Going through my photo files often brings me up with a start, when I find out just how many of a particular model I have made, or how many cars for a particular year. Last year we looked at 1970, and I featured 22 models out of 48 I’ve built for that year. Not that I deliberately omitted anything; rather I thought you wouldn’t want the see six Torinos, five Mustangs, three Olds 442 and the like. One of each was enough. A representative sample, you might say.
We have a similar problem for 1971; choosing one example of each car. The best? The most colourful? The most unusual? We seem to have a lot less variety for 1971, and ‘only’ 36 models in total, so I’ll throw in a few extras this time around. We’re a bit Mopar-centric this year, I hope nobody minds. I know some guys who’ll be happy…
This Barracuda is one of those mainstream conversions I featured early on. Based on the Monogram Hemi Cuda, I filled in the fender gills, added a vinyl roof and wire wheel covers, and went with a less exciting engine. And a conservative but nice colour scheme. Gran Cuda perhaps? It can’t be a granny Cuda cause it’s not a slant six.
I was quite excited when AMT announced their new-tool kit of the ’71 Charger. They did a stock R/T and a Super Bee street machine with those odd directional wheels that were briefly popular. As always, I don’t always follow factory colours. While they had some wild colours, metallic pink wasn’t a Mopar offering; I can’t remember where I got it from!
But purple was. I’ve built another six (blue, brown, orange, red, green, yellow), but you get the idea. Yep, I like Chargers. Even these ones. Anyone up for a Charger story?
Over to Mercury next for this ’71 Comet. An old Johan kit of a drag car, I repurposed it as a street machine, but kept the Boss 429. I used a period Aussie Ford colour scheme.
Here’s a Hemi Cuda in Panther Pink with a white interior.
.. Some issues of this kit included a shaker hood and wild wheels. Not quite CC-spec.
A tamer colour scheme, but still with the Hemi.
Enough with the ‘Cudas.
Much sought after these days, this Mercury Cyclone is an old MPC annual kit I built back in 1971, and ‘updated’ the colours with the yellow additions a few years later, based on a Ford Australia special edition Falcon Superbird of the time.
Hmm, we seem to have arrived back at Mopar again. Funny, that, but it’s a recurring theme today. This Duster is another one of those kits from AMT’s nineties revival. Initially released as a 340 with two sets of hood graphics and optional scoops…
…it was followed up by a street machine version with different wheels and a Viper-esque intake setup.
Moving up a size we come to another of my favourite shapes, the Plymouth GTX. Initially released as a plain Satellite with some Road Runner graphics (to avoid licensing fees, I suspect), it was later modified (hood, sill chrome) to make it a GTX. Here’s a nice metallic blue….
…and a decidedly high impact red. Although it doesn’t suit the shape, I added a vinyl roof to this one to break up the expanse of redness. It really was a bit much.
This was a Johan annual kit of the AMX. I chose not to use all of the pace car markings, just used the door crest, and added the light green to highlight the interesting pressings on the hood and roof.
We saw the Comet before, here’s a Maverick. This is also a drag car repurposed for the street. It was moulded in this nice shade of green. The hood bulge was integral unfortunately; that would have made removing it a bit trickier than I was prepared for at the time.
The large Mustang. As we saw recently, they’re not all that much larger than earlier models, but the styling makes them look huge. Guess this was thought to be a desirable thing at the time. This is an MPC annual kit that’s been re-released many times over the years. Revell recently did a new tool which is said to be a fantastic kit, but I’ve built five of these already, so no sale.
I did say I’d built five – but we’ll stop here.
A Firebird Trans Am in a decidedly non-stock green, also with some un-CC-spec wheels, but we’ve got to have a GM something. I was just getting into 1/25 scale in 1971, and a lot of the annual ’71 kits were updated to ‘72s (Chevelles, GTOs….) which are reissued from time to time. We’ll see them when I cover 1972. Whenever that is!
And we’ll finish up with this 1971 Thunderbird. I built the annual kit back in 1971 even though teenage me thought it wasn’t what I thought of as a Thunderbird. AMT re-released the kit about ten years back, so I had another crack at it.
That’s it for 1971. Oh sure there were a lot of other cool cars around, but I have to make do with what’s available (or easily changed to the form I want).
Next time? I’m mindful there are several themes I’ve hinted at that I haven’t covered yet. Maybe there’s time for something small…
The lime green Duster is the perfect “hook” lede pic. It’s a beaut. Another fun piece, Mr. W. btw, I had no idea that a Comet could be had in aquamarine from the factory, anywhere. Great color.
