Daisy Duke's Jeep 'Dixie'

Catherine Bach was a formative influence on many of us growing up in the 1980s.  I think it was the shorts.

I'd already built Rosco's police car and Boss Hogg's limo from body shells produced by Chase Cars to accompany my Scalextric model of the General Lee.  And back in January, I bought Chase Cars' jeep bodyshell, ready to convert into Daisy's AMC Golden Eagle.

It came with a windscreen and some large tyres, which I used with a PCS chassis with some wheels painted gold.  I didn't need the supplied male driver but found a female driver from Le Mans Minatures who I turned from a blonde to a brunette.

The body shell was primed and sprayed white and then I constructed a roll cage from thick wire.  The final step was to source some graphics from the web to make my own decals.  You can print onto white or clear film using a standard colour printer so it's now pretty straightforward to make your own water slide transfers.

The car had Golden Eagle decals along the top of the wings when it was given to Daisy in the series but it was called Dixie and so, just like the General Lee, it had its name added to the bodywork.

Overall, not a bad match to the real thing...

And here it is with the rest of the cars from Hazzard County...

"Lordie, Lordie, Lordie. If you can drive like that, Rosco, how come you can't ever catch them Dukes?"

At the Slot Car Festival earlier this year, I spotted that Gareth of Chase Cars had converted one of his gangster cars into Boss Hogg's car from the Dukes of Hazzard.  With the General Lee and Rosco's police car (on a Chase Car chassis) already in the collection, I had to follow suit.

First task was to remove the windows from the original bodyshell and then turn it into a convertible.

Then the bodyshell was undercoated and then sprayed with a couple of coats of gloss white.

Next I extended a PCS32 chassis to match the extra long dimensions of the bodyshell, and painted the interior.

Instead of gangster heads, Gareth supplied three heads in cowboy hats, so I have Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane driving, Deputy Enos Strate riding shotgun, and Jefferson Davis ("JD" or "Boss") Hogg in the back seat.

One of my cattle from my 28mm Wild West town donated his horns to adorn the front of the car.

With the Confederate flag on the front, I gave Boss Hogg a personal plate at the back.

And I'll leave the last words to Rosco:

Oh, Boss, if you ain't the sneakiest, low-down double dealinist little fat rascal, coo!

If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can hire...

The A-Team!

This is another fine bodyshell from Chase Cars.  Apart from Scalextric's General Lee, slot cars representing classic TV cars from the eighties aren't easy to find (Scalextric's Knight Rider being not worthy of the name), so Gareth is filling a great gap in the market with his cars.

The bodyshell comes with an interior and windows.  I used a PCS chassis this time.

The heads of Hannibal and BA are cast separately and are pinned onto their bodies which form part of the interior.

Many toy versions of the A Team van (a 1983 GMC Vandura) are all black with the iconic red stripe.  And I suspect most people have the same memory.  But the van is actually gun metal grey above the stripe and only black underneath - like in the screenshot below (although unlike other vehicles they used in the series, this one doesn't have the stripe going right up to the back corner as usual - but it was the clearest photo I could find which shows the two colours).

So the van has to be sprayed in stages with the different bits masked off.

And then varnished once the detailing has been painted by hand.

The bodyshell is completely empty so I fixed a couple of pieces of plasticard to glue the mounting posts to, and hot-glued in some foam to hold the interior in place.  I sprayed the wheels red too and cut some metal rod to the right width for the van.

The finished item:

Drives really well too.  I pity the fool who has to race against this one...

Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in hot pursuit!

At a slot car show earlier this year, I came across Chase Cars who manufacture bodyshells and chassis to recreate the car chases of films and TV from the 70s and 80s.  The unique thing about their chassis is that it leans and steers in the corners, so you get a more realistic appearance when racing their cars.

I bought a chassis and a couple of bodyshells.  First build is the 1977 Dodge Monaco police car as driven by Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the Dukes of Hazzard.

The bodyshell comes with roof lights, plastic windows and interior, with Hazard County Sheriff decals.  I had to get axles, wheels, tyres, a pickup and a motor to go with the chassis.

The tough plastic chassis comes in a single moulded piece that needs taking apart.

Quite a few bits...

After a few hours, it looks like this...

The steering mechanism links to the pickup guide so the wheels turns when the guide reaches a corner.  The motor pod is suspended and sprung in the chassis so it can rock when the car drives round corners.

I sprayed the car and applied the transfers.  I dremel-ed out the windows in the bodyshell and fitted plastic ones, and painted the interior with the model of Rosco.

The completed model...

High quality decals...

It is a lot of effort to put together but on the track it looks great, although the chassis is built for realistic roll rather than speed, so it won't keep up with the Scalextric General Lee.  Andy has also bought one of these chassis, so we'll see how they go together when he's built his.