alan barton

That's a really clean assembly job, Keith, the first one I have seen completed. I do like your black and white photos too. They also answer a question I was going to ask - how close is the custom grille from grease to a 42 Ford grille - unfortunately, it seems that it is more custom and less 42 Ford! Still like it! Cheers Alan.

Stunning - make sure you put it on the Group 29 thread in the cars Under Glass section! Cheers Alan

Great to see this thread revived! Rockin' Rodney, I love the bucket - I assume you used the Ala Kart body? And with the painted windsceen posts, your roadster reminds me of a coupester, when guys chopped the roof off a coupe to make a roadster. Bernard, love the rub through on the high points of your roadster. I've managed to do that for real in a few places on my old girl! Clifford Read, your work continues to set a standard to which I strive - the detail you fit into such a small space, so cleanly, is just amazing. Thank you for sharing it with us all. And Paul, love the dash detail in your roadster, as well as the inner door panels. Great to see the extra effort to get these details looking good. Cheers Alan

Just to be clear on the Model A body line, Tom, the roadster you show is a 29, the coupe is a 30 or 31. They have entirely different body lines anyway. Great photos by the way but in this case we are comparing Granny Smith Apples to Pink Lady apples, still apples but different variants! The cabriolet had its own body lines on the door tops but I will have to check to see how these compare with the real thing. Loving this build Daniel. I've never opened the doors on this kit but if I was going to, I would have a full inner door fabricated and glued in place before I started cutting. That Monogram plastic is brittle at the best of times and that front pillar is going to be SCAAAary thin! Cheers Alan

I am very lucky to live in Australia where we have had a total of 100 deaths altogether. Really bad for those 100 people but way better than other countries. If it hadn't been for a monumental SNAFU where one state government let 3500 people roam free off a virus infected cruise ship, it would have been even less. One nursing home and one ship have been the source of nearly 50% of our fatalities. I have been working from home for over two months and it is pretty boring but, hey, I'm still getting paid so I have no right to complain. They are talking about us going back to work next week. I try to take the roadster for a drive each week because it is a car that has always hated being parked. It needs love too! We didn't have a full lock down, it was more like, "Be careful folks, and only do what you have to do." I have been to a hardware a couple of times and the local hobby shop a couple of times. 99.9% of people are doing the right thing. We did have a full lock down of both state and international borders fairly early and that has helped a lot. A bit easier to do when you are one whopping big island! One thing that does bug me is our two national football codes who have been obsessed with playing on ever since the virus first hit. They kept playing long after everyone else holed up, and now are screaming that the season has to restart, like they are the most important people on the planet. Having zero interest in football, I disagree with their self-imposed importance! On the other hand, our main auto racing code, V8 Supercars, went virtual, with all the drivers racing Playstation style on tracks all over the world. Not my cup of tea but at least they made the best of it! I have finished 9 models since Jan 1 which is a record for me. It is not that I have so much more time, more that I have become more focussed and stay away from the idiot box. To everyone out there who is not doing so well (and we hear about the USA situation every night on the news) my best wishes to you all and I hope that the end is in sight for your suffering. Cheers Alan

I admire your tenacity, Robert. Window openings and swage lines have always been stumbling blocks for me when I have attempted more advanced bodywork. Un-chopping is more difficult than chopping, as I found out when I tackled unchopping the Ohio George 33 Willys coupe! Would it be worth cutting out entirely new door frames from styrene and laminating in levels to produce the swage lines around the window openings? I guess that is what you hinted at in your last post. I think otherwise that dor frame is going to be as fragile as a Pringle! Cheers Alan

I always loved the way Pro Stock Vegas would be doing a wheel stand with the front wheels up yet the rocker panels were sitting dead level! Completely off topic, I know, but I had to say it - did that float anyone else's boat? So back on topic, put me down for a 67 Impala wagon. What a boat - the perfect cross country drag team tow car. Yum yum yum! Cheers Alan

Mike, I personally don't believe that a collector would hunt you down for that body. They want mint, unmolested. Yours has already had one or two lifetimes, you are simply going to give it a third! Or, on a more mercenary angle, if you were to die tomorrow, that body will get thrown out by your family. Guaranteed. On the other hand, if you had done a nice upgrade, it would be displayed in your memory and may last many more decades. See, you saved it! Now stop wasting time and start building! Cheers Alan

