Revells Chi-Town Hustler - They're Finished! 10/19/10

[Len Carsner]

The new Revell Chi-Town Hustler 1/25th scale plastic kit is one of the most accurately scaled, well appointed and such a delicate rendition of this type of vintage subject that’s unlike anything we’ve likely seen before.

In the past the complaint has always been that kits of these iconic drag cars have either been too generic, homogenized, or maybe stylized is a more fitting term in this application. Where tube frames and roll cages often scaled-out to be the diameter of stove pipe, with these new Revell nostalgic funny car kits, the accurate scaling of such core parts of such a kit would appear to be spot-on.

Revell has certainly taken a big gamble putting considerable eggs in one basket here but considering the median age of today’s model car building public, they might just be on to something of considerable magnitude this time around.

Even though Len and I are only in the early stages of reviewing and building this kit, I think it’s safe to say we’re very impressed with what we see in the kit box. Neither of us, even though we have a lot of miles on life’s odometer, considers ourselves any kind of experts on this subject. We may both be old enough to have seen these behemoths in action but remember that’s been 40 plus years ago.

With that said, like you, we too will be attempting to re-educate ourselves on these historic subject. What better place to begin our studies than websites with a plethora of very revealing detail photos of the original restored CTH and the clone car that gets out to all the NHRA competitive events and is displayed at shows and on loan to motorsports museums.

This site will provide you with a number of wide and tight angle shots of the exterior of the CTH:

http://public.fotki.com/TommyDz/the-chi-town-hustle-1/

This site has all those delicious close-up shots of the inner workings of the CTH that detailing hounds are looking for:

http://public.fotki.com/TommyDz/the-chi-town-hustle/

Let’s get started on this build/review of the new Revell Chi-Town Hustler Mini-Charger kit.

Take a moment to correct the caption in Step 1 for part No. 60. The copy should read Fuel Pump instead of Oil Pump as note in the illustration.

Note that in Step 3 a correction to the Captions for parts No. 12, 13, 14 that should refer to the Fuel Tank not Oil tank as so noted in the illustration.

Also, let’s correct the captions for parts No. 39, 40 and 73 which should read Coolant/water Tank and Coolant/water tank bottom and top as so noted in the illustration.

Revell is aware of these edits that will likely be corrected in the next production run. These are minor issues and in no way detract from building this outstanding kit.

Here we’re preparing the engine and small accessory parts for painting. I like to use these small squares of cardboard to help organize such thing. Curls of masking tape make keeping these fiddly parts in place until they’re painted. Some parts I’ve separated from their respective trees and others (especially ones that can go missing with out notice) remain attached with their code number for identification clearly visible.

With a degree of forethought, you can easily group parts that share the same fate together and on occasion they can share the same piece of card board as shown here. If you’re careful, paint the matte black first then cover up the black parts while Metalizer is being applied to those parts on the other end of the card.

Testors Buffing Metalizers are a bit touchy and want to pull away especially without clear sealer. You can use a low tack painters tape like the blue roll shown here, carefully masking off the transmission from the block which allows for a contrasting choice of metallic shade for the attached part like the engine block and cylinder heads.

By making some calculated choices, a variety of Testors Metalizers can be used on numerous driveline parts to achieve a distinct appearance like what’s on these individual parts shown here. You can even mix and match by spraying a part and dusting on a light coat from a second Metalizer to achieve a unique look.

If you remain skeptical about leaving parts attached to their respective trees, come in out of the cold. The recently painted matte black parts are shown here separated from their trees. Any offending remnants of the sprue attachment is quickly cleaned up and touched up with a Sharpie black marker as shown here.

Admittedly, there are only four (4) parts to the Cockpit Roll Cage but there is a simple and straightforward approach to assembling the parts. Using the Cockpit Bucket as your template following the instructions in Step 4, insert part No. 20 in place and glue part No. 21 to it. Next, whether it’s the right or left side, glue parts No. 96 and 97 into place one at a time.

Leave the assembled cage in place on the bucket until the glue is thoroughly dry. Once that’s occurred, the assembly can be removed as shown here for painting.

That's all for now. We'll continue with the chassis in our next installment in a couple of days.

Bill and Len

Edited October 20, 2010 by Len Carsner

[Len Woodruff]

Thanks Len & Bill. Looks like it will be a great build!

[Brett Barrow]

It's time for another Bill and Len build!!!

Really looking forward to this one, the kit and the build!

I do have a question - I keep seeing these cars called "Mini Chargers", how much smaller than an actual Charger are they? Maybe you have a Charger body you could compare side-by-side?

[Brett Barrow]

There's a couple broken picture links

edit- fixed.