Thanks F-85. That Duster has been popular wherever I’ve shown it. About the Comet, perhaps I should have clarified, it was a Ford Australia colour, but not on this car. We never got the Maverick or Comet down here, as we went our way with our own slightly larger ‘compacts’, like this Falcon. I’ll often pinch a local colour scheme and apply it to something of that era that we never got.
Peter you made my day! All the Mopars look great, and that lime Firebird, WOW! I like when your models are photographed in a manner that introduces just enough ambiguity to make you think that they are real!
Hey thanks. I knew you’d be happy! I might have mentioned before, I don’t usually set out to photograph them like that – it just kind of happens.
Back when I was in high school or maybe early college, I modified a kit using the grill off the “Jungle Jim” drag car kit to make my ’71 “restomod” (well before that was a thing). Used suspension bits from a Corvette model, and a DOHC engine out of another kit to sub in for the Cosworth engine. My skills are not in the same time zone as yours, but I was happy with how it came out. Painted with leftover Mediterranean Blue from when I resprayed my ’71 notchback after an accident whacked up the whole driver’s side sheet metal.
It turns out, after some searching, that MPC did release a kit that could be built as a stock ’71 Vega, or alternately as a ‘wild’ drag car (“Va Va Vega”). There’s a NOS kit on eBay at the moment, listed for US$475.00. Not today!!
Thanks Ed. We’ll meet up with my ‘attempt’ at a stock-ish Vega when I cover 1972 (when I was fifteen, so….). I quite like the look of yours. The trouble with eBay is that prices can get quite out of line with the usual selling price for an item. While unbuilt ’71 Vega kits (or even built models) are uncommon, I’ve never heard of them being so desirable as to command that high a price. MPC did several drag Vegas which gave rise to some (decidedly illegal around here!) street machines like this one; they would probably be more common nowadays than the annual kits.
The green Duster is my favourite, I remember it from another of your features, it was my pick of that story as well, some cars are just perfect, I think its the matching interior, the blue one is cool as well.
Thanks jonco43. So often back in the day we derided the colour-matched interiors in favour of black, which somehow had the image of being the only serious colour for a performance interior, with maybe a grudging allowance for white with black dash and carpets. Never mind that black was thoroughly unpleasant in a hot climate unless you had air conditioning (uncommon here back then). I’m more inclined to use colourful interiors these days, and not care do much about what was common, or even ‘correct’.
The wheels on the green Pontiac Firebird look to be GM Rallye II’s a factory option mainly seen on Pontiacs and…..HQ thru HZ Holdens. I ran a set on my HQ (modified to GTS spec) Ute. Thanks again for the post, a colourful way to start the day.
Quite right Newt, they are too. My mistake. I was thinking of the optional wheels it came with, and forgot I used the standard ones here. That’ll teach me not to look at the pic in full size before writing the text. Or with my memory, maybe not…
A bit hard not to be colourful with cars of this era. Sorry not to have more GMs for you, but when we get to 1972 I’ll make it up.
These are all great – I especially liked the gold Barracuda “Gran Coupe” conversion with your usual handiwork and craftsmanship.
I also had to enlarge the Javelin picture to read the graphics on the door, as I hadn’t remembered one ever having paced the Indianapolis 500. But it was NASCAR, so there we go.
Great post, and I liked the samples you selected for it.
Thanks Joseph. I didn’t go into that Cuda with the intention of doing a Gran Coupe, it was more a case of ‘Let’s just plainify this a bit’. It wasn’t until I showed this once before that I was even aware there was such a thing as a Gran Coupe.
The choice of what to show isn’t always easy – I keep finding flaws that make me go ‘No, not that one.’. Maybe I ought to do a ‘Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor’ some time!
Another great set of models and pictures, Peter.
The lede Duster looks just like the one featured in the 1971 Duster brochure. (except that one had a black background on the hood) Very nice.
I also want to compliment you on the two photos taken outside in daylight. The natural light really makes the colors and finishes of those two cars look very realistic.
And so, 1971 raises a somewhat random comment from me. I spent some part of my childhood with a 1971 MoPar…a 1971 Chrysler fuselage wagon. And that just makes me think that what seems to be lacking in terms of scale models are the truly pedestrian vehicles of any given time. I’ve not seen too many MoPar wagon models (or any other make) and certainly no early ’70s wagons. Likewise I suppose, no one is making or building Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge minivan models? I’m not suggesting this as a challenge for you, but rather just musing on what vehicles end up being honored via the creation of scale model kits.
Believe it or not, back when they were new, Lindberg made a 1/25 scale kit for a 1996 Dodge Caravan.
Traditionally, models featured only the top-of-the-line or the sportiest convertibles and 2-door hardtops.You’d never find a Chevy Biscayne 4-door sedan for example.
Thanks Jeff.
