Mad Max Model Kits
Mad Max Interceptor TNT Model Kit as built by Scott West
Scott sent over a very detailed description of building the kit, and a bunch of great photos, so read on...
Before I begin I would like to thank Peter Barton for having a web site with all the pictures and the info. There�s no way I could have built this model without his expertise on this car, so Thanks Peter, I do appreciate you spending the time that you do on your web site. The first thing I would like to say is that I was very disappointed in the quality of this model especially when you consider it cost me $70. I have built many models from scratch because I wanted it to be unique not because the quality was so poor that I couldn�t use the parts. Even though I must admit I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I would also like to apologize for the pictures that are out of focus, I started out using a 35mm camera I didn�t realize they were out of focus until I had them developed. I borrowed a digital camera from a friend to take the pics of the finished model so the pics look 100% better. So lets get started. When I received the model I had to make a decision on how I wanted the finished model to look. I could just build It the way it came out of the box (which would take a few hours), build it the way it was in the movie (which would take a few days) or build it the way the movie portrayed it to be (which would take a few months). Since I wanted to have the hood open I decided that I the only way I could build it, was the way the movie wanted you to believe it was. The first thing I did was cut the hood and headlights out:
I then spent several days using body filler, sandpaper, small files and a dremel tool with a flex shaft (thank God for dremel tools) shaping and fixing imperfections in the body. Once that was completed I primed the body. I did find one interesting thing about resin models if you prime them with a flat color first the gloss paint dries as fast as It does on any other model. Another thing I decided is that I wanted to keep the model all ford model parts or as close to it as possible, so I went out looking for a model that was as close to the year model as the original Falcon. At the time Peter hadn�t put the pictures of the Falcon at the salvage yard so I had to make a best guess on what the engine compartment looked like. The closest model I could find was a 1969 Ford Talladega in 1/24 scale (The interceptor is a 1/25 scale) so that meant the Talladega is bigger this turned out to be both good and bad as you will see. I cut the entire engine compartment out of the Talladega:
I had to attach strips of flat pieces of scrape plastic to the top of the fender wells and ground and shaped the underside of the fenders of the Interceptor to get it to fit properly (had the Talladega been 1/25 scale the engine compartment would have been to small)
Once it was primed the different colors where hidden and it looked like the compartment was factory. The next problem was the chassis. It was about a � inch to long so I used a hacksaw blade and cut it into 3 pieces, cut out the � inch, made sure that the tire were going to line up right then glued it back together.
Before I cut the chassis I remove the fuel tank I then cut the tank and reshaped it and reinstalled it after the chassis was reassembled. I cut the rear portion of the leaf springs to match the new chassis length:
The next problem was that the chassis did not fit properly on the body because of the resin slag and the thickness of the resin so after a couple of hours of contouring with a dremel tool I shaped it so it fit. Next came the interior and it was a nightmare in itself. The Interceptor didn�t come with a back seat and the one for the Talladega was to long, so more cutting and shaping. The front seats I decided to put in are a pair I had in a junk box so they�re not from a Ford kit. The police light and mounting bracket and police radio are scratch built from junk parts. The accelerator, clutch and brake pedal are junk parts:
At this point I had the engine partially together and I always test fit the parts before gluing them together. I tried to test fit the chassis, engine and the interior that�s when I discovered the center hump wasn�t centered it was slightly off to the left and was flat on the bottom. So with my trusty dremel tool I reshaped the underside of the center hump so the engine would sit straight. The engine I used is a 428 SCJ from the Talladega kit:
To get the blower to stick up as high as it does on the real car and to be able to put the distributor and radiators hose on I had to graft 2 different intakes (both fords) together and build it up. I cut the air scoop off the blower that came with the Falcon, shaped it as close to the real one as I could and put it on a blower I had. I then put spark plug wires, battery cables, heater hoses and air conditioner hoses (yes the Black Interceptor I built has an air conditioner, sort of). I used thread to wire the alternator, distributor, starter and air conditioner clutch. I used thin wire for the fuel line and string for the coil. The headers are from a Ford pickup. The exhaust system is scratch built. I cut the straight pieces from a set of dragster headers put them in a drill and used a small file to file them down and shape the tips:
The windshield is from a 1995 dodge ram pickup that I cut down and shaped to fit. The badges on the side are hand painted, the taillight lens are pieces of reflective tape that I bought at wal mart:
The headlights are from a 1/12 scale Chevrolet pickup with everything else scratch built One thing you may have noticed and that is the tires. I couldn�t find B F Goodrich. So I had to use Goodyear. I hope you won�t hold that against me. Well there you have it; total time invested is about 2 � to 3 months. A few of my friends couldn�t believe that someone would spend that much time and effort on a model but I felt doing anything less would not do it justice.
Check out the vehicle in the background. Is that the vehicle max drove in Beyond Thunderdome? Enjoy!
Back to Mad Max Model Kits