Sidewinder Atlantis (Monogram)

[tcoat]

Since the glue for the glass in the Interceptor needs to dry I figured I may as well dig into this little gem.




Back in 2018 Atlantis bought up a bunch of molds from Monogram, Revell, Aurora and Renewal. At that time they stated it was a very large range of subjects and that modelers would be "pleasantly surprised" at what would be coming out. This is one of those surprises from last year. 

What the molds actually are for was the Monogram Rattler kit.
 

So why not just release it as the Rattler you ask? Well they bought the molds but NOT the copywrite for the name or decals.

To still be able to use the Tom Daniel name they really went out of the way to circumvent the system and had his son (Kelly Daniel) do the decals for this. By doing this they had permission from the Daniel company (yes he is a company) to use the name. This is made very clear because on the top and both ends of the box is written "DANIEL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES". All in all they worked around the legalities very well!

So what do we have.

Not a pile of parts but what there is are pretty well molded.

Body. Few mold seams to clean up but nothing horrible.
 




The single sprue of non plated parts. Bit of flash around the six cylinder engine halves but again not horrible.




Plated sprue in what they call "burnt copper" but is really more of a rose. Very thick and well done if a bit intense. There is just so much of it that I will be painting some parts for variation and toning down the rest with a wash.





Tire are going to need some serious, and I mean SERIOUS cleanup. Massive flash on the rear.




Clear parts are perfect.



Decals are very nice. They give you several optional ones.






This one won't take long but should be a stunner when done.

[keavdog]

Sidewinders are cooler than Rattlers anyway! Great decals - ya, gotta find a new set of tires. How on earth do you match that 'chrome'?

[kyledehart5]

Super cool. Atlantis has come out with some great kits out of those old molds. The Mack AC kits are truly wonderful, and I absolutely love the old midget kit and then fun things like this as well. Love what Atlantis is doing.

[Steve Zuleski]

Ok, this is cool!

[Leon]

That is cool looking! I really like these old show cars.

[tcoat]

Mar 26, 2024 7:33:32 GMT -5 Leon said:

That is cool looking! I really like these old show cars.

Most of these Tom Daniel designs never actually had a real car they were based on but the kits are fun. Just a quick and easy build that allows a real focus on the paint and finishing. The end results look so much more complex than they actually are. This whole thing will probably have a stress free 4 or 5 total hours put into it 

[lyle]

Mr. Daniels did some amazing and classic work. Nice choice.

[tcoat]

Mar 26, 2024 7:56:31 GMT -5 lyle said:

Mr. Daniels did some amazing and classic work. Nice choice.

They are just wacky enough to be fun but still "realistic" enough to be possible.

This will make #3 of his designs so only about 20 more to find!

[Golikell]

A driving skeleton can be hardly called realistic... 

[handiabled]

Another bast from the past,,, sorta This will be cool coming together

[tcoat]

Mar 26, 2024 8:43:21 GMT -5 Golikell said:

A driving skeleton can be hardly called realistic... 

"realistic "

[tcoat]

All 5 of the body parts went together in about 6 minutes with no real issues.

Was going to paint dark yellow like the box pic but have dark yellow and bright yellow cars already. Thought maybe a metallic gold but figured it would be a bit much with the rose chrome. So started digging through my paints for a darker colour to show off the decals and came across the bottle of AK German red brown from my Berg project.
Once glossed up it should work really well with the decals and the rose.



Since the body is dark the interior will be light. Mixed a tiny drop of the brown with some old Model Master tan and sprayed the seats. Then took some straight tan straight from the bottle with no thinner, cranked the airbrush nozzle wide open and sprayed from about a foot away so the drops were almost dry when they his the surface. This gave the seat some texture and a bit of a pattern. You can sort of see the result in the picture but it is very subtle.

[kyledehart5]

Very nice. I like the choices here.

[tcoat]

Mar 27, 2024 22:04:00 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

Very nice. I like the choices here.

