Revellogram '30 Ford Phaeton

[Bernard Kron]

Buying a kit for its parts rather than building it can be an expensive and space consuming habit. It’s one I’m afraid I’m guilty of. In this case I it’s the Revell “Custom Car Show” re-issue of the old Monogram ’30 Ford Model A Touring Street Rod, the 2009 release with the yellow car on the cover. I bought it mainly for the wire wheels and the Guide headlight, and perhaps the 1/24th scale tri-carb Chevy small block, the dropped front axle and the buggy spring rear end. Once I got it I realized that the wire wheels might look great on this model, but they wouldn’t be something I could readily use on something else. This left the Guide headlights and not much else. So, after some thought I realized that those chrome .wire wheels would look pretty good on some whitewalls on an early 60’s show car version of the basic kit. One I saw some Tamiya TS-59 Light Pearl Red on a model the concept came together, Mainly out-of-the-box, the main changes are the ’32 Ford grill shell from the Revellogram ’30 Ford woody street rod kit and the white wall tires from the Revellogram ’29 Ford RPU/’30 For Sedan “Rat Rod” kits. Here’s an initial mockup with the base coats of the TS-59 on the body and fenders. The undercarriage and underside of the fenders are white with a chromed chassis, gold painted engine block and white interior and possibly a white top. I’ll keep the Guide headlights for another project, as had been my original intention.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

 

[slusher]

Great.looking chassis, engine, and wheels and tires!

[cobraman]

I like the wires with the whitewalls.

[TooOld]

That looks pretty cool just as it sits , especially with those wheels and tires !

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks guys! Glad you dig it!

It may not look like it but there’s actually a lot of progress that’s been made with this project. The paint work has been cleared and polished. The chassis is complete and firewall completed and installed. The interior parts are all painted and the interior sides are glued in place. The photos below are still in mockup mode. The fenders are glued to the chassis but the rest of the body parts aren’t. The windshield is held in place with white glue along with the top. The motor needs to have the fuel lines and coil wire glued in place. But basically I’m down to final assembly. There are lots of small, fiddly parts to put in place, especially chrome bits attached to the body. All this brightwork, along with the bumpers, lights and spare tire should change the character of the car pretty dramatically.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

 

[gman]

That paint job is looking lovely- coming together very nicely. I like what you are doing with this one.

I too had eyed up that kit for the Guide headlights, but procrastinated and the kit was discontinued, gone from the LHS shelves. The few examples I saw on eBay were commanding good money. The Guide headlights would be an excellent product for a resin caster to repop and offer :hint hint:

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks Greg!

Details, details; when it comes to show rods it’s all in the details. And this Revell update of this classic old Monogram kit is rich in detail all by itself, and the style of the Ford ’30 Tub begs to add more. I decided, given the show car vibe I would add some diamond quilt upholstery detail, in the form of padded accents to the spare tire, the running boards and a steering wheel cover. The rest of the interior is finished as well, essentially stock out of the kit. The engine compartment, too, is completed with ignition coil, fuel log and grill braces added. I also added some chrome firewall trim from a Revellogram ’30 Ford Sedan kit. I’m down to the lighting, bumpers and windshield and I can call her done.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[alan barton]

Looks sweet, Bernard. You've got all the right elements on that one.  The fuel lines out of the fuel block look excellent.  Like the padded steering wheel cover, maybe you need a club jacket on the back seat?

Cheers

Alan

[slusher]

Bernard, you Ford is really looking sweet. Really nice work sir.

[Bernard Kron]

Thank you, Carl. I'm glad you're diggin' it.

The final details have all been applied, with only license plate graphics to make and exhaust tips to add. I’ll do that tomorrow and then shoot presentation pics of the completed model. The composite photo below summarizes all the final fiddly bits that went.

In particular I wanted to point out the headlights. I’ve always preferred my hot rod headlights to have body colored buckets but very few kits come with separate headlight buckets and lens trim rings. Until the advent of Molotow Chrome pens picking out chrome trim rings was nearly impossible and, unless I had the right parts kit I had to settle for chrome. For years I kept the AMT Phantom Vicky kits in my stash for this purpose, but these kits are getting increasingly hard to find and going up in price. Earlier this year I was working on a black Deuce roadster and about to dig in to my last set of Phantom Vicky headlights. Looking through my stash I dug into my picked-over Revellogram ’29 Ford RPU/’30 Ford Sedan “Rat Rod” kits. Those kits are a mainstay for my hot rod builds because of the excellent front suspension, buggy spring rear suspension and frame parts, the “friction shocks”, excellent hopped up 4-bangers, etc. Really ideal for my Old School rod work. Looking at the chrome trees one more time it occurred to me that I could float epoxy over the engraved lenses, which up to now I had avoided using because these ancient Monogram kits don’t come with clear lenses. Stripping the chrome off the separate chrome buckets and I had what I was looking for. This current project is the second time I’ve used this trick. Yet another part to use from these venerable parts kits.

Other details in the photos include a dropped headlight bar from the Revell ’32 Ford 3-window coupe kit, AMT ’39 Ford tail lights, the kit-supplied wind wings and side lamps, and the split front bumpers which are rear bumpers from the afore-mentioned :30 Ford Sedan kit. They are virtually identical in dimension and shape to the split rear bumpers in the Phaeton kit, belying their shared Monogram roots.

As I said, this should do it for work-in-progress updates. Next up will be the final “beauty pics” of the completed model.

Thanx to all who followed along,
B.

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Bernard Kron