1981Mustang Cobra

[Eric Stone]

Well, here it is... First one I've finished in several years. I've had a few other builds I've tinkered with and nearly finished, but for some reason or another have ended up boxed back up and in the closet. This one has taken me just shy of 2 months, with a week off around Christmas where I couldn't work on it.

It's box stock, with the exception of window tint, engine wiring, flocking, scratchbuilt radiator hoses, coil springs, and a coil. I added a small piece of brass screen to the bottom of the hood to correspond with the heat extractor on the top side of the hood, so it actually looks like a functional heat extractor. The window tint is actual window tint. The radiator hoses were made from .080" styrene rod, bent over a cigarette lighter flame, and the ends were drilled and pinned to the radiator and engine with 24 gauge wire. The coil springs were made from the same 24 gauge wire bent into springs and slipped over the smooth plastic studs the kit has in place of the springs. They bring a little more detail out in the suspension, if you are able to see. The coil is just a short piece of aluminum tubing with an aluminum duct tape bracket. The license plate is a parts box item. The hood prop is a piece of old guitar string.

Paint is Testor's Model Master Acryl Gloss White, and Testor's Model Master Enamel Flat Black through an airbrush over Duplicolor gray primer, with no clear. The red stripe is Testor's Model Master Acryl Guards Red brush painted. The interior is Duplicolor Candy Apple Red over Duplicolor primer, and was brushed with Testor's Acryl Flat Clear and Semi-Gloss Clear where appropriate. The window trim was brush painted with Testor's Flat Black Enamel. The flock is Burgundy Plaid Soft Flock. Unforutnately, Plaid is no longer making Soft Flock, but there are other options out there.

I ran into problems trying to attach the side view mirrors, and ended up cutting a 5mm x 5mm x 7mm right triangle of .030" sheet styrene to glue into the front corner of each side window to attach the mirrors. This helped considerably, although I glued the mirrors on perfectly horizontal to the perfectly vertical triangles, and didn't take into account the angle that the side windows lean in, so the mirrors don't quite look right once they've been leaned in to fit in the window openings, since the ends point up just a little. I also had some problems with the window tint conforming to the small curves of the car's glass. I have since bought a bottle of Tamiya Smoke, and will try airbrushing window tint on the next project that needs it.

Overall, this was a fun kit to build, even though it could stand some additional detail on the chassis, under the hood, and in the interior (pretty much overall...) I have another one that is basically the same kit, but with a stock '79 nose and hood. It is missing some pieces and will probably become a big block powered weekend drag car. I also have a '93 Cobra R in the works.

The build thread is here.

More photos here in my Fotki album.

[whale392]

OUTSTANDING build! I would be proud to drive the real version if it looked this nice. You did a great job with this kit!

[Nick Winter]

I like it, and that's saying a lot I hate Mustangs

[Crusader101]

That's simply a flat-out beautiful build!

Thanks for sharing.

[chris coller]

Very nice build. I especially like the underside weathering. Good job.

[Tony T]

Very nice, clean build! Nicely done!

[BigBeze]

That right there makes me jealous I hope over time my mustangs will look that good!

[Eric Stone]

Thanks for the compliments, guys. The camera was really nice to this one. I wish it was as clean as the pics make it out to be. I'm very happy with how it turned out, but of course I know all its flaws too...

Thanks for looking!