Scott Colmer

Andy - Phantasm. BOOOYEEE!

This one should be easy, Hosted on Fotki

TA is from Old School

Black Moon Rising is correct!

I wondered about that too. This is what I came up with. It would have to be rear steer. The body work would create down force. It's pretty low on a long to-do list model wise. Hosted on Fotki

Cool link, Greg. Shows a good sampling of the different styles that have captured the AMBR title. The Ducearri came tooling into my Pop's muffler shop one day. He knew one of the guys in it. The were just going for a spin. Sounded awesome. Scott

Ended up watching this last night. Great title. Bad movie. Worse hair. Shut if off. Hosted on Fotki

I searched his posts. In a response to a hello post he states the was the victim of a hit and run. - For what it's worth.

Yep. I would hate to think how that is. Daisy and the Duke boys were at the same show. They seems to have a good time. Eddie was at the end of the awards hall. Looked kinda lonely. Hosted on Fotki

This is some really great scratch building. I REALLY like the subject matter. Turbine Stude truck. That's COOL.

Thanks for the interest everyone. You just have to give it a try. Roger, I am not sure of the strength of white glue as a bonding agent, but there is only one way to find out. Let us know what happens.

Thanks for posting this. I missed the show for the first time in years. It was good to catch up. I agree with the desire for something different. The ones that struck me most in the last few years were the Foose Impression and a rootbeer colored, lo slung pick-up that I wish I remember the name of. It got a lot of ink for the car mags. That truck was very innovative. There is a good model show there too. I'll bet there is link to pictures floating out there somewhere. Scott

Ben and Steve, thanks for the comments! I am almost out of pictures of how-to's. At this point we are up on four wheels. All the radius rods are from K&S Tubing. The rod ends are scratch built by flattening and shaping one end of aluminum rod. Threads are made by rolling the rod under a sharp blade. It takes practice. The final trick is to thicken the joint ends with epoxy steel so they are not so flat. Hosted on Fotki There are still more parts to build. Rear end and third member. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Making parts is really about identifying shapes and replicating them. Here is the beginning of the third member. Hosted on Fotki Here is the finished product. The kit housing has been widened in all directions. The third member took a lot of shaping and additional shape elements to replicate the 1 to 1 part. Hosted on Fotki Now the master cylinder Hosted on Fotki Again, another assembly of styrene shapes. Hosted on Fotki And finally the steering box. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki That's all for now. Next time we build the roll cage and do the body modifications. Thanks for lookin' Scott

"Trying" and succeeding! Amazing work!

Way to go Mike Stiles. Heros- Starring the Da Fonz.

Bumping this one up. Hint: Kansas was on the sound track.

Ace. Hell on wheels. Mickey Rooney

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Time for round things. I did not think I would be scratch building so much of this project. There are just not that many parts available. So I had to make the disc brake rotors, front rims, and rear rims and tires. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki First up - The rotors. I counted the fins on the 1 to 1 rotors because, well - because. My first set were eyeballed and the finished product did not look great. Fin spacing and angle was inconsistent. Hosted on Fotki The second time I used some measure'n tools. The pictures tell the story. (The cut out thing on the far right gets explained further down.) Hosted on Fotki Careful placement and less glue make for a cleaner finished product. Hosted on Fotki The sharpie trick again. This time for even fin height. I am always reaching for that flat file. (Left to me by my Grandfather.) Hosted on Fotki Rotors look good. What you also see here are the hubs and the front rims under constructions. It really a matter of making shapes. Notice I marked the slots, drilled the holes on each end, then carefully connected the holes. Then the center plate for the rim was cut form the sheet. Hosted on Fotki Finally I had to widen the kit rear rims and tires. Fortunately, a big rig kit has LOTS of rims and tires to combine. The trick for the tires was finding an inner tube that was wide enough to support the tire. It came from a plastic candy cane that held little bottles of booze. That's the blue thing. I used masking tape for the final tweaking in the tread height. Hosted on Fotki That's it until next time.

