Drake69

Hopefully it all won't lead to this...

1: generic tires/no name sidewalls when a few extra decals showing "Good Year" or "BF Goodrich" could be added to the kit. 2: Part placement on sprue trees. Nearly impossible to properly clean up chrome sprue points. 3: BUILD FITMENT. Getting 95% of the way through only to find out that when you try and mate the body to the chassis something breaks, seams, or just comes completely loose. (E.G. - Plymouth Duster side windows that pop away when the interior cab is slid into place.) Also, NO EXCUSE FOR NOT HAVING MOUNTING HOLES FOR FRONT AND REAR BUMPERS. Attempting to glue on bumpers with a perfect paintjob and only having the SEAM of the bumper-to-fender available as a glue point is downright retarded. Why even paint the thing if you're going to get fingerprints all across the model? 4: Make and sell more customizing kits and necessary add-ons. I'd buy entire sprues of wheel/axle retainers, wheel backsides, Dana axles, leaf packs, suspension lifters/risers, shocks, kicker boxes, amps, etc..., if they were made more readily available. They already do it for engine blocks, why not have added suspension choices for nice Pegasus wheels? (Note: there are resin sources for speakers and amps, just would like to see more choices out there...)

I thought about doing that but I wanted to try and get away with an all-blue "Patriot Blue" look like my Cherokee. Flat black fenders definitely look good tho.

Much appreciated. It means a lot to know I'm making some sort of progress in my skills, so I'll keep passing them along to others. Build is now complete, check out the "Under Glass" section!

After much struggle I'm calling this one done. Second set... Last set... First thing. A BIG THANKS goes out to KEEF for trying to help source out wheels and tires that actually fit this beast. Of course, everyone will notice that keystones are on this car, NOT factory wheels. This is what happened. After I got my mail today and the wheels/tires Keef sent were in there, I went through and set them up and realized I was still missing retainers. This was because I had used them in the Demon kit and some other builds, and these were just the hubs, rims, and tires (Completely My Fault here, I thought I had some retainers left in my stash to use.) So, after resisting the urge to chuck my baby against the far wall I decided to go though ALL my kits to see if I had anything that would fit. I have a lot of kits.... ...grumble...should've listened to the wife..... But I was able to find these keystones in my unsorted parts heap with wheels that fit the axles on the Duster, and all is well. Except for the popped out side windows. Can't win 'em all.

1971 Hemi Cuda - "Phantasm" I included the shaker hood, spoiler, and rear window louvers as "artistic license"... And the correct hood as used in the movie...

Thanks for all the comments! I'd love a Camaro version as well, but I don't think I've seen one for sale on eBay yet. Will have to keep my eyes open for it. Okay, after some rummaging in the parts bin I found a few pieces to help detail the interior more. No pix yet, but she's coming along nicely.

Well, a little more research and I would have caught this (it has happened to me twice now, arrggrrhhh!!!). The side windows are notorious for popping in when the chassis is mated to the body. Because I've already assembled the engine bay, I have to leave these off for fear I'll destroy the body somehow. I did try manipulating the windows from the outside in, but like the Dodge Demon I built before, it's nearly impossible unless the whole assembly is taken apart. Well, it looks nice how it is now, I'll post up pix when I get the wheels and tires put in.

I've have this built since last year and finally decided to post it up for everyone. Added chromed (BMF) diamond plating in the back bed. I added a few extra things like a 4-point harness, support bar, and larger seats. Blitz cans in the back are red for gas and blue for water. Dual antennas for CB and scanner equipped, and advanced diamond plating for under-belly armor. Hard top is removable as well. Rollbar that came in the kit was way too flimsy, so I made my own out of sprue. A better shot of the belly armor. Shock points are protected as well as gas tank and transfer case. Also added a trailer hitch point on the bumper. Definitely fun to build, although the engine bay to fender final assembly is really a pain. Comments welcome!

I finally found the spare stripes I was going to add to this model (it's been built for months now...), so I got to finally put them on. I wasn't able to find any factory Demon decals, so this will have to do. Yes, they say "R/T" on them, hopefully it won't detract too much from the build.

I appreciate it, but I wouldn't know where to start cutting inside that engine bay, much less how many times I could ruin the paint I have down. I'll just have to get another one and a Revell kit and do this again. Thanks! Nice. I wanna see Keith Marks decals and lots of gold trim on it. A Bandit conversion to be proud of. Ok, last pix of the night. I have finished laying paint to the top of the hood and will only need to touch up the very tip... Rear of the car popped in for looks (leaving the entire back gold really sets it off!)... And a shot of the car with the "screaming chicken" I have to put on it. Sweet......

With dipping you get a no-risk method of a strong clearcoat pretty much every time. The reason for this is Future has a leveling agent in it that evens out the amount of liquid in longer standing spots. And if there is any buildup left over, a cotton swab with Windex will get rid of it, followed by a swab of Future to balance it out. Easy.

Be careful with the MM One-Coats. They produce great coats very quickly and without using primers, but they go on heavy REAL QUICK. I've had one or two instances where a slow swipe and a heavy finger caused all sorts of dripping and bubbling, followed by a nice 1-week bath in Purple Power. Practice on a junk body or sheet of styrene first. Get a nice light dusting on the first pass or two until you get a good base, then after a good dry hit the car with a good solid (not HEAVY) coat afterwards to even everything out. Great stuff!

