traditional

That's true, Harry, but for me, that's a small price to pay for having Danbury back in the game. Maybe the limited trunk opening will keep the spare from getting misplaced. Danbury is just starting to get a factory back up to speed, and I think that the '48 Chebby was a pretty successful start. They had another factory about to introduce a repaint on the '47 Ford sedan as well as the '37 Studebaker coupe but so far, neither of those have worked out due to quality control issues. I have to give Danbury lots of credit for being strong on QC.

I believe that that wire is supposed to have gone to the carburetor (manual choke cable). Fixing that issue was first thing I did when I received the model. The model is really beautiful and the fit/finish is second to none.

A few months ago I built a 1/24 scale 1951 Studebaker as an NHRA '62 era drag race legal C/GAS coupe. My brother, Larry, pointed out that this might be an appropriate time to construct the 1948 Studebaker M16 truck he had been casually planning, but now build and outfit it as a '62 era race car hauler. A couple of the following pics describe the array of parts...brass, styrene, and diecast that he used, modified, and scratch-built over the month of February. He brought the assembly to my paint booth about 2 weeks ago and the truck has now been assembled. The starting point was an Ertl 1947 Studebaker pickup that did not have an opening engine hood and the doors had incredibly long dog-leg hinges. Using plenty of acquired reference material, the first step was to modify the cab appropriately and proportionally by separating the engine hood, raising its front profile and adjusting the lower hood gap angle, widening the fenders and enlarging their radiussed opening, creating correct door hinges (exposed at the bottom but hidden at the top), enlarging the height and width of the windshield, creating the engine firewall, etc. The axle and working steering is made of soldered brass, as are the bumper, upper hood latch, complete ramp frame and body structure, door mirrors, directional lights, tail lights, etc. The interior is detailed with inner front panels, levers, door panels with separate cranks and handles, editing of the dash radio but inclusion of all dash knobs and vent lever. Heater and ducting are present. The chassis structure is scratch built as are brake drums, booster brake assembly, master cylinder, safety brake, gas tank, PTO to the winch, all drive shafts (3), exhaust/muffler assembly, body to chassis attachments, and more. The Commander 226 cu. in. flathead six has all its hoses, lines, wiring, manifolding, and oil bath air filter. The hood opens with real spring scissor action, and the hood 'stay' rod pivots from its central 'under hood' position. The vent windows open and close using the unique front-pivoting action present on many Studebakers. The truck is painted in commercial colors...Studebaker Iroquois Blue with the black fenders being standard on virtually all Studebaker trucks of that era. Larry claims he put in at least 9 hours a day for a month and a half, but was patient and found it was inspiring for the most part. He's excited and pleased with the final result. I'm also very pleased to see it with my '51 GAS coupe mounted on the ramp body. I hope the resulting concept may work for you too.

I've had one of FM's police trailers (came with a goofy '33 Ford police car, based on their great stock '33) for some time just waiting for the right project on which to use it and since the trailer uses fat fenders not unlike a '40 Ford, I decided to modify it for my recently finished '40 Ford rod. The skirts were ground off, the broken rear hinge replaced, and the '33 Ford bumper/ tail-light details removed and replaced with units to reflect the '40 Ford rod. Paint and interior now also follow the coup's theme, and a more realistic hitch detail was fabricated in aluminum to replace the simple pin used on the FM version.

I've put pics of the finished model on 'Under Glass' yesterday afternoon.

