LOBBS

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.

I picked up this Moebius ProStar and CTM detail kit for a project but ultimately decided I preferred the LoneStar and have one on the way along with its CTM detail kit. I've opened the outer plastic and took the instruction sheet to work with me for a few days to study it but none of the inner bags have been opened. I know there's not always a ton of overlap between the truck guys and car builders (I don't do a lot of big rigs myself) but I'll throw a few trucking related wants out there. Moebius 53' Smooth Side Trailer Moebius Super Singles Tractor Set Moebius Super Singles Trailer Set I'm waffling between building a Featherlite style race hauler using the Smooth Side as a base or toterhome style race hauler directly onto the semi's frame but in either case I feel like the LoneStar is my better option for the tractor. My fiancee and I are relocating from KC to St. Louis soon so I can't get overly deep into building at the moment and I've been going down the rabbit hole researching options and we all know how that goes 😅.

While doing some research, I came across this configuration of race hauler which may make more sense for a private, small race team like I would be trying to emulate. As best as I can find 45' is the legal limit for a single vehicle in the US. And looking into toterhomes / RVs there is a magic ratio of wheelbase to overall length of an absolute minimum of 50% to about 60% with 58% being "ideal". So, for a 45' vehicle I'd need a wheelbase of 270-324". The LoneStar, if I remember correctly, is patterned after a factory 280" wheelbase so it just barely falls into that range but really needs a slight stretch but much less so than starting with a ProStar so I've got one of those coming. And to be honest, it's just a cooler looking truck for this kind of build. I could lean into it being more of a hot rodder influence. If I allowed 20' in the back to do a double stack garage with a lift gate, and the front bumper to back of a LoneStar daycab length is 11' that gives me ~14' of bunk and shop space between the two areas. I guess the next decision I'd have to make is whether to try and track down one of the resin LoneStar daycabs I've seen mentioned here over the years, if they're still in production, or somehow try to meld the sleeper into the rest of the box since I don't necessarily have to be 1000% accurate. I can still take quite a bit of inspiration from the Featherlite trailers, I just won't have as much room or interior vertical height as would be allowed with a drop deck style trailer. And I suppose if anyone needs a ProStar with a CTM detail kit hit me up with the change of direction this project took.

After sitting with it for a few hours I decided to go with a simpler, more modern, style and updated the original post. I'll definitely give STS a shout and see what they can do for me as far as printing the decals.

I've created a logo for my fictional Fenix Racing "motorsports team" for the long term projects of building a shop/display case and to adorn the Moebius ProStar and race hauler that will also occupy it. I'd need at least 4 at a scale 8 foot or so (just under 4") for the trailer and shop walls and the rest of the sheet would be filled out with smaller versions for the cars themselves and the doors of the cab of the semi. The artwork was done in vector in Adobe Illustrator (the background here was just to check how it would roughly appear on the black paint job I have planned for the tractor trailer combo) as this best allows for scaling the artwork to the proper sizes. I've seen a couple of older threads but with companies coming and going in our hobby I'm curious who is the best out there right now. I'm more concerned with quality that meets or beats what is supplied with kits rather than price TBH. TIA.

Pro-touring or restomod builds, along with some truck and/or 4x4 stuff, are all that I build really. The biggest challenge is that most kits just throw in some low profile tires and larger wheels and don't really address any of the chassis upgrades, tho occasionally we do get some disc brakes, and rarely offer anything but some minor dress up items for an ancient carbed engine. This is quite frankly awesome of Moebius to go a bit further than most by tooling up a modern chassis. 3D printing, as well, brought me back to the hobby so that I can finally address what I really wanted to do in that realm with quite a few shelved projects. I'm in my mid 40s, so not exactly a whippersnapper, but these are the kinds of things that can bring in a younger crowd to the hobby. We don't have the quite the built in nostalgia for a lot of the kits being re-issued. We may like the cars themselves but want to build them in a more contemporary style.

Ooh, I definitely could see the sedan delivery in my future for sure

Just doing some quick searching it looks like the Hendrickson CONNEX Unitized Air Suspension System is the closest match I've found so far to sort out the axle questions. Not sure if it's been modeled in scale by anyone but shouldn't be too bad to do for a 3D print.

