Thursday 31 January 2008

The Builds Of Gray Smith: Part 2



Good evening and welcome to another peek into the interesting world of Gray Smith and his builds. Tonight, we got a Deuce. I went a day without mentioning a 32, gimme a break!

This one's being done for the World's Most Beautiful Roadster Contest, which incidentally is getting a lot more attention that I would've hoped it would. With cool stuff like this getting built, and no box-stockers that I've seen yet, its shaping up to be an entertaining watch for me.

Like his Ala Kart we featured yesterday, Gray is mixnig old school with new school to great effect. This 32 is channelled, the front frame rails have been "upturned a tad" to drop it at the front and the rear suspension has been raised in the frame to help it out there too. Pretty standard hot rod stuff, right? Get it in the weeds, nice and low, classic body style, cant go wrong.

Under the (possibly non-existant) hood though, there's gonna be the standard Mustang mill that comes in the kit, but with a slight twist. This one's gonna utilise a bunch of Cosworth Indy engine components to make it stand out. Yeehaw!

Mix that in with a nice bright nail varnish paintjob (hence the out of scale bottle next to the car!) and it's gonna be a pretty fresh take on a car that has been built in 98% of the ways it's possible to do one, which is half the challenge.

More pics and info here, check it out. Tomorrow: one more from Grey!

JB

Wednesday 30 January 2008

The Builds Of Gray Smith: Part 1



Once in a while you get a surprise on what you thought would be a bland day. Got everything all planned out and something cool pops up right in the middle of things to shake your day around a little. That's what happened to me today.

Gray Smith is an entrant in the World's Most Beautiful Model Roadster Contest, and he emailed me and sent a link to his Photobucket to check out his builds. Even after just a quick skim of the pics I knew I'd found a guy whose builds I was gonna HAVE to feature here. Not just one, but loads of them! The rods were my favourite, particularly this jaw-dropping Ala Kart mock up.

Now, looking at the facts, this is just a body and a set of aftermarket wheels. But look at the attitude it's got! Low slung really suits that gangly tall 'Kart body huh? Those Wantabe Minilite-style wheels made me immediately think of some kinda crazy modern take on a track nose T, and it turns out I wasn't far off the mark...

I emailed Gray straight away and asked for more info to try and piece together what he had in mind, and he obliged with the following:

"oh man, thats an oooollldd mock up...I bought that kit when it came out and decided a hi, er lowboy version of the ala kart would be better. Think carbon fiber body with candy paint over it(so you can still see the weave), quad cam ford indy motor(need to buy another) with twin turbos, or an sr20det from the aoshima s13 silvia(have that in the closet) corvette c5 rear transaxle, Inboard mounted shocks, watanabe wheels and a cool bare interior...kind of a retro style track rpu with modern components mixed in."

Sounds cool huh? If he don't build it soon, I think I will! Or maybe we should do one each and race 'em!

More tomorrow from they Smith Garage - you're gonna like it!

JB

Tuesday 29 January 2008

Parts parts parts



Hot rodding is literally all about parts. Taking off parts, replacing parts, putting on parts. Hunting down that elusive part for a build or buying a rare or interesting part for a build not yet started. That's what Junkyard Jewels is all about, my obsession with parts.

With all my obsessive compulsive tenancies towards model car components you'd thing I'd be able to make hundreds and hundreds of finished models. Not so. I'm trying to finish up the Chocolate Brownie Deuce from a few days ago in the next couple of days - a self imposed deadline to see if I can actually finish a build in a timely manner.

So far, outlook aint good. Need a distributor. Need plug wire. Need all kinds of engine components to finish properly the Nailhead you see above. And do you know how hard some of this stuff is to come by? Pretty hard, seriously. I know of one distributor in the UK who mail orders plug wire, for example. They're out of every colour but blue and purple. Blue brown and red coloured Coupe? Nope. Purple, brown and red coloured Coupe? Nope nope nope.

Got plenty of red (perfect) and black (perfect) here somewhere, I'm sure, unless I gave it away or never actually had it or lost it or whatever, but it was simply quicker and easier to order some and hope it comes day after tomorrow so I can get this thing finished.

Moral of the story: buy more stuff! Best twisted logic since yesterday.

Peace

JB

Monday 28 January 2008

Jonathan Lutz's Vintage 29 Roadster



Customarily, when featuring a someone's finished build you'd post up a picture of the finished build. Logical, right? Well, after 3 hours sleep last night due to a bed determined to return itself to component form, all bets are off in the logic competition. Besides, this awesome ride becomes an even awesome-r one in the end so I kinda get to feature two awesome builds in one blog, almost.

Model Cars Mag forum member Dub picked up this little "Gluebomb" for a measly $5 from a club meet. It's a 60s issue AMT Model A in a cool burgundy/black/brass scheme with, for whatever reason, snow tires. Snow or no snow I'd love that rubber on a rod of mine. There's something very cool in the road less travelled, its these little touches that would seem plain odd today that make old hot rods so appealing to me. Little things that seem a little quaint or perverse today. Yeah, I'm into the quaint and perverted.

Anyway, cute as this build is in the pic it was low on detail and high on scruffy conversion work so Dub got to work stripping her down and making her cool again. He stripped the paint, lost the fenders, put a new chassis together and replaced the SBC that had been shoehorned in there with a nicely built flattie.

I wont reveal too much about the finished build cos half the fun for me was following the progress and kinda guessing where it was going to go - even though Jonathan was kind enough to send me an awesome shot of it all wrapped up to use here. This one is a story worth telling from the beginning though, so that's where I suggest you go right now. Enjoy!

JB

Sunday 27 January 2008

Arcturus' Four Door Fury



Here at AutoModelling HQ we love a restoration, old parts, and modifying stuff to make it cooler. Just what hot rodding's all about, right? Arcturus, a regular on our very own AutoModelling Forum is ticking all the boxes with this cool build, stock or not.

