mk11

The Walton and Franklin trucks share more than the included pets... They also share what are close to the worst representations of Ford engines (300 and 302) in scale

Dug some old trucks out for a few pics tonight... These ones are franklin mint '96 4x4s. Gotta blame this diversion from regularly scheduled programming (plastic kits) on Mr Jessee. Came across his mar 2000 light commercial column discussing these and suddenly decided I needed one(or two) Threw the motormax camper on one to see how much work it needs to match up. The little ones are 1/43 '68 and '70 F100s that have entered the marketplace recently. Unfortunately still no bigger bumps available yet. The big red/white '79 in the background is Mr Sam Walton's weathered truck (just begging to be refreshed with paint, chrome and a nice set of mudders). Many will recognize the liberty diecast '79 that has appeared in everything from Shelby blue to Cornhuskers to Haliburton colors. This one is canadian tire's kick at the can. And here's the Matchbox series... mike

Despite it's faults, it's too bad they're not more available; having the rough pattern would save you some development time... mike

Took the words right out of my mouth Entering the fray in nov '63, I definitely agree with the split window vette for one and a falcon ragtop for the other... mike

Excellent start! You've sure nailed the attitude. That backdrop gives it the feel of a '55 Hot Rod magazine pictorial. Don't forget the mooneyes at the bottom of the cowl mike

Tom's picture shows the box used on the 77-79 trucks and on the 80-86 trucks with a fender change. The flared top ended on the first series of box in 72 and when they reissued the shortbox in 76 (basing it on the wider long flareside box) it still had the flared top but had the taller sides of the 8' flareside. These were flattened for 77. How I found this out was through my purchase of a short 76 f100 frame with the original box still attached. mike

Anybody have any insight as to why amt went with the oddball super c/s over the regular wheelbase truck that most guys can relate to? mike

Decent pumps are hard to find in scale but these ones from Gearbox should look great once I find decals to Sky and Fire Chief-erize them...

Wasn't there a set of those in the amt 72 f/f chevelle? mike

Love those old flicks Here's a good one on body tooling and stamping by Fisher... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbquyC8Xz5Y mike

Anyone remember these? Kept finding these during my searches of book stores, flea markets and garage sales for 'real' car books and manuals so I started collecting them too mike

Scored a folder of a couple hundred vintage pics taken by a Texaco rep in Idaho in the forties. He had taken 2-3 shots of each station as well as bulk plants

Beautiful nailhead and finned Buick drums to boot... The body sure doesn't do much for me either. Looks like it might be an early 'glass tub. Overall nice time capsule though. Looking at that chopped up deuce rad shell reminds me of dad talking about A's and B's still being plentiful enough you could buy one for a couple of parts and scrap the rest of the hulk. Of course, they're kicking themselves now... mike

Speaking of 'lack of depth'... a major peeve of mine is the poor tooling done on stock wheels, something that often shows up on otherwise beautiful builds of vintage trucks especially. Unfortunately, the builder doesn't often have a choice. Another good example is the hemi dart rear mags; way too shallow and unrealistic looking. a little time spent looking for the proper depth/offset on your wheels really pays dividends. Regarding 'panel line wash', I cringed to watch a featured build of an orange car in a model magazine a while back get subjected to what looked like a hamfisted attempt to flow black into the lines after it was painted. To me, it destroyed the whole thing, making the gaps look about a scale inch wide. Maybe doing this before the final paint or using a lighter shade would help; depends on the color and body, I guess. and, sorry, it just makes me laugh out loud thinking of some 'pro' throwing another guys build back in the box because his magnifying glass told him the guy didn't insert his teensy wires into a 3/16" diameter cap just so... mike

Basically a duded up volare/aspen wagon. Never seen one and I can count the number of 1:1 t/c wagons I've seen on one hand. Wal had a short run of little 1/64 dioramas that had the t/c and other cars as well but the real attraction when the assorted diorama cases were put on the shelf was the one or two mel's diner/milner deuce dioramas in each case. Still have two here mike

or your glasses? (age 13, painting Wilson livestock trailer silver...) Also never mindlessly snack on the peanuts at the same time you're handling small parts (model or 1:1) ...can be hard on the teeth... mike

The run on those short flaresides was just up to '72. More details here from post 126 on this thread: { Don't know how many of you guys have seen this, but about fifteen years ago the boys at sae put together a Ford truck model history. http://www.fordifica...php?f=2&t=37394 Great reference. As far as the short flareside boxes go, the design used on the sixties trucks ran from 53-72. Ford actually dropped the short flareside from 73-75 as they had widened the rear axle and frame in '73 and the early box was too narrow. They continued to use the eight foot flareside, though, which was wider and taller. For '76, they decided to issue a shortened version of this box. The tall flared box sides were only used in '76, the tops were flattened for '77. This is the design that ran through the eighties, with only a change to the squared off fenders from the rounded ones in 80. Therefore, to build a short pre-73 flareside, the boxes from revells 56, monograms 55 and amts 53 can be used. The boxes from monograms 80-up shortbox and the revell night rider truck could be used to build an accurate 77-79 flareside with just a change of fenders } mike

The Chevy ll had a 4 as well but no Fords did. After a quick search I scared up a pic of an original issue Falcon... Apparently, this was the only issue with the roof extension and sides. mike

Given the constraints of the casting process, I'm sure not expecting everything to be a hundred percent but I'm betting Dave and the others mastering this will be getting it as close as possible. There were corrections to the mockups needed but nothing insurmountable. As events have proven out regarding the mustang kit, the roof/envelope proportion is the largest portion of the battle. Other stuff can be forgiven. The average modeller probably doesn't care but some of us look forward to at least a small challenge to help us become better modellers... mike

I love that old 'fuselage' styling too. There is a '70 300 hardtop available in resin. mike

Great! Be nice if those 'custom parts' included the sedan delivery parts... Would also love to see a re-issue of the keystone klassics to replace those goofball three spoke wheels in all the later releases of the Falcon. mike

I've only seen these two pics of the station, Ed. If I went ahead on it, it would be early fifties. That's about how long it lasted as some American concern apparently bought it and installed four new engines. On final prep it caught fire and melted the center fuselage. Enough to make a grown man cry. mike

Very nice set. Is it just the promos that had 'MUSTANG' on the licence plates? I've got a white coupe in rough shape and a convertible with that. Seemed to me the kits all had the year in the plate area. mike

Reminds me of an article in a muscle car mag a couple of years ago. Guy had a rough '64 or '65 ranchero and found a busch series v8 for it. Did all the suspension and roll cage work then welded a lawn mower handle into the back and went hunting victims.. as the article explains, he was apparently spanking cobras and other unlucky challengers on the track. mike

Here's a couple of old pics from my collection to maybe inspire a new project... This old Lancaster was rolled across the fields from a nearby air force base to the highway south of Red Deer Alberta just after the war to form the attraction for a gas station. There were several places in the US with a similar style. mike