1970 Superbird

[Scale-Master]

Resin kit by Starter in 1/43^rd scale. 

Not a bad casting all things considered.  After cleaning up the flash I started scribing in the panel lines.

I'm not sure why there was a panel line molded into the hood just ahead of the hood pins, but I filled it.  (Still needs a little more attention.)

The wing uprights were warped, but some creative clamping and heat did a decent job of correcting that issue.  I added steel pins for strength and drilled the fenders with oversized holes to limit the friction.  I expect the wing to be very fragile.

[slusher]

Do you have a color in mind?

[drodg]

I have that same kit.  1.  Richard Petty's car and the second one being a factory stock.  I will watch this.   

[dwc43]

12 hours ago, Scale-Master said:

Resin kit by Starter in 1/43^rd scale. 

Not a bad casting all things considered.  After cleaning up the flash I started scribing in the panel lines.

I'm not sure why there was a panel line molded into the hood just ahead of the hood pins, but I filled it.  (Still needs a little more attention.)

The wing uprights were warped, but some creative clamping and heat did a decent job of correcting that issue.  I added steel pins for strength and drilled the fenders with oversized holes to limit the friction.  I expect the wing to be very fragile.

Well, you need to rescribe that line across the hood as that was stock. The Charger was used for the Daytona, and everything was made just for that car. The Daytona nose and wing will not fit on a Superbird and they are not the same design. The Superbird was created by taking a 70 Road Runner from the firewall back. It used Dodge Cornet front fenders and had it's on unique nose made for that car. The 70 ROad Runner hood was used, but it was too short and a panel was welded onto the hood. That's your scribe line you filled in that you need to rescribe now to make it look corrrect. And the Superbirds aero numbers were not as good as the Charger numbers either. And still till this day the Charger and Superbird has the lowest drag co efficent numbers among all makes. And since Mopar still has a military manfucaturing facility to this day (M1 Abrahams) the Daytona and Superbird were designed by Red Stone Arsenal rocket engineers from Alabama. 

[Scale-Master]

Thanks for the info.  I can see in some photos there is a faint seam there.  (I thought it was just a bend in the sheetmetal.)

I think filling it is better (especially in this scale) after studying the photos than leaving it as large as the other panel lines as they show up much more prominently. 

 

It will be white.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Scale-Master

[dwc43]

          

 

That's the underside of the hood and you can clearly see where it was pieced together and the extra structure added. Hard to find a pic that shows just how big that seam is on the outside of the hood. 

 

[Scale-Master]

Those are helpful.  Thanks!

[dwc43]

More than welcome. I used to have a 70 Road Runner that I drag raced. You sure can tell where the Road Runner left off and where the Superbird took over. 

[Scale-Master]

The raised edges at the base of the vinyl top on the B pillar were molded unevenly, and not prototypically.  I replaced them with some 0.010 x 0.020 strips of styrene.

[Scale-Master]

The wheel centers are white metal that is chrome plated.  I shot them with clear flat and then painted the centers of them metallic gray.  The outers are plated brass and they shined up well after polishing.

[Scale-Master]

The rear wing is a thin strip of brass cemented to the resin fins.  It is very delicate.

[Scale-Master]

The kit provides decals for the Goodyear lettering, but they are the wrong size and style.  I made new era-correct ones and added the Polyglas lettering too.

[Justin Porter]

Very neat to see a 1/43rd scale muscle build like this. Going to be very curious to see how it turns out!

[Scale-Master]

I drilled out the stub for the antenna and filled the hole for the passenger side mirror.

[Brudda]

This is really cool!!! I’ll be watching and learning. 

[Scale-Master]

I went with Tamiya Pure White even though the correct Alpine White color is not as clean.  Sometimes smaller scales need a little boost in contrast.

[drodg]

Looking good

[Rattlecan Dan]

I've got a pretty good idea how it's gonna turn out. You do fantastic work. Such a difficult scale makes it all the more amazing.

[Scale-Master]

The seal on the nose is very prominent on these cars, and making it the only black panel line looked wrong.  So I blacked out the hood, cowl, trunk and door lines too.

[Scale-Master]

Then I went back and airbrushed white over all the panel lines except the nose seal to balance the contrast.

[NOBLNG]

Excellent work…especially on such a small scale!? I need a minimum of 4x cheaters to work on 1/25 scale.??

[David G.]

Good progress on this so far.

David G.

[Scale-Master]

I noticed the magenta color was not printed in the Road Runner bird decals so I printed a new set from the art I designed for the Revell/Monogram Superbird.  I also made the other badging and used the same license plate.

The decals are on the body and the trim & details are painted.  After they dry for a while I'll add the vinyl top texture and color.  I'll apply the black panels on the nose after the top is done.  I also removed the Pentastar from the driver's side.

[Scale-Master]

Nothing too special about the interior.  I added woodgrain to the console.

[David G.]

Nice work on the decals and the interior.

David G.