Force

The AMT W-925 tooling was altered to a T-600A in the 90's so it cannot be reissued in it's original state without some re-tooling...and it's not correct for the TV-series truck anyway but for the pilot called "In Tandem" it's fairly right. But Revell of Germany has a W-900 that's a better starting point for a Movin' On project as it's a VIT with the 60 inch sleeper as the TV-series truck was, you just need the correct decals from JBot or Modeltruckin' and a short hood from either a Revell snap W-900 Aerodyne or an old AMT W-925, it will fit on the RoG truck. Further you need a Cummins VT-903 and a torsion bar suspension (both available in resin) if you want to do a true replica of the TV-series truck...but if you're okay with likeness the kits Cat 3408 and 8-bag air ride suspension will do. The BJ And The Bear truck is for sure expensive on ebay, but you can do the BJ truck with a cheaper generic AMT K-100 Aerodyne and aftermarket BJ McKay decals from JBot or Modeltruckin' and you're good to go. If you want to do a correct replica of the BJ McKay truck you have to change the AMT kits Detroit 8V71T (or it could even be a 8V92T) and Allison automatic transmission and put in a Cummins NTC 400 and a manual tranny, Revell of Germany has a NTC 475 in their Peterbilt and KW K-100 kits that can be changed to a 400 if you leave out one of the twin turbos...but if you're not doing a exact replica of the BJ truck the kit parts will do.

Yes, right before RC2 bought the AMT/Ertl company they did several very nice kits, some of them are the best they ever did, after that....nothing...and the people who designed and developed these nice kits was laid off or left by themselves. About the mentioned Torino Talladega: Polar Lights did a Richard Petty version the first time around so only the boxart are new...the decals might not be exactly the same but they're similar. But sure, I would also have wished that they did address the problem with the up-swept fenders...but there are lot of problems with this kit (and the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II) that can be addressed as it feels like it wasn't really fully developed into a finished product and somewhat rushed into production when it was first released.

With that type of rear axles the drive shaft can't line up in a straight line in the middle from the gearbox to the first axle in the tandem as the reduction gearing is towards the left side...so this should be correct.

There is nothing new here, all manufacturers have been re-issuing older kits periodiclally since the very beginning and some kits have been issued over and over and over again, but they have also done new kits at the same time. The previous owner of AMT Racing Champions also known as RC2 Corporation wasn't into the model kit business that much, I think they just were after the licensing for their die-cast line when they bought the AMT/Ertl company...they laid off some of the people who knew anything about kit making and just did re-issues of old kits with little or no interest at all in what they did...they also did some new parts and some modifications to older tooling and many weren't that good. Round2 who now owns the AMT/MPC/Polar Lights/Lindberg brands on the other hand is model people and they have lifted the brands a lot since the RC2 days, they are going through the tooling bank and have re-issued some kits that hasn't been out in many many years and also more recent good sellers with new boxart and some new or improved parts...and that's fine with me. They probably want to build up some capital before starting to do new kits wich is very costly and I think we will see some new kits sometime in the future from them...it's just a matter of time.

There are lots of other '53-'56 F-100 kits available. AMT has a '53 (wich is the same truck as in the Diamond In The Rough Combo kit) done in a couple of versions, MPC/AMT has a couple of versions of a '53 with tilt front and sometimes tilt bed in 1:25th scale, Monogram has a couple of versions of a '55 in 1:24th scale and Revell has a couple of versions of a '56 in 1:25th scale...you can also find the Monogram 1:24th scale kit under Revell lable So you can most likely find one quite cheap if you look around.

The aftermarket "Olds Fiesta" hubcaps has that same pattern in the center, it's white though. But I don't know if anyone does that exact hubcap in scale, the closest you can get is the more stock looking Olds Fiesta hubcaps and The Modelhaus amongst many others has them.

There are five main caps on a FE engine and both the late 406 and all 427 has cross bolts on number 2, 3 and 4 from late '62 onwards (406 with cross bolts are very rare though), so It should be three bolts on each side...most hi-perf engines from Ford also had threaded screw in freeze plugs...but these things are not that visible on a model so you can leave it off.

Yes, and the BJ truck is basically the same truck as the Tyrone Malone transporter trucks without transporter body and Tyrone decals...and maybe a shorter frame. The BJ trucks are for sure expensive on ebay but it's quite easy to do one cheaper with a re-issued generic AMT KW K100 Aerodyne kit and aftermarket decals. The Ertl Convoy Rubber Duck kit is a regular Mack DM 600 with some added parts and decals to do the movie truck...sort of...and Model King re-.issued the DM 600 quite recently. But sure, the Convoy Rubber Duck kit first came out in 1978 (that's the issue I have) and was available continuously to 1981-82 something and hasn't been out since in it's original form with all RD parts...so you might call it rare...and it for sure fetches a lot of money on ebay for some reason.

