Len Carsner

Crossing the finish line! A photo finish! A bit of history… Legendary drag racer Pat Minick and noted drag racing car designer John Farkonas, worked with Greg and Kathy Mosley of the Mosley Mopar Museum to bring back/create not one but two versions of the historic 69-70 Chi Town Hustler funny car! The legendary 1969-1970 Dodge Mini Charger driven by Pat Minick was treated to a through restoration to resemble its full racing glory from back-in-the-day. The restored CTH is now on full-time display at the Mopar Museum. The "exhibition" Chi Town Hustler is an exacting duplicate of the original though a new build of the nitro burning Hemi powered funny car. The fiberglass body for example was cast from a mold created off the original CTH body shell. The original ‘69 Charger NHRA funny car was legendary for its long smoky burnouts and eye-popping performance. The team claimed the car had a 90 percent win-loss record in 1969. Minick did the driving, Austin Coil tuned the engine, and John Farkonas was the behind the scenes engineer. The car was built with an offset roll cage for the driver, one of the last funny cars to be built in that manner. The “Hustler†ran a best quarter mile time of 6.96 in 1970 and ran its best top speed of 206 mph in 1969. The cloned version of the CTH was created to complete in the NHRA nostalgia Funny Car Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Revell with the backing of NHRA and the car owner Greg Mosley, made a major commitment in creating virtually from scratch a new-tool model kit of a nearly 45 year old racecar. Conclusion… Len Carsner, Tom Creeger and I (Bill Coulter) have had the privilege to build and review this new Revell kit and provide model builders far and wide a first hand view of the procedures. Presented here are two version of the CTH for you consideration. Len’s car is built pretty much from the box with an over-the-counter paint finish. By contrast, Tom Creeger’s CTH sports a mostly automotive paint finish and most importantly some low-buck but very convincing driveline detail. Okay, okay…if you’re like me you’re seeing lot of red at this point. These next four images are not Len’s or Tom’s…they are a mixture of both models. The point we’re making here is that this new Revell CTH kit builds nicely whether you choose out-of-the box or detailed, model car paints or automotive. From this view there are some subtle differences that should help you tell the difference between the OoTB and the detailed version of this fine kit. Look closely and you’ll see that on Len’s build the Strange Engineering decal is straight horizontal while it’s slightly canted on Tom’s version. There are other subtle differences but I’ll let you find them. These next four images should help identify which version is which now that the bodies are displayed in their open and up position. Again, it’s pretty much only the delicate added driveline details on Creeger’s model that is so revealing. continued....

This series of six (6) images present the CTH chassis/driveline in all its glory. At this juncture we’re nearing the wrap-up of the major assemblies of the CTH underpinnings. From front to back, top to bottom and side to side, the basic Revell kit parts make up into an amazingly accurate replica of this vintage funny car. Tom Creeger’s simple, basic yet delicately executed electrical wiring/fluid lines provide just the right touch of realism. If you’ve been following along as we’ve drilled pilot holes, run coated wire and craft braid, studying these images carefully should aid in duplicating Creeger’s work. Here we can begin to see what all our hard work has been about. The pulse is beginning to increase seeing the freshly painted candy red/metallic silver CTH body resting next to the nearly finished running gear sitting up on all fours for the first time. From any angle the classy bright red surfaces of the Chi-Town Hustler seem primed and ready for the full graphics treatment of the kit decal sheet. At this point, the colorful CTH markings are being applied, They appear to be well defined, plenty opaque and both Len and Tom say they don’t curl up when wet and lay down smooth and trouble-free as shown here. Creeger recommends attaching the hood in-place to the body shell prior to applying the dual flame graphics as shown here. Ready to see the finished cars? Check back on Tuesday when we'll show you both my box stock item and Toms' incredibly detailed version. See you Tuesday! Thanks, Bill and Len

Second update today, expect the wrap up on Tuesday. Dive in! Here, final sanding is preparing the CTH body shell for a bit more primer and the color/clear topcoats. Tom Creeger points out that the most noticeable surface blemish to be dealt with is the mold line adjacent to the C pillar. Note in this view that progress is being made in blending the mold line into the top of the fender panel. As the sanding takes place, using the primer helps identify your progress in smoothing out the mold line. This series of four photos give us the first look at the luscious automotive candy red that Creeger applied over a base coat of Testors Metallic Silver. Once the base coat was thoroughly dry and cured out, Tom methodically applied even coats of the candy red building up the uniform coverage and enhancing the depth of the color coat. It’s recommended to paint the hood and body as separate parts. Make sure that equal paint coats are applied to both pieces during the painting process. continued...