I've just completed building this traditional '40 Ford Custom rod using a $24 1st Gear CarQuest Auto Parts promo as starting material. This promo from a couple of years ago is, in my opinion, the best proportioned '40 coupe ever.......better than any of the plastic kits and considerably better proportioned than even Danbury Mint's coupe. The promo comes as a Chevy powered, relatively hi-tech, '90s era rod with updated suspension, steering, interior, and trunk, but since I'm partial to more traditional rods from the 50s and early 60s, I decided to modify all those components back to the simple transverse spring, I-beam axle, old-school pleated interior, and traditional wheels/wide whites etc. The model was completely disassembled, stripped of paint, any unused holes filled, and the unwanted hi-tech components went into my parts bin for possible future use. The original dog-leg door hinges were ground off and discrete original Ford style hinges fabricated to replace them. The engine is now a super detailed 50s Cadillac (starting from a basic Revell engine kit) with hand made tri-power manifold, mesh filters, fuel lines, and linkage. The double core rad is fabricated from polished sheet brass, the transverse springs/shackles (front and rear) are made from individual leaves of aluminum sheet, and the steering front i-beam axle is done in soldered brass starting with a model RR brass rail. The interior pleated panels are done from model RR grooved styrene siding, the carpet (interior and trunk) is done in white felt, and the custom exhaust is fabricated in polished aluminum tubing, as are the '50s style front and rear nerf-bars. The front and rear windows are made in poly-carbonate sheet with the gaskets done in black wire from a craft store. Paint is custom mixed automotive two-part basecoat/clearcoat. Like all models, I'll probably fiddle with a few details over the next while but for all intent, the model is now complete.

Yes it's a 1st gear diecast '40 Ford coupe ....originally a $24 'Car Quest' diecast promo. I think that diecast is the best proportioned '40 coupe of all.....better than any plastic kits and even better than Danbury's versions. The dog-leg doors had to be modified into discreet hinges and all the '90s hi-tech details have been removed and modified into a traditional '50s style custom rod...transverse leaf springs and i-beam axle etc. It's almost finished and as soon as it is, I'll post it on 'Under Glass'.

My current project is a '50s era traditional '40 Ford coupe hot rod and I've been detailing the Cadillac engine (Revell engine kit) with tri-carbs/mesh filters, linkage, fuel lines, plumbing etc. Then, I decided to make a handmade brass heavy duty rad to cool this large engine.....it's been time consuming but fun. The model should be complete in the next few days, and the fuel lines will line up evenly once I can mount the fuel block to the firewall.

I've just completed (last evening) this Hot Rod from a stock diecast '33 Ford. I find that diecast models often have better proportions that their plastic kit counterparts, so I have no reservations about using them as the basis for some of my models This particular starting material was missing just about every trim piece...door handles, marker lights, wiper, etc. and was therefore super inexpensive at a toy show. The model was first of all completely stripped of parts and paint, before any unused holes were filled with bondo. I've lowered the suspension front and rear and added a Buick engine from the AMT '40 Ford kit with tri-carb manifold and added linkages, fuel lines, plug wires, water pump and cooling plumbing etc. The air filter is handmade using mesh as well as photo-etched wing-nuts etc. Wheels are chrome steelies from a Revell '32 Ford kit with '55 Buick caps from a cheap diecast police car. The dual exhaust is bent up from polished aluminum tubing, the body paint is basecoat/clearcoat, and the interior and trunk carpeting are done in light brown felt.

That looks absolutely real...and beautiful. Wonderful work!

David, you do beautiful models and I've enjoyed seeing every one of them. Have a great 2013.

OK, the '55 Buick wasn't really much of a model project....just a stripping and repaint of a 'low-buck' diecast police car but I've included it because it was the last project of the year. The others were much more time consuming with lots of fabricating etc. I'm retired now and, since we had an extremely hot and dry summer here in Ottawa, I had plenty of time to spend on models in my cool basement work area. 2012 was a very enjoyable year for me Have a great New Year everyone. Cliff

My twin brother, Larry, brought this model over to show me.......A '50s White 3000 short wheelbase pumper modified from some of his surplus parts and assemblies leftover from previous projects. He also added lots of his own fabricated parts such as fuel tanks/fillers, power take-off and lines for the pump, siren, folded flat hoses (made from color-dyed shoelaces, hand rails, and hose leads etc. The cab and chassis originated on a DM Campbell's Soup van, and the main pumper body was from a Yatming Mack fire engine He told me that the wheelbase of the White only had to be modified a small amount to center the rear wheels in the fender wells, and almost all of the major parts were from his parts bin. I think he did a beautiful job on this cute pumper and I'm always really pleased when surplus parts go to some good use.

