Force

Expert...well I.m not sure about that, but I have gathered all information and pictures I have found about the Malone trucks as I've allways liked them since I first saw them back in the early 80's, my reference library for the Malone trucks takes up 1.3Gb on my hard drive and I have all the original issues of the Malone model trucks unbuilt. The problem is that I have never seen any of the Malone trucks live, I was only 16 when they were over here in Sweden and the show was far away from where I live...I would have liked to tho'. But I stay in contact with Ken Harris who drove the Papa Truck in one of the European Tours in the 80's and he manages the Tyrone Malone and the Bandag Racing Team Facebook site and he have given me some info and help in my research if the Malone trucks. The only thing I haven't found out about is the original engine color on the Papa Truck, there are no pictures I know of or any other info about this so the only thing I can do is a qualified guess...it was either white or silver due to the reasons I gave in the reply I did for Lizard Racing. If you want to do a correct Papa Truck you need to do some modifications to the kit, first you need to change the rear suspension to Torsion Bar, it's not visible when the model is done but the real truck had that setup. The interrior needs some modifications to be correct, the dash in the kit is a regular K100 dash like all KW K100 kits available has, but the Aerodyne cabs had a different one piece dash design than the regular K100's so the kit dash is wrong for a COE Aerodyne, the VIT 200 Bicentennial truck also had lots of wood finish panels and cabinets behind the seats where the kit has diamond pattern vinyl upholstery. The upholstery pattern on the seats are also wrong, the seat insert is the same diamond pattern with buttons as the rest of the panels in the kit, but it should be smooth fabric, otherwise the seats are white vinyl with a red, white and blue stripe between the blue fabric insert and the headrest. The door panels are white on top, a red, white and blue stripe in the middle and blue carpet at the bottom, the carpet on the floor is also blue, The paint is like all the VIT 200 Bicentennial trucks, white with red, blue and gold stripes, gold sunvisor and frame around the roof windows, the frame, fuel tanks, air tanks and other attached stuff is gold, the instructions says that the engine should be white and that can be true...but as I said...I'm not 100% sure there as I don't have anything to prove it. The DD 8V-92T engine and Allison transmission are correct but the wheels are wrong, Papa Truck has ten hole Alcoa wheels today but back then it had Truck Mate chromed five hole split rims, Mo'luminum has the correct looking wheels, Papa Truck also had a Peterbilt front bumper with no holes. This information is for the version of the truck the kit is supposed to be wich was at the beginning of the 80's, there were at least 4 versions of the truck over the years when Malone had it, and now the current owner Gary Ries's version wich is nice but isn't exactly true to the original.

First you have to decide what Bel Air body style you want to build as there are several to choose from, there are Hard Top, Sedan, Convertible and Nomad available in 1:25th scale and both AMT and Revell has several kits out there. AMT has two different '57 Chevy toolings, the old one from the 60's and the new one from the late 90's with opening trunk and separate chassis, both are HT's, the old one isn't that bad but in my opinion the newer one is better and more detailed, the newer tooling was available in two basic versions, one stock, one stock Pro Shop with some additional parts and one hopped up version with tubbed rear fenderwells and big block engine. Revell has at least four different '57 Chevy kits in 1:25th scale, the old '57 tooling from the 60's with opening doors and trunk, these came as both HT and Nomad in several versions and it's not that great kits, but they have recently done both a Sedan and a Convertible wich are good, they also have a Snap '57 HT in 1:25th scale. Revell did a new tooling 57 150 Utility Sedan of wich you can do the "Black Widow", it's not a Bel Air but it's a nice kit and the recent Bel Air Sedan and Convertible are based on this kit. So if I sum this up the old kits has their place in the hobby but the new tooling kits are the best choice detail wise.

After what I have found out during my research the real Papa Truck was originally a 1976 VIT 200 Bicentennial Edition so it was painted as those trucks were, white, red, blue and gold with white, red, blue and wood grained interior. I have not found any pictures of the engine in the Papa Truck anywhere but there is some information that says Kenworth stopped with white engines 1975, but I have seen white engines in KW's well after that and engine manufacturers colors before, and this truck is a '76 so the 8V-92 engine in the truck could have been white but it could also have been silver as most Detroit Diesel turbo charged 92 series engines were silver from the factory. The real Papa truck had torsion bar rear suspension and not the Air Glide 100 air ride that's in the kit, the wheels were Truck Mate five hole chromed split rims for the version the kit is supposed to be, a later version had two hole tubeless chromed rims and a slightly different paint job.

As I said, the K100 Aerodyne will be out third quarter this year.

Looks to be from my list.

Nice. Has Italeri finally changed the old TD120F wich has been in all their Volvo kits since the F12 to a newer more D16 like engine? As far as I'm concerned Italeri's lack of interest to update and do correct engines and drive train for their kits doesn't do it for me and I haven't bought an Italeri Volvo or Scania kit for a very long time.

