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I got a great tip for anyone doing any build of MPC's Dodge Monaco police car: get rid of the awful one-piece chassis/suspension/exhaust and most of what would go on it, replace it with the same from AMT's '71 Dodge Charger.

Only tricky bit was having to cut the bottom out of the MPC interior tub and mate it to the Charger chassis which has the interior floor molded as part of it. Really not a big deal once attempted. So the interior is the MPC except the steering wheel from the Charger which was much better. And the floor. Scratchbuilt CB and lightbar control boxes.

Also using the engine, wheels, tires, suspension and exhaust from the Charger; I'm building with the hood sealed shut and thus do not need all the topside engine details. Who really cares about seeing Rosco's engine anyway?

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Edited by Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy
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There was plenty to correct on the body; sink areas to fill, fitting and sealing the hood, and adding trim running from just aft of the back door windows and running all the way around the rear window.

Also removing the door trim from the front doors as well as the running boards. Also remove the molded-on side running lights; then after plenty of priming and sanding, a good gloss white finish.

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Making replacement running lights isn't hard. Just filed down some red clear and all-transparent sprue to very thin, cut the correct lengths, re-cut to width, sanded down the edges and rounded off the corners a bit. Then some transparent red and orange paint.

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Found an allegedly 1/25 resin basset hound to use as "Flash". Looked nice enough, although it had a lot of tiny air bubbles to fill, and reshaped the forehead a bit, but gave me a good chance to practice drybrushing for figure painting, which I don't usually do. My only complaint is I think it's actually a bit too large for 1/25, but it'll do for this. Gotta have Flash for Rosco's car!!!

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Edited by Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy
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Boy, were they ever RIGHT about ditching half the Monaco kit and replacing the chassis/engine/suspension/exhaust with those from the '71 Dodge Charger kit. Absolutely sits perfectly, fits like a glove, infinitely more accurate and more detailed...I think it's easier to build this way!!

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  • 2 months later...

I like this so far....it's good to see you're going to town on this one....you have a great way of creating those tiny little touches that bring your models to life.

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Nice work so far, especially on the Grill. What is that PE mesh material?

A long time ago I started a similar project, using the revell 1969 charger chassis, and I created a master for the head light buckets and managed one good resin copy.

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Edited by Kurt H.
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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Finally getting around to finishing this one. Almost there. Waiting to chrome the bumpers, and the final work on the lightbar. The lightbar is a NIGHTMARE since nobody does a really correct one; even the best aftermarket one I've found so far is really just a slightly improved copy of the kit one, which makes no sense to me.

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Excellent job on this Andrew! I just saw your thread over on Hazzardnet.com. My user name there is Boss JD Hogg.

Who did you order the light bar and resin wheels from? Custom Squads has the light bar but I haven't seen one in person yet.

Mike.

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Heya Mike! Yep, saw your General over there, always a pleasure to see the Orange Clunker

Lightbar was the Custom Squads, yes, but I was really disappointed with it. Granted, it's still an improvement, with both clear sections being molded as one part each with no seam. Still, it's basically the kit part, which is 'way too fat and wide (not unlike the "owner" of the Hazzard County Sheriff himself ;) ), has a too-wide chrome center with not enough light on each side, and worst of all, a horrible base to mount it all on. Totally inaccurate.

So you can see in the final photos here how the base was HUGELY filed/sanded down narrower and with a beveled angle, then had to come up with mounting brackets on my own.

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Thanks Andrew!

I spoke with Tony from Custom Squads and he said the correct light bar is # CS-AR-2 Aerodynamic (Modern).

There is also an Aerodynamic (Early) light bar that Custom Squads sells , # CS-AR-1 which is not the one.

Which one did you get? Maybe you ordered the wrong one???

Mike.

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That's too bad if you got the wrong one.

I ordered a couple of parts from Tony recently and asked about the light bar. He said it's the AR-2.

Now I wonder which is supposed to be the correct one. Although the picture on his web site of the AR-2 does look a bit slimmer.

Edited by crowe-t
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You can zoom in on the page, it's a PDF. You might try e-mailing Tony to see if he has any other pictures. I might do that too when I'm ready to buy.

Meadowmuffin, that's hilarious! :woot.gif:

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