Vanishing Point Dodge Challenger

       

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Original Kit:
Vanishing Point '70 Dodge Challenger
Made By:
Revell (kit #85-1516)
Scale:
1/25
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Dodge Challenger from the movie Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point Challenger badge detail Vanishing Point Challenger engine Vanishing Point Challenger interior Vanishing Point Challenger chassis rear Vanishing Point Challenger chassis front Vanishing Point Challenger rear

 
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The Vanishing Point Challenger has been a long time coming, in part because I couldn't decide how involved I wanted to get with it. The Revell kit has its problems, but so does the AMT kit. And the Monogram kit. The less said about some diecasts the better. So I weighed how absolutely perfectly accurate I wanted to get against how much I wanted to get it done. In the end, I decided that looking at a flawed but finished model would be more fun than looking at an unopened box.

Not that it's a totally box stock build. I did my usual trick of eliminating the solid metal front axle and filling the holes in the block. The rest of the engine was built straight out off the box, and painted to try to replicate an original factory appearance with overspray on the transmission bell and correct OEM part colors. This included stripping and repainting the air cleaner, which was finished with a 440 Six Pack decal from AMT's '70 Coronet Super Bee kit.

I also applied overspray to the chassis (Tamiya's TS-7 Racing White looked closest to the prepainted body color), then painted the individual parts to be "factory stock" as much as possible. There's some disagreement among enthusiasts about what exact colors were used under pretty much any classic car, and the Challenger is no exception, so I used a general consensus and my own judgement here. The tires provided in the kit are a little on the small side, so I swapped them out for the set that came with AMT's '69 Oldsmobile (even better that they already had the correct Goodyear sidewall printing). Since the Challenger was essentially new when Kowalski took possession of it, weathering was kept to a minimum.

The interior received embossing powder for the carpet, but was otherwise simply assembled and painted. The woodgrain was done with a combination of black, brown, and clear orange, and the rest of the trim was hit with some chrome paint.

Even accepting the questionable contours of the body, there were still a couple of details that were flat-out wrong for the original Vanishing Point Challenger. First was the fuel fill, a chrome flip cap that should have been a body-colored screw-on cap. I scratch built a new one, which took a couple of tries but eventually I got a design that worked. I also scratch built the front bumperettes. The painted-on trim was OK, but had room for improvement so I redid it all using BMF and chrome paint. The smaller scripts and badges were left alone. While Revell provided the correct front and rear license plates, I replaced them with my own prints to ensure size and style consistency.

 

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