twist to it and I wish now that I had attempted the Panhard bar but I did get it low and level and that is the biggest part of the challenge! This car is a part of a series of significant Model A roadsters that I have been building for decades now. My next big , probably long term project, will be the Dick Flint roadster but I have some serious carving to do first before I can create a mould for the Indy style nose. Here's a few more photos for the Model A hiboy fans. I thought the Brian Brennan / John Buttera photo makes for a nice pair of bookends - the earliest style of AV8 next to the latest style of AV8. Cheers Alan P.S., I'm definitely going to make a new hood!

That's a tuff little street fighter you have there, James. Sometimes less is more! Cheers Alan

Wow, does our summer sun ever show up the dust!!! I didn't think this thing had even had time to get dusty. Dohhh!

Well, folks, here it is at last. My interpretation of the trend- setting, mould breaking Lil' John Buttera smoothie 29 hiboy. I have been working on and off on this project for at least 4 years, taking it with me to remote minesites in the Australian outback, nibbling away at first one part, then another. Until I started painting it, earlier this year, almost the entire construction took place inside typically 6x 10 foot "donga's " - the pre-fabbed sleeping accommodation used on minesites. My favourite part, my most significant achievement on this model, in my opinion, is the belly pan and rollpan, ironically the parts not many people see on the shelf! I love the look and feel it is one of the most accurate bits of fab work I have done to date. After finally getting it all buttoned up, I am disappointed with the three piece hood, especially the fit of the hood itself and there is a good chance that now that the body is firmly attached to the frame, I might build a new hood altogether. At least I won't be chasing moving targets if I do. I chose to use Hurricanes on the left hand side of the car because that is what Lil' used on his first version. The Centrelines on the other side, chosen because they were a typical billet era wheel, aren't quite what I was after - I may try brushing some flat clear over them to see if that gives a better billet look - thing is, I am addicted to shiny! I'm also very happy with the interior. That seat was chopped up from the custom back seat of the AMT 57 Fairlane and is a neat press fit into the car. There is a build thread in WIP for those who missed it earlier. Comments and criticisms very welcome! Cheers Alan

What a great looking racecar, Bob! It came out great! You realise, of course, that correcting those headers is the first step towards a fully scratchbuilt model, right? LOL! Cheers Alan

That will get the sucker looking like it is sucking the bitumen off the road!

Wow, paint hiccups can be heartbreaking! That first paint job represented so much design, masking and application and then some old bunch of clear comes along and says " I don't care how hard you worked, I'm going to screw this up!" Like the kid at the beach who kicks over your best ever sand castle! You have my respect for not giving up and persevering to get an equally impressive finish on your second attempt. Cheers Alan

I must build a 36! I have a bunch of both AMT and Monogram and have never build a rod out of one, other than a radical swooped and drooped semi streamlined Bonneville coupe, but I'm seeing what you are building here and thinking 2022 should be the year it happens. Good luck with your 5 window. I have fond memories of being taken for an awesome evening of cruising in a similarly proportioned coupe in Adelaide back in 1979. We were having a great time until a fellow motorist pulled out his badge and suggested if we didn't tone it down some we were going to be in a lot of trouble! We were smart enough to head his advise! Cheers Alan

Ditto on the killer top chop. It totally changes the attitude of this cool project. Cheers Alan

I think my record is around 40 years for a UFO so 50 years is very impressive! I like what I see here so far - that black primered roller at the top of your post would look thoroughly convincing in a raceshop diorama! Cheers Alan

Sir Jack Brabham, absolutely! Ex speedway driver ( dirt track is my favourite motor sport) built his own car, and a gentleman to boot. We have a suburb here in Perth named after him, adjacent to an old disused racetrack that he once competed on. Sadly, I know very little about Will Power. In Australia, according to the media that governs our lives, there are only four sports - Aussie rules football, soccer, rugby or cricket. Nothing else exists. Aussies could take out the first three places at the first Lunar 500 on the moon, and we would only see it on TV if someone crashed! So as I heard almost nothing about Will Power in Australia, I hear absolutely nothing about Will Power in the USA. For that matter, a guy from a tiny town in our southwest rural regions, was the team manager that WON the Indy 500 some time back. Team Green, I think. Another Aussie won the Baja 500 - all we hear is crickets and tumbleweeds! And shame on you for not giving me the choice of AC/DC! Cheers Alan

Still my beating heart - that is a stunner! A build like this makes me want to bring my kit of the Tudor to the front of the queue! Everything is sooooo right! Cheers Alan