Arc, as I like to abbreviate him to, is a MASSIVE promo fan. Like how I am about Showrods and Deuces, he is about promos. He's alays popping up on the message board with pics of cool old promos he's found on Ebay or resin kits of interesting old 60s iron.

This 63 Fury came in a job lot of promos (told he he liked em!) and was aparently pretty beaten up. You know how old kits are - the chrome is rubbed right through to the plastic, someone's scrubbed enamel on it with all the delicacy of a bull in a chinashop, etc etc, but that didn't stop him coming up with the idea to convert the 2 door to a four door. And much as we like conversions full stop, what's cooler than converting some old possibly-rare plastic to something different than what it was?

Right now, like a lot of these things, it's got a friction chassis, and of course a 2 door interior to deal with, but Arc is confident that he'll be able to handle these minor hurdles. He's talking about making a copy car out of it but every time I look I see a cool near-stock looking street machine on those awesome skinny whitewalls and a nice bright metallic paintjob. But hey, I'm the kinda guy who can't leave anything alone or do it how it's meant to be done.

However this comes out it's a cool looking car made even cooler with a little thought and some scribing action - and no fear of messing a little with a dirty old hunk'o'plastic. Nice!

Tomorrow: someone else who took something old and made it cooler. Stay tuned!

JB

Edit: Forgot the link...check more on this build out here

Saturday 26 January 2008

Carp's Coupe



We got a real treat for you today, with a build that I've been raving about (even if only to myself) since i first saw it at Christmas. Christmas day, in fact, and what a cool thing to get to check out in progress at Christmas!

She's a 34 body backdated to make a 33, and she's about the prettiest 60s themed rod you'll see all year. Check the specs: Old engine from a Beatnik Bandit, Lil Coffin rear shoes and 56 Ford Vic fronts. Model A spring and a Quickchange make up the rear end and a Scale Dreams white metal axle keeps the front off the ground. That list makes for a nice build without even seeing the build huh? Like Harley's build from a couple of weeks back, this is a builder who knows what parts work.

Master parts combiner Carps has actually painted this model already - its a cool variation on the Tamiya Lime Candy that I'm always raving about, with some extra ingredients to make it even tastier. I couldn't resist posting up this in-progress shot though - it was the first I saw of this gorgeous little coupe, and you can just TELL that it's gonna be a winner. And it is.

Check it out here in it's almost completed state. Guarantee you'll want one just like it...

JB

Friday 25 January 2008

Junkyard Jewels #5: Wheel and Tyre



Wheels are a big part of a build. Aside from the paint, they're the first thing I always look at on any build I see for the first time. They can make or break a car and give it character. How many people build a project just around the wheels? Not many I'd bet, but that's probably what I'll do with this.

Where would a starting point like this take me? Well, I only got one wheel and one tyre, so to the resin casting supply chop first off, probably...

I don't quite know if I like this wheel or not, and I think that's why I considered it a jewel. Out of context, without the car that it was designed to be attached to, I cant imagine what to do with it. I'm guessing 70s muscle car or sports car of some sort, but who knows? But, with my love of planning a project, it's fun to work out what would go with this wheel. What parts to use. What project to build around it.

Whatever it is, and whenever I build it, just for the record I'm thinking some kinda track car. Revvy little 4 pot motor, tubular frame, IFS, IRS, and a nice white circle on the doors. See how I can amuse myself mentally for hours (honestly, I could write all night) with even a part like this? That's why I love this sport, sport.

JB

Thursday 24 January 2008

A Chocolate Flavour Deuce



I don't like to indulge myself too often by posting up my own projects here, but I'm quite pleased with this one. This is number 1 in a series of about a thousand Deuces that I've got planned, assuming I can get them done before the end of all time.

I'm calling her the Chocolate Brownie, and she's finished in a semi-gloss brown paint mix of my own invention. It looks a little dark in the pics, but it matches a Mars Bar just perfect in real life.

Power is from a slightly warmed over Nailhead (dig those cool air filters!) and she's got a chopped up frame out back to accommodate a leaf spring/banjo set-up.

Finishing this seems a long way away, even though all the scratchbuilding is done and it's mostly painting that I've got left to handle now but every time I drop that motor in there it looks so cool that I wanna get going on it again. In fact, that's what I did this morning, right before I got the urge to prime the rest of the parts to get her finished.

Compared to a lot of the fancy birthday presents I like to post up here this is just a pair of socks, but hey, sometimes we need socks, right?

JB

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Junkyard Jewels #4: 51 Chevy



I'm a Ford kinda guy. I claim no alliances, but it's hard to deny that pre-war Fords played a pretty major role in the early days of hot rodding. Chevy, they came into their own a little later in my mind. 55, 56, 57; the big Chevy moments in hot rod history. Of those three, the 55 is my favourite, then the 56, then the 57. The later they got the bigger they got, the more chrome there was and every year made them a little less beautiful in my eyes. More elegant maybe, but at the cost of freshfacedness.

Out of all the fifties Chevrolet offerings though, the 1951 model year was a pretty good vintage I'd say. Classy but not too classy, with a subtle yet very noticeable touch of class without any pretentiousness. A good all rounder that's oft-ignored in favour of later offerings.

I was delighted, then, to find this little 51 in a parts lot I bought. I quickly skipped past the two 57s in there, one of them a convertible, to check out this very clean but started build and started to get excited.

The engine is done - not beautifully but not too bad either, just needs a little detail work over the factory correct paint. The rest of the car is assembled with the tiniest traces of glue just gently barely holding it's bare plastic parts in place. Shouldn't take long at all to prise the various bits apart and get her primed. No prep needed - I don't see any evidence of flash being removed or any filler being laid down and it doesn't look as though it ever needed any. Very cleanly moulded, nice detail, multipiece floorpan and even more surprisingly everything seems to be there! It wasn't all in one bag, admittedly, but I pieced it together crime-scene-forensics style and I'm not gonna be short of much, if anything.

I don't often say this, but I think this one is gonna get build box stock! And there's a testament indeed to the coolness that I see in this particular Junkyard Jewel. Long may the world's parts boxes bring us all happiness as rich and fresh as mine

JB

Wild Apple T



That I have a major fondness for Deuce kits of every variety is no secret, but one love I don't mention QUITE as often is the Uncertain T showcar.

I was lucky enough to be able to pick up an original issue one last year for a couple of hundred quid, but they're getting rare and I probably wont shell out on a second anytime soon. No chance of a reissue either, rumour has it that the tooling is FUBAR. No wonder then that the real hardcore showrod builders are making their own. And, in many cases, building their own version of it. Which brings us onto this crazy little build by a Coffin Corner regular called Chief. And you thought the original was pretty wild?

Based on a repro UT body, Chief's 'Wild Apple T' is running on a Creepy T chassis with that wild blown engine from the same. Those crazy Richard Carrol rear tyres are also repro, produced by master-caster Joe D, whose dragster we featured yesterday.

Love it or REALLY love it, the in-build pics are well worth checking out. Go!

Monday 21 January 2008

Joe Demicoli's Flathead Six Dragster



Another day, another amazing build in-progress. I've been meaning to write a little about this one for a while, and I finally got round to emailing my good friend Joe about it tonight. Happily he agreed to let me feature it here, so here it is!

Based on a Jawbreaker frame (albeit shortened 25 scale inches) Joe's dragster is truly one of a kind, and is certainly the most distinctive build I've seen for a while. Joe's a prolific resin caster who makes all kinds of cool bits for his build, and this one's no exception. The blower up top of a that flattie 6 is resin, as are the mainfolds and cool pie-crust tyres out back.

That distinctive body is from a Tall T (ironic huh?) which was sectioned 6 scale inches roughly to fit the frame. The driver actually hangs out the BACK of the body, and presumably sees either through the little slitty windscreen up front (but only just!) or over the roof.

There's nothing quite like an old-school looking dragster - where experimenting was still part of the game and anything was possible with about any part you had lying around. And to any good hot rodder will tell you, being different is what it's all about.

I can highly recommend checking out the rest of the pics of Joe's build here. Be inspired people...

JB

Sunday 20 January 2008

Junk Yard Dog's World's Most Beautiful Model Roadster Contest entry



Another day, another interesting WIP for us, today's courtesy of AutoModelling.com user 'junk yard dog'. There's a really varied bunch of builds going on for the WBMBR, and I'm enjoying watching them all slowly develop. I also enjoy that they're developing slowly. There's plenty of time to do things right, get your builds just how you want. Hell, I haven't even got any of the parts for mine yet!

JYD is off to a great start on this build, and he appears to be kitbashing like there's no tomorrow. MPC Switches 32 Phaeton body, Revell Deuce fenders, a 427 Revell mill, and a 30 or 31 vintage chrome grille. Those slices out of the body give it a mean rake, and the roof gives it more that a hint of Lil' Coffin.

Coincidence, apparently as JYD hadn't seen that build before but it's interesting that the changes he made in 2008 ended up unwittingly echoing those executed more than 40 years ago - a great example of hot rodding always being hot rodding, no matter what year it's going on in. Plus, any build being compared to one by Darryl Starbird can't be a bad thing right?

More on this as the contest develops, but in the meantime check out the build here.

JB

Saturday 19 January 2008

Junkyard Jewels #3: Wire Wheel



It was a toss-up today between writing about one of my many projects or writing about another Junkyard Jewel. Writing a blog on my own work seemed a little pretentious, so a Jewel it is!

I'm not the kinda guy who does a lot of stock builds of ANYTHING. Know-it-all that I am, I know for a fact I can improve on anything that's ever been done by anyone (note:humour), so building right out of the box or to duplicate a stock 1:1 car isn't very me. Sometimes though a stock part can actually be the inspiration for a whole new build, a long way from what the original designer intended. Which brings us neatly onto this wheel.

In fact, unusually, I got a whole set of these in a parts lot, and they're all immaculate. Nicely moulded, GREAT detail on the sidewalls, just a lovely piece. Presumably discarded in favour of something more modern by someone just like me. Old wires are OK, but you wouldn't be seen dead with a set of these on your street rod coupe or roadster, right?

In these wheels though, I can see a whole build in my head. Imagine a fenderless 30/31/32 roadster, bright red. Or black. That particular old black that isnt quite as glossy as restorers always think it is. No, red, definitely red. Maybe a home-painted racing number on the side. Number two maybe. Yeah, two is good. A big "2" on each door to show the world this is a race car. Being as this fictitious amateur racer originates, say, late thirties early forties, it'd be running a very mildly warmed over Flathead. Home cooked, if you like.

No headlights - don't need 'em on a racer. Just a drivers seat - again, extra weight. Stock drum brakes all round. Plenty of stopping distance at Bonneville. The car sits pretty high and the big heavy windscreen is gone to gain an extra little speed, so the driver has to crouch over the steering wheel in his slightly grubby (he works on his own car, you see) white helmet and flying goggles. Salt sprays up in rooster tails from the skinny stock tyres as that flathead feeds them a little more than they're used to. Just a man, machine and a long long road of salt.

"Donald Campbell went 300 not so long ago", he thinks, "I wonder what this old' jalopy will do?".

