CapSat 6

Prior releases tell an interesting story. The kit started out as the annual 1971 Charger R/T. From there, it was used as a promo, then a Roland Leong Hawaiian funny car (body only- with ‘71 RT and ‘72 Rallye variants). The body was changed over to a ‘72 Rallye, but there was also a Buddy Baker stock car that used the same body tool, which was basically a stock Non-R/T or non-Rallye ‘72. The body was then retooled to produce stock kits and promos for 1973 and 1974. The stock ‘73 body was used for the late 1972 release of the Richard Petty NASCAR car. Those kits had a fully stock 1973 body, with hood pins engraved on the flat hood. The kits and promos came with flat hoods for ‘73 and ‘74. The ‘73 and ‘74 annuals came with some very interesting custom parts: many of the custom parts mentioned above that came with the Super Charger first appeared in the annuals. Perhaps the coolest custom parts from these kits were the optional “station wagon” parts.

I’m going to get more into this one. The Super Charger kit, this last release, came with an interesting array of custom parts, some stock parts, and a body that has some issues. The good: the body was mostly retooled back to stock. The interior and engine have stock building options. The custom parts (headers, hood scoop, front spoiler, mud guards, 80’s modular wheels, custom grille, Max Wedge style intake) are pretty neat. Some of these came with deep tinted windows (you may consider this a drawback), while others came with clear glass. I think the kit stayed in MPC’s, and later ERTL’s catalogs for several years, hence the variation. The body had nice proportions, and some of the details (the grille, and body shapes, for instance) looked really right. The bad: custom only tires, and no stock wheels. No stock body decals (although the annuals never came with stock stripes, either), some body details are incorrect (we’ll get into that down below), some only came with deep tinted windows, and lastly, this was a 1970-era tool, so the details and construction reflect this.

I’m starting a new topic here…I don’t want to fully hijack the “what should Round 2 run” topic… The Super Charger kit. The last time we saw this, it was about 40 years ago. (!). It’s possible, however not confirmed that Round 2 still has this tooling. They did just bring back the MPC ‘72 Chevelle, after a similar length of absence. It’s well known that the body for this one, after being mildly modified, was used in MPC’s Richard Petty NASCAR race car kit. It was then retooled once more to something more street stock. Don’t let the build on the box fool you- it comes with nice factory stock ‘74 Charger bumpers and grilles, unlike the pictured built prototype. The question is: would it be worth Round 2’s time to pump some of these out?

The Monaco chassis might have been the best C Body chassis in a kit to date. That ultimately ended up with the Magnum GT kit. The AMT ‘65 Coronet gave its greasy bits to the ‘66 and ‘67 Chargers. Compare the gas tanks and engines, and you’ll see that they are very similar. The chassis ended up in the Charger tool and stayed there. It might be why we have never seen a revival of the old AMT Coronet, if they couldn’t find the chassis tool. The ‘68 Coronet got a new chassis tool that year- it went under the ‘69, then the ‘70 Super Bee, and then the chassis and drivetrain went right under the ‘71 Charger tool. It stayed with the ‘74 Charger tool. When they found the ‘70 Super Bee body and interior, perhaps they thought it was missing, but really, it was with the ‘74. It might still be with the ‘74 Charger if they still have it. Pics are better than words. Here is a mint, original MPC ‘68 Coronet annual chassis (in white) compared to a used ‘72 Charger chassis (painted black and red). I’m sure the ‘74 is the same as the ‘72 except that screw holes have been blocked. It looks like they extended the front pan area, cut down the rear pan area, and took some length out of the wheelbase (correctly) when it went to the Charger in ‘71. EDIT: Now that I REALLY look at these pics, it looks like the Coronet chassis is also a smidge wider. They still seem to have a lot of the same markings and details though. Either MPC modified the chassis tool, or cloned it heavily. It does seem like a lot of their kits reused certain design elements (wheels, engines, chassis), so maybe they somehow copied it and modified it to suit.

