Alan Barton

It's taken me over two years to find this post but I am very glad I did! What an absolutely stunning build! Your sentiments on the over abused use of the term "gasser" and your commentary on the awesome South East Gassers crew are spot on. I have been watching them on YouTube for quite a while and have them on my list of destinations for my next trip to the USA. What is particularly interesting to me is that I have assembled the pieces to build a similar but different car to your own. It will use a lightly glue bombed MPC body fitted to a frame from the MPC 34 slammer modified kit which is actually a really tidy, cleaned up 57 Chevy frame. It will run a big block because I intend to build it as a SEGA style Badman tribute car - yeah, I know the Badman is a 55 but I think the 57 will work just fine!. I didn't notice that SEGA don't run blowers so will have to attend to that detail but injection is cool so no worries there. Congratulations, Tommy, this really is a very special model! Cheers Alan

Hi guys, I neglected to post our display at the 2024 Model Car Spectacular here in Western Australia so it's time I made amends. I came up with this concept at least fifteen years ago but we hadn't done it for about ten years or more and one of our members suggested we revive the idea. It was displayed at our own show this year as well as the Western Australian Scale Model Expo so you will see slight variations in some of the photos. It works like this. The host club prepares a 2240 by 1220 mm board of MDF or chipboard - in the US you would call it a 4 x 8 board. We have an aluminium angle attached around the perimeter to keep everything neat and contained. The club also prepares a set of walkways to go along and across the display, these are painted in a uniform grey, concrete like colour. About fifty 300mm x 150 mm bases are produced, also from 12 mm mdf. These are distributed amongst club members and show entrants well in advance of the event. The idea is that the participants then prepare a hot rod show display on their base. Nothing is allowed to protrude beyond the edges nor be glued down or wrapped over the edges - precision is vital here if the finished result is going to look convincing. Everything EXCEPT the vehicle is to be glued to the base to avoid it falling onto anyone's model and causing damage. The great advantage of presenting a hot rod show is that pretty much every type of vehicle ever made on the planet has appeared in a hot rod show at some stage - diversity rules! So while hot rods, customs, muscle cars and drag cars will usually form the backbone of the show, race cars of every type, motorcycles, classics and antiques, restorations and even showroom stock brand new cars will be in attendance . Plus you have your vendors in the form of speed shops, car dealers, hot rod shops, tyre stores, T shirts stores, collectibles and the like. Heck, you can even do a model show! This concept lets a show have a real centrepiece to attract its patrons and give them something to remember. The show will be different every time it is displayed. Imagine being able to have one pre-prepared display to carry with you to NNLs, literally all over the world, and instantly become an active participant in the modular hot rod show! The 300 by 150 mm base ( 12 inch by 6 inch) will hold pretty much any 1/24 or 25th scale model, right up to prime movers! I think our show had the equivalent of 44 bases on it but you can end up with 50 or more models on there depending on how you utilise them. I produced a larger board as a centrepiece, still using the standard proportions of six bases in a 3x 2 arrangement so that I could produce a one piece dedicated show rod display. It is good insurance for the club to prepare a few generic bases in case some people drop out or can't make it - gaps are not acceptable! The best thing is, after the show the club only has to find storage for a flat board and a few walkways that can be safely stored in someones garage or shed until next time. The modeller goes home with a neat display base that will look good displayed in his cabinet until next time.' Win , win! I'll let the photos do the talking from here but I have a dream that one day this will be a common feature of model shows all over the world - just be sure to call them Ausmodules displays! Cheers Alan

Fantastic to see this model built up! You've done a great job of bringing it back to life, Bill. I hope you don't mind me posting a photo of Garry Ritchie's (R.I.P.) build of the Surf-n-Go. Garry was originally from Omaru in New Zealand. His build would be easily 40 years old. Garry was well known for his cool paintjobs and all the graphics on the body are airbrushed by him. So now we know there are definitely still two Kiwi Surf n Go models still inexistence! Cheers Alan

Cheers Alan

Just found these old photos taken before I built the Pyro and Palmer 32 Fords. You can see how the grey roadster Palmer body is butchered compared to the red Pyro Coupe/roadster body. If Palmer was using the Pyro tooling, they really hacked it up! The louvres are awful, the door lines are hacked and it has lost its door-handles. In my photo of the blue coupe above, I have removed the door handles myself from the Pyro body to try to de-emphasise that the doors are all wrong for a 3 Window anyway! (Note that the Pyro body has the grille shell attached - I had to restore a gentle glue bomb that I bought from Spain of all places!) Cheers Alan

