2006 Dodge Magnum SRT-8-----Update 7/7/07

[MrObsessive]

Getting back to the half @**ed molded manifolds.........I made a "border" around the perimeter of the manifold. This I filled in with epoxy so it at least gives the manifold some bulk. As I'm typing this the epoxy is still curing..........I want to make sure it's rock hard before painting.

Revell probably did this because the engine is not seen that well once it's mounted and the service cover is in place.......but it still looks cheap as ######!

Here's the engine mostly built up (except for the exhaust manifolds and the alternator). The block was painted with Krylon OSHA Safety Orange which is a dead on match for Chrysler Hemi Orange.

To complete the tailgate work I finished up the bottom part of the opening................the tailgate itself still closes flush (including the inner panel). I'm not going to paint the body until near the end because I want to make sure the interior sits right in relation to the reworked tailgate end, and that the chassis simply drops in with as little fiddliness as possible!

Thanks for lookin! More...................later!

[made007]

Getting back to the half a$ed molded manifolds.........I made a "border" around the perimeter of the manifold. This I filled in with epoxy so it at least gives the manifold some bulk. As I'm typing this the epoxy is still curing..........I want to make sure it's rock hard before painting.

Revell probably did this because the engine is not seen that well once it's mounted and the service cover is in place.......but it still looks cheap as ######!

Here's the engine mostly built up (except for the exhaust manifolds and the alternator). The block was painted with Krylon OSHA Safety Orange which is a dead on match for Chrysler Hemi Orange.

To complete the tailgate work I finished up the bottom part of the opening................the tailgate itself still closes flush (including the inner panel). I'm not going to paint the body until near the end because I want to make sure the interior sits right in relation to the reworked tailgate end, and that the chassis simply drops in with as little fiddliness as possible!

Thanks for lookin! More...................later!

your not the only one that hates half a$ed parts, ihate them too

[Mike]

Watching this come together is great! I may pick up the kit. It's gotten decent reviews as well.

[cruz]

Hey Bill, when you use the Alclad other than the chrome one, do you still use a black base first? I hear of some guys just shooting it straight on the part with no basecoat. As for me I used a black base after shooting aluminum on a part but it came out chromish like you see on this engines manifold, the valve covers are chrome...........

[MrObsessive]

Cruz, when I do items such as manifolds or exhausts, etc..............I just airbrush it straight out of the bottle. This gives it more of a natural metal finish than using the black undercoat first. Using a black undecoat for valve covers or wheels is a good idea because it gives a look of polished aluminum which are not always bright chrome on some vehicles.

[MrObsessive]

For those interested......................here's an example when Alclad is at its best for wheels with the black undercoat..................

My 2005 'Vette I did a while ago...........

I've seen 1:1 'Vette's with the more natural aluminum wheels, but I like the polished look better! Cruz your '57 is more of a mild custom so your manifold would be fine!

Edited August 8, 2007 by MrObsessive

[MrObsessive]

Bump....................Okay, the pics should be showing up now...................anyone have any trouble seeing 'em?

[Taxdude]

Hey Bill,

If you are looking for good looking bolts check these out

http://www.hlj.com/product/SAK4495

Fred

[cruz]

Bump....................Okay, the pics should be showing up now...................anyone have any trouble seeing 'em?

Looks like everything is back to normal, wouldn't like to miss this progress you are doing on this Magnum, great input and thanks for always sharing with us "Mortals"

[MrObsessive]

Meet the newest member of my model building arsenal! I picked this up yesterday from our club picnic. CPMCC member Larry Landis was selling these from his job (reconditioned) for only $65.00!! Of course I've already sprayed with it and it's great! It's a little on the noisy side..............but I only run it long enough to fill the tanks, and the volume of air that they hold will last a while for what I do.

It was time to get started on the interior...............not a lot of progress, but some things need fixing first..............

Here's a pic of the 1:1's interior..................note the cool red stitching..............

Now this is a first for me..................adding piping using Detail Master wire. The 1:1 has red stitching.................but there's no way to duplicate that in proper scale for it to look right, so this is the next best thing. I've added small diameter rod before to enhance piping on seats.............but that was styrene, so it was just a matter of gluing it on and painting the entire seat.