For best results, consider purchasing: 1: 3 to 4 bottles of Pledge with Future 2: 2 sealable Tupperware containers large enough to fit your longest and widest models in from bumper to bumper, and some smaller sealable containers for parts 3: a few empty model paint mixing jars 4: plastic eyedroppers 5: cotton swabs or micro-applicator brushes 6: a large container of Windex 7: rubber gloves, disposable 8: paper towels Fill one container with as much Future as you can to completely coat a whole model body and keep it sealed until used. This is called dipping a model. Pour the rest in at least one paint jar, label it "Future", and store it with your acrylic paints. Take the Windex and pour a second paint jar full of that, label it as "Windex", and store it equally among your paints. Use the cotton swabs, applicators and eyedroppers to add Future to spot areas like your dashboards to give them a reflective appearance. Use the Windex to thin out overage amounts of Future. Once you have a body painted and/or decaled, you can dip the entire car in Future for however long you want (provided the paint/decals have had time to dry...), then with tweezers, forceps, etc... and gloved hands transfer the car body to the other Tupperware "clean room" so it can be sealed up and allowed to drip dry on paper towels for a minimum of 12 hours, max of 24. The gloves are to prohibit fingerprints from getting on the car, the clean room is to keep airborne particles from adhering to the body, and so forth. Same principle applies to the parts containers.To keep the car off the bottom of their containers, place the car on top of an inverted empty spray can or glass paint bottle (don't want the car sticking to the plastic top or any labels...). Hope this helps!

This is correct. I use it for just about every model kit I build, and it's worth it.

I must have gotten lucky this time. Will have to remember that.... The only areas where I will need to clean up will be the nose and badge at the front, but all the other striping laid down perfectly. I did use Tamiya masking tape for the edge trim and stripes, which is different from the regular yellow masking tape on the nosecone, so I'm sure now that has something to do with it. Otherwise it looks pretty good.

I must've gotten my lingo mixed up. I didn't think they actually built a Blackbird or Trans Am version of the sportwagon. I thought it was only considered a Firebird. I knew they had made 2 concept versions of the Firebird in red and silver though. I DO want those instructions, though I'm too far along in this build to use them yet. If I can get my hands on another Revell kit and a USAirfix/Lindberg kit, I'll give it a shot. PMed you. Back to the build, with a few more pix, stripes and trim laid down... And four more after the Gloss Black... I'll be peeling off the masking tape tomorrow to see how successful I am with the trim and stripes and whether or not I'll need to touch them up.

My sentiments exactly...

Johan did, it's a rare kit now.... Try the link below, or eBay. http://vintageplasticmodelkits.com/Products-Autos-JoHan.html

I have a Duster project on hold for proper wheels and tires, so I thought I would delve into this kit for now. It's the Lindberg kit and is completely snap-tite, just like the USAirfix model. Here are some pix... Interesting thing. I looked closely at the body and then grabbed an old Revell Firebird 3-in-1 I had lying around... The body is pretty much identical to the Revell kit with only a few changes. Too bad I didn't have the rest of the Firebird kit, otherwise I could have built this up as a full engine model (the engine bay needs to be completely cut out, but the chassis supposedly would mate right up...). I also have a set of leftover decals from my last Revell Trans Am build... Yes, they are for the earlier model T/A, but since this is a phantom kit I think I can get away with it unless someone has spare gold '79 decals they can throw in (I know Keith Marks probably does, but I'm running low on funds at this time. I may put the entire project on hold until I pick up those decals anyway, haven't decided yet...). Right now I'm spraying the entire body in Tamiya Gold so that I can lay stripes and trim in certain areas of the car, and will follow that up with Tamiya Gloss Black for the "Blackbird" look. Interior will either be tan or semi-gloss black (if I can find any more SGB, Tamiya is relabeling its entire lineup of paints and black is getting scarce...), and the chassis and engine bay will be given extra detail to make them both stand out.

Pics of the interior... And some more of the body... Interior is actually called "Halloween Interior" and was a factory option for the Dusters. I saw two different versions of this interior, and they are complete opposites of one another (think Tor Red seats with black material, Tor vinyl with black inserts, etc...). I chose the black with Tor so that it wouldn't look so flashy.

Actually, I've got someone sending me a set, but thanks! Ok, I will get some pics up soon, but this car is almost finished. Once the wheels get here I'll test fit them to the chassis and get the body on, then finish off with the engine bay hoses and detail. Thanks for all the help and ideas!

Fully agree on both posts. I have already got the ball in motion and opened a "RESIN DIFFICULTIES" thread with groundrules we have already discussed here. I'll keep tabs on it to the best of my own ability, and please let me know if I ever overstep my boundaries. I am not a mod or admin, and the jobs those guys have take the patience of JOB, constantly.

Good point. Feel free to speak out IN FAVOR of resin vendors that provide great service, time and again. I would only ask that if you wish to showcase items these vendors have produced, please do so in the general RESIN topic. It's great to see how good these guys can get, but it detracts from the issues this thread was opened for. A quick pic to illustrate the quality of a vendor's piece to refute a bad piece (given explanation of when such pictures were taken, i.e. - bad piece, then a higher quality piece months later) is acceptable.

From DENCON Resin's website: