Andrew D Jolly Rogers guy

Late in Season 1 when they switched to the '71 Satellite, they painted it in a yellow to match the original '73/4 Roadrunner. For the RR it had been a factory standard for that particular year, but apparently for continuity (and hoping the fans would not notice the change) they painted the new Satellite in the same shade of yellow as the Roadrunner. Thus it was a non-standard color for a '71 Plymouth of any sort. After much research, and following an online discussion, the color seems to have been "Yellow Blaze." Fortunately Scalefinishes.com, who produces factory-matching colors for auto modelmakers, does carry this color...and when mine arrived I knew from the first glance that I had it right! Once sprayed I left it for over a week simply because I wanted it 100% cured before I began to handle it over and over and over.

The toylike one-piece rear suspension/exhaust system was separated, and both sides of the exhaust cleaned up until presentable on their own. The exhaust tips were clipped off, as per reference views, and re-shaped and drilled. Everything was painted and finally installed. Eventually all of this will be thickly coated in Hazzard County dust.

K folks, it's been a tough end of the school year unlike any other, so I'm finally able to return to the project. Rear tires are slightly larger than the front ones, and going into my spare tires resulted in only mismatching tires of differing sizes. Fortunately I was able to source tires of the same type/appearance and apparently correct sizes from Fireball Modelworks. Fortunately they also fit the wheel rims that a fellow modeler was kind enough to send me. Then the inner wheel hubs had to be reduced in size to fit the tires; had to do this now so as to know exactly how far to raise the rear suspnsion. To make the extensions, I needed something thin yet strong....so just making them out of plastic strip wouldn't do it. They might look the part but they wouldn't support the car past one sneeze. Fortunately I keep unused Photoetched fret, and the slightly thicker part of the metal sprue just might be strong enough, especially if doubled up. The main load will be supported by an inverted, angled "U" shape. The height was kept accurate with plastic plugs. Then the more visible parts of the brackets will be attached to the outside with more metal fret.

That's so often the problem in our beloved hobby, innit? Thanks for the kind words!

A much larger problem arose; actually two related problems. 1) The suspension and exhaust system is all molded as one piece, looking toylike 2) The rear suspension needs to be boosted to accomodate larger rear tires. This will necessitate the total rebuilding of the aft ends of the leaf springs. First, separating the exhausts: Then, adding to the chassis frame to accomodate the extended rear suspension. The rear ends of the leaf springs were cut off, and the springs scratchbuilt to a longer length. Also found the new engine was too short for the driveshaft; so the driveshaft had to be lengthened by 3mm. Amazingly, the left exhaust also had to be shortened by the exact same length to fit the new engine.

Thanks! The new engine arrived Friday; smaller-block engine from AMT's 71 Duster, will be heavily detailed and wired. Still needed modifications to the front area with making an attached alternator and other mounts for the pulleys. Also drilled out holes for the spark plugs and wires (very time consuming on a tiny distributor). Also modified the engine mounts so it could accomodate the smaller engine block. Not a perfect fit, but it's better.

Well, unfortunately I'm totally ditching the engine....finally the evidence was overwhelming that I needed to go with the smaller-block engine, finished in blue. So I purchased the engine parts from the AMT Duster. Starting over. In the meantime, here's what happened with the interior. Two modifications to be made: the steering wheel and the air vents. In one episode (Gold Fever S2E2) the instrument panel is visible, showing the dashboard to be the style with two air conditioning vents. I discovered this after I'd started painting, so, strip the paint, add the parts and start over. Steering wheel should be a more standard type instead of the stock racing item in the kit. I started with the steering wheel from a Chevy pickup, carved down the central spokes, added a third spoke plus some other detailing. The wood paneling color is done by painting it Military Brown, then going back over it with Tamiya Smoke. This is basically a transparent black, and when applied unevenly over brown actually looks like wood paneling. An all-black interior is a problem since if you just paint it black, then almost zero details will show. Here's how I bring it to life: -Flooring/carpet flat black -All the rest in semi-flat black -With a wide brush, drybrush dark gray all over the semi-gloss black areas to highlight and bring out the details -Mask carpet and the spray semi-gloss areas in a satin/flat clear mix -Drybrush dirt onto some of the carpet, especially driver's area. Again, wood paneling done by painting first in Military Brown and then going back over that with Tamiya Smoke transparent black. Scratchbuild a CD radio for under the instrument panel, and voila!

One more for today. For the filming, all identification logos/scripts on the vehicles were removed (i.e. all the "Charger" logos, the "FORD" from above the grill and tailgate on Jesse's truck, "PLYMOUTH" and "DODGE" from the Sheriff cars, etc). Most of this is easy for Daisy's Plymouth, except for the grill and in front of the hood. We'll deal with the grill later. For the removed emblem in front of the hood, there is a recessed area that was left untouched once the emblems were removed, and then painted over. I tried removing the bit inside the recessed circle with a roto-drill, but I couldn't make it into a flat disc surface. So I cut a tiny circle of sandpaper, smaller than the target area, and glued it to the end of a toothpick. This, with a tiny dab of putty, exactly did the trick. There was CONSIDERABLE bodywork to be done with the Front Body Pan; this appears seamless with the rest of the body, so I wanted to install it before painting. The rear one will be blended in after assembly and carefully retouched. Additionally, the Front bit didn't completely fit, and the trim around the wheel well had to be rebuilt onto it and everything blended together.

