Dioramas begun: '50s Ford 'hardtopper', TV sitcom cars, lunar rover

[W Humble]

I have ambitions to do more dioramas; it really takes model building to a new level!  Soon, I'll be sharing my: '40 Ford 'hardtopper', c. 1955, like was raced on my home-town dirt track (used also once a year for our rodeo), a TV sitcom diorama of Leave It To Beaver/episode where Eddie Haskell and Wally Cleaver chain Lumpy Rutherford's '40 Ford ragtop to a tree, and including Bud Anderson's hand-flamed Model A tub, broken down) from Father Know's Best.  Also, a lunar rover gag diorama... wait and see!  My problem is not having skills at doing figures, which these sure need!!

Wick

[TNT]

2 hours ago, W Humble said:

I have ambitions to do more dioramas; it really takes model building to a new level!  Soon, I'll be sharing my: '40 Ford 'hardtopper', c. 1955, like was raced on my home-town dirt track (used also once a year for our rodeo), a TV sitcom diorama of Leave It To Beaver/episode where Eddie Haskell and Wally Cleaver chain Lumpy Rutherford's '40 Ford ragtop to a tree, and including Bud Anderson's hand-flamed Model A tub, broken down) from Father Know's Best.  Also, a lunar rover gag diorama... wait and see!  My problem is not having skills at doing figures, which these sure need!!

Wick

All sound cool. Can't to see the beaver dio. Ward did have a few cars throuhout the series.

[bisc63]

17 hours ago, W Humble said:

My problem is not having skills at doing figures, which these sure need!!

Disagree completely. A good diorama invites the viewer's eye in to the story being told, and figures can be superfluous; either adding nothing or getting in the way. If all the right elements are there, we see and interpret what has happened, or is happening. I make the comparison of a diorama to the still-life painting. You've seen classic paintings, for example, of food on a table, a lighted candle, a partially filled wine glass, a chair pushed back, and NO people at all pictured. It's all about the arrangement, the composition, that draws our eyes all around and into the picture as we place ourselves into the work. It's a human experience, but without the annoying human cluttering things up! There's a diorama posted on here now, called Mud Trap, that shows a heavy truck sunk beyond hope in a mud pit. It is simple and beautifully executed. There is no figure standing there scratching his head or pointing at the truck. There is no Wile E. Coyote sign saying "Caution, Mud". None of that is needed. We see it, we get it. The viewer is not insulted by overstating the obvious. Tell your story without figures, and use the right elements, and we'll get it. Bad figures have ruined otherwise good dioramas. I look forward to seeing what you come up with! Good luck.

[bisc63]

15 hours ago, TNT said:

Can't to see the beaver dio.

If I had a nickle for every time I've said that...

[W Humble]

Oh Rusty!  Like being sixteen, the age I was in my b&w photo, left, again!

Lots of car themed scripts on both Beaver and Father; we have the box sets.  Real 'fifties stories, too; accidents, breakdowns, embarrassments, driving lessons, home-made karts, home-made flame-jobs, traffic cops (and court appearances), first-car buying, and more.  'Course, I didn't' say they were entirely realistic -- no back-seat action, of course!  Rusty will fill you in on that?  Oh, Donna Reed has some car situations, too.

In one LITB, he backs Wards '60 Plymouth out into the street, screwing around, and is busted.  The funniest thing is that the car starts out as a 4-door sedan, then morphs into a 4-door HT, with masonite C-pillars!!  Wally's dismantling of a '36 Ford five-window coupe for parts is so silly; the stuff allegedly parted is largely not Ford, and 'the guys' don't know the right names, etc.  I asked Billy Gray what color 'his' Model A tub was -- with the brush-applied flames, and he said he recalled it as 'gray' -- but I'm doing the kit with leftover '51 Merc powder blue, with lighter brushed enamel licks; wish me luck!  Wick

[bisc63]

You gotta love TV car magic! I'm surprised that it didn't morph into a 2 door, or change color. It always peeved me to see a car, otherwise shiny and new looking, pull into the scene, and a guy steps out of this shiny black car and you see the door jambs are green, or red, or white, or anything but black.

[W Humble]

Our local VCCA chapter is batting around emails about a Ford dually that changes into a Chevy in a J.Bond movie today.

I drive my esposa crazy calling out car names/years during our watching OLD shows, which we love.  Perry Mason, now; lots of great ragtops for Perry and Paul Drake; Cads mostly for Perry, T-Birds and 'Vettes for the private eye.  William (Paul Drake) Hopper was the son of Hedda Hopper!  Don't know about Dennis Hopper...

