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1/16 Scale Army Vega Funny Car - Completed


Mooneyzs

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Hello Fellas.... Well first off I am happy to say that I am finally done with this long term project. While it had its up and downs over the years as well as many set backs along the way, it is nice to finally be able to say that it is completed. When I first started on this project I thought to myself that I want to a extreme detailed build something that I had never done before and I figured that I would take a year or so to build it. For those that followed along on the work in progress know it took me much longer than that. There are many builders out there that I have looked up to over the years and I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could build something as nice as them. My mindset was that I was just going to add more detail than I have ever done on a build before, Needless to say through out this build I continued to push myself to try things I have never done before to just see if I could do it or it was possible. I had redone multiple items because either I wasn't happy with how something turned out, it didn't look right or the fact that things didn't line up or fit correct because I didn't take the time to figure out how I was going to approach something at first. A good example is when I had go back and change the ride height of the car and that the engine sat too far back in the chassis to which I had to move it forward 1/2" to get it to look like the real car.  With all that said, I am really happy with the out come and I wouldn't change things because of the many lessons learned that will help me with future builds. I have been waiting to post pics of the completed build until I got some nice outside pics.

First I need to take a moment to thank my dear friend John Teresi for allowing me to use the famous photo spot when he has completed his build. If you ever have seen his completed builds you will know what I am talking about. He has a park by his house that is just awesome for a Photo Shoot. I had asked him if he wouldn't mind if I used his photo spot one day to take pics of the funny car there. So a couple weeks ago I went out to Southern California for a Model Show that Mark Jones put on at a Car show at the Orange County fairgrounds call Crusin' for a Cure which is the biggest one day car show in California.  Not only was he willing to let me take pics there but I have to give him the credit for the pics because he took them for me. Thank you again John

Second.... I need take a moment to say a few special thanks to the following people for their help along the way of this build:

-Dave Sherman –  Thank you so much for all of the behind the scenes help you gave me when ever I had any drag racing question. Dave was my go to guy for questions I was unsure of. Also Thank you for being willing to machine a few of my parts that I drew up for me...Pulley’s, Fuel Distribution blocks, Distributor base and Cap.

-Jim  Littikin (Micro Nitro) – For Machining my rims, Hubs

-John Teresi – For sharing his weathering techniques with me.

-Mark Johnson – For his resin engine and for making valve covers to match the restored Army Vega F/C.

-Brad Norgaard – For helping me with Decal work

-Chuck Boerner – For helping me with Decal work

 

With that said This build was started way back on 3/9/2011 and Finished on 7/29/2018. A period of over 7 years. I have well over 2300 hours into the build. It is probably more closer to 2500 considering that I didn't log any of my CAD design that I did for all of the parts that were 3D printed for this project. This build started out with Revell's 1/16th Scale Army Double kit (The Army Vega Funny Car and Army Dragster). The paint that was used was House of Kolor BC25 White, House of Kolor Euro Red, PPG Custom mixed blue and PPG Omni Plus Urethane Clear

IF you guys would like I can also add a list of aftermarket items I used. Just let me know ant I will be more than happy to add them. I don't want to bore you guys anymore with me rambling on so here are the completed pics but first if you want to see the build in progress you can see it here:

 

Edited by Mooneyzs
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John had built the 1/16th scale Prudhomme Army Dragster a while back and I told him that it would awesome if we could take pics of my Funny Car and his Dragster together. He was nice enough to find his dragster and bring it so we could get pics of the cars together:

 

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John had made a Prudhomme figure for his dragster and I asked if it would be ok for use to take a few pics with his figure next to the funny car, He didn't mind and here are a few pics of it:

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Chris, I know that the accolades will be pouring in, and deservedly so.  Let me just say that I was blown away by the workbench thread and the final project is phenomenal.  Absolutely top notch build!!  Congratulations to you!

Edited by Nacho Z
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Congratulations Chris,

This is not only a masterclass in scale automotive modelling but an incredible feat, of dedication, precision and patience.

Yes you had some hard times with it, we all saw, but to complete a build like this is phenomenal !

Hope your extremely proud of this, you deserve every bit of praise ( and trophys! )  you receive !    B)

 

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I was following the build thread from start to finish and while I'm happy to see it being done, now I feel a bit strange as I can't go to the Army Vega thread to see if there are any new updates. Some people say that there is no such thing as a perfect model, but I have to say that this is at least very close to that. I can't point out a single thing that could be done better. This is definitely built with the idea that "Every part is a model by itself", and it pays off. In addition to that flawless detailing, your paint work is incredible, doesn't matter if we're talking about the beautiful smooth paint job on the body or frame, or how realistic the Alclad painted engine parts look. And that subtle weathering here and there really makes a big difference. The Vega looks like you could fire it up any moment and head to a local Drag Strip. Truly amazing piece of art. And last, thanks for sharing all of the WIP pictures with us, it was a great fun to follow a detailed build thread like that.

Now I just can't wait to see your next build thread. I'm definitely going to follow that one as well.

Edited by W-409
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