Not having seen the ’71 Duster brochure, that’s a happy accident! And despite the abundance of natural sunlight here, I usually only take outside pics when I have trouble getting my camera or phone to accurately record what my eyes are seeing. Usually this will be very highly reflective metallics, or fluorescents like that green Cuda. I’m gradually going through my models and rephotographing some; perhaps I should make more use of my surroundings rather than faking a studio.
You raise a good point about what there are and aren’t models of. Thanks to Dan and 210delray for chiming in when I was busy (Being around the other side of the international date line means I sometimes get a bit slow in replying). Dan’s right (of course) about the Lindberg Caravan; although I’ve seen the kit i never bought it. But the Japanese companies seem to have no trouble selling kits of their vans – I’ve done (quite) a few. Likewise plain sedans: AMT has a ’70 Ford Custom available as a taxicab or police car, and Johan did a ’68 Fury police car. LIndberg did a later Crown Vic, in a multitude of police liveries. That’s not to say they can’t be built as a family sedan of course, just that by and large the companies choose the top-of-the-line subjects. Don’t get me started about the Japanese companies and all their sedan kits – I could do several stories about those! I could pretty much chart the development of the Toyota Crown, or the Nissan Cedric – but who’d want to read that? 🙂
Since you mention Mopar wagons, here’s a ’60 Plymouth wagon for you.
Peter,
those JoHan Comet and Maverick pro stock cars are kind of rare now, I’m jealous.
What can I say, Dave? I bought them when they were available off the shelf at normal kit prices. I don’t like paying ‘colllector’ prices any more than the next guy, though I have done so on rare occasions. It’s a shame the tools were lost/stolen/melted for scrap, though I keep hearing rumours of a new Maverick kit from Moebius – some say they’re true, others say not.
Wonderful selection as always, and the colors are quite nice.
When the ’71s came out, I was just starting college and was somewhat beyond my jadedness about the annual model year styling changes.
Thanks. Back in ’71 I was still in high school. I was always keen to read about new cars, especially the American cars we would never see here. Not just because they were so unimaginably big with huge engines, but for a while there America seemed to be style leaders with clean surfacing and fuselage bodies. But then broughams hit, and those surfaces got all tackied up.
I was discovering just how different our countries were; the kind of stuff they never taught us in school but probably should have. Now with friends all over the globe, I’m still learning!
As for the annual model change, what a weird idea, thinking about it now from a 21st century perspective! You don’t change your home appliances or your lawn mower every year; why should you change your car? 🙂
I’ve long regarded fiddlin’ around with the styling a cover for technical inadequacy.
Fantastic stuff again, Peter. Did a double-take to check that convertible wasn’t 1:1!
Thanks Nic. I was careful choosing that convertible pic, but never thought it would be taken for 1:1!
Yes, our local motoring press used to bemoan the lack of technical progress, like lousy tyres, poor braking, very ordinary handling, thirsty engines, and hold up the European cars as an example of what could be done on a budget if the companies’ priorities were different. Unfortunately most of the European companies never really seemed to take Australia seriously, and seemed content with low sales. Here in Australia we almost got to an annual model change through the sixties, but we knew it was just window dressing. A new look alone wasn’t reason to buy.
The local manufacturers got the message. Model cycles lengthened. They responded with improved standard equipment and improved chassis dynamics in the seventies. Ford and Chrysler improved their big sixes while GM vainly tried to push small V8s. By the eighties the idea of ‘new grille and lights equals new car’ without technical improvement was pretty much dead here.
I get the impression our local Big Three were more responsive to what the market actually wanted than their US parents. But then, in a much smaller country, perhaps thay had to be.
Peter, do you ever rebuild earlier builds? Just about all of mine have had rebuilds – as BMF, Tamiya paints, and chrome paint became available.
And my skills improved. The only one in my ‘fleet’ that’s still in it’s 1980s glory is a ’70 Toronado
Good question, Chris. In my early years I’d rebuild a model now and then; my ’60 Pontiac had a rebuild in about ’75, and my ’61 a bit later. A ’56 Chevy got cut down in an abortive attempt to turn it into an FB Holden before I discovered that was beyond my skills at the time. Same with a ’55 becoming an FE ute. They’re still in boxes, somewhere.
As I got older I became less inclined to rebuild. Studying in the CBD meant access to several great hobby shops with access to a much wider range of kits. Then came work, family, etc, and time to build became scarce. Plus by the nineties interesting new kits were coming out.
A few years back I rebuilt a ’66 Falcon, and at the moment there’s a ’69 Charger Daytona rebuild on my bench (the old MPC, not the good Revell one). But probably less than 10% of my cars have been rebuilt.