whale392

Thanks for the birthday wish Matt! Yes, the Saleen S281 Speedster kit has an excellent 1/25th scale representation of a Cobra-style intake. Body looks good to me Jason. I will post pics of what little work I did on mine soon. As far as I know, no one has done a tube K-Member yet; I have one in the works (Maximum Mootrsports unit), but that is a long way off.

Nice to have met everyone I did meet. I will try to be there for the next meeting (work schedule permitting of course) and bring some more of my 'works doomed to never see progress'. Being as I am not a member, I didn't want to say anything as to a 'theme' idea for the show, but I thought of a 'Fast Forward Flashback' theme. Take a pre-50s automobile (mfgr date negotiable) and blend it with a completely modern drivetrain of the same manufacturer of the 1:1 vehicle (e.g: 1937 Ford P/U with the drivetrain from a modern Shelby GT500....I am doing this very one right now). AMC/Willys would run a Chrysler drivetrain, as they were absorbed by Mopar). Just an Idea.

interesting, because HobbyTown USA still wants top dollar for ALL Revell offerings.

I have actually done the very thing you suggest Mark. It takes a little filing, cutting, slight shortening of the floorpan to make it fit right, but in the end combining the MPC body with either the Revell or AMT 94-95 chassis pan yields a very good looking and far more accurate model. Now, the slab-side lack-of-detail interior panels are another story!! (but they too can be made nice with some scratchbuilding) Rick; no harm was meant in my reply and I hope you didn't take any offence to it. Maybe when the Fox build is done, we could do an SN95-New Edge build!

The AMT kit is a more accurate starting point, but the level of detail (or lack thereof) is lacking to the Revell-O-Gram offering (the Cobra). Some of the AMT proportions are WAY off, and the chromed representations of front light dress and the cast-in Cheese-Grater taillights make it a little harder to get good detail on. The K-Member is horrid, the rear subframes hang down WAY too low, and the sideskirts are too far out from the body.

1969 had the filled rear window...............can you say Daytona. (Now, I might be wrong on this, but I am quite sure I am not)

Mike, Hobbytown on Hilliard-Rome road has a Lowrider GT vert on their shelves at the moment.

The differential can be made to resemble an 8.8" with some work.......no upper control arm detail. As far as the real Cobra is concerned, it also carried 4 wheel discs and the kit has absolutely NO brake detail. The Cobra intake (as was eluded to earlier) was never cast in 1/24th scale. The closest you MIGHT get is the first-gen Lightning kit, as at least the lower intake was Cobra-type (even though the Lightning was 5.8 and the Cobra was a 5.0). The 94-95 Mustang kits come close, but they are 1/25th scale........! Good catch on the taillights. I didn't mention the airbag wheel as it would have to be made for the Cobra, but the kit wheel is correct for pre-1990 GTs. The Cobra rear bumper isn't correct for either the Cobra OR the GT, and the Cobra kit exhaust is still GT turndown fair. Also, being that the rear is based off of the 1979 tooling, there is no rear sway bar. Again, you would have to bend up your own (7/8" diameter in real scale if I remember correctly). Cobras also had a thinner front sway bar than GTs (Cobra was 1" while GTs were 1.25" diameter). As to GT wheels, pre-1991 cars had the God-aweful turdbines....1991 and later cars got the Pony wheels (only available in kit form in the original issue 1992 GT convert). I could go on as to how glaringly inaccurate the kit is from either the GT or the Cobra standpoints; but at least we do have a fair starting point to go from.

Good question Rick, and not without merit or base. And Mr.Taylor does a wonderful job of explaining the reasons. Now, I agree that the 83-88 T-Birds are quite different, but most of the underpinnings and some interior will bolt back and forth between the Mustang. Now, before you raise the point that so will the 94-98 (in particular) Mustang underpinnings; take note that the FoxBirds shared the same crappy 4lug mini-me brakes and spindles (for the most part) that the rest of the Fox line did. Now take into account the 94-98 Mustangs; 5lug and finally some reasonable brakes. Now, we can look at the SVO Mustang as another special case. Body of a Mustang but underpinnings of the LincolnFox. And then we have the Lincoln in itself. 5lug, big calipers, and disc brakes all around. These too will bolt to the FoxStang and Capris (as well as most of the other Fox cars). The 94-98 suspension geometry also changed (for the better I might add), and for the most part will bolt back into a true Fox (your arguement point). Valid I will agree, until you take into account the revised ball joint size, longer A-Arms (87-88 TurboCoupe TBird length), heavier struts, revised wheel bearing hub/steering arm axis, metric versus standard brake fittings..........the list can go on. While the SVO had similar suspension features (if you will), do we rule it not a Fox? It is a Fox Body as well as a modified Fox Chassis. Ford took what they learned from the SVO and the T-Bird TurboCoupes (and to a lesser extent the Lincoln MKVII LSC) and applied it to the 1994-98 Mustangs. 1999 saw even more changes come to the SN95 (now called the 'New Edge'). However, a lot of the parts will bolt back to the Fox. Even some of the S197 (2005-up) parts will still bolt back to a Fox; so would we let them in too? As I said Rick, your points are very valid. But for the purposes of this build, we will consider true Foxes only, even though they can have a healthy dose of SN95, New Edge, and S197 thrown into them.

