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Cool front end, almost looks like some of the urethane mounts that they are using today. The front axle is really interesting, it does look like some of the fronts that Chassis Research and a few others were using in form, the shape is much wilder! All in all the car is great!

That was my next step to go with a frame built out of Evergreen tubing, I have already bought the 2" X 3" scale sized tubing to build it. Would love to see what you did on yours, it "sits" really well that's why I was sort of thinking "Little T" that frame can be made to look really good with a few tweaks too.q

Wow! Steelies are not modern at all, nor are those hubcaps or beauty rings. That combination has been around forever, I like it a whole lot better than wire wheels, even the Kelsey Hayes "Bent Spoke" wire wheels. Those wheels are probably off of something really "new" like a Forty or something. That combination was popular when swapping mechanical brakes for "Juice" brakes from a Forty or later Ford. Take a look at the "Lakes Roadsters" from the 40's and 50's and you'll see that combination of Big-n-Littles on a whoe lot of them. Nothing wrong with that "Banger" engine either. That car is about as Traditional as they come. If you were talking about the AMBR Winner, that's another well executed Hot Rod. The wheel design is definitely not a modern one, they're either original Halibrand or nice copies of the original Halibrand design. Paint work is right out of the early it mid 60's, in my mind the only thing that deters from the lines of the car is the way the hood is hinged, it's not that bad though. There was just a '33 - '34 in Rodders Journal a few issues ago along the lines of this one, they're hardly billet promoters! This would be a take on '60's Traditional. I'd clear out a spot in my garage for this one to park. Edited due to Autocorrect inserting the wrong word in place of the right word!

Blair, what frame did you use under that? Looks really good, sits right, especially if you look at full size Highboy T Coupes. Most frames have that slight stretch to them that you've got down just right. That's not a modified Monogram "T Bucket" frame which probably would trace back to the Little T is it? I have a Flintstone '27 Coupe that I've been trying to come up with a decent, plausable frame for. The AMT '25 T Coupe frame looks too narrow and short, Revell Tweedy Pie is way too short, AMT '25 T "Fruit Wagon" looks way long. I don't have a Monogram T frame on hand to try, but being that it is 1/24 scale it might look right under my coupe with alterations. I've seen a few full size T Coupes on Deuce frames, they just don't look quite right even if they're narrowed or pinched. I'll keep an eye on this one, you've already got a winning combination going here!

Brush painting models was a lot like sign painting, you didn't slop paint on straight from the bottle and get a smooth finish. When I was a kid my Uncle showed me how to brush paint and get a decent finish. He showed me that you wet the brush in thinner then load with paint, this makes the paint flow off the brush in a smooth fashion. (I learned his same principle doing Signs.) The other thing is to use a good quality brush, really soft "camel hair" brush. (Incidentally a camel hair brush is not made of camels hair, probably a lesser quality squirrel hair.) The third thing is to brush in one direction only, not back and forth this gets small air bubbles in the finish and makes brush marks. Just using a good brush and thinner will yield a good quality finish which could be polished out probably good enough to rival rattle can. I thought someone posted pictures of a couple of really nicely brush painted models, I think it was one of our "Foriegn Corespondents". Hopefully someone remembers that thread too so they can link it to this one. Point is, it can be done. Takes patience, it's a learned skill that does take a bit more work to get right, done right it can yield a deep lustrous finish.

No wonder we used to burn and firecracker models! Hopefully none of those survived. I can see the fleaBay auction now, "Super Rare Big Wheel Ferrari, Last One Known To Exist...." That one looks like it needs a lot of help from some Testers orange label (toluene) Model glue and a couple of very large firecrackers, now that would be a real glue bomb!

I was impressed when I saw your amazing work in the magazine, this is something else all together! Almost a shame to cover that up with paint, which looks great too by the way.

The "Little T" always makes me wax nostalgic, one of the first few kits that I built with the help of my Uncle. He showed me how to do light detail paint, use sewing thread for plug wires, Polish the plastic body to a really nice shine. Today, I'd love to have a coupe "Little T's" one to recreate the memory, another to swap in an injected Nailhead to create TV Tomy Ivo's T Bucket. From what I remember the Little T was/is a well designed kit, the bones were there to build pretty much any late 50's early 60's "High End" T Bucket Hot Rod. Funny in all the times that I built that kit I always used the small block Chev engine, but I can't remember how well Monogram did it. If it was anything like the rest of the kit it would have been well done, back when model companies were really competing for the Dollar or Two they got per kit.

Normally just use a calculator, just as easy to divide by 25 to get the dimension.