LOL sorry Coors! 😎 Hollywood almost always uses more than one copy of any featured vehicle due to tight filming schedules plus mechanical issues. Some features on these cars are often fictional. This said, in my Dukes builds I try to balance or combine the sometimes fictional features with reality. I went through all the episodes in question searching for even one photo of the hood up on Daisy's car, maybe parked in front of the farm with the boys doing some minor maintenance. Couldn't even find one; this actually made things easier; it means whatever I do can't be proven wrong. I did find one scene with the hood up on the earlier-used '74, from the episode "Limo One is Missing," but of course it was the wrong car, and we couldn't see much anyway. It was suggested that Daisy's character might have driven the Plymouth variant with the smaller engine, with a blue engine block. I'm not sure if any muscle car kits actually offer smaller, "tamed" small-block engines, so I went with what I had. Had to strip the paint and redo it in a more correct color. I added a few details for the wiring, plus an aftermarket set of belts and pulleys. Alternator came from Revell's '68/69 Charger. There will be more hoses and wiring added after it's installed. I also removed the molded-on battery and water reservoir from the engine bay. See, the trouble with molded-on details is that they LOOK molded on, and therefore more toylike. So once removed their respective areas were rebuilt. Those specific items will have separate items installed to replace them.

Under expert automotive guidance from the good folks at Modelcarsmag.com forums, I procured a Revell '71 Plymouth GTX as the base kit, and ordered the correct hood from Harts Parts resins. I decided to make this a fully detailed build rather than the "curbside" closed-hood builds I've done for much of my Dukes of Hazzard fleet. It will feature a fully super-detailed engine bay, similar to what I did with The General.

Okay, on to my next project: Daisy's Plymouth! I much prefer the look of the SECOND car used, the one that went over the cliff (actually I prefer how it looked BEFORE, but nevermind). It just looks sleeker to me, plus it was used in more episodes (14 vs 9). First, let's dispel some rumors and falsehoods: -Rumor # 1: Daisy's second car was a Plymouth Roadrunner, either '71 or '72 depending on where you read. -The Truth #1: Apparently it was probably a '71 Plymouth Satellite Sebring with some '71 GTX features including a non-Sebring hood. Therefore, it shall henceforth be referred to simply as "Daisy's Plymouth". -Rumor #2: Daisy's first car ('74 Plymouth Satellite) was only used in the first five episodes, the ones filmed in Georgia. -The Truth #2: Actually, the '74 Satellite was retained for the first four California Episodes (Swamp Molly, Luke's Love Story, The Big Heist & Limo One is Missing). The Sebring/GTX's first appearance was in Episode 11, "Money to Burn." It made a nice first entrance on this episode. It finished the first season, and was used in 14 episodes of Season 2. -Rumor #3: Except for the dive off the cliff, Daisy's car was never really used much for stunts. -The Truth #3: Actually, besides spinning wheels and fishtailing to Daisy's fantastic driving, it was used for a jump in Season 2 Episode 2, "Gold Fever". Additionally, before its tragic dive off the cliff to destruction, it did a 2-wheel bank between the Hazzard Sheriff cars.

Kindest thanks, thank you so much!

Kind of you to say, thank you! Having La Cucaracha playing must be quite the novelty there!

Thank you! You mean like this one? Build thread: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235025794-my-ultimate-1969-dodge-charger-general-lee-build/&tab=comments#comment-2803553 Completed: http://hazzardnet.com/forums/topic/6190-ultimate-125-general-lee-done/

Thank you all for the kind comments! All the more appreciated considering the AWESOME caliber of building I've seen in here from you all! 😎

Okay, she's done! The link is here:

After several years of scratchbuilding, finally finished! Pretty much everything after the cab is scratchbuilt, plus the entire chassis was rebuilt and the wheel base extended. The build thread is here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235089216-hazzard-tow-truck/

Folks, I forgot to mention the Dually wheels are resin items I got on Ebay, which match perfectly those used on the real thing.

Thank you! In the episode "Daisy's Close Call" (S6 E19) Cooter is seen using a tool box from the rig. I can't see it in any other episode, so, being Hollywood, it probably wasn't there at any other time, not being a true "working" rig. Still, I thought it would be a great, even necessary, addition. I estimated the size at about 20" x 8" (when he carries it to the truck it is indeed fairly slender). From some angles the grime from being handled by a mechanic is visible. Appears to have a silver or light colored handle. I scratchbuilt it in an evening, primed it and painted it the next day. The same day I scratchbuilt a crowbar, and added a hammer and a wrench that came with the two junkers from which this project began. The wrench was finished in Alclad stainless steel, then grime strategically added. All the tools were made to appear worn and heavily used. Finally all this was added to the wrecker bed, including an extra length of chain visible in the episode "Happy Birthday General Lee".

