CapSat 6

I’m not sure what you mean. The 1/18’s were only diecasts. I think they might have offered a Diecast kit to assemble about 20 years ago, either the Warlock or the LRX. The last time the Warlock was offered as a 1/25 kit was about 1979-ish. The Little Red (2 wheel drive, exhaust stacks, no bed rails) came back around 1994, and was offered a few times after that.

Round 2 has released several Warlocks and Little Reds over the years in 1/18. I think they did a Warlock of some kind pretty recently, and I know one of their latest releases is a short bed Sweptside pickup.

The little details do not go unnoticed. These releases have been fantastic. Thank you, Steve!!!

I just rewatched the build video. It looks like tread plate detail was added to the inside bottom of the trailer. That’s a nice little detail that makes the new one match the original trailer from the annual kits (and the new trailer looked a little bare in there…).

The convertible came with both an uncut stock hood and a custom hood with cutout. I’m sure that’s what we’ll have in the hardtop. It looks like he’s gonna build this one as the drag version. :)

The top of the box lid seems to call out a police light bar. Pieces of this were present in the convertible kit. I’m not sure if the original ‘68 had one, but I know the ‘69 and ‘70 kits did. I hope they include police decals of some sort. I have seen a few originals built up as Cop Cars and they look pretty cool!

Regarding MPC’s ‘71-‘72 Road Runner, I think the clone program would be great, with a few caveats: 1) the original body was good at best. Improvements would be needed: lower grille detail should be added, the windshield area should be strengthened (I used to see a LOT of unbuilt and built kits with warped or curled windshield areas), and especially on the ‘71, the front bumper and grille were shaped a little weirdly. 2) to maximize bang for the buck from the new tooling, ‘71 and ‘72 versions should be offered. One body can be tooled up for both years. The side marker turn signals can be left off of the body, decals can be supplied for the ‘71’s signals, and very small clear castings can be offered for the ‘72’s “Corporate” items. The ‘71’s should not be sunken into the body sides like they are rendered in MPC’s and Monogram’s kits in the first place- on ‘71 B Bodies, these were flush with the body sides. New pieces can be offered for Road Runner or GTX lower rocker mouldings. Decals can represent body emblems (and extra points for offering “Satellite” and/or “Satellite Sebring Plus” emblems and striping). 3) the chassis was so-so on these, like they were on all of the annuals of the period. A better brake booster, as well as add on pieces for the lower control arms and sway bars could be done to enhance the realism of the chassis. 4) the engine in these kits was ok for the time, and by the ‘80’s reissue, perhaps a little weak. It would be nice if they cloned the much, much nicer engine (or at least the air cleaner) from the AMT ‘71 Charger for this kit, but based on what I have seen with the ‘68 Coronet and ‘71 Demon kits, this will probably not happen. 5) in 1:1, these were perhaps the cars with the widest array of options available that Chrysler (or any other manufacturer) has ever made. They had numerous options for trim, striping, wheels, hoods, interior (bucket or bench seats with multiple textures and materials, console, power windows, and Chrysler’s cassette deck). Round 2 could develop multiple variations with different powertrains (383/400, 440+6, Hemi, 340) and options that could boost the desirability of each release. At the very least, offering the Cassette deck with dictaphone in scale would be a baller move on Round 2’s part.

So far, judging by the images in the video, I think this one looks pretty good. The body is FAR superior to the original annual. The box contents almost match the original precisely, except mostly with better parts (the new side mirrors and body look great, the chassis I don’t have a problem with except for the molded in drive shaft, but I really wish they based the engine on the one from the AMT Duster). The spoof parts aren’t here, but I don’t think they are missed. The total experience is just like having one of the annual kits, except with better assembly, decals, overall quality and accuracy, and without the worry of preserving it versus building it. It’s not quite like a modern kit, though. If this is what it takes to get a Demon, then I’m fine with it. The original annual did not have custom wheels. The new Cragars do look a little funky, but then again, A/Body small-bolt Cragars usually looked a little weird in 1:1. I’ll wait to form an opinion on them until I see them up close, but so far, they don’t look too bad to me. My favorite Cragars are the ones that come in the AMT ‘70 Impala. Those have ruined any other Cragars in scale for me.

