1/24 Revell Mustang GT350 H

[Anteater]

Now then. I've been away from the bench since September but the gloomy days of January seem as good a time as any to start a new project. Keen not to expand the stash, this seems a good candidate; Revell's Mustang GT350 Rental Car version. 

 

When I returned to the hobby a few years ago, Revell's standard Mustang was my starting point so I can hopefully correct and improve with this build. Exhibit A:

 

 

 

Seeing as it won't be ideal painting weather for many months, I'll be going for a used look for the latest Mustang. Here's the starting point:

 

 

 

There are a few body differences with the Shelby version and the wheels are wider so the stance should be better. I'm also planning a few tweaks along the way. 

 

First step is the engine block. I'm quite a way beyond the normal average expected lifespan of an Anteater, so maybe that's why I'm finding it harder to focus on the small details in the gloomy winter light. Hmmm... feeling the need for magnification and cursing the ageing process. 

 

 

Here's the usual engine and transmission glued down the middle. Oddly, the bellhousing isn't moulded dead square to the block, although the two extremities seem to be in line. Exhibit A was the same. I have no idea if that's prototypical but the effect is exaggerated once the sump is glued on. Incidentally, the sump is moulded in super-reflective chrome which renders all detail impossible to see when working under an angle poise lamp.

 

The lower part of the oil pan is hollow, which is obviously incorrect and needs to be capped. The oil would surely slop out under any cornering force. I've painted the innards black here, but will top them off and get rid of the horrid bling. 

 

 

 

As for the block itself, the Americans seem to like brightly painted engines. The Ford 289 is meant to be a mid blue, but I only had Ford Riviera Blue which looked ridiculous. Here it is mid way through the process of darkening it down. It's a mess and can only get better from here. 

 

 

 

As usual, I won't be turning out a quick build so if you want vicarious excitement, please look elsewhere.  

 

 

ANTEATER

[Windy37]

I like your style of describing what your doing - very funny !!

Gary. 

[Spiny]

One benefit of doing it as a used example is that it doesn't matter if the engine looks a little used as well. I know from your previous projects though that it definitely won't look a mess by the time you've finished.

[Toftdale]

21 hours ago, Anteater said:

The oil would surely slop out under any cornering force

IT a Mustang,  that won't be a problem 😁🤣😂.  Great to see you back at the bench - Andy 

[Neddy]

Look at it this way - any Ford V8 of this era still surviving will have been rebuilt at least once and thus will have been painted whatever colour the engine builder preferred or had to hand, so in engines of this vintage anything goes. 😀

 

[Anteater]

Thanks all @Windy37 @Spiny @Toftdale @Neddy, it was only September when I won the battle with the Range Rover but it seems much longer ago. I feel like I've had my memory wiped for tax reasons and I'm starting from scratch again. Here's the last update from this weekend, I have an uncharacteristically busy week coming up so can't imagine I'm going to get much else done. We'll see. 

 

The engine block looks better with the valve covers added. Revell supply them in mirror-chrome but nobody actually has valve covers like that (actually, I did once buy a car with a polished valve cover which looked stupid, but not half as stupid as the fist sized holes in the floorpan). The image below follows me painting them black then wiping the residue off the tops.

 

 

 

 

Next up comes the dizzy. The instructions appear to show a six-pot dizzy but the part supplied is correct for the full 8 cylinders. Wiring distributors is always tricky and I've tried all sorts in the past from cutting the posts off and drilling, to scratch building from tube. This time I'm trying supergluing the leads in between the posts and drilling the king lead in the centre. Real HT leads arrive at the dizzy at an angle anyway so this might just work. I plan to paint it all black to hide a multitude of sins. In the meantime, LOOK! A big blue spider with a body made of blu-tack! 

 

 

 

Laterz. 

[Neddy]

Great looking valve covers, that's an effective method. 

 

With the distie I tried your method on the 1/16 scale Mustang I built a year or so ago but the leads kept coming adrift.  When doing 1/24 scale disties I now use the old trick (filched from Youtube!) of drilling out the centre just wide enough to take all 8 leads, supergluing them all in together and bending them horizontal before the glue hardens.  Sounds crude but looks surprisingly effective at that scale.

[keefr22]

12 hours ago, Anteater said:

LOOK! A big blue spider with a body made of blu-tack! 

 

 Scary monster....!!