The decals you see are single layer, no doubling up or special precautions needed. Len C.

Here we have my semi-finished chassis up on its wheels for the first time - And my semi-finished body ready for decals. Be prepared to spend a LOT of time on the decals. Each sponsor and contingency decal is a separate item. Go slow and use plenty of decal solvents to ease placement and setting. One neat item on the decal sheet are these ribbons for the chute packs (and yes, I noticed after the picture was taken how crooked the left one is. It's been corrected). That's all for this update, and the next one's ready to post. Check back later today for the next installment. Thanks, Bill and Len

I know it's been awhile since the last update but the projects are done and we'll be wrapping this one up soon. Let's continue, this tine with a couple of tips for the modeler on a budget. We were given the codes for the paint used on the original and clone CTH: House of Kolor Bumpers - Orion Silver BC02B Body – Orion Silver base with Candy Red KK11 These are the codes given to us by the shop that painted both cars and the same paint was used for the box art cars. In checking around for HOK paint I was given the price of about $95.00 for a quart of each, plus I'd need to buy the the thinners and clear. On my budget, that's going to happen. Now I know there are alternatives out there but instead I thought I'd try to find a suitable paint in the hobby line that would be readily available to the average modeler who's not building a contest grade replica but still wants it to be close. First up was to prep the body. The black marks you see here are the mold lines you'll want to smooth off. After a washing and drying it was given a couple of coats of Duplicolor primer and set aside to cure. Here are the paints of choice. Tamiya TS-17 Gloss Aluminum will be the base under all colors, while I'll experiment with Tamiya TS-18 RE Metallic, Testors 1837M Revin' Red, and Tamiya X-37 Clear Red for the top coat. I saw this done on one of the forums so I can't claim this idea as my own, but for purposes of experimentation I took four white plastic spoons and after priming them I shot them with the silver base I'm using. Once dry I'll shoot each one with a different paint combination, then compare them in sunlight and decide which one matches the closest to the CTH color. In each of the trials these two samples came out the closest. On the right is the Testors, which is a bit dark but did look close to the box art car. On the right is the Tamiya which more closely matches the pictures online of the car. In the end I went with the Tamiya. Two light coats and one heavier coat gave me the coverage I wanted and, I feel, a close match to the online images of the car. While the body dried I decided to tackle the tire. Here's a little trick I came up with to scuff the tires. I took long bolts and slid rubber hose, in which I had cut long slits, over them. By sliding the tire over the hose and tightening the jamb nuts at the end I had a scuffing tool that cost nearly nothing. You may have to wiggle the tire around a bit to get it straight on the homemade scuff tool but once its set you can put it in any drill and scuff away. Sure beats doing it by hand! I mounted the brake rotors to an old paint brush handle and painted them steel, then used the same shade of rd as I used on the chassis for the calipers. continued....

Thanks, that's the idea behind it. Old school techniques, materials and basic equal awesome details with minimal expense. Len C.

Install headers Tom Creeger recommends “pinning†the headers as shown here to insure proper alignment and better, more permanent attachment in place on each cylinder head. Tom drilled two small holes in each header and two matching holes in each cylinder head in the areas where the headers are to be attached. Short lengths of wire were then inserted in the two holes in each header. Make sure to test fit things early on to insure that the wires will slide smoothly into each alignment hole in the cylinder head as shown here. Note here that once the headers and cylinder heads are aligned properly, as promised earlier, the Blower safety strap attachments cannot be seen once the headers are glued in place. FI line location And last but not least, a quick shot to show the attachment of two fuel lines (No. 3 and 4) to the two fittings on the front of the Injectors unit (part No. 68). Note also that the other end of fuel line (No. 3) gets inserted into a hole in the Fuel Block attached to the Super Charger Rear (part No. 64). We’ve also included here, for further clarity, a close-up shot of the FI lines set-up on the CTH clone version. Whew! That's quite a lot to take in! If you take the time to thoroughly read and undertake these steps you too can build an exceptional engine with little more than simple tools, a few readily available supplies, and a little patience. We'll see you soon with the next update. Thanks, Bill and Len