That answers a bunch of my questions and confirms, to me, that starting from the Moebius Smooth Side (or Great Dane but the Smooth Side's walls would be easier to clean up to mimic the sides of the Featherlite) is the best option. The underbelly of the floor on it is of nearly identical construction. Those axles don't look like they'd be too awful to fab up. I was genuinely confused how the real Featherlite trailer kept the floor the same height between the axles as the rest of the drop but that makes a ton of sense now. Thank you so much!

Thank you sir!! This will help me immensely. I've been searching like crazy to find shots of the frame / axles. These things are so low to the ground that it's seemingly impossible to find good pics of the "bones" underneath them. I'm thinking I'll buy one of the Moebius 53' smooth side trailers and use as much of that kit as I can. For sure I can use the roof and possibly extend the lower edges of the side panels to match the profile of the Featherlite trailer. May even be able to cut the floor of the kit up to use as part of the new frame. It'd also give me random trailer bits like the gooseneck hookups, supports, wheels/tires (tho I may have to swap those out for low profile ones as you mentioned), etc. From what I can tell the Featherlite frames are somewhat based on drop deck lowboy trailers (I'm sure there's a way more specific name for them) so I may be able to follow that as a guide for the perimeter frame and suspension.

I'll throw another vote in for a Featherlite style car hauler

I've been wanting to build a tractor / enclosed car hauler combo for quite some time. I picked up an International ProStar at the Heartland Nats this morning to handle the tractor side of things. I've not had much luck over the years finding info on what I'd need to build a Featherlite style trailer. I don't mind scratch building and/or 3D printing. I have experience with designing CAD, specifically SOLIDWORKS. I just can't seem to find dimensions or even good reference pics to get started. Any good resources out there?

I can't wait for all the possible variations of this tooling. I'm sure we'll see a 4x4 at some point. A long bed as well. And of course the model year updates to do a '68 (easiest from a '67) to the '69-70 and '71-72 versions. Personally looking most forward to being able to build a '69 short bed 4x4.

Oh, agreed they could. This is, by far, my favorite pickup of all time and I'm in for pretty much any variation that I will be able to get my hands on.

I know. The base C8 Vettes, like these from Revell that have already been announced, run the LT2 which is a slightly reworked version of the LT1 used on the C7 Vettes. There's a pretty huge market for superchargers for them whether they're our ProChargers or PD blowers from Whipple, Magnuson, etc. It's one of the, if not the hottest, seller for us right now.

I came here looking for news on the C8 Vette progress. I really want them to tool up the new Z06 but I may have to pick up the base Vette and 3D print up a supercharger kit from my day job (ProCharger) in the mean time.

I've been begging for a new tool '67-72 C10 for years. I cannot wait

Finally getting a chance to sit down at my airbrush booth again today. After I'd decanted the green and gold to bottles I'd decided that the green was a little too blue for what I was wanting. The original plan was to lay down the green over a gold base coat but I didn't think it'd give me the color I was looking for. So, I ended up mixing them finally settling on 3 parts green to 2 parts gold. Definitely an interesting color that shifts quite a bit dependent on indirect or direct lighting. Gotta knock out the remainder of the non-body pieces and hopefully will get the body painted later tonight.

I'll have to check the windshield in mine. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with it tho upon initial glance. I've been insanely busy with work and roller derby things and haven't had a chance to sit down at my bench much lately.

I recently found out that the library near my work has a very nice 3D scanner that you can reserve time on by the hour with a library card. I live on the other side of the metro but they still allowed me to get one. I don't know that I have enough need to invest in one just yet but I do have a few projects that having one available will help with.

This is fantastic work! I really need to learn Blender for a few projects. I feel pretty proficient with Solidworks because it's what I use for work. But I've never really messed with meshes too much.

Just starting a post where I can share the parts that I'm working on for various projects. Now that I've picked up a 3D printer I can start to pull some of my stalled projects out of the mothballs and begin to hopefully put them up on the display shelf. 6 piston calipers. Inspired by the Baer 6S but modified to allow for swapping of the pads from the top without removing the caliper. Will be used extensively for my pro-touring projects 15" rotor for 6 piston calipers. The hat for this particular version is spec'd off the C7 Vette. The plan for my '69 Corvette is to design a Roadster Shop style chassis using C7 suspension. Will adjust the offsets of the hats as necessary by project. 295/335 Tires (335 shown). Some version will be used with most of my pro-touring projects. May do other widths as needed. Spyder wheels for my '69 Corvette. 10.5" front/12" rear (rear shown)