TROG Model A Boat Tail Speedster

[Tom Geiger]

First a bit-0-background.. I have been building a series of the old Monogram Model As.  I just fell in love with the series upon rebuilding a scrap chopped coupe. And it’s built from there. Today I have five of them finished on my shelf and this will be number six!

My first TROG (The Race of Gentlemen) racer is my number 60 phaeton. This was a started and butchered original issue in the original box. It did have some of the unique accessories such as the tonneau cover with roll bar, the cycle fenders and low mounted headlights.  The theme for the then upcoming MidAtlantic NNL was TROG so I decided to build this car. 
 

And that led to my buddy Bill and I attending TROG last September. We had no excuse since it was pretty local in Wildwood, NJ.  It was a great experience that has me wanting to build more racers. Unfortunately the race has already been canceled for this September like everything else!   But we can still live through our model building!

The boat tails caught my attention. My first thought was to build my own body around a 1940 Ford hood as the above red car appears to be. That idea fizzled. 
 

Then last week I opened up a box of old built up parts cars.. and there was an Auburn with the required tail!  The kit has been around for eons, originally a Pyro tool with two part body.  I quickly pulled it apart to fiddle a bit. Now I wish I had taken photos of this donor car intact!  

Here is the Auburn body sitting on a Model A frame. Although the Auburn was a large car, it sized out fairly well next to a Monogram Model A.

And here we are today!  I have cut the Auburn cowl and Model A cowl to a point where they both matched at a taper point. They are glued together and the Model A firewall fits, along with the hood.

The body had a taper at the rear where the skirts were in the Auburn. There are two layers of sheet plastic here, one spanning the opening on the inside of the body, and a second one cut to match the opening.

Now onward to shaping and putty.

 

 

Edited July 28, 2020 by Tom Geiger

[Sam I Am]

Following along Tom. 

[Jantrix]

Your two TROG examples seem to have been narrowed as well. I was thinking of doing this with the Revell '29 roadster, and I'm really wondering how much to narrow it.

[Tom Geiger]

1 hour ago, Jantrix said:

Your two TROG examples seem to have been narrowed as well. I was thinking of doing this with the Revell '29 roadster, and I'm really wondering how much to narrow it.

Could be.. both of them seem to have stock Model A hood assemblies on them.  

[Tom Geiger]

Chugging right along... Here we are after some sanding and addition of the Model A firewall 

and up on wheels... forgive the front tires, just a mock-up!  

The tail is a bit longer than I’d like but other proportions seem to line up.  I believe I will build up a chassis and fabricate the rest the of it..  interior etc before I do any putty or finishing work on the body. 

 I was maxed out on my Jeepsters right now and getting a bit depressing with current affairs, but I realize an hour or two a day at the bench does wonders!
 

 

Edited July 28, 2020 by Tom Geiger

[bobthehobbyguy]

Cool. Coming along nicely.

[landman]

Cool. I have two Packard speedster bodies laying around. I think I just got some inspiration.

[randyc]

I'll follow this along.   I don't even have half the patience for this kind of project anymore.  I'm lucky to get an hour or two a week at the bench, so I have to keep things simple enough to remember and not lose interest.  But happy to watch someone else tackle it. 

[Tom Geiger]

3 hours ago, landman said:

Cool. I have two Packard speedster bodies laying around. I think I just got some inspiration.

Cool!  Glad to be an inspiration! That’s why we post, to fuel one another.

45 minutes ago, randyc said:

I'll follow this along.   I don't even have half the patience for this kind of project anymore.  I'm lucky to get an hour or two a week at the bench, so I have to keep things simple enough to remember and not lose interest.  But happy to watch someone else tackle it. 

I hear ya!  I would like to just finish some simple projects but I get these ideas that haunt me until I solve how to do it. I always believe they’ll be easy until I dig in!

With this one I have scratched that itch of “how”, and I’ve already done the remaining work on other cars in this series.  Famous last words!

[Tom Geiger]

Today I assembled  chassis and engine to get this up on wheels and to make sure everything fits and works. 

What you don’t see in these photos is that a wood floor has been fit, as well as some interior panels including rear panel behind the seat.

The classic Model A nose sits well and right where it should be! 

[Spottedlaurel]

Coming together nicely.

Must admit I had never heard of TROG.

[Tom Geiger]

I wanted to use the Monogram kit’s four cylinder partly because the V8 in this series is too new to qualify for TROG.  I also saw vintage speed equipment on the real cars so I had the bug to hop it up. I didn’t know of any kits, especially compatible with the 1/24 kit.  Nor did I want to order and wait for anything aftermarket if even available. I saw this project surely heading down that road to over complicatous!

I definitely wanted to lose the kit’s downdraft carburetor.  I had a wild idea of multiple carburetors and thought two would be the max. Then I found pix on the Internet of a hopped up pickup with three carbs on it!  I pulled out the triple carb unit and manifold that went to the V8 in this kit, and I found a better exhaust manifold. 

I spent some time with the photos, the mentioned parts, glue and putty and here’s where I wound up. Not sure how realistic it is, hoping convincing enough for a home welded hop up. 

It’s  just mocked up and not glued in the pictures so it’s a little crooked 
 

[misterNNL]

I love the whole TROG genre of cars.I have built a few myself inspired by this race series. Are you going to lengthen the chassis? IMHO the current status seems too short for the body length. Great idea using the Auburn boat tail section on the Henry "A" body. I'll be watching carefully from here in Ohio.

[doorsovdoon]

Cool little project. Some lovely craftsmanship going into this!

[Tom Geiger]

16 hours ago, misterNNL said:

I love the whole TROG genre of cars.I have built a few myself inspired by this race series. Are you going to lengthen the chassis? IMHO the current status seems too short for the body length. Great idea using the Auburn boat tail section on the Henry "A" body. I'll be watching carefully from here in Ohio.

Darn you Tom!   ?   Now you have me looking at lengthening the chassis.  I just finished assembling this one, but have plenty of spares, so I will look at it.  The 1:1 examples I show in this thread have long tails behind the wheels, but I agree this one would look less like a UPS Truck with the rear wheels back a bit further.

[Bugatti Fan]

Question........The Lindberg Auburn Speedster, was that originally a Pyro kit? Can remember building the Pyro one many years ago.

[cobraman]

Pretty cool Tom !

[Tom Geiger]

On 8/15/2020 at 12:58 PM, Bugatti Fan said:

Question........The Lindberg Auburn Speedster, was that originally a Pyro kit? Can remember building the Pyro one many years ago.

Yes I believe it is!  

[Bugatti Fan]

Thought it was Tom.     Thanks for your feedback!

[slusher]

Really neat and cool build, Tom!