Creeger installed those masking tape straps to attachment points on each corner down over the valve covers and to the outside surface of each cylinder head. This attachment point will be hidden once the headers are installed. This is as good a time as any to install the Oil line (part No. 70) which attaches between the base of the Engine Front plate and the driver’s side of the oil pan as shown here. Aircraft fittings To give this project a bit more realism we’ll use the “poor man’s approach†to adding aircraft-style fuel line fittings. Here, Creeger is in the process of adding this detail using a very small brush (4-0 or 5-0) to apply Tamiya Clear Blue and Clear Red. The component fitting is always painted transparent blue while the braided line ends are always painted transparent Red. Tom recommends applying the blue first to any appropriate fuel line connection. still continued....

Follow the numbers… We pick right back up where we left off the last time when Tom Creeger was drilling holes for and installing spark plug wires. He was also drilling pilot holes for fuel and coolant lines. Those initial pilot holes varied from .010 to .015 in. in diameter. There’s a very good reason for drilling such small holes to start with. Drilling much larger holes without doing smaller pilot holes first often results in “buggered-up†or off-center or lopsided holes. Coated wire, craft braid and glue can’t hide that. Note that the coated wire Tom used for spark plug wires measured out to 0.019-0.020 in. OD. The craft braid he used for fuel lines measured out to 0.035-0.040 in. OD. The next step would be to re-drill each pilot hole slightly larger to accommodate either spark plug wires or fluid lines according to the dimensions shown earlier depending on which type of lines/wires are called for. Using the CTH instruction sheet, Tom illustrated where the various lines were to be routed. Follow the numbers and even if you’re still confused by all the plumbing, you can’t go wrong tracing the pathway of each numbered line. Likewise, follow the numbered lines, refer occasionally to the two CTH internet sites we gave you in an earlier post and look closely at the variety of photos of Creeger’s detailing efforts and you’ll be surprised how this new Revell CTH comes to life for you. Along with the instruction sheet and Tom’s illustrations you’ll need some masking tape, coated circuit wire, craft braid, needle-nose tweezers, hobby knife and super glue to get started. Coated circuit wire can be found in electronic supply stores like Radio Shack. Craft braid is usually found at most well-stocked hobby craft shops. Fuel lines In this series of views can be seen the placement of the various fuel lines fashioned from lengths of silver foil craft braid. Here, three are in place (No. 1, 5 and 6). Not shown here is the fuel line (No. 2) which T’s into line No. 5 and connects the Fuel Pump to the Injector barrel valve. Creeger installed the No. 2 line after the power plant etc. was installed into the chassis. Look closely, in this view, the installation of fuel line No. 2 can be clearly seen running between the Injector and where it T’s into line No. 5. Before installing Blower safety straps, Tom made a thin plate from .005 in. sheet plastic laying flat between the Blower body and the Fuel Injection unit (white area on top of Blower). The safety straps are 1/16 in. wide strips of masking tape painted flat black as shown here. Note here also that Creeger is applying gray bottle paint to each strap to simulate the product label. continued....

