Revell 1968 Dodge Charger R/T

[GeeBee]

With the '32 Chrysler Imperial finished, I thought I would make a start on the '68 Charger I bought off eBay, I'm still not sure why I bought it, as I usually only build classic British & European cars, oh well, it's too late to do anything about it now !

The body will be done in a genuine colour of Dodge, UU-1 Light blue Poly, which a friend in New York was kind enough to get it for me from Scale Finishes, and send it over, it's also the same paint that Dodge was using at the time in '68 to paint the Chargers, Acrylic enamel, something I haven't used before, so it will be interesting to see how it sprays.

Luckily I have managed to get hold of plenty of reference materials, and had some photo's printed out so it will easy to look at them for reference, having to keep looking at the computer screen does my nut in !!

This morning I opened the plastic bag the parts were in, the chrome has now gone into the stripper, as all the chrome will be done using chrome Alclad lacquers, but the body and most of the parts have a lot of work to be done to them, the rear quarters of the body, just by the roof gutter trim and by the front of the rear wheel wells need a lot of work, now I'm not 100% sure if the body tooling was modified from the '69 Charger, but there is remnants of the chrome trim that seperates the body and the vinyl roof, and a very heavy mold line just below it ....

A chisel blade and sanding sticks should get them out, also the chassis has some copyright scripts that will need removing and other parts have a lot of sink marks and ejector pin marks, so this one isn't going to be a five minute build

Body sorted ..

Edited March 26, 2012 by GeeBee

[GeeBee]

Spent a little time scribing the shut lines on the door and boot (Trunk) as they were a bit on the thin side, and a couple of coats of paint would have seen them filled in, also went round all the parts that had ejector pin marks on them that will be seen, a little bit of Squadron green putty soon sorted them out, and test fitted a few parts,

[Dr. Cranky]

Making that body and panels nice and smooth, great progress.

[edward smith]

Good start. Question, why re-chrome all the chrome parts? At least, in my opinion, the chrome on the bumpers is always better than the ones done in Alclad. I personally think that Alclad is perfect for smaller parts like valve covers and stuff.

[62rebel]

you mistook the dome light recess for an ejection pin mark.

[GeeBee]

Good start. Question, why re-chrome all the chrome parts? At least, in my opinion, the chrome on the bumpers is always better than the ones done in Alclad. I personally think that Alclad is perfect for smaller parts like valve covers and stuff.

I suppose it's just a personal thing, since I've been using Alclad, I now just have a dislike for kit chrome, for me, it just looks too new, plus they always seem to connect the parts on the chrome sprue that leaves a mark when there cut off, so they either need touching in with chrome silver paint or BMF, stripping the chrome and doing the parts in Alclad to me look better and worth the extra work needed ...

you mistook the dome light recess for an ejection pin mark.

You know, as soon as I'd popped the putty in the centre, I realized my mistake, but luckily it isn't too heavy, and should sand back out ...

[GeeBee]

Only a little more done today, managed to sand down the putty that I put in earlier,

Edited March 26, 2012 by GeeBee

[Scuderia]

I can tell already this is gonna be sweet. nice attention so far

[Haubenschild]

Great start! , this is already looking like a very clean build!

[Bartster]

I've had this kit for a while & never looked at it much, other than pirating parts from it. I will watch your build & maybe pull it out to look at it again. Looks like a good start.

[meaneyme]

Great start on this, it's a very nice kit, I had the fortune of buying a built one from Cruz, he did a terrific job on it. Are you adding a vinyl top? They look great on these cars.

[John Pol]

Great job so far love the photos you have taken nice and clear even with the close ups. What type of camera do you use I have a Fugii and it don`t take closeups as good as yours does.

John Pol

[GeeBee]

Just a little bit more done this afternoon, I noticed that the floorpan had a lot of ejector pin marks on it, and although it will be covered in either flocking or embossing powders, they still needed filling in, got the engine built up as much as I can before it needs painting, also got the gearbox together, once the cement had dried, the join line was removed with files and sanding sticks, it will be painted metallic silver

[GeeBee]

Great job so far love the photos you have taken nice and clear even with the close ups. What type of camera do you use I have a Fugii and it don`t take closeups as good as yours does.