JB

Friday 18 January 2008

Junkyard Jewels #2: Tool Box and Tools




Welcome to the second of our irregular series on "Junkyard Jewels". Most of my junkyard jewels arrive in a big box, often stuff with smaller boxes to organise them. Exhausts in one box, wheels and interior parts in another - whatever (often crooked) filing system the previous owner decided to keep them in.

When I get a box full of boxes of partsI'm very quick to tip parts everywhere, examine them, and then put them back in the box. Very very rarely I break this (loose) rule though, and keep a particularly cool find on my bench. But it's very rare that I find one that warrants being there. It's got to keep my attention for days or weeks for that to happen.

This cool little tool box (which was, itself a box in a box in a box until recently) is one of the coolest Junkyard Jewels I've found to date I think. I don't know where it came from or how old it is, as with most of my Jewels, but it's been right in the middle of my workbench for ages now.

Open it up and you see a little tray with moulded in detail of a bunch of tools:



Remove that and there's THESE little beauties:



I dont know where, when or if I'll ever reincorporate this awesome little box into a build, it's cool just as it is, but until I decide for definitele this tiny toolkit is gonna live right in front on me on my bench to make me smile a little whenever I tip the tools out on the bench.

JB

Thursday 17 January 2008

The Circle Of Life

Well, modelling anyway.

As Lyle Willit's gorgeous Sedan gets finished...



...three new kits arrive at AutoMod HQ courtesy of Tower Hobbies and a new build is begun!



Life is rich and good.

JB

Wednesday 16 January 2008

'Dodge Fever's World's Most Beautiful Model Roadster Contest entry



After the picture-less blog yesterday what better to welcome us back tothe world of the graphic than this stunning little WIP for the WMBMR contest. If this aint the most pretty little roadster I've seen all day, I've forgotten one. And I know I haven't.

Put together by AutoModelling regular going by the name 'Dodge Fever', this little A is gonna run a Hemi mill (sure fills the frame huh?), a scratchbuilt frame, a resin cast Old axle, and an awesome stance. There's a long way to go on this one, but it's a beautiful little build right now and I cant wait to see more.

And yeah, anyone who was worried, the engine IS gonna drop in the frame a little before it's done but hopefully that stock-height windshield wont. Awesome, awesome propotions for sure.

As per, more info and pics as it progresses, and more in-build pics here

JB

Tuesday 15 January 2008

How My Mouth Got Me In Trouble

I'm a lippy kinda guy. it doesn't take much for me to open my mouth and say what I think. If I love something, I'll jump right in there and say so, and if I don't I'll say so too. I'm trying not to be so blunt, not everyone finds it attractive, but there we go.

How is this related to modelling, I hear you ask? Well, same applies on the net - and there's nothing more likely to get my (virtual) lips flapping than talk of a contest or community build. Here's the kinda trouble I'm trying to build my way out of right now:

AutoModelling.com Chevy CBP
This one ended a while ago, but I allowed an extension (practically insisted on it) to get my build done. Cheeky? Probably...but all that BMF fried my brain. Shoulda done a 55, shoulda done a 55, shoulda done a 55.

The Great Pick-Up CBP

Might get this one done - doing a Beer Wagon and it's not THAT complex. The wood might show me down though, and I'm trying hard to resist detailing it beyond common sense...

Youpey's Super Annual Super Model Contest
I gotta keep what I'm building for this a secret, which is hard for me, but its Tamiya, pretty simple, curbside and its moulded in yellow. Saying no more...

Coffin Corner Vette Van Contest
This one's gonna be messy...see here for a little more on this one.

40 Ford War
The idea was simple - everyone pair up, grudge race style, and compete against the other person to build the bitchin-est 40 Ford ever. Obviously, I somehow ended up in a three-horse race and the crappiest starting point I've ever seen.

2008 World's Most Beautiful Roadster Contest
I got a shopping list and a dream. That's all right now.

If anyone sees me entering another contest don't be at all surprised - I'll get 'em al done one day. And as long as it's fun, that's kinda the whole point to me.

JB

Monday 14 January 2008

Bonneville Go Kart



Every now and fun, in life as well as this fine hobby of ours, it's cool to do something a little different. I love collecitng 'novelty' (in the most respectful sense of the word) kits, and I couldnt have been more excited when I saw Model Cars Mag member jbwelda's in build pics of this cool little streamlined kart.

Originally issued in a 60s AMT Pick Up kit (I cant be more specific than that, but I plan to be sometime soon) this is a Replicas and Miniatures resin replica of said (mini)kit. Predictably, fit apparently isn't quite as good on the copy as on the original but such practicalities are easily overlooked just by the sheer coolness of the thing. I want about ten of them, right now please.

As usual, I couldnt wait for a build to be finished before posting pics of it, but I'm sure you'll agree it's work checking out. In fact, go check out all the other pics immediately. That's an order soldier. Guaranteed you'll want one...

Tomorrow: how I got myself in all manner of trouble with my big mouth and can-do attitude.

JB

Sunday 13 January 2008

Lyle Willits' 32 Tudor Sedan



It doesn't take much to get me to post up a Deuce - and the first build of the new Revell Sedan kit on AutoModelling's forum was more than enough reason to feature this little gem of a build. It's also the first kit-bashed example of this particular kit that I've seen, and I couldn't ask for a cooler looking 32!

Built by forum regular Lyle Willits, of the Maryland Automotive Modeler's Association, this Sedan features lowered suspension, a perfect blue 'n' white interior and that gorgeous scale metalflake finish. Motivation comes via a 265 SBC, which is a cool touch - a lot of people currently regard a 'wrong' brand engine (eg: a Chevy in a Ford, or a Ford in a Chevy) to be a little unfashionable, but I love mixing things up like that.