Edited September 20, 2010 by Brett Barrow

[Dragline]

Great start guys. I'm wondering how different your builds can turn out given that the subject only truly lends itself to one car. I'll be watching with some interest to see the finishes you both apply. That will ultimately make them different in some subtle ways.

How bout one of you do a detailed build and the other box stock?

Just a thought.

Build on brothers.

Bob

[Len Carsner]

There's a couple broken picture links

With a degree of forethought, you can easily group parts...

Testors Buffing Metalizers are a bit touchy and want to pull away...

By making some calculated choices, a variety of Testors Metalizers...

Thanks, I think I have it fixed now.

Len C.

Edited September 20, 2010 by Len Carsner

[Len Carsner]

Great start guys. I'm wondering how different your builds can turn out given that the subject only truly lends itself to one car. I'll be watching with some interest to see the finishes you both apply. That will ultimately make them different in some subtle ways.

How bout one of you do a detailed build and the other box stock?

Just a thought.

Build on brothers.

Bob

That's exactly what we'll be doing - mine will be box stock with painted details only while Bills car will have some hoses and wiring added. We don't build contest grade models for these builds so neither car will get the "kitchen sink" treatment. We do our cars so anybody with moderate skills can duplicate our efforts.

Thanks for your interest.

Bill and Len

[Len Carsner]

We continue our build up with more of the component assembly and prep for additional details.

I spoke earlier about separating out similar parts that will be receiving the same paint colors. Again, small squares of cardboard (or similar materials) make ideal pallets for such things. Here, similar parts that will be painted red, matte black and gloss aluminum have been organized for spray painting.

In preparation for painting the tube frame and accessory parts I experimented on the TF surrounding sprue with three different shades of gloss red, Wal-Mart red, Testors Guards Red and Bright Red. After some review, I chose Bright Red. The actual 1/1 CTH red may be closer to Guards Red but I chose the lighter shade so it would show up better in photos.

This will likely be the most strenuous part to detach and clean up in the CTH kit. The tube frame is very well defined and also delicate. Carefully trim away and separate-out the piece from its attachment points to the tree as shown here.

Working slowly and carefully will pay off when the part is free and the final cleanup is underway. If you are determined to remove all signs of attachment points and mold separation lines, handle this part like it was made out of glass.

When you’ve completed the tube frame cleanup and preparation for painting, it should look pretty much like this.

I like to experiment and take chances on occasion. In this case I prepared the chassis parts to be painted red on one sheet of cardboard and…sprayed the red paint directly onto the individual pieces without first spraying on a primer coat. So far it’s worked pretty well even though it seemed to take the soft enamel quite a while to dry thoroughly.

I wish there had been another way of dividing the fuel tank than right down the middle. There’s just no way with this part being vacuum plated during the manufacturing process that we can successfully cover up the seam line. Do be careful what glue you use. I shy away from super glue since it can fog the plated areas. Some have recommended 5-minute epoxy though I found the old standby styrene glue to work okay. Do be cautious when applying glue to the joined edges of the tank. You don’t want excess glue oozing out at this point.

After playing around with a number of options I decided to give Tamiya Gloss Aluminum a try for the interior metal work. It doesn’t give quite the sheen of the 1/1 surfaces but it does result in a clean and bright appearance. After all, it will be somewhat hidden away up inside that swoopy fiberglass body shell. I always wipe part down thoroughly with Polly S Plastic Prep. You do have the choice again of priming the parts before painting. Again, in the instance, I applied the Gloss Aluminum straight over the raw polystyrene.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen bare plastic that’s had the mold cavities polished to such a high degree. The unpainted CTH body etc. has an amazing shine to the injection-molded plastic.

These three (3) parts will soon be getting generous coats of candy red over a silver metallic base coat.

continued...

Edited September 24, 2010 by Len Carsner

[Len Carsner]

Test fitting assemblies periodically is strongly recommended especially with a brand new kit. Here the tube frame, cockpit sheet metal and the roll cage are positioned together to see how things line up. The cockpit is cradled by the frame and attaches with alignment pins/holes. The roll cage attaches to the cockpit in like fashion.

I observed that as primer and paint dried on the roll cage, this spider-like assembly tended to draw-up slightly. To align pins with holes required spreading the “legs†out a bit and pressing the whole thing down into place. Likely it will need to be held together, until set-up, when glue is applied so the pins don't pop out of the holes.

Over the years I’ve spilled more than my share of liquids on the old workbench. As careful as I might like to think I’m being, ka-pow…I’m cleaning up another mess! I’ve procrastinated long enough! Maybe not the ultimate solution to problem solving this one but here goes anyway.

