My 2015 Retrospective

[Bernard Kron]

2015 was an interesting year in modeling for me. It was definitely The Year Of The Decal, with every one of the seven models I finished based on some sort of decal-based theme, enhancement, or experiment. Every one featured decals I made myself, but the purpose of the decals varied widely, from a detail accent item like the decals used to make the leopard skin interior for my ’49 Ford to whole paint jobs such as the fog paneling on the A Fuel dragster I built.

The other unusual thing for me is that the majority of projects were driven by deadline-based community builds or contest themes: the streamliner was for one of the 2 NNL West themes (LSR), the ‘49 Ford and the Deuce 5-window were both built as part of the TRaK forum’s primer CPB, the Fiat Competition Coupe was in response to a Foreign Car dragster Challenge on the Vintage Drag Models forum, and even the ’37 Chevy Dirt Tracker was built as a means to introduce myself to the members of the Scale Racing Lobby forum. The ’40 Ford Box Art project was actually part of a CPB on the Australian Automotive Model Builders Forum acknowledging the 75th anniversary of the 1940 Ford. I think I used the deadlines as a trick to keep myself focused on a given project. Even so several builds were left unfinished at year’s end, which I’m beginning to accept as normal.

So here they are, in chronological order. I think, while they are all Old School and hot rod oriented, they represent a more novel and varied lineup than in recent years. I’m looking forward to the time when my skills are .good enough to break completely free from my current comfort zone and indulge in styles and types of cars that I haven’t done up to now.

All my best for a Happy and rewarding 2016 and…
Thanx for lookin’
B.

Early 50’s Bonneville Streamliner - Built for the LSR theme of the 2015 NNL West, this is currently a curbside. The bellypan is removable and I intend to return to it and give it a full-detail treatment with chassis and engine in the future.

’37 Chevy Dirt Track Modified - Completely out of my comfort zone, while this is largely Out-Of-The Box, it demanded extensive research on my part to make sure it looked authentic and appropriate. This will definitely not be the last circle tracker I build. Lots of bold decals to complement the strong, bright yellow and red paint scheme. Huge fun to do and very satisfying.

Slammed ’49 Ford Custom - Primer cars really attract ne but I find them extremely challenging to do well. The primer itself tends to be fragile and suffers during the process of building up the model since I tend to paint my cars fairly early in the build process. In addition, to look right they require a certain looseness in attitude when styling them – something shared by a good rat rod or beater build. This one has decals, too, but they are hidden in the interior where they were used to create a leopard skin upholstery design.

The Silver Slipper A Fuel Dragster - I built two diggers this year. This was the first and the major point here was a decal experiment where I used full body panels of transparent blue decals over silver to simulate the fogged paint job. I plan to work on this some more because I think it’s an important technique for future projects.

The Terrible Topolino Fiat Competition Coupe - I went away for the summer and on my return I built another digger, this time using a resin Fiat body for the Vintage Drag Models challenge. Once again, decals played a big roll, this time providing the strong graphics of an otherwise plain white car.

AMT ’40 Ford Tudor Box Art Build - By this time the whole decal thing was well established on my bench. I landed up restoring and reproducing a set of vintage AMT decals for this 75th anniversary 1940 Ford project which was a Box Art replica from the original issue AMT ‘39/’40 Ford Tudor Tropgy Series release.

Deuce 5-window Highboy - Looking at 6 builds for 2015 I decided to push it to 7 with a quick 10 day thrash based on the Revell ’32 Ford 5-window kit. These Revell Deuce kits are rather familiar to me (I’ve built well in excess of 20 of them…) so they are perfect “therapy” builds for me – relaxing and straightforward as a break from more challenging projects. But even here I landed up doing a decal for the grill panel… Definitely 2015 was the year of the decals!

Edited July 20, 2017 by Bernard Kron

[bobthehobbyguy]

Nicely done. Great collection.

[DeeCee]

Some very nice builds there Bernard.

[crazyrichard]

cool builds an great taste !

[GTJUNIOR]

Great looking collection of builds you've got there. 

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks everyone. A real pure rod and kustom year for me, doubling down on this subject matter. I'm surprised we don't see more of it among modelers. The new Revell '29 Ford Roadster release certainly has proved popular. In any case your interest is much appreciated.

[bbowser]

Great collection.  I really like the '40 Tudor.

[DumpyDan]

Nice collection, variety is the spice of life   

[rmvw guy]

All super nice builds.

[10thumbs]

An excellent collection.  Bernard, something really worth mentioning is the way, and the manner in which you delve into each and every project you approach.  This is just an immense effort from your side, and something that I just have to plainly say, is outstanding.  I have never, ever experienced anything like this before and I'm a grateful soul for your efforts.  You know what i speak of now.

You are one of the most refreshing personalities I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with on a personal level, read PM's, on any forum that I've ever visited or been a member.

You sir, are a great benefit when it comes around to bare facts, and a wonderful resource for info should one choose to make a correct replica model.

Many thanks.

Michael

[bobthehobbyguy]

Forgot to mention love the exposed chassis with body over shots. How are you doing the effect. 

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks again for all the kind comments from you all. Michael, I'm, especially moved. Just keep up the great work you are doing.

Bob, the "cutaways" are done by using a tripod and the timer on my digital camera, along with some basic Photoshop techniques. I'm not using anything fancy in the camera department, it's an old Fuji E900 9 megapixel snapshot camera. But the tripod allows me to takes a sequence of shots without (hopefully) moving either the model or the camera so that everything remains lined up and in register. Here's what I mean.

I start by taking a "master shot" with the body panels in place:

Then I remove the body panels and take the chassis shot:

Then, in Photoshop I "erase" all the chassis stuff and body parts that won't be in the final cutaway and make a body overlay:

Then I copy and paste the body overlay in position over the frame shot:

Photoshop has a few other tricks like being to make layers "transparent" but this is the basic approach. If you are building a model where the interior stuff will be permanently hidden by body panels and other structure that's glued in place then you have to remember to shoot the underlying image and the mounted-in-place bodywork during an advanced mockup stage if you plan to do a photo-cutaway like this. That's why so far I mainly do them on open-wheeled race cars and hot rods and maybe the occasional under hood engine compartment "ghost" shot.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Bernard Kron

[bobthehobbyguy]

Bernard thanks for the info. Always thought that style of photograph was really cool. Really makes the models pop.

[Phildaupho]

I enjoyed your 2015 model retrospective. Especially like your "cut-away" photography. The decal treatment on the Silver Slipper worked very well.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks Phil!

[Ramfins59]

Great work on your "year of the decal" Bernard.

[Bernard Kron]

Broken Photobucket links repaired. For now I'm only updating completed model pics. Updating w.i.p. links is just too huge a task! I'll update them on request...