NASCAR MODEL TIP by MR NASCAR
Building a NASCAR 2005-2006 Charger from the REVELL INTREPID Kit!

(Rehash from my FUSION site): "For reasons that are perfectly valid from a business standpoint, but very frustrating to us NASCAR model builders, neither REVELL nor AMT has opted to kit the 05/06 Charger or the 06 Fusion, since the bulk of their sales are Jeffie/Junior models. Again, one wonders if this isn't a chicken/egg situation.... Hard to believe there's a bigger market for some of the subjects they keep foisting off on us.. but a lot of those are reissues - minimal investment...."
I then outlined an approach to build a more accurate FUSION body, using the Intrepid and Taurus kits. (Click Here to check it out...). Presented here is my work on a Revell Intrepid body to come up with a speedway version of the Charger, to complement the intermediate version that was offered by Modern Motorports (is it still available?)... Inspiration for this came from Paul Colterman, a fellow NASCAR nut and member of Group 25, who wandered into the January 2007 Club meeting with an Intermediate Body version he'd done that knocked these old socks off...I had to have a go at one of those, but didn't want to duplicate Paul's work. So my objective became to try and capture the "shovel-nose" look of the speedway cars - I like that look - it reminds me of the old CAN AM Lolas and Porsches of the early '70's... now those were RACECARS!!!!

Step 1 I started with the Intrepid body, and glued some Evergreen square rod in place to roughly duplicate the grille and opening of the Charger. It's usually about here the thought occurs:"Well, there's another kit down the tubes..."

Step 2 Undeterred, I used a combination of crazy glue and baking soda to fill in the major gaps, and grind it all into shape with my Dremel tool (I would NEVER try this project without one of those...) I also began to apply skim coats of TAMIYA Putty, once I thought the lines were getting close...

Step 3 As well as building up the nose, you need to grind away a lot of the plasic where the headlight decals go, to simulate the contours on the Charger body. I actually nearly ground right though the body, and had to build it up from behind with my Cyano-baking soda blend...

Step 4 Now its just a matter of putty/sand/file.putty/file.sand... you get the picture, until you get the contours you want. It helps to occasionally apply a coat of primer to allow you to easier assess how the shapes are, look for obvious defects, and see how good your bilateral symmetry is... it also makes for cool swirly patterns when you sand most of it away again and start over...

Step 5 While waiting for layers of putty and cyano/bakingsoda/primer to harden up front, you can start on the tail end. You need to reshape the c-pillar by adding some sheet plastic fillets to reflect the Charger side window shape, and you'll need to increase the kick-out of the rear bumper to duplicate the current body styles. I took the easy way out, just cut up each side just at the rear on each side of the body, and bent it out. I inserted hunks of styrene to keep the cut wedged open until my cyano/baking soda blend hardened in place, I also added extra strips to the rear bumper to increase the kick-out. This required some bodywork on the TV panel to blend it all smoothly...

Step 6 Now you'r back to putty/sand/putty to smooth everything out... keep on going, the end result will be worth it...

Step 7 At this point I decided I'd overdone the "shovel-nose" look, so I started gradually filling it back in to better match references.

Step 8 I also realized I needed to add a front valence strip to match the actual car. It was amazing how much that cleaned up the look of the nose. Inspired I continued my putty/sand/putty routine.

Step 9 And here was the finished product, pretty well at the point where I was happy with it. I decded to approach Randy Frost at Perry's Resin to cast it for me, so I wouldn't need to go thru all this again. The body you see here was turned over to Randy a couple montha ago to be cast in resin.

The body pictured below, and at the top of this page, is one of Randy's resin pieces. We cut a deal that will allow him to offer these thru Perry's Resin, as he did with the Taurus a couple years back.. Of course Randy took a look at it then spent a couple weeks "cleaning it up" before he committed it to resin... To find out what his production plans are, contact Randy through the Perry's Resin website (click here).
Now all I need to do is decide what Charger(s) I want to build... I got blindsided when the cars in the 07 Bud shootout turned out to be different from this, but I've worked up an '07 version using one of the resin bodies, but that's "Another Stooory...." (Click Here...)

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Step 1		I started with the Intrepid body, and glued some Evergreen square rod in place to roughly duplicate the grille and opening of the Charger. It's usually about here the thought occurs:"Well, there's another kit down the tubes..."
Step 2		Undeterred, I used a combination of crazy glue and baking soda to fill in the major gaps, and grind it all into shape with my Dremel tool (I would NEVER try this project without one of those...) I also began to apply skim coats of TAMIYA Putty, once I thought the lines were getting close...
Step 3		As well as building up the nose, you need to grind away a lot of the plasic where the headlight decals go, to simulate the contours on the Charger body. I actually nearly ground right though the body, and had to build it up from behind with my Cyano-baking soda blend...
Step 4		Now its just a matter of putty/sand/file.putty/file.sand... you get the picture, until you get the contours you want. It helps to occasionally apply a coat of primer to allow you to easier assess how the shapes are, look for obvious defects, and see how good your bilateral symmetry is... it also makes for cool swirly patterns when you sand most of it away again and start over...
Step 5		While waiting for layers of putty and cyano/bakingsoda/primer to harden up front, you can start on the tail end. You need to reshape the c-pillar by adding some sheet plastic fillets to reflect the Charger side window shape, and you'll need to increase the kick-out of the rear bumper to duplicate the current body styles. I took the easy way out, just cut up each side just at the rear on each side of the body, and bent it out. I inserted hunks of styrene to keep the cut wedged open until my cyano/baking soda blend hardened in place, I also added extra strips to the rear bumper to increase the kick-out. This required some bodywork on the TV panel to blend it all smoothly...
Step 6		Now you'r back to putty/sand/putty to smooth everything out... keep on going, the end result will be worth it...
Step 7		At this point I decided I'd overdone the "shovel-nose" look, so I started gradually filling it back in to better match references.
Step 8		I also realized I needed to add a front valence strip to match the actual car. It was amazing how much that cleaned up the look of the nose. Inspired I continued my putty/sand/putty routine.
Step 9		And here was the finished product, pretty well at the point where I was happy with it. I decded to approach Randy Frost at Perry's Resin to cast it for me, so I wouldn't need to go thru all this again. The body you see here was turned over to Randy a couple montha ago to be cast in resin.

NASCAR MODEL TIP by MR NASCAR Building a NASCAR 2005-2006 Charger from the REVELL INTREPID Kit!

NASCAR MODEL TIP by MR NASCAR
Building a NASCAR 2005-2006 Charger from the REVELL INTREPID Kit!