THE MODERN GRECIAN MODEL

Recently we did an introduction article about the amazing Barris Custom Car recreations in 1/25 scale by Japanese Yoshihiro Hobara. In this CCC-Article we will highlight his recently (April 2015) finished Modern Grecian 1947 Studebaker.

 
 
The Modern Grecian model: When Yoshihiro Hobara decided to built a 1/25 scale replica of the Modern Grecian he realized that there is no 1/25 scale model of the 1947 Studebaker the Barris Kustom Shop based this custom on. But this did not stop him from starting the project. After studying the shapes of the 1947 Studebaker and photos of the real Modern Grecian, Yoshihiro decided that the AMT 1949 Ford Coupe could be used as a base to create the Studebaker from. Not an very obvious choice at first glance, but as the photos in this article show, it sure worked for him.

Yoshihiro loves to scratch built parts and body panels. He is using sheet and strip plastic for this, or sometimes left over sprue and body parts from other kits. He also uses a lot of parts-box parts he has been collecting for a long time. A few aftermarket parts might also end up in the built, but most of what you see here is created by the hand by Yoshihiro. Lets take a closer look.
 
This first series of photos show the already built AMT 1949 Ford Coupe model he used as a base for the 1947 Studebaker. He removed the rear portion of the roof and replaced it with a 1953 Ford roof section which more closely resembled the Studebaker roof. The last photo shows how the roof wis widened to match the more boxy Studebaker look, and how Yoshihiro used sheet plastic and scrap plastic to shape the rear fenders from.
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To match the dimensions of the Studebaker the trunk was stretched. The rear fenders were roughly filed and sanded to shape in this stage. Yoshihiro used bend sheet plastic to shape the new grille opening and the oval shaped headlights with small scoops on top of the fenders. The hood was clued in place and a new smaller opening cut (pancaking). The first of many coats of filler are now also applied. 
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More detail work on the front using strip styrene glued to the new grille opening to shape the ’53 Studebaker pans used on the real car. First coats of primer are brushed on to check the shape and to act as filler. Slowly the shapes of the Modern Grecian are becoming evident.
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Yoshihiro was not happy with the shape of the hood made from the AMT Ford unit, so he found another one in his parts-box and used mmore sheet styrene to make it fit the Studebaker. The side window details were cut from sheet styrene with the help of a scaled photo of the real Grecian, and glued to the body. The photo on the bottom shows how rough everything looked at times. A lot of filing and sanding still needed to get everything the way Yoshihiro wanted it to be. New headlight lenses were created for the scratchbuilt oval openings, and the parts-box once again provided the parts to create the unique Grecian front bumper. The Oldsmobile center unit comes from an old customizing set included in an old AMT Convertible Shoebox kit.
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This very interesting photo shows the car “near” complete stage, where all the main body work has been finished. It shows that thru-out the build Yoshihiro used as many reference photo as he could find. One of the old magazine features of the original version of the Grecian had a perfect dead-on side and front views, which he could use to scale down to 1/25 scale and use as guide in building the model. 
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Yoshihiro used the templates to scale down the custom side trim, which he cut from sheet styrene and glued onto the body. A lot of boy details have been added using strip and rod styren, including the lipped fender openings, the roof and window shapes.
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A closer look from the rear with the templates used to scale down all the details in the background.
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Some of the old 1960’s AMT kits had some realy great Customizing parts, including some real aftermarket parts. Some of these parts were actually designed by George Barris who was hired by AMT to create the Customized versions of these kits. George also designed 1/25 scale versions of the Aluminum hubcaps the Barris Kustoms shop created. Which was ofcourse very fortunate Yoshihiro, who now only had to add the custom made center piece for the Modern Grecian.
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The grille on the Modern Grecian was modified from the original grille created in the early 1950’s based on two 1951 Lincoln grilles. Yoshihiro used mostly sheet and strip plastic to recreate it.
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The parking lights on the end of the grille came once again from the part-box.
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One of the additions of the grille for the Modern Grecian version of the car where three bend tubes inside the opening. These were created from bend round Plaststruct round rods. These small diameter rods were also used on the side trim to add the extra detail.
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The nearly finished grille in the primered body. The body still needs a lot of sanding.
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The bumper at the rear was created from parts from the parts-box and shaped to get them to look like the parts used on the real car. The taillights on the Studebaker were created from the Custom taillight option from the old AMT 1958 Chevy, again found in the parts-box.
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At last time for the paint in pearl yellow over a white primer. This must have been such a great feeling for Yoshihiro to see the final shape of the Modern Grecian all in one nice glossy color.
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After the green sections were painted it was time to start detailing the car. The fins were created from sheet styrene with round rod ends. The taillights shaped from left over clear red kit parts.
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Four bucket seats came from some old AMT kits and were painted yellow and upholstered with wome green material. The TV also came from the parts-box.
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The finished 1/25 scale Modern Grecian.

After many month of hard work Yoshihiro has finally finished his 1/25 scale version of the Barris Kustoms built Modern Grecian. When you look at the finished model it is very hard to believe it all started out as an 1949 Ford Coupe. The chrome parts on the car are painted with Alclad II over black painted parts, and the trim pieces on the body were covered in BareMetal foil. The Barris crest is actually the only aftermarket part used on this car, created by the Model Car Garage in photo-etched brass. Yoshihiro painted it with the appropriate colors.
 

