Post by Bernard Kron on Jul 24, 2019 19:11:33 GMT -5
“Faded Glory” – As-found ’48 Ford Coupe Hot Rod
Textures, details and surface finishes that “scale” in miniature have always impressed me. Not that I’m not regularly blown away by spectacularly glossy paint jobs and super-detailing, but building a model that looks “real” and “natural” to the eye is a challenge that I take on from time to time, usually in combination with a project that’s otherwise fairly technically straightforward. As I approached the middle of summer which would see me away from my workbench for a month or more I decided to take on a simple project which I could complete in a few weeks where I would focus on this naturalistic approach to modeling.
I chose the Revell 1948 Ford series of kits both because they are uniformly excellent and go together with a minimum of issues, but also because they are extensively detailed and would lend themselves to this approach. There are at least 5 different kits in the series, the original ’48 Deluxe convertible with customizing options from 1998, the’48 Ford woody station wagon kit from 1999, the chopped top ’48 Customizing coupe from 2011, the stock height ’48 coupe with police car options from 2016 and the recent (2018) Greased Lighting convertible from the movie Grease. I have 4 of them in my stash, missing only the Greased Lightning kit. I have plans for them all, the major project being grafting the Carson top and upper body portion from the original 1998 convertible to the 2016 customizing .coupe and using all the old school customizing bits to make a classic early 50’s full custom. The woody will get built largely stock but with a modern motor under the hood. This left the stock height Police Car coupe, which has already had its flathead V8 and tires used in other projects. This was the basis for this project.
My idea was to build a patina finish hot rod coupe in the style of the early 60’s a late 50’s hot rod coupe that got a big OHV Pontiac shoehorned under the hood and then eventually put in storage for 40 years before recently being found and refurbished with its original un-molested finish left intact. This is a popular hot rod trend right now and I thought I’d try my hand at it.
Most of the build is from the Police Car version except for the louvered hood and the tuck and roll interior which come from the Customizing Coupe. The wheels are AMT ’49 Ford steelies with Modelhaus front tires and cheater slicks from the old Polar Lights Carl Casper Undertaker. The motor is a Revell Parts Pack Pontiac V8 with the Tri-Power carb option and an air cleaner from BNL Resins. The cool re-pops of the original issue AMT 1940 Ford Tudor sedan headers are by Ed Fluck at Drag City Resin. Drag City also made the heavy duty Pontiac rear axle. The car is lowered approx. 3 ½” scale inches all around by dropping the front spindles on the stock axle at the front, and reversing the spring shackles on the rear.
The patina finish was accomplished on the main body parts by starting with a dark grey base primer followed by a metallic silver color coat, then a red oxide primer coat, and a final Dark Toreador Red Metallic color coat. All paints were Duplicolor Rattle Cans. Then I carefully wet sanded the finish with 400 grit to reveal the primer (Red Oxide) and bare metal (metallic silver) where appropriate. The final oxidized look of the color coat was done by using Kosutte Gin Sang metalizing powder. The dirt and light surface rust was done with Bradford Weathering Powders. The under carriage and interior, chrome, motor also got some dirt and wear using Bradford powders.
This Revell ‘48s are great kits and allowed me to focus on the weathering and hot rodding details knowing that they would provide a faithful representation of the original car and would go together with a minimum of fuss.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.