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Mooneyes Dragster


unclescott58

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Look up turd and model kit together in the dictionary, and this might be the kit you find. Despite that last statement, I’m glad I bought and built this kit. And it turned out as well as it did. 

As many of you know, this is old kit. Typically of Revell kits from back in the day. That day being the early 1960’s. And the reason I build mostly AMT cars kits back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. This kit does not stand up in easy of building as compared to AMT’s then contemporary, now classic, and fun to build, Double Dragster set. The thin plastic axles on this kit, are a perfect example of what was wrong with Revell car kits back in the day. In this build, on both sides of the rear axle, the plastic pins that hold the wheels on broke as I was installing the wheels. AMT’s metal axles may not look as accurate. But, they do a much better job of holding the wheels on. There were other minor things like that, that just made the kit a pain to get together. 

One thing that did help in building this kit, is Revell’s “Contacta Liquid Special” cement. It’s designed for gluing together chrome parts. It works perfect for areas were scraping the chrome away is not easy or practical. And it does not fog the chrome. So far, the stuff works great. 

This kit was actually finished in time to be seen at our December 2021 MCCM (Model Car Club of Minnesota) meeting. Ive been so busy, its taken me a while to post it here. Despite everything, again I’m glad I bought and built this kit. I’ll continue buying and building these old kits mainly out of nostalgia. But, also for the challenge of building them. I learn from my mistakes. And, I’m a much better builder than I was 50 to 55 years ago. 

 

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Your build looks great! Although the word turd is a little harsh I agree these old revell kits are fussy to build,and the amt steel axles are superior to anything else.i keep a length of piano wire for making new axles. This one’s on my to build list along with the orange crate,and stone woods Cooke Willy’s. after I run out every thing else.Atlantis keep these old kits coming 

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1 hour ago, M W Elky said:

Your build looks great! Although the word turd is a little harsh I agree these old revell kits are fussy to build,and the amt steel axles are superior to anything else.i keep a length of piano wire for making new axles. This one’s on my to build list along with the orange crate,and stone woods Cooke Willy’s. after I run out every thing else.Atlantis keep these old kits coming 

I too, despite my negative comments above, hope Atlantis keeps these kits coming. I’ll keep buying them. But, as note elsewhere, I have been accused of being a masochist. 

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  • 4 months later...
On 2/20/2022 at 9:39 AM, ChrisR said:

Very nice!

 

On 2/25/2022 at 9:47 PM, the goon said:

Very nice.

Mark

 

On 2/26/2022 at 1:32 PM, Oliver77 said:

Great to see your fine build of this dragster. 

I forgot to thank you guys for the kind words on this build. Thank you. 

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  • 1 month later...
1 hour ago, Dennis Lacy said:

Looks great from here!

These Custom Car Parts sets were more like suggestions, not so much specifically engineered to go together. 🤣

Thank you. And interesting comment and look on this old kit. Looking at it that way, then many of Revell’s old car were not designed or “engineered” to specifically go together. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks pretty good to me Scott !  I've learned that the early Revell kits require much more patience than I had as a kid and barely even now . I have one of these and an Orange Crate that I've been staring at for a couple years now , maybe I'll try the dragster first . :)

Never seen the Revell glue before , how does it work ? Is it like a contact cement ?

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52 minutes ago, TooOld said:

Looks pretty good to me Scott !  I've learned that the early Revell kits require much more patience than I had as a kid and barely even now . I have one of these and an Orange Crate that I've been staring at for a couple years now , maybe I'll try the dragster first . :)

Never seen the Revell glue before , how does it work ? Is it like a contact cement ?

First, thank for the compliment. Second, I like your assessment of these kits. As a kid, I found these kits almost impossible to build. As an adult? They’re difficult, but with time and patience they can turn out okay. Another one of those kits, rumored to be coming back from Atlantis, is Revell’s old ‘57 Nomad. With my building abilities now, I’m looking forward to tackling that one again. I may be able to build it with the working tailgate, working. And the doors too! 

Third, the Revell of Germany’s Contacta Liquid Special, “Universal liquid glue.” The stuff seems to work great. In fact, I’m due to buy another bottle soon. It stinks to high heaven. A little slow in setting up. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Dries clear and solid, leaving nothing on the chrome from what I’m seeing. For regular, non chrome parts, and chrome parts where I have good mounting points after scraping away the chrome, I still prefer to use regular glue/cement for styrene. In my case, Tamiya bottled liquid cement, Revell’s Contacta Professional, and good old Testors’ tube “Cement for Plastic Models.” In serveral kits, I’ll use a half a dozen different glues/cements. And Revell’s Contacta Liquid Special has become a welcome addition to that arsenal. 

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Edited by unclescott58
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Looks good.

I loved those kits when I was a kid, though the fact the builder had to do some improvising to make all the disparate parts work together was beyond my ability and knowledge back then.

But the need for improvisation and modification, rather than dampening my enthusiasm, spurred me with inspiration to acquire the knowledge and skills to make things play nice together that weren't designed to...and to design and make my own.

I can very honestly say that was the beginning of laying the foundation for my life's work, and the development of a can-do attitude towards overcoming difficulty in general.

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Love your results and model. Excellent.

In the 1960s and early 1970s I too much preferred AMT because of their metal axles. The plastic Revell axles often broke on me as well. Monogram and Johan were my second picks. Although I did have good luck with Aurora car models.

I noticed you are from Minneapolis, hope your Wild have a good season except when they play my Blues in this year's NHL season.

Take care...

Edited by Kenmojr
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