I used 2-3 cardboard squares like what I use for painting small parts. I traced around the base of individual bottles of liquid (brush cleaner, decal solvent, Detailer and just about anything else I could think of) centered on each piece of cardboard. I used my hobby knife to cut out the holes, square, round and yes even two containers together like decal solvents. Then whenever I use something liquid that gets tipped over easily, I push the bottle partially down into the cardboard square and for the most part it keeps the bottle of whatever from easily tipping over. I won’t say it is fool proof but it’s cut down quite a bit on my flooding of the work area and the frustrating clean-up that follows.

Next time around we’ll present a number of options to achieve that realistic “wet†look on our Chi-Town Hustlers providing you with choices when it comes to painting your CTH model.

Thanks for following our build

Bill and Len

[Brett Barrow]

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen bare plastic that’s had the mold cavities polished to such a high degree. The unpainted CTH body etc. has an amazing shine to the injection-molded plastic.

That struck me too when I opened the box, I can't remember a kit with such shiny parts, even the sprues are shiny!!!

[tim boyd]

That chassis buildup looks just stunning so far. Thanks for the buildup Bill and Len....TIM

[Ben]

It's cool to see it in progress! Thanks for posting those pics!

[Jim0205]

Looks great thus far i really enjoy these build and reviews.

[Chuck Most]

Looking very good- I keep passing on this kit at my local shop, but now that I'm seeing some of the individual subassemblies going together, I'm leaning more toward the "gonna buy it" side of things!

Oh- I do use superglue to fasten plated pieces such as tanks as well. If they do get fogged, a thin coat of gloss clear will get rid of the haze.

[Len Carsner]

Don’t sweat the details…

Our approach in providing an internet build/review of this new Revell Chi-Town Hustler kit is taking a slightly different turn in the road as it were. Heretofore, it’s been just Len and me. For this effort (and possibly the next subject) we’re adding an old colleague of ours, Tom Creeger. Tom brings years of top-tier model building to the work bench. Tom’s an old drag racer too with considerable knowledge of vintage drag cars and a pretty decent model building skill set as well.

Strive for Five…

We asked Tom Creeger to choose five detailing tips/techniques that could easily be applied to the CTH. For some of you these procedures will seem rather elementary. We’ve selected these five added details because we feel they will appeal to the vast majority of builders of moderate skills. If you’ve always wanted to “dress up†a vintage drag car but weren’t quite sure what went where etc., these five tips should get your attention.

Tom felt the CTH blower drive belt looked a bit thick. Rather than replace things with after-market pieces, Creeger took a different, simpler approach. Using nothing but 400 grit automotive sandpaper, first, Creeger sanded the straight sides of the belt. Working slowly he thinned the sides of the belt down to what he felt was more realistic looking. Tom says to stop periodically to check the thickness on both sides of the belt.

Creeger recommended sanding the side surfaces of the blower belt first since it’s much easier to match the thickness of the radiused ends around the top, side and bottom pullys as a second step. Repeating the procedure for the belt sides, stop and check to see that the thinned belt appears consistent all the way around, top to bottom, side to side. Once you’ve achieved the proper belt thickness, paint the different parts of the pully/belt and set it aside for later installation.

Here, Tom recommends detail painting the delicate fuel lines already engraved into the Fuel Injection unit as shown here. Creeger is using a 000 brush and slightly thinned-down semi gloss black bottle paint.

It’s always best to securely mount the part you’re working on employing something like the tooth pick Creeger uses as shown here. Or you could make a curl of masking tape to attach the part to a sold surface. Such delicate work is much more manageable when you’re not chasing small and delicate parts around.

Here, Creeger is starting to drill two holes in the Fuel Injection unit. Looking at it from the front end, there are two very small but visible fittings in which the holes are to be drilled. Tom recommends using a pin vice mounting a .015 in. dia. drill bit. Work slowly and make sure both holes remain centered from the beginning.

Next, Creeger is preparing to drill two holes in the Fuel Pump. The two fittings can be clearly seen on the larger (pump) end of the piece. Again using a pin vice mounting a .015 in. dia. drill bit, slowly drill holes in the center of both fittings as shown here. Again, make sure both holes are centered from the outset.

First, Tom painted the magneto cap a darkened red (a drop or two of gloss black mixed with red bottle paint) to simulate the Bakelite plastic finish of this part. To make sure you have proper spacing between each hole, the magneto has evenly spaced marks on the outside (they appear as raised ribs) indicating where each sparkplug wire hole should be located. Tom is using a.010 in dia. drill bit for this task.

Next, Creeger is preparing to drill four .010 in dia. holes (three in a row in line around the circumference) as shown here. The fourth is located at the bottom of the Fuel Tank on the driver’s side.

