Review 20151001

Transcription

Review 20151001

Right On Replicas, LLC Step-by-Step Review 20151001*
Cosmic Charger Dragster 1:25 Scale MPC Model Kit #826 Review
The Real Cosmic Charger came out of Carl Casper's busy custom shop. It was a super long, low and sleek
stream liner. One of the most striking features of this outstanding machine is it's super wild paint job by
Casper, which consists of a very unique blending of over 30 exotic shades of lacquer. The chassis was
fabricated by S & S Engineering, ignition by Mallory, Cragar wheels and blower drive, lettering by Kampney
and tires by Goodyear. 1971 - Category: Topfuel, Type: TN, Class: AA/FD, Div: 3 "Carl Caspers Cosmic
Charger Streamliner" Owned by Carl Casper from Kentucky USA Dragster by Logghe Stamping Co. |
Powered by a 426 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi with direct driveline. 1/4 Mile ET: 6.670 and 1/4 Mile Speed:
220.45 MPH. Carl Casper spent many years building custom machines, winning many National awards
and he formed his most exciting company "Hollywood Productions" and produced the newer Bat Mobile,
General Lee, and the A-Team van among others. some of his other customs were, The Popcorn Wagon,
Peanut Wagon, Beer Wagon, Vanturian, and many more.
For the Modeler: This review covers the MPC re-release (Re-Pop) of Carl Casper’s Cosmic Charger 1:25
Scale MPC Model Kit #826. In June 2015, MPC’s design team was not satisfied to merely reissue the
Cosmic Charger as it was. Instead, they teamed up with Carl Casper himself to add some fabulous NEW
options to this historic vintage model. This kit now includes: a complete 10-piece front mounted blower
setup, motor cover and enclosed front wheel fairings! Add in an amazingly accurate all-new decal sheet
and modelers can build a much more exciting and authentic model of America’s most beautiful Dragster!
This kit features: Parts molded in white styrene, 15 new parts added along with Pad-printed drag slicks and
a full color decal sheet with all-new improved graphics Full Retro Deluxe™ vintage MPC packaging Bonus
mini display box & full color collector’s info card. Overall dimensions are: Length: 12”, Width: 2½”, Height:
2¼”.
Right On Replicas, LLC ©2015 All rights reserved. *All registered trademarks are the property of their respective brands.
Follow the manufacturer’s safety recommendations for any product mentioned here.
Pic 1 Pic 2 The box is Retro Deluxe™ vintage MPC packaging. ***NOTE*** the only unfortunate thing that I
didn't learn until later was that the Top Blower version of the Cosmic Charger was actually different colors
and the Front Blower is the one that should be built with this edition). The sprue trees of the model were
washed in warm soapy water and allowed to air dry prior to starting, to remove any mold release agent that
may still be on the plastic. This agent will cause painting, gluing and other problems. So it’s better to be
safe than sorry and in the long run good preparation will save you time.
Pic 3 Pic 4 Included in the kit are these two items. The first is a full color mini rendition of the Kit box you
can fold up and display, plus a two sided full color pamphlet (pictures) of the history and Front Blower
version of the Cosmic Charger, In my research I only found one statement about the car’s speed and time
at a race track, though no location was mentioned.
Pic 5 Pic 6 The decals are some of the nicest I have seen color
wise. Application however, due to the
large size of the rear quarter panel decals,
with the body shape and curves (even with
using the Microscale system) resulted in
leaving some small wrinkles in various
locations. These decals will be applied
using the Microscale two-part setting
system. Part 1 prior to decal placement is the Microset (a setting solution) that helps
the decals adhere to the model surface. Part 2 Microsol (a solvent used after blotting
the decal into position with either a soft towel or sponge) will soften the decal and
allow it to settle and dry over the underlying details allowing them to show through, as if the decal was
actually painted on.
