Dennis Lacy Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Killer work correcting all the details, Jim! I bet it’s gonna turn out awesome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobthehobbyguy Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 One thing you want to check references on are the torsion bars for the front suspension. They are not accurately represented. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Hay Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Wow! Following along! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 Loving this! Brings back memories of the build I did twenty or so years ago. I made my top panel out of printer's plate aluminium and it worked a treat. I'm a big fan of vacforming but in this case I think the aluminium was the correct choice! Cheers Alan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocking Rodney Rat Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 Great work. Don't forget the triangle gussets between the roll bars and the frame.... -RRR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted December 14, 2021 Author Share Posted December 14, 2021 On 12/9/2021 at 1:07 PM, boss 302 mustang said: The cover over the quick change rear is to protect the driver. Figures - thank you! On 12/10/2021 at 9:49 AM, bobthehobbyguy said: One thing you want to check references on are the torsion bars for the front suspension. They are not accurately represented. You’re right! Going to do my best to correct the look of that somewhat (but still have it so I can actually pick the thing up without breaking it 🤪). On 12/10/2021 at 9:14 PM, Rocking Rodney Rat said: Great work. Don't forget the triangle gussets between the roll bars and the frame.... -RRR I tried making styrene pieces originally but settled for getting some gel glue in there, hitting it with activator and filing it square as best I could without damaging the frame and making more work…didn’t quite get it like the 1:1 but tried my best anyway… Speaking of the frame, got the last few pieces added before paint this weekend: Had some little brackets and clips and a few little pieces that it needed, before shooting the whole thing with primer, smoothing out some of the little flaws and imperfections, adding some weld beads with Vallejo plastic putty and then shooting with Createx pure white as a base to make that yellow really pop: Then, I mixed up some Createx yellow with just a tiny dash of orange to warm it up a little and shot the frame and engine: Once that was dry, shot three mist coats of clear just to gloss it up a LITTLE, and let it dry overnight. I already figured out the rear axle, aside from adding detail, but the front axle needed some more work, so I tackled that next: I sacrificed a little scale fidelity to make sure I can actually assemble the thing when the time comes - I really don’t want to be fiddling with tiny little gluing areas once this part is in Alclad, but I’ve also got some more detail to add after paint that is going to add some more realism. Whilst I had the Vallejo putty handy, I used some of that, mixed with a little water, to smooth out the ‘leather’ in the bucket seat and headrest that I made and then got that painted and made some seatbelts: The belts on the real car had a little brown leather cover over the one latch for some reason, so I added that as a little detail - although I’d really like to find a scale crash helmet that I can sit on the seat so most of this stuff will disappear anyway. Michael’s sells some great textured paper that works well for belts, incidentally, which is what I used here, with Gopher Racing (I think?) photo etch. Seat and headrest in place: Not a tonne of progress since the last update, but I had to keep waiting for paint to dry 🤪 Next job will be running some brake lines and lines for the parachute and whatever else - I want to get them handled before I install a bunch of other stuff in the way. More soon! PS: yeah, I see the bow in the frame - but with the engine in there it fixes itself 🤪 PPS: I hate how easily you can see flaws with pictures this large…makes it easy to see the areas that need touch-ups tho More soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocking Rodney Rat Posted December 14, 2021 Share Posted December 14, 2021 Looking real good! -RRR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim boyd Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 What Rodney said, Jim. Very impressive work....TIM 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 Looks great, Jim.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted December 31, 2021 Author Share Posted December 31, 2021 Thanks fellas! Had a busy couple of weeks what with Christmas and work and having the flu and about twenty other things - but I’m excited to get back to the bench and make some progress on this thing! Did a coupla little bits today to get rolling again… Picked up these tubing benders so I could remake the kit headers - the kit ones are SUPER skinny and would only be, maybe 1” tubing or so if scaled up, so I made some meatier ones: I’ll be Aclading them so that the chrome matches everything else on the car and giving them a little heat-staining for some visual interest. Meanwhile, this car either did or didn’t run a parachute, depending on which photo you look at and which year it was taken - I wanted to run one so I painted a resin one that I had in my parts stash, added medical-tape straps and some photoetch washers to represent eyelets, and added the cord to the frame ready for when I mount it (via that aluminum plate that attaches to the back of the frame). I’ll add that and the pull-cord and whatnot fairly late in the build so it doesn’t get knocked off twenty times in the meantime… I’ve been prepping engine parts so I can assemble that soon too, but the trans in the kit doesn’t match the in-out box in the real car so I scratchbuilt one this evening ready for painting tomorrow: I’ll need to make a driveshaft once I’ve got the engine in place, but easier to do than further down the line… Getting a little pile of dragster-looking parts now - more soon! More soon! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Lacy Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Nice to see an update. The in/out box is bitchin! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straightliner59 Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Very nice work, Jim. It's looking good, all around, sir! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted January 2, 2022 Author Share Posted January 2, 2022 Thanks fellas! Here’s a cool thing - an early version of the 1:1 with a more conventional blower setup and a cool Mooneyes parachute! I can see myself falling down a rabbit hole and doing like five versions of this thing just to have all the variations… Did a little light weathering to some of the mechanical parts today getting ready to assemble the engine - I drilled a drain plug hole in that oil pan and added a little Titchy Trains bolt, and then added some light washes just to give some depth and interest: Shot some of my favorite black enamel on a bunch of pieces and got them in Spaz Stix chrome ready for a light buff and some washes tomorrow before starting to assemble the engine - plus I shot the trans and some other little parts in some metal shades too, whilst I was at it… The Quickchange in the 1:1 is a regular old steel Quickchange with a chrome cover over top, so I shot that in chrome first and then thinned down Vallejo steel acrylic with Createx thinner and gave it multiple brushed-on coats to give a subtly different tone to the metal of the axle compared to the chrome accents - came out ok I think! As some others have noted about this kit, the new real tires are nice but they have some pretty decent sink marks in the center of the tires - I spun those down on my lathe today and managed to fix that and tomorrow I’m going to start laying down some washes of gray and black to make them look a little more realistic…more soon! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 Looks magic so far, Jim. The rear axle is very nice. I wanted to buy the new kit but already have a built Mooneyes from a decade or so ago. Seeing that top mounted blower makes me think I will definitely buy it and will be building a second one! Cheers Alan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted January 3, 2022 Author Share Posted January 3, 2022 17 hours ago, alan barton said: Looks magic so far, Jim. The rear axle is very nice. I wanted to buy the new kit but already have a built Mooneyes from a decade or so ago. Seeing that top mounted blower makes me think I will definitely buy it and will be building a second one! Cheers Alan I would like to see someone build that version! Cool! A little bit of progress today… Started layering washes onto the tires to dull down that shine and make them look more gray-rubber than black-vinyl: Added some detail to the intake - used some photoetch added fuel lines and that larger line at the top replicates the hydraulic throttle setup that the real car has: Started some assembly on the engine and made a magneto on the lathe: …and then got the plug wires installed: Gave a very light wash to the frame - not going for ‘dirty’ on any of these parts, just trying to add a little depth and realism: And a quick mock-up for my own amusement: I REALLY want to get the front and rear axles installed, but I know that’s asking for trouble without having the engine locked down first…patience grasshopper! More soon! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter31a Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Looking really sharp, Jim. I am enjoying watching what you and Bill Allen are doing with the Mooneyes dragster. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Kron Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 (edited) Wonderful work. All that sooper-dooper detail really captures the fine delicacy of these Golden Age F.E,D,'s which is such an important aspect of their vibe. It's wonderful to see you reach out for a truly authoritative replica version. It should turnout out to be an important reference for us less ambitious, more impressionistic modelers to use in guiding us. Build On! Edited January 3, 2022 by Bernard Kron 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bytownshaker Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Looks great 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majel Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 This is looking really good, great work on all of the scratch-built parts! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Your doing a great job on this kit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddyfink Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 On 1/1/2022 at 9:23 PM, CabDriver said: Thanks fellas! Here’s a cool thing - an early version of the 1:1 with a more conventional blower setup and a cool Mooneyes parachute! I can see myself falling down a rabbit hole and doing like five versions of this thing just to have all the variations… The first version of the Revell Mickey Thompson Attempt 1 kit has that style chute in it! Just in case you want to go down that Rabbit Hole! LOL! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 impressive work Jim, especially on the quick change rear end.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted January 9, 2022 Author Share Posted January 9, 2022 Thanks fellas! @Daddyfink - I didn’t know that kit came with a ‘chute, thanks for the info!! I should pick one of those up… Slowed myself down this week when I repainted a couple of bits that I wasn’t happy with, but made some bits of progress anyway… Got the engine mostly assembled (but with some detail still to come) and into the frame: I made some little aluminum mounting brackets to match the ones on the 1:1, but you can’t really see them now the engine’s in there…. Incidentally, I’ve been messing with using a satin black enamel base under some of my metal parts - it’s a nice way to get some variation in metal and chrome tones… Did some work on the body panels; added some material to the ‘hood’ to get that to fit a little nicer: Got all the parts cleaned up and smoothed out and started getting them into color today…I mixed up a small batch of paint to match the 1:1 because I’d like to build a hauler for this thing too and I want the yellow to match… Added the missing lug nuts to the wheels and got them ready for chrome: And now the engine’s in place I made a driveshaft shield like the 1:1 has to protect the driver - just a simple piece, although I still need to make a wrap around spring for it (not that I can figure out what that spring DOES)… Test fit to make sure everything lines up still: And that’s about where we’re at so far! Before I can install the rear axle I need to get the floor panel painted, and then figure out the pedals and THEN the axle can go in, followed by the rest of the steering assembly that I’ve started but not finished, and then once the body panels are in place I can figure out making the rear disk brakes that the 1:1 runs…got a very particular order that I need to assemble this thing in so it can actually go together…thanks for looking, more soon! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raoul Ross Posted January 9, 2022 Share Posted January 9, 2022 (edited) Mucho Imprezo! Don't know if you've seen this as you seem to have found a lot of really great 1:1 shots, just thought I'd throw it out there. You can really see the differences between the original and the clone. https://www.drivingline.com/articles/the-mooneyes-dragster-cloning-our-heros-3-of-3/ Edited January 9, 2022 by Raoul Ross 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted January 9, 2022 Share Posted January 9, 2022 Really nice work Jim… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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