Last year in the summer I built the legendary Dodge Charger Daytona by Revell under their amazing Pro Modeler line and that kit had a two-in-one get-up that I really, really wanted to explore further. Once you look at the back of that box, you literally gotta make a choice: the 426 HEMI powered Charger Daytona stocker that ended up being used in NASCAR and kicking serious ass, or you go with the factory stock 440 Magnum Charger Daytona with the R/T trim. I ended up going with the factory stock and saving the 426 HEMI bits for a second build.
Ever since I made that one, I’ve been pining to find a second kit. And holy crap I found one, it’s getting rarer by the day and definitely more expensive. This kit in particular is the 2012 re-release under Revell’s “Muscle” line and still is largely the Pro-Modeler kit, just with some significant omissions: it only has the photo etched grille and is missing the suspension and interior for the 426 HEMI stocker version, it does however still have pretty much all the extra spare bits from said version, like the stocker shifter, two sets of 
mirrors, two sets of engine components(along with the giant HEMI air cleaner), so on. It’s really clear the mold is unchanged, just the contents were reduced.
The photo etched parts that are gone have been replaced by decals, which still are nice but… yeah, it would’ve been nice if it still had the large P.E. sheet like the regular re-release of the Ford Torino, another Revell Pro Modeler release that found itself under the “Streetburner” line a few years later and was largely unchanged with the repackaging.
So it’s in itself a bit of a Frankenstein build; I grabbed the stocker parts from the Pro Modeler kit, along with some of the bits from the new kit and planted it all on the kit that is meant to only hold the regular 440 version. Luckily the mold didn’t change a bit!
I thought a good contrast for the black wheels would be a bright color, along with a black Daytona livery. I initially wanted to re-purpose the original decal sheet of the Pro Modeler kit cause it has the silkscreen decal sheet which is infinitely nicer to use, but then I spotted the Duplicolor rattle-can at my work, this bright super in your face orange and I thought to myself; “Yep.”.
The whole kit is still just as pleasant to build as the original Pro Modeler one, mostly cause the mold is of course 100% the same and the instructions are too. The only issue is that the mold is definitely less impressive, partly due to the plastic quality being a bit less awesome. But then again, I am holding it up to the very best Revell had to offer so of course a re-release wasn’t gonna be as good.
In particular what makes this build different from the 440 Magnum sporting Charger Daytona is the spectacular 426 HEMI and the beefier wheels, interior and such. I opted out on the roll cage in favor of making it a even more road legal stocker(such as tail lights, front seat and rear bench seat, no roll cage, so on) so it wouldn’t look too out of place. Still though, the five lug wheels and with the Goodyear white letters on the wide slicks and of course the bright orange with the off-setting black livery and wing, it is pretty damn noticeable!
Engine quality is still fantastic, so good even that I ended up making the second engine as well to put on the little display stand you would get with the original release(the idea was so that the second engine wouldn’t go to waste, nifty!), also used the distributor of a 396 cubic inch Chevy big block V8 so make the wiring up a little easier, despite the fact that it seems to be a bit too large for the block.
But what it comes down to is that I’m super, super happy that I shelled out the extra dough to get my hands on a second kit of this beauty. Now the Charger Daytona sits on the shelf with its twin brother, the schoolyard bully, the Winged Warrior, the 426 HEMI Daytona Charger.
’69 Dodge Charger Daytona 426 HEMI specifications:
Kit: #85-4910
Skill Level: 3
Parts: 149
Molded in: White
Scale: 1/25
Hello, I’m building a 69 Daytona charger and was wondering how you got the rear end white hemi decal so vibrant? I used the the decals that came in the box and the white one is almost transparent.
Also where did you find the spark plug wires?
The white stripe on the red’s from the late nineties ProModeler release that had “high quality” silk screen decal sheets instead of the regular ones, which definitely makes the white pop out a ton more. Coming to think of it, the black one’s also from the same sheet. And the spark plug wire(and the distributor they’re attached to on the orange one) come from Detail Master, cost roughly two bucks or so. (Link: http://www.modelroundup.com/category-s/248.htm)
Hi Ray,
Love this orange on the Dodge. Can you tell me a bit more about if you primed for first and do you know the Dupli-Color named that you used? Thanks, Tom