Rdkingjay

Very impressive so far Mike. If I could offer one piece of advice that you may already have, but worth repeating due to the complexity of this build, it is to document everything!! Pictures and text. When I was building my 1/16 GL, I did this. I documented 55 different changes in 4 catagory's , including scratch built stuff. 140 build photos in all. I'm quite certain, had I not done this, I would have forgotten some of them by now. Primarily because many of them are done for accuracy and don't necessarily stand out. Best of luck on this build.

Basecoat paint is finally complete. A minor touch-up is needed on the passenger side quarter where it meets the trunk, but an easy repair. Next step is to buzz the whole car down, BMF it and add decals, prior to clear coating. I tried a new process for the "Plymouth" scripts on this car. While it was still in primer, I added BMF to the hood and trunk scripts, than, following each coat of paint, took a tamiya q-tip and a dab of lacquer thinner and removed the paint to reveal the chrome letters. I am very pleased with the results. Thank you Brian at Hobby Emporium for showing me this little trick. I hope you are all well and thanks for looking.

VERY impressive work so far Mike! So much work involved in producing an accurate piece. Great job documenting the build up. Because, as I have come to realize, a lot of that work will likely go un-noticed on the finished piece by the average observer. I consider that a compliment when someone does not notice all the work put into a piece, because it looks as it should. I'll be following this build.

Outfitted chassis. (aside from forgetting to glue the torsion bars down)

Tom, the decals will be those that are for the most part, readily available thru most decal sources. The era correct license plates will likely be custom made, as the color and style of the plates changed frequently during this period. Will have to check my stash first though, as I may already have them. Just a couple of quick updates, the basic chassis is shown in its final finish, save for outfitting. I attempted to give it that factory oversprayed look, while also trying to present neat and clean detail. It was sprayed in a gray primer first. I then fogged in the French Blue along the rocker areas, letting it overspray onto the passenger floor area. I then sprayed semi-gloss black to the front subframe and wheel house areas and flat black to the rear sub-frame areas to simulate under-coating. Some of the semi-gloss black areas where not completely covered underneath, just fogged, as was the undercoating. For an area that is not typically taped off, I used a lot of tape to "guide" the oversprayed areas. The next photo shows the changes to the front spindles to achieve the proper wheel base. The pins were removed and moved forward, necessitating the relocation of the brake caliper to the front of the spindle so they will align properly with the front discs. Lastly, all four rims are complete, with wheel weights and valve stems. These are the Charger rims with the Fury kits hub caps. At this time the chassis is completely outfitted. Just nit-picking it and doing touch ups. Photos will be posted soon. Thanks for looking.

Good morning all, I have decided to finally pull this kit out of the closet and give it a try. It is a re-pop Johan '68 Fury police car, that I will build in Mass. State Police livery. To the best of my knowledge, we never had these in our fleet as marked cruisers, but as far as unmarked ones go, who knows, our fleet was all over the map during this period. I will be mating the chassis, suspension and drive train from the Revell '68 Special Edition Charger to the Fury. As most of you know, the Furys chassis has molded in suspension and exhaust components, lacking detail and making detail painting a real bear. The first mod came to the Fury's interior bucket, which had to be cut to fit the charger chassis. The fortunate part is that the cut-outs are hidden by the back seat and they are also hidden, once installed on the chassis. Secondly, due to the fury not having the typical "boxy" engine compartment, I had to remove and greatly modify the Furys wheel houses from the Fury chassis and mate them to the Charger chassis, after closing up the top of the Charger chassis' front sub-frame rails. The Charger chassis also fell short of the fury body in the trunk floor area, so that was rectified with sheet plastic and styrene strips. Lastly, the Chargers rocker panels will be widened to better meet the Fury's body. Its a fair amount of work and I'm not sure if using the '64 330 chassis again would have been the better choice, but I like the continuity of everything being 1968 this time. More to follow and thanks for looking.

Outstanding Richard, simply outstanding!! Nice save.

Beautiful paint job!

Thank you all for your comments This was a long build (almost two years) that I was very happy to complete.

Yes Lance, i believe your right, satin black or at least filthy enough from all the dust and dirt roads to appear satin. There was one scene however, when the town Sheriff found the car in his garage and it appeared to be very shiny. This was also the scene when the mysterious red glow can be seen in the interior.

Agreed! I have not been able to solve that one yet though...

The before shots.

More pics.

