"Deuce of Spades" '29 Ford A-V8 Highboy

As I settle in to being a member here I thought I'd share some significant builds in my modeling life that serve as a way of introducing myself. Hopefully some of you haven't seen this one already. It's from a couple of years back, when the movie Deuce of Spades was just being released. Despite some flaws, I think it's as good a model as I've ever built so far, and it's virtually the only attempt at a replica I've ever done. Because the owner of the 1:1, Jerry Mull, was "looking over my shoulder" at the time it pushed the limit of what I was capable of. It's still probably my favorite model, but sadly the resin front axle has sagged and needs to be replaced with one of TPB's new reinforced ones. In any case here's the write up I did of it.


The Challenger ’29 Ford A-V8 Highboy from the movie “Deuce of Spades”
(More photos below)
While watching the hot rod movie Deuce of Spades my eye was drawn to the car driven by the antagonist in the film, "Fresno", a striking bright red ’29 Ford highboy on ’32 Ford rails with a bare aluminum bonnet. Once I saw it, I knew I had to build it. But I also realized this build would be no walk in the park since no kit exists that comes close. I would have to reach deep in my stash to get this one done. And as luck would have it the current owner of the car, Jerry Mull, got wind of my project (there are no secrets on the Internet) and provided me with extensive detail photos, the back story the filmmaker imagined for the car (Jerry worked on the picture) and constant encouragement. Thanks Jerry!
So here are the details and lots of pictures.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Body:
AMT ’29 Ford Roadster with Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland resin hood and Revell ’32 Ford grill shell. Louvers are Archer Fine Transfers resin 3D Surface Details AR88037 “O” scale 6 inch louvers. They are resin decals. Photo-etch grill from Model Car Garage.
Interior:
Scratch built tuck ‘n’ roll based on AMT ’29 Ford Roadster bucket. AMT ’29 Ford Roadster dashboard, steering wheel and brake lever. Scratch built 8-ball shifter and accessory gauge panel.
Chassis:
Revell ’32 Ford rails, front crossmember and floor pan, Early Years Resin rear crossmember, scratch built k-member and details. Scratch built driveshaft with Revell ’32 Ford u-joints.
Front suspension:
ThePartsBox.com front axle, spring and front brakes. Scratch built steering system. Radius rods cut from AMT Ala-Kart front radius rods.
Rear suspension:
Halibrand quick change rear axle from Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland. Rear spring from Revell ’30 Ford Sedan. Rear brakes from ThePartsBox.com. Radius rods cut from AMT Ala-Kart front radius rods.
Wheels & Tires:
Front wheels are AMT ‘40 Ford Sedan with baby moons from the same kit and Modelhaus 120C tires. Rear wheels are from ThePartsBox.com with AMT ‘40 Ford Sedan baby moons and tires from a Revell ’58 Corvette kit.
Motor & Transmission:
Ford flathead V8 and transmission from a Revell ’40 Ford standard kit. Evans heads from Model Car Garage. 3-pot manifold by Early Years Resin. Mallory “crab style” magneto, Stromberg carbs and air cleaners from Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland.

Great build , looks so right , a lot of nice work in this.

 I like it, nice work

Very cool roadster   

Very sweet build.

That is way cool, love the metal finish hood too, nice work mate.

Sagging axles are a pain aren't they?
If you put a prop under the middle of the axle lifting the wheels off the deck the axle will un-sag over time.
However, if you use a narrow prop (I glued 2 pieces of scrap styrene into an inverted T) you will at the same time push the middle of the axle upwards.

Nice I like it great detail on the engine

Love this Bern  !

A great build from a great movie and to have the owner on hand what a bonus.

Quality build, well done !

Thanx everyone. I'm pleased you all like it. This one still gives me pleasure when I see it on my shelf. It's definitely scheduled for a refresh this winter summer! Time to get an order together with TBP!

Jerry Mull is an incredibly nice guy, too. He provided me with tons of pictures so I could get it right, and he was full of fantastic stories about how it was made. For those of you who have seen it, the CGI for the crash scene involving this car was donated by a German company (worth probably about 500,000USD all by itself - the entire movie was made by volunteers and no one except the lead actors got paid, and the leads just got paid scale...). All they wanted was that the car be lifted off the ground and a series of high resolution shots be taken starting with the underside and slowly roating 360 degeress all the way around. How to do it? It was Jerry's car so it was his call. What he landed up doing is strapping the car to a forklift... Here's a picture Jerry sent me of the underside. You can see the straps!
'


BTW, the real car has a small block Chevy with three deuces, but the back story is that Fresno's car actually had flathead power and that Johnny Callaway had gotten his hands on one of the first SBC's distributed out to select hot rodders by GM in early '54 (that actually happened, and there's a scene towards the beginning of the movie referencing the fact). It was considered Johnny's "unfair advantage" and he refused to allow people to look under the hood of The Deuce. So I installed a flatty in deference to the movie rather than the 1:1. Jerry thought that was cool, which is typical of him.

You don't see many photos like that, Very cool

Those resin louvres look great, they really set the tone. I've heard about them but never seen them, everything about the car looks perfect.

I've got a DVD of the movie, also enjoyable