Now, on to the windows. First carefully remove the four window surround decals shown here from the CTH decal sheet. We recommend using small, sharp sewing scissors to slowly and carefully trim out each piece making sure to trim as close as possible to the printed image but making sure not to cut into it at any point during the process. Never twist or try to snap clear parts like the CTH window glass shown here away from the sprue tree. Cautiously clip each piece away using a sprue cutter as shown here. Then, remove any and all excess materials from the edges in preparation for attaching the surround decals. The tools need for applying the CTH window surrounds include a tissue, cotton swab, hobby knife, tweezers and a soft paint brush. Once you’re made sure the clear parts are free of finger prints and debris, using a clean paint brush, apply Micro Set along the edge surfaces where the decals are to rest. Use the tissue to gently tamp down each decal into place. Use the cotton swab to remove any excess liquid and to press the decal down and around the surface details. Once you’re satisfied with the decal placement insure that everything is dry. The final step is to apply Micro Sol to all decal surfaces with the paint brush. Allow this application to sit for a couple of minutes to affectively secure the decals attachment in place on each clear part. Allow that application to dry thoroughly and set these pieces aside for installation in the CTH body later. This update was a pretty quick one, check back tomorrow when I'll give some advice and tips to those who model on the cheap. Thanks, Bill and Len

Miss us? Sorry about the long pause but I had a bit of vacation time that was use-it-or-lose-it so I was out of the area last week. Look for multiple updates this week with the wrap-up coming early next week. Let's get back to it! The front and rear tires were separated from their sprue tree using a sprue cutter and hobby knife, sanding the contact surface was set about using a coarse piece automotive sand paper as shown here. A straight file is also recommended to remove what remains of the attachment tab on the slick/treaded areas of all four tires. Next the front wheels were carefully separated from their sprue tree and the attachment tabs cleaned up with a jewelers file. Be careful not to accidentally scrape off plating on the outside surfaces of the wheels, front or back. Here a wheel is getting a first test-fit into a front tire. Likewise, the rear mags received the same careful clean-up treatment as the front before insertion into the rear slicks. This is an unusual process as these wheels are not merely inside and outside halves joined inside each slick. First insert each rear mag into a slick as shown here. Shown on the right is the rear wheel inside half, inserted and being turned. On the left is the rear wheel inside half turned and nearly in place in the backside of the rear slick. Here the rear wheel half has been pressed into place in the rear slick (left) and the front rear wheel half (as shown free-standing in the foreground) is then inserted into the outside of the rear slick to complete the process as shown with the wheel/slick on the right. When both rear wheel halves have been inserted into place in both rear slicks this is what the set-up should look like (outside-left, inside-right) Here the front wheels (left-outside, right-inside) have been included with the rear wheels/slicks. On the right, the axle mounting stems (on backside of each wheel) can be clearly seen in this view. The final operation required on the front and rear tires is the sidewall lettering. Recommended as shown here is Micro Set and Micro Sol, Polly S (acrylic Flat Finish) clear flat, and assorted hand tools for the job. Also included here is The Detailer Black liquid used to provide a wash on the engraved wheel details. Also note the tiny center axle cap decals for the front wheels to be applied later. Here are the CTH wheel/tire combination on display, contact area sanded, black wash applied, decals in place on the outside surface of the front and rear tires…and those tiny decals mentioned earlier applied to the front wheel center axle caps continued....

Thanks to Tom for sharing some basic engine detailing tips and techniques. We’ll let you get back to working on your beloved 29 project for now. These images may be low resolution but the improvements of a little added detail can already be seen. Join us for the next installment where I'll (hopefully) show you a good looking alternative to expensive candy paints. Thanks, Bill and Len