Next, we’ll drill a hole as shown here, to the left of the tank cap using a .015 in dia. drill bit. Tom says there are two holes to be drilled, this one and one in the bottom of the Coolant/Water tank.

This type of valve cover was cast with short extensions protruding from the center of each simulated rubber plug cap. Creeger recommends partially removing a small section of the extension to make it easier to drill each hole on center. A .010 in dia. drill bit size is recommended.

continued...

Edited September 28, 2010 by Len Carsner

[Len Carsner]

Thanks to Tom for sharing some basic engine detailing tips and techniques. We’ll let you get back to working on your beloved 29 project for now.

These images may be low resolution but the improvements of a little added detail can already be seen.

Join us for the next installment where I'll (hopefully) show you a good looking alternative to expensive candy paints.

Thanks,

Bill and Len

[Len Carsner]

Miss us?

Sorry about the long pause but I had a bit of vacation time that was use-it-or-lose-it so I was out of the area last week. Look for multiple updates this week with the wrap-up coming early next week.

Let's get back to it!

The front and rear tires were separated from their sprue tree using a sprue cutter and hobby knife, sanding the contact surface was set about using a coarse piece automotive sand paper as shown here. A straight file is also recommended to remove what remains of the attachment tab on the slick/treaded areas of all four tires.

Next the front wheels were carefully separated from their sprue tree and the attachment tabs cleaned up with a jewelers file. Be careful not to accidentally scrape off plating on the outside surfaces of the wheels, front or back. Here a wheel is getting a first test-fit into a front tire.

Likewise, the rear mags received the same careful clean-up treatment as the front before insertion into the rear slicks. This is an unusual process as these wheels are not merely inside and outside halves joined inside each slick. First insert each rear mag into a slick as shown here.

Shown on the right is the rear wheel inside half, inserted and being turned. On the left is the rear wheel inside half turned and nearly in place in the backside of the rear slick.

Here the rear wheel half has been pressed into place in the rear slick (left) and the front rear wheel half (as shown free-standing in the foreground) is then inserted into the outside of the rear slick to complete the process as shown with the wheel/slick on the right.

When both rear wheel halves have been inserted into place in both rear slicks this is what the set-up should look like (outside-left, inside-right)

Here the front wheels (left-outside, right-inside) have been included with the rear wheels/slicks. On the right, the axle mounting stems (on backside of each wheel) can be clearly seen in this view.

The final operation required on the front and rear tires is the sidewall lettering. Recommended as shown here is Micro Set and Micro Sol, Polly S (acrylic Flat Finish) clear flat, and assorted hand tools for the job. Also included here is The Detailer Black liquid used to provide a wash on the engraved wheel details. Also note the tiny center axle cap decals for the front wheels to be applied later.

Here are the CTH wheel/tire combination on display, contact area sanded, black wash applied, decals in place on the outside surface of the front and rear tires…and those tiny decals mentioned earlier applied to the front wheel center axle caps

continued....

[Len Carsner]

Now, on to the windows.

First carefully remove the four window surround decals shown here from the CTH decal sheet. We recommend using small, sharp sewing scissors to slowly and carefully trim out each piece making sure to trim as close as possible to the printed image but making sure not to cut into it at any point during the process.

Never twist or try to snap clear parts like the CTH window glass shown here away from the sprue tree. Cautiously clip each piece away using a sprue cutter as shown here. Then, remove any and all excess materials from the edges in preparation for attaching the surround decals.

The tools need for applying the CTH window surrounds include a tissue, cotton swab, hobby knife, tweezers and a soft paint brush. Once you’re made sure the clear parts are free of finger prints and debris, using a clean paint brush, apply Micro Set along the edge surfaces where the decals are to rest. Use the tissue to gently tamp down each decal into place. Use the cotton swab to remove any excess liquid and to press the decal down and around the surface details. Once you’re satisfied with the decal placement insure that everything is dry.

The final step is to apply Micro Sol to all decal surfaces with the paint brush. Allow this application to sit for a couple of minutes to affectively secure the decals attachment in place on each clear part. Allow that application to dry thoroughly and set these pieces aside for installation in the CTH body later.

This update was a pretty quick one, check back tomorrow when I'll give some advice and tips to those who model on the cheap.

Thanks,

Bill and Len

[Hattley]

Glad to see your back at it and hope your time away was enjoyable.

