John Buttera white 29 Model A Hiboy

[David G.]

Fantastic work on this so far.

It's truly a pleasure to follow along.

David G.

[alan barton]

Finally got the rear axle assembly in place.   I am very pleased with how the old Revell quick change scrubbed up! Another change here is that I chose to install the exhaust above the bellypan - Lil John had his outside, a far more practical arrangement, but I wanted every one to see the continuous bellypan so that's the way I went. Both he and I dumped the exhaust in front of the ale - - I would hate to think how much this would drone! The four bars are scracthbuilt and the rear crossmember and coil-overs are from the Revell Model A hiboy series.

Cheers

Alan

[cobraman]

Sweet !

[bobthehobbyguy]

Looking forward to the next update.

[Zippi]

Everything looks really nice.  I just started on a 29 Highboy.

[slusher]

Impressive work!

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Alan!

Wow, even the gapping of your exhaust outlets to the belly pan is even and just perfect. Great work!

CT

[FLHCAHZ]

Wow. That is some fine craftsmanship 

[David G.]

That axle dropped nicely, looks great!

David G.

[alan barton]

Thanks guys, glad you are enjoying it.  Going backwards a bit here, this is a photo of the early stages of the fabbing up the front shock mounts. By drilling some small holes and placing long pins through them, I was able to eyeball that everything was going to be square and parallel where it needed to be.  Also, you can see the start of the engine mounts to support the Revell 32 Ford 302 Windsor engine. 

One detail I chose not to add was the extended frame horn and the panhard bar that attaches to it. All my initial mockups indicated that any attempt to duplicate this feature in scale was going to push the axle well forward, and possibly down, from the location I wished to achieve.  Sometimes you just cant get everything into a confined space, scale or not. 

Cheers

Alan 

[alan barton]

Double post removed

Edited August 27, 2021 by alan barton

[alan barton]

Triple post removed - it kept telling me to reply!

Edited August 27, 2021 by alan barton

[Dennis Lacy]

There’s some really creative work going into this model, Alan. Just as important as the ability to do the physical work is the ability to look at a part and be able to see it repurposed into something else. In that regard, the belly pan is bad ass! I look forward to watching this project unfold. 
 

I actually know the current caretaker (Karpo  Murkijanian, super nice guy!) of the original Buttera Roadster and he brought it to an early morning hot rod gathering we had at a local shop just down the street a couple of months ago. I didn’t look close at it as I was too busy talking with friends but did see it coming in and parking then pulling out and leaving a bit later. It had the same updated wheels as in your picture under the trees to show the headlight mounting. 

[alan barton]

 

2 hours ago, Dennis Lacy said:

There’s some really creative work going into this model, Alan. Just as important as the ability to do the physical work is the ability to look at a part and be able to see it repurposed into something else. In that regard, the belly pan is bad ass! I look forward to watching this project unfold. 
 

I actually know the current caretaker (Karpo  Murkijanian, super nice guy!) of the original Buttera Roadster and he brought it to an early morning hot rod gathering we had at a local shop just down the street a couple of months ago. I didn’t look close at it as I was too busy talking with friends but did see it coming in and parking then pulling out and leaving a bit later. It had the same updated wheels as in your picture under the trees to show the headlight mounting. 

Wow, that's amazing to think you get to see this car now - it's 45 years old!  And yeah, I am really happy about how well the bellypan came out - I really pushed myself on that part.

Cheers

Alan

 

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

Alan- It's coming along swimmingly... -RRR

[mustang1989]

Coming along nicely......very nicely. Love all the fab work. 

[alan barton]

I tried a trick here that I saw on  WIP Model A hiboy in a noted Bakersfield hot rodder's garage.  He had added a swage line to the bottom of the cowl to continue that line in an uninterrupted fashion from the front of the wheels arch to the grille.  I thought it might be  a suitable detail for this hi-tech rod even though Lil John himself did not use it. I thin strip  of Evergreen did the job.

The next item on here concerns the hood sides.  The original car had very traditional louvres, which I am normally a fan of, and then later iterations has smooth hood sides. I wanted something more in keeping with a hi tech car  Having already sacrificed one hood for the bellypan, I looked through my hood box for a suitable candidate for hood sides.  I was originally looking for something scooped, like an early GTO but having none of those I settled on a Nova, a 69 I think.
After making cardboard templates I cut two hood sides out of the Nova Hood and by slicing it precisely down the middle of the peak, gained a swage line along the lower edge.  Right now I have lost the photos of that step so instead I will give a sneak peak of the nearly finished car so that you can see the hood sides.

