alan barton

The trick is NOT getting the bodywork too smooth. These cars often looked like they were bodyworked with two lumps of limestone and then painted with a hessian bag! I struggle to bring myself to make them as rough as they really are and as I said in another post, there is a fine line between a good model of a rough car and a rough model of a rough car! And always remember, any glaring flaws can be covered with a strategically plopped blob of mud! Cheers Alan

Chris, that looks excellent. That is easily the most realistic concrete floor finish I have ever seen. I have used grey primer before but never achieved the realism you have here. I too have this garage kit but it hasn't moved to the top of the list just yet. Thank you for sharing it with us all. P.S, love the touch of rust where the post goes into the pump island - that is what separates the good from the fantastic! Cheers Alan

Hi Roger, I will get you some pictures tonight. The ones on the Vicky are from the yellow edition of the Monogram 32 roadster. There is little if any difference in width front and rear. However, I stumbled on a happy coincidence recently while looking for the right rims for another project. The outer rims from the rear of the Tom Daniels Pie Wagon are nearly identical spokes and are much deeper. They fit up to the 32 inners perfectly. I will get you some photos of both setups shortly. Cheers Alan

Here's one that was started by a friend of mine and then passed onto me when he returned to military modelling. I simply swapped the wheels for Tru-Spoke style wires, adjusted the stance and fitted a dropped headlight bar. Also detail painted an AMT luggage rack and added Monogram 32 roadster taillights to the rear to complete the resto rod style. Neat idea for a thread! Cheers Alan

I'm really enjoying how this is progressing Tim. Isn't it amazing how many hours you can spend chasing the absolutely perfect wheel and tyre package? I have some long stalled projects that are just waiting for that perfect tyre - a smarter person would put a near enough tyre or wheel on and swap it out if something better turned up, but that is simply not the way we think, is it? It just HAS to be right! Cheers Alan

What a magnificent exercise of restraint - just enough customizing to enhance the lines of the car. I thoroughly enjoy everything you do and this is no exception. Congratulations John, I'm sure it will get a lot of attention when you can get back to attending shows. Cheers Alan

Just found this and as a long time lover of 1/32nd scale ( when I was a kid it was all I could afford) I am blown away by your belly tanker. I too have been collecting them from model plane kits that some of my fellow clubmembers had. I also vacformed a 1/25th scale tanker, almost identical proportions to this one. To be honest, I really like the hubcap look - not everyone ran discs and some of the earliest tankers ran the 35 Ford style wires. The amount of effort you have put into detailing the cockpit and the steering mechanism is to be applauded. I love it! A lot of Aurora 1/32nd scale kits came with full moon discs, more like an insert than a separate disc to put on top of a wheel. I have also found some very cool flat discs in the scrapbooking section of a craft store - always worth a look. I too have the Fiat on my shelf but have yet to find the Willys or the 34. One day...... Cheers Alan

I can't believe you even had to ask the question, Tom. Are you going soft in your old age? Cheers The Aussie nuisance! Alan

If the only thing you had added were the slapper bars, we would still have known she was from the seventies. In Australia, they were often red, and highly frowned upon by the local coppers. Sometimes, simplicity is best! Cheers Alan

I can see where this is going - rock solid fabrication combined with believable engineering, on a body style that no-one ever does - love it! Cheers Alan

I'm sure I've seen that cab on the side of a country road somewhere! You make it look very simple , will have to push myself a bit more on this sort of thing. I love the subtlety of your weathering. Cheers Alan

To all our international friends, you may not realise the significance of this car. John Zappia is a home town hero here in Perth W.A. This car stated out back in the eighties ( I think)as a street driven, street raced big block Chev powered steel bodied HQ Monaro, racing at Ravenswood International Raceway. It evolved into a dedicated Gas class racer and then a number of tube framed , carbon fibre bodied variations have been developed over the years. The basic shape and colour scheme has remained the same over close to four decades, as has his reputation and tally of wins, being Australian Top Doorslammer ( Pro MOD in the US) Champion on many occasions. Zap is absolutely fearless, a slightly built, almost jockey sized guy whose middle name should be "Never lift"! He was also the first legal Doorslammer/ Promod in the 5 second bracket - in the world! Another U.S. racer made that claim but that was in a specially prepared tricked up car on a private race day - Zap was class legal and racing in an open event when he got his five! When the Yanks would come to town and attempt to win the crowd with their long smokey burnouts, Zap would simply go further - it was not unusual for Zap to begin reversing from the braking area! With the amount of time the visitors spent sitting on the start line waiting, they soon learned not to try that trick! Zap has been known to have one, two , three or four wheels off the ground at any given time but you never hear those revs drop! Even a solo pass is at full noise. He's a promoters dream giving maximum value for the entertainment dollar on every pass. Congratulations, Brett, on a very authentic replica of Zap's Rat. I started one in the late eighties with the shovel nosed front but never did get it finished. I had carved a wooden mould and vacformed the body. it was based on the Tony Foti LAPD Camaro chassis as the car was still big block powered back then. I even got to show the mould to Zap at a car show one day and he was genuinely interest - he even pointed out some areas that needed corrections. Apparently he is a keen slot car racer! Thanks for sharing this iconic car with the world. Cheers Alan

