dptydawg

Hi Tom Excellent rendition of a grease pit. In this part of the world most pits were inside the service bay and at grade level. That was because of our winters I spent one summer during high school as a grease monkey working in a pit. The pits I remember were much darker than your model. They were almost Poly Scale "oily black" to Tamyia "German grey". and really gungy. A monkey wrench would also be part of the standard tool kit back then. Good looking diorama. Carl

really nice job on your plow truck. You have made a lot of excellent modifications to the AMT kit. Jim, in Ontario snow removal equipment has always had flashing blue lights because they are more visible in snow. The police in Ontario have only recently started running red and blue lights. Carl

in 1/25th scale it is 24 feet long. It has the window layout of the GMC 26ft model not the 23 foot model. It is also about 8 inches lower on the roofline, however the width is correct. Carl

I use John Deere Blitz Black in a rattle can. Its available at John Deere dealers. best spraying paint that I've found. now primer required and doesn't craze plastic. Carl

Thanks again Guys for all the cool words about this project. I always wanted to do a motorhome model.Years ago i saw a Hess conversion that a member of Group 25 in Toronto did and I've had the bug to do one ever since. I'm glad I came upon this junker because I don't think I could cut up an original mint in box version. The reason that I haven't glued the upper and lower hulls together yet is because I think that there will be a diorama in the future. That means I want to populate the interior with figures and utensils. It is much easier to do that with an open top. Thanks Again Carl

Thanks guys for all the great comments. The windshield and side glass is all one piece. It would not be easy to reproduce. The motor home scales out to almost 1/25th scale in width but is a bit too low. it scales to 24ft in length but has the window layout of the 26ft model not the 23ft model. RoG has a kit of a Euro style bus that could be converted into a class A motorhome. It is the only modern motor coach model that I know of. Thanks again Carl

I'm calling the conversion of my Hess training van to a motorhome complete. I still haven't glued the two hull halves together because I still want access to the interior. Anyway for 20 odd years it sat on a shelf looking like this: Today it looks like so: I managed to fix the broken front bumper however the cracked windshield is beyond my talent level so I live with it. The model club I belong to had a theme build this year of GMC which was my incentive to finally build this. Hense the club logo plate on the model. After this build my parts bins are a lot thinner. I cabbaged parts from many different kits. The open Road camper, The T-600KW and the lost in space Chariot provided many of the pieces as well as Italeri accessory kits. Thanks for looking Carl

Excellent diorama, Tom. Lots of interesting little details. Carl

There has bee a bit of discussion about how to deal with the chassis/ drive train on the van. While Tom's is the gold standard with a full frame water tanks and Toro power plant, I took a lazier approach. This is the stock bellypan. with twin screw rear drives and a battery box and the engine bottom end I did some slicing and dicing to the belly pan, I kept the lower pieces and made up a new bellypan from sheet styrene. Here it is finished and installed. I used 2mm angle to reinforce the joints. it is sprayed with John Deere Blitz Black. it is the best satin black paint that I have found. Sprays on anything with out primer and gives a very smooth finish. I also added dollhouse paper flooring to the model. it is hardwood in a hearring bone pattern Thanks for the interest Carl

All the larger scale trains us the same track gauge which is 45mm. I think that this works out to the standard European gauge at 1:22.5. However 3ft narrow gauge using the same track is 1:19.5. A lot of Bachman trains are this scale. USA Trains and Aristocraft produce trains at 1:29 and others produce trains at 1:32 which is close to North American standard gauge. Either the 1:22.5 or 1:29 will work with 1/25th scale models. most of the train buildings are 1:24th scale regardless of the actual rolling stock scale. Most of my trains stuff is !:29 as it is the most common in these parts. Carl

I build mostly agricultural, construction, industrial and automotive models in 1/24-1/25 scale. A lot of my models end up in dioramas. I also have a modest G scale outdoor train layout. Carl

Tom, that is one gorgeous model. It has way more detail than I plan to add to mine.Thanks for the link to your photos. they will be quite helpful in completing my motorhome. I considered using F250 front wheels for the van but the tires interfered with the wheelwells and I wasn't about to rework them nor built the air ride suspension as you did. So I stuck with the stock wheel disks and tires. What I did was use the front engine section of the bellypan and the rear axle section but I ground off the differentials. and then filled in the rest with sheet styrene. Essentially no underside detail. This model will likely end up in a diorama so the underside shouldn't get a lot of scrutiny. Carl, I ended up using a razor saw in places to get the upper and lower section separated. Some of the glue joint split with direct pressure from a knife blade but not all. all the windows did pop out fairly easily. Thanks Carl