I'd like to offer some more information on the relationship between Palmer and Pyro 1/32 scale models, and others. I have been building model cars for nearly sixty years and I have set myself an ambitious target of obtaining one example of every styrene hot rod model ever made in any scale by model kit manufacturers around the world. and so far I am doing pretty well. I'm sticking with the traditional definition of a hot rod, being based on a car built up to 1948 and my list includes both hot rod kits and kits of vintage cars that would typically be hot rodded. So a 34 Plymouth sedan is fine, a 32 Duesenberg maybe not so much. Thanks to great mates in the USA including Dale Daugherty, Tom Geiger, Tom Martin and Craig Stanford, I am very close to achieving my dream. As of this writing, I have only one more 1/32 scale hot rod kit to find, the Aurora La Salle Hearse with a Curse. I have close to 100 built 1/32nd scale rods in my collection and this is where my interest in Pyro, Palmer and other manufacturers kicks in. These photos show three versions of essentially the same model. The Blue coupe is the Pyro 32 Ford 3 window. It's based on their roadster kit with a poorly fitting 3 window coupe roof slapped on top but it is what it is. Next is a maroon Palmer 32 Roadster. Almost identical to the base model of the Pyro coupe but somewhat cruder in execution. Before I did a lot of bodywork, the body exhibited noticeable drag marks down the doors, as if the body had been pulled from the mould while still molten! The door lines weren't vertical or straight. The louvres on the hood, particularly the right hand side, looked like a stick had been dragged through wet sand to form them - very low-rent indeed. The yellow and black model (unpainted) is made in Japan by UPC. I would suggest that they got hold of a Pyro model and then made an entirely new tooling for it. It incorporates all the slightly awkward proportions of the original Pyro but is a much cleaner crisper mold all over. The hood louvres are crisp and well executed, a huge improvement on both the Pyro and Palmer items. The finish on the plastic is much finer. The hood is now removable whereas the first two are moulded to the bodyshell. It has a seperate 4 banger under the hood. The wire wheels are chromed and have separate tyres. In short, they are all close cousins but I don't believe they are triplets! Dave, living on the opposite side of the planet to you guys, I am not in a position to provide documented proof ( like plans, memos or contracts) of the relationship between the AMT and Palmer 40 Tudor but I do have both of them built as you can see here and my gut feeling is that the Palmer multi pieced model is a direct copy of the AMT kit. The fact that it is a three piece body shell and that the overall length of the Palmer is a couple of mm shorter is proof that it is indeed a different mould but the attention to detail is so similar it couldn't be an accident. As you look a the photos of the black AMT and the blue Palmer, note things like the identical shape of the rear windows and trunk handle, the delicacy of the crease running back from the peak of the windshield frame, the pattern of ribbing on the running boards for starters. Upside down, every single detail and the method of parts breakdown of the chassis and floorpan is identical - other than the aforementioned shorter length. Considering that some manufacturers cant keep proportions of similar cars in their own range identical, I can't imagine that Palmer got this close to the AMT kit without measuring directly off the AMT kit. I find this detailed analysis and investigation of our modelling history to be extremely interesting ( if not significantly nerdy!) so would love to hear your thoughts on my observations here. Cheers Alan

That made me smile - what a stunningly beautiful Forty! Cheers Alan

Beautiful - I wouldn't change a thing! Cheers Alan

The HK Ute was a fibreglass body by Jaymar Models The XC Falcon, EK Holden, HQ one tonner and VC Valiant are by Tony Ashton of AAA Resin models but he has retired recently and sold all his stock. You may be able to get some of these bodies (sorry, I am not sure what he has) from Stewie at Dinki-Di Resin Models. This is a small business in Western Australia. Cheers Alan

So crisp! I love everything about this one - nice build! Cheers Alan

Thank you Zack! Unfortunately I am a long way off finishing the second five cars - a lot of interruptions to life lately, plus my dear friend Jerry passed away earlier this year so I now have to source a new supplier of decals. But it will happen! Cheers Alan Sorry, mate, I have friends in Gippsland but have never raced there - I live in W.A. and forty plus years ago I drove in two mechanic's races - one in Paraburdoo, one in Tom Price in the Pilbara region of WA. That is my entire speedway racing history! Cheers Alan

Well done, Michelle, but being a West Aussie, I was hoping to see your West Australian number plates! By the way, you didn't hear it from me but "Vegemite"is Australian for "poison"! Cheers Alan

I can only repeat what everyone else said, but in addition that would have to be the best build I have ever seen of an AMT 34. Drag City Casting look like they do a very nice chop. Simply a beautiful model! Cheers Alan

Neat job, Michelle. It is impressive how well you captured the feel of a Falcon by converting a Torino - not everyone does this as successfully as you did! Cheers Alan

Thanks everyone, it means a lot that so many of you "got" what I set out to achieve. Very gratifying and humbling at the same time. Cheers Alan

