CapSat 6

I'd mostly give it to the AMT kit, with some caveats: - The Vanishing Point parts (new stock hood with no hole, "Hemi" parts for the engine, Rallye wheels) are, well- yuck. The hood looks a little bizarre even compared to the hole-in-hood Yankee Challenge version. You'd be better off filling the hole in the Yankee Challenge hood. Look at them side-by-side and you will see what I mean. The Hemi engine parts are WAY off, laughable and unusable (think: 440 valve covers with little bumps), but then again, Hemis are terribly common in 1/25 scale, so if you must have a Hemi, you could find a better one in almost any other Hemi kit. The Rallyes aren't too bad, but better ones can be had. I think the last VP issue also included the old Magnum 500 wheels (good ones), and the old hood with the hole in it, along with the 440 Six Pack parts, so let's hope Round 2 includes this stuff with the reissue. -The interior is so-so, at best. The Dash is the pretty bad, but once installed, it might not bother you. You could get a better dash from almost any other Cuda or Challenger kit. -You would have to graft the roof onto the body to build it. It's a separate vinyl textured roof, so if you want no vinyl roof, you'll have to knock the vinyl texture off. Also, you would have to bond and fill the leading edge of the roof to the windshield frame. It can be done, but it will take considerable work. -The kit comes with a Dana axle. Not many 1:1 Challengers were equipped this way, an 8-3/4 was much more common. Not too much of a drawback, really. -The headlights look a little funky. Cut the mounting bosses off of the backs, and maybe drill out and foil the buckets to make them look better. To it's credit, I think the body proportions are much better in the AMT kit than the Revell kit. Also, the 440 Six Pack, while basic, at least looks the part. This kit is the only source I know of for Chrome-plated Rallye mirrors (which could be used on many 70's Mopars), and- if you want to build a convertible, as long as the boot is included, it's much easier to go that route than a hardtop with this kit. The chassis is fairly nice, again- looks the part. The Revell kit is just wrong-looking enough to my eyes, but I did build one of the VP diecasts. It looks OK on the shelf, if a little porky. The metal axle thru the block doesn't bother me as much as the shrimpy tires, and the chassis plate that doesn't seem to want to settle in under the body. The details are pretty nice with the Revell kit- the chassis, while still simple, maybe looks a bit better than the AMT kit. The interior is pretty nice. The engine, while simple, has a nice 440 4-BBL air cleaner. You have the option to build a T/A with the Revell kit, and it has everything you need, except for the engine. The 440 block is used - 4BBL for the R/T option, 440 Six Pack for the T/A, while you would need a 340 Six Pack for the T/A. The one thing I really like about the Revell kit is: the interior side panels show power window buttons instead of cranks. Again- there are many 70's Mopar applications for these; they could always be foil-cast from these side panels and used on an AMT '71 Charger or '74 Road Runner, for examples.

I have take the occasional offending model, opened it up, placed it in a trash bag with a can of coffee. The coffee does seem to negate the smoke smell, but then it also imparts a coffee smell. I have also used charcoal powder (available at Bed, Bath and Beyond and places like that). That seems to work as well. I REALLY wish there was a way to tell if these auctions are smoke bombs...when I get models like these, it really grosses me out.

Order it without Chrome if you want to paint it, otherwise, the paint won't stick to it. I used to order the occasional piece from them without Chrome (sending an email to ask about it first), and they were always willing to accommodate...

I don't have any pictures, but I can say that these parts are perfect copies of the original MPC parts, with what is probably better Chrome than most of the original MPC parts you'll find. Buy with confidence.

I'm pretty excited that they might be doing this one in plastic. The body seems right to me- I was going to combine one of the diecast kits with a Revell '69 Daytona hood, and MPC grille insert & interior (from the Modelhaus). Having it in plastic makes it that much easier. I could either leave the doors alone and build it as a non-R/T, or try to cast some door scoops from an MPC kit. I could have sworn somebody did the door scoops in resin awhile back (AFXnScale, maybe?).

Yup- never any Mopars in 1/12 as far as I know. I built the Revell '69 Camaro Z-28 some time ago and really, really enjoyed it, but I think a '68 Charger or '70 Cuda, done along the same lines, would really send me. I would need a few of each! And for those two, there could be further variants: '69 R/T, 500 and Daytona for the Charger, Hemicuda, AAR, and '71 for the Cuda. I think there would more interest in these then Revell would initially suspect.

Beautiful build! I have a '67 that I got many years ago, busted up, that I will eventually turn into a triple black 4 door. The reason? My Grandfather had a 1:1 that way that I have fond memories riding in (and starting up once - with his assistance -as a 6 year old!). 440's, even fully muffled as in these cushmobiles, sounded wicked!

A 1974 Roadrunner with manual steering and an powerless 318. What a combination; slow and uncomfortable. Too funny, Bob! You forgot "dumpy looking" (with no stripes). Although I would call an old 318 average- slow was the slant-6 '67 Coronet I owned briefly.

As an aside, I went to look at a 1:1 '74 Road Runner for sale about 20 years ago. This was back when old muscle cars might still be sitting on the street once in awhile. It was pretty original- worn, original-looking red paint, no stripes (just Road Runner emblems in the right places), standard bulge hood, black bench seat interior, a 318/ auto, and NO power steering. The VIN checked out- making it a genuine Road Runner. One test drive convinced me not to buy it. It was in good shape and ran well, but that manual steering in a 4,000 lb. car was a real bear. I had a driver with manual brakes years before and that was much easier to live with. I guess I could have swapped power steering in, but at the time I didn't feel there was anything else special about the car so it wasn't worth the effort to me. Nowadays, you don't see many old muscle cars, (especially Mopars) without stripes, with bench seats, or base engines (base in the RR was a 383 in '68, but just a few short years later, the base mill was actually the bread-and-butter 318). I think I'm going to have to build a model of that car.

I took a look at the kits that I have: correct- the 80's issues (orange on box, molded in orange), and the later RC2 issues (red on box/ molded in gray) all have the single exhaust / catalytic converter chassis, and later '75-'79 B Body dash. I guess I was so used to these features because I grew up with the '80's issue. No Cragar wheels or stock stripes come with these kits like are shown on the red car boxes- the custom wheels are later modular Centerline/ SST style wheels. They do all seem to come with stock Rallye wheels however- the gray plastic ones I have do have Rallyes on the chrome tree. The orange kits sometimes came with dark tinted windows, like many of the '80's MPC kits. The Dukes kits come with the correct dash and chassis plate, along with stock stripes in 3 colors, and it's molded in white, so that issue is looking better and better in comparison. You could do worse than to get one of the older kits, and combine it with the AMT '71 Charger R/T (for the Chassis, dashboard and powertrain) for added detail. Having the correct dash in the new kit gives me hope that maybe Round 2 they has the tooling for the '71 Road Runner- that has to be where the correct dash came from, it looks identical to the one in the '71 kits. It does appear that this tool shared common elements (chassis, some interior, engine, custom Cragar wheels) among the annual MPC '71-'74 Road Runners, then the '75-'76 Fury-based Road Runners, then finally with the MPC '77-'78 Monacos.

Look for a pre-Dukes release (known as a "74 GTX"). They issued these several times in the past 10 years. The only difference is that they did not come with decals for the stock graphics. My bet would be that you could find one of those much cheaper, get some aftermarket decals (Fred Cady or Firebird Designs) and still come out ahead of the current "ask" for the Dukes version.