LOBBS

I've had great recent trades with @the60falcon and @Spooker

I'm not sure how far along they are on the tooling but I'd have to imagine they wouldn't necessarily need four entirely unique complete cab tools for each configuration. One main tool for the cab itself, an insert for the big vs small window, and another for the '67-68 fenders vs '69-72 ones would seem a possibility. With the sheer number of options for kits they could produce the extra tooling costs could be justified. A modern tool of this generation of trucks has a huge market. Just look how AMT has managed to milk the ancient annuals based one for decades.

Yes, the leading edge of the '67-68 needs to be made more vertical overall and the notch added to account for the grille mounting on the '69-72

The text from the site that I got the picture from since Erik doesn't want it 😅. Don't tell him 🤫 "Ignoring that 67's don't have side markers... 1967-68 Chevy AND 1967 to 1972 GMC fenders on left. These fenders look smooth and clean at the front and come to a point. 1969-1972 Chevrolet ONLY fenders (the grill mounts over top of the "notch") on the right. These are easy to tell as they have an "ugly notch" on the front that the grille mounts over"

67-68 Chevy and 67-72 GMC on the left 69-72 Chevy on the right

I'm pretty comfortable with solid modeling, have Solidworks at work and home, but mesh and surface modeling is relatively new to me. I've been poking around the model aftermarket world to see if anyone has an interest in taking them on but if I get no bites I may go out to Fiver or similar site and see if I can find someone willing to scan the body and create the flares. I have a ton of reference pictures that I could send on to them.

Unfortunately, the Revell '68/'69 Vette tooling never came with front flares. Just the rear and they're not terribly accurate. I'm currently looking into a proper set of L88 or CIC style flares front and rear to 3D print them for my own projects.

I suppose I'm actually the opposite of many in here then 😅. About 4 years ago, when my ex-wife and I split, I thinned out my stash to about half a dozen projects or so. Just the few that I was most passionate about and had a defined plan for. I let the kiddos claim what they wanted and sold off the rest. I just got real with myself about the amount of space I had in the apartment I was moving into and the time that I had to build. 10-20 years ago, I had well over a hundred kits. I'd load up every time Hobby Lobby had a 40-50% off coupon, stalked all the new releases, etc. This is what I'm down to today and even a few of those I'd be willing to part with as my tastes have changed. My LoneStar, '21 Bronco, '32 Ford Roadster WIPs along with the '78 GMC my fiancee and I are building together live in a cabinet in the kitchen since the counter is the best place we have to work currently. We're relocating from KC to STL next month and she's already given me the blessing to claim a space for a dedicated hobby area again in the new house. It'll be good to get that 3D printer that I bought but haven't set up yet up and running in a permanent spot. That's what brought me back into the hobby again in the first place. A few less projects than before but more resources thrown at each. I may be active in the trades and acquisitions market soon enough but still only for those that I have a set vision for.

Yes, the '69-72 fenders are slightly different to the '67-68. The hoods much more so. Still hoping that isn't a deterrent to doing the full range of 67-72 Chevys as this has been on my new, modern tooling wishlist for decades.

Not 100% related to this project but my order from STS showed up today. Two of the biggest ones (9 scale feet) are for each side of the race hauler with a medium one (3 scale foot) for the aero cap and 1 of the 5 door sets (2 scale foot) being destined for the LoneStar. The other big boy is for a wall in the race shop/display case, a slightly larger medium pair (4 scale foot) for either signage or a sedan delivery with the remainder of the sheet being a couple of lifetime's worth of window decals in scale 12, 8 and 6 inches.

