68 Charger

[bill-e-boy]

Now that the Chopped and channeled 32 Coupe and the Tim Boyd 29 A pickup tribute build are done and dusted and on the shelf I think to myself what next. One of my all time favorite cars is the 68-69 Dodge Charger. The only problem is that I have never got around building one -till now. The candidate is a Revell 68 R/T Charger. On opening the box it was a bit of a surprise to find so many parts espicially after working on early rods for a bit. This not to say that the Revell 32's dont have a lot of parts, they do have a good parts count but the 32's are a basic car so there are a lot less parts to work with. The Charger has an option to build a 440 or a Hemi which is correct for the R/T model. Choices, choices. I will build both up to see which I prefer but the bias is toward the Hemi.

I spent an evening or three on the interweb researching things like component colours, interior options and what is peculiar to an R/T variant over the base car. I have a set of MRC Cragars and Goodyear white letter tires that I am considering for a day two car. Being of a hot rodding nature I have an issue with leaving things as it come in the box so the wheels may fly as the kit tires are rather blah. The colour choice is Tamiya LP47 Pearl Blue

 

The Hemi motor and the manual have been cleaned up and shot with Testors 1127 Orange from the little jars that I have been hoarding forever

Next up is the clean up of the 440 ready for paint. I could not find any turquoise in the paint stash so mixed some light blue with green as turquise comes somewhere between the two colours. When experimenting with a couple of drops of both colours I found I had to go easy with the green

 

The marks on the side are for thinning - Testors enamels - 1:1.5 paint to thinner ratio for airbrushing has been my go to for a very long time

I will post results of the outcome of the paint mix next time

Thanks for looking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

[Keef]

I’ll be watching this one. 

[Zippi]

Great kit for your next build. I like your color selections.  

[NOBLNG]

This is a nice kit and I think you’ll enjoy it. One thing I did was cut the radiator shroud in half horizontally so the bottom half could be installed after the chassis and engine go in. i used Tamiya TS-41 coral blue with a touch of white added for my engine.

[Street Rod]

Looks like you’re off to the races on this one. Looking forward to watching the progress.

[Bullybeef]

Oh heck ya! 68 chargers have a special place in my heart, I’ve had one in the stash for a while (same kit issue) and a built revell Bullit metal bodied one under my Tv for years being chased by the 68 mustang. I’m in for this one! 

[bill-e-boy]

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

Greg - I will use the tip to cut the fan shroud in half as I get a bit testy when things don't go together well especially when you are at that stage of a build.

The last installment left things hanging a wee bit. I mixed the green into the blue one or two drops at a time. I thinned the paint first as this made the mixing a lot easier.

This is the result -

 

Looks a little lighter in the pix but I am happy with the results.

I moved on to the manual trans and painted that with Testors xxxx and sealed with a little clear shot from a distance so that it is not tooo shiny and I can handle it without the paint rubbing through- gee I love these paints, just a pity they are no longer available. I painted the 440 exhausts too.

While the paint was drying I started on the body. I thought this would be a quick tidy up of the mould edges but I found some alignment issues at the left rear wing and passenger front door to cowl junction. Took quite a lot of clean up with some filler needed on the passenger door - cowl area

Worst of all was a short shot on the drivers side rear corner

This was filled back and a filler piece added that is now awaiting some shaping

Thanks for looking

 

[slusher]

Testors still has the small jars of turquoise if you want a jar. I have a bunch of the little jars new saved before Rustoleum just for convenience. Nice mixing you did."

[bill-e-boy]

The small jars have not been available for a long time down here in New Zealand so I snatched quite a few when they were disappearing of the shelves. NZ stopped importing the big jars too for some reason - most probably Rustoleum saw NZ as too smaller market although we see some of their other products on the shelves.

[slusher]

15 minutes ago, bill-e-boy said:

The small jars have not been available for a long time down here in New Zealand so I snatched quite a few when they were disappearing of the shelves. NZ stopped importing the big jars too for some reason - most probably Rustoleum saw NZ as too smaller market although we see some of their other products on the shelves.

I didn’t know where you lived friend.  I apologize for thinking you was in the states..

[bill-e-boy]

On 11/13/2023 at 9:12 PM, slusher said:

I didn’t know where you lived friend.  I apologize for thinking you was in the states..

No problems mate. Modelling is a global thing and we have access to most current models and the international barriers allow us to import what is not available. Only sometimes things are available then they all of a sudden disappear and become "no longer available"

[Modlbldr]

3 hours ago, bill-e-boy said:

Only sometimes things are available then they all of a sudden disappear and become "no longer available"

Sounds like what we deal with at Costco here in the states. Just about the time you get hooked on a product they stop carrying it.

Later-

[bill-e-boy]

On 11/5/2023 at 12:56 AM, NOBLNG said:

This is a nice kit and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Thanks Greg - I sure am enjoying the build.

 

[bill-e-boy]

Got the rear quarter fixed up.

And spent more time on the grungy bit on the sail panels - same thing both sides

Also had to fill in a bit of a gap in the rear panel parts - this is before I fixed it up

The rest of the time between the last post and now has been spent cleaning up mould lines, ejector pin marks and sharp edges.

I was taught very early in my modeling life that time spent on clean up and getting all the knarly bits sorted before paint is what makes the difference between two kits when judged side by side. As this is a box stock build this is every much as important as a in a super detailed build

Tools for action - and there is a lot of it - I think I said in an ealier post that there are lots of parts in this kit and they all need attention

.

And Hemi vs Wedge

Thanks for looking

[drodg]

Great job on this 68

 

[bill-e-boy]

Still busy hammering away getting parts ready for paint

Looks like late autumn - not much left on the trees

 

 

[bill-e-boy]

I trust every one had a happy time over the Xmas period. Aand all the best wishes for the New Year. It is high summer at this end of the world so modelling usually slows down a bit.

Been a slow journey but I have been working away in the background on small stuff. Got most of the satin black stuff painted

I have been working mostly on detail painting and getting foil onto all the small parts

The console strip was painted stainless steel as some of my reference picks show that. Some show woodgrain but I went with SS. The foil was appllied one smal piece at a time as I could not get the foil to stretch enough between the two rails. I think I used about 12-14 small pieces to get there

When looking at the reference pix I noted that the arm rests have a chrome escutcheon behind the arm rest. This looked like a mission to foil so I cut the arm rests off so I could easily foil the escutcheon

And one side foiled

Thanks for looking

[bill-e-boy]

Getting paint on it. Tamiya LP47 Pearl Blue

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bill-e-boy]

Oops had problems loading file

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[slusher]

Great shade of blue, look real nice on your Charger..

 

 

[bill-e-boy]

Catch up time. I have been away for a couple of weeks looking after the grandkids for the last two weeks of their summer holidays. 

Got some clear on the body and other body parts and they are curing ready for colour sanding and polishing. This is straight off the gun

Masked up the fuel tank ready for paint.

and painted

I have also been working on interior detail and assembling the engine. 

More to come, thanks for looking

 

 

 

 

 

[nickfzr61]

Coming along nice there bill. Looking forward to serving it done. 

[Moparman18064]

Great looking color on it

[clipper57]

really love the color.

[deuces wild]

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