Fixing The Revell Aar 'cuda.

[Darin Bastedo]

To Fix this you will need a Monogram '71 'Cuda, A razor saw and an accurate measuring device.

In the first step you must carefully measure. For those of you who prefer eyeball engineering, try to remember that it was eyeball engineering that got us in this situation.

1. Take the Revell '70 Body and at the front measure and mark exactly 30mm from the center line of the car on eash side of the hood.

2. at the fire wall measure 32mm from the center line and mark it.

3. Draw a line from the front marks to the rear marks.

4. Along the outside top edge of the fender. measure foward from the door line exactly 5mm and mark it.

5. From the rear door line measure rearward up the fender edge exactly 40mm and mark it.

6. Draw a line across the tulip panel to connect the two rear marks

So far it should look like this;

7. Now take the Monogram '71 body and repeat steps 1 through 6 except that in step 4 the measure should be 7mm on the Monogram body. When you are done you should the body should look like this;

Now it's time to do some heavy carnage on the bodies with a razor saw. On the Revell '70 Body cut away the fenders sides of the body, leaving the inside edge of the fenders the roof , the top edge of the doors and the tulip panel.

Next do just the opposite to the Monogram '71 body. You should end up with a huge hole in the body the same shape as the piece you have left over from the Revell '70 Body.

You will have to carefully trim and shape the Revell piece some to fit back into the Monogram body. when you test fit the leading edge of front of the Revell piece will stick out some from the Monogram body that is ok as you can just trim that off after you assemble the pieces. Using your favorite glue, put it all back together. It should look like this;

Here is some real 'cudas for to compare our work to;

Is it perfect? nope not by a long shot, but it did fix the most noticable flaws in both kits. the mods you see in the above post took less than 1.5 hours while watching the movie "Hitch" tonight. That includes taking photos for the post. Most of you should be able to do this in an evening.

Still to be done is fitting the front and rear panels and filling the fender vents modifying the chassis. I'll show you these in parts 4 & 5.

I hope this helps.

Darin Bastedo

[Harry P.]

Very clever! Sure, if you have the talent you can do this sort of work and create a passably accurate body.

However, there are a lot of modelers who don't have the skill necessary to perform this kind of major surgery.

But the bigger point is this: This is a NEW KIT! We shouldn't have to practically remake the whole body ourselves in order for it to be right! That was Revell's job!!!

[Harry P.]

And Revell could also have sold us a bar of soap in a box, called it a scale model AAR 'cuda, and printed a disclaimer on the box stating that for maximum realism, the builder may have to modify the bar of soap a bit!!!

I don't mean to bash Revell, but in my opinion, if the product you're selling is supposed to be an accurate scale model of a full scale car, your scale model should be just that: an accurate depiction of the real thing. There's no excuse for marketing a kit that's this bad. I understand business and monetary decisions played a part in this, but as a potential end-user of this product, I expect better. The point isn't that I could fix it and make it right...the point is, it should have been right in the first place. That goes for any model, not just this one.

I'm not a big fan of the "just be glad we have a model of (fill in the blank) at all" school of thought. Just my 2 cents...

[Zoom Zoom]

Don't worry Harry, I feel much the same way with this one since it's far from a grail...I've got enough of the good 1/25 scale 'cuda stuff to keep me busy. I expect better from Revell, because I know they are capable of better. Much better.

[Darin Bastedo]

Very clever! Sure, if you have the talent you can do this sort of work and create a passably accurate body.

However, there are a lot of modelers who don't have the skill necessary to perform this kind of major surgery.

But the bigger point is this: This is a NEW KIT! We shouldn't have to practically remake the whole body ourselves in order for it to be right! That was Revell's job!!!

I agree with you whole heartedly Harry. My rant on "eyeball engineering" was partly (mostly?) aimed at the model manufacturers and the resin aftermarket. The only choice Revell had for making an accurate 1970 'Cuda was to do an all new tool. The fact that they didn't resulted in problems that given the limitations of the tool, were impossible to avoid. I'm hoping they treat this as a learning experience, and the next time they are faced with this decision they remember this one.

That said the odds of us getting a better 'Cuda from anyone anytime soon it looks as though we are stuck with what we have here. The good news though is aside from the obvious body issues, the engine, exhaust and interior look really good. Now the typical weekend modeler may not want to go through all this cutting and swapping, but if you have been desperate to build an AAR 'Cuda, this is a way to do it, and all the stuff you need are currently available.

