Round 2 / Polar Lights have recently been reissuing many of the drag racing kits of cars that were campaigned in the early and mid seventies calling them the Legends of the Quarter Mile. By today’s standards, these kits are rather dated with many pluses and many more minuses.

Kit includes:

• 52 parts on 2 chrome trees
• 59 parts on 7 white trees including the Barracuda Funny car Body
• 5 clear part on 1 tree
• 4 rubber tires 2 with M/H Racemaster print.
• 1 4 x 8” decal sheet
• 4 page instruction book

My build was first started by removing all of the extra heavy finish from the two chrome parts trees. Then all of these parts were removed from there runners, cleaned up, placed on spure sticks and sprayed with various shades of Model Master Metalizer paints. I used magnesium, aluminum, steel, and gunmetal to simulate the bare metal components. This would be to more accurately represent the shades used on these funny cars in the early seventies.

Next the body was lightly sanded with 600 wet to eliminate any parting seams and give a good base for the AV Mig gray primer to adhere. I like the one piece body which eliminates the chance of having ghastly seams to fill and smooth. After the primer had dried in the dehydrator I airbrushed the insides and interior panels Tamiya Flat Black and the exterior Tamiya Royal Blue, a good match to the box art color.

The body parts were left to dry I started on the engine and chassis construction. Engine assembly is straight forward with a few things of note. The supercharged engine has an option for either a Hilborn injector or Enderel Scoop. Allowing for a more accurate build, there are separate pulleys for the blower assembly along with a rubber blower belt. My engine belt was poorly cast and took much effort to clean up to look correct. Kit engineering wise I have never seen a funny car motor with an electric starter motor until now. Based on some limited research I believe this is totally incorrect.

Be careful when assembling the chassis as you may want to paint the tubing as a whole prior to adding the fuel tanks, front axle, oil filters, radius rods, rear end assembly and interior tub. Parts of the tubing/roll cage are included in the cockpit sub assembly. I choose to paint these by hand after they were glued to the floor pan. Having had done it that way, in the future I would choose to paint them separate along with the lower chassis. My chassis was painted Tamiya Bright orange for a nice contrast to all the metallic parts.

The cockpit is rather simplified especially when it comes to the seat, roll cage and floor board. There are some rather large ejector pin marks in the floor board which must be removed. I did a poor job removing them and it shows through my Metalizer finish.

For final assembly the fit of the rear wheels to the rear end assembly is rather awkward. Be careful here as it is rather easy to get the wheels in less than parallel alignment. There are three options for the front wheels and two for the rear along with printed lettering on the M/H Racemaster slicks. During the final assembly I choose to leave off parts 86 and 87 (header braces) as they did not appear to be of the correct size.

You will find that the interior body panels fit poorly over the chassis without modifying. Leaving the body in the up/servicing position eliminates needing to make those adjustments.

I have built many Round 2 kits, both AMT and MPC, and find their decals excellent. That is not the case with this Polar Lights kit. These decals are thin but exceptionally brittle and refuse to move once placed. I tried numerous decal solvent to no avail. Best results came with soapy warm water for placement and once dried a slight application, and reapplication of Micro Sol to get them to conform. No instructions as to the placement of the decals are giving so one must rely totally on the box art.

My recommendations for this kit are limited to those with a great desire to add this subject to their collection as the build will be more difficult than expected, and finish may not be as accurate as other kits on the market. For me I will be looking forward to more of these kits with reservation now knowing what is in store. Tommy Grove Mustang here I come.

Thanks to Round 2/Polar Lights and IPMS/USA for the chance to Build and review this subject.