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Post by Bernard Kron on Jul 12, 2022 14:43:04 GMT -5
Sometimes when you do a largely scratch built and kit bashed project you have to go a pretty long way into the build before you know if it will actually work out. That’s certainly the case here. I’ve wanted to do a chopped ’31 Ford sedan from the venerable Revellogram ‘29/’31/RPU Sedan kits for quite a while. Those kits are important parts kits for me and as a result I have plenty of spare bodies lying around. A few years ago I started to chop a sedan but landed up wiping out a fair amount of the window and beltline molding during sanding and cleanup. This time I was more careful and the idea I have is to do a late 50’s/early 60’s dry lakes care, a period of time when these cars were becoming increasingly sophisticated while still preserving much of the traditional hot rod look of the mid-50’s. Safety was emerging as a major consideration as 200+ MPH speeds became more accessible to some of the lower performance categories. By the late 50’s, too, welded tubular frame construction was beginning to dominate competition machinery of all sorts, not just Grand Prix and sports cars, but circle track and straight line racing as well. So this is a ’31 sedan with a 3 ½ scale inch chop, lightweight space frame and a Putin blown V8. An attempt to push the decidedly “barn door” aerodynamics of the Model A sedan past the magic double century mark. The chassis is scratch built from .080 (2 scale inch diameter) styrene rod. The suspension, front and rear, is adapted from the Revell ’32 Ford street rod kits and the motor is cobbled together from parts box leftovers including a Plymouth 426 Wedge block and heads from the Revell Tony Nancy double dragster kits and the Potvin blower rig from the Revell 283 Chevy parts packs. It all just barely fits in this relatively diminutive sedan. The engine cover is Revell Deuce in origin. Below are initial mockup photos, the whole shebang barely held together with white glue. Now that I know it will work it’s time to get real about finishing things out and adding some believable detail. Thanx for lookin’, B.   |
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Post by Spike on Jul 12, 2022 15:55:47 GMT -5
I think that's going to look great. Love the motor.
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Post by sharp on Jul 13, 2022 7:25:09 GMT -5
This is gonna look really nice when its done. Great work on the roll cage. I like the clear red grill insert too.
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Post by patw on Jul 14, 2022 1:50:16 GMT -5
Super job so far, looking forward to more work on this!
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Post by Bernard Kron on Jul 25, 2022 17:27:43 GMT -5
Thanks everyone! It took a heck of a lot of scratchn’ and bashin’ but I have a completed chassis, suspension, motor and driver’s compartment to show for my efforts. Amazingly everything fits inside the ’31 Ford Tudor body shell as I hoped it would. The front and rear suspension are both made 100% from Revell ’32 Ford kit parts except for front friction shocks from a Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit. The cockpit details are all fabricated from various shapes of styrene and aluminum sheet, channel and rod with a seat and battery from my parts box. The fuel tank is from an AMT Phantom Vicky kit and the steering wheel from a Revell Miss Deal kit. Since the car has a simple in-out bar box it would need to be push started so I added a mounting bracket for a removable push bar which inserts through the rear bodywork. The chassis is painted in Tamiya TS-13 Camel Yellow. The motor is largely as described in my last update with headers fabricated from butyl covered wire. I fabricated a bellypan from styrene stock. It features a removable rear fairing to clean up the rear axle and shock absorber protrusions, and a fairing for the oil pan, bell housing and transmission. The rear panel is located by the bracket which also locates the push bar braces. The model is designed to have a removable body so that it can be displayed as a bare chassis as well. Below are photos showing a mockup with the body installed, photos of the rolling chassis, and detail photos of the front and rear suspension, cockpit, motor and bellypan. Now it’s time to focus on the bodywork, paint and decals. Thanx for lookin’, B.     |
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Post by Bernard Kron on Aug 9, 2022 19:43:11 GMT -5
The body work, paint and decals have been completed. I wanted a pure icebox white and didn’t have any in my stash, so I shot some base coats of Duplicolor white primer and then applied four coats of Duplicolor clear lacquer. It did the trick. I made my own decals. The scallops were redrawn using a scan of the right hood side scallop from the .1997 edition of the Revell ’32 Ford Roadster Street Rod kit. The trade decals were redrawn using web images as a basis. All that is left now is to finish up the wheels and wheel cover, make the red Plexiglas windows and do final assembly. Thanx for lookin’, B.  |
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Post by TooOld on Aug 10, 2022 8:51:00 GMT -5
That's some great use of spare parts Bernard and everything fits , that rarely happens ! I like that you were able to use the Revell '32 suspension without any real changes . I've been using the Duplicolor White Primer exclusively for a few years now and love it , it looks pretty good cleared !
It looks like you've got decals figured out too !