As with a lot of the builds I've been featuring here this one isn't quite done yet, but it's due within the week, apparently. Can't wait to post up some more pics when it is, this one's gonna come together very nicely indeed. In the meantime, check out some more in build pics here.

JB

Saturday 12 January 2008

Junkyard Jewels #1 Update - The Frame Identified!

If you caught the first part of Junkyard Jewels #1 you might be wondering what that frame was. Sleepless nights, tossing and turning? Worry not, for the answer is here!

Thanks to Coffin Corner members Flounder and RatRod we can now reveal that the frame is from one of these cool old kits:



First issued by AMT in 1972 as a Tommy Ivo rail replica, the kit was subsequently reissued, slightly modified, as a streamliner, then with a jet turbine engine out back as the 'Turbosonic', then finally once more in the 80s as a sand rail.

Which version I have here, I have no idea, but the knowledge of the guys on the CC who helped me out, and also Tim Boyd's excellent book 'Collecting Model Car And Truck Kits', I now know a whole lot more than I did a few days ago. Thanks fellas!

JB

Friday 11 January 2008

Steve Milberry's "Project Resurrection"



Following on from yesterday's 'Junkyard Jewels' theme (more of them tomorrow, probably), here's a great example of someone taking some old junk and making a jewel out of it. Check out the car above and see what Steve Milberry did to it here.

Great work Steve, and a great timely demonstration of exactly what I was talking about in yesterday's blog. If any of my old crap from beyond the parts box ends up anything like Steve's 'Resurrection' then I'm gonna be pretty delighted with myself.

JB

Thursday 10 January 2008

Junkyard Jewels #1: Dragster Frame



One of my favourite Ebay searches is for model car junkyards. Try it - it works best on the US version of Ebay rather than the UK version, but even in the UK this stuff'll pop up now and then. Made up of old discarded parts (or even whole discarded projects) parts lots are a great way to fill up your spares box. For me, the joy is in picking through them, checking out all the cool parts that I've never seen before - and may never be able to find again unless I can work out where they're from.

I got a HUGE parts lot yesterday that I'd won on the 'Bay just before Christmas. The listing didn't give justice to just how much stuff the seller was going to send me - including a whole just-reissued unstarted kit! As mentioned in yesterday's blog, I spent much of last night going through all the parts and checking them out. In there was the dragster you see above, which is the subject of tonight's blog.

As is often the way with these parts-lot finds, I have no idea which kit this frame was from, when it was issued, and whether it's rare or not. Frankly, I don't care - it's cool as hell! Assembled, it would probably be about 210 scale inches in wheelbase, rear engined and maybe late sixties, early seventies in design? No mounts for a rear wing, the pretty simple chassis, and the style of the seat and steering wheel kinda make it FEEL that way to be - but I'd love to find out for sure what it actually is and when it's meant to be from.

Before I go posting images all over the model car forums of the net however, I was doing a virtual build in my head tonight. She'll need an engine, but the rear axle is there, and the drivetrain is gonna be pretty simple. Maybe a Hemi of some sort? Then, gotta order some rear wheels and tyres for this thing. Pegasus makes some that are suitable for modern dragsters and funny cars, but I wanna get something period correct too, whichever period it works out that this thing is from.

The 'interior' (in the loosest sense of the term) is all there - seat, 6 gauge dash and chromed steering wheel so that'll be a breeze, and I'd like to make a couple of side-saddle gas tanks to sit beside the driver. Not for any particular reason, I just saw them on a car and they looked cool! On the plus side, they'd also leave me with a little less bodywork to construct, with panels needing to be fabricated from the dash forwards. I like my racers looking all mechanical and mean rather than TOO streamlined and tidy.

Front end is missing, and will need fabricating, along with hunting down some wheels. Shouldn't be hard though, I think there might even be some in this parts lot I've got here. From there, just gotta work out a colour scheme, which is always the tricky bit for me. I'll work it out though, and it'll be period correct whatever it is.

See how much fun I've had this evening just looking at an old discarded half-model? Poorly painted and incomplete, it still got my juices flowing and my modelling mind working - which is exactly what this hobby should do. And regularly does, as you'll see as I start posting more of these 'junkyard jewels' here on the blog.

'Til then, check out a few more pics of tonight's modelling muse:

JB








Wednesday 9 January 2008

Green Gasser



I thought I could probably get one more day of blog mileage out of 'Crazy Lime Green Builds Week', even if this one aint quite so fancy as the other builds we've been privileged enough to feature this week.

Still not much more than a body, awaiting decals (which I'm gonna get designed and printed as soon as I decide for sure what name I'm going with), this is gonna be a green 'n' gold Revell 55 gasser kit. I couldn't resist laying a can of Tamiya Lime Candy (this week's obsession) down on what is by design a fairly outlandish kind of a car anyway.

Not much to report on this one, honestly, modified grille aside, but what would Crazy Lime Builds Week be without at least ONE model sprayed with a Tamiya rattlebomb?

This blog would be longer if I hadn't this morning received the biggest box of model car parts I've ever seen. More on that tomorrow, once I've managed to stop going through the thousands of exciting new bits I've got sitting here...

Peace out

JB

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Harley Richard's Tip-Top-Tee




Welcome to day 2 of 'Crazy Lime Green Builds Week' here on AutoModelling Blog. And boy have we got a cracker for you today, courtesy of Harley Richards. Another Coffin Corner regular, Harley could easily qualify as the nicest guy you're likely to meet (he sold me a TONNE of kits at IPMS Telford this year and did me a great deal on 'em too), he's insanely knowledgeable (even what I gathered from just a few minutes talking to him at said show I decided he knows more about everything model related than I can hope to learn in a lifetime) and to top it off he built THIS! Whatta guy!