John Pol

Those photo's were not actually taken by me, but I do take a lot of photo's at classic car shows, and used to write for some of the classic car magazines here in England, I also build models and write for a military models magazine, for that I use my Nikon D70 digital SLR, luckily I also have a very nice Nikon macro lens .... but for website and forums I use my old Kodak digital camera, it got a good soaking in Turkey a few years ago, but still refuses to die on me ....

[GeeBee]

Are you adding a vinyl top? They look great on these cars.

Not on this one, but I could be tempted to do it on the '68 Charger I have in model stash !!! although I do have my eye on the '69 version on eBay ...

[GeeBee]

Not a great deal done today, still got the chrome parts in caustic soda, the bleach got rid of the shiney stuff, but the lacquer underneath put up a bit of a fight, an overnight soak in Fairy power spray did a good job, but there was still a bit left, so there was nothing for it but a soak in good old caustic soda, so a trip to the local hardware store, left it soaking all afternoon, and all the lacquer has now gone, got the front seats and seat back glued, which left a seam line that needed filling, the centre console and the rear seat brace was fitted in at the same time ...

[GeeBee]

Chromed Parts Stripped ready for Alclad

[kruleworld]

looks like you have quite the eye for good modeling.

I have a Fugii and it don`t take closeups as good as yours does.

John Pol

John, Fuji cameras have a macro function (look for button with a flower on it) which will help take photos of close up. here it's the bottom button:

[kingiguana]

Not all cameras have a macro (flower) button. I have a older fuji that has a small screen, and I have to scroll down to a macro setting. Once the camera is turned off it leaves the macro mode. Also with macro mode, being perfectly still is vital, and experiment with lighting, as my camera seems to like less light with macro.

[GeeBee]

Since I started building this one, I have been trying to find a shade of paint close to the engine colour, but no luck, Testors is way too dark, as there shade is for the 70's onward's Chrysler, which had a totally different blue for the engine, the '68 was a lot lighter and more turquoise, plus it is impossible to find the Testors engine paints this side of the pond, VHT do the earlier shade in an aerosol, but they cost around £17.00, and I only needed enough to do a small engine, not 300mls of the stuff, I've been playing around since I opened the kit, but hopefully the stuff I mixed today will do the job, I used the photo I had printed out of the Charger I'm using for reference, this time I used BMC Surf blue, with a bit of Rover Henley Blue, a spot of Ford Polar grey and a spot of white primer, the paint will dry slightly flat, so will need a coat of clear lacquer,

[GeeBee]

Not a great deal done today, found some more ejector pin marks, seems a lot of parts have them, got the rear axle and prop' shaft sorted, added the springs to the axle, but I will leave it off the chassis until both parts have been painted, got the plug holes drilled, this will be the first engine I have wired, so I have a bit to learn ...

Sorted a few parts and labelled them, so there ready for primer and then their correct colours ...

[Cool Hand]

Liking your methodical technique and approach,should result in a flawless clean build.

[GeeBee]

I've never done as much custom paint mixing as I am having to do on this build, but I like things to be as realistic as possible, working on the photo's I have, I mixed up the paint for the interior, this is the main colour, and will need masking off for the contrasting colours, I used Tamiya metallic blue and aluminium, thinned with lacquer thinners, looks good enough for me ....

Also worked on the body and some of the smaller parts, got them into primer, the body will get another coat of primer, this time it will be white, as the top coat is going to be light blue metallic

[GeeBee]

Also got a coat of paint on the engine ....

[GeeBee]

Humm,, the 1/1 car in your pics looks more like B5 bright blue to me. Must be the monitor. Good job, keep it going.

It could be the monitor or the photo's that I had printed out, but it was the engine colour and interior colour I was more interested in, the photo's are , UU-1 Bright blue poly, the photo's I have on the Charger are UU-1, and a photo of the VIN tag which read UU-1 for the body colour.