Bainford

Welcome to the forum, Kenneth. It's a great place to hone your skills, with lots of great builders ready to offer friendly advice.

Welcome aboard, Brian.

Welcome to the forum, Donald.

Welcome aboard, Rich.

Welcome to the forum, Calvin.

I would think if a new '73/'74 Charger were to be created, the excellent AMT '71 Charger would be a better place to start. I do, however, appreciate this issues with revising Mueller era tooling.

I think Round2 took the wrong tack when they 'fixed' the rear window on the MPC Charger. With Revell's far superior 68-70 Chargers available, any attempt to directly compete with the MPC Charger is wasted money and effort. They should have gone in the other direction and improved the Charger 500 version of the MPC kit. Ditch the R/T stuff and give us a good 500 grill with separate headlights. That's something Revell does not have, and is therefore a potentially viable product. Over the years, I have built more MPC Chargers than anything else, but as long as Revell produces their excellent Chargers, I won't buy another MPC. Make it into an accurate Charger 500, and I'd buy one. Thankfully I still have an MPC 500 from the last release in the 90s, though the grill is only so-so. Bottom line, there seems no point in spending money/effort in improving the MPC Charger R/T when there are so many other great projects for Round2 to tackle. My 2 cents.

I've done this a couple of times. The biggest issue is properly supporting the windshield, especially during the polishing stage. It is also more difficult when working with significant compound curves, as it is often the inside surface of the glass that exhibits the most optical distortion. And it is a very tedious process. I attack it with files and course sandpapers, though try to limit the work done with course sandpapers as a roque bit of grit can put a deep scratch in the glass. First get the inside as 'flat' and smooth as possible to reduce optical distortion. Once the inside has been resurfaced to satisfaction, then do the majority of the thinning on the outside surface. The biggest issue is repeatedly over flexing the plastic while working with it, which causes micro-fractures in the glass that can't be removed, and show up when the light hits it just right. When the 'glass' is thinned, begin working it by wet-sanding with fine sandpapers and MicroMesh pads, being sure to work each grit thoroughly before proceeding to the next. Finish off with all three grits of Tamiya polish and a good dose of Tamiya wax. Definitely a tedious process, and very easy to damage the glass. Compound curves are more difficult, as it limits the amount of work that can be done with a flat file. However, non-compound curves are also the easiest to make from scratch. I recommend re-making from clear sheet stock whenever possible. I thought I had more photos of the process, but all I can find is a Chaparral windscreen on which I did all the work on the outer surface only. The windshield on this Mustang exhibits the micro-fractures from over flexing during polishing. It can be seen as a cloudy area just above the driver side wiper. I went through three windshields for this car (since I had a bunch of them), each suffered the same issue. There is also still optical distortion, as I tried to go much lighter on this attempt to avoid the micro-fractures. It didn't work. Some kit windshields are much more prone to this micro-fracturing than others. Some can take a lot of abuse, and others, none at all.

Nice and clean. It definitely carries the 90s vibe. Beautiful rod.

That's about the coolest plow truck ever. Love the SWB HD 4x4 combo. The tire/wheel combination looks perfect. Colours too. Love it!

Nice conversion. Good looking patrol car.

That thing looks brutal. Very nice work. Great period vibe.

Fireball does 8 lug wheels.

Ackk! A decklid mounted wing. ...Never mind, it's a Europa owner thing The Special looks great in Gold Leaf colours. Very nice work Mark, on a beautiful Europa. I have one of these kits on the bench right now, and it is a fine little kit, save for the grossly oversized wheels/tires. Yours looks good on the optional Watanabes though. I do wish we might someday see a decent S1 or S2 Europa come to market, though not holding my breath. I have a conversion in the works, but in the early planning stages.

Fireball models has 8 lug steelies and 6 lug aftermarket wheels, though they may be 4x4 specific. Fireball Modelworks (fireballmodels.info)

Google 'carbide tip scriber' and there will be dozens of choices for similar tools.

Another vote for square stock.

A quote from Joseph Lucas, "A gentleman does not motor about after dark." I think that provides some insight into the state of Lucas electrical systems.

Nice Jag, Mario. I like the colour. I really like this kit, much better detail and accuracy than expected, though as you mentioned, the bonnet fit is deplorable. After much trial and error, I ended up glueing mine shut in order to preserve those gorgeous body lines.

Nice re-fresh. I like the new colour. When I first glanced at the first pic, I thought it was hauling model kits.

Tidy build. Good looking Nova.

Cheers Richard. Interesting read.

As basic as the Powel is, I always thought this was a particularly cool feature.

Is the gold tone on the wheels original, or is she all tarted up?

This is my weapon of choice, an x-acto blade and a short piece of heat-shrink tube. Light weight and good control.