Great work Jeff. I love these old Pro Stock cars when they still looks like the cars they are supposed to be...not like the weird massaged blobs they race today in Pro Stock...old school rules.

Nice, I love them old Pro Stockers.

The version I have of that kit dated 2002 kit #2386 has Keystone wheels, not Cragars...and Magnum 500 style stock wheels. So this kit (at least mine) is exactly the same as the Sox & Martin kit sans decals, with the stock parts from the 1994 kit #7359 added.

The advantage of using Micro Krystal Klear or any other white glue such as Elmer's or any other brand wich is similar is that it's waterbased so it cleans up easy so you will have several chances to get it right, it dries tranparent and it will not effect the plastic in any way. With epoxy you will have only one shot at it.

What about the Korean Chevrolets then...a Daewoo with Chevrolet markings. And for Toyota, they did a pushrod V8 just to be able to compete in NASCAR...they didn't have one before. I for one look forward to these full detail NASCAR Cup car kits and it looks like they have done a decent job with them, the new kits looks to be of todays standards and not a re-bodied old NASCAR kit from the early 2000's.

The tooling is often shared by several kits and the tooling is made so they can change inserts to do different parts for different kits. So for this one they seems to have used the wrong wheel insert.

Nice work!

The only objection I have on these Revell/Monogram 1:25 Snap Trucks are the rear wheels, they are way too shallow to look right...and there are no sunvisors. Otherwise the kits are quite good...a bit crude here and there detailwise...but good for what it is.

I agree with the Oldsmobile chassis as the "modern" Pro Stock Camaro body is quite narrow too. There has been a couple of different issues of the Olds Cutlass Pro Stock kits. The latest issue of the Olds was the Model King white and blue Chill Factor generic race car, before that there was a Jeg Coughlin Jeg's version, a Larry Morgan Castrol Super Clean version and the Warren Johnson GM Performance Parts version. All of them are pretty much the same except for the decals, and the rear wheels got changed for the Jeg's version.

I don't have the latest issue myself but I do have several of the original Sox & Martin issue as well as the generic black and yellow 2 'n 1 kit and they all have Keystone Classics on the chrome plated tree, I just took one out and looked to be sure, they are quite shallow tho'. So the company that does the molding for Revell must have put in the wrong insert in the tool for the plated parts, it seems to be happening a lot these days for Revell, wrong. missing or broken parts appear more often in the newer kits...that's not good quality control. When we talk Sox & Martin 67 Belvedere/"GTX", and many of their other race cars, we need to talk plural as they had at least two or even more at the same time for different classes or sanctioning bodies, I have pictures with two 67 Belvedere/"GTX" cars on the transporter, they ran different classes and I have seen markings for both SS/B, SS/D and SS/E on the 67 Belvederes.

I myself don't use much CA glue as the fumes from it can fog both clear and plated parts, but you can try 2-part Epoxy glue, it works for almost everything. Or, white glue type Elmer's could work, same type most of us use to put the clear glass on the models, it's waterbased and dries transparent.

Do anyone know where I can find 1963 Ford poverty "dogdish" hubcaps?? 1964 and 1966-67 has been done but I haven't seen the 63 set anywhere. I have a set of these on my 63½ Galaxie 500 XL Fastback and I need a set in 1:25th scale to be able to do a model of my car.

Very nice. What wheels are you using?

For 1:50th scale and European trucks there is one company that comes to mind and it's Tekno http://www.tekno.nl/en There is another company calles WSI that also do trucks in 1:50th scale http://www.wsi-models.com/

The Pro Track Corp. Pro Star front wheels are "close but no cigar" as they have lug nut holes and no center spindle cover, so I don't think anyone does this particular style of the Aluma Star wheel. I believe Micro Nitro who did very nice turned aluminum wheels used to do a wheel that looked like the Delta 1, but I don't know the status of that company right now...I can't find their website anymore, they have a facebooksite but I don't know how it's maintained nowadays.

The rear wheels are Weld Racing Delta 1 as you said and the fronts are Weld Racing Aluma Star as Dave says, but I don't know if anyone does them in 1:24-25 scale right now.

Yes he mentioned that when I talked to him, and that was several years ago. One way to do it may be to cast the headers in two or more pieces.

I wouldn't bother trying to make the HRM small block engine look like a FE, the Ford small block is tiny compared with the Ford FE wich is both wider and longer, so it wouldn't work that good, I would change the engine completely. One option is to use the 427 from the Revell/Monogram Cobra S/C wich is quite correct and the right scale for the Fujimi/Revell Mk II kits...you will have to scratch build the 180 degree headers tho', or source them from the old IMC/Testors GT40 kits as the HRM set not will fit the larger FE engine.

Nice build. The model number for the Duel truck should be 281 as at least two of the movie trucks originally supposed to be single drive with tag along axle on a Page & Page 60/40 suspension...but on the pics I have of the only surviving movie truck it now has dual drive on a four spring suspension allthough the chassis plate still reads 281, so it must have been changed sometime.