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1/16 Scale Army Vega Funny Car - Finished 10/14/2018


Mooneyzs

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Definitely the brass bolts look the best, IMO.

The motor looks FANTASTIC setting between the frame rails. The work you have done thus far is just amazing!!

In truth, probably the only one still at Prudhomme Racing that would know much about the Army Vega is "The Snake" himself. When Prudhomme closed his racing shop and retired, almost all of the people who were actually associated with (and knew about) racing and the race cars went either to other teams or retired themselves. I had a friend that worked at Prudhomme racing for many years, and now runs a custom auto shop near Indianapolis.

Steve

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Mike.... Thank you sir. now the question is do I polish the bolt heads like I did for the front Axle.... :lol:

Lee... Thank you for the kind words but I don't know if I am the Michealango of styrene because there way more better builders on this forum than me.

Danno....Thanks buddy. Hopefully I will have more to show you at the next swap meet. there is one before the DSC right?? B)

Jim.. Thank you sir. I think majority of people are saying brass and that's the route I am going with :D .

Derrik... thank you sir

Dave... thanks man... shhh don't let anyone know my secret that it's really a snap-tite kit... hehe .

Rom... Its great to see you back here man. Thanks for the kind words. Yep there is sure a lot of pages to this build. I remember someone saying something a while back about making wagers on how many pages this would have when done...lol. I would like to have it done by February but realistically I want it done in time for the next DSC.

Steve... Thank you. Yeah since I stuck the motor between the rails and took the pic, it is making me want to hurry up and get the rest of the engine parts painted and the engine assembled. You are probably right that not many people at Prudhomme racing really know. Very cool that your buddy used to work at his shop.

Alan... glad to hear you are still coming along with the Green Elephant Vega. bummer to hear about the blue max decals. I do know of a great decal guy that does many of the decals guys are ordering. It's worth a shot if you want to ask your buddy about the color. I really wish that I could get and answer on it or see it in person myself...lol

Robert.... Thank you, would be awesome if one day once it is completed if I could get a pic of it next to the real thing or sitting on the injector hat...lol

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Well Fellas... sat down and did a little work tonight. not much but I decided to take a brake from the engine and went back to starting to work on the body. I took the rear glass and drilled the rivets out to use as a template that I will transfer drill the holes into the body. now I started out with using the Jungle Jim vega body and added the Army Vega front and rear clips to it since I knew I was going to make my own back panel with the holes cut out in it. I know its not an exciting update but this is a task that needs to get done. The next step is to transfer drill the holes from this back window panel and then when I make the new back panel I will lay it in and transfer drill those holes into the new panel.

Next up I think I am going to cut the escape hatch out and start getting details done to make it a working feature. Then I may move to the air dams over the front tires. But in the mean time I was messing around with the body on the chassis and noticed that I will need to fix my body tin ever so slightly. I found that I am going to have to pin the front portion to the body because the fire wall portion wasn't sitting on the mid plate how I originally designed it. It is just an ever so slight modification that needs to be fixed and glad I found it now rather than later on after it was painted. But I just needed a little break from the motor but will be back on it soon because I really want to get some other parts done and painted on it. Here is a few shots of the back window with the rivets for now....

I know that I have been moving a little slower at this lately than I have wanted to. I started a new job and should be getting back at this build more regularly. Thanks for being patient and for continuing following along on this build. I promise I will get done.... early next year B)

Here is the Jungle Jim kits back window, I drilled out all of the rivets and used Scale Hardware's .7mm rivet:

DP-Army-Vega4177-1_zps1a60cf76.jpg

Here is the window panel laid into the body. I will remove all of the rivets and transfer drill the holes into the body for proper alignment:

DP-Army-Vega4182-1_zps3a59b4a4.jpg

Updated to add the correct pic :lol:

Edited by Mooneyzs
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Just...fantastic. Chris, I began visiting this forum around the time you began this build and have been watching faithfully ever since. As much as it is amazing that you have built such an amazingly detailed car, it is more so that you took the time to document it all so meticulously and share it with this forum. I can't tell you how it has opened my eyes to the possibilities of modeling. I really will sort of miss checking on this project, just because I never knew what eye candy you would come up next!