Based on a Tom Daniel sketch that never got outside of the pages of a hot-rod mag, Harley decided that a gull-wing T was just the kinda project he'd like to sink his teeth into. After my favourite part of a build, parts collecting, Harley had decided on, in his words "MRC wheels and tyres, rear end from a Revell Buttera T, the engine block is an AMT Lincoln, blowers are from the Creepy T, pipes are Bathtub Buggy, front axle and radius rods are from the Milk Truck, the main body is an original AMT Tall T with a later-issue pickup bed grafted on (no, I have no idea why I did that!), while the grille shell is AMT with pretty much everything else came from the parts box or was scratchbuilt. The radiator grille is from an old electric shaver!". Clearly a man not afraid to mix and match, even with some pretty rare components - have you seen a Bathtub Buggy for sale lately?

Now, when I see or hear about a lime green candy model I immediately think of Tamiya's rattle can colour. But, in common with yesterday's build, Harley decided against 'going off-the shelf', deciding on "A lovingly custom mixed artists’ acrylic that took about ten coats to get a smooth covering, but which bears more than a passing resemblance to Tamiya’s rattle can lime pearl". Similar, but just different enough to be cool, no?

Wish such a mammoth job of kit-bashing and paint-mixing and gull-winging, it'd be easy to skimp out on details. Every good hot rod has them - those little things that make you go 'wow, that's cool'. Stuff you might not notice at first, but that catch the eye on repeated views. See those headers that run through the footplates on either side? Just such a feature. The matching pattern on said plates, the rear bed cover and interior. The photoetched (I think?) discs brakes, suitably plumbed. The single coil spring up front. The single brake light at the back. I could go on for hours.

Better though to just direct you to the pics. Check 'em out and prepare to be blown away.

JB

Monday 7 January 2008

Jason Richardson's 56 Chevy Bubbletop



After that shameful excuse for a model kit that I posted yesterday, I've got not one but TWO amazing builds to tell you about this week. Both candy lime green, both displaying amazing levels of skill by their builders and both discovered on my beloved Coffin Corner.

First up is the gorgeous custom you see above, by Jason Richardson. This one's not quite done yet, but I couldn't wait to post it up even in it's 'unfinished' state. You don't see builds looking like this much anymore!

Jason started this build with a
Revell 1956 Chevy Del Ray kit. There's some of it in there somewhere! "I cut the body in half and wedged it so that its narrower in the front. I then grafted the bubble top from a Silhouette onto it and got some putty on it", says Jason.

That done, and apparently still not satisfied with the kinda bodymods that would scare a lot of builders to death, Jason mixed in the quarter panels from a 57 Chevy (actually, from a Boyd Chezoom kit) AND some Lamborghini side scoops. Then came the gorgeous front end treatment, with lots of sanding, puttying and priming we'd assume.

The engine is from a Stude, with the distinctive pyramid induction set-up, with (keeping things in the showrod tradition) blower scoops from a Paddy Wagon. Mix in a Camaro chassis and suddenly you got a lot of kits missing bits...but who'd argue when they end up on a build this sweet!

In an email to me today Jason reports that he's "kinda burnt out", and who can blame him after the extreme levels of scratchbuilding and kitbashing that went into this one...but lets hope it's not too long before the finishing touches are added and it's all wrapped up. Can't wait to show off some finished pics of the build, and also see what he's gonna cook up next! In the meantime, for the curious, more in-build pics are available at The Coffin Corner.

More candy lime coolness tomorrow....

JB

Sunday 6 January 2008

My "First" Build




There's something special about a first model. Like many of us who left this hobby only to rejoin it, I don't have any of the models I built as a kid. They were most likely thrown away, or lost at some point, with no thought given to the relevance they might have in the future.

Truth is, I wasn't very good at building models when I was a kid. And who would be with those little 1/32nd scale Airfix kits of mundane British sports car subjects, pots of the slowest drying enamel paint money can buy and those nearly-useless tubes of glue that even a seasoned mdoeller would be hard pushed to apply without leaving little spider web strings of it all over everything. Add to that a lack of tools - I doubt if I even had anything to cut the parts from the sprues and a lack of patience and we have a fine recipe for a pretty horrific waste of a plastic kit.

I remember one birthday where a childhood friend, knowing how car and model crazy I was, got me a small scale kit of a Stealth bomber. It was a lovely gift, but at the time I was gutted it wasnt a car. A little after this, all I wanted one birthday was a model of the DeLoren from Back To The Future. I'd seen the model kit in a model shop on holiday and convinced my parents that that was the gift for me that year. Come birthday morning said kit was there, all wrapped up, just waiting for a gluey misfortune to happen to it.

One Christmas, on a trip to a nearby shopping centre to take advantage of the January sales I picked up a Tamiya Fiat 500 kit. WAY too advanced of a kit for someone with my modelling skills at the time, but none the less, home it came. An article in a modelling magazine showing some aspect of customising a kit inspired me to hack up the poor Topolino and have that one's fate sealed in a mess of glue AND 1:1 body filler. I ruined a lot of stuff, but never intentionally. I've ever been one of those guys who takes a kit, builds it and then ties it to a firework or something. For one thing, I didn't have any fireworks.

Then, as time passed, I got into girls, got my first job, first flat, first 'real' car, and the hobby got forgotten. Until one day when my girlfriend, who I'm still with 7 years on, presented me with a kit. She didn't remember who she'd bought it for, an unused Christmas present for someone most likely, but it was mine. Guess what? Made a mess of that too. At least I still have that one.

Frustrated, I decided a larger scale kit might be more fitting - all the others had been 1/32, I'd guess. A trip to the local hobby shop, the much missed R&D Models in Cambridge, revealed all manner of awesome kits of all kinds of things. I settled on a BMX Dixie, a German variation of the Austin 7, on the line of thinking that the 1:1 would be a lot simpler than some of the other kits there, so it oughta be a little easier to build.

