Dukes of Hazzard - Behind the scenes

The inspiration (top)

Sometimes too much time on your hands can turn into an interesting display of materials that were going to end up as trash.

Let me back up a bit.  This "General Lee" charger plastic model kit was something I built back before I even had a licence to drive.  This was one of the early kits where MPC re-purposed their Charger 500 1/25th scale molds, threw in a roll bar and decal kit and created a General Lee.  Purists (including me) will note that the Charger 500 is very incorrect for a General Lee clone, most notably the rear window, the standard Charger has a recessed tunneled rear glass versus the Charger 500 with its more aerodynamic flush mount glass.  But hey, it was the only kit available at the time if you wanted to build your own General Lee.  So anyway at the age of 14 (?? can't exactly remember) I built this and did a "just ok" job, not terrible, I did do some detailing, but not exceptional.

Fast forward to the present.  In an instance with I was back at my folks going through old stuff boxed up from my childhood, high school and college days, I ran across a box with the handful of models I had built.  Included in this box was this General Lee.  The years of improper storage had not been kind, as always 20+ years of age the glue was coming apart so pieces were falling off all the cars.  Then to add insult to this, the cat (I love this cat) nuzzled up to the box (as cats do) and pushed it off the table and well you can guess that outcome.

Even if that box had not fallen on the floor this model probably would have just ended up in the trash anyways, I mean its not worth anything monetarily and it is not a priceless heirloom that I ever intended to pass along to my kid(s).  So while walking to the garbage can I got to thinking, "All the pieces are here, I should do something with it"  Well this is what I did.

My inspiration was some still shots of those few seconds the editors left into the show when the front end would just start to crumple from the impact just before the cut to the studio car and the Duke boys pretending to bounce around in their seats.  The General seemed to most often to land nose first and with some sort of gangsta lean.  That moment of impact was what I chose to replicate in diorama form.  My wife just rolled her eyes...

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