Mooneyzs

So here what i have started on next. I am working on making a working escape hatch and since I was using the Jungle Jim Vega body and adding the Army Vega front and rear pieces to it, it had no escape hatch panel. I have taken and made a template to start with for the escape hatch from the Army Vega body and will transfer and cut out the hatch in the Jungle Jim Vega body. I used Tamiya masking tape laid it over the body, then took a pencil to draw the panel and then I cut the tape. From there I took the mask panel off the one body and placed it on the other so I could use it as a template to cut the panel out. Here is the Army Vega body with the tape and then tracing the escape hatch: Here is the mask template after I had cut the hatch out of the template and placed it onto the other body that I will be cutting out the escape hatch from:

Hello All.... I have gotten the start of the body a little more done... not much but before I show those pictures I have to take a moment and Thank one of the builders here for them going way above and beyond when I had asked for some help. A while back I contacted Dave (Comp1839) in regards to details on pulleys for this build. I had sent a few drawings to ask him to check them out and give me some feed back on the sizes and the details. All I was expecting was to get a message back from him letting me know the sizes of the real ones since I know he has access to 1:1 parts. Well just the other day I had received a package in the mail from him. Low and Behold Dave took the time to machine these for me. I was totally blown away for one.... that he would take the time to make these for me when all I asked was for the sizes so I could model them in SolidWorks correct. Two.... The detail that he put into these I was amazed at them and I know he put some hours into making these as well. Dave I can't thank you enough for taking the time to help me on these. I will be forever grateful and you don't know how much I appreciate what you did for me. I also need to thank Dave for all of the back ground information that I have asked him that no one here really knows about. As many of you know I have been trying to make this replica of the Army Vega Funny Car the best I can with the limited pictures I could find of this car. There have been many times I have send Dave silly questions asking if he had any info or even pictures or some dimensions on parts. Dave is a truly amazing modeler and he doesn't hesitate to help with info when you ask him. Dave is also an outstanding guy and just one of the many talented modelers out there that I look up too. Dave thanks again for being generous and going out of your way to help me with things. Here is a peak at the pulleys. I need to do a little rework to my block to mount the new pieces so for now you will just get to see these little gems..... Here is the 4 pieces that Dave machined for me: Here they are again with the two piece crank pulley together: Here is the blower pulley put into place to get a feel for what it will look like on the engine: Dave thank you again, I feel truly blessed not only for you willing to go out of your way and help me with this but to also call you my friend. Thank You.

John.... Stellar work my big brother... Those ramps are nice and clean. Very nice job. I can relate to drilling all those holes I know the holes can take some time drilling all of them by hand. I did the same on the rear rotors on my funny car. I can't wait to see these ramps in Alclad....by the Alclad master himself

Bruno... That is one beautiful build and it turned out gorgeous. Nice work there.

Mike... Those details look fantastic. This is sure coming along great! Keep up the killer work

Mike.... Very nice update. This is looking great!!

Mike... its about time you get back on this project ...lol...... its great to hear you are gonna be making progress. I cant wait until yoir next update.

Brad... Thank you my friend. You are right that no matter what even if little it's getting things done and progress is being made. I need to finish this one up so I can reveal the next build... Lol Dave... Lol at hitting the 200 page mark. I believe there is a side bet going on as to how many pages this build will have when it's completed...haha thanks for the kind words on this build. I can't wait to show some more details on this especially the engine and I am really hoping to have it completed by Desert Scale in April.

John.... your work is always impressing me my Big Brother. This is sure coming along very nice. I love the decals Brad did up for you. He does some killer work.

Everyone... Thank you all for the kind words. I know it wasn't much of an update but its part of the little details that needed to get done. I am hoping to get a little work done on it tonight.

Dave.... you are always amazing me. Outstanding job on these details. Mighty fine work my friend. What are you gonna suprise us with next

Brad.... killer work my friend. That looks amazing. Now time for a 1/16th scale build

Dave... Thank you. I took the kits rivet sanded it down a tad, marked it with a sharpie and used a needle to mark the center and then drilled them for the rivet. Well guys I got a little more work done on this today. I was able to finish getting the holes drilled for the rear window as well as I got the rear portion of the body tin work pined to hold it in place. Here is all of the holes drilled in the lip of the rear window: Here it is mocked up with the rear window in, with rivets placed in all of the holes: Here is one side of the rear tin pined, if you noticed I drilled the first one in the wrong place and will fix the hole: Here is the holes for the other side: Here is the ever green .040" rod that I am using as the pin which gets glued into the body:

This is a very nice build and looks great

I build mostly cars. My big interest is 1/16th scale Drag cars but I do build and have a lot of 1/24 1/25 scale cars in my collection. I also like to build some 1/43rd scale race cars. I also enjoy building customs, pro streets, I do want to get into weathering some cars. I also have some aircraft and military models in my unbuilt collection that I would like to break out and build. I find that is is nice to change the pace and build something different at times Currently I am in the middle of a highly detailed 1/16th scale funny car build and I have started two pretty basic builds a 1/25 &1/43 that won't have much detail to them because I just fill the need to complete a build since its been almost 3 years that I have completed a build since I started to build my 1/16th scale Army Vega Funny car build.

Mark... this is some awesome building going on here. Everything is looking killer!!