Pic 7 Pic 8 The first sub-assembly on the instruction sheet are the Bike wheels and front tires. The tires
themselves are rubber and the wheels consist of two chromed halves. To get a good glue bond on chrome
plated parts you must scrape the chrome plating away with a sharp knife (I use the X-acto #11 blade) from
the area where the glue will be applied. You will notice the outer rim halves have a wider chrome area of
the rim, this was put on the real dragsters in order to help trip the light beam that sets the Christmas lights
for the start, this can be on either side of the car. Once the rims are dry the tires themselves just go right on
no glue needed.
Pic 9 The next step is to decide which Blower intake system you
want to put on the car. I chose the Top Blower so the Front Blower
parts go to my parts box (although as I stated earlier if I had known
that the top Blower car was a different paint scheme than provided I
would have gone with the Front Blower.
Pic 10 The parts for the Top Blower
were removed from the sprue and
cleaned up. Unfortunately, when you cut
the parts away it leaves bare plastic
showing and on some of the parts that is
in a visible area.
Pic 11 Pic 12 With the blower assembly completed and allowed to dry I decided that I wanted to added the
butterflies to the air intake that is on top of the blower. This has 3 intakes holes so I looked for a piece of
sprue that looked about the right size and sanded it just a bit, cut 3 small wafers off of it, and sanded them
thinner,(which is easy to do just wrapped a piece of masking tape sticky side out on your finger and stick
one wafer to it and rub it back and forth on a sheet of sand paper until you deem it is thin enough, then do
the others. Once sanded, I put a little tube glue on a tooth pick and put it on the rim of the hole, then using
tweezers I inserted each butterfly wafer into place, making sure they were all at the same angle and left
them to dry. When dry, I painted mine red to go with the base color of the car but you can paint them color
of your choice.
Pic 13 With the Blower assembly done and drying I
moved on to the motor itself. It consists of the engine
block halves, oil pan ( chrome) heads and Valve
covers.
Pic 14 One incorrect item
here is that the valve
covers have the word
“Imperial” on them and
those were from an earlier
Chrysler 392 Hemi not the
426 but it really doesn't
matter unless you will be
opening up the body
because they can't be
seen later. The parts had
to be cleaned of flash (as
a lot of the parts in this kit
do) and when assembled
and dry I painted the block
with Model Master (MM)
paint # 2735 Black
Chrome Trim which is a
semi-gloss Black.
Pic 15 Pic 15A With the engine block assembled and painted I decided to put a wired distributor on the
engine. Unfortunately the only one I had wasn't in a package and I have had in the parts box for numerous
years so I don't know the exact manufacturer of it, not that it matters greatly since the motor should actually
have a Magneto not a traditional distributor. I changed it to look like a Magneto by removing the coil wire
(magnetos have an internal generator) and making all the wires come out on the back half of the tower and
then capped it with I small round wafer of plastic and painted the assembly gloss red. The wires also had
no plug boots so I found some thin wire (I don't know the size wire so you would need to experiment with a
few, a good source are old electronic radios or computers for small wire), remove the insulation from
around the wire, cut it into short sections and stuck the sections onto a straight pin to stretch it, then slid it
onto the plug wire. ***NOTE*** Be careful in doing the stretching part or you will end up being a pin cushion
like I did myself.
Pic 16 Pic 16A With the Magneto/wires ready I used a
micro drill bit in a pin vise and drilled a hole in the
middle of each spark plug grommet circle on the valve
covers, then inserted the plug wire and slid the boot into
place with the grommet. After getting the wires in place
I had to size each ones length individually, keeping the
wires as near to the top of the valve cover as possible,
put a drop of glue on each boot to hold it in place. With
the wires done I added the bell housing and drive shaft.
Paint the housing, shaft and rear end gear case MM
Aluminum #4677. The motor was now nearly complete
(only the belt, pulley's and fuel pump left) and set aside
till needed
Pic 17 The motor was now nearly complete (only the belt, pulley's and fuel pump left) and set aside till
needed.
Pic 18 Note: I looked up the firing order of the 426 Hemi (1,8,4,3,6,5,7,2) and ran the correct wire to each
plug.
