'68 Plymouth Fury. Mass. State Police UPDATE 8/25/16

[Rdkingjay]

Good morning all,

I have decided to finally pull this kit out of the closet and give it a try.  It is a re-pop Johan '68 Fury police car, that I will build in Mass. State Police livery. To the best of my knowledge, we never had these in our fleet as marked cruisers, but as far as unmarked ones go, who knows, our fleet was all over the map during this period.  I will be mating the chassis, suspension and drive train from the Revell '68 Special Edition Charger to the Fury. As most of you know, the Furys chassis has molded in suspension and exhaust components, lacking detail and making detail painting a real bear. The first mod came to the Fury's interior bucket, which had to be cut to fit the charger chassis. The fortunate part is that the cut-outs are hidden by the back seat and they are also hidden, once installed on the chassis. Secondly, due to the fury not having the typical "boxy" engine compartment, I had to remove and greatly modify the Furys wheel houses from the Fury chassis and mate them to the Charger chassis, after closing up the top of the Charger chassis' front sub-frame rails. The Charger chassis also fell short of the fury body in the trunk floor area, so that was rectified with sheet plastic and styrene strips. Lastly, the Chargers rocker panels will be widened to better meet the Fury's body.  

Its a fair amount of work and I'm not sure if using the '64 330 chassis again would have been the better choice, but I like the continuity of everything being 1968 this time.  More to follow and thanks for looking.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Rdkingjay

[Foxer]

Yeah for the Grey and Blue! I have been wanting to do a Statie for awhile ... have the decals for years!

Will be watching. A lot of nice work already on the chassis!

[charlie8575]

It is possible to have had one or two as an unmarked. 

I know the first marked Fury was the '69- that was also the first 4-door used by the MSP in livery. 

The State Police was mostly a Ford outfit- I remember seeing pictures of a 1946 or '47 Chevy that was marked, but practically all the rest were Ford Tudors. 

The State Police also was very slow to adopt automatic transmissions- most, if not all the marked cars, anyway (and possibly the others) were 3-speeds through 1966.

Charlie Larkin

[Nitro Neil]

Nightmares, it'll just give me nightmares.

After living in New Hampshire for 20 years and "meeting" a few of our pleasant and polite State Troopers I can safely say that I don't miss the Mass. Troopers at all. Good luck with the model.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Nitro Neil

[Drake69]

This reminds me I need to start work on my Virginia State Police vintage cars. I still need to find a Johan vintage Fury though.

Can't wait to see how the Fury builds up!

[misterNNL]

Nice chassis swap,a lot of work but worth the effort.Where are you sourcing your decals?

[Rdkingjay]

Tom, the decals will be those that are for the most part, readily available thru most decal sources. The era correct license plates will likely be custom made, as the color and style of the plates changed frequently during this period. Will have to check my stash first though, as I may already have them. Just a couple of quick updates, the basic chassis is shown in its final finish, save for outfitting. I attempted to give it that factory oversprayed look, while also trying to present neat and clean detail. It was sprayed in a gray primer first.  I then fogged in the French Blue along the rocker areas, letting it overspray onto the passenger floor area. I then sprayed semi-gloss black to the front subframe and wheel house areas and flat black to the rear sub-frame areas to simulate under-coating. Some of the semi-gloss black areas where not completely covered underneath, just fogged, as was the undercoating. For an area that is not typically taped off, I used a lot of tape to "guide" the oversprayed areas. The next photo shows the changes to the front spindles to achieve the proper wheel base. The pins were removed and moved forward, necessitating the relocation of the brake caliper to the front of the spindle so they will align properly with the front discs. Lastly, all four rims are complete, with wheel weights and valve stems.  These are the Charger rims with the Fury kits hub caps. At this time the chassis is completely outfitted. Just nit-picking it and doing touch ups.  Photos will be posted soon.  Thanks for looking. 

 

Edited May 23, 2016 by Rdkingjay

[slusher]

Some really nice chassis work. 

[Dogfish_7]

Totally agree!

[Rdkingjay]

Outfitted chassis.  (aside from forgetting to glue the torsion bars down)

[disabled modeler]

Very nice...!  I always liked this kit.

[jefropas]

Very nice, I've got a stash of Fury's myself waiting to have life breathed into them. I appreciate the detail!

 

Jeff

[slusher]

Engine and chassis looks fantastic..

[Maindrian Pace]

What a nice job, the exhaust manifolds - among other things, look great.

[peekay]

This is shaping up beautifully!

[Rdkingjay]

Basecoat paint is finally complete. A minor touch-up is needed on the passenger side quarter where it meets the trunk, but an easy repair. Next step is to buzz the whole car down, BMF it and add decals, prior to clear coating. I tried a new process for the "Plymouth" scripts on this car. While it was still in primer, I added BMF to the hood and trunk scripts, than, following each coat of paint, took a tamiya q-tip and a dab of lacquer thinner and removed the paint to reveal the chrome letters. I am very pleased with the results. Thank you Brian at Hobby Emporium for showing me this little trick. I hope you are all well and thanks for looking.

[Mopar - D]

Nice paint I like how you have this one coming together. 

[Rdkingjay]

Finished the BMF and decals today. Following some minor touch-ups and detail painting, I should be ready to clear it this weekend. 

[SteveG]

Nice work Jay !!!  one day I'll have to build one of those Fury's instead of robbing them for parts.

Steve

[slusher]

Great paint,foil, and decals...

[charlie8575]

Very nice.

Where did you get the MSP decals?

Charlie Larkin

[Rdkingjay]

Charlie, there are a couple of co.s making them, but these are custom made decals that I had in my stash.