I'll need to put on some tiny drops of super glue to hold it in a couple spots.......after the seat is painted, I'll very lightly sand the piping to reveal the red. Thanks to Lyle Willits for giving me pointers on this detail!

And he was right!......................This is very time consuming doing this, but it's worth it...................only three more seats to go!

More to come!

Edited August 8, 2007 by MrObsessive

[MrObsessive]

I swiped this pic off the 'net to get an idea of the 1:1's underside and as I thought, the chassis has overspray from the sides. The car shown is actually a Charger Daytona, but Chrysler's LX rear wheel drivers are all pretty much the same underneath.

At this point the chassis is all done, 'cept for painting the wheelwells black and of mounting the wheels and tires. I won't put those on 'til near the end as I want to make sure everything fits together without much drama.

I did mock up the wheels and tires so far to get an idea of what the end result should be. One of the most irritating things to me when building is not gettting the ride height just so, and also the track of the wheels needs to be taken into account per the 1:1

That's all for now guys....................stay tuned!

Edited August 8, 2007 by MrObsessive

[bsoder]

Well Bill some might say obsessive!..I say your eye for the "details" really makes a big differance in the finished product That's going to be one fine Magnum...B

[drnitrus]

That's some top notch work right there!

[larrygre]

Hey Bill - great work, my friend. I cannot wait to see the finished product.

[Custom Hearse]

I decided to get a little more daring and cut out the molded grille opening. Just a little more clean up around the edges............and it'll be set for painting later.

Anyway, I used Alclad to paint what's supposed to be aluminum-----this stuff's great for realism!

More to come..............

Hey Bill! Nice work so far on the Magnum! I'm building one myself, as a Joplin P.D. car. I noticed you painted the intake aluminum.... I took a pic of the 1:1 Magnum, and the intake is black. Here's a couple of pics....

This is a 2007 Hemi, so it could be different from the 2006.... I painted mine the same as the JPD Magnum.

It looks silver for some reason....

Anyway, I thought you might want to know about it.

[MrObsessive]

Marshall, if you're building a garden variety Hemi, then yours would be correct. However, SRT-8 Hemi's (2006's and '07's) are painted as shown here in the pic.................

Mine won't have all the tiny hoses and such (this time! ) but I did some digging around on the engine (including a dealer brochure) before I shot the first coat.

The regular Hemi's would have the black manifold as yours does, but all of the 6.1 Hemis I have seen have the aluminum heads and manifolds and an orange block.

All the new Hemis are impressive just the same!

[Custom Hearse]

Thanks Bill! I'm learning new things every day!

[MrObsessive]

Just a short update this week..................with my working swing shifts for the next couple weeks, updates on this one may be sparse for awhile!

I tried the embossing powder technique suggested by James Tremblett (JTRACING) and it turned out great! I just sprinkled the powder on a section with white glue, and then let it dry. I have to paint the area...............but I wanted to make sure it's good and dry as I've not tried this before.

One nice thing about the embossing powder is that it doesn't float around in the air like flocking so it's nice in that regard. I would not recommend rubbing your eyes or your nose while applying this as things'll get mighty itchy!!

Here's a pic so far.......................

I'm going to airbrush the floor with Model Master Acryl Aircraft Black. This is a very dark shade of gray........but not pure black as the name may suggest.

The seats were another challenge as the piping/stitching was another first for me................

I mostly got the look I wanted, however the insets came out a little too bright. If it weren't for the piping, I'd strip them and do them over......but getting that piping on was a real pain in the rear and I don't want to hassle with it again! I gotta give credit to Lyle Willits for giving me pointers on how to get the piping on.

Actually though, I like the bright contrast as it looks better than the sea of grays which plagues way too many car interiors these days.

There's a couple spots that need touch up with paint...............but for the most part the seats are done. I'll add seatbelts after the side panels are in with PE buckles.

That's pretty much it for awhile. Hopefully I can get the whole interior done in the next week or so.........then it's on to the other half of the bodywork, filling in the sink marks and smoothing out the panels to get ready for paint.