The Monaco had a different- but very similar- chassis to the ‘68 Coronet. I do agree that the ‘68 Coronet chassis and drivetrain ended up under the MPC ‘71-‘74 Chargers, including that wonky pre-‘69 big block air cleaner. I haven’t compared chassis side by side, but man- the engine and custom bits really speak to it.

I hate to be the naysayer here (because I REALLY like your idea), but much has been made on this forum (and other places) of the difficulty of modifying those 90's era AMT tools. Tools like the AMT '71 Charger don't seem to play well with new 3D design. As much as I would like to see it, I just don't think that will fly. This is not what I know, just what I have heard. Another path might be a retro retool of the '73-'74- much like the Demon and Coronet (although I know I am veering away from the "rules" of this exercise here- no retooling, stay with existing tools) with variants to make the tooling pay for itself a bit: like a never-before-done Charger SE, a nice factory stock '74 Rallye, and perhaps a new Petty NASCAR body for their MPC chassis. I happen to be noodling around with some of my old MPC '71-'74 Charger bodies lately. I'm going to try to start a new topic here with some analysis of the Super Charger body, and how it compares to a factory stock '74 Charger. I'm not convinced that it's really any worse than the MPC '69 Charger tool, so I might think the '74 has value to be rerun as-is/ all open gates, with new factory stock decals, but maybe presented as a street machine (that wagon version from the annuals was really wild, and by no means "stock", but still super-cool ). ROUND 2 recently did the "run and gun" with their early 70's Corvette roadster tool, twice (umm...er...), and they keep running the '69 Charger with it's many flaws. I won't even start on some of the new tools from various manufacturers with really bad bodies. I don't see how the '74 Super Charger could possibly be more offensive or controversial than the other 2 above (or some of those new bodies that I won't mention but that I absolutely loathe), but I'm going to take a really good look at one tonight and share what I see.

I’m also there for the ‘74 Super Charger. I would wonder if the optional station wagon bits and flat hood from the annual kits would still be in the tool somewhere. It would be great if they opened up all of the gates for this kit and just threw everything in the box. The body as it is has some inaccuracies, but that doesn’t seem to stop Round 2 when it comes to putting out their ‘69 Charger kit, which seems to have even bigger issues than their ‘74. The Super Charger could REALLY benefit from the premium decal and box treatment. If they included multiple stock stripe options and opened all of the gates, I’m sure they would sell a bunch just for decals and parts.

Oh, and here is the funky one, molded in Yellow…

Link to instructions… https://public.fotki.com/bill-rules/instruction-sheets/mpc/chevrolet/mpc-3076-1963-corve/

Releases…

I think that price is kind of high. It’s been reissued a few times over the years, although not recently. I don’t think it’s overly rare, but it might be in Europe. This would be a great kit for Round 2 to re-release if they still have the tooling. It was a fun kit to build- no opening doors, but a lot of detail in the engine and suspension, separate emblems and body details on the chrome tree, etc. It also had real metal springs for the front suspension, and poseable steering. If you want to get one to build stock, then either that pictured release, or the one with the silver car on a blue and black box might be the ones to get. They don’t come with the custom parts, and the custom parts might increase prices a bit. I think the first issue was a yellow car on the box, lots of optional drag and custom parts, and a control unit of some kind (for noises or something? I don’t know). The body parts were molded in yellow. There was a Rod Shop release with a lot of period drag parts after that. Molded in white and black (chassis , interior and engine parts). I think the pictured release came next. I think that one only came with stock parts. The release after that was stock only, silver car on a black and blue box. I had one of those back in the early 80’s. It was molded in silver and black. In the mid 80’s, (black car with multicolor stripes, yellow-ish box), the drag parts were restored to the tool, and new Cragar modular wheels were added in as a custom option. I think all of the stock parts were in that one, too. The whole kit was molded in black. The first release and the Rod Shop cars are probably the most pricy, then followed by the 80’s release. The one pictured is probably a bit less valuable than either the early releases or the 80’s release. I’m sure there is lots of info on the internet about this kit. I do know there are links to copies of the instruction sheets on the internet somewhere.

