Scale-Master Posted March 9, 2015 Author Posted March 9, 2015 Good luck on finding one, I have only seen this one, and I think I bought it back in the '80s. These are the wheels and tires assembled.
slusher Posted March 10, 2015 Posted March 10, 2015 Who's Fred? Sorry about that. The wheels and tires look great...
dartman Posted March 10, 2015 Posted March 10, 2015 Those wheel/tire combo is just awesome.The hood is great too.
charlie8575 Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Looking at the photos I'm going to put this one right at 1982, a few months before it got totaled. It's death stemmed from the lower right ball joint going out and the control arm went through the tire, fortunately I was just pulling out so that was all the damage. I called for a flat bed and the driver said I needed to remove the driving lights or they would be removed forcibly, since I was only a few blocks from home I ran and got a couple wrenches. When I returned the car was in flames, a moron decided he could nurse it up the bed. Considering the control arm was embedded in the asphalt, I have no idea what logic he was using. When he tried to start it he flooded the side draft Webers fed by an electric fuel pump and then the car backfired. Dumass left the key on so the pump fed the fire plenty of gas. I was told flames came through the defroster vents and hit the idiot in the face. Served him right. I sued him won the case and bought the '73 Camaro with a few hundred left over. Geez. At least you'll still have a cool model. Charlie Larkin
Ron Hamilton Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 This build is excellent. I love where you are going with this one. Looking at it made me take a look at an MPC '72 Vega hatchback in my stash. I bought it from a club member at one of our meeting a few years ago. It looked to be unbuilt, but it was actually started. The previous owner was going to put a V8 in it from the kit, and cut the chassis pan per the instructions to accept it. However, due to the design of the kit, the car would have been ludacris at best, with a blown rat motor, with standard exhaust manifolds, no exhaust system, and everything else from the moulded in chassis, including the rear axle and single exhaust. Fortunately, the piece that was cut from the chassis was there, as well as the rest of the kit. I grafted the piece back into the chassis, as if I were going to do it with a 4 Cyl. engine. Years ago I did what I considered a pretty nice '75 Monza Street Machine (I may photograph it). This build may be a quickie, built as a stocker, or day two car. There was not a lot of speed parts for them back in the day, but a few were converted to a small block V8 car. I am very tempted to do it as a Replica Stock Car, using kit parts. I have a brochure with a lot of good information. In looking at this one, it is going to take quite a bit of work to get an acceptable fit of the hood and hatchback. This one has quite a bit of flash on it. The last time I built a Vega was in the early '70's, using the "Grumpy's Toy" race car kit, which I built as a street machine in Burgundy with a black interior. What was I thinking?
Lunajammer Posted March 14, 2015 Posted March 14, 2015 (edited) I've been wanting to model my 1:1 Kammback of 30-years (currently sitting in a farm yard) but I can't get past the stubby body of the F/C and don't have the ambition to correct it. Do you have any thoughts about lengthening behind the doors? Edited March 14, 2015 by Lunajammer
Maindrian Pace Posted March 14, 2015 Posted March 14, 2015 It looks to me like it's in the rear overhang and the angle of the C pillar - an easy fix.
Custom Hearse Posted March 14, 2015 Posted March 14, 2015 It's coming along nicely. Looking forward to seeing more.
crazyrichard Posted March 14, 2015 Posted March 14, 2015 whouw those wheels and tyres came out great !!
Scale-Master Posted March 15, 2015 Author Posted March 15, 2015 (edited) I've been wanting to model my 1:1 Kammback of 30-years (currently sitting in a farm yard) but I can't get past the stubby body of the F/C and don't have the ambition to correct it. Do you have any thoughts about lengthening behind the doors?The whole thing is proportionally short (not just behind the doors) and I decided from the start to not rework it in that regard. And the wheel wells, whoa.I'm looking at it as something to fill slot for the cars I've owned.I will fix the rear bumper and valence though, but I figure it still might look off a bit like the hood and cowl proportions in relation to the overall body.Now if I could just get a good '68 Vista Cruiser and an '06 Saturn Vue Redline I'd have all of them... Edited March 15, 2015 by Scale-Master
Scale-Master Posted May 22, 2015 Author Posted May 22, 2015 The rear valance is molded in one piece with no provision for the license plate. On the real car the rear valance is a two piece affair. The bumper is too tall and is also missing the detail where the plate should be. (Note how far the bumper fits to the right.) Additionally, the mounting points molded to the bumper are not centered. They fit the holes in the valance, but that doesn’t put the bumper in the middle either. I hogged out the holes and made new ones sleeved with brass. Then I cut out the areas on the bumper and valance to more closely resemble the real car.
Scale-Master Posted May 23, 2015 Author Posted May 23, 2015 Thanks Chris! I decided to go for a slammer instead of full detail on this model, at least for now… I scratched up this chassis with the thought that I might change my mind and go curbside later. Mostly made of sheet styrene, I repurposed some short-shot resin rims I cast for a 1/12 scale model for the inner wheel wells.
Scale-Master Posted May 23, 2015 Author Posted May 23, 2015 I made the Ansa exhaust tip out of brass and aluminum.
Scale-Master Posted May 23, 2015 Author Posted May 23, 2015 Mocking up the “suspension” and the stance.
mikemodeler Posted May 24, 2015 Posted May 24, 2015 I like how this is coming along Mark, I remember a neighbor having one of these brand new back in 1973, traded it off after 18 months for a '74 Z-28.
Zarana-X Posted May 24, 2015 Posted May 24, 2015 Your work is incredible! I don't think I've ever commented on it before, though. (Love your Hotwheels, too, btw)
Mooneyzs Posted May 24, 2015 Posted May 24, 2015 Mark... I am totally digging the stance and the wheels. Man this is sure a cool and neat build. Jesse... You need to build that Jungle Jim. that is cool
Scale-Master Posted May 29, 2015 Author Posted May 29, 2015 Thanks Guys! I started making the sunroof. I shaped and scored a piece of sheet styrene to make the outer frame. Since it will be a slammer, the glass area doesn’t have to be clear. I reused the “blank” I cut out of the body earlier and shimmed it on each of the four sides for a snug positive fit.
slusher Posted May 30, 2015 Posted May 30, 2015 Nice work on the sunroof Mark, love the wheels and stance by the way...
Scale-Master Posted May 30, 2015 Author Posted May 30, 2015 Thanks Carl. It's getting close to being prepped for paint already. The front bumper was not uniform on the ends so I reshaped it. The sprues fed into the top edge as well so I sanded all the chrome off when I cleaned it up. The ’73 Vega was unique from the ’71 & ‘72s in that the front bumper was moved three inches forward (to meet the 5mph impact laws) and a filler panel was added behind the bumper. I made the filler piece from sheet styrene and rechromed the bumper with BMF.
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