The Munsters Drag-U-La

       

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Original Kit:
The Munsters Munster Koach & Grandpa Munster's Drag-U-La
Made By:
AMT (kit #619)
Scale:
1/25
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The Munsters Drag-U-La
Munsters Drag-U-La front detail Munsters Drag-U-La cockpit Munsters Drag-U-La rear

 
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After the unforeseen amount of work needed on the Koach, I put Drag-U-La back on the shelf as a future project for when I was feeling a bit more ambitious. As it turns out, it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it might be.

Not that this was a forgotten masterpiece, but it was a fun and tidy little kit that went together with no drama. About the only real drawback was the lack of positive locators. The seat and control assembly was further complicated by the instructions having the wrong number of crossmembers drawn. But thanks to the small size and relatively few parts, it was easy to do lots of test fits along the way to make sure everything looked correct before gluing.

The engine, transmission, and chassis went together with no trouble at all. The rear axle seemed a little wobbly in its assembly, but by putting it together around the metal axle I was able to make sure everything went together nice and straight. I accidentally broke the shift lever trying to remove the parts tree burrs, so I made a new one from flat styrene stock using hte broken pieces as a template.

The coffin body was simple enough to place, but many of the accessory parts like the lights, pipes, and rear bar were extremely awkward to place because where they mounted and where they balanced were often in very different places. I had to invent several elaborate supports over the course of several days to make sure things were aligned properly as the glue dried. Even with that, it took me a couple of tries to get the headlights lined up.

I painted the engine block and seat Testors Purple Licious, the chassis and forward slab Tamiya Titanium Gold, and the coffin body Testors Inca Gold. The color for the latter was about right, but too flat. A light wash with Tamiya's black and brown panel liners brought out the details and gave it a much more realistic depth. I used the tombstone and canopy decals out of the kit, and thin strips of red vinyl for the tank straps.

Most of the chrome was actually OK, but some parts like the steering linkage and spring mount had ugly parting seams that had to be cleaned off. Even worse were the front wheels, which were hands down the weakest part of the kit. I replaced them with a set of spoked wheels from Atlantis' "Yellow Fever" Fiat dragster, cleaned up and chrome painted. While photoetched or hand laced wheels would've looked even better, that was a rabbit hole I was specifically trying to avoid with this build. The last detail was the rear tires, which I used straight from the box with a coat of Tamiya Rubber Black and the lettering sanded back to reveal the white plastic.

 

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