Entering this a little late but I picked up the Fruit Wagon, I didn't think that the amount of flash was that bad. I have noticed that on some kits that I've bought multiples of that there is always one kit out of the bunch that has a little more flash than the others, probably the fault of an individual set of molds versus the kit. There are a lot of things that could be done to tighten up molds, it has to be cost effective for the manufacturer to do so though.

Drew, That's beautiful! Did you do anything special to those wire wheels? Those have to be about the most realistic wire wheels Ive seen in scale. Your clear coated plastic is amazing, can't use a "Hot" Clear Coat and get away with that too many times I'd bet. Love going to the "All British Field Meets", there are a couple within an hour or three that the Mini Club I belong to attends as a club every year. Morgan is always well represented, from the vintage to nearly new what a beautiful car in full size too. Lotus is another Brit manufacturer that always has a lot of cars in it's group, especially the Sevens and variant spinn offs. Good place to get fret reference pictures for British cars, they're held all over he US even UK!

As a "Actual Size" Mini owner, I like it! Good job! Thanks for sharing.

I understood the question from the beginning, this same ideology pervades nearly every hobby where creativity and skill is a factor. I see it when I attend nearly any car show, whether it be a Mark Specific, British even Hot Rod show. There are rivet counters in nearly every hobby. This type of mentality both burns people out on their hobbies and creates bad feelings which eventually lead to people leaving ______________ (insert hobby). Look at the Riddler Award competitors, until recently the builders were an ever changing group, it would drive the average person nuts to build to this level each and every car built, to ask a person to build to that level on every project is too much to even expect. That's where the personal drive and devotion to their hobby come into play, it has to be up to the builder alone not the minions. Do individuals owe it to the hobby to knock it out of the park with every single model they build, no they don't. Why shouldn't a highly skilled builder be forced to build super detail every time they build, sometimes it might be something they choose to build to experiment with a concept of a highly detailed model. I think we saw this in the 80's with the "Slammers" models which focused on the body and bodywork, executing the best paint the builder could pull off. These models were both criticized by some and loved by others, from what I remember they started out as design concepts which were entered in contests. From what I recall there were people as upset with this type of model as a village chasing Frankenstein with garden tools! Let people build what and how they want to build, if it bothers you maybe you're the one with the issue not the builder. Only then will the hobby grow and attract new blood, acting like a bunch of inbred whiners will do nothing but drive accomplished builders as well as the prospective builders of the future away in droves.

Only one mistake! The New MINI is spelled in all caps, while the Classic Mini has only the "M" capitalized, I used to know why, if I remember it had to do something with Liscensing when BMW bought the rights to the Mini name and concept. Now for your MINI, that's a nice job, checkered roofs are always good, surprised that you don't see a whole lot of modified MINI on the road. I would have thought by now that the prices on the MINI would have dropped enough that more of the Tuners could afford to be modifying them.

Very Nice Rendition of a '67, you did good!

Morris Minor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Parklane That reminds me of one of (I think) Steve Stanford's designs of a '55 or '56 Ford 2Door Wagon that he rendered with Crown Vic' Molding over the roof, he showed it in the Aqua and White, the Minty Green color here would look good too. Now that's a Ford I could like. I'd love to see a '55 or '56 come out too, I'll be getting one or two of the '57 wagons they look really sweet with all the Hot Rod trimmings, doll that Y-block up with the T-bird aluminum valve covers and air cleaner and you've got a winner. The Auto Transport trailer, even though I'm not much of a truck modeler im thinking it would look pretty sweet loaded up with a whole bunch of Rods & Customs. Then you'd have to find something equally as cool to tow it...

This is not the first one of these that I have seen sell from this same builder. This is the highest I've noted selling on eBay. I think that someone one here mentioned another one of this builders models. It may have even been the same year and model. I'm not into MOPAR's but I know a cleanly built when I see one. As a builder, I cannot see paying $850 for a model, especially a station wagon that's just me. I agree with the assessment that for quality artisan craftsmanship the price is probably not to at far off of the mark. There is probably a market for quality built models the average Joe doesn't think exists. If they see something that appears to be either difficult to build or obtain, they can justify paying this kind of money for it. It's also something that has been going on with quality built aircraft models for some time. This shows that there are fewer people than ever building models, they figure they cannot build something like that because they've never built anything. I see nothing wrong with being able to market and profit from your skills, happens every day. Actually I'm sort of envious!

Beautiful work, Bernard, sorry to hear about the bump in the road on the paint. More like a Seattle Pothole! That interior should be something to see once finished.

A lot of those early model paint formulas more than likely included lead. The lead gave them better coverage, helped smooth things out a little. These old paints spray well with lacquer thinner.

I believe that Fiat is modeled or close copy of a real race car that appeared in Hot Rod back when the middle section was printed on pulp paper.

