Early 60's FED (Front Engined Dragster)

[Bernard Kron]

This is the only surviving model from my first incarnation in car modeling as a teenager. I was rummaging through some old boxes last month when I found it. The pics are (obviously) “as isâ€. I don’t think I’ll restore this old glue bomb.

My recollection is that I used to buy a coupla Revell Tony Nancy dragster kits and glue the rails together to get a long enough wheelbase. The trouble is that dragster wheelbases were getting longer and longer literally month by month. I remember building a later version with what must have been a 186 to 200 inch wheelbase with a blue chassis and a blown hemi. I think it took three kits to get there! I remember it as being pretty fragile, too. Sadly, it’s gone now. This earlier version has a 5.21 inch wheelbase which works out to just over 130 scale inches

The body panels are made from index card stock, which was one of my favorite building materials back then (there was no plastic material available as I recall). I also remember building up body surfaces on my customs using an underpinning of toothpicks and plastic wood with a final veneer of modeling putty. This model once had a front wing which was airfoil shaped and which I also made from card stock. It was painted body color. The posts for the wing were radio aerials from my parts box. The little round stumps of these are still on the front cross member. I have no idea where the “Dominator†decal came from. It makes me laugh bow, but I’m sure at the time it was the subject of many a fantasy on my part!

My modeling hero in those days was my best friend who built stunningly accurate WWII fighter planes using reference books as his guide. His calling card was his tour de force camouflage jobs hand painted with a brush using Humbrol paints. He never, ever used decals for his markings. Simply awesome! The LHS’s were always all over him to leave them one of his models to display! I think it was from him that I developed my taste for a more realistic build, as opposed to the more fantastic customs of those days, a style I believe was imposed on us by the materials of the times. This style evolved into the Show Rod craze, both in the 1:1 world and in modeling world.

Maybe one of you modeling historians can date this build. If memory serves me the Tony Nancy Dragster was a pretty new kit at the time. I remember consuming quite a few. I used to pile up quantities of unused bodies because I went for that stripped down California weekend money racer look. Also, Pete Robinson’s ultra-lightweight dragsters were my inspiration for this build. Musta been early to mid 60’s sometime.

Thanx for lookin'.

B.

Edited April 30, 2008 by gbk1

[Raul_Perez]

Bernard,

That's a real "keeper"!! I really like the old "slingshot" style dragsters!! They just seem to scream DANGER!!

I wish that I still had some of my early builds from when I was young.

All you need now to make that one complete is an old barnyard diorama to sit it on!

Regards,

[lordairgtar]

Wow, my old builds no longer exist. It's great you have that. Yes, I would just leave it be, but repair the wheels and clean it a little.

[Harold]

Definitely this one is worth rebuilding. Think how great it will become using all the stuff you've learned since then.

[george 53]

Bernard,just fix that front wheel an let it go as is.It does really look like somethin that was found in an ol warehouse,dust an all!Hey, just build a diorama around it!

[Nick F40]

This is just awsome, I love this. Great surviver and I love slingshots.

This is just too cool!

[sdrodder]

fix it up alittle. Dont put a different egine in it but just restore it.

[outsider]

i'ld just fix the tire and build a dirorma around it. of all the ways you could fix it now its the way you used to build em that would be lost. it shows you were you've been and how far you've come in this hobby. i still have my very first model that my pop helped me build when i was a kid. its a 40 ford business coupe with a boss 429 litteraly wedged in it. rough as it is its one of my fav models.

[Bluzboy66]

What a cool reminder of your modeling past! I'd definitely leave that one as-is. I have a few very old builds that really bring back some great memories. I can practically remember the music I was listening to when I built them! Think 1972 or so.

Mike

[kasteer]

It looks COOL just like that.

If you rebuilt it / repaired it it would loose some of that coolness.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx everyone. You have no idea how pleased I was when it resurfaced.

The rear tires are glued to the display case (I think my mother did that!) so things immediately start to get complicated. The front axle is very thin and brittle. I'm not sure I could pin it. I'll have to think about that.

Basically, it's its own diorama, busted up display case. shrunken tires, faded chrome, dusty surfaces and all - and I didn't have to weather a thing!

[lordairgtar]

Perhaps maybe, get stuff to build a replica of it. Then you could have the original stay as is and the new to show what it wouyld be like built fresh.

[theflame]

Funny you should say that Gregg; I was just looking at this build thinking "hmmm, how hard would it be for me to build one just like it, but NEW?"

Thanks for sharing Bernard - got any more cool old plastic lying around?

[Bernard Kron]

Perhaps maybe, get stuff to build a replica of it. Then you could have the original stay as is and the new to show what it wouyld be like built fresh.

Funny you should say that Gregg; I was just looking at this build thinking "hmmm, how hard would it be for me to build one just like it, but NEW?"

Thanks for sharing Bernard - got any more cool old plastic lying around?

Unfortunately this old rail is a sole survivor. There’s no more where that came from.

If I did recreate the original I would have to build up my mega stash of old Revell Tony Nancy Dragster kits! They would love me on e-bay, that’s for sure.

Actually I do have what I think of as the logical successor to this ancient build in the works right now. It will have the stripped down look of those early 60's SoCal "money racers" that prowled LADS on the weekends:

That’s Mike Sorokin in the old Surfers digger, a money racer if there ever was one.

But my modeling chops have a ways to go before I can successfully completed something this naked and brutal and pull it off, so there will be a few intervening builds. If you want to see a master modeler in this style check out Roger "Ricemen" Lee at http://www.dragracingphotos.ws/riceman1.shtml . Also one of my favorite modeling sites: http://straightlinemodeler.org/ . Some of these guys are giants of the scratch builder's art!

This is Riceman’s build of the Surfers rail shown above:

[Raul_Perez]

Thanks for the links, Bernard!! Those guys are the Bill Geary of dragsters!!

[Bernard Kron]

...Those guys are the Bill Geary of dragsters!!

They soitenly are Ollie! Just dig the coloring on those mags on that Riceman build! Awesome. I dream of the day I can achieve that kind of realism! Dragsters are especially challenging I think because of all the textures and all the little parts that have to look to scale, not only overall, but with each other. Yikes! Oh well...

[theflame]

Do you use Alclad lacquers Bernard? They'll help no end in achieving those metal finishes...you need an airbrush though...