Thanks. I wasn't real sure about the brown at first but when I held the decals up to it I was convinced. Once glossy and the decals are in place I think it will pop even with the dark base. The weird rose chrome also looks far better under a black wash which tones it down closer to the burnt copper colour it claims to be. 

[tcoat]

Was way to much rose on the engine so zoomies got a coat of thinned rattle can automotive primer and by "thinned" I mean I only gave it a shake or two. This let some of the rose through but not in your face like it was. Carbs painted silver, engine black and the whole works got a black wash.

[kyledehart5]

Man, I absolutely love the effect of that thin primer over the rose. That’s outstanding. This is a super fun looking build. May have to keep an eye out for this one and add it to my growing collection of Atlantis stuff.

[handiabled]

Great tempered effect with the exhaust with the technique you used! The engine looks fantastic

[tcoat]

Mock up om wheels.
The black wash over the rose really pops and plays really well with the dark brown. Body ready for decals.



Hard to get an accurate picture but with a dark brown wash the seats have the sort of scaly, slightly rough texture I was after.

[tcoat]

Mar 29, 2024 0:44:37 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

Man, I absolutely love the effect of that thin primer over the rose. That’s outstanding. This is a super fun looking build. May have to keep an eye out for this one and add it to my growing collection of Atlantis stuff.

Ya I wanted to do something different with the exhaust and knew that just a wash wasn't gonna' cut it. Something in the far neither regions of my brain went "HEY remember that time you tried to primer some chrome and it was too thin so all flowed back?"

[tcoat]

All decaled up and final coat of Future to get the level of gloss I was after. Wanted shiny but not a mirror finish.

[keavdog]

That's looking awesome. Miracle worker on that engine!

[tcoat]

Annnnnd done
Total working time 6 hours and 23 minutes. A simple kit from the golden age of Monogram resurrected by a modern company but not really changed a pile. All I can say is that if you have any interest at all in these subjects and want a fast and stress free break just go out and grab one. You will not be disappointed.




More pics here modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/16173/atlantis-monogram-sidewinder-show-car

[kyledehart5]

I absolutely love it. And so much easier to find than the old monogram, especially for a reasonable price. Great work on this one. Turned out awesome

[keavdog]

Turned out great! That's exactly why I did all my Tom Daniel kits in the past. Just a fun slap together non-AMS build.
Super fun.

[tcoat]

Mar 29, 2024 16:27:27 GMT -5 keavdog said:

Turned out great! That's exactly why I did all my Tom Daniel kits in the past. Just a fun slap together non-AMS build.
Super fun.

I am developing an addiction though.

[kyledehart5]

Look at that. What a lovely line up.

[tcoat]

Mar 30, 2024 1:04:56 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

Look at that. What a lovely line up.

I may have a line on a couple more including my Holy Grail of the Red Baron.

[rondriaan]

Allways nice such kits to build, no nonse just put together and paint. Never seen this one funny model I like it.

[deafpanzer]

WOW! Another great build completed during my absence... are you planning to build them all from the same maker?

[tcoat]

Apr 10, 2024 15:55:59 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

WOW! Another great build completed during my absence... are you planning to build them all from the same maker?

Well there are at least 75 kits in the Tom Daniels collection. www.tomdaniel.com/85_kits/frm_85kits.html#:~:text=Tom's%2075%2B%20kits%20with%20Monogram&text=To%20the%20left%20are%20all,Monongram%20from%201967%20to%201975.

A few have been rereleased by Monogram and Atlantis is supposed to have many of the old molds that they plan to kit as "close" to the name of the original kits so I don't really care which ones I get. As I am going to build them I will NOT pay $200+ collector's prices for originals so will be restricted to what is rereleased. Several of the more popular ones seem to come out every 10 years or so so they should be due again soon. 

I mostly want to build the weirder "show cars" so that eliminates many of the dragster and normal hot rods and have zero interest in the smaller snap kits or wild construction equipment series so that leaves about a dozen I am looking out for. Now, if I came across a deal on any of the others I may bend on that















And my new Holy Grail!