Barn Find! - '41 Plymouth Gasser

[Bernard Kron]

‘41 Plymouth Gasser Barn Find

My first “deep weathered” project, done to gain experience in using the salt technique for corrosion and weathering powders for color and detail. This year’s NNL West (March 12th in Santa Clara, California) has as one of its 2 featured themes Rat Rods. I want to do a car for this so it was time to get friendly with Mr. Rust.

The basic kit was the AMT ’41 Ford Kit. The Gasser part was done by using the gasser front axle and spring from the AMT ’32 Ford Phaeton. The extra power was provided by using a finned head for the (rather obscure) Chrysler Corp. P-series flathead six. The carburetion was achieved by scratched building a manifold for a triple set of Stromberg 97’s. Other than that it’s pretty much out of the box.

Here are the details and more pictures.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Chassis and suspension: Kit 1941 Plymouth chassis and rear suspension. Front suspension is the tubular straight gasser axle and transverse leaf spring from the AMT 1932 Ford Phaeton kit. All other parts from the ’41 Plymouth kit.

Wheels and tires: AMT Firestone front tires and Goodyear slicks from any AMT kit you’d care to think of. Hand painted sidewalls using Tamiya acrylic white. Front steelies from AMT ’37 Chevy kit, rear reversed offset steelies are NASCAR deep dish items courtesy of Performance Plastics.

Motor and transmission: Basic motor and transmission from the kit. Scratch built finned log manifold. Triple Stromberg 97’s courtesy of the late Ron Royston at Early Years Resin. Exhaust manifold from the Plymouth wedge head V8 in the kit, adapted to fit the flathead six.

Paint and finishes: Underlying paint is Duplicolor Red Primer and Duplicolor Hampsted Green Metallic. Special thanks for advice on the salt technique to simulate body corrosion courtesy of countless military modelers and to Virgil Suarez (Dr. Cranky) on YouTube. Weathering powders are dirt and two shades of rust courtesy of Bragdon Enterprises and Raul Perez (Thanx Raul!).

[wylee]

outstanding work!!!!

[dogfish7]

Fantastic finish! You've inspired me to keep trying on weathering, because it ain't easy.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx!

Bruce, learning about applying the powders both wet and dry, "wet " meaning over a surface wetted with isopropyl alcohol, and "dry" meaning dusting it on a dry surface with a soft, dry bush, was the critical thing for me. Also, using a soft tissue or cloth to remove pigment where it wasn't working right was important. I learned a lot from viewing military modelers applying weathering to their subjects on YouTube. The salt technique was very well covered on YouTube by Dr. Cranky. As Dr. Cranky pointed out, the first time you try it you'll apply the salt over more areas than you might have wanted to, which in this case led to the heavily rusted look. The textured corroded areas created then act like magnets for the weathering powder. Eventually you learn to pinpoint where you want your corrosion. I've since started my actual NNL West model which has far less rust, but much more strategically placed, ,which I hope will give it more impact. Even on this one, as I moved on to the chassis and motor I learned to more accurately control where I wanted my weathering.!

I can see where people can get hung up on this. It's Big Fun!

[harron68]

Exactly, it takes practice to get the desirable, authentic look. Fine work indeed. There are different ways to do it and you seem comfortable trying each one. Congrats on a success and the experience gained in creating it!

[fordrodnkustom]

Very authentic concept and finish. Well done B, thanks for sharing.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks again guys. I have to say this came out far better than I ever expected - or than it had any right, too, for that matter. We'll see how the NNL West Rat Rod goes...

[Mr.409]

Oh yeah that turned out very nice! I've tried weathering & rusting models before but I have to say that I never succeded properly in it. This looks just about right to me, and building an old Barn Find racer like this is a great idea. I think that engine is the best part, very unique choice. Great work overall.

[Bernard Kron]

Broken Photobucket links repaired. For now I'm only updating completed model pics. Updating w.i.p. links is just too huge a task! I'll update them on request...