Roth Road Agent

[DumpyDan]

Wow that's great, love the build

[Davewilly]

very cool! I really need to pick up some Roth cars....I always like how they look built...but then never pick up the kits when I see them...need to change that!

[bisc63]

About as nice a job done on this model as I've ever seen. Just beautiful!

[Ridge Rider]

Beautiful model William. I do have one question, The chassis looks like aluminium and chrome. Was the chrome supplied or painted, because it photographs very well. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

[jbwelda]

thanks folks, note that I am showing the left side and not the right side!

Steve, not positive as to what you are referring to but the chassis came chromed, but with a lot of parting lines and sink marks and the chrome itself was kind of uneven. what you see is a quick attempt to clean up the chassis but then not being replated but instead touched up with Testors Chrome silver paint and a silver sharpie. that's probably why it looks uneven. also the chassis consists of side pieces, rear pieces and front pieces, and the sides are canted strangely and fairly difficult to get put together halfway straight. so what I did was mock it up with white glue and then when it looked good I went back with 5 minute epoxy at the joints. that leaves a lump of resin to be sanded flat and of course that means removing chrome adjacent to it. which in turns means one more touch up.

note that the ref book I have said the chassis on the real thing was flat black not chrome.

next time (if there is one) I pledge to strip the chassis of chrome, get rid of all the lines and sink marks, really get it lined up well somehow before committing to glue (its not bad here but not perfect either, and the left front wheel would be about 1/16 off the ground as a result of the misalignment except that I made all four sit on the ground through a kludge), and then I would paint it either flat black or some kind of graphite metallic over silver paint. it would look good rechromed at that point but I am unsure if you can send an assembled frame into the chrome tank and expect the epoxy to hold. it would not be good enough to get the pieces back freshly chromed only to have to touch it up in actual assembly.

let me know if that answers your question and again thanks everyone for taking a look. I did cut out the area of the rear floor over the engine and that looks really much better now, but the body still kinda tilts around and doesn't sit as low as I want it to. I am probably, like most of us, my own worst critic.

jb

[horsepower]

I can remember seeing this car in person the first year it was finished, and the tape deck was used in the display, it was ran as a narrative about the car and its various highlights, along with the narrative the engine would fire up and the throttle blipped a few times and the bubble top would cycle up and down, this "program" was repeated about every fifteen minutes.

[jbwelda]

and then Dirty (Dapper) Doug would come over and do the demo in person every once in a while.

spot on with the recorder, perfect build in for demo and display music!

jb

[Ridge Rider]

Thanks William, that more than explained it. With the issues you described it's even more impressive that it looks so nice.

[ningoth4]

Doing a great job with this one!!!

Kevin

[CorvairJim]

Hey, I'm a Corvair guy, so I know I'd pour every available ounce of blood, tears, toil, and sweat I posess into making this model come out perfectly. Your model, good sir, came out light years better than I'd ever expect to be able to do myself. As I undertstand, the Road Agent is an extremely difficult model in the first place and you did a first-rate job on it. Don't be so hard on yourself. Ed Roth would be proud of having his work so well imitated.

[peekay]

Looks really cool anyway, despite the problems you encountered. Pure nostalgia for this 1950 boy!

[mr moto]

Excellent job! Those kits are hard to build. I built the Mysterion and felt very lucky to end up with four wheels on the ground!