Tony Nancy 22 Jr Dragster by CDW - FINISHED - Revell - 1:25 Scale

[CDW]

This nostalgic kit comes all the way back from an original release by Revell in 1963, the Tony Nancy 22Jr Roadster and Dragster kit. Two complete kits in one box. My particular kit copy was re-released in the late 90's or early 2000's.

When you open the box you find some very flash-filled and crude parts by today's standards but nevertheless, the kits can be built into a very reasonable facsimile of the original racers.

I spent some time today cutting parts off the sprue trees and cleaning them up by sanding filling and sanding some more. Lots and lots of flash and parting lines on these old kits. If you get a chassis frame that's not warped, it's a miracle. These early dragster kits were notorious for having warped chassis but this can all be worked out reasonably well with a little persuasion and care.

To start, I am building the AA gas dragster kit first. I don't intend to spend a lot of time on these kits but will add a few extras here and there to modernize them a tiny bit. Will try to get a good paint finish on both. You'll notice I almost always start by stripping all the chrome from the plated parts as they are so full of flash, once they are cleaned up the plating is rendered useless. Priming and painting them with metallic lacquers will do a more than adequate job of giving the appearance of shiny metal.

Follow along and feel free to share comments as we travel down a nostalgic path that many of us took while building these kits in our youth. I sure did.

Edited October 22, 2023 by CDW

[bruce d]

Now that really takes me back. The kit was a great source for parts and served as an organ donor for a couple of my altereds and rails. 

Good kit, mind if I watch?

[CDW]

3 hours ago, bruce d said:

Now that really takes me back. The kit was a great source for parts and served as an organ donor for a couple of my altereds and rails. 

Good kit, mind if I watch?

Absolutely, please do follow along. Hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane.

Yes indeed, they are great parts donors for custom projects.

[Canute]

I'll follow along, too. We'd have car building contests with lots of customization.

[CDW]

The body shell is intended to come apart in order to reveal the entire chassis assembly later on. Mine won’t be removable. In order to get a smooth body shell, I temporarily glue the panels together using acrylic glue. After sanding, the panels can easily be taken apart to fit the chassis inside. The glue is water solvable.

[Canute]

Yep, Gator's Grip is good stuff. 👍

[CDW]

Don’t you love the way spellchecker ‘corrects’ spelling incorrectly?

soluble not solvable (my previous post). Working from my iPhone. 🫤

[Egilman]

Well in context it does indicate the same thing... Doesn't it?  {chuckle}

 

Memory Lane, been traveling that road more and more frequently of late....

 

This is a nice one....

[_SalD_]

A blast from the past.  I'm pulling up a seat an reminiscing. 

Edited October 16, 2023 by _SalD_

[mtaylor]

I'm in.   Brings pack memories of some great times...both the models and the real deals at the track.

[CDW]

I wanted to show you another "chrome" paint. This one is manufactured by AK and called Super Chrome. The bottle calls it an ink, not paint. It likes to be sprayed on in a heavy coat, not light mist coats as you might do with Alclad chrome/metallic paints. Very easy to apply. Does not require a base coat but needs a smooth surface. I applied a much reduced Mr Surfacer 1500 black base under my parts which goes down very smooth.

 

The part on the left was painted with AK Xtreme Metal aluminum. The two valve covers painted with the Super Chrome ink. To me, it's a very convincing chrome finish and much better than the funky chrome plating that was on the parts originally.

 

In the background is my body shell painted in Mr Surfacer 1500 primer. The body will be painted with Mr. Color super silver, then clear coated with lacquer, decals, then more lacquer over the decals.

[CDW]

Spending an inordinate amount of time cleaning up the parts. Every single part requires attention. Even the little slots in the wheels have flash to clean up. 😄 

Chassis is painted in Tamiya gray metallic lacquer. Engine block Tamiya red lacquer. Other metallic shades are various AK Xtreme Metal paints and a few are the AK Super Chrome ink.

Trying out a dry fit here.

Lawn maintenance received full attention today. Very little time for modeling. Tomorrow is another day.

[CDW]

[CDW]

Put the first coat of silver on each body panel, then dry fit the chassis into the lower body shell.

Will paint and build out the remaining pieces that are internal to the body shell, add fuel lines, a magneto and ignition wiring before gluing down each body panel. After that will mask off the engine and interior compartment before giving the entire assembled body another coat of silver to unify the color. When spraying metallic paint, it's next to impossible get each individual body panel to look the same without it all being sprayed as one unit. 

[CDW]

Comparing the silver to the box art, it looks like the 1:1 car had some white mixed in with the silver. I'll experiment with some white mixed in with my silver to try and get a closer match.

[bruce d]

6 hours ago, CDW said:

Comparing the silver to the box art, it looks like the 1:1 car had some white mixed in with the silver. I'll experiment with some white mixed in with my silver to try and get a closer match.

If I recall correctly,  a caption in a contemporary magazine described the car as 'Corvette silver'.  

[CDW]

2 hours ago, bruce d said:

If I recall correctly,  a caption in a contemporary magazine described the car as 'Corvette silver'.  

Thanks Bruce. I mixed a few drops of white into the color cup of my airbrush and the result was a much more subdued, subtle silver, closer to the box art. It's not an exact match but much closer than before. Once the decals are applied, I think it will be okay.

[CDW]

I wanted to finish the model today, but ran out of gas, figuratively speaking.

The decals are old (1994) and were cantankerous. I was lucky they worked for me at all. Very thick. Decal colors were suboptimal at best but back at the time, they were par for the course.

If you tackle one of these old kits, be prepared to spend a lot of time cleaning up parts. Every single part need attention and some of the parts should actually be replaced or reworked. As it is, they will build into a decent shelf model but won't be contest material on their own merits. I added ignition wires and a rudimentary fuel line. Other than that, everything is box-stock. 

When I take back up to finish, need to install the radius arms, the tie rod, drag link, parachute, and windscreen.

If everything works out, will post final pictures for this one over the weekend.

 

 

[CDW]

This will complete my work on the dragster. The roadster will follow at a future date.

I have a ton of these old, nostalgic, unbuilt car models in my collection. Can't spend too much time on most of them to have any chance of building them all. Maybe one week each at the most. Some I will make an exception for as the kit may be interesting enough (to me) to warrant more time. 

Thanks for following along, for all your "likes" and comments. It's been fun!

[Old Collingwood]

Lovely job Craig   -  really nice finish.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Very nice paintwork Craig. Excellent build of an older kit

Alan

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work, Craig.  Looking forward to the Roadster when you're ready.

[Canute]

Neat little hot rod, Craig. Well done. 👍

[_SalD_]

well done Craig, ditto on all the previous comments.  I can almost hear her now being staged at the line.

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow that was fast!  Came out great Craig!  Looking forward to following the next one.