I'll mention this first thing, it's not my intent to stir up anything as there have been some frustrations vented in this thread. That being said, my order from STS arrived today and I couldn't be more pleased with the work they did. Turn around was less than two weeks. In reality, a little over a week from the time they received my file to the time it hit the mail on the way to me. I fully believe the biggest key to getting thru their queue as quickly as possible is to have one's work as print ready as it can be on your end before sending it in to them. If that's out of your skill set I'd be more than willing to help. Others may be able to as well. The less prep work they have to do on their end the easier it is for them to work your job in. Two of the biggest decals are for each side of my race hauler, the other big boy is for a wall in the race shop/display case I'm building. I've got 5 sets of door decals, one for my LoneStar that's pulling the race hauler and the rest for any shop trucks I may want to build. Another pair of large-ish decals for signage or a sedan delivery, a medium one for the aero cap of the LoneStar. The remainder are 12, 8 and 6 scale inch window stickers, which at the rate that I build, are about two lifetime's worth 😅.

I did some digging last night and this morning. I was most concerned about the dual air cleaner set up of the LoneStar but it appears that is very similar between the kit Maxxforce and the Cummins. The air inlets attached to the radiator should be easy enough to massage. The upper radiator hose looks to come in from the top on the Cummins but the front of the block on the Maxxforce so that'll have to be fabbed. I haven't really found a clear shot of the lower radiator hose on any of the 1:1 Cummins pics but overall this doesn't seem to be as awful a swap as I originally thought.

That would be the Red American X15? The one I saw from Auslowe also seemed to avoid calling it a Cummins. It was the Signature something or other IIRC. I'm guessing major licensing issues with them? The A&N version appears to be a much cleaner and better detailed casting. I'm not opposed to an engine swap. I'd rather have the Cummins. I would just need a whole lot of reference photos to know how to plumb it all properly 😅. I'm not at all familiar with diesels.

The parts acquisition continues as the Super Singles showed up yesterday. Going down the rabbit hole of the interwebs, I found that International offers this grille for the LT now. These hexagonal/diamond pattern meshes are quite common now on modern performance car grilles. It's got more of the hot rod vibe that I'm after. I've reached out to International to see if they would allow me to have access to the CAD models of the grille assembly and front bumper of the LoneStar thru their resources link on their site. Seeing as how they were willing to work with Moebius to create the kit, the sheer number of LoneStars out there is 3D form for gaming, and there's also a guy on Cults3D that is doing bodies in 1/14th scale it is worth a shot. Somehow, someone, somewhere is modeling up these trucks. Adapting a pattern like this to a CAD model and 3D printing it wouldn't be too terrible of an exercise. If I can't make that a reality, I'll carefully remove the vertical slats of the kit grille and try to find a photoetch mesh that is similar to attach behind it. The front bumper will also get a thin vertical spine in the center to tie in its appearance with the upper grille and I'll fab up or rework the existing horizontal bar to be more similar to its counterparts in the upper grille with the same mesh laid in behind it. On a more technical note, after looking at several builds on here, the 280" wheelbase seems awfully long. Is there a standard set of wheelbases that were offered for these trucks or were they all just built to whatever length the end customer specified? To my eye, somewhere to 3/4" to an inch really needs to come out of the chassis to tuck my race hauler up near the fairing which would land it somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-260". Just curious if there was an "official spec" length in that neighborhood that I should target. I also have the Moebius Smooth Side trailer and Trailer Super Singles on the way to get started on the race hauler. I got a message back from a rep at SAF Holland stating he'd be willing to try and find me a spec sheet of some kind for their underslung CBX trailer axles so I can model those up. If not, I found a .PDF with some dimensions of their older Neway models and I'll do my best with it. But that race hauler project will get its own build thread. Anyhow, now that I've got the majority of parts in place I'm ready to start slinging some paint and plastic.

I can imagine it would be a delicate process. Would almost have to drill them out. Hitting them with sprue cutters would likely distort the horizontal slats you'd like to keep.

Did you remove the vertical slats of the grille? That was one of the ideas that I've had running thru my head on how to improve its looks. That and removing or thinning the horizontal bar in the bumper and added a vertical spine in the center to make it more inline with the upper grille.

