MGL Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 (edited) Tonight I started a model I've been wanting to build for years,The Vanishing point Challenger. My camera battery is dead so no pictures of my progress yet but all Ive done so far is clean up some parting lines and study the parts. I started with the Revell Streetburner 70 Challenger kit. The engine looks like its a bit generic so I will put it together tomorrow and see how it looks and If I'm not happy with it I have the engine from the 68 Dart I can use. It looks like if you were building the T/A version you would still use this same almost a big block engine so if that's your plan you will want to source a better 340. The seats also look a bit wrong for the car, here are some 70 R/T seats with the herringbone pattern: And the back seats: I'm not up to date on all the ways Dodge offered the R/T in 1970 but Kowalski's car had a black rather than argent grill surround, and no chin spoilers. It also had bumperettes, I'm not sure how I am going to add those: The taillight surround was body color: It also looks like the tires were the Good Year poly glass tires, the parts pack tires should be a good fit for this. I've got a couple of herringbone patterns saved for decals along with a few other important items like these: I'm looking forward to this build, as always your comments and suggestions are welcome, and if you've built this kit before and some advice I'm all ears. Although it should be mentioned I'm not a complete rivet counter so I will let the not so obvious slide. Heck, most people that look at my models have never even heard of Vanishing Point or can tell a 70 Challenger from a 2010 for that matter. Edited September 15, 2015 by MGL update Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The dood Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 My favorite car, my favorite car movie and I always loved hippie chick's on motorcycles. Will be following Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72 Charger Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Great movie . I like the bit at the end where they crashed a Camaro into the D8h's In interested I will be watching Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atmobil Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Cool project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseldog1970 Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 (edited) For the original movie...Dodge sent over 5 Alpine White Challengers for the production company to use for the movie, 4 of them were 440 4spd cars, the fifth was a 383 auto. They actually used the 383 car to tow the camaro into the two D8's at the end of the movie. If you wanted to build one to represent the car from the Fox remake, you could use a HEMI motor, they showed one on film, but it was actually in a Charger...different air cleaner. Good luck...can't wait to see more!! Edited September 2, 2015 by dieseldog1970 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 What a cool subject.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I loved the movie (I've been a Challenger fan for eons), but didn't care for the all white finish. Still, if you want to do it up like the movie, it certainly needs to be white. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemopar70 Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Nice project!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 My favorite car, my favorite car movie and I always loved hippie chick's on motorcycles.Yeah, especially when they had no clothes on.That was a nice car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGL Posted September 5, 2015 Author Share Posted September 5, 2015 My wife snuck up on me. The interior is almost done, The houndstooth pattern is a bit big but it doesn't look hateful in the car. The battery and washer bottle are done, I put a mopar battery decal on the side of the battery. The grill still needs the decal and I still have some BMF work to do on the window trim. The hood trim was short so I glued a strip of evergreen to it and sanded until it came correct. Still a lot of odds and ends to do and I am waiting on some distributors from Morgan Automotive Details. I'm still not sure what is going to be the best way to fill in the black in the hood scoops as they have no guidelines. I'm leaning towards black sharpie. I couldn't find Alpine white so I used what used to be called GM code 10, it was always a close match before and under the lights in my garage it feels about right. I didn't notice this car has power windows until I started detailing the door panels but I am going with it. Thanks for looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The dood Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 Looking good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustybill1960 Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 I like what your doing Mark Looks to be a very fine build I have an AMT kit waiting in the stash for the same build Thank You for sharing Later Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGL Posted September 6, 2015 Author Share Posted September 6, 2015 Thanks Gene, Russell, I haven't looked at the AMT kit, if your going to do full engine detailing the revel kit isn't bad but it does have an axle running through the block. You could do away with that easily enough but I left it and so far it looks like it won't be an issue. Other than that the Revell kit has everything except the bumperettes on the front bumper and the seats are the wrong pattern. and it would have been nice to get a couple extra R/T decals on the sheet. Here's what I did today. The parts pack Polyglass tires are an exact match