Now, here's the thing -I've pulled the car apart at this stage.  I have ended up with different shades of white and it is bugging me!  I am also having second thoughts about the hood sides and I am wondering if they would be better suited to my Tim Boyd 29 closed cab tribute build.  I will  be interested to hear your thoughts.

Cheers

Alan

 

 

 

[bobthehobbyguy]

I like the hood sides you've chosen, they look right for a high tech car.

Sorry to hear you've had problems with consistent color but white can be influenced by what its covering. Tamiya white can be slightly translucent. Curious to see how you solve  the problem.

[Mr. Metallic]

4 hours ago, alan barton said:

 

I think this is the first appearance of these wheels. Are the rears a deeper offset? Where are they from? if this is explained elsewhere I apologize, but I didn't see it in a quick scan of the thread.

[oldrevellfan]

love the way you do it !

[alan barton]

It's O.K., Mr Metallic, I don't think I spoke about wheels yet!  I found a neat trick for getting deep dish rims out of other wise flat ones. I build a lot of dirt track cars and old NASCAR kits make great donors for chassis, rollcage etc.  It dawned on me one day that if I cut the outer rim off a Monogram 1/24th scale chromed NASCAR rim, I could glue it over the top of a 1/25th scale rim for a coll deep dish rim.  Also works a treat on chromies, Cragars, American Racing etc!

Bob, I used Tamiya clear over Tamiya white primer over Tamiya light grey primer.  Problem is, it is like candy red, every coat makes it a different shade.  At first, the chassis was noticeably greyer than the  body so I put another coat on the chassis.  Now the body is greyer, and inexplicably, some parts of the body like the sides look greyer than the top.  The effect is far more noticeable in the sunlight but GRRRRRRRR!

Thanks Gilles, for your support!

Cheers

Alan

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

Alan-

I like the hood side 'grille' for lack of a better name. How about cutting a rectangle opening in the hood side and recessing the grille piece into it so the grille doesn't stick out so far? Or sand down the back side of the grille real thin and gluing it on? A piece of sheet Evergreen slightly massaged to get the curve needed can be used as a hood side. Just some thoughts from here on the other side of the globe.

White paint...yeah it's an issue. If you're trying to paint white over red plastic, forget it. In my experience that red will bleed through no matter what you do (others experiences may vary?). It will be especially noticeable if some parts are white plastic and some parts are molded in some other color (the darker the color, more pronounced). It also seems that some lacquer paints are 'hotter' and will react more with the plastic. Maybe if you're painting white over a colored plastic, enamel might work better?  When I'm planning on white (frankly not that often) over a colored plastic, I use grey primer first, then when I have the body work completed, I give it a coat of white primer before final white paint. It might also be a good idea to paint all of the white parts at the same time, maybe tape parts all together (close to each other as they would be assembled, you see this in 1:1 paint booths) and that will give you as even of a paint coverage as possible. Again, just some ideas, I'm no paint expert. Hopefully others a can chime in here as well. 

Carry on and good luck.... -RRR

Edited September 1, 2021 by Rocking Rodney Rat

[OldNYJim]

Not sure if you're an acrylics kinda guy, but Createx opaque white will cover about anything in one or two coats (and plays nice with almost any clear).

Regardless - looking good Alan!  Enjoying seeing this come together!

[alan barton]

A whole bunch of good ideas there guys, thanks for your input.  I'm away from home for a while so cant get back to the model just now but it is food for thought.  

Obviously the car had to be white and yeah, I don't do white very often.  A friend did this killer 60 Ponty in the crispest white I've ever seen so I asked him what he used and he told me about the Tamiya clear over Tamiya white primer over Tamiya grey primer.  Sounded cool.  The car was initially hung on a bunch of sprues holding it together to paint but for some reason it simply didn't come out even.  Then I just started chasing my tail!

Jim, I will have to have a hunt around locally and see if anyone carries Createx paints over here. 

Here's Bruce's 60.  I need this white!

 

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

2 hours ago, CabDriver said:

Not sure if you're an acrylics kinda guy, but Createx opaque white will cover about anything in one or two coats (and plays nice with almost any clear).

Regardless - looking good Alan!  Enjoying seeing this come together!

Good idea, Jim. I've never used acrylics.... -RRR