"Blitzkrieg", Another Rob Riley Build

It's been great to feature several of my friend's model builds over the past week. I hope that you've enjoyed them. Here is Rob's background story on "Blitzkrieg" the little VW funny car:

 

This one is a really wild one and it consists of parts from a couple of different model kits.

The chassis, engine, wheels and tires are from a Polar Lights "Big John Mazmanian" 'Cuda funny car kit. I really like this chassis because it's a Loghhe style chassis from the late 60's/early 70's. ( Polar Lights re-issued some of the best funny car kits in the 1990's, and they were made from the original Aurora funny car model molds from the 60's).

 

 

The body is from a Polar Lights "Herbie the luv Bug" model kit.

I shortened the chassis to fit the stock v.w. bug wheel base by cutting  a section out of the front rails. This allowed me to keep the engine where it's supposed to be, and to use the front axle mounts that were molded to the front of the chassis.

 

 

I painted the chassis and engine bright red, and painted the interior "tins" silver. The dual blower set up came from an old 53 Studebaker kit called "Mr. Speed".  I used the funny car headers and I drilled the ends out of them to make them look more real. I added fuel lines, oil lines and plug wires to the engine. I made a fuel rail to run all 4 of the fuel lines to the injectors and I added fuel lines going to the fuel pump and to the moon tank.

 

 

To get the body to look right, I had to do a ton of work to it. I had to radius all 4 of the wheel wells, make the windshield opening bigger, remove the windshield wipers, fill holes for the door handles, tail lights and turn signals. I had to fill holes in the roof that were for a snap on soft top, and I shaved the trim off of the center of the hood. to smooth it out. I sprayed the body inside and out with primer and then gloss black followed by clear lacquer. The running boards were sprayed flat black.

 

I made a hinge for the back of the body out of a juice box straw, a peice of coat hanger and 2 plastic brake drums. I made the windows out of clear plastic sheet, and used 2 smooth chrome v.w. hubcaps to cover the headlight holes. In order to get the body to close over those 2 big scoops, I had to file the injectors at a slight angle to move the scoops in closer together.

 

 

My friend made the decals for me and they are silver foil outlined in red. I built this one for a contest, where it took second place out of 32 entries.