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Post by Bernard Kron on Aug 10, 2022 10:21:08 GMT -5
That's some great use of spare parts Bernard and everything fits , that rarely happens ! I like that you were able to use the Revell '32 suspension without any real changes . I've been using the Duplicolor White Primer exclusively for a few years now and love it , it looks pretty good cleared ! It looks like you've got decals figured out too ! Thanks! Most of the time spent on this model has been trial fitting and re-imagineering things. Quite a few things were made more than once and for every hour of actual bench time I bet there has been at least one additional hour looking for stuff and trying things out. The decals only work because the car is white. I dream of a relationship with a printer who will accept my Photoshop raster art work instead of vector graphic images. But I have learned the hard way that most decal services that use ALPS printers can only get successful output from raster vector art. They'll tell you it's because the art is sharper, but the truth is actually that their printer driver won't print raster files correctly. I have been trying to teach myself Adobe Illustrator but my decades of Photoshop experience means I can spend time creating and the learning curve for AI is turning out to be slow because I would rather build models than learn new software techniques. Just a simple technique to convert Photoshop files to vector files would do me, but even that seems complicated and time consuming. I have several stalled projects that require metallics or solid whites that are waiting for a breakthrough... |
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Post by Dave from Pleasanton on Aug 10, 2022 13:33:23 GMT -5
Bernard, you switch from:
"most decal services that use ALPS printers can only get successful output from raster art. They'll tell you it's because the art is sharper, but the truth is actually that their printer driver won't print raster files correctly."
One of these should be vector art. I'm guessing that the Alps can only print vector art correctly. True? I would like to make sure I send the right type of file if I use a print service in the future.
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Post by Bernard Kron on Aug 10, 2022 15:56:28 GMT -5
Bernard, you switch from: "most decal services that use ALPS printers can only get successful output from raster art. They'll tell you it's because the art is sharper, but the truth is actually that their printer driver won't print raster files correctly." One of these should be vector art. I'm guessing that the Alps can only print vector art correctly. True? I would like to make sure I send the right type of file if I use a print service in the future. Oops, sorry about that, it should read "most decal services that use ALPS printers can only get successful output from raster vector art." I would always as the service provider in advance what file formats they accept. |
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Post by TooOld on Aug 11, 2022 6:10:01 GMT -5
I have several stalled projects that require metallics or solid whites that are waiting for a breakthrough... After all these years you'd think it would have happened already . I almost bought a laser printer so I could order a white cartridge and print white decals . But that would mean printing two layer decals which is fine but with my extremely small quantities I couldn't justify the expense . Guess I'll just stick with printing on white paper with a color background . |
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Post by 41chevy on Aug 11, 2022 12:28:28 GMT -5
I have several stalled projects that require metallics or solid whites that are waiting for a breakthrough... After all these years you'd think it would have happened already . I almost bought a laser printer so I could order a white cartridge and print white decals . But that would mean printing two layer decals which is fine but with my extremely small quantities I couldn't justify the expense . Guess I'll just stick with printing on white paper with a color background . These were printed on an HP Laser printer using Royal Elements clear laser decal paper. The original image was a scan of the original 1968 Johan AMX decals. The issue with the kit decals was cracking on the White areas.
The HP made the actually printed the white areas with an almost unnoticeable blue tint to it. As for metallics a good friend owns Model Truckin Decals and there is an ALPS printer alternative. Focus Digital MP6000 printer. Uses ALPS style cartridges, prints Metallic and Foil metallics. It is a Chinese copy of the ALPS . He said printer cost $500 but the full cartridge set is $600.
Here is how the HP printed white.
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Post by Dave from Pleasanton on Aug 12, 2022 1:04:30 GMT -5
Great looking decals Paul. I guess you set your "white" to something slightly off white to get the printer to print the color. I found the Focus printer on Alibaba and and it was $1400-$1600. More than a bit too much for my wallet. I remembered that Micro-Mark offered a laser printer that printed white so I checked it out and it seems that they no longer off it. They do offer a white toner cartridge for $330.95 from Ghost. I checked it out and you can buy them direct for www.ghost-white-toner.com for a lower price and for various printer models. An HP M255dw laser printer at Best Buy is $399 with a cartridge from Ghost at $315 is more approachable but still a lot for me. |
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Post by Dave from Pleasanton on Aug 12, 2022 1:13:23 GMT -5
Did a little more looking and the LBP622Cdw by Canon costs $299 at Best Buy and the white cartridge is $299 from Ghost so it comes in at $598 plus shipping. Another plus is that Ghost sells cartridges in all the colors for that printer. Micro-Mark sells a Ghost cartridge for it as well at $330.95 and with a ten percent discount would come in at $287.86 plus shipping. Still seems like a heck of splurge.
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Post by Bernard Kron on Aug 12, 2022 20:49:34 GMT -5
This project is now completed. I installed red “Plexiglas” windows, painted the wheels red and mounted spun aluminum Moon discs from Parts by Parks and did some final fettling on the suspension and hood to get t=everything fitting right. I’ll do final presentation photography tomorrow. In the meantime here are a few detail shots. Thanx to all who followed along and… Thanx for lookin’, B.  |
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