fantacmet

So I have the Kenworth COE kit, and notice it has the NTA-370. Might this be a better choice for the high powere heavy haul than the NTC-350?

Well, it must be divination. I received my gift cards I won from work and the new truck at the hobby shop was the Mac DM600, so I grabbed it. Looks like I might go ahead and join y'all, though can't be sure I'll get it done before the end of the month. Big question is color scheme. It's going to be a fleet truck.

I did use the future about a third of the bottle, but I did use most of what I did in a period of about a month or two, and it's been sealed since, maybe that's the reason. Only other thing I can see is I've had stuff for longer coated in future that is still clear others have had less time and has yellowed. Might be dependant upon the particular batch. I haven't used it in some time, these days I generally don't have a need for it. If I do it's just as a surface for decals on aircraft and armor models, then it gets gone over with clear flat. The decal graphics on the fenders I love. They have actually inspired me for some future projects(not copying the idea's just inspiration). Gave me some outside the box thinking for bigrig paint jobs.

I would sure love this whole setup and I would do it all as CF. I remember seeing' those guys all over. They started freightliner, and started it all up here in good old Portland Oregon

I too am building this kit. I believe KFS is Kit Form Services, still aruond but in the UK, if you are stateside it's kind of a convoluted process to order something. Enough that I likely will not be ordering from them.

Don't be hard on yourself, while I may not be a fan of the styling of the Lonestar, you are doing a good job so far. I haven't even started on my Prostar(which from what I can tell is almost the same kit), because stretching and lowering it intimidates me, and I want to do that too it, because I have a specific vision in my head of what I want. The AMT's are easy to do. Judging by your work I'd say no more than 35 months, not 35 years. You sure you ain't fibbin just a little.

The whole Prius thing is a flop in reality, it's all hype. There have been all kinds of testing showing how great it is, but when checking into the backgrounds of those testers they each had a monetary stake of some kind in it. Independent studies by those who do NOT have a stake in squat, have shown that given the likely future costs of maintenance, parts, availability, even alot of DIY, even if the fuel costs don't rise significantly(which they will after ll the study assumed like 4 bucks a gallon 5 or 6 years from now), that it would take more than 50 years to equal the expenditure of a traditional vehicle with actual capabilities of getting people around. Then there is the whole "environmental impact" thing. It takes more pollution to manufacture a Prius then it does to drive a late 70's early 80's large V8 SUV like a Suburban for 30 years. Take these factors and hike them up on a truck? You've GOT to be kidding me. The automatic transmission? The naysayers that too many things can go wrong? Not likely. There are quite a few big rigs and ultra heavy duty applications that use automatic rather than manual, and have been for some time without issues. Sure the manual provides more positive control at the hands of the driver, but drivers make mistakes too, even the long term veterans. Keep in mind that in your generation, kids worked for what they had. You probably bought whatever you could get your hands on and put in your own wrench time. If something broke, you fixed it. Newer generations, don't get any experience whatsoever, other than pushing buttons on controls. They get mommy and daddy to buy them a toy car, and they pay a shop to install this part or that on it and call it a "custom" car. Never mind the fact that custom comes one cut at a time. Put something like a wrench in their hand and ask them to do something heavy duty manually with finesse, forget it. It's not going to happen. I don't want that kind of a person struggling with a manual while tooling along at 60MPH in an 80 thousand pound rig putting my kids life in danger. I'm PERFECTLY happy with newer trucks having auto's in them for that reason. Yes yes I can hear the old schoolers whining and whimpering right now about it. Then they shouldn't be driving because you can't control anything without direct manual control. HORSEPUCKY. You stick a control in these kids hands with ZERO feedback and half thought out for them and they will be capable of anticipating the machines actions, as well as getting them to do what they should be doing, far better than any veteran driver will be able to do. Tough Schmuff. Give the kids electric power steering which has zero road feel and they will do just fine with it. I'm not old or new school, but my words to you who are old school and to you who are new school. Quit thinking the other end of the spectrum have no skills. I assure you that old and new both have skillsets and can control a rig just fine where it really counts if the proper rig is paired up. There are no lack of skills, just different skills. Quit getting into urinating matches. I don't have a CDL yet, but I have proven so far there isn't a thing around that has a bare minimum of 4 wheels that I have not been able to drive. You'd be surprised what you can come across to drive when you aren't a trained this or that. I've driven buses, tractors, trucks, cranes, trailers, no trailers, box vans, Dodge Vipers, Vettes, Ferarris, GT-40's, Lotus's, etc. Hell I've even driven a train. I can fix a car on my own with my own two hands, I don't care if it's a 32 ford, a 64 Impala or a 2005 Honda Civic, it's all the same, takes the same stuff to run it as it always has. I can hunt, fish, cook, with or without a BBQ. I can run a mill and lathe manually(thought I won't claim to be good at it yet as I don't have the practice I need), I play guitar, I play piano, I play bass. I can chop wood, fell tree's, I can do all the old school manual stuff you need me to. I can also build a computer from the ground up, I can design and implement a network of a million computers spanning hundreds of countries, and make it all work. I have degree's in network engineering, and cisco systems. I am that nerd you used to beat up on because he didn't play football. Now I have the skills to whop you no matter what the game. I know what it takes on both ends of the spectrum and can do it all. So get into your urinating match with each other, and while you are doing so I'll go drive BOTH of your rigs for you, and I'll get paid those miles while you can keep sitting there seeing who can outdo the other one. Custom Hearse Keep posting all this new and upcoming stuff. Same goes for anyone else who wants to post stuff like this, don't let the naysayers get you down. Personally I prefer the old school look of a 60's or 70's Pete, I think they look great. This rig doesn't look too bad, at least it has a bit of a ruff and gruff look while still being sleek and efficient. Sorry for the rant, but it does get tiresome with these little whizzing matches between old codgers and punk kids. The kids need to get off their high horse and realize these old codgers with their skills that delivered their diapers and baby food, paved and paid their way to get what they got now. These old codgers need to sit down and relax because it's these kids who have the skills to drive something different who are going to get them their bags of depends and cans of ensure.