On the way home, a plan hatched to make a few mods to make it a little cooler. Primer, maybe, lose the doors to save a little weight, smooth it out with that body filler I had so much messy fun with in the past. A plan was hatched! An over the next week or so, sped up by a summer well suited to painting things, I completed the model.

Looking at it now, I'd feel a little ashamed of it if it weren't so wonderfully naive in its finish an execution. The filler I used melted the plastic slowly after assembly, causing that pit afront the steering wheel on the cowl. I didn't give much consideration to panel lines (eg: just puttied over them) and it doesn't have an engine either. Looking at that 'first' build is a great indication of how much I've learnt, how far I've developed my skills, and how even something as poorly put together at my little Austin (I decided my build was an Austin, though of course didnt actually make any modifications to actually MAKE it an Austin) can trigger a headful of great memories. I cant remember much else about the summer I made this Austin, but I remember where I bought the kit, what was going on outside when i was painting the various parts, what problems I encountered - all kinds of details.

And for that reason alone, I'll always treasure this poorly put together little hot rod, in spite of all my shortcomings when I built it.

JB

Vette Vans and the Coffin Corner



Anyone who knows me, knows that I love showrods. The Uncertain T, Vending Machine, and hundreds of real or modelled-but-not-real showcars from the sixties onwards really strike a chord with me. Thus, it's a natural that I'd eventually find The Coffin Corner.

The Coffin Corner, for those not familiar, is as a forum attached to the best (only) site on the web devoted to archiving all the various model showrods put out over the years, Showrods.com . The owner, Dave Rasmussen, originally put the site together so he could gaze longingly at his model collection whilst on long business trips away from home, but the site has since become much more than one man's handy reference. It's become a great community of like minded individuals who get together to build, show off, sell swap and discuss the sub-hobby of showrod building. For a regular like me, the in-jokes and humour and camaraderie are as much a part of the site as the cars themselves...just like any good car club! There's always a great selection of old school dragsters, hot rods, showrods and other oddities being built which make it just my kinda place.

The contests they run are a real favourite of mine, I always try and take part if I can. Last year they came up with what became called the Name Game; each participant thought of a cool showrod name (I did 'The Pizza Express' for example') and decals were make and sent out to other builders to build. The excitement was excruciating for me as I waited patiently for my decals to arrive so I could see which names had been picked out for me to build. Sadly, some participants are STILL waiting for their names and the contest remains, at this point at least, suspended.

The odd breakdown aside, I love 'em. The latest one, well, one of two, is based around an old magazine feature from CarToons Magazine, where readers were invited to send in pictures of Corvettes made into a van bodystyle. All it took was a casual mention of the feature on the board and another great contest was born.

What exactly I'm going to build I have no idea. There IS a kit of a Corvette Van, believe it or not, originally created by MPC. Building out of the box isn't quite what these guys probably have in mind. More in the spirit is cutting up a bunch of old (sometimes rare) kits and creating something new and exciting. Like I say, what those kits will be, I have no idea. I've got an old AMT '53 kit around here and a little messing today shows that a 40 Ford Sedan Delivery body could be made to fit (not without some HARDCORE surgery though), but I'm still undecided. Whatever it is though, I'll post up some in-progress and finished pics as I go.

Just that, a pick-up, a WMBMR entry and a Chevy on the 'urgent' pile at the minute then...

JB


Friday 4 January 2008

WIP - Whatta Inspirational Project!



I was thinking hard all of today on what today's blog should cover. I've been storing up ideas in my head of great blogging subjects, but when I got around to writing one this afternoon my head emptied. Which got me to thinking, what inspires me to be creative? My building style is very much about putting 'wrong' parts into thing sand making them fit. Old 'metal axle through the block' AMT engines into Revell Coupes, for example. And scratchbuilding and modifying parts. I haven't built a box stock model yet, and I don't intend to anytime soon either. So, nothing gets my mind whirring like seeing someone else building like how I do. Especially if they do it better than me, which is pretty much a given.

Take the pic above. Now, I gotta apologise to whoever took this pic and posted it on the net. I right clicked, saved it, and put it on my desktop to look at again. Today when I found it I had no idea whose picture it was, where I got it from or what happened to this project. I sincerely apologise for stealing your image and using it on my blog, but it demonstrates my point so perfectly that I couldn't resist.

Let's look at that pic a second. 32 Coupe, Revell kit, chopped a couple of scale inches probably and nothing like finished. I cant see one piece on it that looks done. But I can already tell by looking at it that it's going to (or has already) turn out great. Those lightening holes in the roof and seats are such a cool touch - you can transform the look of a hot rod build like this with a few discrete (or not so discrete, in this case) holes. Drill the frame, the body, the interior, anything, the more like a lump of that hole-y cheese it looks the better in my eyes. As long as it's realistic anyway - you dont see many drilled fuel tanks, for example.

The stripped chrome on the the front spreader bar, suspension arms and headlights suggests to me that this is a SERIOUS builder, either rechroming to get rid of sprue marks, substituting chrome with another metal finish or going body coloured. Here, I like to think it's a mix of all three.

The drums on the back and front make me think 60s, which then makes me think of candy colours, wild not-quite-perfectly-proportionate-but-period-perfect flame jobs and cool vintage parts. Like those triple carbs and crazy headers. The bull on the front, eh, I could take or leave that at this point, but it's certainly different. Those bomber style seats just seal the deal for me.

Builds like this, displayed like this in all their bare-plastic glory really get me going. I love mocking up and photographing my builds, and sharing them with others, in the hope that they might see a combination of parts that sets them off on a road to build something similar of their own. There's something so fun for me in planning a build; deciding what parts should go together, thinking what wheels go with which bodies, imagining how x kit would look with y paint colour. Much as I enjoy that though, nothing quite beats how much I love looking at other people's mock ups and in progress shots - it's just one of the aspects of this hobby which makes it so magical for me.

