1930 Ford Phaeton Show Rod

[Bernard Kron]

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.

[Flatout]

Looks good Bernard...really like the color combo.  Nice trick on the headlights, definitely looks like separate lenses.  

[slusher]

Beautifully done!

[Danno]

Verrry nice.

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[PappyD340]

Super nice!

[Phildaupho]

You really  captured the era of show rods I remember well from looking at car mags and going to car shows as a kid in the sixties

[ewetwo]

That is awesome.

[TooOld]

She's a real beauty Bernard , exactly how I'd want one parked in my garage !  Excellent build ! 

[ChrisR]

Looks great!!

[Misha]

Good looking rod Bernard, captures the look perfectly. The quilted spare, steering cover and running boards really do set it off as a typical show rod of the time. Curious about your source for the pattern, as the closest Evergreen sheets I’m familiar with are the sharp edged tile surfaces which don’t have the quilted, pillowy look of yours.

Cheers Misha

[carrucha]

Cool hotrod.  Nice to see a kit that isn't seen too often on this forum.

[Bernard Kron]

Thank you all, your kind words and interest are appreciated. I'm definitely pleased with how it came out. I'm also surprised that this kit, purchased really as a parts kit, turned out to yield a virtually empty box with only the Guide headlights to add to my parts stash. I never would have thought it!

On 12/19/2020 at 9:27 AM, Misha said:

...The quilted spare, steering cover and running boards really do set it off as a typical show rod of the time. Curious about your source for the pattern, as the closest Evergreen sheets I’m familiar with are the sharp edged tile surfaces which don’t have the quilted, pillowy look of yours.

Cheers Misha

Thanks Misha. I didn't used the Evergreen tile pattern sheet you referred to. Instead I used Plastruct #91544 15/64"-6.0 mm. square tile styrene sheet. Evergreen tends to engrave the patterns in their sheet, or at least mold it into a thicker sheet with smooth back. Plastruct uses thinner sheet and embosses the pattern, which give it a softer, rounded edge. I have a sheet I started many moons ago with a 45 degree angle cut which gives me the diamond quilt pattern I'm after. It's also important to feather or bevel the edge of the piece by sanding it to give it the appearance of having been sewn in place. I've used this stuff quite o0ften for my custom interiors, It tends to look best when set against a contrasting plain or patterned surface. Here are some other examples:

Revell '32 Ford 3-window coupe

Revell '41 Willys Coupe

 

[Misha]

That’s great info, thanks for the detailed description. I really favour that look and would like to try it out.

Take care and cheers, Misha

[Koellefornia Kid]

Very nice! Like the steering wheel cover!

[BeakDoc]

There’s a lot to love about this one. A real eye catcher.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks guys! Much appreciated!