Force
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Posts posted by Force
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6 hours ago, mrm said:
Where can I purchase a copy or two of issue 226? Nobody around me carries it and the one hobby shop I found having it in stock online wanted to charge me $25 shipped to TN. I've received larger packages shipped from overseas for that money.
Model Roundup sells the magazine.
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The instrucktions for both are the same except for the decals.
The kits are slightly different from the original kits from 1984 tho' as the kits were altered for the later Pontiac Firebird Pro Stock bodies from 1991-92 and again for the 1999 Firebird kits, all are based on the same tooling from 1984.
So some things are different, the most obvious things are the bodies and wheels, the roll cage is slightly altered with a Funny Car style cage around the drivers head wich the originals didn't have, the rear wheel wells are modified some to fit the later Firebird bodies, the valve covers are different as the newer kits has welded sheet metal valve covers and the original versions had casted Moroso covers, the intake manifold is also different as the later one has the runners covered with sheet metal.
If you get hold of the Tony Foti L.A.P.D. version from 1991 the engine has a blower and you get a light bar for the roof, otherwise it's pretty much the same as the 1991 Pontiac Firebird kits except the body is a Camaro. -
1 hour ago, Shark said:
Are thinking of the Accurate Miniatures kit of the Grand Sports? I believe they are getting a little hard to find also.
It's not injected, the 377 engine in the Grand Sport has side draft Weber 58's.
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One thing that make me doubtful that it's the same car is the time factor, they did the first race with the SS/E car in April and I know they supposed to have raced it at Indy in the SS/E configuration, they rebuilt the car and put on the vinyl top and raced it in C/MP for a number of races, and finally sold the car at the end of the season according to the Sox & Martin book and built the 1971 Road Runner for B/MP.
So they couldn't have used the Superbird much in either SS/E or C/MP configuration.
The book doesn't mention the C/MP car, just the SS/E car. -
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On 7/19/2025 at 2:47 PM, Wild Child said:
Thanks guys, great to see some later Dragster fans out there too.
I agree that it would be cool to have a new Dragster out there, such as Tony Stewart's car shown here. I think our standard model companies are really struggling and keep re-issuing old kits in different boxes. Problem as I see it is cost. As kids, we could easily afford kits. This was their volume. Now, few kids build models as the costs are insane,...then add the building supplies. Hope to see more new Funnycars and Dragsters.
Well a Top Fuel kit doesn't have to be all new, just some updates to the last version wich isn't that much to do it like the current dragsters.
Slightly modified chassis with a new roll cage and head shield, modify the body slightly with a larger wind shield or do a new one with the DRS canopy and to the front to do the one piece front wing and a belly pan, do some updating to the engine with new larger magnetos, a set back blower, new fuel pumps and new valve covers with spark plug shields, and finally change the rear wing to a 3 element...and you will be pretty much done.
Wheels changes all the time but not as often than they have been in the past. -
On 7/16/2025 at 6:55 PM, Dragline said:
So it's been a while. What brought this drought about. n the first place. I am certain those kits sold well for Revell.
The Revell tool for the Don Garlits Swamp Rat XXX was appearently sold to Atlantis is they recently isued it, and so are the first "modern era" Funny Car tool as they are releasing the Don Snake Prudhomme old Pepsi/Wendy's Pontiac as the Pepsi Challenger Pontiac, and all the later Funny Car kits are based on this tool.
I don't know if all the Revell Top Fuel tooling ended up with Atlantis or if it was only the Swamp Rat XXX...time will tell. -
On 7/17/2025 at 7:05 PM, gtx6970 said:
I posted above a link to Class Racer. Its a rather long thread on both the Jack Werst and SM wingcars built . Their timeline and initial purpose with some history posted by the people that were there
And the comment that the 2 SM cars were one and the same car was posted by someone who worked for SM and on the very car
In one photo the car is in the shop and its at that time is when the car is being transformed from SS/E to C/MP . New engine would be installed with much more compression. and at 1st the crossram was used.
Ive not seen ANY under hood photos of the car to say with 100% certainty what it ran and when
I've read for years there was 2 cars. But seems odd that if true you would think at least one of them survived. These cars became a collectable commodity rather quickly . So it stands to reason 'at least one' of them would have surfaced by now.