That T-Bird is one of the prettiest builds I've ever seen.....and wonderful pics as well.

Ok, I realize that these 1955 Buicks are 1/26 scale and some of you may not handle that too well, but since I tend to collect and build in all scales, I enjoyed modifying and painting a civilian version from a $10 Maisto police car (a quick and relatively simple project). I also painted the wheels of the police car black ( instead of the chrome versions as modeled by Maisto). These models will never be confused with super detailed models or 'precision diecast', but to me they're quite reasonably proportioned and interesting enough to include in my collection. On the civilian Buick, various holes were filled and the paint is automotive basecoat/clearcoat with foil and fine wire trim and tiny paint details picked out with Humbrol and Tamiya . I hope some of you may enjoy seeing both these diecasts.

That first pic looks REAL !!! Excellent work.

Harry, those illustrations are truly outstanding and you obviously handled the Photoshop transition really skillfully. I'm very impressed with your talent. Although the computer design programs were coming in during my last few years as an Industrial Designer, I was still able to successfully continue using my drawing and modelling skills until I retired. Certainly, the younger designers were coming in with computer skills and the entire profession is now completely tied to the use of computer design tools .. The only shortcoming that I notice is that the younger designers now have less ability to 'ideate'...throw out a bunch of ideas and alternatives at the beginning of a project. They tend to develop one idea on the computer and perhaps miss opportunities to differentiate in the marketplace. Although I'm long retired, I still get contracts from time to time from some of my friends in the business to explore a variety of ideas in quick sketch form. My ability to look at products from another angle and explore different ideas has netted me 127 patents over the years. These days, though, I much prefer my hobbies.......1/1 cars and scale models, and I'm tending to refuse design contracts.... for selfish reasons only.

I guess I'm a bit of a 'Luddite' because, although I happily use the computer for communication, downloading digital pics, and browsing hobby stuff, I am too intimidated by anything but relatively simple tasks on the computer. That's not to say that I'm unimpressed by computer art...Photoshop, Alias, etc......I'm truly amazed by it. It's just not something that I expect to ever have the dedication or time to learn. You know...you can't teach an old dog..........

I use Letraset A4 paper (bleedproof) and, yes, I start with a rough pencil or pen sketch which I then slip under the A4 paper and use Pilot pens for the tighter line drawing. The markers are Pantone and the highlights are Prismacolor white pencil with the white flashes (I call them bird s--t) done with dabs of old style typing 'white-out'. I have various curves and ellipse guides that I have left over from my 'Industrial Design' days. The Letraset paper is great because it allows the controlled blending of the markers without the 'spreading' that happens on most absorbent papers.

Hi Kyle, I'm in the Ottawa area, but I don't belong to the IPMS club here because I believe they're too stuck in the 'plastic only' groove. I tend to build models in many materials now and, fortunately, many of the IPMS groups in other cities have now relaxed the 'plastic' laws to include modelling in any material.......modelling is modelling! The show that they put on in Ottawa is called CAPCON and I believe that it happens this coming September. If you call one of the local hobby shops, I'm sure that they can put you in touch with the Ottawa IPMS. Cliff Read

These marker sketches were done 6 or 7 years ago when I was just in the mood for doing something other than working on 1/1 cars or scale models. Some of the vehicles are from memory and many use reference to real vehicles although not necessarily in the illustrated position. Only two represent a particular real vehicle..the '58 Reventlow Scarab, and the Isetta that my brother and I own and restored 20 years ago. As you can see, the subject matter represents my somewhat traditional hot rod tastes.

John, that little Bantam looks so cool.......a great stance and so nice with the detailed hot Six. Bye-the -way, my brother, Larry, is just down the road from you in Puslinch, Ont.

Now-a-days, thanks to the internet, I find it relatively easy to find info like this on a Google search. You sometimes have to reword the search a couple of times to get the info you need but usually it's out there somewhere.