Revell '70 AAR Cuda

[berr13]

Yesterday, on a trip to Lubbock, Texas, I found the Revell '70 AAR Cuda on the shelves (at Hobby Town).  Of course I bought the one and only, but I've just had a few minutes to take a look at it, and I have no photos.  I'll try to describe what I found in the box, though.

It's the same body as the '70 hemi Cuda, so if you didn't like that one, you won't like this one, either.  It's molded in white, with new AAR decals (I found two sets in the box).  The only differences between the first two versions and this one that I could see, in a quick look, were:  No hemi, but a 340 six pack, with appropriate decals; new AAR exhaust, AAR hood with hood pins,  and a rear spoiler.  I was disappointed to see that the tires were the old, kinda small, no-name tires that I'm familiar with from the '69 Nova.  Looks like this will be a good time for some AMT L and F 60s.  It also looks like some left over parts from the previous issues, like the hemi valve covers and the lower side trim, are there, but I didn't inventory.

Hopefully somebody else will add photos soon, but I thought I'd take a minute to give my quick review.

      

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2019 by berr13

[Deuces]

Thanks for that!!! I just might pick one up one of these days..... ☺️

[Geno]

Yeah, I picked one up as well. I'm going to kitbash it with a Franklin Mint diecast with a more correct body. I've always wanted the FM version but everyone wants an arm and a leg for them so I'll just make my own lol.

[Jhedir6]

Photos already done in my wip , you can see em here.

As for the wheels and tires, you are right, the tires especially, not sure why they didnt put in the pad printed ones like the Boss 302.

I ordered a set of BF Goodrich tires (bigs and littles) from Joseph at Fireball. 

[Hawk312]

I finally got my hands on one, and will share some info here. 

First, here is the body. It is quite nice! Very little prep work needed other than scribing some lines and light sanding. Some of you may have seen the body inaccuracies and correction discussion in the Revell 2019 thread. I decided to let the wife and kids know I wouldn`t be going with them on our vacation week to Disney, and instead decided to stay home and work in paintbrush on this detailed image with corrections illustrated:

I have made these changes to the body. The front fenders had about a scale 1" cut down or so, not much:

 

 

 

The color is actually Krylon Mambo Pink from the can.  I have a can of Testor`s Panther Pink, and they are *very* close in color. 

By the way, for you younger builders, *do not* follow my example for painting this body, as best practices we definitely not followed:

• No primer on the body. Just some light sanding, and then spraying the Krylon color directly on the bare plastic.
• KRYLON 
• Followed by Rustoleum clear. 
• The Krylon was not fully cured before the clear was sprayed. 

I am actually surprised it came out half decent. 

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by Hawk312

[Hawk312]

Obligatory comparisons.

The purple is the Monogram 71 body. Much longer and much wider. Much more flash! Canopy is too tall. Front fenders are not high enough, and are too long and slender IMO.

The white is the Johan. Almost identical in proportion and shape! Less detailed, more sink marks for sure. 

I would much, much rather work with the new body any day.

[Hawk312]

I mentioned this in the other thread, the stripe decals appear to have an arch on the rear fender, which seems incorrect. The 1:1 seems to be more angled then arched. I am going to attempt to modify the decals from the very first AAR kit from Revell, but they are almost a scale foot longer so we will see. 

Here is a comparison of the new decal sheet compared to the very first kit. As you can see, they got the angle right on the old kit, but there seems to be too few "strobes."

 

[Hawk312]

Here are the new wheels and tires compared to the wheels and tires from the old Revell and Monogram Cuda and Challenger kits. 

[Hawk312]

Now, I had this crazy idea to use the old wheels with the new tires, as I thought (from pics I had seen on the `net) that the new wheels looked to shallow. However, I think the old wheels look too deep, and stretch the tires just a little bit to where it looks like they be 16" or even 17" rims in scale. 

Here is the old wheel in the new tire, and the new wheel in the old tire. 

[Hawk312]

And of course, probably many of you will want to see the AMT Polyglas tires with the wheels. These tires are from the AMT `68 Z/28 kit. The kit came with 8 tires, 4 big and 4 small!!!!