Don’t sweat the details… Our approach in providing an internet build/review of this new Revell Chi-Town Hustler kit is taking a slightly different turn in the road as it were. Heretofore, it’s been just Len and me. For this effort (and possibly the next subject) we’re adding an old colleague of ours, Tom Creeger. Tom brings years of top-tier model building to the work bench. Tom’s an old drag racer too with considerable knowledge of vintage drag cars and a pretty decent model building skill set as well. Strive for Five… We asked Tom Creeger to choose five detailing tips/techniques that could easily be applied to the CTH. For some of you these procedures will seem rather elementary. We’ve selected these five added details because we feel they will appeal to the vast majority of builders of moderate skills. If you’ve always wanted to “dress up†a vintage drag car but weren’t quite sure what went where etc., these five tips should get your attention. Tom felt the CTH blower drive belt looked a bit thick. Rather than replace things with after-market pieces, Creeger took a different, simpler approach. Using nothing but 400 grit automotive sandpaper, first, Creeger sanded the straight sides of the belt. Working slowly he thinned the sides of the belt down to what he felt was more realistic looking. Tom says to stop periodically to check the thickness on both sides of the belt. Creeger recommended sanding the side surfaces of the blower belt first since it’s much easier to match the thickness of the radiused ends around the top, side and bottom pullys as a second step. Repeating the procedure for the belt sides, stop and check to see that the thinned belt appears consistent all the way around, top to bottom, side to side. Once you’ve achieved the proper belt thickness, paint the different parts of the pully/belt and set it aside for later installation. Here, Tom recommends detail painting the delicate fuel lines already engraved into the Fuel Injection unit as shown here. Creeger is using a 000 brush and slightly thinned-down semi gloss black bottle paint. It’s always best to securely mount the part you’re working on employing something like the tooth pick Creeger uses as shown here. Or you could make a curl of masking tape to attach the part to a sold surface. Such delicate work is much more manageable when you’re not chasing small and delicate parts around. Here, Creeger is starting to drill two holes in the Fuel Injection unit. Looking at it from the front end, there are two very small but visible fittings in which the holes are to be drilled. Tom recommends using a pin vice mounting a .015 in. dia. drill bit. Work slowly and make sure both holes remain centered from the beginning. Next, Creeger is preparing to drill two holes in the Fuel Pump. The two fittings can be clearly seen on the larger (pump) end of the piece. Again using a pin vice mounting a .015 in. dia. drill bit, slowly drill holes in the center of both fittings as shown here. Again, make sure both holes are centered from the outset. First, Tom painted the magneto cap a darkened red (a drop or two of gloss black mixed with red bottle paint) to simulate the Bakelite plastic finish of this part. To make sure you have proper spacing between each hole, the magneto has evenly spaced marks on the outside (they appear as raised ribs) indicating where each sparkplug wire hole should be located. Tom is using a.010 in dia. drill bit for this task. Next, Creeger is preparing to drill four .010 in dia. holes (three in a row in line around the circumference) as shown here. The fourth is located at the bottom of the Fuel Tank on the driver’s side. Next, we’ll drill a hole as shown here, to the left of the tank cap using a .015 in dia. drill bit. Tom says there are two holes to be drilled, this one and one in the bottom of the Coolant/Water tank. This type of valve cover was cast with short extensions protruding from the center of each simulated rubber plug cap. Creeger recommends partially removing a small section of the extension to make it easier to drill each hole on center. A .010 in dia. drill bit size is recommended. continued...

Test fitting assemblies periodically is strongly recommended especially with a brand new kit. Here the tube frame, cockpit sheet metal and the roll cage are positioned together to see how things line up. The cockpit is cradled by the frame and attaches with alignment pins/holes. The roll cage attaches to the cockpit in like fashion. I observed that as primer and paint dried on the roll cage, this spider-like assembly tended to draw-up slightly. To align pins with holes required spreading the “legs†out a bit and pressing the whole thing down into place. Likely it will need to be held together, until set-up, when glue is applied so the pins don't pop out of the holes. Over the years I’ve spilled more than my share of liquids on the old workbench. As careful as I might like to think I’m being, ka-pow…I’m cleaning up another mess! I’ve procrastinated long enough! Maybe not the ultimate solution to problem solving this one but here goes anyway. I used 2-3 cardboard squares like what I use for painting small parts. I traced around the base of individual bottles of liquid (brush cleaner, decal solvent, Detailer and just about anything else I could think of) centered on each piece of cardboard. I used my hobby knife to cut out the holes, square, round and yes even two containers together like decal solvents. Then whenever I use something liquid that gets tipped over easily, I push the bottle partially down into the cardboard square and for the most part it keeps the bottle of whatever from easily tipping over. I won’t say it is fool proof but it’s cut down quite a bit on my flooding of the work area and the frustrating clean-up that follows. Next time around we’ll present a number of options to achieve that realistic “wet†look on our Chi-Town Hustlers providing you with choices when it comes to painting your CTH model. Thanks for following our build Bill and Len

