1981 Dodge Diplomat Medallion Four Door Sedan

[RACINE ISHRAQUR RAZA]

1981 Dodge Diplomat Medallion Four Door Sedan painted in Day Star Blue Poly in 1/24 scale. This is a Motormax die cast that I took apart and detailed. Completely painted engine bay using a combination of spray paint & brush paint, Decals made by Rays Kits based in the Netherlands, a few scratch built brackets, clamps, wiring, and hoses added, all chrome trim that Motormax originally painted silver were covered in Bare Metal Foil, completely painted interior with full carpeting, and hood vents highlighted with dilluted black paint, hood insulation, floor painted and detailed, and finally made brake lines with thin metal wires.

Installed roof liner, sun visors, straps, and dome lamp for the interior. The door inserts have plush carpeting at the bottom and I added windshield tint & seat belts. In Canada these were called Plymouth Caravelle Salon. These interiors are nicely crafted by Motormax. You can separate the front and rear door inserts which makes detailing them quite easy. I sprayed on simulated dust on the floor pieces to give the appearance that the car was driven for a while after it left the showroom. With a little bit of work these basic models can be turned into highly detailed models.

[Jim B]

Very nice job detailing that diecast. Well done. 

[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[RACINE ISHRAQUR RAZA]

Thanks for the compliment! Much appreciated!

[MeatMan]

Nice work.
I have that DC, in fact its the only one I have.

[Danno]

Very nicely done! 

I drove a Diplomat in that very color (but lighter blue interior) back in its relatively 'new' day [one year old]. Same full size wheel covers, trim, and whitewalls. It was my assigned take-home car:  I was a sheriff's detective supervisor, on-call 24/7.

It was a nice car. Didn't look like a 'cop car.'  (I inherited it from the detective captain when he got a newer car.) It differed in appearance from your model only by a small Motorola antenna on the right side behind the rear window.  

[RACINE ISHRAQUR RAZA]

@DannoThanks! That's awesome! I enhanced the appearance of a similar die cast vehicle in Royal Canadian Mounted Police(RCMP) livery which I'll post here another day. I think you'll enjoy seeing that model car. 

[slusher]

Super Nice!

[ncbuckeye67]

Very nicely done! A friend of mine had one that used to be a state highway patrol car. The speedometer went up to 160 mph!

[swede70]

Neat work - thanks for sharing.  With regards to Ray's Decals, did you opt for one of the Volare Super Coupe or R/T sheets?  Neat underhood detail you've added - far better and more elaborate than what I've attempted.  

Attached would be some images of a Motor Max Diplomat which I tried to do as an A38 police package.  Not as daring as what you've worked up, although I can share that the wheels and ventilated center caps are Fireball Modelworks items, the tires old 1:24th Monogram Goodyear GT Radials (likely from a '70 Challenger T/A release but dating back to their '78 Corvette) with an inner lip ground out, while the interior paint is SEM interior refinish aerosol.   I just filed off the Motor Max wheels until the face/front was thin enough to accommodate the new rim detail set atop each, whereas grinding the outer diameter to hand fit each to the new vinyl tires was a knuckle busting adventure and the hardest aspect of what was done below.

Finishing up, the bumper fill panels were painted silver as was a practice here by departments running these cars in-service long ago.  I didn't try foil, not much was done with the interior but for rubber mat floors, while maybe I flooded the front turn signals with amber paint to make that detail a bit more prominent.  The reverse lamps are just sections of white decal stock overlaid onto the tail light castings.  The six-slot wheels might also have been from the 1:24th Monogram '70 Roadrunner - I can't remember and cannot be sure.  Hoping to see your RCMP effort soon so that more might be learned.  I half-wonder if the traverse torsion bar set present on the MPC Volare kit/promo could be grafted into/onto the chassis?  Maybe too much work for too scant a result, but just pondering matters.  Thanks...

Mike K./Swede70

Edited February 9 by swede70

[RACINE ISHRAQUR RAZA]

@swede70Thanks for sharing and your model looks nice too! For decals I have one of his MOPAR Engine Bay Decals sheet.

I like your idea of using parts from the MPC Volare kit/promo to make this MotorMax model more realistic. I might like to try that one day.