For the interior Yoshihiro recreated the cut down (airplane like) steering wheel and Studebaker dash panel.
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The finished front end with the Studebaker pan grille opening, the scratch-built Alclad painted grille and bumper, and the frosted plastic headlights covers.
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We will be doing a few more of these how they were built articles on other 1/25 scale Barris Kustom creations by Yoshihiro. Stay tuned for more.
More of Yoshihiro work can be seen in this CCC-Article.
 
 
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BARRIS MODEL CARS

Yoshihiro Hobara from Kasukabe, Japan is a Custom Car enthusiast, he has an amazing early 1960’s styled 1960 Chevy custom called Future Ray. In this article we like to share his other Custom Car passion, building 1/25 scale Barris model cars.

For several decades Yoshihiro has been creating 1/25 scale copies of some of his favorite Barris Kustom Shop created Custom Cars from the mid 1950’s to mid 1960’s. Recently Yoshihiro completed his lates creation, the “Modern Grecian” 1947 Studebaker four door. Time for us to start a series of articles on his amazing model cars. In this first article we show you a selection of photos of some of his more recent builds. In the upcoming articles we will concentrate on one model and show you how Yoshihiro created them.

Yoshihiro’s passion for Custom Cars can be seen everywhere. He collects everything that has to be done with Custom Car history. Magazines, old photos, memorabilia, Custom Car parts, and as many Custom Car related model cars he can get his hand on. For his model car building he works his magic on the diner table, making it necessary to clean up after every session. For some of the model cars Yoshihiro decides to recreate in scale there are no available kits. So he needs to be creative and looks for an available kit that comes close. For instance the 1947 Studebaker Grecian was created out of an old AMT 1949 Ford coupe kit! recreating these old custom cars often means he has to create a lot of parts from scratch, since many of these parts have never been done as 1/25 scale parts. He is using other kit parts, scrap plastic and evergreen plastic material for those.

Lets take a look at some of Yoshihiro’s model cars.

Yoshihiro together with Brett Barris.
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The freshly finished 1947 Studebaker “Modern Grecian” together with an older finished replication of the Sam Barris built 1957 Chevy “El Capitola”.
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A LOT of scratch building went into creating the “Modern Grecian” very hard to believe it all started out as an 1/25 scale AMT 1949 Ford coupe kit.
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Yoshihiro uses old magazine features, new books and all the online images he can find to make sure all the details as as close to the real thing.
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Creating the Sam Barris 1957 Chevy “El Capitola” was perhaps a bit easier than the Grecian, since Revell created the 1957 Chevy kit he started with. But the body work Sam did on the real car is very extensive and Yoshihiro recreated everything perfectly.
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It is a bit hard to see on the real car, as well as on Yoshihiro model, but all the darker colored sections on the body are actually raised sections on the body. Yoshihiro had to add thin sheet plastic do be able to do this, and then very carefully blend it in with the main body.
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Yoshihiro first version of the Jim Skonzakes ‘Golden Sahara was created from the Lindberg 1953 Ford kit. Obviously not much of the original kit remained.
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A lot of creating thinking and scratch building went into this recreation. Including the scratch building of the Kaiser taillights from clear red plastic.
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The complete interior was scratch build from sheet and strip styrene.
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The recreation of Jim Seaton’s 1955 Chevy was perhaps also a bit easier, since that kit is also available from Revell. But Yoshihiro still had to do a lot of work for all the details including the double headlights, and bullet grille.
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The custom made taillights created from cut and shaped pieces of sheet styrene looks very realistic as well.
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The Aztec is based on a resin kit to which Yoshihiro added many details. Dean Jeffries Porsche is another one he recently finished. We will get back to these in an later article.
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The R&C Dream Truck was based on the AMT Pick Up kit, whcih was a good start, but it required a huge amount of body and detail work to create.
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Scrap pieces of hand shaped clear red plastic make the taillights set into the hand shaped “Studebaker” pans. The pick up bed was mostly scratch built. and includes details as the Bob Metz created fins and upholstered tonneau cover.
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The “Kopper Kart” started out as an AMT 1955 Chevy pick up kit. And as you can imagine a LOT of customizing and scratch building was needed to get it to look like the Barris Kopper Kart. 
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The real Kopper Kart has its custom shaped pick up bed covered with a two part tonneau cover, so he scratch built them and make them to work as well.
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The last model we show for now is a recration of the Barris built “Xtura” 1957 T-Bird for Mith Nagao. Although the real car was not so heavily customized, recreating a model of it still meant a lot of scratch building on the AMT ’57 T-bird kit, including the 1953 Studebaker front pans and quad canted headlights.
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Upholstered panels on the roof and of course the 1/25 scale barris crest were added to make the model as accurate as possible.
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Next article obout Yoshihiro’s models we will cover the in detail how he created his latest finished model. The 1947 Studebaker “Modern Grecian”. Stay tuned…

 
 
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(this article is sponsored by)

 
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