We continue our build up with more of the component assembly and prep for additional details. I spoke earlier about separating out similar parts that will be receiving the same paint colors. Again, small squares of cardboard (or similar materials) make ideal pallets for such things. Here, similar parts that will be painted red, matte black and gloss aluminum have been organized for spray painting. In preparation for painting the tube frame and accessory parts I experimented on the TF surrounding sprue with three different shades of gloss red, Wal-Mart red, Testors Guards Red and Bright Red. After some review, I chose Bright Red. The actual 1/1 CTH red may be closer to Guards Red but I chose the lighter shade so it would show up better in photos. This will likely be the most strenuous part to detach and clean up in the CTH kit. The tube frame is very well defined and also delicate. Carefully trim away and separate-out the piece from its attachment points to the tree as shown here. Working slowly and carefully will pay off when the part is free and the final cleanup is underway. If you are determined to remove all signs of attachment points and mold separation lines, handle this part like it was made out of glass. When you’ve completed the tube frame cleanup and preparation for painting, it should look pretty much like this. I like to experiment and take chances on occasion. In this case I prepared the chassis parts to be painted red on one sheet of cardboard and…sprayed the red paint directly onto the individual pieces without first spraying on a primer coat. So far it’s worked pretty well even though it seemed to take the soft enamel quite a while to dry thoroughly. I wish there had been another way of dividing the fuel tank than right down the middle. There’s just no way with this part being vacuum plated during the manufacturing process that we can successfully cover up the seam line. Do be careful what glue you use. I shy away from super glue since it can fog the plated areas. Some have recommended 5-minute epoxy though I found the old standby styrene glue to work okay. Do be cautious when applying glue to the joined edges of the tank. You don’t want excess glue oozing out at this point. After playing around with a number of options I decided to give Tamiya Gloss Aluminum a try for the interior metal work. It doesn’t give quite the sheen of the 1/1 surfaces but it does result in a clean and bright appearance. After all, it will be somewhat hidden away up inside that swoopy fiberglass body shell. I always wipe part down thoroughly with Polly S Plastic Prep. You do have the choice again of priming the parts before painting. Again, in the instance, I applied the Gloss Aluminum straight over the raw polystyrene. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen bare plastic that’s had the mold cavities polished to such a high degree. The unpainted CTH body etc. has an amazing shine to the injection-molded plastic. These three (3) parts will soon be getting generous coats of candy red over a silver metallic base coat. continued...

That's exactly what we'll be doing - mine will be box stock with painted details only while Bills car will have some hoses and wiring added. We don't build contest grade models for these builds so neither car will get the "kitchen sink" treatment. We do our cars so anybody with moderate skills can duplicate our efforts. Thanks for your interest. Bill and Len

Thanks, I think I have it fixed now. Len C.

In a discussion we had with the shop that painted both the original and the tribute car they told us they used HOK Orion Silver (BC02) as the base color, and Candy Red (KK11) for the body color. Orion Silver was also used for the bumpers. We'll be looking at suitable, reasonably priced substitutes for these colors. Len C.