We need a nice Thermoquad in scale. The only one I know of comes in the ex-Monogram ‘71 Satellite/ GTX kit. As the 4bbl manifold made it back into the Fast and Furious ‘71 GTX, so did the TQ for the first time in about 25 years. That one looks slightly like a TQ. It would be really, really nice if Fireball Modelworks hit us with a TQ done their way. Here’s why I need a TQ in scale - from the Youthful Ignorance files: Back around 1989, at the Mopars and Englishtown (NJ) show, a friend of mine and I bought a literal bucket of used TQ’s (I think there were 3 in there) for $25. We joked the whole way home that it looked like a bucket of crabs, so we referred to them as “crabs”. I bought a used ‘72-ish 340 intake manifold for another $25. I was going to stick this combo on a ‘71 318 Satellite Sebring Plus that was my daily driver. I never got around to it. My friend asked me about the manifold one day, so I sold it to him, this was after I had repainted it. In one of his famous insomniac repair sessions, he pulled the old 2bbl from his 318 ‘71 Satellite (a factory Rallye Red, black bench seat car, which was purchased at a prior Mopars at E Town for $500 the year before). I heard that he had a friend of his break the seal the old 2bbl manifold had with the engine by jamming a crowbar down the plenum and giving it a push. I am not making any of this up. He actually got this combo running pretty decently, even though there would have been a port mismatch between the stock 318 heads and 340 manifold, and that carb that was in suspect, unrebuilt condition. The net effect was that there was probably no real performance upgrade realized, although he claimed that the car was noticeably more responsive after this. This was mad science, we simply got lucky. He daily drove that car for several months after that. That same car is currently apart in his garage, benefitting from having been shielded from the elements, and getting a slow resto. Being young (19), dumb and lucky was so much fun.

My only beef with what I am seeing so far is with the engine. It looks like it was cribbed from the old underscale MPC 340-360. One thing they really should have done is try to clone the engine from the AMT Duster, rather than from the old MPC Darts and Dusters. Same with the ‘68 Coronet- they should have developed a clone engine from their ‘71 Charger for that one. I’ll push really hard on that subject if/ when they start talking about a ‘71 - ‘72 Road Runner…

I think I have heard that the “Mueller Era” kits are harder to revise, for example: the AMT ‘70 1/2 Camaro. There seemed to be problems with that project when they decided to tool up the full bumper version of that kit. I think it probably has to do with the basic way those 90’s kits were designed. They were more “filled in” everywhere…the chassis and interior mate more directly and in more places, as does everything else - like a tighter jigsaw puzzle overall. Making changes to kits like the ‘71 Duster, they probably have to make sure the new parts meet up with everything they attach to, which is much more precise than in an older design like those late ‘60’s era kits, along with making sure the new pieces look accurate. It looks like Ertl took that approach with their 1/18 ‘71 Duster when they spun off their 1/18 ‘71-‘72 Demon tool. You can plainly see where the 1/18 tool shares similarity with their 1/25 kit (they probably share some engineering and I think they were done around the same time). Their 1/18 Duster looks pretty decent, but their 1/18 Demon just looks plain weird- the grille area looks too “pushed in”, like it was poorly grafted onto the existing Duster design. Seeing that, I’m glad they did not take the approach of doing the new Demon from the AMT ‘71 Duster, although that probably had something to do with who was working on that project back 20 plus years ago. In the older kits like the ‘68 Coronet and ‘71 Demon, more things simply hung in space, so it was probably much easier to engineer alternative parts for those kinds of kits. It does look like Round 2 went to great lengths fill in some of those spaces along the chassis and engine room, etc. it might have simply been an easier, less time consuming approach, making the project less costly. They have definitely found a nice groove in this approach, judging by their recent GTO’s and the ‘68 Coronet kit. I really think their ‘68 Coronet’s body looks very good. The pics of their Demon look promising. If these new bodies didn’t look so good, I would be much less enthusiastic about these kits, to say the least. To me, if this is the approach they need to take to bring these kits to market, then Round 2 has this absolutely right.

Which Camaro kit is this going to be? The snap-based one Revell just reissued, or the much better Monogram 1/24 3n1 kit?

LOTS of potential with this release. Like has been said above- you can swap the 2wd & 4x4 drivetrains between the longbed and Warlock kits, and there were many special models and packages in ‘77 and ‘78. I would like to see some kind of modification to the cab casting where the grille mounts. It just sort of floats there and is very difficult to mount as it is currently. Otherwise, for the time (the longbed was originally released in 1971) this was a pretty good kit, and the details hold up.

Can’t blame ya- you went all in on that beauty!

Round 2’s cloning program wasn’t any kind of reality just a few years ago, but many of us who are industry outsiders have been suggesting such things for many years. We are nowhere near “click the mouse”, but the current program is definitely a step in the right direction. Despite the noise, I’m sure Round 2 and the other manufacturers don’t really mind free product suggestions. It would be sort of foolish if it did bother them.

That doesn’t sound fun.

