PONY CAR REVIVAL - 1:25 SCALE FORD MUSTANG-BASED MALCO GASSER FROM MPC

This is an MPC reissue of a 1:25 scale drag racer kit, “Ohio” George Montgomery’s Malco Gasser. The Gasser is based on a 1969 Mustang, but the body shape is where the resemblance ends, as everything else is pure dragster.

A TALE OF THREE BOXES

MAT IRVINE:
I’ve mentioned ‘Annual’ (sometimes called ‘Yearly’) cars before, kits that featured all-new or refreshed models from the full-size Detroit auto companies. For a time AMT, Jo-Han, MPC - and to a certain extent, Revell - matched the showroom glitz with kit versions of their own.

SALUTE TO A LEGEND OF MOTOR SPORT - REVELL 1:12 SCALE FORD SHELBY GT500

MAT IRVINE REPORTS

Carroll Shelby, one of the best known names in US motor sport, died last week, on May 10, 2012, aged 89. Coincidentally, Revell-Germany has just released a big, 1:12 scale version of the Revell-US Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang kit, thus helping to mark the long career of this motoring legend.

AUTOMODELLISMO 2012 SHOW REPORT

Show update from Mat Irvine:

The second Automodellismo Show - the show that features model cars inside and 1:1 scale classic cars outside - was very successfully held last Sunday, April 15, 2012. This is the second year under its new banner and location, in Hanslope village, Buckinghamshire, UK.

CAR CRAFTER COMBINES THREE PONY CARS INTO ONE MEAN MODEL

US pony cars began with the 1964 Ford Mustang, a sports car for everyman USA, even if it was based on the mundane Ford Falcon sedan (to the Brits, that’s a saloon btw). And now we’re up to the 2010s, with not only new, fire-breathing Mustangs, but also modern versions of its original competitors, the Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro. You can take your pick which one you prefer of the three, or you can do what car model fan Robert D did, and that was to combine elements of all three into a model auto-fusion concept, nicknamed the Challarostang.

In fact, sections of the three vehicles blended together without too much trouble at all, and Robert’s yellow-peril final result looks pretty much like it could have been designed in one studio instead of three. Of his Challarostang he says: “I like the main body of the Camaro better than the Challenger. I like the Challenger front end better than the Camaro. Once the idea was in my head to add Mustang to the equation, it all came together, because I found out pretty quickly that the three could combine into one”.

However, for those of you who like the real machines (and like ’em as separately running ponies) then the Car & Driver video road test above ought to be worth watching. The Camaro of course, has featured in both Transformers movies, and very nice it is too. This writer’s torn between it and the Mustang - handsome as the Challenger is, it’s doesn’t quite do it. Still, any of the three parked in front of the house would bring a happy New Year smile!

Thanks to Model Car Magazine forum, where these pics first appeared here.

If you fancy making your own custom cars, there are Ford Mustang kits here.

Dodge Challengers here.

And Chevy Camaros here.

FORD RACING CAPRI TO 1:43 SCALE FROM CORGI

First off, let’s just say that Corgi has made a decent fist of the Ford Capri Mk3. Shape and proportions are pretty good, with neat detailing to the wheels. The real thing is generally reckoned as the best all-rounder of the Capri series, various models of which were made from 1961 to 1986. The Mk3 in particular was a well-balanced good-looker, and fitted the bill as a Euro-size mini-Mustang pony car. These days it’s reckoned as a collectible classic, though some still run in anger on circuits and dragstrips.

It’s a mystery why Ford let the model die - the Capri really ought to be in its Mk6 or 7 version by now - but there are rumours of a rebirth in a year or two’s time. Come on Ford! And another mystery is Vauxhall/Opel's great-looking Calibra - why did the company drop it so suddenly a dozen years ago?

Rant over, and back to the models. A trawl through SMN’s Vault of Ancient Models revealed the Tamiya 1:24 scale Zakspeed Capri, which was finished with a dinged and dented ‘dirt and grime’ look. The kit was a good one to build with absolutely no fit problems, and a driver figure that looks just right in the cockpit. The kit came complete with a rear-mounted electric motor that can still drive the soft rubber tyres. The real thing had its engine upfront, but at least Tamiya's neat underbelly detail included the bottom of the engine.

The pictures above show:
1 Corgi Capri Mk3, 1976 race winner.
2 Capri powered up for drag meets.
3, 4 SMN’s own Tamiya 1:24 Capri.

Amazon has a range of Capri models here - look out for the original ‘hairdresser style’ Ford Consul Capri from the early 1960s. Amazon has the Corgi model featured above at a small discount.

eBay has some Tamiya Capris on sale here, and there's also an attractive-looking photo-etch detail set from a Belgian seller.

AND HERE'S THE CHASE ITSELF...

If you haven't seen it (and another chance to view if you have) here's THE chase. I've been up and down many of these steep streets, so believe me, the drivers earned their pay!

It's not perfect mind - some sequences are overcranked a little, to speed up the action, and there are continuity issues, but the overall effect is just great.

Also note the different 'voices' of the two cars - you can shut your eyes and know which one's onscreen at any time.

Enjoy!

Thanks to FreakKeeper for the YouTube video.

STEVE McQUEEN'S BULLITT: THE MOST FAMOUS CAR CHASE IN MOVIE HISTORY

Ask anyone to name a movie car chase sequence and (unless their tastes are very strange) the one that comes top is usually the duel between the 1968 Ford Mustang and Dodge Charger in the Steve McQueen movie Bullitt. Oddly though - especially considering the number of other ‘star cars’ available - neither car appeared as a kit for many years. In fact the closest you got was a set of the correct license plates, produced in etched brass from the UK company Miniature Autobits in 1987, but this left you to provide your own Mustang and Charger, probably from AMT and MPC kits.

Revell amended this situation slightly in 2000, when it issued multi-material versions of both Mustang and Charger. These were available as kits with mostly plastic parts and pre-painted metal bodies, or ready-built, with figures. But there has not been a conventional plastic kit until now, when Revell has gone half-way there with the Mustang, and has adapted the metal body tooling and produced it in conventional plastic.

The two new movie tie-ins (top picture) feature the original 1968 Ford Mustang, and the 2008 ‘new’ Mustang. The 1968 model is a re-tooling of the earlier metal-bodied kit, while the 2008 model is based on brand-new tooling.

There are plenty of differences if you compare the metal-bodied Bullitt Mustang (left in the lower picture) with the new all-plastic version. Besides the obvious changes to the body, other details are that the exhaust system is no longer painted, while the chrome runner for the new kit has modified wheels and the extra parts - lights etc - that were on the original completed body. The Frank Bullitt figure comes only with the metal ready-built, not the kit.

Now all we kit builders need is that Dodge Charger!

Visit Revell here.

Mat Irvine