1/25 Revell '29 Model A Roadster 2'n'1

[southpier]

from the readings of the Tardel bible (small 'B' - calm down), if the '29 body is paired with the '32 grille shell, i believe the hood needs to be pie-cut to have each end fit its terminus. with all the revisions to the '57 Ford wagon Revell is expected to make, i doubt there'll be time left to include 1 or 2 hood variations in the first round of this kit.

[Deathgoblin]

I'll have to get me one o' these.

[Ace-Garageguy]

... if the '29 body is paired with the '32 grille shell, i believe the hood needs to be pie-cut to have each end fit its terminus...

Yup, and it's probably been done ten thousand times in steel or aluminum, full scale. You'd think that "modelers" might be able to handle the job in a 1/25 scale piece of plastic.

[southpier]

deleted

Edited March 22, 2015 by southpier

[keyser]

Yup, and it's probably been done ten thousand times in steel or aluminum, full scale. You'd think that "modelers" might be able to handle the job in a 1/25 scale piece of plastic.

Dunno, I just assemble. Can I build it stock??

Still cannot wait for this kit. I've got Norm's 29, and this will be great.

Clear resin Duval or cut down Duvals so all we need is foil or paint on the frames. Mmmmmm.

Edited March 22, 2015 by keyser

[DaveM]

Yup, and it's probably been done ten thousand times in steel or aluminum, full scale. You'd think that "modelers" might be able to handle the job in a 1/25 scale piece of plastic.

I have both narrowed and widened dozens of hoods, but it is easier when you have a hood to start with! That's why I was hoping that there would be a hood in the kit of some type. As it is, I will just scratchbuild them until a later release includes one. "A" hoods are pretty simple. I will be chopping a couple of '32 shells down as soon as I get my hands on the kit. I am not in a place where I can do any casting, as I no longer have my equipment, or a place to use it. (Taking care of a relative, and building on a TV tray...) This kit would be a fun place to jump back into casting if I could. Grille shells ('32, '34, tracknose) hoods and sides to match each shell, a couple of optional interiors, Duvall style windshields, a vintage rear suspension, a coupe body, a chopped coupe body and a really chopped coupe body would all be fairly easy to master. As it is, I'll just build some for myself.

The more I look at the info on this kit, the more I am going to like it. My first moves will be to snag a Nailhead for a '31 Sedan I am working on. Then I will mash a 409 into the Roadster, with some fatter tires and a '32 shell. (Maybe with a Duvall style windshield) I would like to change up the interior too to make a more modern rod, and build a traditional rear end for a more traditional rod. The kit looks like it should handle all of those variations.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I'm thinking this new kit may get a lot of guys doing mods they might not have thought they could tackle earlier.

Just like in building real hot-rods, what you can do with this new kit will be limited only by your imagination, and your willingness to step out of your comfort zone and do some hack-n-whack.

Researching how it's been done for 60 odd years on the real cars will go a long way towards getting into these things, too.

One of the big hard parts, narrowing a '32 chassis to work under a '28-'29 shell, has already been done apparently...and the other Model A frame comes pre-zeed. Those two kinda big-deals remove a lot of the critical alignment issues new scratch-bashers may have trouble with, and make it easy to focus on other stuff.

Building a hood for an A with a '32 grille shell is just about the perfect introductory project for someone interested in getting into scratchbuilding body parts. The hood needs no compound curves, and if the body and grille are firmly jigged, it's easy to make a VERY accurate pattern from card-stock or masking tape. Then just lay the pattern on .020" styrene sheet, cut it out with a sharp X-acto, and bend it under hot water to shape. Done.

I'm wanting a boxcar load of these kits, frankly. No more endless scrounging other kits and gluebombs.

Happy modeling !

[charlie8575]

Nate...while I'm not someone 'with influence" (this is especially the case now that Roger Harney has passed away), I've still made this suggestion several times already.

The Corvette and Muscle Car Nationals would be another place to find a pristine '70 GTO Judge HT or CV for these purposes. But in some cases (particularly if we can convince the model companies that the up front investment in digitally scanning historic muscle cars would more than offset the costs having to redo already- cut tooling, and the avoidance of lost sales due to incorrect proportioning of body designs), it might be better to get an "under restoration" car than a 100 point completed restoration. (Some scanning processes involve a silver-like dust that can be a little difficult to clean up after the scan is completed). it's also vitally important to get a 1/1 that is correctly restored (some of the kit problems have been attributed to incorrect restorations being used as the basis for researching kits).

And the investment doesn't even need to be THAT great.

There are a lot of companies all over the country that will do 3-D scanning on an hourly basis, and include photo work if you request it. From talking to a couple of these firms, they generally run about $3-5,000 to do the scan and design work for a kit, if they have in-house design capabilities. As one fellow said to me, "bring in a kit, give us a general idea of what you're after, and we can set up the parts for you."

