Fauxvivor-cum- resto of the Tom Daniel's Boss A Bone pickup

[alan barton]

I've been a fan of Monogram hot rod models since I was thirteen and have built multiple copies of all of them.  A new member of our local model club, (an under 40 year old at that), had bought the Blue Bandito repop and asked if I might have the parts to make it into the Boss-A-Bone. To be totally honest, I was stunned that this guy even knew of the existence of this kit, let alone had an interest in it, so I was happy to oblige.  It turned out, however, that I had at least two fairly clean sets of the necessary parts which got me thinking......

I dragged out a whole bunch of mildly gluebombed parts and set about creating my own Boss A Bone.  I have only made a few changes from the original concept - I liked the bucket seats from an MPC Pontiac GTO as they looked racier than the custom buckets in the kit.  I also felt that the weak point of all the Tom Daniels's kits were the tyres and to a lesser extent the wheels so I upgraded those with AMT parts. Also, there was no way I was going to leave that farm gate bolted to the front bumper irons.  Instead, I fitted a Moon tank to fill the gap. The windscreen has been chopped and just like my 1:1 roadster, does not have a top bar. I think these small changes add a bit of realism to the model without changing its character.

I'm also not a fan of the side pipes but they are such a strong design feature of the car that I decided to live with them.  They are growing on me.

I used thin strips of model ship building wood to detail the pickup bed, top and bottom, and used a Revell tailgate as it had the reverse image pf the Ford script embossed into it which suited my desire to have the tailgate lowered to reduce wind resistance.

The last photo is of my fleet and includes a genuine survivor of the original Blue Beetle. I have two more projects based on the Monogram pickup to be completed, soon I hope!

Cheers

Alan

[TooOld]

Very well done Alan , your changes improve the looks of the original design without changing it !  The wheels & tires and windshield are a big improvement over the Monogram parts and I really like the bed and tailgate idea !

[70 Sting]

What TooOld said!! ?

[cobraman]

Looks great !  In fact I like all the ones you have shown here.

[spencer1984]

Excellent work!

[oldscool]

Very nice collection of A Bones.

[thatz4u]

well done...like 'em all..

[espo]

The changes, actually they are improvements over the original design look great. I like how you did the wood bed floor. I like your collection of this model. 

[bisc63]

So nice!

[larman]

That's really cool! I really like what you did with the moon tank and front end, much better than it is box stock. The group photo is neat also! 

[slusher]

Outstanding Pickup!

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[Zippi]

Great looking Model A.  They all look Great.  Nice job man.

[misterNNL]

Nice A-Bone bundle!

[Dennis Lacy]

Totally bitchin, Alan! All of your changes make the truck everything it should have been. It’s a serious looking drag strip truck now! Especially love how the dark center Americans look against the shiny red paint and the Blue Streak slicks. 

[Phildaupho]

Love the group photos. They look great together but all are individually very cool.

[Kelly Burns]

On 8/20/2022 at 10:26 PM, alan barton said:

I've been a fan of Monogram hot rod models since I was thirteen and have built multiple copies of all of them.  A new member of our local model club, (an under 40 year old at that), had bought the Blue Bandito repop and asked if I might have the parts to make it into the Boss-A-Bone. To be totally honest, I was stunned that this guy even knew of the existence of this kit, let alone had an interest in it, so I was happy to oblige.  It turned out, however, that I had at least two fairly clean sets of the necessary parts which got me thinking......

I dragged out a whole bunch of mildly gluebombed parts and set about creating my own Boss A Bone.  I have only made a few changes from the original concept - I liked the bucket seats from an MPC Pontiac GTO as they looked racier than the custom buckets in the kit.  I also felt that the weak point of all the Tom Daniels's kits were the tyres and to a lesser extent the wheels so I upgraded those with AMT parts. Also, there was no way I was going to leave that farm gate bolted to the front bumper irons.  Instead, I fitted a Moon tank to fill the gap. The windscreen has been chopped and just like my 1:1 roadster, does not have a top bar. I think these small changes add a bit of realism to the model without changing its character.

I'm also not a fan of the side pipes but they are such a strong design feature of the car that I decided to live with them.  They are growing on me.

I used thin strips of model ship building wood to detail the pickup bed, top and bottom, and used a Revell tailgate as it had the reverse image pf the Ford script embossed into it which suited my desire to have the tailgate lowered to reduce wind resistance.

The last photo is of my fleet and includes a genuine survivor of the original Blue Beetle. I have two more projects based on the Monogram pickup to be completed, soon I hope!

Cheers

Alan

What kit did you get the Mr. Horsepower decals from?

[Just Jim]

Sweet collection of vintage trucks you got there!

[Mr. Metallic]

Great job Alan. I have developed an affinity for this kit as well, with a build (including improvements) similar to yours coming up. 

The first BAB I came across I turned into a Red Beetle. I have so many builds based on these Monogram hot rod kits in the pipeline.

[Vintage AMT]

cool

Edited September 1, 2022 by Vintage AMT

[Street Rod]

Great looking truck!

[alan barton]

On 8/25/2022 at 3:06 AM, Kelly Burns said:

What kit did you get the Mr. Horsepower decals from?

Kelly, I wish I could tell you!  I have a little bag of them that I use to store every example I find - the voices in my head say a Monogram kit but that is really of very little help to you.  If I find a clue I will let you know.

 

On 8/31/2022 at 3:12 AM, Mr. Metallic said:

Great job Alan. I have developed an affinity for this kit as well, with a build (including improvements) similar to yours coming up. 

The first BAB I came across I turned into a Red Beetle. I have so many builds based on these Monogram hot rod kits in the pipeline.

Wow Craig, that is very special.  Here is my version of Blue Beetle as distinct from the survivor in my photos - you see, when I was a teenager I bought the Bandai version from K - Mart so i thought it was meant to be dark blue.  I built this dark blue one a few years back using Tamiya paint and a shortened pickup bed bit otherwise true to the original. I also chromed the running boards as the original pickup boards were stamped steel without rubber and I thought chrome would be fitting for a rod of this era.

Cheers

Alan