I put the new rim as well as the old rims in for testing:

 

[Can-Con]

David, you are aware that the old monogram kit is 1/24 scale and the new Revell kit is 1/25, right?

[Hawk312]

2 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

David, you are aware that the old monogram kit is 1/24 scale and the new Revell kit is 1/25, right?

Can-con, 

Certainly.  I`ve probably built a dozen or so of them over the past 30 years. I still have 5 or 6  Cuda and Challenger kits with the old metal flake cover art. I was hoping some of the parts would be close enough to be compatible if needed. I will probably end up not using any of the old kit parts, unless I can get those decals to work.

[Can-Con]

4 minutes ago, Hawk312 said:

Can-con, 

Certainly.  I`ve probably built a dozen or so of them over the past 30 years. I still have 5 or 6  Cuda and Challenger kits with the old metal flake cover art. I was hoping some of the parts would be close enough to be compatible if needed. I will probably end up not using any of the old kit parts, unless I can get those decals to work.

Had to ask, ya just never know sometimes. 

  Actually, I have a resin copy of the JoHan 1/25 '70 GTX I'll be using those Monogram wheels on to simulate a 16 or 17 inch wheel, as you said.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Can-Con

[Hawk312]

20 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

Had to ask, ya just never know sometimes. 

  Actually, I have a resin copy of the JoHan 1/25 '70 GTX I'll be using those Monogram wheels on to simulate a 16 or 17 inch wheel, as you said.

Nice! Sounds like a cool project. I would offer some of my wheels from these kits, but I am finding most of these old ones are only partially chromed, and its hard to find a good set in them.  

Do you have an in progress thread started yet?

[Plowboy]

I've read that these Monogram wheels were too big. So, I pulled one and measured it with digital calipers. It measured .6745 inches. Multiply that by 24 and it comes out to 16.18 inches which would be a 15 inch wheel in that scale. Even in 1/25 scale, they measure 16.86 inches which is only .61 of an inch too big. So, they're right for 1/24. A little big for 1/25. Even at full scale, it wouldn't be easy to spot a .61 inch difference between wheels.    

[gtx6970]

I built an AMT 1970 Superbee years ago and used the Monogram wheels and tires and they looked right at home.

[Can-Con]

4 hours ago, Hawk312 said:

Nice! Sounds like a cool project. I would offer some of my wheels from these kits, but I am finding most of these old ones are only partially chromed, and its hard to find a good set in them.  

Do you have an in progress thread started yet?

Haven't started a thread on the build as it's one of those "as the feeling strikes" projects. It's actually a bit farther along than in the mock-up pic below, now in primer with the windshield, back glass and chassis from one of the AMT B-body kits fitted to the body.  Might end up being more stock than originally planned. 

The wheels I have do have pretty good chrome on them. 

 

OK, enough for now, I don't want to throw this thread too far off coarse. 

[moparfarmer]

Looks like a lot of paint on the pink car but after thougouly dry and polish it will look like glass..I was looking for a pink like that and although I don't like Krylon I'am willing to try it..Is it Fusion or just straight Krylon?

 

[Hawk312]

9 hours ago, moparfarmer said:

Looks like a lot of paint on the pink car but after thougouly dry and polish it will look like glass..I was looking for a pink like that and although I don't like Krylon I'am willing to try it..Is it Fusion or just straight Krylon?

 

This is just the regular ColorMaster Mambo Pink, not the Fusion. Be aware, it will craze the plastic and will not be gloss without clear coat. The Rustoleum clear coat rubs out very nicely, and dries in only a couple days even with 5 -7 coats.  

Here is what my can looks like:

 

[Luc Janssens]

 

Here the decal sheet of the German release, which of course includes European license plates...

 

 

 

 

 

[Luc Janssens]

 

[1972coronet]

I recognise something on those R.O.G. decals that pleases me greatly : Printed In Italy !!

[Force]

I assume they are printed by Cartograf.

[Classicgas]

Id like to see them next to the US decals.

[Hawk312]

4 hours ago, Luc Janssens said:

 

Here the decal sheet of the German release, which of course includes European license plates...

 

 

 

 

 

You guys get the tire decals. Wish those were in the USA kit. :-(