Charlie Larkin

[tim boyd]

There are a lot of companies all over the country that will do 3-D scanning on an hourly basis, and include photo work if you request it. From talking to a couple of these firms, they generally run about $3-5,000 to do the scan and design work for a kit, if they have in-house design capabilities.

Charlie Larkin

Charlie,,,interesting...about four or five years ago, I got an estimate of the Vendor costs for digital scanning a car from someone who is familiar with the work scanning companies do for the auto industry (including detailed exterior and underbody scans of their own and competitive vehicles). At that time, the estimate was around $4.000-$5.000, and costs should have come down since then. So what you are relating here seems "on the money", so to speak from a second data source.

Of course, the kit sales volumes are much small these days. along with the kit development budgets. And I am not at all clear on what the overseas design base charges the kit makers to develop the digital data from pictures and measuring sessions, and translate that into a finished tool. Still...seems a development that should be investigated at the least.

TIM

Edited March 22, 2015 by tim boyd

[tim boyd]

I'm thinking this new kit may get a lot of guys doing mods they might not have thought they could tackle earlier.

Just like in building real hot-rods, what you can do with this new kit will be limited only by your imagination, and your willingness to step out of your comfort zone and do some hack-n-whack.

Bill....I think you've very accurately captured the potential appeal of this Revell Model A kit, and the derivatives that will hopefully follow it.

TIM

[LDO]

Bill....I think you've very accurately captured the potential appeal of this Revell Model A kit, and the derivatives that will hopefully follow it.

TIM

Hmmm...daydreaming...'26-'27 Model T roadster on the Z'd Model A chassis. That sure would be nice.

[tim boyd]

Lee....you bet it would! And...that is exactly one of the first kitbashes I plan to do when the kit comes out.....TIM

[DaveM]

Make sure you post pics as you build that 26-27 T roadster! I want to see how that one goes together. I have been looking at some "A"s the last few days, and I am hoping that the new Revell kit will play nicely with the old Revell RPU and '31 Sedan kits. With two sets of frame rails, and the need to scratchbuild at least some of the suspension parts to make a traditional hot rod, I am thinking that one of the new roadsters will be built on the "A" rails, leaving me a set of '32 frames to build a killer '31 sedan. (I have pics of a few really killer sedans on '32 rails, as well as a couple of '29 pickups.)

Tim, I'm taking your word that Revell got all of the basics right on this kit and ordering a few extras. I hope Revell does a coupe soon. I am not the kit historian you are, but I don't know of a 1/25 coupe body. The only coupe I have dealt with is the Revell '30 coupe in 1/24. The only coupe body I know of in 1/25 is the Jimmy Flintstone resin.

One last thought, inspired by the T roadster talk. I really like the Revell '26 Sedan delivery (Which can be made into a sedan easily) and the '27 touring bodies, but the IFS and the "Modern" '80s chassis prevent older or newer style rods from being made with these kits. Did anybody ever stick a '26 sedan on '32 rails? I can see it working, maybe even the '27 touring car. Vintage flattie, or even a Y block or '55 T-bird motor? Never mind me, I'm just dreaming up more projects than I can afford!

[horsepower]

I think the '32 rails might be a bit beefy for that dainty l'il '26 body but the Z'd A chassis seems in my thoughts anyway to be the best choice.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I think the '32 rails might be a bit beefy for that dainty l'il '26 body but the Z'd A chassis seems in my thoughts anyway to be the best choice.

'32 rails under a '26-'27 has been a popular look for quite a while...

You can build jus' about anything on '32 rails...

Edited March 23, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[JTalmage]

I like the looks of those!

[tim boyd]

Dave...yes, a '26/'27 T of any kind (roadster, sedan, touring..) on '32 rails is feasible, and in fact many have been built as shown in Bill's follow-up post to your comment. A '27T on '32 rails won the America's most beautiful roadster award (a Roy Brizio build) a couple of years ago, too. That one would be a great place to start as a style guide for this type of model build.

I did a '27T Roaster Pickup on '32 rails about 12 years ago, using a Tim's Resin Rods body on the Revell '32 Ford frame. The challenge, though, in both 1/1 and 1/25th scale, is that a stock '32 frame is too wide for the T bodies. So it has to be narrowed - not a job stopper, but not a slam dunk either.

I did this project in the other magazine, I think it was in their Contest Annual around 2004 o4 2005 (I can look it up if need be). I'll also check my Fotki site and see if I previously posted pictures there....