Here is an under hood picture of the C/MP ERTL Supercar Collectibles 1/18 die cast car, I don't know how accurate it is tho' as I haven't found any picture of the engine in the real C/MP car.
The C/MP car was appearently sold after the 1970 season and ended up as the "Super Chicken" and this picture is from Indy 1971, the first race with the SS/E car was according to the Sox & Martin book in the beginning of April 1970 so if the SS/E and C/MP cars are the same car they must have rebuilt it quite soon to the C/MP configuration..and why they put on the black vinyl top is confusing as the SS/E car didn't have it.
I also read somewhere that the Superbird was lost to a fire, but that an be a rumour, but it has gone throught my head.
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9 hours ago, gtx6970 said:
Also learned the car ran a Rat Roaster intake in SS/E with a basically stock but blueprinted hemi, But was converted to crossram, lots more compression and cam and the sixpack hood scoop was installed at that time for C/MP
They were in fact both the same car, just at different points in time
There was a 2nd Bird. But it was a painted up show car for the dealer tours and customer / client duties
The C/MP car appearently had a tunnel ram style pretty much like the 1970 'Cuda, at least from the pictures I have seen...but they could have tested several intakes on the car, MP stands for Modified Production and had looser rules.
I don't know if there has been confirmed that the SS/E and C/MP car was the same car, it could be but I'm not sure as I have not seen any confirmation of that...and why would they put on a black vinyl top on the car when it didn't have it when it was ran in Super Stock...so it's confusing but it doesn't matter tho'.
They only ran the SS/E car (and SS/EA car for Werst) for a short while as it wasn't really Super Stock legal and had lots of unapproved modifications to it, and the goal was to beat Ray Allen's Chevelle Convertible and then redlight or something in the next run so they wouldn't be checked after the race...that's the story I've read.-
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Just a tip, the front glass is the same for all Revell and Monogram 1965 and 1966 Mustang Fastbacks and Shelbys, they are all from the same basic tooling.
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On 6/17/2025 at 10:33 PM, Dragline said:
We need both an AA/FC and AA/FD. It's been how long since the Bud King fuel rail came out?
The Budweiser King and ARMY dragsters was the last Top Fuel dragsters from Revell and they came 2002.
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I personally don't like the 10 spoke wheels in these kits, they doesn't look right to me.
The 10 spokes in the 1968 Shelby are even worse. -
11 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:
Does anybody do a 4 door Plymouth Valiant for that period ?
I have seen 3D printed ones...I don't remember where tho'.
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The thing with Revell and their "modern era" Top Fuel kits is that the first one was Don Garlits Swamp Rat XXX in 1987 (now with Atlantis)...and that bit them in the tail end as that dragster was pretty much a one off and no other team followed on that one.
So they had to start all over and do mostly everything new when they did the Gary Ormsby Castol GTX and Joe Amato Valvoline dragsters in 1991 and they plus the following kits in 1992, the Lori Johns Jolly Rancher and Tom McEwen Mobil 1 dragsters, were very accurate, after that even tho' they did some updates, they fell behind more and more and could never really catch up.With the Funny Car kits wich first was introduced under the Monogram brand they based all the "modern era" kits on the Don Prudhomme Pepsi/Wendy's Pontiac, Dale Pulde Miller Warrior Pontiac and Billy Meyer's Chief Auto Parts/7-Eleven Mustang from 1985, so they all have the same basic chassie and engine from that time with some small updates, and new bodies as they changed over the years, and same here, they did updates but never enough to catch up.
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On 7/12/2025 at 10:50 AM, Rockford said:
You started me on the process mate, thanks for that!
I plead guilty as charged.😁
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Looks much better...the snap wheels are way too shallow to look realistic.
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I'm not sure the SS/E car and the C/MP car was the same car.
The SS/E car has a blue metallic painted roof and the body was most likely intended for NASCAR as the filler panel for the smaller rear window was smoothed out and the NASCAR Superbirds did not have vinyl tops nor side markers.
The C/MP car had a black vinyl top like all the Superbirds you could buy from the dealer and the vinyl top was there to hide the filler panel for the rear window.