I coveted the '55 Pontiac ragtop in I Love Lucy, as we had a wagon.  A local nut has 30+ '55-6 1:1 Pontiacs for sale, all on full tires, and tarped.  I wrote an article about his stash for Hemming Motor News, and when I let him proof-read it, he liked it but then refused to let me sell it to them! Now, hes paying them for a classified ad!

But I ramble...  I dug out some more unused (mostly) bumpers & grilles from 'my' era; I'll post them.  BTW, you once sent me some goodies!  Address noted. Wick

[ChrisBcritter]

On 7/9/2022 at 4:50 PM, W Humble said:

The funniest thing is that the car starts out as a 4-door sedan, then morphs into a 4-door HT, with masonite C-pillars!!

Not only that, that mock-up car in the interior shots is a '61 Ford Galaxie four-door sedan (which explains the fake pillars on the Plymouth) - check out the shape of the windows and the upholstery pattern on the doors. The Plymouth steering wheel they added doesn't match the column, either.

(IMCDb.org)

(Mecum Auctions)

Edited July 12, 2022 by ChrisBcritter

[ChrisBcritter]

6 hours ago, W Humble said:

William (Paul Drake) Hopper was the son of Hedda Hopper!  Don't know about Dennis Hopper...

Dennis wasn't related to William and Hedda.

[W Humble]

Well... Ford did 'sponsor' LITB the first two or three seasons, and then it changed networks and car marques;  Chrysler even snuck a few of their 'captive compact' Simcas into the scenery.  So many times on the small screen they removed the front or rear glass to obviate reflections that we ignore but the camera emphasizes. Ricky's 'Poni-YAK' was the first I ever noted.  Also, applying something to dull-down the shine on the bodies, often done poorly!  In the LITB 'pilot', Richard Deacon, later 'Fred Rutherford', lumpys hypcritical father drives a new '57 Fairlane 500, but the emblems are craftily taped over with ole' 3M.

I don't think 'Hopper' the heavy in 'A Bug's Life" was a relative, either.  So, anybody else want to replicate TV or movie cars -- beyond 'Christine', etc.?  Wick

[GLMFAA1]

Good luck in the dioramas. One of my pet projects that I would have like to have done was '77 Sunset Strip' with the 59 t-bird and Kookies hot rod.

Elvira's T bird kit, and maybe Roth's 'tweedy pie' coming out of Dino's Lodge. Any idea on the colors?

greg

Edited July 12, 2022 by GLMFAA1
grammer

[W Humble]

Elvira who?  The 'Kookie Kar' was of course cloned, and the "Tweedy Pie" they say wasn't even built by B.Daddy, but bought and modified/striped; both have been featured in rod mags in the last few years, so colors should be in print.  

I REbuilt a 1:16 Maisto d/c '59 Cad ragtop 20-yrs ago with a 'Larry Watson' scallop paint job, and got a 2nd last year in large scale at the Dragonlady IPMS show, and I pose an Elvis bookmark (gold lame Nudie suit) behind it.  I'm doing a Maisto 1:16 '58 Cad Eldo ragtop as a 'Stray Cats' car, red interior with DItzler Hot Rod black exterior; but don't like the paint non-gloss I'm getting; looks like PPG DP90 epoxy primer; may have to put matted 660 clear-coat over it.  Trying to fake a Grelsch full-dresser electric guitar from an illustration in Musicians Friend catalog; slow going!  Wick

[W Humble]

This is my horrible shot of unfinished first try at a diorama.  Memories of our old Hardtop track in the mid 'fifties.  There is also a row of four truck tires buried at foreground edge of  grout 'track'.  Going to re-do freehand lettering!

Remember Ramblers rationale for not being in competition?  'Built for the human race!'

Also, my first try at sending a photos -- from a laptop!! 

Hope this works!  Wick

[ChrisBcritter]

17 hours ago, W Humble said:

Also, applying something to dull-down the shine on the bodies, often done poorly!

Yep - which was once accidentally caught on camera by a photographer getting a publicity still for the movie Juvenile Jungle. You can even read the label:

 

[W Humble]

Love the '51 Ford Victoria!  There is always the hazard of the reflection of the camera/photographer bouncing back onto the film; happens even in our digital age!  My dad wore his trousers 'high waters' like this overage juvenile with the strange war club.  Maybe he was doing lead work when the good guy in the '57 Fairlane 500 showed up?  Los Angeles and environs must be the best documented locale in the world, except probably Manhattan, but not much to see, huh?  Wick