JB

Thursday 3 January 2008

Mike Proteau's WMBMR08 Contest Build



It was exciting for me, just a day after putting the world out about the World's Most Beautiful Model Roadster Build, to see a mock up appear already in a thread on Scale Auto. Mike Proteau, aka "2004F4" was the first to jump on the wagon with this one and even at this early stage it's a cool looking little build.

Mike has used an AMT 32 frame with the AMT Ala Kart body and bed, which to my eyes is a great looking combination. Haters of over-sized wheels, don't despair, they're just there for the mock up. Mike emailed me today and told me that he's just working out his options as far as a mill goes, and promised more in-progress pictures when he gets there.

One of the coolest things about this contest is going to be seeing the builds in progress, people bounching off each other and seeing what cool original ideas people come up with. Makes me wanna get started on mine, and I'm almost ready to start thinking about considering contemplating coming up with an idea...

JB

Wednesday 2 January 2008

The kits that could 'save' the industry



Now I'm not one of those guys who falls for every 'this industry is dying' prophecy that comes along. Yeah, kids on average prefer Playstation to plastic kits. Yeah, this hobby, as a business, isn't what it used to be. And what are we, the people who love this hobby, doing to secure it's future? Just what we should be - buying and building kits. Ultimately though, the future of this hobby as a BUSINESS lies in the hands of the manufacturers. If they aint putting anything out that's worth buying, people wont see the worth in buying it.

Revell, for me, is doing the best job at keeping buyers interested and keeping us spending out on their kits. Take the new 49 Merc. Whilst everyone else was jumping all over this release I was getting all excited about the 32 Sedan but I saw on in my favourite LHS at the weekend and had to check it out. By buying one, obviously. Actually, make that two. It would've been three but they only had two in stock. My (long suffering) girlfriend practically forced me to buy the second one, despite my attempts at self control. "You know you'll build a second one" she said, after I pointed out the custom wheels and building variations on the box.

Anyway, the kit caught my eye I think cos of the large box. A simple trick, but it worked. Anything in a BIG box is better than something in a SMALL box, right? It's a nice box too, as they go, much better than the 'they only open at one end' ones that they've used in the past. It's well packed too, with some awesome optional parts that I already got homes for on other projects. The rear lights look great on a Deuce I'm building and the steelies are good enough to be the starting point of a car built just to wear them. And that's the 'trick' Revell has stumbled upon, and again with the 'new' Deuce kit that's just launched, although its nothing new. Put extra bits in the kit boxes, and make the kit great to start with.

Its not exactly rocket science when written down, though obviously there's a little more to it than that in the real world, but Revell is doing the exact right thing at the right time with seemingly little compromise between the hobby and the business. And when you do that, people will keep coming back for more.

Three building options? I'd better buy three and another for parts-robbing! Different parts in different versions of the same kit (as with the Deuce variations)? I'll take two! And as for the Sedan kit I've been waiting for since last summer? The one with two engines, two sets of wheels and about a million building combinations when bashed with the other 32 kits? Well, got five coming right now!

Case closed.

JB

Tuesday 1 January 2008

World's Most Beautiful Model Roadster Contest



Something I've been thinking of for a while is the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award that gets dished out every year. It's, in my opinion, the highest regarded accolade a car designer/builder car receive. It's not good enough to design a great car, or make cool changes to an existing design, you've also gotta build it with obsessive levels of attention to detail. Poor workmanship and bad taste have no place for an AMBR winner.

Take, for example the 35 Ford above. Great use of colour, crazy levels of detail and finish and a 408 mill that looks like it's been dunked in a vat of chrome. Just the kind of stuff great showcars are made of.

When I saw this car for the first time my modeller's brain started whirring. Yeah, I could make something like that. Nice colour, big bright chrome wheels, I've got a 408 around here somewhere, etc etc. How much cooler would it be to have a whole CONTEST full of cars like this though. You only need two cars to race, so even a second build to compete against would be good. For a while I toyed with the idea of running an invite-only contest to see what some of my favourite model builders came up with for such a challenge. I emailed a whole bunch of people, some of whom were excited, some who werent.

Most helpful was Tim Boyd, probably my favourite builder of all time if I had to choose one. Tim suggested making it an open contest. Why limit it to ten? There's a whole WORLD of great builders out there who'd no doubt love to get in on the action. Yeah, I thought, reading his email, he's right. So, an open contest it is!

Here's the deal. Entrants must build their interpretation of the world's most beautiful roadster with a body from 1937 or earlier. The 37 rule comes from the 1:1 contest, where the cut-off is imposed because that's when Ford stopped making their annual roadsters. Dunno how factual that is, obviously they've done roadsters since, but that's the line I swallowed. The car can me minutely detailed down to the last bolt and wire or simply a curbside. Obviously, being a roadster, there will be an interior to consider, but the engine can be passed by at the builder's whim.

The build runs for almost a whole year, until the end of November in fact, after which voting will take place online. Thus, it's not just good enough to build a great car, you gotta take some decent shots of it too. Presentation is everything. I'll spare you the minute details of the voting system, but come the end of 08 one car will be voted the World's Most Beautiful Model Roaster and the victor will receive the beautiful trophy that I've got planned out in my mind.

I'm excited personally about seeing how everyone else steps up to the plate as much as I'm excited about doing my own build. I havent got my design all planned out yet but it's DEFNITELY going to be a 32 Ford of some sort. I keep thinking of a classic look...black, flamed, red engine, although that's not exactly how the 1:1 winners have been the last few years. I'll be posting up some in build shots of mine and other people's builds as the contest progresses

JB