My friend Chris and I both fondly remember the kind of outlaw characters which were popular in the 1970s and 80s, when Smoky and the Bandit and The Dukes of Hazzard were required viewing for young car fans. The films and TV programmes of that style portrayed outlaws as loveable rogues with little respect for the law but hearts of gold and, of course, much better cars than the policemen who were trying to catch them. Standard issue back then for a TV or big-screen outlaw was a good ol’ American muscle car with a big V8 engine and – to young British eyes – unbelievably cool body styling.
A while ago I asked Chris what, if any, kind of car he would like me to build for him, and invited him to submit a specification, which he did. As a man who knows his cars, he asked for a 1968 Dodge Charger (very similar to the Dukes of Hazzard car) with a detailed spec: red paint, white vinyl roof and interior, 5-spoke mags, roll cage, a massive 7-litre hemi V8 engine and interestingly, a few scrapes and some dirt to make the car look like it had seen some action.
After a lengthy case of modeller’s block, I eventually began work on Project Charger and after priming the body parts with Halfords white plastic primer, laid down a smooth coat of Mini chilli red. I masked off the roof, keeping the white primer clean to represent the white vinyl roof. The interior parts also had a coat of white primer. The interior was the first part to be built, and it was made to look pretty messed-up in line with the ideas Chris had given me.
The main job inside was to make rips in the seats: this was done by drilling through from underneath the seat facings to create holes, then joining the holes up into long gashes with a craft knife. I then made some exposed stuffing with some cotton wool, glued under the seats with PVA glue and teased through the holes, and darkened with tan paint. The effect is a bit over the top but as often with model making, it doesn’t look real unless it’s more than real. I finished up with a good wash over with diluted black oil paint to give a stained appearance to suggest years of use. I also added a couple of extra bits of clutter, including a couple of Marlboro packets made from squares of white plastic painted with red and black bands to look like the real thing.
The next job was assembling the engine. The Chrysler 426 Hemi is a classic engine, and it was a pleasure to build this nice big V8 mill with a few added details. The most obvious added detail here is the inclusion of sparkplug leads or HT (high-tension) leads running from the distributor to all 8 sparkplugs. This was done by cutting 8 lengths of 0.3mm black wire and super gluing them into a drilled hole in the distributor, then bending and routing them into 8 holes drilled in the correct places in the valve covers. The engine block and heads were painted with red enamel paint, the valve covers were painted with Tamiya gun metal grey, and the air filter (a chromed part) was coated with matt lacquer. The whole engine was given a few washes of diluted black and brown oil paint to give an oily, worn appearance. While I was at it, I gave the chromed 5-spoke wheels an oily wash too.
See Part 2 for the finished build.
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