Pic 19 Pic 20 The next sub-assembly was the front panted wheels (at this point of the build I was still not
sure if I would use the wire wheels or panted wires). These had only two halves each and the tire is molded
in. I used clothes pins as clamps and set them aside for the glue to dry.
Pic 21 Pic 22 (lower) I started prepping the body to spray primer on, and in doing so came across a lot of
sink marks where the locating pins are on the inside. I filled each of these with some spot putty. I then
sanded the puttied areas smooth and the rest of the body parts with 1000 grit wet and dry paper.
Pic 25 Pic 26 With the body parts sanded and smoothed, I used a Dupli-Color automotive spray can Gray
primer and set the parts aside and allowed them to dry. At the same time other parts were sprayed with
primer, with a few exceptions.
Pic 27 Pic 28 While the primer was drying I tried to fill the mold marks on the cockpit side walls (One must
understand these mold marks/sinks are on almost every part and to fill and finish them all would take
forever). Fortunately, most won't be view-able so I did a decent, though not show-worthy, job on them.
Pic 29 Pic 30 After the primer on all parts had dried, I sprayed the side walls and inner side walls Silver
again using Dupli-Color automotive Acrylic Lacquer Spray cans I have a bunch of this paint (from
modeling cars over the years. I also sprayed the rail framework and all other chassis parts Dupli-Color
gloss Black after spraying the Silver parts, again allowing all to dry which takes less than an hour.
Pic 31 The seat had some deep mold marks. They were large and deep in a visible area of the seat, so I
filled the top one with putty first and let dry, then the bottom and largest one, and set the seat aside.
Pic 32 The seat is part of the chassis assembly but won’t be needed initially. All the parts for the chassis
assembly are shown painted and ready to assemble. I had to paint the frame on the cockpit walls by hand
to match the rest of the frame so I used gloss Black acrylic craft paint.
Pic 33 Aligning and painting these parts was the hardest part of the build. The instructions aren't the
clearest for locating and aligning pegs and the parts aren't the greatest fit. I felt I needed 4 hands to hold
some parts in place while aligning and adding others.
Pic 34 But I got it done....by deviating from the order of assembly that are shown in the instructions. Your
directed to glue one sidewall in place and then the 2nd, all the while putting the inner wall, transmission
mount cross-member, rear end and the seat/rear cross members in place between the to outer walls. What
I did was glue the two outer walls to the rail frame and allowed the glue to dry. There is enough flex in the
walls when glued and dried thoroughly to allow the transmission mount and rear end to be glued in place
(the rear end axle shafts go through the holes in the cockpit walls). Once I had the transmission mount and
rear end in place I glued in the rear cross member part in place, inner side walls, and set drive shaft/rear
end gear cover in place and used some masking tape to hold the whole assembly together until good and
dry over night.
Pic 35 After drying overnight I proceeded finishing up the cockpit area of the chassis. First I added the seat,
gear shift, gas pedal and brake pedal to the appropriate locations using tweezers to do so since they are
down inside the assembled cockpit with no room for your fingers.
Pic 36 Next, the steering wheel, the steering shaft and crossbar mount were added and everything is
allowed to dry. Meanwhile prime body parts with Dupli-Color Gloss white spray and set it aside.
Pic 37 Pic 38 When both the glued parts and painted parts were dry, a mock up of body parts and chassis
were taped together. ***NOTE*** In doing the mock up, I realized that had to make some modifications to
the motor opening, in that the belt and pulleys would not fit. So I took off the top part and extended the
front of the opening about 1/8" or so and in the back area I just carved a deeper curve.
Pic 39a Also it
was apparent
that not all of the
wiring was going
to be seen as
well most of all
the other detail
under the body
work, but the
Magneto and
partial wires and
some of the
interior would be,
but I know
everything is
there. Everything
on the underside
looked good
although I had
yet to add the
exhaust headers
and was worried
about them fitting
so I removed the
top and slid the
headers in place
and discovered I
had to remove a
little more of the header opening with the X-acto knife.
