jlucky

Well it has been a while...but I'm still building stuff. Is it just me or the older I get the longer it takes? Those detail wires seem to be getting smaller and smaller all the time. And I'm not even going to start on the photo-etched stuff! In any case - six months later here is Kenny Bernstein's Forever Red Final Tour dragster. Has the basic fuel lines and stuff...and...includes a resin front wing and oil puke tank from The Model Parts Box in Australia and plenty of other bits and pieces. Also I decided to use the Pegasus front and real wheels and tires to get the right scale and size. Had to make serious modifications to the chassis and body to get that front wing in place but I think it all turned out not bad.

So contrary to what you might think I have been busy…completed a few cars since the last posting…but this is an important one for me…and a challenging one too. It’s the Assassin AA/FD! I attended my first drag race in September of 1968 in Saskatoon and at that race there were five AA/Fuel Dragsters and one funny car. This was a really big deal. One of the dragsters was Jim Crooke’s Assassin from Seattle. It was a beautiful full-bodied car designed by master builder Tom Hanna and it’s always been my ambition to recreate the car in 1/25th scale. There were plenty of road-bumps in the way such as not having the right body style, not having the decals, not having reference photos and perhaps the scariest of all not having the adequate model building skills. Over the years each of these “road-bumps” disappeared. The re-released Tommy Ivo kit allowed for a pretty close proper body, Slixx released their gasser decal sets and two of them by chance had the right decals, they restored the original car so I had lots reference material including dozens of my own photos. The weakest link continued to be my building skills but we soldiered on. I used most of the Ivo kit as far as chassis and back half of the body. The front nose piece comes from the Altered States resin high-back body and the motor is a Ford 427 SOHC from my parts box. One of the big challenges for me was painting. It took me quite some time to figure out the easiest and safest way for me to replicate The Assassin’s colour scheme. I laid down the gold base, masked it off and shot it with transparent candy-apple red and then used white decal film to put in the white accents. It’s not perfect by any stretch but it turned out not bad. From a distance it actually looks pretty good. The engine was plumbed with fuel lines and ignition wires, using Detail Master fittings and MAD prewired ignition. All in all I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It will find a celebrated spot in my dragster history shelf. Jerry Lucky

Hey guys...thanks so much for your encouraging responses. Much appreciated. As for the skeleton...well that's a diet program gone wrong.

Hmmm...that's a good question....as I said I've been holding on to stuff for years...so I'm not exactly sure. I want to say they came from the AMT Engine packs. I KNOW that's where the cam shafts and crackshafts came from...so I'm just taking a stab at it because they were already in my loose parts drawer and painted...so that's the best I can do. Sorry.

Greetings Once Again, Just thought I'd show off one of my most recent projects...a drag racing garage diorama. As the announcer at the local drag strip (MIssion Raceway) it's always been on my list to build this thing. I've hung on to parts, pieces, kits and so forth for decades just waiting to get this done. Well it's done now...I'm no pro-builder but I sure had a lot of fun putting it together. All comments are welcome. Take care, Jerry

Greetings, Everyone here has been so helpful with my other posts I hope you can shed a little light on my building dilemma. I was about to build the Tom 'The Mongoose' McEwen Rail Dragster but noticed it's 1/24...while all my other cars are 1/25. When I compare the unbuilt parts the chassis looks thicker, the tires are certainly too large...and even the wing seems larger. Am I just imagining this...or will a 1/24 scale car be noticeably larger sitting next to a 1?25 scale car? Input please. Thanks in advance.

Greetings, I may have asked this question some time back, but I'm asking it again. Is there ANYONE out there who makes decals for the front engine Smirnoff Dragster? I have the Altered States resin body and would love to get building, but really some or all of the decals to make it work. Let me know. Cheers

Thanks guys, Hakan, I appreciate the tip about the parts Box in Australia...I placed an order and while it took a while to get to Canada...they are great folks with some really nice resin pieces. Besides the front wings I picked some new TF fuel pumps and puke tanks and a few other bits and pieces. As I said...great folks I recommend them. Thanks again for the tip. Now I need to find someone who makes a DSR Top Fuel canopy. Any tips?

Greetings...just wondering if there are some out there who might be able to point me in the right direction...Over the years I've collected lots of bits a pieces for a drag racing diorama/garage that I'd like to put together...anyone know of a simple open garage style diorama on the market that I could easily adapt to a garage housing some drag cars? I'd like it to work with a wide variety of rail cars. I'm all ears.

Hey guys Thanks for the tips...great photos of the frame rails...that will take some time...but also great tip on The Parts Box...I've been in touch with them already. Not only do they have the front T/F wing...they also have resin zoomie headers! I've been looking for those for ages. Really appreciate the help.

Greetings, I hope someone out there can help me. I build drag cars and I'm wanting to add to my Top Fuel dragster collection, but none of the kits have the correct front wing assembly. I'm referring to the current set up that has the wide one-piece front wing sitting out front of the wheeIs. Is there anyone in the after-market that makes this? That would be the easiest. Barring that has anyone out there made this set-up from scratch? I appreciate any help that can be provided. Cheers

Greetings, Just finished a couple kits (Miss Deal customized and Polar Lights Gas Ronda funny) and it would have been helpful to pre-fit some pieces...I notice that some of you pros put together the whole kit to test fit everything. You must be using a special kind of glue that allows you to take it apart cleanly. What's the best way to go about that? What kind og glue works best? What kind of care will I need to take? Your help is much appreciated.

I am not worthy! Wow...That's just fantatsic...I look at the work you guys do...and it's hard not to get a little discouraged...fantastic stuff. I hope to learn a bunch reading about the build-up.

Thanks John, What a great site...I'll have to see if I have anything they need. Thanks again.

Greetings, Does anyone out there have the kit instructions for the L.A. Dart you could send me in a pdf file? I have the Hemi Hunter kit and want to build it up as the wheelstander. Got the decals, but I need to see what the instructions say. Any help would be appreciated.

While I'm working on my next project I thought I'd share something I started a few years ago...but only recently completed with the proper Slixx decals. This of course is Gene Snow's Rambunctious funny car built from the Jo-Han Challenger F/C kit. I wired and plumbed the cars fuel lines but it was a while back so it's a bit rough. The car was painted with a gold base and candy red. What do you think? Oh yes...this is also the first time I'm using Photobuckit so hopefully the photos are large enough. Cheers!

Hey Guys, Thanks for all the compliments...it's very encouraging. By the way perhaps you can show me how I can load larger pictures without using all of my alloted storage space? Tips please.

Well...I commited myself to start building again after about 6-8 years of being dormant while raising my daughter...but I've been hitting it with a vengence and this is my 10th car...but the first to have any detailing. This is my own build based on a dragster I saw at my first race in 1968 at Southwind's Dragway in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. It was Tom Hoover's old car being run by Denny Daraugh but the front panels were gone and I thought it looked kinda neat. What we have here is the Ivo chassis with a Reliable Resin tail section for the body, Detail Master and MSC braided line and fittings along with Slixx decals. The car is wired and plumbed with throttle linkage and so forth. After not doing this for so long I was really out of practice and I have to admit it was pretty challenging at times. But on the whole I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. For an old guy! Comments are welcome...Hopefully the next one will be better...and hopefully a little easier. Thanks

Thanks Charlie...I'll let you know how I make out.

Greetings, Well I finally decided to use those resin wheel/drag slick casts the other day...they looked clean...I washed them and let them dry. I then brushed on Tamiya Acrylic satin black. I did not use a primer. After two days there are still many areas that have refused to dry. They are not only tacky to touch but in some places the paint is so wet it leaves a mark on your fingers. Is there anything I can do to fix this? Will they eventually dry? What if I apply Micro Sol flat coat? Can they be stripped and repainted a different way? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Greetings everyone, Here's a couple more snaps of some dragster I've built in the past. Love that Ford Shotgun motor. The green paint job was kind of a tribute to the Beebe and Mulligan car. I picked up the kit already built and had to take it apart and re-do it. The red car is one of the old Brute Force cars that was done up fantasy style. Comments are welcome (painful at times but welcome.)

Greetings, I've been lurking and posting for a while now and thought I'd be brave a start showing some of my work. The first pictures will be of stuff I've built in years past. As I'm just getting back into building after a few years break...I'll let the old stuff speak for itself. The new stuff will be coming. This photo (not a very good one I'm afraid) is of a digger I built using one of the old "Brute Force" cars and decals from Candies and Hughes. A little bit of wiring and plumbing was added. Hope you like it.

Once again I'm amazed at the quick response...I've ordered a couple of the Mags from Kris, and look forward to putting them to good use. Thanks

Hey guys, Is there anyone in the aftermarket world who makes pre-wired 70's era magnitos for funny cars and dragsters? The eyes just ain't what they used to be!

The decals came with the Resin body from Reliable Resin. They include both decals for the red car and the yellow car so you have your choice.