Thanks for lookin'!

[crispy]

Bill, the piping looks great! I've always thought it added that extra touch to seats.

Can you specify what you used for piping and mounting it to the seat?

I've used floss in different colors and Testors clear parts glue to add piping. Then sprayed with a matte finish.

Thanks for sharing!

Chris

[MrObsessive]

Chris, the piping is Detail Master detail wire. It's almost hair thin........and it comes in a bunch of colors like blue, yellow, green, etc. It's also good for underhood details such as coil and solenoid wiring. I attached it by first driling a hole with a #79 drill bit...............and then using very tiny drops of CA glue in spots.

I then painted the seats-----------Once the paint is dry, you can take a toothpick and very lightly scrape away the paint on the wire.

The only caveat is you have to work slowly and delicately................this was no 1/2 hour and done step. What was nice about the seats is that there was already a slight groove in the side bolsters to lay the piping.

If you scratch some of the paint in spots, just touch it up with a fine brush. The paint I used was Tamiya's water based acrylics............thinned down with their thinner.

This was the next best thing to do as the 1:1 has red stitching...............there ain't no way I can duplicate that stitching in 1/25 scale!

[crispy]

Thanks Bill!

Here is a shot of my Miami Vice Daytona interior using my floss and clear glue method:

Packages of floss come in over 100 different colors and then some. 1 package of floss is around 39 cents and will last you an entire modeling life. Floss is stranded by three and I pull the strands apart for that extra thin piece as you mentioned.

Anyway, the results on your car are fantastic. I'm from the school of, "whatever works, go with it"!

Chris

[JTRACING]

nice work!!

[MrObsessive]

It's been a while since I posted an update! Here's some of the slow but sure progress on the Magnum................

Here's the completed dash.................not any trouble at all. I did add punched out lenses for the gauge faces. The top of the dash is painted Engine Black from Polly Scale. This has a nice sheen to it................not too glossy but just right for vinyl surfaces.

A couple shots of the nearly finished interior. I still want to make "B" pillar structures to get rid of the empty look of the model's interior when it's all done. I'm going to try and make seat belts also.

This interior is nice in that it almost snaps together in place. I have yet to add any epoxy to keep it together. Perhaps this was intended to be a snap kit in the beginning? Please pardon the dust!

Stay tuned for more!

[MrObsessive]

I keep puttin' it off, but it's time to get started on the body.................I got out my trusty Dynatron Putty and mixed it up accordingly, to tackle some of those nasty sink marks I see in different spots.

I applied this last night and let it sit--------it really bites into the plastic, especially if you scuff it up a bit.

I started to smooth things out on the "D" pillar------I applied tape to where I don't want my mini sanding block to distort some of the contours of the bodywork. Nice and smooth! I've taken a sanding block to the roof and went around the sunroof, and the area where the roof was notched for the original tailgate hinge. When it comes time for paint, I'll airbrush the body first with Future Floor Wax............this body like the '06 Mustang and '05 'Vette are notoriously prone to crazing with automotive paints!

One of the biggest things that drive this modeler crazy is the horribly distorted glass that comes from the manufacturers! That's one of the reasons I acetate my windows on a lot of my models.

I thought I'd try something different this time-----sand the outside of the glass with the foam block and the polishing cloths. As you can see in the pic below, this is the drivers side quarter windows that I polished out. A little more buffing will be needed to get rid of the scratches made.

I've also taken a file to the perimeter of the glass so it fits more flush to the Magnum's bodywork. Looking at the box art car, it's rear glass sits in a little too far, and 1:1 Magnum's rear glass sits flush with the body.

This is the untouched passenger side and you can see the difference by how the light reflects! I'm gonna try this on the windshield...........otherwise I'll make one from acetate.

Hopefully, I can get 'er primered and painted this week........Don't know if I'll have it done in time for the September Showdown......................Maybe......

Thanks for lookin!

Edited September 10, 2007 by MrObsessive

[Daniel Peterson]

Looking great, Bill!

I'm hoping to see it at the show this weekend, but if not, at least Git-r-Done in time for the next issue of Classic Plastic!