The new Revell Chi-Town Hustler 1/25th scale plastic kit is one of the most accurately scaled, well appointed and such a delicate rendition of this type of vintage subject that’s unlike anything we’ve likely seen before. In the past the complaint has always been that kits of these iconic drag cars have either been too generic, homogenized, or maybe stylized is a more fitting term in this application. Where tube frames and roll cages often scaled-out to be the diameter of stove pipe, with these new Revell nostalgic funny car kits, the accurate scaling of such core parts of such a kit would appear to be spot-on. Revell has certainly taken a big gamble putting considerable eggs in one basket here but considering the median age of today’s model car building public, they might just be on to something of considerable magnitude this time around. Even though Len and I are only in the early stages of reviewing and building this kit, I think it’s safe to say we’re very impressed with what we see in the kit box. Neither of us, even though we have a lot of miles on life’s odometer, considers ourselves any kind of experts on this subject. We may both be old enough to have seen these behemoths in action but remember that’s been 40 plus years ago. With that said, like you, we too will be attempting to re-educate ourselves on these historic subject. What better place to begin our studies than websites with a plethora of very revealing detail photos of the original restored CTH and the clone car that gets out to all the NHRA competitive events and is displayed at shows and on loan to motorsports museums. This site will provide you with a number of wide and tight angle shots of the exterior of the CTH: http://public.fotki.com/TommyDz/the-chi-town-hustle-1/ This site has all those delicious close-up shots of the inner workings of the CTH that detailing hounds are looking for: http://public.fotki.com/TommyDz/the-chi-town-hustle/ Let’s get started on this build/review of the new Revell Chi-Town Hustler Mini-Charger kit. Take a moment to correct the caption in Step 1 for part No. 60. The copy should read Fuel Pump instead of Oil Pump as note in the illustration. Note that in Step 3 a correction to the Captions for parts No. 12, 13, 14 that should refer to the Fuel Tank not Oil tank as so noted in the illustration. Also, let’s correct the captions for parts No. 39, 40 and 73 which should read Coolant/water Tank and Coolant/water tank bottom and top as so noted in the illustration. Revell is aware of these edits that will likely be corrected in the next production run. These are minor issues and in no way detract from building this outstanding kit. Here we’re preparing the engine and small accessory parts for painting. I like to use these small squares of cardboard to help organize such thing. Curls of masking tape make keeping these fiddly parts in place until they’re painted. Some parts I’ve separated from their respective trees and others (especially ones that can go missing with out notice) remain attached with their code number for identification clearly visible. With a degree of forethought, you can easily group parts that share the same fate together and on occasion they can share the same piece of card board as shown here. If you’re careful, paint the matte black first then cover up the black parts while Metalizer is being applied to those parts on the other end of the card. Testors Buffing Metalizers are a bit touchy and want to pull away especially without clear sealer. You can use a low tack painters tape like the blue roll shown here, carefully masking off the transmission from the block which allows for a contrasting choice of metallic shade for the attached part like the engine block and cylinder heads. By making some calculated choices, a variety of Testors Metalizers can be used on numerous driveline parts to achieve a distinct appearance like what’s on these individual parts shown here. You can even mix and match by spraying a part and dusting on a light coat from a second Metalizer to achieve a unique look. If you remain skeptical about leaving parts attached to their respective trees, come in out of the cold. The recently painted matte black parts are shown here separated from their trees. Any offending remnants of the sprue attachment is quickly cleaned up and touched up with a Sharpie black marker as shown here. Admittedly, there are only four (4) parts to the Cockpit Roll Cage but there is a simple and straightforward approach to assembling the parts. Using the Cockpit Bucket as your template following the instructions in Step 4, insert part No. 20 in place and glue part No. 21 to it. Next, whether it’s the right or left side, glue parts No. 96 and 97 into place one at a time. Leave the assembled cage in place on the bucket until the glue is thoroughly dry. Once that’s occurred, the assembly can be removed as shown here for painting. That's all for now. We'll continue with the chassis in our next installment in a couple of days. Bill and Len

The next three images are of the white molded parts trees. Here we have the chassis securely fastened to a sturdy tree to prevent in-transit damage. This looks like it might take some time to clean up any mold lines. We'll see if that's true during the build up. The two chrome trees are shown here. There are a few items that I'll probably strip and paint instead of leaving the chrome finish. Last two images show the two-piece front and rear wheels. This will be something new for us - our first single version kit and a race-only car at that. Should be interesting to see what we can come up with to hold your interest. Next installment should drop this weekend. We'll see you then. Bill and Len

Here's the next project on the workbench for Bill and I, the all-new Revell Chi Town Hustler. This time there's no teasers or guessing games, we're diving in with both feet and anxious to get started. For our first installment, lets take a look at the contents. As is the case with most kits these days, all parts are bagged for protection. This kit has five individual bags plus the tree of tires (not shown here). Total piece count for the kit is listed as 97 pieces. The kit is marked as Skill Level 3. The tires are unmarked generic items. Markings for M&H Racemaster slicks are provided on the decal sheet. Here we have the decal sheet and instructions. The decals have the white background for the side panel markings which means the builder has only to paint the solid body color. The Hustler was unique in that the driver was offset to one side of the car and the engine was offset to the other side. We already know we will be getting the Hawaiian funny car in the near future, by making this hood insert a separate item Revell need only tool one body - a new hood insert and chassis are the only major components needed to complete the Hawaiian kit. Painting the molded in bumpers may prove to be a challenge for inexperienced modelers. continued.....