Pic 40 Once that was accomplished I checked the rear slicks wheel clearance. ***NOTE*** Needless to
say it wasn't good. I had added the brake caliper on the axle to the inner side of the wheel and the glue lock
ring inside the rims but the clearance wasn't there. I decided at that point that the wheels didn't need to turn
and the brake calipers couldn't/wouldn't be seen so I took them and put them in the parts box and then put
the wheels back on and the clearance was better so I ended up cleaning up the axle a little more and then
all was good.
Pic 41 Pic 42 With all these minor problems behind I decided to paint the body Metallic Red as the
instructions stated. For this paint job I will be using Gravity Colors Hobby Paint. Ferrari Rosso Metallizzato
is the color name and it is Item #GC-217. Gravity is an airbrush ready product that is automotive quality
paints produced in model car sized pigments. The metal flakes and pearls are more correctly sized than
using just automotive paint. Gravity sprays very smoothly from the airbrush and lays very nice. It is quite
easy to get a perfect paintjob with their product. It does not orange peel like some of the other brands that
dry too fast. But this is a fast dry product and can be worked within a reasonable time. Their site is:
http://gravitycolors.com/us/
Pic 43 Allowing time for all the
glued and painted assemblies to
dry thoroughly I moved onto the
Chromed fuel tank. The tank is
two parts, I removed the chrome
from the glue points and glued the
halves together using clothes pins
to clamp them firmly and set those
aside.
Pic 44 Next is the fuel pump/line that is mounted on the front of the motor and runs down the center of the
rail frame. I looked at pictures online of this style fuel pump and ended up painting the body of the pump
MM Flat Back, the ends, inlet, outlet and line MM Aluminum. Once this dried I used Tamiya Clear Red and
Blue for the various connectors.
Pic 45 Pic 46 With everything completely dry the chassis build is nearing completion at this point. The fuel
tank and upper cross-member are glued into place and the fuel pump added. Since I had previously put the
upper cross-member in place I had to angle the fuel line up through the rail frame until the pump was inside
the frame, then slide it back to the motor location and insert the line into the fuel tank location, ***NOTE***
I snipped off just about 1/16th , a small sliver, to help the line fit.
Pic 48 The chassis was now complete and it’s time to glue it in pace on the bottom body half. I taped the
front of the rail to the lower body and held the motor end of the chassis in place. Using Testor's Liquid
cement I placed the needle where the frame bars met the lower body and let the glue flow into the joint.
Once I had it where it needed to be, I set the assembly on a flat surface and set some weight on the frame
top (white box area) to keep it, and the glue, in contact with the body (a full bottle or two of MM paint for
weight works well) and allowed it to dry.
Pic 49 Pic 50 With the chassis and lower body now dry I added the front axle. With my X-acto I removed
the chrome from the locating pins and some from the dead center of the axle. I then cleaned off the paint
and enlarged the "U" trough on the front of the chassis frame, that had been painted Black, where the axle
pins set in and get glued on. I also applied a little glue into the trough on the lower body where the axle ran
underneath. ***NOTE*** if you
don't apply glue there, the axle
stands a good chance of getting
broken off if you happen to
bump it to hard. With the
chrome scraped off to glue the
axle in I opted to paint it black.
Since the front axle was going
to need drying time I went
ahead and glued the rear slicks
in place to allow them the time
they would need to dry solid
also. When everything had
dried I put the front wheels on,
which was a snap fit. Just hold
the axle and push the wheel in
place and they click into place.
There is also a chrome cap to
be put over them but I planned
to wait so I could take pictures
with the panted wheels on also.
