Desert Dodge Do-Over, Part 10: Cage Match

The model is by me. The background is by Gemini.

It may look like a model, but it's not a model. It's an archaeological recreation. It's a madeleine. It's a childhood memory. It's avoidance behaviour. It's a learning experience. It's a reflection on memories. It's a balm for the winter blahs. But, it's not a model.

This is the image I asked Gemini to add a background of the Baja California desert

As I emerge from my late winter slump I decided to finally tackle the roll cage and the various details specified in the Car Model article. I wanted to finish the modelling part and have only decaling to do. I did spend time looking into decals, but it looks like I'll need to make some for the 02s and Duster logos, and hunt around my leftover decals for the rest. That could take time. 

The bulge is made from a strip of 0.010" thick styrene

The old Baja Brute kit came with a hood that had a molded in roof bulge for the engine's large air cleaner. I thought I still had that relic somewhere in the workshop, but if it's there, I couldn't find it, so I had to make a custom hood.

 

The piece cut from the stock hood is used as the top of the hood bulge.

I made the bulge in my model larger than the Brute's. The reason being I followed the creases in the hood for the cutout instead of trying my hand at getting the end curve correct. I used the hood piece I cut out to form the top of the hood bulge.

Trial-and-error test fitting of styrene tubes to obtain one side of the roll cage

Now, it was on to the roll cage. Nearly half the photos in the short, 3-page article deal with building the roll cage, and, frankly, they don't give much help in explaining to the young readers how to do it. I read somewhere, I've mentioned this a few times, the target demographic for the magazine was 12 year old boys who were crazy about plastic model car kits, so I would think some detailed explanation for the readership would be appreciated.

One side of the roll cage made from 3/32" diameter styrene tubing.

I decided to use styrene tubing in the same diameters as specified in the article instead of brass that was used on the original. I'm more comfortable with styrene and thought it would make the job easier, which I think it did. The styrene was certainly easier to cut, and no epoxy was required for bonding pieces together.

The cross pieces are 1/8" diameter styrene tubing.

If I wanted to be accurate and make the assembly job much easier I should have carefully measured and fit one side of the roll cage and then made a little jig so I could make up identical sides. However, my inner 12 year old said "just wing it", so I did :-) The resulting structure is a little wonky alignment-wise, but it's certainly in keeping with the vibe of this project. But, I should note, when I actually was 12, there is no way I had the skill or patience to pull this off either with styrene or brass.

Test fitting the roll cage to check alignment and fit.

As I've noted before there's no way 12 year old me could have built this project as specified. This fact was constantly brought home to me as I built the model. Body sectioning, chassis lifting, roll cage construction, it was all beyond me. It's actually good to know because instead of thinking of myself as a poor model builder back then, I now know it was just too advanced for me at the time. That's one reason this isn't a scale model, but a learning experience to let me reflect on old memories and maybe reset them a little.

Tire rack and roof mesh glued in place with superglue.

Ok, back to some reality :-) I did use a little bit of brass tubing as you can see in the above photo. The tire rack is made from 1/16" diameter brass tube superglued to the roll cage. The roof mesh is a piece of used drywall sanding sheet, also superglued to the roll cage. As far as I recall, superglue wasn't available back then, likely not even invented.

Gas tank from my original model with new filler tube from the repopped kit.

As you know if you've been following this series, I had a few pieces left over from the model I built back in '72 and I've been using them on this version as is. I haven't tried to update, improve, or make them stylistically fit in. That's part of the reason I say this is a memory object and not a model. Up there in the above photo is the gas tank from the original model. It's a relic. Surprisingly the new, repopped kits included this gas tank on a sprue, but made no note of it in the instructions. That was good luck for me because I had lost the filler tube and was able to add a new one to the tank. I felt I couldn't just glue the tank in without the tube, so maybe I violated my 'non-intervention principle', but oh well, it was for a good cause :-)

Holding the windshield in place with clothes pegs until the WeldBond sets.

The windshield had to be carefully cut from the kit's 'glass' insert. It was glued in the windshield frame with WeldBond. In the above photo, do you see the body insert between the grill and bumper? That's also from the original project and I've left it painted as I did back then, imprecise red signal lights and all.

The tailgate is also a relic from the original model.

The tailgate is also from the original model. The yellow doesn't match the body, but I don't care. Back when I built the original it was the first model I ever spray painted. I used a can of Testors yellow. Decals are original too. The spare tires are from a Chevy pickup kit. Several pickup truck kits have donated to this project in time travel :-)

The exhaust pipes were cobbled together from styrene tubes and kit exhaust pipes.

Ok, I admit it, the side exhaust pipes are bizarre. They're so low on the truck they'd likely be crushed and broken on the first hard bump or hill encountered. Well, so would the low hanging transmission on this thing, so at least there's some consistency :-)

The underside needs a little weathering.

Well, that's about it for now. There's just decaling to do, and I think decals are going to add a lot to this 'memory machine' if I can get them to exactly match those in the magazine. I particular like those Plymouth dust devil images. Stay tuned!