Except for the kits allready mentioned the MPC/AMT '69 Olds chassis also works under the '70 Jo-Han Olds 442. The AMT '68 Roadrunner/'69 GTX/'70 Coronet chassis works under the Jo-Han '69 Road Runner and '70 Superbird...and all other B and E-bodies in 1:25th scale with slight modifications. The Lindberg '64 Dodge and Plymouth chassis works under the Jo-Han '62-'63 Plymouths and Dodges if you modify them slightly. The AMT '60 Starliner chassis and floor pan works under the less detailed AMT '63½ and '64 Galaxies and Mercurys with some trimming. The AMT '67 Mustang and Shelby chassis works under the less detailed AMT '68 Shelby and other Mustangs...and Falcons as the Mustang is related chassis wise to The Falcon...and the AMT '64 Mercury Comet Caliente as the Comet also are based on a modified Falcon chassis. The '62-65 Fairlane doesn't share chassis with any other car so it's not correct under a '64 Comet Caliente but it works if you're not that picky. The '66 Fairlane chassis looks to be very close to Torino so it might work as a donator.

You can do that and it will for sure work. But if you want to take engine and parts just from one kit you should get the latest AMT '60 Galaxie Starliner 2'n1 De Luxe kit as it has everything you need...and everything is top notch detailwise and it's one of the best kits AMT ever made. There are two complete engines in the kit and you'll get one 4-bbl intake with carb for 332/352/390/406/427 etc, one 2 X 4-bbl intake with carbs correct for 427 and one 3 X 2-bbl intake and carbs correct for 390/406 complete with cast aluminum oval air cleaner, same cleaner top but different base for the 2 X 4 and 3 X 2. You also get other nice parts as 427 style cast iron headers, one of the nicest 9 inch rear ends I have ever seen, lake style side pipes, nice Astro Supreme wheels, two sets of plated valve covers (one plain, one Thunderbird) and one set unplated, traction bars and lots of other usable parts...and the separate chassis and floorpan works under the less detailed old AMT 63½ and 64 Galaxies with some slight modifications...I don't like '60 Galaxie's that much but they are great kits and I have several of them as parts donors for other builds.

The Revell Germany W-900 kit has a 60 inch sleeper and I have seen separate sleepers sold on ebay from time to time.

I can only agree, very nice products and good service.

Looks like a nice start.

It was a wise decision to build something else from this kit. I also tried to build this kit back in the late 70's (my kit has copyright year 1978), but I didn't finnish it as it was too far from what it was supposed to be and I gave up...I had seen the Convoy movie so I knew how it should to look like and it didn't by far. I still have it but it's not complete anymore.

Yes I noticed that in another thread and looked if I could get the picture bigger...but no. Peterbilt also had a bicentennial paint scheme called "Patriot" and as with Kenworth only 200 was built, I suspect 100 of the 352 model and 100 of the 359 model.

The Showboat kit is a fiddly kit to build and the pipes are not easy to get right at all, so I understand if you don't want to do it over again and again. When I saw Wagonmaster at the NHRA Museum at Pomona, and on all pictures I have seen, it has another layout of the exhaust pipes, they are shorter and point straight up so they are not leaned backwards as on the Showboat...yes the Wagonmaster is built on the original Showboat but the pipes was appearantly changed at the same time as the Buick wagon body came on. The Showboat they show today is a replica of the original that was built some years ago as the Wagonmaster still exists.

Yes 2 pipes are pointing downwards and if you count the pipes on the black and white picture you see that the middle pipes are grouped 3,4,3,4...there are some hight difference so it's quite easy to see.

Well the tooling for the Pro Stock Camaro has been developed into 4 further evolutions so the extra parts are probably from one of those. The Reher-Morrison/Frank Iaconio versions was the first issues of this tooling from 1984, after them they did a Pro Street Firebird in 1987 based on the same tooling, after that came the Tony Foti LAPD Camaro 1991, then they released the Pennzoil/STP Firebirds in 1992, and finally the Goodwrench/Summit Firebirds in 1999 with further updates and new body wich are the same as the Model King issue except for decals. But the engines in all issuses has been a naturally aspirated GM (Chevrolet) 500 cubic inch big block except for the LAPD car wich had a super charged big block, so where the smaller heads came from I don't know. I have built both kits you are choosing between, the Reher-Morrison kit is a nice easy build (at least it was back in 1984-5 when I built mine) and the Sox & Martin 'Cuda is one of my my favourite kits ever...so you can't go wrong either way.

