Anthony Hazelaar! Think of Him As a Serious Builder of Classic Model
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nthony Hazelaar has been very prolific in his model Right: Anthony built this Fifteen Millionth 1927 building over the years, in spite of it coming in spurts Ford Model T replica straight from the AMT kit “After building several Ford Model Ts and after I familiarized box. It’s correctly minus bumpers just as the Adue to school and job commitments. And he’s not from myself with that particular car, I found out that I could actually 15M-green/black phaeton left the factory. just around the corner… actually, he lives in The Netherlands, build every kind of car there was on a Model T chassis. The Model but he likes building models of American cars. You’d think this Anthony was able to replicate the white T had endless possibilities! And then the scratchbuilding started! professional, college educated (he has more than one degree), lettering using a modified computer font. IT epartment manager and public servant would have his cre- The first car was a flatbed with real wood used for the bed. I was ative eye set on British, German and Italian super cars, or very satisfied with that car. Although it was several years ago and maybe classic American muscle cars or F1 race cars. Not my skills have improved very much, I still like that first scratchbuilt Anthony Hazelaar! Think of him as a serious builder of classic model. American iron. The models got more complicated as my skills grew. A few years At the outset, Anthony had no particular building subjects or later I started an ambitious project: building a real Dutch Ford themes in mind as he experimented with various scales, kits Model TT with the help of just one photograph. It took some time, from a wide variety of manufacturers, and plastic, tissue and six months, but I got the job done. And after that model, I just kept on building a lot of Ford Model Ts but I also managed to work in a few Model As and Bs. I still have a lot of Model T projects in my mind. Sometimes my model friends on the Spotlight Hobbies Message Board post a message with a pic- ture attached and the comment: This is a nice project for our Anthony, they’ll say! And I use their suggestions, too. The 1924 Ford Model T Forest Fire Department was build as a result of post- ing one small black and white picture on that board,” says Hazelaar. By the time Anthony began to focus on Model Ts, he brought considerable scratchbuilding skills to the task. It was already his nature to thoroughly research a building subject and due to his diorama and ship building experience, he was able to plan out each project and recognize what materials would be best Anthony Hazelaar for each phase of a build. Take for example, this list for his 1919 Furniture Van: • 295 wood parts • 12 clear plastic parts • 186 white plastic parts balsa wood airplanes. With frequent interruptions from school • 29 copper/brass parts and work, model building was an on and off again proposition. • 2 paper parts (license plates) “When I had more time (read: didn’t study as much as I should have) I had a short period in which I was interested in R/C cars. But When he includes parts for the chassis and engine (31), this those things were loud, messy, didn’t always work right, so I lost little 1/25 replica contains roughly 555 parts! interest,” says Hazelaar. Anthony also took a turn building and operating R/C ship models. But according to him, “I soon ran I first encountered Anthony’s Model Ts while trolling on inter- out of space. Building 5-6 foot long ships is fun, but they hardly fit net discussion boards. At first I was amused, and with time I on your regular display shelf.” became captivated by these delicate, well-crafted and so realis- tic looking replicas. The subject matter was so unique in About ten years ago, with his university days behind him and today’s model building arena that as Anthony continued post- solidly entrenched in a good job, Anthony says, “I returned to ing his work I just had to send him a personal comment and model building again.” This time he did have a theme in mind. some words of high praise and encouragement. Eventually, it What car seemed to have unlimited options/versions? What hit me! Dutchman Anthony Hazelaar and his scale Model Ts model could he use with the extensive diorama building skills were fascinating; his story needed to be told and his work he had developed? He started browsing eBay and Model T By Bill Coulter shared with the readers of Model Cars magazine. Fords caught his interest. But he also soon found those old Photos and Models by Anthony Hazelaar AMT kits were beginning to get scarce. We simply don’t have the time or space here to get into the intricacies of each of Hazelaar’s Ts. He says he’s built forty-five After seeing some images on the net, Hazelaar couldn’t resist building a a spare tire on the drivers side and some small details. Anthony used all kinds According to Hazelaar, “I quickly bought up whatever I could Model T fire truck. The most difficult part was the pump assembly at the of parts for the build, like the brass hand railing on the tank made from so far! But this parts list gives a capsule view of the planning, find. And although I’ve built nearly 45 T models in the last few front–it was almost all scratchbuilt. Anthony admits to borrowing some fiddly 0.5mm brass wire and small stanchions like those used on model ships. skill, and hand-built craftsmanship in each of Anthony’s cre- years, I still have a stash of nearly a dozen brand new model T kits.” parts from an old Italeri Jeep fire truck kit. The fire hose nozzles were machined on a lathe by a co-worker. Then he ations. Then, of course, there’s all the planning and effort in Anthony has also accumulated enough spare parts to build added wiring to the engine, made the lid of the tank functional, added a those riveting dioramas! It was a challenge figuring out how the whole unit was mounted on the car, brass bell on the driver’s side (just in case) and the spare wheel. He used a another dozen or so model T’s. “Sometimes I’m really lucky. but that problem was solved after some eyeball engineering. The rest of the spare roadster body from a “glue bomb” kit to get the extra door needed to Fellow model car builders will send me their stock model T parts car used only the spare Model T parts he had in his parts stash. A small create the open door on the passenger side. The fire hoses are black electric because they only build hot rod models,” emphasizes Anthony. water tank and some bigger rear tires and wheels were used. Because of the wire with the copper center removed. Simple, but it looks very good. underpowered T engine, the only things added were a couple of water hoses, 36 Model Cars #164 • December 2011 December 2011 • Model Cars #164 37 Right: 1923 Ford Model T tractor Top Right: 1919 Ford Model T furniture van Hazelaar designed and build his own version of a homemade Ford Model T This model is a homegrown conversion straight out of the Netherlands, circa tractor. There are no 1/25th scale kits of one so he knew it would have to be early 20th century. Anthony was looking for something that reflected the global scratchbuilt just like the real ones were, back in the day. Anthony started with impact Henry’s T had on the world and especially where he lived. Mr. Jaap an article from the February 1932 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine. It Zandbergen, 91, owned just such a van as part of his early 1900’s furniture described very accurately how to build you own tractor from Model T parts business. Mr. Z was still alive and loaned Anthony the only photo he had of this found in the scrap yard. It was just the inspiration he was looking for! The trac- vintage vehicle. tor is based on a standard AMT T chassis, shortened at the rear. The engine is stock T with an extra transmission and larger differential added from another The chassis is a stock AMT ‘23 delivery van piece, which was lengthened to get kit. The extra transmission and larger differential were common in those days the right wheelbase for a Model T Truck. In 1919, this one would have had a to get more power and grip to the rear wheels from the somewhat underpow- worm-drive rear axle. At that time Anthony had no idea what a worm drive ered Model T engine. The front wheels are from an AMT ‘23 delivery van. even looked like, so he left that detail as a standard rear drive train. Of course, one year after he finished the car he found detailed drawings! Rear wheels are G-scale luggage car wheels he found on eBay Germany in the G-scale trains section. He added a 7mm wide strip on the wheels and made the Hazelaar created the body structure from scratch using a variety of sheet plastic ribs on the wheels from Evergreen 2mm L-profile stock. and wood parts.