Thanks guys for the interest. Most of the interior shiny bits frig,stove, sink,furnace, are from the Open Road Camper kit. The bunk and some of the cabinetry are from the Kenworth T-600 sleeper, The bench seats are from the Dodge Ram Van kit. The seats are from the parts box. I fabricated a new door. Thanks for the leads on the resin one but I think mine will work. I changed the hinging some. I'm going to leave the model as a glider and I'm staying with the stock wheels and tires. Thanks Carl

About 20 years ago I found a well loved sandbox fugitive Hess Training Van at spring Carlisle. It was missing most of its external bits,the door was gone, windshield cracked and front bumper broken. Once I got it home I stripped it down then stuck it on a shelf until a couple weeks ago. I have now as was pics (pre digital camera time), but this is how it looked when it came off the shelf I started off by installing floor sills and making a cardboard template of the new floor. I cut off the cockpit from the original interior and discarded the rest (into the parts box) The new styrene sheet floor is on the van roof. This is the collection of funiture that I built or scrounged from other kits for the interior and this is a mock up of where it is today. most of the interior is done. I had some issues with the paint on the lower hull so until that is resolved I can't install the interior. I have scratch built a replacement door. The paint is Krylon Celery. The interior is mostly Tamyia cockpit green and bug juice green. The woodgrain is cherrywood MacTac More to follow as progress occurs Thanks for looking Carl

Cool project Dan!. I often considered trying to scratch a slide in camper but never got around to it. I'm currently converting a Hess training van into a motorhome, so I'll be watching your progress with great interest. It looks like your off to a good start. When it comes to scratch building you can never have too much Evergreen on hand. thanks carl

The green parts are from a Liberty Classics diecast Canadian Tire bank. The running gear is from a Revel CJ7 kit. The engine is a Mopar crooked six with a push button Torqueflyte trany. the plow and flatbed and weight box are all scratch built. Thanks Carl

Sorry for the delay in getting back with some answers. And thanks for the kind words also. I still have the original Dunlops. I was considering trying to mold and cast the best of the lot. a couple are beyond use. Ii should have built in mold release agent. I'm thinking that I should continue with the grain elevator diorama and include the Unimog in it. Thanks Carl

This model is a rebuild of a model that suffered from an overdose of cat assisted gravity. The original model, which is several years old, is a kit bash of left over parts from an Ertl IH farm wagon kit and a RoG Unimog cab and chassis. The Unimog fram was altered to fit the wagon's dump box. The Rog Dunlop tires have bleed oil since I opened the box. as the oil came out the sidewalls got brittle and cracked. I substituted 11:00-20 AMT tires in their place. The load of corn is carved extruded Styrofoam covered in corn meal. Need that double double to keep the harvest going Thanks for looking Carl

Great looking diorama. Cars with drivers and other figures doing realistic activities really set up the scene. Your main street buildings look very realistic also. Excellent attention to detail. very impressive. Carl

Hi Alan I thought that you might be interested in a couple reference pictures of a pair of old blowers and an old picture of a pair of snowplows I took this picture in the winter of 1962 in front of our house. The plow on the right is a Sicard and the one on the left is an FWD. This Sicard has the Dodge cab. This Sicard blower is at the Simcoe County museum in Barrie Ont. It is the one I mentioned before with the long hood and Dodge cab. This Oshkosh blower was owned by Grey county. the blower is powered by a 1150 cubic inch 6 cyl Wakasha gas engine. I hope that these are of some interest to you . I look forward to seeing your Sicard snow plow.. You certainly have a great talent for building construction models. Carl

I have 2 1/24th scale choppers. The Hobbycraft Hughes D500 done as a news chopper and a Monogram Hughy (the Rambo version) done as an air ambulance. Hopefully if more aircraft in this scale becomes available then we may see more flight and ground crew figures and support equipment also become available. Carl

superb scratch building Alan. I'm curious as to how you formed the flights on the augers? Any that I have tried to build have turned out to be a major hassle with marginal results. Any Sicard blowers in our neck of the woods have had the Dodge style cab and conventional hood. Carl

I was always impressed by the dioramas that Group 25 had on display at the Hobby Shows every fall and the International Centre in Malton. Somewhere I have slides of the Chrysler dealership. I hope to see it restored again. Carl

Ertl at one time had a line of diecast combines that were 1/25th scale. some of them had injection molded bodies and diecast frames. These could be detailed quite nicely. The one I have is a Massy- Ferguson 8780. It plays nicely with the Ertl plastic kit tractors. If you ever latch onto an Ertl tractor kit by all means build it. It took me a long time to get all three models but they look much better on the shelf than in the box. There may be other plastic/diecast 1/25th scale tractors around but I don't believe anyone other than Erlt made kits in this scale. Carl

Good stuff, Chris, but now we need to see the 1466 and how your did the loader. Ag models in 1/25th scale are so very rare. Too bad The old Ertl tractor kits haven't been re-issued. Thanks Carl