Mike, the entire bottom of the car has to be changed over to GT versus Cobra pieces. Easiest way to do that is cut the Cobra body below the beltline, the GT convert body below the beltline, and graft the GT bottom to the cobra top. Also, the GT wing was never produced in 1/24th scale, but one can be made from scratch or by modifying a Saleen wing. Also, the grill opening has to be closed in to convert it from a Cobra to a GT (again, the GT vert that gave its' side moldings can donate its' nosecap. I'll see you at the meeting Thursday....I'll talk to you then about the finer points of bad paint, peeling clear, and dents on a Fox!

John....you can't possibly be serious with us forum guys thinking you or O.C cut corners are you? Both of you guys' drag builds are outstanding and a real credit to your skills and to model building in general. MCMForum is honored to have you both aboard!

What scale do you build in? They look absolutely lifelike....so much so that I have a hard time believing that they really are scale renditions! Where do you get the wrinklewall slicks at.........that is one of the MAJOR contributors to this kits realism. Just awesome once again John!

I remember this in the 'on the workbench' section a while back and loved it then. Now that it is finished, I love it more! Excellent build.

You mean the whole window was sanded!? Well, Micro-Mark makes a Micro-Mesh polishing kit. Augment that with some Finesse-itIII from 3M and the Novus system (#2 and #1 polishes) and you could bring it back to clear and shiny.

That's cool Jason...sounds like what I am doing to start a model of my 1991 GT...using the Cobra upper body grafted to a GT Convert lower section and making the GT wing. Mark Taylor....good looking out for the Foxes just in case someone had been thinking of doing one of the mentioned non-Foxes . riknight1972......I thank you very much for your enthusiasm, but I have to agree. While the SN95 cars (94-98) were still similar to the Fox underneath, they were major departures from the cars covered here. Ok, got some more done on my 'vert, and a minor setback this morning when I got home from work. One of my cats had gotton a hold of my scratchbuilt power steering rack and used it as a chew toy! Well, time to build another one. This time I will scratchbuild the STEEDA bumpsteer kit (tie rod ends) the car has under it now instead of the stock pieces (he actually did me a favor, although it was a backhanded one!). Got the lower control arms seperated from my second rear end and shaped/drilled to look more realistic and be posable. Also got the rear diff cover from the second rear cut free, reshaped (to better simulate the 8.8" unit) and filled (I am making it into a Ford SVO unit-the aluminum girdle type with the preload bolts). Next up: upper control arms and the mounting ears on the diff case (and filling the open top of the diff) and the mounting brackets on the chassis for the U.C.As. Pics to come this weekend (I hope!).

I know your dilema Jason.....I have 4 of the AFX coupes and I too have been trying to correct the bad areas. Nice looking LX Hatch....combination of the AFX coupe and one of the early Monogram Cobras perhaps?

Also good info to know Casey.....thanks a lot!

Got you covered on my post JUST before yours Matt!

Mark Taylor, we were discussing possible sources for a 3.8L engine for my 83 GLX vert kit (to replicate my 1:1). However, being I was going to swap the car to a 5.0/5spd anyway (until the girlfriend wanted to drive the car) it will be built as the 5.0 . But good scale 3.8L info is always nice to have. Matt, I don't know of any of the MPC kits with the 3.8. I was thinking of taking the Revell 3.8 from either of the above kits and dropping it into one of my MPC 1/25th Mustangs.

The only way you might be able to fool the vast majority is to scratchbuild the multi-tube runner intake and use a forward-facing throttle body over the top of a DOHC 4.6L from the GT500. MOST of society wouldn't know the difference if the intake at least looked correct!

I try to do what I can to help out!

As you have already stripped the chrome and shot the Gunmetal, MikeMcs' idea would probably be the best way to go. Had they still been chromed, shooting the Gunmetal first and wiping the lip off with thinner while the Gunmetal was still tacky would have been a better way to go.

Works for me then......thanks!

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but the T-Bird and the Cougar are 1/25th scale. If I were starting with one of my MPC kits, the 3.8L from either kit would do wonderfully. Unfortunately though, the scale difference IS noticable in the engines (although I have thought about doing up one of my MPCs with the 3.8SC drivetrain).

Truck section now huh? Interesting. Ok, did Ford ever make an F150 Extended cab shortbox? If so, is the box a 6' or 6'-5" box length? I want to take the re-issue F250, convert it to an F150, and turn it into a shortbed. Any ideas would help.