This started out as the Johan Plymouth Police wagon. I bought as a built kit. with the intention of restoring it to its present form. Now, for those of you, not in the know, from the time the Mass Turnpike opened in 1955 until sometime around 1968, the Troopers patrolled in Kelly Green and white Chrysler wagons, that also doubled as ambulances. Clearly, this is not a Chrysler. But my objective was to take a glue bomb in dire need of restoration and make something of it. The chassis, suspension, entire drive train and engine compartment were all sourced from the '64 Dodge 330 kit. I disguised the 383 to resemble the 361/395 HP Golden Commando. The interior tub from the Johan kit was greatly modified. I removed the flat floor and transplanted the floor from the 330 kit, to get the transmission tunnel/hump. I also removed the third row, rear facing seat and "folded" down the rear seat for clearance for the gurney. I was able to save the original radio equipment, just detail it a bit. The rest of the emergency equipment came from the AMT rescue van, but some of the equipment appeared to be out of scale, so I had to modify them a bit, Most notably, the fire extinguisher. The wheels/tires, new front and rear bumpers, glass, rear view mirrors and tail lights all came from Modelhaus. PE'ed parts include the hood letters, window cranks and battery clamps. This was a difficult build, primarily because ref pics were very hard to find and all were B/W. I would like to recognize the following people for the their assistance in helping me give this car a new lease on life. When I post the "before" pics, you'll understand what that means. They are Tom Sheehy, Dan Danahy, Hervey Cote, Dave Mackay and from our MSP Museum and Learning Center Tom McNulty, Mike Slepetz and Bob Bricker.

Grabbed this from ebay a couple of years ago and while the rarity of these things has jacked the price, I was very disappointed in the final finish of the model. It came with its original box and base, but I wanted to display it, so I completely disassembled it, sanded, then re-cleared it. I followed that up by a three stage polish process. While the car was in pieces, I decided to light the headlights and give the interior a red glow that one of the real movie cars had in a scene of the original movie. Which coincidentally, is also one of the few scenes in the movie, that the car has a very clean glossy finish. Hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas.

Another autograph, from none other than Deputy Enos Strate! He made an appearance at the Hazzard Hoedown at the Cabbage Patch in Port Orange this past weekend. Unfortunately, I was not able to be present, so a trusted friend took my general to the event. Sonny was very talkative and personable and while I'm thrilled to have gotten another cast member autograph, I'm pissed that i couldn't be there in person. Just Like Catherine Bach, he was very careful with the car, as you all can see. Now I know some of you are cringing at the thought of black Sharpies being dragged across my paint job, however, I could not be happier and I will continue to show this car as model shows come up. Take care and thanks for looking.

LOVED that car and series. Great job on your model.

Also posted in my build thread in Big Boyz, Got it autographed by Catherine Bach aka Daisy Duke, who made an appearance at the spring Turkey Rod Run here in Daytona Beach today. She was very gracious and down to earth and was more then happy to use care in signing the hood of my car. The staff that assisted her were all over my car, asking questions and taking pictures of it. Many comments were made by them, as they were familiar with the particular model and what needed to be done to correct it into a more accurate looking GL. It was a thrilling day for me to say the least. Thank you all again for your comments. take care and thanks for looking.

Almost Mike, I'd like to get the rest of the cast someday. But I'm happy to have hers. 70's teen boys had Farrah, 80's teen boys like me had Daisy!

Got it autographed by Catherine Bach aka Daisy Duke, who made an appearance at the spring Turkey Rod Run here in Daytona Beach today. She was very gracious and down to earth and was more then happy to use care in signing the hood of my car. The staff that assisted her were all over my car, asking questions and taking pictures of it. Many comments were made by them, as they were familiar with the particular model and what needed to be done to correct it into a more accurate looking GL. It was a thrilling day for me to say the least. Thank you all again for your comments. take care and thanks for looking.

Thanks terry , I appreciate that and also to all of you that followed this build and commented, thank you.

Looks fantastic Jim!!

Gentlemen, I am in no way attempting to hijack this thread, but I can offer some assistance with the many problems with this kit. I recently built the Dukes Charger and solved (for my purposes anyway) a lot of the very obvious problems with this kit. My build thread is in here, Page 6 about halfway down, titled 1/16th Dukes Charger. Please feel free to peruse the build photos and take any thing you need from them to build your car. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Good luck.

Beautiful work Jonathan!! I built a tribute '59 Impala convertible for a very close friend about a year ago. It was one of the most rewarding model building experiences I have ever had. I see him every so often and he always comments about how much time he spends looking at it and how he never should have sold that car! Hats off to you sir.