Here the Hustlin Hemi sits at rest in preparation for serious competition. The proportions, stance and overall appearance of this latest Revell interpretation of an iconic 68 Dodge Dart do this legendary race car complete justice. Whatever version you choose to build and whatever markings suit your fancy, this kit will satisfy your requirements. Whether you choose to display your Revell 68 Hemi Dart with the hood in place or as shown here as it would have appeared, in the pits at the strip back in the day, out-of-the-box or fully detailed, this, the fourth 68-69 Dart model from Revell is quite a welcome addition. Hard to believe its been 40 years. Shown here is my original Hustlin Hemi built in 1970 from a Charlie Allen funny car combined with a 69 Cuda kit and a Johan 65 Plymouth Fury Super Stock engine among other things. The color difference is 1970 model car paint vs. 2010 automotive colors. The original Hustlin Hemi graphics were all hand-painted. The new HH benefits from crisp and clean waterslide decals. That ends another of our preview/review builds. We hope you enjoyed this presentation as much as we enjoyed presenting it. We'd like to think the forum moderators and owners for allowing us the use of their boards and for helping to maintain an air of civility within the conversations. We'd also like to thank all of the forum readers and posters who commented and shared their knowledge of this iconic car. This project would not have been possible without the help and support of the good people from Revell. Thanks to you all! Thanks again, and hopefully we'll see you soon with our next project. Bill Coulter and Len Carsner

Well, they're finally finished and it's time for their close ups. Let's get to it! Revell was kind enough to give us these images of the box art cars. Cars like these can be built with nothing more than what's in the box. What about the box stock Hemi Dart? Well, I think it turned out nicely. This one was fun since I didn't have to worry about achieving the perfect paint job, just primer and semi gloss black did the trick. I spent some time cleaning it up before the pictures were taken but it still looks like I have dirt or spots on the car. It's probably just odd reflections because of the combination of gloss, semi gloss, and flat paint. It may need a couple of adjustments to its stance but in all I'm pleased with the results. Other than the wheels and seats from the Revell Thunderbolt kit nothing other than the box contents was used to build this car. Now, on to Bills' race version of the Dart.

Haven't shown much of my build because, quite frankly, I'm not doing anything much different than Bill is doing with his car. The paint scheme is the main difference, so let's update what I'm doing. I chose the simple color scheme of the as-delivered cars - primer gray body with a semi-gloss fiberglass nose. Duplicolor primer was used for the body and chassis while Tamiya TS-29 did the trick for the nose. Here I've slipped the body over the chassis just to get an idea of how it's coming along. Looks pretty good to me! My color scheme for the chassis is a little different than what Bill did. I figured the body, once welded together, would have been primed as a whole unit so I left the chassis primer gray like the upper body portion. The front frame rails were painted black, as I assumed they would have been painted along with the engine compartment. Here you can see the four speed trans and headers. Unlike Bill I left the exhaust pipe extensions off. Here I've set the engine in place, surrounded by the finished firewall and radiator support. You can also see one of the steel wheels I'm using from the Revell Thunderbolt kit. On the left is the interior for my car, on the right is a stock interior I quickly threw together to show the difference between the two. I'm using the bucket seats from the Thunderbolt kit as they look more accurate than the A100 seats from the Little Red Wagon kit. However I didn't scratch build the special seat mounts like Bill did since they will not be seen once the car is assembled. At this point I still have to install the side glasses, door handles, sun visors, front bumper, and hood pins then hope I can get the body to fit down over the chassis and engine without anything falling off. Check back Thursday when we'll wrap this project up. Thanks, Bill and Len