The SS/E car was built specially for the SS/E class and was not entirely legal and there were only two built for the class, one for Sox & Martin and one for Jack Werst, the rear axle was moved forward, the whole wing was weighted down, one front wheel was moved forward slightly and the engine was moved back...all this wasn't allowed in the Super Stock class.
They might be the same car but as I said, I'm not sure...and there are two Superbirds in the shop picture.-
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19 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:
I have been wanting to pick up one of the new ones. I haven't looked at one, yet, but it sounds like they're nice.
Yes they are...I have two.
Back to the original programming.-
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On 7/7/2025 at 8:08 AM, Stephen0625 said:
Looks great! It looks like you could put a splash of nitro in the tank and she'll fire right up. Now if only someone would make a modern day Top Fuel and Funny Car kit.
One can say Revell/Monogram entered the "modern" nitro racing era at the worst time back in 1985 with the Funny Cars kits and 1987 with the Top Fuel kits, the evolution in the nitro classes both technically and visually was so fast in the mid 80's and 90's so it was hard to keep up as it changed all the time, and every time Revell did updates to the kits they still fell behind as they didn't do enough as the progress in the sport was so fast...but that progress slowed down and stabilized in the early 2000's so if they had persevered and had done the necessary updates to the last kits the kits would have been a lot more accurate even for today as most of the progress after that are internal and technical.
The Top Fuel kits from 2002 are the last issued from Revell, but they did not do all the necessary updates on these kits and that I can't understand as it wasn't that much, they did some updates but not everything needed to even do the cars correct for what they were supposed to be.
The things needed updating in these kits to be what they use today are mostly a different roll cage with a head shield and a larger wind shield, or a DSR canopy, the ignition should have larger 44 amp MSD magnetos instead of the smaller Mallory Super Mag III magnetos, the fuel system needs Sid Waterman "Big Bertha" inline gear fuel pumps instead of the old style side by side Enderle rotor pumps, a set back 14-71 blower and intake manifold, new titanium valve covers with spark plug shields, a one piece front wing mounted in front of the nose instead of the two wings mounted to the sides of the nose, a 3 element rear wing with updated side panels instead of the 2 element wing, a larger puke can, and a belly pan...and that's about it...there are also some explosion blankets and hold down straps on the engines but they are easy to do.
If Revell had done most of these updates to the Tony Schumacher ARMY Dragster and the Kenny Bernstein Budweiser King Dragster wich were the last issued from Revell they would pretty much have been up to date even today 23 years later...except for wheels wich change all the time, the rest is what they still use to this day.For the Funny Cars they need to do the same things to the engine as with the Top Fuel Dragsters, a fuel tank with a dry sump oil tank beside it (funny cars have dry sump systems to be able to mount the engine lower in the chassis), change the roll cage some and put on a head shield and padding, and of course the bodies and the wheels.
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Nice build, very well detailed and right for the time period.
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22 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:
You're exactly right. One time, same as the CO 4070A, as I recall.
I believe so.
The new AMT kit of the CO 4070A is based on the original ERTL release, and as they didn't have the tooling wich was altered to the CO 4070B Transtar II back in 1976 they scanned the old kit and made new and improved ones.-
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On 6/26/2025 at 12:06 PM, Straightliner59 said:
Yep! That's the original release. I picked up one of the cabovers, a few years ago--before AMT announced the re-release.😅 It has a great deal of sentimental value, to me, anyway.
I believe it's the only release as this kit never was re-issued after the 4300 came, the kit number 8001 IH 4270 was in the ERTL catalog for quite a while tho', at least up to 1980, so they might not have sold very well.
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Nice one Tommy
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Trucks
in Model Building Questions and Answers
Posted · Edited by Force
That will be quite a chore.
First you have to have a 3D scanner and a 3D printer, scan the parts from a kit and do print files from the scans, and then print them out, the Revell Peterbilt Can-Do/Will-Do wrecker has about 650 individual parts and the Revell Kenworth K100 kits somewhere around 300-350, so it's time consuming and most likely expensive to do a complete 3D printed kit of these.
Revell still have the tooling for these kits so they will most likely come out again sometime.