Sam, I love the simplicity of this model and how nicely you have finished every part so far. It inspires me to build the bucket and the coupe in my stash but alas, I have promised myself to continue to build 1/25th until my eyesight won't let me and then I will turn to my 1/8th kits. Lately I'm thinking that is not so far away! I'm really enjoying this build and especially the colour choice - it is period perfect! Cheers Alan

Beat me to it! The deep chrome reverse rims on from the AMT 57 Chevy would look perfect on this - just the right amount of glitz for an otherwise understated coupe. Or even just the rim off a 1/24 scale wheel glued over the top of the silver wheel to give it some depth. And Jim, the photo with the two Ts together is just perfect - love it! Cheers Alan

That's a sweeet little phone booth, Randy - I wouldn't want to part with it either. Could that be the motor out of the AMT 41 Woody.? Cheers Alan

Just a brief update today. In contrast to what I SAID I was going to do, I cut the side panels off and have decided to attempt a correct 4 door 61 Galaxie pattern. It was just too much of a mess to try and correct the existing details so what the heck - I have already gone way further than I ever expected to on this model so why stop now, eh? I just filed everything clean off and started from scratch. I also glued four short lengths of Evergreen angle onto the floor to give a good guide for the side panels when I glue them back on. I also got the first coat of primer on the widened rear seat and while there is still some sanding and filling to do, I think using the cut down bucket seat for this task was a good move. There were some great shots of the door cards on a Google search so I have sketched out the pattern and will use Evergreen strips tonight to add the details. Thanks for watching so far, comments and critiques welcome!

Wow, that is pristine! In a realistic setting it would be challenging to pick if it was real or not. Beautiful craftsmanship! Cheers Alan

As much as I hate to admit it, that's pretty good!

Ay, Snake, whattya got your knickers in a knot about this time, eh? Ol' mate Greg probably thought JB Weld sounded fair enough, but wanted some fair dinkum proof. You must have a few emus loose in ya top paddock, if ya ask me! Why don't we throw a few prawns on the barbie, grab a tinnie and have a go, mate! Actually, sounds like jealousy to me, because as we all know, your American girls luuuuurve our accent!!! Thanks for a great laugh so early in the morning Snake. No worries, we still love ya! Cheers Alan

Still no Model A coupe! Ahh, I guess us hot rodders had a good run for a while, seems like there has been a drought for years now when it comes to new tools. I can't even remember AMT last gave us a new tool and the 30 came out in 2017? Oh well, just as well I have a stash to last me until close of business! Cheers Alan

Thanks Carl. I'm glad you like it. It was a big hit at our shows but unfortunately it hasn't caught on anywhere else. "If you build it, they will come!" doesn't work all the time, apparently. When COVID is over and we get back to holding our show again, we will probably do it again as it is close to ten years since our last one. One other thing I forgot to mention earlier, it pays for the host club to knock up half a dozen or so spare boards with simple ground covering, maybe a fence or a few trophies so that if not enough entrants bring enough boards to fill the diorama, you can fill the spaces with spare models from your members. Tom Geiger, you REALLY need to try this at NNL East! Cheers Alan

