Page 1
of 2 . STARTED
ON NOV.25th, 2001 AND FINISHED ON NOV.30th, 2001 !
It was the
same day the Pt Pickup was finished, that it occured to me to build something
from the scrap kits I had. I also had 5 days ahead to set off to Georgia,
where I would stay for some months; so I had to finish it in 5 days, packing
up for the trip included ! Laying out what I had in
hand, I figured out the car:
Body and inner : Copperhead Hood and grille : Prowler Rear panel
: Viper Wheels
: Viper (Copperhead's wheels had gone
to Pt Cruncher) Tires
: VW New Beetle
Putting parts like Legos,
I configured the outlines as shown.
To embed the
Prowler hood in the Copperhead's, I drew the outline of the place to be
removed.
The Viper rear
was glued onto the Copperhead's, the empty spaces to be filled with polyester
putty later on.
I cut out the
hood as I had marked before.
I glued the
Prowler's hood in its place. The curvature of the rear part had to be revised
for exact fits with the windshield.
I cut the bumper
edges at the wheelarch and added styrene part to smoothly integrate the
body and the tail.
Now the front
grille. I cut it to fit roughly in as shown. The mating of the center grille
with the side intakes was a challenging job. I planned to fill the side
gap with putty. But to smooth finish the putty in the tiny places was almost
impossible, so I decided to apply the putty from the back side, while providing
a smooth surface on the visible side.
I tailor-cut
the grille profile on a cardboard.
While holding
the card in place, I applied 5-minute silicone putty on the grille. The
card provided a flat surface that the putty would lean on and dry flat
there too. After the putty settled, I removed the card to leave the silicone
putty surface to act as the back of the mold, when the filling polyester
putty would be applied from the inside.
I applied polyester
putty from the inside by means of a toothpick, pushing the putty towards
the silicone mold.
Voila !!!
Very clean result, needing only minor fillings with additional putty. I
applied putty in the remaining places with the tip of #11 blade, being
so careful as not having to sand more.