to the movie car, the side with the tire size is out in the movie. The kit has paddle wheels that don't quite fit the rear tires so I filed a groove were the bead should be on the front side. Then I bent some angled evergreen stock to get a curve. I glued the evergreen to the back side of the wheel to create a back bead. After some MM steel paint the backside doesn't look to hateful and the tires are secure instead of flopping around on the wheel. I also found some disc brakes in my parts box for the front. I'm pretty happy with my pistol grip shifter, I had tried to BMF the chrome part but ended up snapping the pistol grip off and had to glue it back together so I painted it instead. The steering wheel is notched and I didn't realize it wasn't lined up until I put it in the dash. The body is all done, just waiting on the engine. Still working on the R/T decals for the fenders, tomorrow I will attempt to make the bumperettes for the front and do all the engine details I can while I wait on the distributor. And I will try to tackle that black inside the hood scoops. That's where I am now, also looking at my next project, thinking about the 41 Plymouth stock looking but with a Hemi since I really don't want to spend days doing research. Thanks for looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 Fantastic work Mark. Real nice progress... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGL Posted September 7, 2015 Author Share Posted September 7, 2015 My first attempt at painting the black in the hood scoops ended badly and in trying to wipe out the black with denatured alcohol I wiped through the clear. I touched up the paint, tried again with a fine point sharpie and recleared the hood and it came out much better. But I didn't take a picture yet. I took some evergreen stock and glued it together leaving the last 1/2 inch unglued, then I started filing and sanding. Bumperettes! Made a heater hose. I've seen pictures of restored cars with both hoses black, both red and one red and one black. I'm not sure what the car would have had new so I went with one each. I also ran a PVC hose, a throttle cable, and a fuel line. That's about all I can do until my order comes in from Kris Morgan. I ordered 10 distributors from him but he makes such a nice product I'm sure he's busy so I'm not going to sweat it, besides I only ordered them 6 days ago. Thanks for looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drive4th Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 outstanding work Mark! the VP challenger will always be one of the baddest cars around. Even though it wasn't anything special, it showed how much attitude and general badassness it could throw at you and the cops keep it up, looking forward to completion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Body really looks cool. Nice goin'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Hamilton Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Looks very nice. Don't forget to Bare Metal the side window drip mouldings. The VP Challenger R/T had them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang1989 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 (edited) What can you say here? The work simply speaks for itself. Thumbs up Mark! Edited September 8, 2015 by mustang1989 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGL Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 Looks very nice. Don't forget to Bare Metal the side window drip mouldings. The VP Challenger R/T had them.All the times I looked at this car I never noticed. I just looked at a couple of pictures and you can see the sun reflecting off the chrome. Thank you Ron, good catch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lghtngyello03 Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Great looking build so far. I have this kit in my stash..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGL Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Thanks for the comments, I got the BMF on the drip rails and the R/T decals for the fender done but in looking at the kit box Scott posted above I realized I forgot the 440 magnum decals for the hood. All that's left is that, the distributor, and final assembly. My local hobby shop sells Parts by Parks distributors and wire, in fact I just used one on the 41 Plymouth I plan on finishing tomorrow, but with this one being right out front and not hidden under an air cleaner I want to wait on the MAD distributor. Sorry, no pictures today, not that there's much to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Looking forward to seeing it under glass.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGL Posted September 15, 2015 Author Share Posted September 15, 2015 (edited) The chassis and the body on this Revell kit don't match up too well. After ensuring the window unit was seated all the way, and the interior was also seated all the way, the chassis plate hung down about 1/8 below the body. I shaved a bit off the bottom of the rear window and that brought everything up a little. I then bent the tabs on the back of the interior tub and shaved them down some for another small gain. Then a shaved as much as I dared off the mating surfaces of the interior tub and chassis plate until it came correct. The distributor is in and I printed a copy of one of the movie posters for the display box. I am moving this over to under glass now ( http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/105808-vanishing-point-challanger/ ). Thanks for looking and for all the kind words and encouragement. Edited September 15, 2015 by MGL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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