Pic 51 Pic 52 With the front and rear tires mounted I checked the stance of the car and it set perfectly, so it
was time to add the steering rods and links before adding the rest of the major body parts. The steering rod
assembly consists of three parts, the 1st one the connects to the steering wheel assembly and goes about
half way down the frame where it connects to the 2nd section that runs to the front of the frame, finally
connecting to the steering linkage. ***NOTE*** The only things I did to these parts were to open the hole
bigger where the 1st rod connected to the steering wheel assembly, remove a little of the body locating pin
hole near the gas tank for clearance of the rod and finally remove some chrome where the 2nd rod and
steering linkage would be glue. After doing those three things the linkage glued right in place. Note: All the
parts put in place from the motor to the front end with the exception of the steering linkage and front axle
will not be seen when the body halves are glued together.
Pic 53 Pic 54 Before putting the rest of the body parts in place I now added the exhaust headers
that are just straight down dump pipes. I removed the chrome from where they would be glued to
the motor and dropped it through the exit area in the lower body. I then pushed it back up a bit
from underneath and applied some Testors tube glue. Once the glue had set for about 30 seconds
I pushed the header up and held it in place against the block for about a minute to let it set up then
did the same to the other side.
Pic 55 Pic 56 The final three body parts were now added. 1st I added the upper nose part using Testors
tube glue. I wanted a good slow drying glue to give me some adjustment time if needed, and a tooth pick
to apply a small amount and put the part in place. I test-fitted the upper body main part and made note of
where it touched any of the rear chassis parts that I would be able to use as glue contact points. I then put
glue along the rest of the exposed lower front body and the noted areas in the back, and set the part in
place. At this time, I used low tack masking tape and taped the body parts together and set them aside to
dry.
Pic 57 Pic 58 The Cosmic Charger has a canopy that is not unlike that of an airplane. While the glue on the
body parts dried, I assembled the two-part canopy.
Pic 59 Pic 60 I assembled the clear part to the painted frame using Testors Clear Parts Cement and
Window Maker glue. With this done, it was back to the final body section - the lower rear.
Pic 61 Pic 62 When all the parts that have been glued and painted had dried well, I added the last body
part - the lower rear shell. I again I test-fitted it and made note of where to place the glue. On the lower part
of the side walls there are two tabs sticking out that align with the two slots in the lower body shell. Glue
was applied there and on the alignment pins and sides. Put the shell on and tape it in place and allow it to
dry. The decals were now applied following the instructions and using the Microscale 2 solution system.
The instructions are a little vague in that the 3/4 view of the car is in Black and White which makes it
somewhat hard to see the exact placement but you can look at the color pamphlet for help. ***NOTE***
The decals are numbered, so follow the numbered sequence as some decals overlap others.
Pic 63 Pic 64 Once the decals
had dried the car was Gloss
Clear Coated using Pledge
Future Floor finish with an
airbrush to seal the decals and
produce a shiny finish. I allowed
the car to
dry
overnight
and
realized I
had left 4
chromed
pieces off
the model.
1 being
the
chrome
push bar
at the
back and
the other
the 3 part
down
force wing
for the front.
Pic 65 Pic 66 The down force wing consists of two posts and the airfoil. With the posts in place on the airfoil
the “C” shaped end is lipped over the front axle and glued in placed.
Pic 67 Pic 68 This is the finished kit and it’s a very colorful model although I didn't use the front blower. The
top photo shows the wire wheels.
Pic 70 I went ahead and finished
the wheel pants and took
pictures of both front wheel
versions on the finished model..
Pic 999 Overall: With some patience this model can turn out to be an awesome looking showpiece.
However, this is an older mold, lots of flash, and a lot of rough fitting multiple part assemblies. The decals
were great but large and with lots of different curves. Without Solvent and Set I don't think you could get a
good application. There is a lot of chrome and of course attachment to sprue trees end up in visible
locations. There are also sink marks and mold marks to deal with and repair. I really don't see how a
beginner or inexperienced builder would enjoy this kit without getting frustrated. But if you really want a
colorful and good looking car take your time and think everything over and test fit again and again before
any glue touches a part. When you’re finished she can look like this!

Review 20151001

Transcription

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