More good news is you can use the same kitbash meathod to build a more accurate Monogram '71 'Cuda, and get rid of the ugly roof on that kit. Sometimes the manufacturers drop the ball. It's up to us to pick it up and get it back into play. By the way what I've shown here doesn't take talent. if you follow the instructions you can do this. The only special talent I think I've displayed is being able to figure out the best places to cut to get everything to line up. This would be a good project to try to lean some of the skills involved.

[Harry P.]

I'm hoping they treat this as a learning experience, and the next time they are faced with this decision they remember this one.

What they learn from this one is totally dependent on us. If the kit bombs, they might realize they made a mistake. If the kit sells well, they might take something altogether different from it, and "reward" all of us eager buyers with more bad product! Time will tell...

[scubadiver411]

The good news though is aside from the obvious body issues, the engine, exhaust and interior look really good. Now the typical weekend modeler may not want to go through all this cutting and swapping, but if you have been desperate to build an AAR 'Cuda, this is a way to do it, and all the stuff you need are currently available.

So, if everyone is complaining about the roof line, how about making convertables out of them ?? Is there a resin cast of a '70 Cuda convertable boot available ?? Also, did they ever make an AAR 'Cuda convertable ??

[Harry P.]

More likely that if the kit bombs, R-M would conclude that...The audience for 70s muscle car kits is dwindling, so they'd better turn out more "Donks" kits for the kiddies.

More donks?

But seriously, though...

When it comes to model cars, it's funny how we as consumers eagerly buy sub-par products and try our best to justify our decision because we're afraid that if we don't buy them, the manufacturers will stop making any more product at all. I don't think aircraft or armor guys are nearly so willing to accept bad products. I wonder how it came to be that car modelers are the softies of the scale modeling world?

[Nick F40]

I agree 100% Harry!!!!!!!

We are so starved for good tooling that we'll accept horse@#$% & apologize for the model companies & try to make it acceptable. No wonder we get shafted time & time again with crappy tooling.

Ding Ding Ding, I also agree with you fellas. They keep on giving this bad stuff either though we will buy it.

Edited February 22, 2008 by Nick F40

[MikeMc]

I DID NOT buy this one $$$$$ talks bulls**t walks so I ran

[darquewanderer]

So, if everyone is complaining about the roof line, how about making convertibles out of them ?? Is there a resin cast of a '70 Cuda convertible boot available ?? Also, did they ever make an AAR 'Cuda convertible ??

No convertibles were ever made into AARs by the factory. But don't let that stop you from building a phantom AAR convertible.

Darin, This is great. Looking forward to the next installment.

Edited March 10, 2008 by moparmaniac

[Darin Bastedo]

I've finall decided what to do with my "fixed" AAR 'Cuda

[george 53]

Darrin, I for one am NOT afraid to cut up plastic, and if you could show the chassis mods you mentioned I'D surely appericiate it. I DID use the hood an sundry items from the Revell model on a 70 MPC Cuda to build myself a better one than Revell gave us, but I'd like ta try ta fix the body that I had left over. I'll even buy the Monogram 71 kit just to try it.

[DanielG]

Aircraft and armour guys also hate imperfections in kits and if anything are even more anal in 'getting it right'! You only have to check out the mountain of photo-etch and resin after market stuff to get the gist.

[Blake Rogers]

Darin great idea and i can't wait to see urs done!!!!. now to me this is a great idea but i am not putting my AAR in a show or anything like it so to me i wont do it for now anyways. but not for the fact i think it is a waste of time not by a long shot but to me it not that big of a deal i mean i can see the differences in the model body compared to the 1:1 body's but its just a model man . once i get the level of craftsmanship that most of you guys can produce then ill have no problem doing so. i have been away for the hobby for a good few years and mostly built these things called gundams there easy to put together i still build them . so for now i want to focus on mostly out of the box builds and learning tips on scratch building things which i know this does fall in to that area but there other things first that i want to do , like how to get better at painting and wreathing making resin parts etc.

but all this a side great work man don't think for a second that i don't care about what you have done to this kit to me you have shown us how to do it the right way.

Edited March 25, 2010 by moparfan426

[Len Woodruff]

Darrin this is a great candidate for a resin caster!