I checked in with my friend other day on Facebook, asked about his folks car. Yes it was a 429 SCJ, no Shaker Hood, at least that's what he says. I don't remember a Shaker Hood either, I do remember it being fast for a grocery getter! I can't remember if it had AC either, back then here in western Washington not many sprung for AC unless it was already on the car. His Dad was an Engineer for Lockheed Missle Division, he liked fast cars and could afford them. He at one time had a big Healey with a 351-W in it, kids and Mom were Banned from driving that one, I never got a ride in it but the stories were legendary even when he owned it. Anyway I remember a ride in that Torino Wagon, it was a nine passenger wagon, they had four kids. Everyone but the Dad was along for the ride we had gone to Tacoma (WA). I cannot remember just what got his Mom going but she got ticked about something, when she would (still does) get mad her normally heavy right foot got even heavier! She got pulled over doing almost 100, when the highway speed limit was 70. She calmed down and put her nice Mommy face on, telling the State Trooper there was no way this car could do that fast loaded with all these kids! "But Mam, I had you on Radar at XYZ MPH". OH, no this is a station wagon everyone knows station wagons can't go that fast, there must be something wrong with your Radar thing. "I see Mam, please try to slow down a little Mam, have a nice day!" The Trooper Let Her Go!! We were sworn to secrecy, something which worked in our favor a time or two. The end for the Torino came after his Mom got pulled over doing some ridiculous speed, after the Speed Limit got dropped,to 55 MPH; she wasn't able to "negotiate" her way out of that ticket. My Mom was in the car with her, I heard. The sordid details when she told my Dad. We still get a good laugh about her driving, when we get together, the Torino Wagon is almost always brought up.

A friend's dad ordered a similar '70 Torino wagon,it had a Super Cobra Jet 428 (I think it was a 428, could have been a 429) that one was a really deep burgundy with black interior. They ordered it from the local Ford dealer drove back to Indiana, picked up the Torino along the way and then took in the Indy 500. Those cars had to have been the ultimate sleepers! Up until now theirs was the only similar Torino wagon that I've heard of, probably a few more, back then you ordered whatever you wanted and they built it to order.

I'm a '56 model year, from a blue collar one income family, my mom never worked after the kids came along. Not sure what came before but they drove a '50 Olds up until around 1962, when a '57 Ford Wagon joined the family. Olds was sold to an uncle, probably again because of a lame trade in offer. They drove the '57 until they got a '66 Olds Vista Cruiser, 9 passenger no less! The Ford was another private sale, but the Olds was a year end Demo car probably half-year as was common then. They were still driving the Vista Cruiser when Dad finally broke down and got a second car which was a '61 VW Bug, a sunroof to boot. I think that it was probably around '67 when the Bug joined the family from then on dad's work car was a Bug, he'd run them until they literally wore out. Don't think he ever paid over $500 for any of the Bugs he owned either. The third vehicle in the fleet was pretty humorous when my dad got it was a '74 Chev Camper Special which had a 454 with headers, Edelbrock intake, Holley Double Pumper, RV cam and built up automatic, can you say Burn Out! Going from a Bug to a pickup without the camper must have been fun, he laid some pretty good Posi black marks out of the driveway, unitentional of course. (I can attest to that pickup's ability to churn the tires with it's Posi rear end, impressed a few of my friends, bought my first set of truck tires too.). They kept all their cars somewhat longer than most, they also paid cash for every car they owned.

Oh, no I wasn't referring that they were simple to make look right, I've spent more time on Roth and Weird Oh's kits making them look and fit right than I have any other kit I've ever done. That includes some garage kits that were pretty poorly executed. The "Simple" comment refers to the number of parts, the way that they were intended to fit together. They were originally designed to be a quick easy builder which I sort of see as the "Snap Kits" of their day. (Even though they were not easy to put together.) The original Mother's Worry kit that I built really isn't a whole lot better fit wise than the later reissue, normally that's not the case. it's really only been recently that I've seen these kits built with the attention they really deserve. No one ever really thought of using filler, or fitting them together correctly, you just needed to use a little more of that stinky glue to fill in the gaps and melt things together! At least that's what I've seen in the quality of craftsmanship with some of the ones I've picked up at garage sales and off of eBay. Actually Revell did a pretty amazing job of taking Ed Roth's (or Newton's) renderings of Rat Fink, Mother's Worry, Drag Nut, Mr Gasser, Angel Fink... and all the others they made. Ed made some serious money on the sale of those kits too, until Revell sidestepped him and released them under the "Advent" brand under different names, those kits go for ridiculous money on eBay. Ed didn't get anything out of the deal until Revell probably got a cease and desist letter, which is why they probably weren't re-released until the late 80's early 90's timeframe. Even though the earlier releases were going for silly money for the time, model building as a whole hadn't experienced its second wind yet so it's even more amazing.