alan barton

I'm glad you did Chris - got a few of us motivated by the looks. The thing is, MPC never did it any favours with awkward box art and those strange headers and spoiler. In fact, there is a cool model hiding in amongst that junk, we just have to set it free! Thanks everyone for the positive comments! Cheers Alan

I like the longer chassis, really helps balance the big body. Cheers Alan

Sometimes simple is best! Nice job Chris, love the colour! Cheers Alan

Seeing as how it is International Jawbreaker week ( I just made that up!) I thought I would post my version built a few years ago. It is almost stock except obviously for the body. I wanted to reduce the visual weight of MPC's body which is kinda too big to be a Bantam and too small to be a Deuce Tudor. To accomplish this I chopped the top, reshaped the window openings a tad and cut out some surplus wheel arches. The hood scoop which is a bit "out there" is an option from one of the Polar Lights cartoon gasser cars. Cheers Alan

Here's a fresh build of the Lindberg 32 roadster, from the Round 2 reissue form a few years ago. I have a funny feeling the grille shell is upside down but that is the way it fits! I don't get too hung up about accuracy on these little puppies, they are in effect an unassembled toy and I will save micrometer accuracy for a better subject! We didn't worry about it when we got home from school and just wanted to get it built! Cheers Alan

As promised, here is the Pyro 32 roadster. Blatantly copied from the AMT Deuce, there are giveaways such as the stub of the exhaust pipe finishing on the K member and the lack of a fuel tank on the frame. Not to mention the tapered section and sloping rear quarters as seen on the AMT 1/25th scale bodies. The challenge with hot rodding these stock kits is trying to find usable tyres and wheels. There is nowhere near the range available to 1/25th scale builders so you have to make do. I think the ones used here came from a Hawk sports car model. Kinda clunky sidewall detail but it is what it is. The steering wheel is a small 1/25th item so it too is slightly oversize but until I find a better one it will have to do. Cheers Alan

Nah, I just had it raked so I didn't have to touch the rear. Seems most Bugs I've ever seen lowered in the rear had some pretty massive camber! Cheers Alan

For what it;s worth, I lowered a Revell pink Street Machine beetle about thirty years ago by simply gluing the entire front torsion bar mounts on top of the floor pan instead of the against the front edge. I had to trim the bottom of the luggage compartment for clearance but it sure got it down in the front! Cheers Alan

No worries David, I have had some amazing assistance from guys on this forum and I just want to continue the good vibes. Pm me your address and I will get these off to you ASAP. Cheers

David, I can help you a little but and maybe more than a little bit. When I was a kid, my grandfather bought a pair of Parisiennes for his caravan business every couple of years and one of them was a 68 Parisienne, just like yours with a Chevy dash. Influenced heavily by my grandfather's taste in American cars, I bought the MPC 68 convertible/pickup kit and built it with all the custom bits. Very little is left of it today. Now what is left is, believe it or not, are the two front grilles, unfortunately with the pointy bits near the middle sliced off but still fixable. I found them last night and will send them to you to help you on your mission. Now it is hard to tell you this without getting your hopes up but somewhere I believe I also have the rear bumper and taillights. Just haven't been able to find them yet. Should have been in my bumper box but hey, I got a lot of stuff and sometimes it moves to places without my knowledge! I will keep looking this weekend and see if I can unearth the bumper and taillights. If I do they are all yours. I know they are going to a good home. Wish me luck in my search! Cheers Alan

Over the years I always gathered any cheap or free NASCAR kits I could find as I build dirt track cars and the NASCAR frames, running gear and rollcages are great for that purpose. Turns out some of the nicest deep dish chrome rims you will ever find are in those kits, so like everyone else has said, just measure twice, cut once and be prepared to sand to get a flat surface. An added bonus is that if you use Monogram 1/24th scale NASCAR rims, they match up nicer to the 1/25th scale centres you might want to use. From what I hear there is a glut of NASCAR kits around these days so they could fit your budget. Cheers Alan

That stance is awesome - gunna have to buy me a yellow pencil! Where's that spare Vicky body I saw last week? Cheers Alan

I like where this is going Bill, especially considering that I have tried in the past to pull off something like this and the results were not encouraging. I've got a thirty sumptin' year old Willys/Citation rear engine transverse V6 project lurking somewhere in a UFO box - still a ways from seeing daylight again! I especially like the way you used the white styrene frame rails to tie everything back together. Knowing your open mind on design elements, have you considered opening up the windshield opening just a tad? It would make it a lot nicer to drive and would get rid of the bulbous "receding hairline" forehead look above the windshield. Or not. It is certainly a slick chop but I reckon you could still tweak it a little towards perfection. Cheers Alan

