1/25 scale Front engined top fuel dragster

[ScanmanDan]

Over Easter break I wasn't felling much like working on my 1/48th scale armour so I thought I'd try something a bit different.  As I have always liked Top fuel dragsters and especially the front engined kind I thought I'd give one a go.  I haven't built one of these in well, years and years.  Back in the Testor's tube glue times.  And well this kit is from that era too.



A pretty basic kit without many parts, thick chrome plate and horrible instructions.  Just like I remembered them. Started right away with putting as many sub assemblies together as I can.

 

The body was stuck together, gaps filled with CA and block sanded too get a good straight and even finish.  I still have more work to do before primer  but it all fits.

 

The frame is thankfully one piece and straight but needed a fair bit of clean up to look presentable.

 

I have then started working on the motor using only bits from the kit and stuff I had on the bench, plastic strip and rod and some lead wire.

 

So far everything 'fits' and should come together in the end but I still have a lot to do on the body to get it looking good.  I'm not that great with gold finishes and major decals but I'm having fun so that's good.

Thanks for looking in.

[ScanmanDan]

Progress;

 

 

 

Last fitting before decaling.  Everything looks like it fits and the yellow came out better than I had hoped.  I have three thin coats of TS-13 clear on top and it's my best ever gloss finish I didn't polish out.  I'm a bit scared to use TS-13 over the top of the decals but we'll see how it all comes out.

Thanks for looking in.

[nearsightedjohn]

You did a very nice job detailing that hemi. I’m particularly impressed with the scratch- built injector throttle linkage. 
 

Be careful with TS-13 clear coat over decals, I had a bad experience destroying some $$ decals once after applying a TS-13 wet coat before I had adequate thin dry coats applied to act as a buffer for the wet coat. 
 

Looking forward to watching you work magic on this classic old MPC kit

[ScanmanDan]

I spent all day Saturday at the bench putting the decals on.  I don't get along well with decals and these were pretty brittle and broke apart in a few places.  I found that there were some rough finish in some areas of the decals like there was some 'grit' mixed in with the ink. They also didn't respond to any of the decal solutions I threw at them.  In the end good old hot water and heated pads for soft paper towel worked the best to get them to conform and lay flat.  I then spent much of today laying thin coats of Tamiya TS-13 clear over the top.  This seems to have worked out pretty well and I'm not going to risk anymore futzing about and just let this set and harden for a week while I finish the chassis. Here's my progress so far.

 

 

 

 

I'll do a bit of semigloss black to the interior with a brush once this lot gets nice and hard.  I still have to figure out how I'm going to mount the stearing arms and front rods.  So far so good.

Thanks NearsightedJohn,  I did do a lot of very thin mist coats of the TS-13 before I did the last wet coat.  I also waited about an hour between each coat even though it almost killed me as I like to just get on with things and hate waiting.  I think this is the best glow finish I have ever done and I'm so surprised I didn't stuff it up.   

Thanks for looking in.
Dan

[Sabrejet]

That looks a great deal better than it should! I really enjoy these old kits, brought kicking and screaming into the 21st Century

[Vesa Jussila]

Good progress. Decals look very good. you don't see dragsters so often.

[MR2Don]

I remember building one or two from AMT kits somewhere around 50 odd years ago! I had a lot of AMT kits then.

[Six97s]

Large decals give me the fear, so that looks outstanding from here.   I've never paid much attention to these late FED kits, for me the '65-'66 era was the pinnacle for FEDs, appearance wise... would be nice to have kits of The Hawaiian, the Magicar or the Surfers' rail.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Six97s

[ScanmanDan]

Progress;

 

 

Getting towards final assembly and replacing the front suspension with wire and plastic rod was a better choice than trying to work with the kit parts.  I did manage to mess up the holes for the steering linkages ( nothing lines up ???) and I'm in two minds about leaving them off and calling it a day.  Next time I'll know better but I am happy this has come out as good as it has.  

I sprung for a Polar Lights funny car so I'll see what I can make of that.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[klubman01]

Impressive work on a older kit.  Well Done.

Trevor