Just more of the many, many cool ideas this kit will enable...TIM

Edited March 23, 2015 by tim boyd

[southpier]

.... Building a hood for an A with a '32 grille shell is just about the perfect introductory project for someone interested in getting into scratchbuilding body parts. The hood needs no compound curves, and if the body and grille are firmly jigged, it's easy to make a VERY accurate pattern from card-stock or masking tape. Then just lay the pattern on .020" styrene sheet, cut it out with a sharp X-acto, and bend it under hot water to shape. Done. ....

maybe "toss-up" a quick tutorial - with those pictures we all richly deserve - so when the kit hits the shelves, we can be "at the ready" with hoods firmly in hand?

[tim boyd]

Dave....about that '30/'31 A Model A coupe....you are correct, there's never been a styrene kit in 1/25th scale. Your best bet is to use the Replicas and Miniatures '31 A Chopped Body...it's a better finished product than the Jimmy Flintstone offering (albeit at a slightly higher price), and includes a couple of building options (plain vs. hole-drilled sun visor, plain vs. louvered trunk, and a separate windshield frame that allows you to pose the model with the windshield cranked open at the bottom). The molding quality is just about flawless, and the master for the mold was well modified, requiring only some slight touchups in the rear quarter panels (below the C-pillar) and the C-pillars themselves (along the chopped area), which is very easy to accomplish with any hobby putty or auto body filler. If you are building a primered car, no touch up is necessary at all (due to the lack of a reflective, glossy finish).

As far as future Revelll derivatives of the Model A Roadster, their recent business practice has been to bring out at least one, and often more, spinoffs of a kit if the initial kit release sells well. I do suspect we'll see a derivative of this tool, and hopefully sooner rather than later. Of course, the '30/'31 A Chopped Five Window Coupe is about the hottest thing in the 1/1 scale Traditional Hot Rod world these days, and I think that would be a slam dunk if Revell chose that as body style as a follow-up to the Roadster kit.

Best....TIM

Edited March 23, 2015 by tim boyd

[tim boyd]

Joe....the process to do a hood to fit a '29A Roadster on '32 Ford rails along with a Deuce grill has been covered several times in the mags over the years.

These include articles in the other model car magazine around 1983 or so (it was called "Highboy Heaven IIRC) and again in the late 1990's. I can look up the issues if you need them.

In both cases, this involved taking a '32 Ford hood, and narrowing it (via removing a V-Shaped section) toward the rear to fit the smaller cowl of the '29A body, then straightening out the forward and rear edges of the hood (which adopt a shallow "V" shape of their own after the narrowing operation). It's not a particularly hard modification, but you do need to have a sturdy mockup with the radiator/grille shell and body in place to make sure you get an accurate length dimension for the hood.

TIM

[Bernard Kron]

The details of the forthcoming A-bone release will lend themselves well to a traditional style 27T roadster on Deuce rails. I completed a just such a project last Fall. If you're using any Deuce chassis you need to narrow the width in two areas, under the passenger cab, and then narrowed some more under the turtle deck. In my version I z'd the chassis as well, which actually lent itself more readily to narrowing the turtle deck area because the rails tucked up into the body work at that point. Here's a link to the build thread which shows the chassis work as part of the initial post: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91554&hl= .

Here are a couple of build pics:

And the final result:

Edited March 23, 2015 by Bernard Kron

[Greg Myers]

"MONOGRAM" 1930 Model A

Edited March 23, 2015 by Greg Myers

[Greg Myers]

and a passable "diecast" '28-'29 Maisto @ Tarrget : http://www.target.com/p/maisto-ford-1929-model-a/-/A-16530349

Edited March 23, 2015 by Greg Myers

[southpier]

Joe....the process to do a hood to fit a '29A Roadster on '32 Ford rails along with a Deuce grill has been covered several times in the mags over the years.

These include articles in the other model car magazine around 1983 or so (it was called "Highboy Heaven IIRC) and again in the late 1990's. I can look up the issues if you need them.

In both cases, this involved taking a '32 Ford hood, and narrowing it (via removing a V-Shaped section) toward the rear to fit the smaller cowl of the '29A body, then straightening out the forward and rear edges of the hood (which adopt a shallow "V" shape of their own after the narrowing operation). It's not a particularly hard modification, but you do need to have a sturdy mockup with the radiator/grille shell and body in place to make sure you get an accurate length dimension for the hood.

TIM

i've read your version in "that magazine" of how to do that and it's pretty straightforward starting with a styrene hood. i just don't understand how forming a somewhat conical shape with .020" styrene as suggested wouldn't springback without some reinforcement. and would the reinforcement be seen? or interfere with velocity stacks or other engine parts?

Edited March 23, 2015 by southpier

[southpier]

"MONOGRAM" 1930 Model A

is the scale discrepancy noticeable with this body?

i never gave it much truck, but after assembling a Revell 1/24 scale Volkwagen engine, it's bigger than an AMT 1/25 scale flathead.