 

Looks like a good plan for wiring a dizzy though, interesting to see how it comes out!

 

Keith

[SigEp Ziggy]

Looking Good!

[Anteater]

The results from this week:

 

 

 

 

I still need to plonk the air cleaner on top but need to spray some matt varnish on it first. The fan is supposed to be black but I like yellow better. 

 

On the subject of spraying, my attention should turn to the chassis next but it's been absolutely polar up here with snow on the ground, way too cold for spraying the floorpan. Conditions may improve next week, but not until after the wind and rain have blown through...

[Redstaff]

That's a nice looking motor  

[ceeb555]

Coming along very nicely. 
Chris

[CrazyCrank]

Very nice start on this engine 👍

If I may comment a bit: perhaps should you thin a little bit the fan blades ? It’ll enhance greatly the final aspect and the realism imho 

[Anteater]

@CrazyCrank That is a fair observation and a good suggestion.

 

However, it's firmly glued now so what I might do instead is darken the yellow paint a little which should trick the eye into seeing thinner blades. The real fans have quite substantial blades and look over engineered, but not to the extent of Revell's part of course. Having built one of these before I know the fan also sits too far back from the radiator compared to the original car so none of it is perfect.  

 

If a dodgy fan ends up being the worst aspect of my build I'll be amazed! 🙂

[Anteater]

Right, two reasons for this rapid update;

 

1. Our French colleague is never wrong when it comes to these matters and;

2. Localised direct feedback from within my own immediate territory.

 

Out with the razor saw and in with the 0.4mm styrene...

 

 

 

 

I have to admit it looks better, if a little rough in EXTREME CLOSE UP. I put a little bend in each blade because that's how fans work after all, another reason the kit part looked like four blocks of cheddar cheese around a central edam (sans wax). 

 

Here's the angle from which it will be mostly seen.

 

 

 

Tsk, like I've not got anything better to do...

[Neddy]

Definitely a significant improvement.  I was in your position several models ago and was advised (correctly) the same thing.  My solution was a very scary five minutes with a Dremel and a miniature drum sander attachment, thinning and shaping the fan blades.  Luckily no collateral damage ensued and the end result looked much better, as indeed yours does.

[CrazyCrank]

It’s better now 👍

[Anteater]

Right, so in order to keep things interesting I thought I'd try a modification at the rear.

 

All production Mustangs of this generation had a good old traditional live axle. Early on in development, Shelby experimented with independent rear suspension for racing by using the rear end from the Galaxie station wagon. However, on track it was found that the IRS gave no advantage over a well set-up live axle, and Ford had no incentive to add complexity to the production line.

 

In contrast, I have no such concerns, and it gives me an excuse to use a nice sub-assembly I bought from Motobitz ages ago.

 

This is the live axle rear on one I built in a shoddy manner much earlier.

 

  

 

 

This is the Motobitz IRS resin assembly that I built at least a year ago. It's nothing like the Galaxie axle, instead it's all Jaguar complete with four shocks and stupid inboard disc brakes. Rear discs were unknown on a standard 60's Mustang, never mind vented ones. 

 

 

 

It fits almost perfectly with only a few mods required. For starters, the chassis rails need to be extended inwards with plates to give better mounting platforms. Next the hubs will need to be narrowed a smidge if I stick with the standard wheels. Finally the exhausts will need to be re-routed somehow as they foul the discs. I might be looking at side exit exhausts as a solution, now that would be cool. 

 

 

 

Checking the height and stance, looks about right.

 

 

 

 

So that's where I've got to on this very dark, wet and extremely windy night. 

[Neddy]

I love it!  This is getting interesting... 🙂

[keefr22]

12 hours ago, Anteater said:

I might be looking at side exit exhausts as a solution, now that would be cool. 

 

 

Indeed it would!

 

Keith

[kpnuts]

That's looking great

[CrazyCrank]

5 hours ago, kpnuts said:

That's looking great

Seconded...

 

However, what you build with Mustang parts and Jaguar parts is called a chimera, in mythology...in scale modeling, I don't know...😉

[Anteater]

I guess you could call it a Mustang Hybrid. Good for the environment. 😁 

[Redstaff]

The rear axle seems to fit in really well, looks like it grew there  

 

Ian  

[Pete in Lincs]

Like it. No different to how they built early hot rods. Use whatever you've got to hand. If it works and looks good, so much the better.