Post by Bernard Kron on Dec 18, 2020 21:15:22 GMT -5
More Photos Below
1930 Ford Phaeton Early 60’s Style Show Car
The project was based on the most recent, 2009, Revell re-issue of the venerable Monogram 1/24th scale 1930 Ford Touring phaeton, a kit first released in its original 3-in-1 form all the way back in 1961. I have always admired the early Monogram hot rod kits for their outstanding ability to accurately portray the sprit and detail of hot rods at the time they were issued. They are remarkable documents of the era. Surprisingly, despite this, I don’t build them often, probably because they’re 1/24th scale, and I’m kind of a 1/25th purist, even though, like everyone else, I know that there’s enough scale inaccuracy among 1/24th and 1/25th scale models that parts can be readily swapped among them and it’s often (‘though not always) hard to spot the difference between them when displayed together.
The 2009 Revell release, the “Custom Car Show” version, featured some new parts that were significant enough to change the character of the kit, notably a new set of wire wheels and an optional set of Guide style headlights. Both parts caught my eye so I bought the kit mainly as a parts car. The Guide headlights were just what I had hoped they would be, but the stylized radial-spoked wire wheels, while perfect “Car Show” items, were too idiosyncratic to be of much use except for early 60’s style show hot rods. The kit sat in my stash for a few years until one day I thought I’d look it over again to see if I could build it into something inspirational, setting the Guide lights aside for a future project. I decided that I’d use the wire wheels as my inspiration and try them out on various Old School white walls (the kit comes with modern wide black wall radials). It turns out that the white wall Big ‘n’ Littles that come in the various Revell ‘29/’31 RPU/Sedan “Rat Rod” kits are a near perfect fit and really look the business as early 60’s show car rolling stock. Now I had the inspiration I needed!
The various Tamiya rattle can pearl colors have always seemed a bit odd to me, certainly not the sort of general purpose shades you’d use on most more contemporary racing, sports and street machines. The pearl blue, green and “light red” (can you say pink?) are all pale, almost pastel, shades. To my eyes, weird… But then it occurred to me that the Tamiya TS-59 Light Red Pearlescent would serve very well as an early 60’s show car color. And so now the course was set for this project.
Like so many of my recent builds, this one is mainly out of the box except for key part swaps and details. Below I’ve listed the changes I made to capture that early 60’s car show vibe.
Thanx for lookin’.
B.
Basic kit: 2009 Revell “Custom Car Show” Release 1930 Ford Touring Street Rod
Grill Shell from Revell 1930 Ford Woody Street Rod kit
Revell 1931 Ford Sedan “Rat Rod” kit supplied the following parts: Chrome firewall beading, Big ‘n’ Little whitewall tires, split rear bumperettes mounted to front, headlights (headlight lenses made by floating 5-minute epoxy over engraved headlight lenses, lamp buckets stripped of chrome and painted body color).
AMT 1939 Ford sedan taillights
Fabricated parts: Diamond quilt pattern Spare Tire Cover center, running board and steering wheel covers made from patterned styrene sheet; Fuel block made from styrene rod.
Aftermarket parts: Morgan Automotive Detail pre-wired distributor.
Paints: Duplicolor white primer undercoat, Duplicolor Universal White firewall, interior and undercarriage surfaces, Tamiya TS59 Light Red Pearl lacquer body color. Up top finished in Duplicolor white primer.
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