[Len Carsner]

Follow the numbers…

We pick right back up where we left off the last time when Tom Creeger was drilling holes for and installing spark plug wires. He was also drilling pilot holes for fuel and coolant lines. Those initial pilot holes varied from .010 to .015 in. in diameter. There’s a very good reason for drilling such small holes to start with. Drilling much larger holes without doing smaller pilot holes first often results in “buggered-up†or off-center or lopsided holes. Coated wire, craft braid and glue can’t hide that.

Note that the coated wire Tom used for spark plug wires measured out to 0.019-0.020 in. OD. The craft braid he used for fuel lines measured out to 0.035-0.040 in. OD. The next step would be to re-drill each pilot hole slightly larger to accommodate either spark plug wires or fluid lines according to the dimensions shown earlier depending on which type of lines/wires are called for.

Using the CTH instruction sheet, Tom illustrated where the various lines were to be routed. Follow the numbers and even if you’re still confused by all the plumbing, you can’t go wrong tracing the pathway of each numbered line.

Likewise, follow the numbered lines, refer occasionally to the two CTH internet sites we gave you in an earlier post and look closely at the variety of photos of Creeger’s detailing efforts and you’ll be surprised how this new Revell CTH comes to life for you.

Along with the instruction sheet and Tom’s illustrations you’ll need some masking tape, coated circuit wire, craft braid, needle-nose tweezers, hobby knife and super glue to get started. Coated circuit wire can be found in electronic supply stores like Radio Shack. Craft braid is usually found at most well-stocked hobby craft shops.

Fuel lines

In this series of views can be seen the placement of the various fuel lines fashioned from lengths of silver foil craft braid. Here, three are in place (No. 1, 5 and 6). Not shown here is the fuel line (No. 2) which T’s into line No. 5 and connects the Fuel Pump to the Injector barrel valve. Creeger installed the No. 2 line after the power plant etc. was installed into the chassis.

Look closely, in this view, the installation of fuel line No. 2 can be clearly seen running between the Injector and where it T’s into line No. 5.

Before installing Blower safety straps, Tom made a thin plate from .005 in. sheet plastic laying flat between the Blower body and the Fuel Injection unit (white area on top of Blower). The safety straps are 1/16 in. wide strips of masking tape painted flat black as shown here. Note here also that Creeger is applying gray bottle paint to each strap to simulate the product label.

continued....

[Len Carsner]

Creeger installed those masking tape straps to attachment points on each corner down over the valve covers and to the outside surface of each cylinder head. This attachment point will be hidden once the headers are installed.

This is as good a time as any to install the Oil line (part No. 70) which attaches between the base of the Engine Front plate and the driver’s side of the oil pan as shown here.

Aircraft fittings

To give this project a bit more realism we’ll use the “poor man’s approach†to adding aircraft-style fuel line fittings. Here, Creeger is in the process of adding this detail using a very small brush (4-0 or 5-0) to apply Tamiya Clear Blue and Clear Red.

The component fitting is always painted transparent blue while the braided line ends are always painted transparent Red. Tom recommends applying the blue first to any appropriate fuel line connection.

still continued....

Edited October 9, 2010 by Len Carsner

[Len Carsner]

Install headers

Tom Creeger recommends “pinning†the headers as shown here to insure proper alignment and better, more permanent attachment in place on each cylinder head. Tom drilled two small holes in each header and two matching holes in each cylinder head in the areas where the headers are to be attached. Short lengths of wire were then inserted in the two holes in each header.

Make sure to test fit things early on to insure that the wires will slide smoothly into each alignment hole in the cylinder head as shown here.

Note here that once the headers and cylinder heads are aligned properly, as promised earlier, the Blower safety strap attachments cannot be seen once the headers are glued in place.

FI line location

And last but not least, a quick shot to show the attachment of two fuel lines (No. 3 and 4) to the two fittings on the front of the Injectors unit (part No. 68). Note also that the other end of fuel line (No. 3) gets inserted into a hole in the Fuel Block attached to the Super Charger Rear (part No. 64).

We’ve also included here, for further clarity, a close-up shot of the FI lines set-up on the CTH clone version.

Whew! That's quite a lot to take in!

If you take the time to thoroughly read and undertake these steps you too can build an exceptional engine with little more than simple tools, a few readily available supplies, and a little patience.

We'll see you soon with the next update.

Thanks,

Bill and Len

[Brett Barrow]

Craft Braid = Old School DIY Goodness!!!

Love it, keep it up!!!

[Hattley]

This was great,thanks for the detail information... took my mind off the Bama game.

Craft Braid = Old School DIY Goodness!!!

Love it, keep it up!!!

[Len Carsner]

Craft Braid = Old School DIY Goodness!!!

Love it, keep it up!!!

Thanks, that's the idea behind it. Old school techniques, materials and basic equal awesome details with minimal expense.

Len C.