That sounds like a reasonable rate. I'll send you a DM once I have a full list of items

Has anyone had any luck in finding companies that offer 3D scanning services for hobbyists like us? As much as I'd love to have a quality scanner it's not been in the hobby budget as of yet. I've got several projects in limbo where being able to scan kit bodies and parts, bring them into CAD to modify and then 3D print the custom parts would get things moving again. I have a hobby license of Solidworks at home and a 3D printer that I'd love to be putting to good use for such things

Not at all slightest jealous that you have a scanner 😅. I've got at least a few projects sitting idle because I need things scanned. I've just not been able to cough up the $$$ yet. I have a hobby license of Solidworks at home so I can do CAD work tho to either create or modify stuff for 3D printing.

Yes, you should get proofs before print from what I was told. I sent them my artwork, ready to print and needing no adjustments, got an invoice the next day and a response the day after that was paid that I'd be receiving proofs before he printed them. Price was more reasonable than I was expecting to boot but that could possibly be because I did a lot of the legwork in terms of file preparation and sizing.

Got a notification that the CTM detail set had been delivered so I grabbed it from the mail on my way into work. Two of the frets are shared with the ProStar and two are specific to the LoneStar kit. Beautiful work on their part and I can see why this is so highly recommended for these trucks.

I had originally picked up a ProStar for my birthday at the Heartland Nats in June with the intent to pair it with a Featherlite race hauler that'll be parked in the display case/race shop that I'm laying out. I wanted that tractor/trailer combo to have a hot rod vibe and the ProStar, ultimately, was just too "fleet" so it's over in the trade section (and the online marketplaces) with a CTM Conversion Kit to go along with it. I decided to go with the LoneStar instead and it arrived today. Its CTM set isn't far behind. The LoneStar's styling is a love/hate thing, I'm aware, but, and I forget who said it on one of these threads, the LoneStar just has a more O/O feel to it that would lend itself well not only to a hot rod vibe but also to an independent race team. I've got some Super Singles on the wish list over in the trade section but regardless if I receive them that way or have to buy em outright the LoneStar will be wearing them. Their "meatier" look just fits the theme better. The chrome trees are about to go take a swim in the purple pond. I'm not a huge fan of chrome and this truck has a ton of it. I'm still up in the air whether I want the majority of the brightwork to be gloss black to match the paint scheme or a darker metal color like a titanium or gunmetal. And that front bumper.... The vent opening just irks me for some reason. It doesn't fit in visually. I'm tempted to just fill it but I don't know if it actually serves a purpose in the cooling on the 1:1. If it does then I need to figure out some better way to tie it in with the design of the truck because International's designers sure treated it like an afterthought. Possibly reworking the grille as well if it helps bring it all together. Some bigger driving lights down there may also be in order. I think I have a nice set of buckets and lenses from the Revell Tomb Raider Wrangler Rubicon that would look better. I toyed with the idea of a toterhome/race hauler, Scott Bloomquist's LoneStar rig will still be a huge influence, but I believe I'll still end up going with a more traditional tractor and Featherlite style race hauler combo. The Moebius 53' Smooth Side will serve as a base kit for that endeavor. Anyhow, if you're still with me, this is where I'd perform the ceremonial "Gluing of the Engine Halves" that's the kick start to all projects but research tells me this motor shouldn't even be in the LoneStar. The Maxxforce 15 was never an option in them and the Cummins ISX-15 should be under the hood 😅. I believe that Auslowe's Cummins Signature is the correct motor but as unfamiliar as I am with big rigs I'm not sure if I can pull off a convincing engine swap. I may just have to paint the Maxxforce red 🤣.

"Ghosting" occurs due to stresses in the plastic from the injection molding process. The hot solvents, whether from using a glue before painting or from a hot paint, relieve some of that stress causing the sanded off details to rear their ugly heads again.

Ambroid Proweld or a similar hot solvent glue brushed over any details like that will make them "pop" again and you can resand them smooth for good. Kinda like taking a damp rag to woodwork to make the grain stand up before laying down your stain and varnish.

I messaged STS on FB just now and they responded within a few minutes. After a couple of exchanges back and forth they just had me call them and we worked out the rest of the details on what they needed from me in terms of exporting the files. I'm quite comfortable working with Adobe so I can take some of the load off them in terms of scaling everything and fitting it to the sheets they use.