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A friend on Facebook is doing a build contest for off-road vehicles so I decided to join in on the fun. Kit is the 1996 reissue of the 1981 Revell Jeep Honcho.

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My inspiration is an old J20 built by John Cappa for JP magazine a few years back. (Though I would love to swap the Gladiator front on, I don't intend to get that deep into this build so I opted to just use the kit grille)

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For starters the truck needed some fender trimming and body work.

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Removed the rear window louvers.

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It was at this point I noticed the rear bed end cap was missing from my kit. Put a request up on here and John Shull aka 91blaze answered the call, sending me a replacement. Thanks again John.

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Now on to the fun part. The real J20 has 2 1/2 ton Rockwell top loader axles and 49" Super Swamper Irok tires under it. The tires were easy. I had a set of 49" Iroks I had been hoarding from a So Real diecast that were exactly what I needed. The hard part, they have never made (that I have found) a duce and a half in 1/25 scale. While some resort to using the axles from under a monster truck kit, IMHO they do not look anything like a 2 1/2 ton Rockwell. My solution was to use the axles from the Revell 1/32 5 ton Wrecker kit. They are kinda toy like and not exactly to scale, but with a little tweeking the will do for this build.

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First step was to get the top loader looking a little more realistic.

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A little Plastistruct half round, some Evergreen sheet and some super glue and it already looks a little more correct.

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Added some Evergreen square to get the track width a little better, some .020 sheet to make some flanges and some Tamiya putty and there starting to look a little more like the real thing.

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Built a quick simple cage from .080 rod.

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Now its on to the suspension. Started building some leaf springs out of .010 x .020 Evergreen strip. (these will be fully functional when done)

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Edited by MikeBoyle
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very cool I built a box stock one with slight mods, dropped the auto tans for a cj 7 stick tranny, i grafted in a plymouth duster firewall to the jeep firewall to implement extra detail, like heater hoses and a wiper motor makes the engine bay pop a little more compared to the "flat" firewall on the stocker unit

its a posted "unde glass" item here someplace

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Not a whole lot of progress.

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Got a set of the Trail Ready Bead locks from dirtmodeler.com. Will likely spray them with some dull coat to tone down the chrome.

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Not a fan of the real Quadratrack t-case so I had to do something with the kit supplied case.

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A little sanding, some Evergreen pieces and some putty and we have a much more acceptable Atlas II t-case.

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Axles are basically done.

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Rear springs mounted.

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Front springs are built and the shocks made (yes they telescope up and down).

Next is to get the front hanger built and then the front springs mounted.

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