Wow, I didn't know that one existed! Thanks for showing us! looks really cool - those competition coupes really were the most awkward looking race cars of all time and yet you just have to love them! Cheers Alan

That's what I'm talking about! The daylight has nicely diffused the tones you achieved. I can smell the dust from here! I remember the Pacific NorthWest well! In 1996 I attended the first day of the Portland Swap Meet where it rained almost constantly. Walking for six hours in freezing wet overalls is not good for your health and I ended up with chronic pneumonia and off work for six weeks, not good when you are an exchange teacher at a small Alberta High School! I remember one stall holder telling me quite earnestly that it rains for three hundred and sixty days of the year, and drips off the trees for the other five! Cheers Alan

As much as "barn-find" is used to death these days, the finish you have achieved here really does epitomise the type of deterioration and grime you would expect to find when waking an old girl from a long deep slumber. Would love to see a daylight shot of this car with natural shadows. Cheers Alan

That's a really nice rendition of the real thing, Oliver. I especially like the accuracy of the scallops. I have the Hot Wheels coupe as part of my collection and didn't realise the significance of the signature on the pack - I thought it was just Hot Wheels milking it a bit! If you wanted a closer match to the real car's headlights, maybe for the next build, the AMT or Revellogram 36 Ford units might work well. Cheers Alan

This is going to be a very cool rod when it is done. That carpet effect is very convincing. But yeah, I know what it's like when you get engrossed in a project and suddenly notice your back and your eyes are screaming at you. Gotta listen to your bod! Cheers Alan

I used the rims from a Monogram S'Cool Bus on a rusty 55 Chevy towtruck and they worked a treat! The rear rims are super deep to take wrinkle slicks so they would be perfect for duals or mega wide tyres. Cheers Alan

There have been a number of NNLs in Australia but I believe the largest and longest running of them all is the Perth NNL, run by my wife and I and four close mates for twenty years. It was known as Super Model Car Sunday. We peaked at 1150 models a few years ago and considering that we are known as the most remote capital city on the planet, I reckon we did pretty well. Typically we had about seventy entrants and 600-1000 spectators. It was a true NNL, with only People's Choice and Modeller's Choice trophies awarded. On four occasions both trophies were won by the same entry! We did run an informally judged Best Junior model and occasionally gave out special awards for special efforts. There were some great goodie bags and every entrant got a free kit off the infamous Wall of Kits, proudly supported by Ace Radio Control Models and the donations of individual modellers. Last year we decided to take a break but not wanting to see it die, Rob Rattray and the members of Perth and Districts Model Club found a new venue, renamed it the Model Car Spectacular, and carried on from where our committee left off. The format closely followed the SMCS organisation with a few minor changes necessitated by it being run by a club. And how's this, they got 1404 models on the tables in their first effort! The new venue is a basketball court and had enough room for a huge 1/10th scale R/C truck demo as well as tables full of models, dioramas and a swap meet. Attendance was down a bit but the committee is already looking at better advertising for next year. Roll on the next twenty years! And the Wall of Kits continued! The only negative to all this fun is that being over 1500 miles from the nearest capital city, we have only ever attracted three entrants from the East Coast in 21 years. Otherwise, we could call it the Australian NNL Nationals! While I am here I would like to thank Tom Geiger and Roy Sorenson who gave me the inspiration back in 1996 to start this event. Cheers Alan

Great to see this back on the forum, Steve. I think most of us have some long standing UFOs so every time an old project returns to these pages it prompts us to get our own projects done! Can't wait to see the finished item. Cheers Alan

I would love to have seen the look on your face when you opened that page..........

What an amazing piece of work! Scratchbuilding at its very best! What is really impressive is that you totally captured the look of the original, the proportions, the stance, all the things you look for in a replica in any scale, using totally unrelated components and materials. I will bet it looked awesome on stage! Cheers Alan

Incredible weathering techniques and the photography is to die for! The extra detail you have created all over this car has let you produce beautiful closeup photos without destroying the illusion of reality. Congratulations on a beautiful model! Cheers Alan

Thanks for that Bill! It was one I wasn't aware of. Watched it last night during a boring session at the bench making decalled number plates! The two A-V8 roadsters at the start were worth the price of admission alone! Cheers Alan