Scale Auto – October 2019

66 Scale Auto • OCTOBER 2019

B

ack in April, I met

Rich Clark at the

NNL Milwaukee

show. Among his

builds he displayed four

Ford F-100s that came with

an interesting story. But

first you have to know one

thing: Rich is a Chevy guy.

“For me to like Ford

trucks,” Rich said to me as I

talked to him on the phone

for this piece, “I’m

surprised I still have

friends.” He laughs and

relates that the “yellow

truck” started it all.

While scouring eBay one

day, Rich came across a

“glue bomb” that happened

to strike his fancy: an old

AMT 1963 Ford F-100. He

bought it, and when it

arrived, Rich saw that it

missed a few parts, most

notably the battery and

firewall. Off to Facebook he

went to find someone who

might have the parts he

needed. That’s where he

met Frank Staten from

Central Point, OR.

Frank had the parts for

Rich’s ’63 F-100 and

shipped them his way. Rich

finished his build and sent

photos of the restored

pickup to Frank. To Rich’s

surprise, he received an

unexpected package from

Frank about a month later.

And what was inside?

Another F-100 glue

bomb.

By this point, Rich

realized with no small

amount of shock, that he

liked the lines and style of

the F-100s from the ’60s.

And he started buying new

F-100 kits to build, not just

glue bombs to restore.

“It was the AMT kits at

first, but then Moebius

[Models] released the

Flareside. I thought while I

was [restoring] these

[F-100s], I should get on

those to do a lineup.” That’s

right. He went from just a

simple restoration job to

wanting to build a lineup of

Ford pickups including

model years 1960-1972.

Soon, the restored Fords

went from two to three and

then four — three of them

Frank’s old models. “He

kept sending them and told

me he wanted them to go

to a place where they’d have

a good home,” Rich says. In

the meantime, Rich and

Frank became fast friends,

though they’d never met in

person.

Which brings us back to

when I met Rich at the

NNL Milwaukee show

where he told us about

Frank and the Ford

pickups. I thought, that’s a

cool story. Scale modeling

changed someone’s

perspective about what

they liked, expanded the

subject matter they’re

willing to build, and helped

form a friendship in the

process. What more could

you ask for from a hobby?

And what a great way to

cap off the Scale Auto

Tailgate issue.

Many thanks to Rich

Clark for sharing his

experiences and his F-100s.

Thanks to Frank Staten for

helping Rich with the

yellow F-100 that started an

addiction. And thanks to

all you Enthusiasts for

reading! We’ll see you again

in December.

Scale Auto (ISSN: 0195-217X, USPS:493-550) is published bimonthly by Kalmbach Media Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612. Periodicals postage paid at Waukesha,

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Expect the unexpected

FINISH LINE BY TIM KIDWELL

Rich paints his models with spray paint straight from the can. For the stake-bed (top left), he painted with Krylon

satin jade with a topcoat of Testors Dullcote. Rich finished the others with Sherwin-Williams automotive spray paints:

jasper mica metallic (top), light tundra metallic (right), and sunfire yellow (bottom). He uses DupliColor primer.