In the last installment you can see I started the chassis. This time I get the major work on the chassis done. If you are going to replicate a 1 to 1 vehicle, you have to take LOTS of measurements. I have a sketchbook full of measurements of the chassis with the 1/25 conversion by each note. That includes the thickness of the rails, connectors, mounts. I had to do a good amount of remeasuring too. I also had lots of photos to help keep track of all the details. One trick is accounting for the thickness of the body. Body mounts have the moved inwards just a bit. So here is the finished chassis before it went out to paint. Hosted on Fotki Phase 1 is the main rails and the stringers that are used the stiffen the chassis. If you look at the rear kick up you can see it is not boxed. Just like the 1 to 1. Hosted on Fotki The basic chassis is done. Still a lot of bracket work to do. Hosted on Fotki The brackets that hold the real radius rods are unique in the they create a box of sorts. The outer bracket is chrome. The inner is welded to the frame. Hosted on Fotki To make a set of matching brackets, I usually make the first one, with guide holes at the ends. Then I make the number of roughed out brackets I need. All the pieces are slid onto straight pins with a thin dab of CA glue between the layers to hold them in place while I match the rough brackets to the original master. One trick I use it to run a black sharpie around the edge off the master so it shows when the other brackets have reached the same size. Also remember to keep the edge of the bracket "stack" as square as possible when shaping. Hosted on Fotki Once the brackets are shaped, douse them with debonder and carefully pry them apart. If they are stubborn, use a little more debonair, but be careful it will soften the surface of the plastic, Hosted on Fotki I decided to add the styling holes one bracket at a time because did not trust myself to make them match by drilling through the bracket stack. I like to start them small and the work out to the final diameter. File, check, file. It allows me to slightly adjust the placement of the holes as I go along. Hosted on Fotki Hope you like it so far.

Wow, talk about getting it right. This is killer!

Clayton, and Bill. Thanks for the interest. This is the first big rig I have ever build, so this is all new territory for me. Jesse, I do not have a lot of detail pics about making some of the parts, but I'll share the one's I do have. Time to make the front leaf spring. I measured the 1to1 spring and scaled it to 1/25 using an on-line scale calculator and dial caliper. I started with brass strips cut from K&S Sheet. Hosted on Fotki The hardest part of making a leafspring is making the eyelets and getting the distance between the two correct. Start by bending one end around a form. I used a drill bit to match the size of the sleeve I was going to use. Allow for extra during the bend that can be cut off before the end is curled under the bit. Pliers will be needed. The second bend is the one that takes measuring and planning. Be sure to plan allow for the reduction in length that will happen when you add the arc to the spring. (You might want to bend the arc when taking the measurement.) Mark where you need the second eyelet to be and know that the bend will happen on the outside of the location. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki The hard part is done. Now to put the arc in the rest of the leafs. Hosted on Fotki The retainer brackets are made from aluminum. The trick to a tight fit is to drill the first hole, bend the bracket around the spring, then use the first hole as a pilot for the second. The bolts are home made. Hosted on Fotki Scott

I am really enjoying this build, Bill. You are nailing to look! I also like how you are drawing from a variety kits and blending the parts for a excellent cohesive look.

A couple years ago a friend at work said asked me if I wanted to replicate a truck that a friend of his was building. I had other projects going on, but I agreed. The other friend was Louie Force. I met with Louie at the FXI shop and we struck a deal for me to build a 1/25 scale version of the truck he was building for FXI. When I started the truck was in rough mock up. Now it is nearly completed. I'll do the WIP thread from the beginning. Here is the truck in rough mock up of the 1to1. Hosted on Fotki I started chopping off the roof of an AMT Peterbuilt then opening and hinging the doors. If I remember right, I might have found the source for the hinges here in the trucker's lane of the forum. Hosted on Fotki Then I figured I would start with the chassis. The kit front axle had the center dip added to match the 1to1 axle. I'll save the drilling for in Canada in the build. I also started on the steering knuckles. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Thanks for looking. Scott