I remember the 10 spoke Shelby wheels all (front and rear) being super wide in the prior ‘66 Mustang Coupe releases. Still- they look a WHOLE lot better than the ones in the AMT ‘68 Shelby Mustang, so if you won’t be using them in a ‘66 build, then they’re worth hanging onto for a ‘68 build. You could always use a razor saw and cut about 1/16” from the back of each, since the face side is no deeper than stock. I like the pad printed Goodyear Blue Streaks. I hope Round 2 offers them in a parts pack soon.

No problem! It was a youthful experiment, done a long time ago. He sold the bass off, too, so maybe it’s been redone by now…

True. And for that matter, I remember when the AMT ‘71 Charger R/T came out. That was not on my bingo card! And the upcoming ‘72 Duster from the Demon tool…I never would have guessed that one, either! You never know for sure what will eventually get done. It does take time though- the remaining model companies have to dedicate their somewhat limited resources to fuel releases that they know will make money, in order to fuel even more releases down the line. I know what it’s like to yearn for a particular kit. It took a long time for me to eventually come across certain old kits for reasonable money, and then it seemed like several more were available just after that. I had to learn to shop for the right builts or projects, strip paint, disassemble them carefully, and send things out to get rechromed, and then I saw lots of those kits eventually get retooled or reissued. Before that, I remember getting several old MPC General Lees, and making standard roofs out of the 500 roof bodies, with Plastruct plastic, putty, and carefully chopping down the trunk lids. I used John Heyer conversion parts on them, and kitbashed the heck out of them, just to get (nearly) the Gen 2 Chargers I wanted. The MPC General Lee was literally the only game in town, unless you had lots of cash AND knew the right people, because original MPC Annuals just couldn’t be found back in the early 80’s. Now, it’s too easy to find those kits, and get much better results than I ever saw in the early 80’s. This was well before eBay, or even internet access of any kind. The ‘68 Coronet is one of those kits for me. It took forever for me to find one that was even remotely buildable, that didn’t cost as much as a cheap real car (I paid less for my 3rd car than I did for some of those individual models). I still bought a few of the new Coronets to play around with, even though I probably didn’t need them by the time they came around. 😡

Ah...that's real info. I guess what this says is that it has specific properties that may or may not lend themselves to painting model cars. Maybe the thin coats that would be needed would be advantageous somehow. I have to figure somebody out there has actually tried this.

These cars could very well be on Round 2’a list to do “retro retools” but since the Revell (ex Monogram) ‘71 GTX is still pretty plentiful, it might not be at the top of said list. The MPC ‘71 Road Runner was last available new around 1988. It looks like Ertl did some mild retooling at that time to bring that kit out. A bit after that (1991-ish?) a NASCAR Petty Road Runner was announced but never brought out: it could be that they planned on revising the stock body for the NASCAR version and then thought better of it. I have to imagine the ‘71 tool is still there somewhere, although there were rumors that the tool was damaged. I would certainly say that there was more demand for the ‘68 Coronets and ‘71 Demons that we eventually got, than there would be for ‘71-‘72 Road Runners. Not hating, just saying it like I see it. Maybe Few Sprues Loose (found on eBay) can work up some grilles and bumpers for the ‘72’s that would fit the Revell kit? They do some really nice stuff. I owned two ‘71 Satellites, and personally, I have to give the Revell kit props for being just a bit better than the MPC kit. When the Fast and Furious car was coming out, I really hoped Revell was going to tool up a new ‘72 Rear bumper for that kit, but they never did. Maybe get in touch with Few Sprues Loose and see if they have plans for ‘72 parts for the Revell kit?