Greg, JB Weld is your friend. I have done extensive modifications on diecast with JB Weld and it is awesome stuff. It is a metal based epoxy and sticks like you wouldn't believe. You can file it, sand it, paint it and according to some point of sale stuff I read, you can even drill and tap it! Here are some photos of an AU Falcon Cobra that I build for my good friend Dale in Louisville Kentucky. These photos were taken seven years after I finished the model and gave it to him. The model started out as a 1/43 scale diecast replica of the V8 Supercar Falcon four door sedan . The Cobra was a two door hardtop from around 1978 and as Dale lives and breaths Falcons, i wanted to make him this 1998 version. After cutting away the B and C pillars, I put this model in a vice and gently squeezed the roof down until i got the fastback roofline I was after. I then spread the JB Weld around the pillars and left it overnight to dry. The original Cobra is renowned for its bulging, Torino like rear quarters so I then wrapped the rear tyres in sticky tape, mounted them in the right spot and applied more JB weld over the rear quarters. After everything was dry I carefully pried the tyres out of the quarters and then filed and sanded it all to shape. So here it is, over seven years after it was finished ( it would be ten years old now) and the normal Duplicolor primer and Tamiya white paint is still perfect. There are no cracks or shrinkage after all this time. And consider this - the only thing holding the rear of the roof in place, against the tension of its original position, is the JB Weld. Diecast does have some elasticity but everything is still exactly where I glued it. Although this was one of my most dramatic builds, I have built many other smaller models as well and have never had a failure of any sort. You can trust this stuff! Cheers Alan

Hi Steve, yeah, that was my thoughts exactly - low budget and low maintenance. I have a sneaky plan for the rear end. Because of the way AMT handled their screw bottom chassis, there is just a non- descript black recess for the wheel housing and no discernible chassis detail from the side, which suits my plans perfectly. I will remove the wheels and wire axle and set the car up in full flight with a separate axle, wheels and spring arrangement some distant away, attached to either a taut or recoiling cable hanging out the rear - I've checked the videos and there only seems to be a cable with a hook, no chain. Meantime, I have drilled two holes in the exhaust pipes about midway along the floorpan. I am looking for a rusty length of the right diameter wire to replicate exhaust pipes and will attach mufflers to them. By sticking the wire up into the holes in the plastic pipes, I will be able to stand the Galaxie on its nose with the exhaust being the prop. The car should appear to be flying through the air. I have already found two bits of wire in my junk that were perfectly rusty but one is a bit thin and the other is a bit thick - but then, I have plenty of junk! From any view except directly from the rear, where our spectators won't see anyway, the moulded in rear end will be invisible. Then, when the display is over I can re-insert the wheels and axles and sit it back on the shelf. That's the plan anyhow! And Jackson, thanks for the awesome photos. I had been Googling like crazy for weeks but hadn't found those images - they are very helpful. Interesting to see that it has a Y block, not an FE series engine, and that it has a different rear window pillar and glass treatment to the Graffiti car. I wonder if Ford changed design mid year - hard to imagine why you would have two otherwise identical four door sedans but for the back window? The resin body that Hendricks does has this window style which helped me decide to scratchbuild instead. And Gareth, don't beat yourself up about your interpretation of the windscreen shape - I have been studying photos for weeks and still don't have my head around it entirely! I definitely need to flatten the trim some more but it is more curvy than the trim on most cars. Those photos of Jackson's are some of the clearest shots I have seen and will be very helpful as I start to fine tune the bodywork. Thanks everyone! Cheers Alan

Thank you all for the kind words of support. I was having a quiet moment to myself in the model room the other night and wondered if I would have even tackled a job like this if it wasn't for the things I have learned and the people I have met on this forum. A lot of people on here have unwittingly contributed to this project! I also think it is rather cool that all the odd parts I have found, the engine, the rocker covers, the radiator, the firewall, even the spare chassis from my slot car conversion, they would never have been used if it wasn't for this project. The majority of my builds are hot rods, nostalgia drags and dirt trackers. None of those parts would have worked on any of my "normal" models and would have sat in my parts boxes until eternity. And the body and interior themselves, well, the body at least would probably gone in the garbage! I didn't get anything done last night other than a big cleanup of my bench but I did think of a question that I need to ask of you guys. Do any of you know if a police car in 1961 would have had carpet or vinyl on the floor? I can't call on local resources because very few Australian cars of any sort had carpet until the mid seventies. I'm thinking that maybe police cars would have had vinyl or rubber mats to cope with clean-ups needed after unpleasant rear seat passengers? Also, what sort of gear would have been with them? I have a simple CB radio from the old Monogram kits which I thought would be a good start but did they have any other sort of consoles or boxes in or under the dash? The screen shots I have from the movie show nothing on top. Not sure how much would fit anyway seeing as how I need to fit my officers in there but curious to know and see what I can do about it. Cheers Alan

I recognise that frame! Love the textured top - I have tried that before but never got results that looked THAT good! I can see I will have to try again! Cheers Alan