In the future I may try to get one from you, but I won't utilize ebay ever again for any reason(long story), so I hope there will be an alternative.

I used Tamiya Extra Thin Cement.

WOW Never seen future like that. I have a bottle that is over 10 years old, still clear. Still full too as I lost it until I moved. LOL. Good job on the rig so far. Love the color combo on there.

So this is the color combo and bike that inspired me. Well a bike just like this, in that one Stephen king movie, one of his other dimension/alien ones. I've already got the light beige for it.

I added the front suspension tonight. No pics because I'm just too tired and it's too late. Tomorrow I will be getting zero work done, as after work I gotta drive out and pickup the wife. I don't get much time for building after I get home from work.

I smoothed mine out for a more "custom" look, and only left the rivets on the front, seems I corrected a kit error without realizing it. Well I'll be.

I figure it's not supposed to be a "lift" axle, as it is vary the pressure when making the turn if need be. that way you don't have funky airbag deployment. That's the real world physics behind it anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to get the engine together and painted tonight. I gotta try to find out what's wrong with a friend's jeep(the one I sold him), grab a bite to eat, and find some detailing pictures. Preferably from, on here rather than the real engine because I can't make heads or tails of those.

Picked up another CA Hauler which I've cut down to single drive, used part of it's suspension to crate a pusher axle for this thing. Here it is. I realize it doesn't look like something a pro shop would put out necessarily, but it's supposed to be something that looks like it would have been done without a boatload of dough, but by someone who knew what they were doing, and built something awesome.

Unfortunately I don't believe the Cat engine is going to work. I'd like to find something with a bit more grunt than the stock engine. Bit more modern too. Funding is the key though, I know there are resin options.

The Cat engine is actually only a very slight bit larger and will fit under the hood fine. Not so sure about behind the radiator but I will find out before I make it a solid decision. I was thinking fenders and tanks black with gold trim and mounts. Bumper I was still thinking Gold but I can always go over the gold with the black. Still trying to think of that extra axle. If I add one do I want it as a lift, or I can add a third drive axle when I get another CA Hauler as I will convert that extra CA hauler to a single drive, and I can use the extra drive axle and even suspension off of it.

Some updates. Here is the bumper I created for this beast. Here is the main paint scheme. Though I'm not decided what color to paint the tanks, bumper, front and rear fenders. Rears will be diamond plate. Still debating on adding a lift axle or not.

I wonder if 20th scale would work a bit better, or 16th. Not too far out of scale to be blatant to most people. The 20th scale could be "heavy duty" as it were, or these things do come in different sizes.

That's really killer lookin. Love it. One question though, where'd the hooks come from? I've been lookin and lookin and can't find squat.

Normally for a car hauler I'd have to say Spokes, but i've noticed around here(we have like 20 dealerships within 5 miles including a Ferrari and Lambo), and the nicer the cars the nicer the rig that hauls them.

Plastruct sells metal core styrene for bending like this too. Might be worth checking into. Also I don't know how fearful you are of lead, but I have an exhaust pipe made from pencil lead(fishing weight not actual pencil lead). Might be kind of hard to keep it from darkening up, might not. The solder we use is part lead, and I think white metal and pewter both have lead content as well but I could be wrong on those.

I just kind of toss them up on the desk or the printer or where ever. Explains why I have trouble finding them.

These days I use Tamiya Extra Thin, and sometimes a bit of Gorilla Gel Superglue, and zap accelerator. If I'm doing Tank tracks I use Model Master in the black triangle bottle. I also like Tenax 7R.

Most of the live tutorials for the methods will be fine, pick your favorite. As for what to use for mold release and the like, go with the TYPE of mold release the manufacturer recommends. Doesn't have to be the exact product they recommend because it's usually quite expensive as in overpriced and repackaged. I personally use stuff from Tap Plastics, their own brand. I use their RTV and their Resin. I like their RTV, because I don't need a mold release from the object being copied, only betweent he different layers of RTV. They recommend their liquid, paste, or powdered wax. Problem is a tiny little bottle is like 15 dollars. NO WAY. It takes a bit longer but I use automotive wax. I use the spray on stuff right now, but if you use the paste, just don't wipe it off like on a car, leave the streaks, it works better. Wax is though is what is recommended by TAP. Don't use it on anything else unless they recommend a wax based release agent. I once made the mistake of thinking that a good oil would do. Yeah right I sealed a very expensive seat in a rather stout cylinder of RTV.