I'm interested in this question. I'm no expert by any means, but thinking it through- personally, I would not want to use this kind of paint on a model car. Here's why: Guitar bodies are wood (the "cellulose" in "nitrocellulose".). I'm guessing they use wood, because wood gives a certain amount of heft, it's readily available and inexpensive, and also perhaps because wood promotes a certain tonal quality. Musical instruments first and foremost should perform (sound and play) well. They also should look nice. Acoustic guitars are varnished to give a smooth, glossy appearance. Electric guitars at first looked like acoustic guitars, but they soon evolved into their current form: a thinner, sometimes heavier solid body. I guess a smooth finish was desired. Electric guitars don't show woodgrain, they have a perfectly smooth finish. That is achieved by what I would call aggressive sealing and smoothing before the color coat is applied, and multiple coats of clear afterwards. To properly paint a guitar, you are essentially hiding and/or obliterating surface detail. The finish itself is the ultimate goal. A friend of mine painted a fully stripped bass body with Testor's enamel (the reverse of your question) and it looked terrible. Basically it looked like blue metallic painted semi gloss wood. To me, model cars should be painted in a way where the surface detail is not buried (unless you a building a very aggressively finished / smoothed custom). It seems to me that the prep required to use nitrocellulose properly would give way too much buildup on a model car body (except for maybe a big scale car- say 1/8 or 1/12 scale, where more buildup and/ or better coverage might be a plus). For all of the work and experimentation that would go into doing it right, I would figure using good quality hobby paints, or proven techniques with automotive paints would work just as well. Maybe nitrocellulose would be better used on 3d printed or resin kits. These are just my opinions, though. for all I know, bold experiments using nitrocellulose might just lead to something big!

Looking at the graphic, it does look like the stock kit layout. Some of the Pro Street parts are always part of the kit, whether stock or Pro Street. The 440 engine tree with stock exhaust is shown, those pieces are never in the Pro Street boxings. It just looks like the Pro Street floor is shown in error.

I didn’t get pics of the stuff that was already announced, but from memory, they brought samples / builts of the following: ‘64 Barracuda (3D) ’60 Chevy Wagon (3D) Hellcat Charger (mostly styrene) ‘66 Shelby Mustang (styrene) ’81 Camaro (styrene) ‘72 Duster (styrene and printed parts) ‘72 Chevelle (styrene) AMT ‘76? Nova The only new ones were the Scorpion, Longnose Mustang, and the S-10. I think they were all in styrene.

I zoomed in, but had to keep from shaking the camera. I’m amazed that mine are not super blurry. I’m terrified of dropping my phone onto a built model, so I zoom and stay back!

Great pics, Scott! I’ll add some of mine. Fair warning: I am a terrible photographer.

Okie doke…

REALLY nice, Scott- one of the first models there that stopped me in my tracks…

Those Charger wheels were in fact full wheel covers. They were offered in 1966 on mid-sized Mopars (Chargers, Coronets, Belvederes and Satellites). I think they were also offered on Barracudas, Darts, and full size cars (Monaco/ Polara, Fury) with 14" wheels. They might have also been offered by Chryco in 1967, and maybe later. You don't see them often. They were also offered by Chevy, Ford, and perhaps some other brands. I do remember MPC's old Jeep Jeepster Commando Annuals coming with them as the stock wheel some years. I have a few sets of those Jeep wheels in my parts box. I wonder if they were all supplied (with different center caps) by the same vendor to the Big 3 + Jeep back then, like the Motor Wheel Magnum 500 was. 1966 was when "mag" wheels were coming into vogue. Actual "magnesium" wheels weren't very practical for street use (they were fragile, expensive, and magnesium had problematic chemical properties) and styled steel or aluminum wheels (much like the Motor Wheel Magnum 500) were only just becoming available. The "mag" wheel cover gave the mag wheel look without the expense or fragility of actual mags before styled steel wheels became more widely available. Edit: I don't think I've seen factory photos of '66 Darts, Barracudas, or C Bodies with those wheel covers, but I'm pretty sure I have seen photos of '67 A- and C- bodies with those covers.

The 383/440 (yes, it can be both!) in the ‘68 Dart is my go-to for a big block Mopar engine with an automatic. Swap the exhaust manifolds and air cleaner to suit, and it can be used in almost anything!