Lindberg Ford Crown Vic State Patrol kits

[SteveG]

You might think I went crazy painting a bunch of old Lindberg Crown Vic kits but these were already painted. These are the latest series of State Patrol kits recently released from Hawk/Lindberg.

You can pick from 6 states, Illinois, California, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabmama and Georgia or get them all as I did. More states are rumored to come.

There is also a 7th kit, an "Unmarked" verision which is painted white shown below.

Each kit includes the Code 3 MX7000 pre-colored light bar as shown on the box. The State cars all have an appropriate decal sheet. The front door molding is intact unlike the box art photo. As far a I can tell that's only an issue for the CHP car.

I've always enjoyed the prepainted models as a quick diversion from bigger projects. I'm plan to build a couple of these the first chance I get.

-Steve

Edited September 13, 2007 by SteveG

[Zoom Zoom]

I recently built the Georgia car; it was good mindless fun. The body is painted dark blue/white, but the white should really be a pale gray. They also didn't put number decals in the kit for the roof which should correspond w/the rear license plate. So it's not really 100% accurate, but it looks decent w/my GA Mustang and GA BMW patrol cars that I have built in the past. I may get the NC car to throw together.

[Billy Kingsley]

I would really love to see a New York State Police issue...I would have to get one or maybe even more of them.

I'm thinking right now that I may get the umarked one and see if I can adapt the decals from the old AMT Taurus kit, but I will give it some time to see if a NYS cruiser comes out first.

[ScaleCentral]

I'm probably the only one that isn't really happy with these kits. Tennessee's is messed up in a couple of spots. They never used the MX7000, the stripes are supposed to be equal widths of black and yellow, and the black state trooper for the sides is missing. Bob is right on the early '96 Crown Vics in that sometime in '95/'96 they switched from a pale gray to white. The decals however are for the '97 60th anniversary version. The lettering however should be gray, not white. The NCSHP car is only good for the 96. In 97 they changed the paint scheme to include silver at the bottom. On the CHP decals, the trunk should be yellow not gold. It looks like they just went by the old Chimneyville sheet. I may be nit picking, but I like my stuff to be accurate.

Nic

[Rob Hall]

I picked up one of the plain white ones and the CHP ones and ordered the Modelhaus steelies/w hubcaps for them. I figure the white one I'll fill the holes and do as an unmarked or detective car.

I've got a few of the original issue Ohio ones in my stash to build eventually...too bad Lindberg never retooled to do a '98+ model.

[SteveG]

I'm probably the only one that isn't really happy with these kits. Tennessee's is messed up in a couple of spots. They never used the MX7000, the stripes are supposed to be equal widths of black and yellow, and the black state trooper for the sides is missing. Bob is right on the early '96 Crown Vics in that sometime in '95/'96 they switched from a pale gray to white. The decals however are for the '97 60th anniversary version. The lettering however should be gray, not white. The NCSHP car is only good for the 96. In 97 they changed the paint scheme to include silver at the bottom. On the CHP decals, the trunk should be yellow not gold. It looks like they just went by the old Chimneyville sheet. I may be nit picking, but I like my stuff to be accurate.

Nic

I think the folks at Lindberg would be the first to admit that some compromises were made on those kits. If you want to share your opinion here's their customer service email address, feel free to use it. Lindberg Customer Service

For what it's worth, they have more versions coming. You can safely bet on a traditional black and white version. And I have been pushing for some updates as well.

Here's a couple of photos of my GSP build up in progress. I added some detailing to it. I'll post the completed photos first chance I get.

-Steve

[SteveG]

Here's a close up shot of the front interior.

The interior is molded in black plastic. I masked off the floor pan and gave all the interior parts a few coats of Modelmaster Insignia Blue Acryl. It's a flat military color, a good match for dark blue interiors. The divider was painted Steel Metalizer with the padding painted flat black.

I then picked out some button details on the equipment console using a toothpick and some red and white paint. I spent the most time on the dash, there is a decal for the gauges. The vents, radio and control areas are all painted flat black. I used some dark brown to simulate the fake wood trim strip across the dash.

Last, the CHMSL or "third brake light" got a coat of clear red over a steel base. All the interior detailing took just a few hours. I could easily add some more equipment but I wanted to show what can be done with just the kit parts.

-Steve