Thanks Steve, you unwittingly played a very important part in the completion of this display by so generously sending me the 32 Tudor body for the blue show rod a few years ago. Couldn't have done it without you! I'm glad you like the custom touches. There are a few compromises in the display - the double dragster and the 36 Ford are obviously not the versions shown on the advert - I have them underway but they were not finished in time for the show and I really wanted to debut this in the anniversary year! The body interior and frame of the 49 coupe came in a job lot so I have no idea who built it - I used a 50 grille to hide some glue damage on the lower front fenders. Although the models are all owned by me, several were built by other modellers. The 53 F100 was built by Gary Ritchie (RIP) and the teal Model A roadster was built by Les Hardaker (RIP) of Sydney. The Willys coupe , a genuine survivor, was built by fellow Perth and Districts model club member Ian Catchpole and the 58 Chevy was built by Mark Butt. I purchased the Car Craft Dream Rod in Drumheller, Alberta in 1996 so I would hazard a guess that a Canadian modeller built that one, also a genuine survivor. The 32 Vicky was built by Roger Kelly and restored by me. The purple 57 Fairlane was built by Tony Somers - my version of the 57 is built as a dirt tracker and Tony's version ( which he gave to me when he had to move across Australia and couldn't take them all with him) suited the display much better. The black Model A Tudor was built by my brother Robert in the mid seventies - I recently restored it with a fresh paint-job but used every original part that he used fifty years ago. I enjoyed including the models of my friends in the display, especially those of Les and Gary who I miss dearly. Cheers Alan

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your kind comments. Always nice to finish a long term project and one with a few childhood memories to boot! Cheers Alan

Back in my teenage years I bought an MPC 1969 Pontiac Bonneville convertible kit and immediately built the ute version. Americans might prefer El Ponchamino! It was a favourite model of mine and I usually had a trailer behind it, built of popsticks, with a racecar of some sort. Unfortunately sometimes, I kept wanting to "improve" my models but my ambition often outstripped my ability. Sadly the Pontiac succumbed to the knife and never recovered! When Model King re-issued the 1970 Bonneville convertible, still with the ute option, I had to have one. Only problem was, I reckon a 1970 Bonny front end is as ugly as a hat full of armpits. Digging deep in the parts box, I discovered the original 69 hood with a coat of red enamel and a bit of glue damage, the original custom grille housings, slightly abbreviated and an original set of 69 GTO custom grille inserts. With these parts I was perfectly happy to surgically remove the ugly schnoz and get started on a cool custom. I wasn't taking many photos when I started building this model but last year I got back into it after a long stall and it came together pretty well. The most challenging aspect was reconstructing the trademark Pontiac beak, I made up some profiles from flat styrene then applied considerable quantities of auto body filler (or bog as we say in Australia) and sanded for nights on end til I had what I was after. A bit like the Monkeemobile but less severe! The rear was a bit easier. I used the back of an X-Acto blade to separate the bumper from the full width taillight housing. I then glued the bumper solidly to the rear of the car and moulded it in to create a custom rollpan. It took a bit of finessing but I am happy with the results. I also painted the centre trim of the taillight area first in silver then clear red to give the impression of a full width taillight. The pickup bed was separated from the interior so that it was easier to do the bodywork around the pickup conversion. IT also made it easier to paint and detail the interior. If you build one of these utes, I suggest you ignore the guidelines that MPC engraved in the body and cut slightly inside those lines. I followed the lines and found I had some filling to do as they created an oversize hole for the tray to fit into. I like to convert all my models to right hand drive and fortunately I still had the very battered remains of my original 69 dash. This provided me with enough extra material to reverse the 70 dash and get it fitting snugly. Final paint is Duplicolour silver base coat, followed by some metallic green in masked off panels on the hood and lower side panels. I then sprayed the entire car with Tamiya clear green followed by Tamiya LAme Flake which is basically clear carrying a lot of ultrafine rainbow flake. It was perfect for the car. The interior is painted in Testors Afrika Mustard. In the tray I built a simple frame from Evergreen to support the Westcraft boat from the AMT 64 El Camino. I bought this very expensive kit at a Toledo Toy Fair only to find when I arrived home that someone had neatly removed all the chrome parts, including the engine for the boat. Buyer beware I suppose but I suspect the vendor knew it was missing! I substituted a new engine using the diecast unit from a Hot Wheels toy called Hyper Mite. It was such a perfect fit that a quick swipe with a file along the back edge had it drop snugly in place - to this day I haven't applied glue to hold it in! The other missing parts were replaced with items from my parts box. Out the back we have, not the Hullraiser boat included with the Bonneville, but an original AMT Raysom Craft drag boat. It is almost stock except that I used the 427 SOHC out of the Hullraiser instead of the 427 FE out of the Raysom. The pinstriping on the deck is done with fingernail art tape. It was nice to have another crack at an old favourite from my childhood. I feel I owe a vote of thanks to Dave Burkett for getting the whole vintage re-issue thing happening way back when. Cheers Alan