I love drag racing, particularly the late 60's/early 70's cars. There was so much innovation and the speed of those cars for the day...it was something else (I have a special place in my heart for FA's). Thanks for taking the time to share this build with us!

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Joe... Thank you for the kind words on this build and for following along. This has been really fun sharing thia with everyone. But I will admit, i am ready to finish this one so I can move onto my next project or two. Going to be doing a Top Alcohol Dragster from the late 70's/early 80's.

Brad... thanks buddy. I know it wasnt much of an update but wanted to show i got a little done to it. Thanks for letting me know i had the same pics. I will change the one later to the correct one lol

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ive been catching up on the pages ive missed and you've come along way.this car looks awesome.you are taking me back to when I was a kid. I had the hot wheels army funny car.it was my favorite and I wouldn't let anyone play with it LOL.its funny because I don't know what happened to it.i guess I discovered girls and the rest is a mistery...........Ive always wanted to build the 1/25 scale but I don't know much about the fc and the kits have a lot of problems for a novice.youve inspired me to give it a try so ive got a few questions for anyone that can help.the first I can think of is the rear tires.are there aftermarket out there that would be more to scale for the 1/25? is there a 1/25 scale version of this build or am I stuck with the Monza? thanks and I cant wait to see this car done.great job

Edited by lou s
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Scott... thanks man. I appreciate it.

Louie... Thank you for the kind words and for taking the time to go thru the many pages of this build. I know there is alot and I should be done with it by now but I told myself I wasn't going to rush it. As far as a 1/25 scale version. I know there is the Don Schumacher Vega and a Gene Snow that have the same body that is in the 1/16th scale Army Vega Kit. Now I don't know if anyone makes the Army decals in 1/25 or not. now for tires for the funny car, there are a few different aftermarket resin guys that do them and I don't know all of the resin guys that do them but one that comes to mind is Competition resins. Please if there are others here that know of where he can get 1/25th scale tires you can post the sources here. Here is a link to an ebay search for a Vega funny car

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l2632.R2.TR2.TRC1.A0.XVega+Funny+Car&_nkw=vega+funny+car&_sacat=1188&_from=R40

Gene snows:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/REVELL-1-25-Gene-Snows-Vega-Funny-Car-/331083532955?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item4d161dca9b

Don Schumacher:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Revell-Don-Schumacher-Super-Shoe-Vega-Funny-Car-model-car-kit-/321265190895?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item4acce5c7ef

John.... Thanks brother!!! You know I keep thinking about something you told me a while back and I am trying to get better at being more diligent about it, but you once told me that if I can just get to the bench for at least 30 mins a day that I would get this thing done in no time. So I am going to be challenging myself with that of getting to the bench each day even if some of the days are for only 30 mins. But I know there are some that will be for a few hours or maybe all day on the weekend if I can. thanks for always encouraging me, it means alot.

ok Fellas I wanted to share something with you which I think maybe someone might of posted this along time ago in this thread but I don't quite remember the video being like this but this is a video from you tube that Don Prudhomme talks about the 1974 Army Vega Funny Car. I realized after watching it that it shows some details I have been trying to figure out and I am planning on taking the video pausing it and taking screen shots and adjusting colors so I can see more details of this car. Anyway I thought you would enjoy. one of the biggest helps is the escape hatch detail. I knew it had to been a piano hinge but after seeing this and pausing it in various locations I saw a lot more detail to it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Don Prudhommes 1974 Army Vega Funny Car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jt2y6pacQE

Don Prudhommes Cackling the Army Vega Funny Car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaxE38mbdWM

Edited by Mooneyzs
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