1/16 Scale Army Vega Funny Car - Finished 10/14/2018

[Pro Tech]

Hey Chris, you're killing this thing, just beautiful work buddy all along the way and that butterfly wheel is a great idea with real wood. Keep on keeping on, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Charlie

Pro Tech

[Mooneyzs]

Tim... Thank you very much!! I am more than happy to share how I do things with everyone.

Dave... Thank you... I can't wait to see how the ignition turns out once printed.

Jim... Thank you. I am doing a little modification to them and will post the results hopefully later.

Niko.... Thank you my friend. I appreciate the kind words and I hope to have some updates to share later today.

Dave... Thank you so much. i ts been fun being back on this one and I can't wait to get all of these parts sent out and printed to see how they turn out. Hoping to have stuff ready by the end of the weekend to send away.

Bill... Thank you. I know I am nuts for trying to accomplish so much on this build but the whole times its been to prove to myself that I can do it. I really appreciate you kinds words about the debut. I think as of today I have 70 days before the Desert Scale Classic is here and I am pushing to try and have it done by then. We will see if I make the Deadline... lol

I did try to contact snake racing a few years back to see if I could get any information on this... I sent them an email as well as posted on their facebook page with no response. After finding out that Mr. Prudhomme had sold the car to Mr. Hendricks of Hendrick Motorsports, I emailed them to see if they could take some pics of the car. And I got a response from one of their staff members saying that they didn't have the time or staff to be able to take a few moments to take the requested pics. So I have continued on with this build by doing what I have been doing all along. Using the only pictures that I was able to find and filling in the details that I could not see by either looking at other cars from this era or just making my own decision on how i would do it.  I was out at the Hot Rod Reunion this past October and I had heard Mr. Prudhomme was going to be there so I had printed out about 100 pics hoping I was going to get to see him and talk to him. I did run into him while he was on his golf cart driving around and when I asked if he had a few minutes to talk because I wanted to talked to him about the Army Vega F/C he said he had something to do at that moment and told me to meet him over by some RV's by one of the gate entrance's in about 15 mins. Well I went over there and waited for a while and never saw him, I am sure he got tied up and was busy. I was a little bummed cause I was so close to being able to talk to him about it and felt the opportunity slipped out from under me.

Charlie... Thank you very much my friend. I am really close to being able to start installing some of your Awesome braided lines and wires on this build. Its something I have been looking forward too for quite some time. The light is getting a little brighter...lol

 

[Mooneyzs]

Alright Fellas... I have a quick update. Been doing work most of the day but what mostly seemed was mocking stuff up as well as trying to figure a few things out with the parachute which I am hoping to button some things up in the Parachute department tomorrow. Don't have pics on that yet but I will show you what I do have pics of. Well I decided to strip my headers once again because I saw something in a picture that I did not notice before. I was having to repaint them anyway prior to noticing this little detail. I never saw it before but the real car had a support piece on both side that was welded to the outside of the headers. so I decided to make the piece out of brass and solder it onto the part. I also was working on a kill switch last night and today. So far I am pretty happy with it. Here are a few pics...

Here is the headers after being stripped and adding a 1/64" thick piece of brass that I soldered to the headers, Now they are ready for their final paint job:

 

Here is the Kill switch that I made for car. This switch was made from .040" x .040" Evergreen Styrene rod along with, Pro Tech Detailing wire and the Toggle switch was a turned aluminum piece from Top Studio out of a 1/12th scale toggle switch set:

 

I just had to take a pic of the switch and penny in my hand to show how small it actually was:

Here is a shot of the real car and you will have too look close just to the right of the right hand grip of the butterfly steering wheel you will see the Kill switch:

And another shot of it which you can see in lower left hand corner of the picture:

[Danno]

Jeeeeez, Chris!   You grand-slam-homered that one!  You even got the dang yellow wiring loop on it, and the bat handle is perfect!  WHOA!

[John Teresi]

Chris......you continue to amaze me with your perfect work......I thought it was impossible to make a perfect model......but,it looks like this F/C is well on it`s way......perfection my friend......just an AWESOME model!!!!!!

[gasser59]

Sheer perfection once again brother. Dang gummit, that switch is tiny. Good to talk with you the other day.