Wow, that captures the look of an Electric Blue XY GT perfectly! I continue to be amazed by just how many of these are getting built, and quickly. Us Aussie modellers have waited for over sixty years to get models of our home- grown cars. We have been saying for years that if only someone would make Australian cars we would buy them and now the prediction is coming true! DDA is to be congratulated on their production of these kits. Hopefully they will continue to bring out new and interesting models and they will improve their proportions just a little bit and we will buy them by the case! Cheers Alan

Wow, that's a fantastic response from everyone! I'm so glad it made so many people's day! I guess we all long for our childhood sometimes. Probably the best bang-for-the-buck display I have ever done. It almost seems a shame that it only got one showing as we only have one NNL a year and our IPMS style model comp in two weeks time probably isn't the right venue for this display. - a lot of the guys show little interest unless the model is capable of shooting something! Still, I might just store the board and the signs carefully in case I can put it out at our hot rod show next year. I have started thinking about doing a similar display using Monogram models - they had a poster once with rows of four cars on a lot in front of a dealership. I would have to compromise on that one by just using early Monogram models in general as I don't have a lot of the classic Duesenbergs and the like, nor do I have the multiples displayed of some models. But after the response to this one, I might toss some ideas around! Cheers Alan

I debated whether to put this post in General, Model Cars Under Glass or Dioramas. If I have missed by miles, moderators, please feel free to move it to the appropriate place. As a teenage kid I use to pore over this advertisement, yes, this very piece of sixty year old paper shown framed here, and dream of one day owning every model on this page. Funny thing was, I never really set out on a mission to find them all but as I appreciate all the makes and models illustrated,it stood to reason that I would eventually acquire a lot of them. Back in 2002 I attended the Adelaide NNL in South Australia. I was over the moon to purchase a mildly glue bombed Rayson Craft Drag Boar, a model I had wanted since I was very young. On arrival home, I casually looked at the framed ad that I had kept on my build room wall all these years when it suddenly occurred to me that this was the last one!!! I had inadvertently achieved my childhood dream! This weekend just gone we held the twenty-fifth annual Perth NNL, now known as Model Car Spectacular. It occurred to me that this advertisement was now sixty years old and that AMT itself had been producing plastic models for 75 years (they produced aluminium models in 1948, switching to plastic the next year.) Maybe I should re-create this page in 3-D as a special tribute at our NNL? Some of the models are survivors from the early sixties while others have been built over the decades with the Silhouette trailer and the 49 Tudor only being finished last week. In all there are twenty nine models in the advertisement and they were all represented in the display. My wife and I took less than a day to produce the display board, covering a sheet of 10mm MDF with about $4 worth of orange fabric and some computer generated labels and signs. I will be the first to admit that my wife's fabric skills and her precision in everything she does elevated the display to a much higher standard than I could have hoped for. The response all day Saturday (setup) and Sunday (public admission) was very satisfying. I don't know if it has ever been done before but I can say I have realised my childhood dream and couldn't be happier with how it all turned out. Hope you like it! Cheers Alan

I like it a lot. The interior is fantastic. The whole model has a very contemporary feel which was obviously your focus. Seems like hot rodding model styles have been very fixated on fifties retro builds lately when there are so many styles of hot rods that deserve their place in the sun. The Tim Boyd tribute Model A pickups being a perfect example. One minor point of unsolicited advice, I have been using the Tamiya Gray panel line wash lately - it's not as stark as the black, especially on a light colour. I have also had success with spraying the colour over the highlighted panel lines so that you get a shadow effect rather than an outline. I love your use of Tamiya Racing White - I have used it myself but not on a hot rod - yet! Cheers Alan

Wouldn't change a thing! Excellent recipe of parts to produce this look. Cheers Alan

What a great set! I have 3 of the 5 done ( Little Deuce, Little T and Little Tub) and have plans for the Little Drag. I will be using your Little Drag as a blueprint. And yes, your models are currently on the Sunday Models page of the H.A.M.B. A member there regularly posts photos copied from this site onto that site. Unfortunately he never acknowledges the builder of the model! Some people have taken him to task on this issue but he does not respond. A weird way of doing things to my mind. Cheers Alan

I must have missed this one first time around but like everyone else, I am very impressed with your bare metal finish. Just to back up how authentic it is, here is a local West Aussie car owned and built by Marcel Berkhout from a Brookville body. The car has been on the road for about eight years now and still looks like this. It is a real hot rod having been driven all over Australia, and without a roof! Sadly, local licensing laws force us to run cycle fenders so we just have to put up with that abomination. I'll tell him to add a Moon tank next time I see him! Cheers Alan