Chris in Berwyn

Hi Charlie, I am not going to do the sides for two reasons. First is I think it is beyond my capabilities as a Corel Draw amateur to do it and get them to fit properly, and secondly, the front and rear bumper areas need to be the same color as the sides, and I think they have too much curvature to get the decals to lay down properly. Do you recall the car as being a hot pink? I seem to recall it leaning more red, but it was 42 years ago I saw it! The Super Stock and Drag magazine with it on the cover makes it look sort of wild cherry, and the article describes it as candy cherry. The Drag Racing USA magazine I have has a picture that makes it look a bit redder, and they describe the car as "glowing in wild cherry" paint. The postcard I scanned makes it look very pink, but it was on my bedroom wall for many years and the whole thing has faded a lot. I have some HOK wild cherry pearl that looks maybe a bit to purplish, but it is bright! Not quite sure what I am going to paint it. My brother and I stopped by Custom Body about 2 years ago and met with Fred Castronovo - I should have asked him if he had any color pictures. I am now working on the grill for the car. That is the last item I am going to try and do. It is very similar to the grill Slixx includes for the Hawaiian, but the CB grill has less detail. Chris

Hi Charlie, I always love your work. The decals will be in 1/25. I was going to do them as dry transfers, but it looks like someone will make decals of them. The pic is the almost completed sheet when I was going to have dry transfers made. I am now setting them up for decals and separating the colors right now to get things done. Needless to say the color on the attached is a bit wacky. The magenta represents white. The big question is what color goes in the words mini, charger and Custom Body. I think the fill should be gold metallic. The last time I saw the car was in 1971 when I was 11, and all my reference photos are inconclusive. I have a couple color photos and gold looks like the way to go. I grew up in Rome NY, which was the next town over from Utica where the Castronovos are/were from. The car went thru a few redos during 1971. I am doing what I believe to be the "as built" scheme, just prior to what is shown in the postcard. I am removing the "Phil Burkhart" names. They were for another project. Chris

Fantastic!!

The decals are not available, but I have the artwork done. It looks like someone is going to produce them. I can let you know about that - give me about two more weeks. Looking forward to seeing your R&W engine when I get hom - photos are blocke at work for some reason.

OK, so not quite the same caliber as the other engines posted, but these two are on my workbench now. Both are Revell 1/25 hemis. One is in the Johan Mickey Thompson Pinto - it ran with a Chrysler engine its second year, and the other is going in a stretched Johan chassis that will go under a Revell Charger body. I am in the midst of replicating Phil Castronovo's 1971 NHRA World Final winning car. The second engine will go in the replica I am building of this.... Chris

Sweet!!!

Really, really nice!

Very sorry to hear about your Mom. Nice paint on the Hawaiian!!

The AW site mentions pad printed slicks. I hope they use the original PL slicks tooled up for these cars. I think they are among the most accurate slicks of that era in 1/25 scale.

So I just checked my Blue Max, Kalitta and Challenger/Soapy Sales MPC kits. All three have similar but different chrome trees. Even tho the Kalitta has the same width axle as in the Challenger, they are two different axles! Unfortunately they must hav put the tree from another car in the Kalitta kit I am in the same boat as you Not sure what i am going to do, but thanks for finding this error before i did! Chris

I have only found round ones. They look fine, but now I will look for hex ones. The round ones fly all over the place too!!!

Brett, are you using beads (meant for beading projects) for your anodized fittings? I have just started using them and am pleased withthe results. About $3.00 US for a lifetime supply!

I hope they re-release it, but supposedly sales of the recent Chi-town, '69 Hawaiian were dissappointing, so I wonder how many more nitro burners we are going to see from them. The "NHRA Assortment" at Michael's is on sale at "closeout" pricng, and the remaining McEwen Duster has been on the shelf at my usual Michaels for the past 2 weeks.

Wow! Would never guess that started life as a snap. Looks great!

Really nice!!

It looks really good. I do wish they had made the wheel wells make more sense and given the car a front bumper (I know the Soapy Sales car did not have a bumper, but still.) Nice job!!

Quarter Panel L also has Al Anabi racing hidden in it in two parts. I knew there was stuff hidden in these but I had never actually noticed them.

Wow wow wow!!

The wiring will look more prototypically correct if you route the driver side wires under the upper blower pulley The wires should not be in front of the scoop.

Nice! And I like how you went with the pressurized fuel tank. I did that on two of my vintage drag builds. Great job!!

Very, very cool! Is that an MPC chassis? Chris

I don't see why with a regulator you can't get the pressure as low as you like. I have a non-hobby compressor, and I will fill the tank at 125 lbs, then dial my regulator down to 12-15 lbs for painting. Is everything hooked up right? BTW, I like your build and color. My life got better when I figured out how to use my A/B. Takes some experimentation, but i have found thinning it a bit thinner than milk and 12-15 lbs works well.

Right now yours looks better than the real one!

That really is pretty incredible!!

Great paint, and a nice choice of front wheels. Like!!