John... thanks Brother!! Brad... I am not sure about the burgundy vehicle. Mike... Thanks man. I figured it would be a good way to get the rivets the correct spacing....lol. Although I do have redrill one of rivet holes because It wasn't in line with the rest. So I will fill the hole and re-position it. Dave.... Thanks my friend. Its getting exciting...lol Ok guys I am happy to say that I have received my blower pully that I had Jim at Micro Nitro redo for me. Here is a couple of pics. I added a little black wash between the teeth to get a better idea of how it looks. Here the pulley is the correct diameter now, I screwed up when I originally drew them up, I should should a comparison of the original and this one: Here the pulley with the blower: and the Injector Hat: Time to get back to the workbench and get a little more work done on the car.....

Mike... nice work buddy. That chassis looks great.

Scott... thanks man. I appreciate it. Louie... Thank you for the kind words and for taking the time to go thru the many pages of this build. I know there is alot and I should be done with it by now but I told myself I wasn't going to rush it. As far as a 1/25 scale version. I know there is the Don Schumacher Vega and a Gene Snow that have the same body that is in the 1/16th scale Army Vega Kit. Now I don't know if anyone makes the Army decals in 1/25 or not. now for tires for the funny car, there are a few different aftermarket resin guys that do them and I don't know all of the resin guys that do them but one that comes to mind is Competition resins. Please if there are others here that know of where he can get 1/25th scale tires you can post the sources here. Here is a link to an ebay search for a Vega funny car http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l2632.R2.TR2.TRC1.A0.XVega+Funny+Car&_nkw=vega+funny+car&_sacat=1188&_from=R40 Gene snows: http://www.ebay.com/itm/REVELL-1-25-Gene-Snows-Vega-Funny-Car-/331083532955?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item4d161dca9b Don Schumacher: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Revell-Don-Schumacher-Super-Shoe-Vega-Funny-Car-model-car-kit-/321265190895?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item4acce5c7ef John.... Thanks brother!!! You know I keep thinking about something you told me a while back and I am trying to get better at being more diligent about it, but you once told me that if I can just get to the bench for at least 30 mins a day that I would get this thing done in no time. So I am going to be challenging myself with that of getting to the bench each day even if some of the days are for only 30 mins. But I know there are some that will be for a few hours or maybe all day on the weekend if I can. thanks for always encouraging me, it means alot. ok Fellas I wanted to share something with you which I think maybe someone might of posted this along time ago in this thread but I don't quite remember the video being like this but this is a video from you tube that Don Prudhomme talks about the 1974 Army Vega Funny Car. I realized after watching it that it shows some details I have been trying to figure out and I am planning on taking the video pausing it and taking screen shots and adjusting colors so I can see more details of this car. Anyway I thought you would enjoy. one of the biggest helps is the escape hatch detail. I knew it had to been a piano hinge but after seeing this and pausing it in various locations I saw a lot more detail to it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Don Prudhommes 1974 Army Vega Funny Car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jt2y6pacQE Don Prudhommes Cackling the Army Vega Funny Car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaxE38mbdWM

Dave.... I am loving the new updates. Man it is nothing short of fantastic. You have set the bar for Pro Mod builds that's for sure. You have knocked every little detail out of the park. I am loving it and taking lots of notes

Tyrone.... Thanks buddy. I can't wait to see the results of it all together myself . I know I just need to hurry up, focus and put some time a the bench to get it done..

Joe... Thank you for the kind words on this build and for following along. This has been really fun sharing thia with everyone. But I will admit, i am ready to finish this one so I can move onto my next project or two. Going to be doing a Top Alcohol Dragster from the late 70's/early 80's. Brad... thanks buddy. I know it wasnt much of an update but wanted to show i got a little done to it. Thanks for letting me know i had the same pics. I will change the one later to the correct one lol

John.... you are rocking this build. The detail and weathering is killer Brother!!!

Well Fellas... sat down and did a little work tonight. not much but I decided to take a brake from the engine and went back to starting to work on the body. I took the rear glass and drilled the rivets out to use as a template that I will transfer drill the holes into the body. now I started out with using the Jungle Jim vega body and added the Army Vega front and rear clips to it since I knew I was going to make my own back panel with the holes cut out in it. I know its not an exciting update but this is a task that needs to get done. The next step is to transfer drill the holes from this back window panel and then when I make the new back panel I will lay it in and transfer drill those holes into the new panel. Next up I think I am going to cut the escape hatch out and start getting details done to make it a working feature. Then I may move to the air dams over the front tires. But in the mean time I was messing around with the body on the chassis and noticed that I will need to fix my body tin ever so slightly. I found that I am going to have to pin the front portion to the body because the fire wall portion wasn't sitting on the mid plate how I originally designed it. It is just an ever so slight modification that needs to be fixed and glad I found it now rather than later on after it was painted. But I just needed a little break from the motor but will be back on it soon because I really want to get some other parts done and painted on it. Here is a few shots of the back window with the rivets for now.... I know that I have been moving a little slower at this lately than I have wanted to. I started a new job and should be getting back at this build more regularly. Thanks for being patient and for continuing following along on this build. I promise I will get done.... early next year Here is the Jungle Jim kits back window, I drilled out all of the rivets and used Scale Hardware's .7mm rivet: Here is the window panel laid into the body. I will remove all of the rivets and transfer drill the holes into the body for proper alignment: Updated to add the correct pic

Killer work my Brother. That weathering is looking good. Keep up the great work!