I think the Joe Lepone Jr driven Jenkins car is a 1982 or 83 model so it should work fine if the Reher-Morrison kit is in it's original state...I dont have it yet so I cant compare with the original, you have to change the wheels and modify the hood scoop though. As far as I know Reher-Morrison started to use the Generation 3 Camaro body 1982 so it should be very similar to the Jenkins car, and the kit is most likely done after the 1983 car as it takes some time to tool up a new kit. The Reher-Morrison and Frank Iaconio Camaro's was the first of the modern style Pro Stock kits together with the Bob Glidden Chief Autoparts/7-Eleven and Rickie Smith Motorcraft Thunderbird's from Revell/Monogram, and they came out in 1984 under Monogram lable. Revell have most likely altered the tooling for the chassis when they did the latest evolution of this tooling, the Warren Johnson Goodwrench and Mark Pawuk Summit Firebirds from 1999...and now they are stuck with it. The funny car style cage over the driver is also a change for later versions of this tooling together with the deletion of the passenger seat, and came with the 1992 Jerry Eckman Pennzoil and Rickie Smith STP Firebird kits...I don't know if this kit have that as I don't have this issue yet...if it has it shouldn't as that was a later safety requirement wich came a couple of years later. The engine has also changed slightly over the years, first it had plated Moroso valve covers with breathers, for the 1992 versions they changed to plated plain sheet metal valve covers with breathers, for the latest version from 1999 there are plain valve covers without breathers and the runners of the intake manifold is covered, (many did cover the runners with aluminum sheets taped into place to hide their speed secrets). The transmission also changed for the 1999 version from Lenco's to a Liberty.

I hope you mean that MPC sold the tooing to Ertl. And yes the stars and stripe livery was for Mack's 70th anniversary in 1970 so it was 6 years before.

Well the SOHC is probably unaltered and the same engine that allways has been in this kit (and the '69 Mr Gasket Gasser), it's not up to the AMT '33 Willys standard as that's the best one you can get, but it's decent.

lapazleo: Yes I thought it was earlier, I have a picture of a Mach R700 in the stars and stripes livery in Rod Adams book Big Rigs Of The 70's, I have now found out that the Stars & Stripes paint scheme was for Mack's 70th anniversary 1970. Austin: Here is one picture I found. http://www.flickr.com/photos/granitefan713/10584671733/in/photostream/ Another, same truck I believe. http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad252/RichReinhart/DSCN1571.jpg The old MPC/ERTL Mack DM 800 Heavy Duty Truck and DM 800 with Rex Cement Mixer kits has the stars & stripes paint scheme on the boxart, so google ERTL DM 800 and you'll get some pics of those kits. I have seen a pic also in the Ron Adams book of a Mack Cruiseliner for the 1976 US Bicentennial celebration with a red, white and blue paint scheme, red up top down to the bottom of the windows, a dividing white stripe and a red stripe right under it, the moddle part of the cab is white with 76 on both sides of the grille, further down a blue stripe divided with a white one and blue under that to the bottom of the cab. I cant find any pictures of that scheme on the internet though.

Mack had the patriotic All-American with Stars And Stripes paint scheme, but I don't know if it was for the bicentennial celebration...could be earlier. Here are links to pictures of the R series and F series. http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/robert_dick/mack_r_series_ss.jpg http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/robert_dick/mack_f_series_ss.jpg Also the old MPC/ERTL Mack DM800 kits had this paint scheme on the box.

Yup, after what I have seen the Challenge Transit Mixer had torsion bars so it's a true W 925. But the KW torsion bar suspension was meant to be a lightweight on road suspension so it seems a bit strange on this truck, the Hendrickson Walking Beam is on the other hand the kind of suspension you can expect from a concrete mixer as it's more to the heavy duty side. So the Hendrickson must have came in at a later time after the Challenge Transit Mixer.

I believe another reason is that some think the modern lowered custom trucks with loooooong chassis looks cool...it's not necessary with all that length...and definately not without a sleeper. Over here in Sweden we also have lenght restrictions and the longest legal vehicle combination over here is 25.25 meters (82 feet 10 inches) and a legal gross weight of 60 metric tonnes (just over 66 US Tonnes) but there are trials with even longer combinations up to 30 meters (100 feet) and higher gross weights on some roads (up to 75 metric tonnes (82.6 US). But that's not that much as you Aussies are the kings of long vehicle combinations with your road trains.