I'm not sure if this is the type of info you are looking for but here are some of my general opinions about radiator detailing. First, radiator tanks are almost always stamped in one piece so carefully sanding off the mould line that generally runs across the centre goes a long way here. It also pays to add some small round stubs of styrene rod or tube for the radiator hose inlets and the filler neck. In my opinion, most model companies do a great job of moulding radiator fins and I am not sure why anyone would want to use mesh to replace it. Some are better than others so it doesn't hurt to search through your stash because you can always cut something down if necessary. AMT 1/25th scale truck radiators are a great source for this. You can only see through a radiator if you are sitting exactly at eye height to the radiator and with a strong light behind it, maybe with the hood up on a sunny day. The rest of the time, the radiator looks solid. I recall seeing models in magazines where the modeller had proudly detailed his radiator core by making it from layers of fly screen - and that's what it looked like! Most modellers, me included, paint their radiators flat black but lately I have been trying semi gloss black. Most radiator shops paint the radiator a fairly high gloss black when you get it back from them but this never looks right in 1/25th scale. Finally, many modellers paint the top tank in a copper or brass colour. I have never worked out why! Having been attending car shows in four countries for nearly 50 years, it is extremely unusual for someone to do that, (ie, polish the top tank) except of course on a brass era car. And for good reason - black works better! In modern times, aluminium radiators have become popular in performance applications so you do see some silver ones - Tamiya Polished aluminium spray is a good match here. Hope that helps a little Cheers Alan

Wow, that is slick. That has to be one of the best "through the scale window" shots I have ever seen - your interior work is phenomenal. I have used that Champagne Gold metallic before and it can be challenging! Wouldn't have thought of it for a 40 but seeing yours has me thinking abut putting it on a 48 coupe. Cheers Alan

Some awesome photos in this post - thanks for starting it Snake. Like you, I can't say I have ever heard of anyone referring to this design. Slingshot would have been perfect if it hadn't continued on to cover the evolution of all front engined dragsters from that time forward. Dog sled is growing on me! Cheers Alan

Love the small headlights. I like big headlights as well but it seems like for the past decade or say every nostalgia build has had the big ones - these suit the build perfectly! I also enjoyed your grey and white colour scheme for the interior. That is a nice bunch of parts you used in there to bring it to life! Cheers Alan

Roger, I know I reckoned you should give it a rebuild but that is very, very nice. A beautifully sensitive restoration. Cheers Alan

When they say, "And now, for your viewing pleasure," this is what the mean. When you can look at a custom that someone else built and think "wouldn't change a thing", that just says how beautifully balanced this custom is. A real credit to you Steve. Perfect chop, luscious fade-away, impressive engine detailing, beautiful taillight , pure eye candy! Cheers Alan

You used to see displays like this in Model Car Science all the time! This one looks fabulous and is a perfect enhancement to the model on display. Era perfect too! Some years ago my club did a display at our NNL on a 4x8 sheet of ply. There were over forty cars on display in a modular show setting and it looked stupendous. I tried to float the idea of an international modular show display, like the N scale railroaders do, when I used to post on the other Forum but the idea sunk without a trace. Maybe it's time to get it going again? I'll see if I can find some photos to show what we did. Great work Rodney, inspiration galore right here! Cheers Alan

Wow, I had no idea this thread would attract so many high quality and interesting builds. I've still got a few left in my stash, might have to get onto them also. Bill, love your Kiwi Kars! I have been psyching myself up to do a grey paint job for a while - your coupe might just put me over the edge! Cheers Alan

The colour really suits your build and the lowering paid off in spades! Cheers Alan

Did this one start as the ZZ Top kit? I have a mate who drives a very similar one, just with a flathead instead of a hemi head! Cheers Alan

Those additional touches make it perfect now! Cheers Alan

I don't know where to start with this one! You took a bunch of parts and proportions that on paper would sound OMG to the max but it looks like it should have been that way all along. I'd love to see a shiny version, just for a contrast. One thing that tripped my eye up just slightly in its journey from front to rear was the rusty side pipes. I wonder if a set of covers made from a really fine mesh would smooth out the journey? Anyhow, that's just my opinion. I think it is a wildly creative model and a really fresh look at some old parts. Who knew Centrelines from the seventies could look so appropriate in the 2020s? Cheers Alan

Yeah, that works! I get that you wanted to keep it simple and I think you did that exceptionally well but boy, I would love to see it with a chopped carson top. Then it would go from being great to stellar, at least in my eyes. Your bodywork on all those louvred panels is exceptional. Cheers Alan

Wow, I love what you did here, not just because it is a beautiful model with a unique character like everyone else has said, but also because I have already severed the front off a woodie to tackle the same conversion. In contrast to yours, mine will be a taildragger custom but your execution and your tips will be a great help when I start mine. Thanks for that! Cheers Alan

That works so well. A very believable conversion and the colour is a natural for it. Cheers Alan

That's pretty cool. It reminds me of the box art on the original Aurora 34 Five window kit. Cheers Alan

Just working on these models myself so it is good to see how another modeller interprets them. I particularly like your blue altered dragster. In the rear shot, I notice you have your rear fenders at two different heights. Trying two different looks or did one slip/ Don't worry, I only noticed it because it ahppened to me once! Cheers Alan