Built by: Fred Mellini of Seneca Falls, New York

I thought of the "Dragon Slayer" one day while staring at my extremely brushed painted glue bomb parts Dragon Wagon I had recently won on ebay. I came to the conclusion that the only salvageable parts were the cage and dragon. I had an unbuilt Pie Wagon sitting on my shelf that I did not want to build box stock. I decided that I would use the main body of the Pie Wagon with the cage of the Dragon Wagon.

I started by cutting the panel body and roof off the Pie Wagon just behind the front seats while still leaving the lower part of the Pie Wagon. The cage was then assembled stock after having to remove the old paint and mass quantities of glue from it. I then had to putty and smooth all gaps and gouges prior to priming.

Once I was happy with the fit of the cage onto the body, I wanted to put a different rear end under the car and radius the rear wheel wells. I cut the stock lower rear end out of the car and replaced it with the rear end/leaf springs from the Jolly Roger car. I was fortunate again to have received a Jolly Roger from Bert Wallace. I must apologize to Bert because on the DOA Delivery build I called him Bert "Ward". (Must be the Batman & Robin thing-Adam West & Burt Ward) I was able to use the skeleton, rear end, fuel tank, leaf springs, and chrome rims from that kit!! Thanks again Bert!! I used a set of firestone pro-street rear tires and the front tires of the Jolly Rodger. This combo with the new rear end gave the car a nice stance.

I used the motor out of the Grave Digger glue kit and detailed it with various shades of silver paint, detail master distributor, plug wires and coil. I then used bare-metal foil on the blower belt cover. The most difficult time I had was finding headers to use with this motor and still have them coming out in the opening in the body panel. I finally settled on using electrical solder. I think they might be a little small for the motor, but oh well.

The car was finished in Tamiya metallic green and then clear coated with Tamiya pearl. I used several shades of browns on the wooden parts of the cage and then dry-brushed the details of the wood grain. Bare-metal foil chrome was used on the cage side panels and on the hinges/locks. Bare-metal foil gold was used on the lion heads. The dragon was dry-brushed using blacks, greens, cape-cod blue to give him a more meaner (Godzilla) look. I then added skulls to the radiator and shifter. Of course, I had to have a skeleton driving!! The windshield is from the Pie Wagon cut in half and a photo-etched wiper added. Hope you enjoy it!! Thanks--Fred Mellini