1969 Dodge Charger 440 R/T – Revell

The ’69 Charger kit is pretty damn spectacular all in all, that much I can say right off the bat. However, this kit did bring some memories back to a discussion some dudes were having on modelcarsmag.com‘s forums; do we need unnecessarily complicated parts for the sake of difficulty?

My entire problem could’ve been avoided if the front valance was molded onto the body, like the ’70 ‘Cuda kit for instance.

I made a ’68 Charger a long, long time ago and couldn’t for the life of me attach the front valance to the car. Back then I just wrote it off to being inexperienced and figured screw it, leave it be. But nowadays I like to think I learned a thing or two to prevent the front valance to become impossible to attach and what the hell, it happened again.

However this time I figured out it isn’t my fault. It’s a series of complications that start with the firewall being as wide as the body(meant to keep the whole interior sitting stable in the body), the firewall doesn’t let the chassis meet the engine braces, which leads to the front axle sitting too high, leading to the front valance not being able of connecting with the body.

Of course, I figured it all out long after I put the effin’ thing together so I figured I’d learn to live with it and possibly tape the valance to the fenders and glue it stuck someday.

So it looks a bit odd with the front sitting about half a inch higher than the rear… But what the heck, I still love how it turned out.

Granted it’s not as deeply detailed with the decals and interior as the newer ’68 Charger kit but it still can hold its own in those terms. The mold quality is awesome, you can even read the numbers on the side of the engine block.

The engine detail is huge too, starting to notice a trend with Dodge models that they tend to be a stretch better than most, could be cause they’re officially licensed and that Chrysler might have had some input, who knows! But man it’s good, the 440 Magnum is a beauty to behold.

Painted the wheels satin black with a red lip to sort of match the theme(and breaking the chain of ‘always full on stock’), the body Ferrari red and gave it a satin black vinyl soft-top. Set of BF Goodrich Radial T/A tires courtesy of Fireball Models. And that makes for a mighty pretty ’69 Charger model!

The superior 1968 Dodge Charger kit’s gonna show up sooner or later and Revell has a 1970 Dodge Charger coming up sometime in the late summer of 2016, so it’d be nice to finish off the B-bodies of the late 60s!

 

’69 Dodge Charger 440 R/T specifications:
Kit: #85-2546
Skill Level: 2
Parts: 132
Molded in: White
Scale: 1/25