Ok- I think this is what you want… Clone program subject: MPC ‘72-‘74 Barracudas Fixes required- body: - tail panel / license plate mount, improve appearance to look more stock -headlight buckets - tunnel them deeper, shape more like stock - front lower grille turn signal indicators- add back - bumpers- create ‘72, ‘73 and ‘74 style bumpers - separate hood from body, as the last release was promo style with the hood molded in Fixes required- chassis: - reshape inner front fenders and firewall, add more accurate details, create more accurate radiator and surround, tool new battery and washer reservoir - retool for separate exhaust pipes - expand the inner wheel wells so that they meet the body better Optional fixes: - change the interior to platform style, add detail to the inner door panels - tool up a stock 340/ 360 engine, based on the engine from the AMT ‘71 Duster, with a brand new Carter Thermoquad carb, optional 6-BBl intake, and headers - tool up a new dual scoop ‘Cuda hood - tool up a nice stock console mounted cassette player, which has never been done in any other Mopar kit

You are welcome! As it will be a convertible, you’ll see the dash pretty easily. I guess if I were to start fresh, I’d try to find either the Monogram 1/24 dash and cut it down to fit somehow, or find an MPC Cuda dash. I don’t know of anybody who casts them, but sometimes you can find original kit pieces on eBay.

? I was wondering if anybody would note that. I can’t remember when I heard that term, but it was a LONG time ago. For the longest time, those cars lagged behind the 70’s and 71’s in general interest and value. Now, any Challenger or Cuda is hot.

Aww man. I never knew about these. Now I think I found a new grail!

None of them are great. if you want one in 1/24, then the one in the Revell (ex-Monogram) T/A Challenger is pretty nice, although it is the standard dash, and not the Rallye dash. For 1/25, I like the old MPC dashes. The old MPC Challenger dashes were also the standard cluster. There is a decent knock off of this dash in the Lindberg (ex-Palmer) ‘72 Challenger as well. The gauge details are sort of simple in the MPC and Lindberg dashes, but the shapes are right. If you want a Rallye dash, then you could use the one from MPC’s Cudas. You could also use the dash from the Revell 1/25 ‘70 Hemi Cuda or AAR (the “new” tool). Although I absolutely despise the bodies on these kits, they are a goldmine for other parts you could use to detail a Challenger or Cuda build. This doesn’t get into the issue of the ‘70 (only) Challenger script cast into the dash pad on the passenger side. The Revell-Monogram ‘70 has this. I think the MPC dashes have it, too (even though they moved to an emblem like the Cuda in ‘71). You could either ignore this detail, or maybe putty cast one from a Revell Monogram dash and add it to a Cuda dash if you wanted to. The AMT ‘70 Challenger comes with a Rallye dash that to me is misshapen (way too squared off). The new tool Revell ‘70 Challenger R/T-T/A also comes with one that I am not crazy about. Many T/A’s and some R/T’s were built with standard dashes, and for that matter, many standard Challengers were built with Rallye dashes, so it all would depend on what you want or need, specific to your build.

I’m all for the “clone” experience, but only to a point. If Round 2 wants to clone up a Challenger (or fix some things with their ‘74 Barracuda), then bare minimum, I would like to see them do a better chassis plate. The old MPC chassis plate was not one of their better efforts. If I were in charge of that project, for the chassis, I would borrow some of the look of the Challenger engine room (inner front fenders, firewall) from the AMT ‘70 Challenger, fill out the rear wheelhouses like they did on their new ‘68 Coronet, and do separate exhausts. I would also borrow and improve the engine from their AMT ‘71 Duster, giving the ‘72-‘74 cars an accurate stock engine. The Hemi in that old kit really should not be cloned, as 1) it wasn’t stock for the ‘72-‘74 cars and 2) it was never very good in the first place. It would probably make sense to roll out a ‘71 first, as those would probably be a little more popular than the “sad mouth” cars.

Direct Connection used to sell a V8 conversion kit for their Omni and Daytona cars (it really could be used on most of their FWD cars). It was designed to use a Mopar Small block, but as the new Hemi is somewhat related to the LA V8, this would be a pretty plausible combo! I looked at something like this years ago…the problem with the Shelby kits is that the central tunnel (I wouldn’t call it a Transmission tunnel- the exhaust system usually goes there) follows the 1:1 design, so it’s pretty shallow.

Well…there is a bit of a problem with that. The engine in this kit isn’t accurate to a Shelby Charger to start with. It’s really the old VW based engine that the Omni 024 came with. The turbo was originally a custom option for that kit. When the 024 became the Shelby, MPC made the updates to the body and wheels, but never updated the tooling for an accurate engine. A much more accurate engine, representing the Chrysler 2.2 Turbo can be had in the MPC Daytona (last seen several years ago). I’m still glad to see the Shelby come back though, and I would like to see body, wheel and graphics updates to make it a Shelby GLHS.

Aha! No rear bumper guards.