The new hot rod movie Deuce of Spades is constructed around the story of an absolutely breathtaking black Deuce highboy which is the mythic star of the picture. But as stunning as it is, my eye was drawn to the car driven by the antagonist in the movie, "Fresno". It's a truly striking bright red '29 A-V8 on Deuce rails with a signature bare aluminum hood. When I saw it, I knew I had to build it.
Here it is as it appears in the film:
Unfortunately the car only appears for about 15 minutes in the middle of the picture and there are few detail shots of it. So I starting searching on the internet in the hopes pof finding shots of it before it starred in the moVie, hopefully with more mechanical and interior details. After a lot of work I found the Photobucket account for the car's builder which had quite a few shots. Here are some:
If I couldn't model the iconic bare metal hood with all its louvers there was no sense in pursuing this project. Fortunately I had a resin hood I got from Replicas and Miniatures Co. of Maryland that's designed to mate the AMT '29 Ford Roadster to a Revell Deuce Grill shell when sitting on a set of Revell Deuce frame rails. I also had some Archer Fine Transfer louver decals so I combined them to model the hood. Here's a picture showing the steps involved beginning with the layout tape to help align the rows and ending with the hood finished out in Testors Metalizer Buffable Aluminum Plate:
Also necessary was to adapt the Revell frame to the Model A body shell and to convert it to a buggy spring rear end as used on the 1:1. This involved shortening the rear ends of the rails, narrowing the floor panel and cutting a slot for the Model A arched cross member:
I'm using the AMT kit interior bucket but I've added the bolster across the top from the seat in the Revell '32 Ford Roadster kit as well as some styrene rolls along the sides. I'll also add some pleated side panels and seating surfaces as seen on the 1:1.
Incidentally the 1:1 is powered by a small block Chevy and as you can see the car is pretty basic. In the film they make a point to say that the car is very fast and its source of motivation a mystery. But the movie is set in 1955 and owned by a young kid so it would be highly unlikely to be Chevy V8 powered. So I'm installing a period correct full race flathead with 4 Strombergs and Evans heads. More on that in the next installment...
Here are some frame and body mockups:
Thanx for lookin',
B.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/930874.aspx
Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever
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