Okay, almost there...I learned the front bumper is probably made from quarter inch steel coated in thick black rubber. I also noticed there were two styles that showed up on the GMC truck in the series, again probably indicating two different vehicles masquerading as one for the filming. One of them was straight and flat, and the other curled around the corners of the fenders. I opted for the curled type. Made it from .020" plastic, carefully curled, then added three wire mounts, disguised from the front as the actual bolts that hold it on. Then added fake bolts for the rest. I tried to match the same pattern I saw in a couple of my photos. Then some drybrushing over the flat black with dark gray. Then the final touches with the antennae. The last one was the one that clips on over the driver's window. The aerial for that one was made from a bit of metal guitar string (the high E-string). The aerial on the tow rig is only slightly thicker, from a B-string. Also used B-string for the four other lengths of thin cable on the tow crane (totally different from the thick, braided tow cable).

Now gotta add the last of the lights. First the tow rig has six small rounded-rectangular position lights. To make them all as uniform as possible I made a master shape from styrene, then made impressions of it in moldmaking material. I made a lot of extras since I wanted a lot to choose from, and would only take the best 6. This ended up being a very wise move. Clear resin was poured into the mold impressions and thank God there were 6 decent ones to use from the resulting blob. They had to be right the first time since trying to clean up and reshape anything that small would be a nightmare. Now the grill/headlight assembly. Chrome was removed by soaking in bleach, and damage done by previous owner/assembler was repaired. Headlights were drilled out completely. Whole thing primed and painted in Alclad Stainless Steel (more of a workhorse appearance than chrome). New headlights fashioned from acrylic gemstones/rhinestones, with the facets sanded smooth and then polished to shine. The result is far more convincing than chrome headlights the same color as the grill & bumper.

Thank you all! And the dishwashing gloves idea sounds promising, thanks! Now for the rotating beacon atop the rig. Found something very similar from Tony's Custom Squads. Still needed some cleaning up, and the finish redone in Alclad Stainless Steel (although Polished Aluminum perhaps might have been a better choice). License plate was made by cutting a piece of aluminum turkey roasting pan to match the size of the license plate decal. Now for the rear view mirrors. I discovered from my photos that there were two similar yet different styles used, probably meaning two different trucks used for filming the series. I settled on one and started work. Once built and primed, they were finished in Alclad polished aluminum and Bare Metal Foil for the actual reflective surfaces. I definitely should have cleaned them up a bit more after priming....

Thanks for the kind comments! On to the actual tow cable. I was first referred to some braided metal cable produced specifically for modelmakers, but it was much too thick, and didn't coil around the spool at all. I found my answer in a picture hanging kit. The braided wire for hanging pictures on a wall was almost perfect in the smallest size, the 10-50 lb strength. I ran it through a candle flame to give it the appropriate worn/stained appearance. Next, some of the most critical scratchbuilding of the project, the sling. I tried various materials to simulate the heavy duty rubber straps, including black duct tape, black latex gloves and even bicycle inner tube. The latter had the perfect appearance but alas, was far too thick. I found the answer in black party balloons. The rounded part had too many curves to use, but the balloon necks had barely enough length of flat material. Add to that the chains on each side and the effect exceeded my hopes. On the end of the chains are hooks; these I made from reshaped sections of paperclip, then attached to the chains and painted worn dark metallic. After this I was VERY relieved and pleased with the result.

The red paint on the wrecker was going to be critical. It isn't regular red. Not only is it sort of a brick red color, but it's also stained and heavily sunbleached, giving a chalky appearance. You know, like playground equipment that gets sunbleached and then when you touch it you get white chalky residue on your hand? That's what it looks like.So. How to do sunbleached off-red without making it look straight pink? I started with a mixture of dark red, flat red and rust brown and sprayed everything in a base color. Then I used a mixture I came up with years ago that I call "Brick Red" and went over everything carefully, again. It's slightly lighter than the first color mix. Then I went back over it again with a VERY thinned mixture of light gray/off-white (36622 Camouflage Gray in military parlance, the color of the undersides of US warplanes in Vietnam). Then I went back with a wash of watercolor sludge (after this pic) and the result was almost perfect! Now to add the taillights. I made them using acrylic rhinestones/gemstones. Don't use glass ones, because the acrylic ones can be sanded to remove the facets and make them smooth once polished. Two were done in clear red, the other two left clear.

Now for some of the lights. First the two rounded-rectangular rear-facing lights on the sides of the crane structure. I used acrylic gemstones, cut to shape, then the facets sanded out then polished smooth. Then the amber lights on top of the cab. I wouldn't mind cutting/sanding to shape some clear sprue for one or two, but there are FIVE of them. Trying to make five all identical that way is too much. So, I made one with scrap styrene, and used it to make a mold. From that I cast several identical in clear resin. Once cured they were cleaned up and painted with clear orange, with flat black at the bottom. Then, mounted on the cab.