[Mooneyzs]

Danno...  Thank you very much. Yep I couldn't leave that little yellow wire out. I fought with that thing pretty good for quite a while. Those wires are about .012" in diameter and I had to use a #80 drill bit which is .0135" Diameter. So I actually had to strip one end of the wire and bend it over so that it would stay in the hole...lol

John.... Thanks my brother.... well I have to be honest, I don't think that this a perfect model by any means... it's far from it but your kind works are appreciated.

Brad.... Thanks Brother.... That sucker was very tiny and a pain in the butt to get the holes drilled in then for the wires. They each had their own hole drilled and the two on the side. Yes it was great to talk to you. I started getting that information for you that we talked about yesterday. I will finish it up and get it over to you sometime today. Thanks buddy.

[Magic Photos]

Great detail work Son, The switch looks real and the headers look perfect. X2

[sflam123]

I don't know what other superlatives to say about this build.  Unfreaking believable!!!  Amazing!!! Awesome!!  Those are the first ones that come to mind.  Beautiful work.

[Davewilly]

Nice Job Chris.....But I would be more impressed on the size if there was a really sharp #2 pencil tip next to it to show how small it is even in 1/16th scale.

[Codi]

[bobthehobbyguy]

Amazing that switch is a work of art.

[BrentFoster]

WOW Chris.
Thats awesome mate.
So good to see this build progressing.

My funny car build has turned into a 23t altered build, the funny car just wasnt doin it for me.

[cobraman]

That is either a very tiny switch or a huge hand and penny. : ) You continue to amaze !

[Mooneyzs]

Mike... Thank you very much. You know I had to see if I could do the switch... lol

Sflm... Thank you very much for the kind words.

Dave... Thank you. I will have to see if I have a sharp number 2 pencil around.. I know I have a pencil but not sure about a sharpener since I typically use a .5mm Mechanical pencil all the time...  

Tim... Thank you so much. I have so much respect for you and what you are doing on your Awesome Henry J build. That thing is gorgeous.

Bob... Thank you sir.

Brent... Thank you. I bet that 23T Altered is looking great. you post pics of it. What body were you using for it?

Ray... Thank you.... I am hoping that I will be able to amaze people at the DSC by just having it completed by then. The clock is ticking and and I am trying to hurry to get it done.

 

So I should have an update for you all later today. I have been working on the parachute some more the past few days and got some great progress on it last night just a couple more details to call it done. Also earlier this week I was able to finish up some of the design work and got an order submitted to Shapeways to have some more parts printed up. I decided to have it printed in the Frosted Extreme Material, so I am super excited and can not wait to see how they turn out in that material since I have never printed anything with it yet. I know its the same as the Frosted Ultra material but the resolution is much finer. so we shall see.

 

 

[Mooneyzs]

Fellas here is the update that I promised earlier.... So last night and today I have been working more on the parachute I pretty much have it completed other than a couple small details. I still need to add a "Remove before Flight" tag and I need to make the bracket that will attach to the rear end or chassis... Haven't figured out yet which location I will use. Here are a few shots of what everything looks like....

Here is my multiple attempts before the completed one that you see. As you can see I started out with my chord material and then I added heat shrink tubing. Hit it with the hair dryer and even a lighter. Then for the fire retardant material I used the inside of a Chick-Fil-A bag:

 

Here is an up-close shot of the material that I used for the Parachute cable which looked just like Parachord:

 

Here is the Parachute packed and the release chord put thru the chute and mocked up on the body:

 

another angle:

 

[Mooneyzs]

Here is the whole Parachute Assembly:

 

Another shot. I stuck a rod in place to keep the chute from opening up and I also weathered the Parachord just a tad to dirty it ever so slightly with some Tamiya Weathering Master stuff:

 

Here is the end of the parachord that I made a loop to mount to the mount bracket:

[cobraman]

Looks good and smells like chicken ! : )

[John Teresi]

Chris......I just messed myself again......thanks a lot .......now I need to change my shorts........looking good......everything you do is good

[futurattraction]

Super update, brother...  So, so nice!

[gasser59]

Man that is so nice brother. Stellar. I feel like having a chicken sandwich now, thanks alot.

[BrentFoster]

Far out Chris!!
Really that is unreal, great detail in the weathering, not too much, just enough.

The body is a comp resins body, awesome body at that. i will start a thread of it soon

[Danno]

Whoa!   That's incredible.  It's . . . almost . . . finger-licking good!  

[Nytrozilla]

Chute me. Chute me now.

I can't tell the diff between that and a full scale chute Chris. Well done sir.

[l88 chevelle]

wow! I had a hard time packing a real chute and you did it in 1/16!