Radio Control Dukes cars

[Jim85IROC]

Hi all.  These first couple posts are repeats from my "new Member" thread, but this is where I'll keep posting my updates.  I found this forum recently when so many of my google image searches kept bringing me here, usually to one of Hoss's great posts.  All of the image searches are because I'm in the planning and early building stages of creating a Dukes rc car chase for my Youtube channel (it's an RC car channel).

 

I just picked up a Kyosho Phazer with a 70 Charger body, so I have a little work to do to convert it to a 69 General.

 

One way that I'm trying to separate my video(s) from those that are already out there is that I really want to make the rest of my props as correct as possible, within reason.  This starts with an accurate Sherrif's car.  There's virtually nothing out there in 1:10 scale for RC police cars at all, and certainly nothing that's period correct.  I started looking for 3d printable options, and although nobody has the 77 Monaco/Fury models that we're most familiar with, I did manage to find a 74 Monaco, which is one of the models used in season one.  This print is taking multiple days to print, and will take me even longer to sand, paint, and detail, but it should make for an awesome chase car!

 

In addition to the cars, I want to make a cardboard building or two, and of course, I need to come up with a ramp and something to jump over.  Going through this great site is really helping me to come up with some ideas, and hopefully soon I'll have a basic story board put together so I can start figuring out what props I'll need.  The cool thing about the props is that they're items that my kids can help me make, so it gets them involved in my hobby.

 

Anyway, if folks are interested, I'll post updates on my progress.

[Jim85IROC]

Next, I started working on the Charger. I painted the silver on to the Vector wheels that I printed, and I pulled the 70 grill off the body. Once I print a 69 grill and cut the body back to accept it, I think it's going to start to look really good.

 

 

The patrol car is still printing, but the front half is off the printer and I'm really happy with how it's looking.

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Jim85IROC

[Jim85IROC]

The rear of the car finished printing. Now I just need to print the rear valance, then headlight & taillight lenses and the rearview mirrors.

I sized this car to fit on the Fazer chassis, but neglected to take the width into account. The body is too narrow to contain the wheels, so I ended up ordering a 3Racing M4 chassis that's narrow enough to accommodate the body. I'll need to build a longer chassis. Aside from the wheel width, it looks pretty good!

 

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Jim85IROC

[RogerDuke]

So cool! Keep the pictures and progress coming. 

[Hobie Hartkins]

That's a great looking car!!

[Jim85IROC]

I've made a lot of progress on Roscoe's car.  I've got the whole body printed, and temporarily taped together.  I made some decals and printed them on photo paper just so I could tape them to the body to check fitment & location.  What do you guys think about the decal size & placement?  Any adjustments that I should make?

[Hobie Hartkins]

It looks perfect! I can't see  that you missed anything! WOW! You're good! 

[HossC]

It's looking good, but I think the "SHERIFF" decals use a more condensed font. I'll see if I can get a good screengrab to check my hunch.

[HossC]

I took these screengrabs from the first three episodes of season 1. It wasn't easy because the cars keep swapping between a '75 Monaco, a '70 Polara and a '75 Gran Fury mid-chase! As you can see, there were no fender decals on the '75 Monaco (or the other Georgia patrol cars). The side stripes appear to have been cut to accommodate the door decals, and the stripe on the back doors doesn't line up with the front doors or fenders. Finally, there is a "SHERIFF" decal between the rear lights.

When I did my FanArt patrol cars, I used the font Compacta Bd stretched a bit to replicate the "HAZZARD COUNTY" and "SHERIFF" decals, but you may have a better match. I think mine were based on the later decals. I custom drew the "COUNTY SHERIFF" text in the badge.

Obviously the decal positioning you use depends on whether you want to copy the '75 Monaco in the early episodes or go for the more generic look of the later episodes.

[Jim85IROC]

HossC,

Thanks for the detective work!  I'll have to decide just how true I want to stay to the Season 1 design, or if I'm better off going with the more familiar look from the later episodes.  I suspect that I'll want to stay more in line with the later look just because it's more familiar to most people, but having those screen shots really helps me make sure that my sizing and positioning is spot on.  Based on those screen grabs, it looks like my badge on the door should move back a bit, as well as move up.  I think I also need to make the badge a little bit bigger too.

[RogerDuke]

Always so cool to see these projects unfold!

[Hobie Hartkins]

10 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

Always so cool to see these projects unfold!

oh yes....I enjoy the pics and watching as each model develops!

[Jim85IROC]

This week I made a lot of progress.  I revised the police decals and printed them on the actual decal sheets instead of regular paper.  I also have a donor chassis that's been lengthened to fit the car.

I designed and printed some hubcaps for the wheels. This is a pic of an early revision (my final revision was v14).

My final Charger body arrived this week, as did my decals.  All 4 have their pros and cons, and I plan to build all of them.

 

The biggest issue with most of these bodies is that they're either not a proper 69 front end, or the body lacks detail, so I've started developing a new 3d printed grill assembly.  These pics show one of my early versions in place on a couple of the bodies. I'm still working on revising these.

I also built a chassis for the hard body car, but now I need to lengthen it to fit the wheelbase.

[HossC]

The patrol car's already looking good with its police hubcaps and new decals. The orange Charger on the left appears to be a 1970, but a front end change should correct most of the differences.

[Jim85IROC]

4 minutes ago, HossC said:

The patrol car's already looking good with its police hubcaps and new decals. The orange Charger on the left appears to be a 1970, but a front end change should correct most of the differences.

The clear body all the way to the left has the styling of a 69 on the nose, but the hood looks more like a 70.  But, that styling on the nose is so flat, that it's pretty bad either way, which is why I want to replace it with the 3d printed part.

[RogerDuke]

Looking good. Thanks for keeping the flow of pictures coming. 

[Jim85IROC]

Sorry for the goofy formatting, but I don't see an option for changing it.  Anyway... Yesterday I glued the 3 main sections of the body together and hit it with primer to expose all of the defects.  It's funny how good the body looked in white right from the printer, but as soon as you make it darker all of the flaws become very apparent.

 

After numerous rounds of sanding, putty, sanding, priming, sanding, putty, etc, it's starting to come together.

 

 

 

Next I need to get to work on the front and rear fascias.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Jim85IROC

[Jim85IROC]

She's all primered up! Hopefully this weekend I'll have the white paint on.

[RogerDuke]

Looking good....so is that yellow flag!

[Jim85IROC]

Painted Roscoe's car today and it came out like ass. The paint seemed to go on very dry, even with heavy coats. It left a very rough surface, so now I'm going to need to wetsand before I apply the clear.

[RogerDuke]

That stinks. Sorry it didn't go so well. Give Cooter a call on the CB. Maybe he can help. He might be crazy but he ain't dumb. 

[HossC]

5 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

Give Cooter a call on the CB. Maybe he can help. He might be crazy but he ain't dumb. 

He only has orange paint!

[RogerDuke]

And can get Daisy to paint the flag. 

[Jim85IROC]

Yay.  Back to the sandpaper I go.

[HossC]

What a pain. Something similar happened to me once when I was repainting a diecast model. It might have been the paint reacting to the undercoat in my case - this is not an skill I know much about. I moved house soon afterwards, and I've still never returned to the project.