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Posts posted by Andrew D Charger Chaser
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Thanks for giving me a place to, Rog, I am very grateful!
Also grateful to have finished this beast in record time...
Re-chromed the bent bumpers and other parts with Alclad, and was lucky to have located the proper wheel hubs. Also broke the right door handle to match the real thing.
Wide tires from the MPC Sheriff's Dodge Monaco.
Windows tinted with Future floor polish and food coloring.
Sheet metal for the front and back from a disposable roasting pan from the Dollar Tree.
Airbrushing dust and dirt all over the chassis and bottom of the body.
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Final bodywork touchups and priming, and ready for paint.
Tough to match the exact color, since in the episode (the way I'm making it) it was disguised/obscured with gray scratchwork all over it, and the recovered wreck was apparently quite weathered and faded. Did the best I could. Finally settled on a mix of 5 different blues and greens. It's actually darker than the photos show....
I settled on: 2 parts Testors Gloss Dark Blue (#1111); 2 parts Testors Dark Beret Green; 1 part Model Master Dark Sea Blue; 1 part Testors Gloss Green; 1 part Gloss Light Blue.
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FRONT BUMPER
Need the front bumper to look like bent metal, and not a bent plastic model part. Made an aluminum foil cast of the central section; removed that plastic, attached the ends to the foil cast.
Very carefully bent and dented it to match the photos.
Filled with CA glue with wire reinforements for the structure. Primed, will be coated with Alclad chrome tomorrow or Thursday.
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LOL yep...I'm still too low-tech to be able to do screen-grabs from the TV. I'm sure the capability is there in what I've got, but just need to be shown how to use it. More importantly, I need to care enough to upgrade....but I just do what works for what I need.
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Finished roll cage:
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Here's how the scratchbuilding went, using 1/16" rod for the frame and tubing fitted over the rod for the padded sections around the driver's side:
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ROLL CAGE
Tip: Do NOT use the roll cage from the MPC "General Lee" for this project. Wrong style, wrong design, wrong size.
I also found some drawings online which purport to be the actual design sketches for the original. They do match what I see in all the photos.
- CHARGER UK and Flint Duke
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Hey, nice concept, nicely done!
- Skipper Duke and Flint Duke
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I've never taken as much trouble as this for the accurate steering wheel, but here's what I finally accomplished:
- Flint Duke, RogerDuke and CHARGER UK
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Hey, neat one!
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Thank you Flint, I appreciate it!
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The interior needs special work. From what I can see in the episode, the interior panels under the rear windows were removed along with the back seat, although I've read that only the seat was removed to install the full roll cage.
So, I had to remove the rear panel and totally rebuild it as the interior structure that the panel would normally cover. Was a 2 full day scratchbuilding job, daunting at first but well worth it in the end.
The carpet will be well worn and stained soon.
- Flint Duke and CHARGER UK
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Once damaged to taste, the foil is filled from behind with tons of gap-filling superglue and plastic strip reinforcements.
Then to the body itself, the same treatment but MUCH bigger. LOTS of superglue to fill it all from behind. Then priming and sanding in appropriate areas.
- Flint Duke and CHARGER UK
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If I can't replicate the body damage, the entire project is pointless. If I only heat up and bend the plastic body it will look toylike, as the body thickness when scaled up would be akin to a couple inches thick. Not convincing at all.
THE SOLUTION: Make aluminum foil copies of the body sections to be damaged.
Let's try it on the hood first:
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For those who didn't know, the Charger wreck used in Episode 4 "Repo Men" was the same car that made the jump at the very end of the show's opening credits. LOVED this car the first time I saw it as a kid, did not know how important it was until decades later.
Replicating this wreck in 1/25 will be a VERY ambitious project.
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2 hours ago, Flint Duke said:
Mean Green Machine ?!? .....fingers crossed...
Lol that would be kewl, but no.....
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I appreciate the kind comments!
If you like these 6 so far, you're in for a treat when I post in-progress pics hopefully soon of the one I'm working on now.....definitely the most ambitious one to date, if you don't count the engine bay in the General....
- Flint Duke and RogerDuke
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LOL Probably both boys, but she let 'em off the hook more easily since this time they didn't ruin a wax job by driving it off a cliff
Seriously though, thank you for the kind words as always! And thanks for all you do in here
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I can definitely say the one that took longest of the 6 so far is my General Lee; that one took several years. You can find both a build thread and a completion thread here in this same forum, a few spaces down.
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Thank you! Not sure how long exactly, but several long months for sure. Wish I'd been starting with one good-conditioned kit instead of a junker with some spare parts added, I wouldn't have had half as many setbacks.
- Flint Duke and RogerDuke
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The Mean Green Machine
in Hobbies
Posted
Very nicely done!
Now need to make Rosco's car with the back half blown off by the bazooka