maxwell48098

Here is a 1977 Dodge mini-pumper that I built around 1980 that used resin castings from the 1/32 scale Aurora 1969 ALF pumper. They look quite good as 1/25 scale wheels and tires for 1 ton duallies.

I'm going to date myself here, but my first big truck kit was the phantom AMT tractor and trailer produced in the early '60's. The model and image shown aren't mine, but this one was a local show last month. The first regular big rig kit that I built was the 1969 issued IMC kit 118 Dodge L700 tractor. The funny thing about this is that I didn't build it as a stock tractor, but instead built it as a box van using half of the IMC trailer kit for the box, and Plastruct to lengthen the frame and aluminum tube for the longer prop shaft. I still have this one after rebuilding it in 1974 to repair damage from a house move. My absolute oldest truck build was built in 1960 from original AMT kit 125 1925 Ford Model T double kit. I never glued the turtle deck with spare tire or pickup box onto that kit, so I could swap it out when I played with it. The picture shown of the car is the 1960 kit, while the roadster pickup is one I built strictly as a pickup around 1970. A.J.

I took one of the R&R kits and lengthened it for this rescue truck. A.J.

Very nicely done. A.J.

Nice job Nick. A.J.

A spectacular work of art. Bravo! A.J.

Very nicely done. A.J.

Always liked these Dakota kits. Nice simple build with the added details. A.J.

Spoke with John G today at the toy show in Warren, and he confirmed that the tooling does exist. I mentioned how about offering it as a "parts pack" like they did with the chromed Mercury sleeper. He said that may be a possibility if there any demand. Use the email address in Casey's post and let them know. I also asked about the IH S-series trucks. He stated that they might have the tools but they still haven't been able to go through everything they bought. Again,, if there is demand, they might look harder to see if they have either or both sets of tooling.

Went to a toy show in Warren MI today and there were a couple of vendors selling them. One guy had them for $67 and the other for $65. A.J.

Asked the owner of the local hobby shop and he said he would be selling it in the $65 to $70 range versus a retail price of $80 to $85. That was a couple of months ago now.

Great looking builds. A.J.

That is truly impressive. A.J.

Not sure how many of you folks saw this, but it looks like Navistar will be building class 4 and 5 medium duty trucks for GM beginning in 2018. It looks like they'll use use GM engines and body on a Navistar rolling chassis. With Ram and Ford controlling 85% of the market, GM decided it needed to get back into that segment. http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2015/09/30/gm-navistar/73079814/

I wonder why the model companies don't sell just the updated decals from their re-released kits? For $10 or $15, you could get the newer decals to use on an older kits sitting around or on a rebuild. I like these new decals but $65 is too much to pay for them. A.J.

Fantastic build. A.J.

Fantastic first ruck build. A.J.

Awesome build. A.J.

Very very nice builds. A.J.

Awesome build. A.J.

Very nice. A.J.

Another great one. A.J.

Wow! That really looks great. A.J.

Very nicely done. A.J.

I used to have a friend that worked at Ertl in Dyersville, Iowa. He told me back in the mid-'80's that these kits had very poor retail sales, and that the majority of these S-series kits were sold to International dealers who not only sold 1:1 trucks and equipment, but also sold farm toys, scale models and die cast replicas as well. I remember picking up a a dozen for $7.50 each from the local International truck dealership in suburban Chicago when I lived there. He was glad to get rid of them after sitting in his store for a couple of years and only selling 6 of them before my purchase. I actually used the chassis under some non-International resin conversions and fire apparatus. Still wish I'd not built them all back then and had a couple of them today. A.J.