Force

Not just near the airport, Shelby American was located on the LAX airport grounds in an aircraft hangar from 1965 and the hangar is still there even tho' Shelby moved out of there, the first shop was at Venice Beach.

Instructions can be found at Drastic Plastic Fotki albums for lots of car and pickup kits, modeltrucks25 Fotki albums for most of the triuck kits, some can be found at the manufacturers website like Round 2 and Revell and some at Scalemates. These are the sources I use.

Nothing here yet. This is getting very frustrating.

Yes, if you want something act when it's available, if you don't you might miss out...lesson learned over the years.

The ERTL Rubber Duck kit was never re-issued and the lack of accuracy may be one of the reasons for that, I don't know how well it sold but it was available for some years as it's in the ERTL catalogs from 1978 to 1982 and disappeared for 1983 and never came back. It's not the first time the model companies did this and it probably woun't be the last, the least effort and money spent to do something that's supposed to be something closeish to get the model builders to buy so they could cash in on the subject. Another good examples of this are the ERTL Smokey And The Bandit II trailer wich is nowhere close to the trailer from the second movie, it's just the Great Dane dry van trailer with new mural decals while the movie trailer was a step trailer so the kit is not right...ERTL also did no truck for this and AMT didn't jump on the ship with their GMC General kit wich would have been the most obvious, ERTL bought AMT 1983 so it would have been possible but never happened. The AMT Movin On truck, same there, not close at all to the TV series trucks as they took what they allready had and only did new decals, you can do the pilot show truck from that kit with some modifications, the cab in the kit is a pre 1972 cab and the pilot show truck had a 1972 forward cab and some other small things needs to be changed, but the tv series trucks are very different from the AMT kit and the Revell Germany W900 kit is a lot closer visually allthough it's not correct either. The AMT BJ and the Bear kit...well it kind of looks like the trucks from the tv series but it's not that accurate, the wheelbase is too long, the engine and transmission are wrong, and same here...the Revell Germany K100 Aerodyne kit is closer than the AMT kit is.

Hey Devin, what Archer Transfer rivets did you use? I'm trying to determen size and spacing to place an order myself now when it seems like Archer Transfers are back, I missed out tha last time I tried to order. Í'm leaning towards the 1:24 scale AR88154 and AR88155 rivets in the Generic And Scale Specific Aircraft Rivets section but I'm not sure.

It came out nice Mark.

What size Archer Transfer rivets are you using to replace missing rivets/huck bolts on 1:25 scale trucks? I have never ordered from them... I did try to order some time ago but there was a message on the website that they had closed up shop and didn't take any more orders, but appearently they have changed their mind because the website is up again and it's possible to shop. I have no clue what size rivets will work for the cabs on the 1:25 truck kits and so I need suggestions, because I'm about to place an order.

Okay, I tried to order some time ago and the message on the website was that they had closed down and took no more orders and I couldn't order, so they must have changed their mind and opened up again.

Looks good Unfortunately Archer Transfers are no more, they closed up shop-

It means that it will possibly fit on a 1:25 scale truck. I'm sure that it will as the scale difference isn't that much, especially for parts that small, maybe a little twaek can be needed but not much.

Well everyone do as they please. I just want to tell people to not expect much from the kit, because I for one don't think the ERTL Rubber Duck kit is worh as much as some ask for it, as I said, I do have one and as far as I'm concerned it's not worth more than the regular DM600 kit because that's what it is. I just looked and the price range for the Rubber Duck kit and it looks to be around $400 and up and the regular DM600 wich basically is the same kit you can get for well under $100. The parts they added in the Rubber Duck kit are the International 4300 sleeper, the air foil on the roof, the grille surround, the bull bar, the duck hood ornament, decals and the large duck figure...and all these things except maybe for the duck figure are available from the aftermarket or at ebay and even if you get a regular DM600 and get all the parts needed you will still not get up to that $400 price range. But as I say, it's free to get one if you want to.

It was some time ago Dave Natale passed away and it was a great loss for the truck model hobby. For a while it looked like things would work out as Doug at Keystone would take over Dave's stuff, but something under the process went wrong and the molds and masters was to go back to Daves estate, and Doug ended up shutting down his business, so we lost two aftermarket companies at the same time and that's unfortunate, I have dealt with both and has allways been treated well and both are missed. When I bought my ERTL Rubber Duck Convoy kit I was about 15 years old and I eagerly started to built it, but when I compared the kit to the movie photos in the instructions and after what I remembered from the movie I noticed the kit was not even close to the movie truck and I finally gave up on it and put it back in the box...I still have it but a few parts may be missing after these 45 years. It's not a bad kit and builds up decent...as a DM600...because this kit was originally developed and first issued by MPC, but ERTL bought the tooling for the DM600, DM800 and Gravel Trailer kits from them...so that DM600 is the kit ERTL based the Rubber Duck on wich isn't right. As I said, the movie truck (the main unit truck used in the movie for most outside scenes) was a Western RS700L and it's an on highway truck while the DM600 is a truck for construction (D is for Dump and M is for Mixer), so they are not anywhere close. The main unit movie truck wich appearently was a 1977 model bought new by EMI had a Mack ENDT 676 Tip Turbine engine wich was dubbed over with a Detroit Diesel sound in the movie, but you can hear the original engine here and there in the movie and the air cleaner is the tell tale for that engine with it's dual intake tubes as it only are on Tip Turbine trucks. The real main unit truck has been found and it sure is a ENDT676 Tip Turbine in it, Dan Bruno had it for a while and I asked him about it a while ago and he told me that he sold it to someone who appearently is restoring it, Dan also found and restored the second unit truck wich also is a Western RS700L and can be seen at truck shows with one of the original tank trailers now owned by Anthony Fox, that truck is a 1970 model with a 1973 cab and had a Cummins NTC Small Cam in it but it's changed to a Big Cam III.

I bought that kit back in 1978-79 a while after I had watched the movie and started to build it because I thought the movie truck was cool, but I gave up on it and it was never finished because it's so wrong, I still have all the parts in my stash after 45 years but I will most likely never finish the model. When ERTL made this kit they took the Mack truck kit they allready had, they put in a sleeper from the International 4300 and made up a few new parts for it to somewhat look like the movie truck, but they failed completely because it's so very far from what it's supposed to be. The movie truck was a Western RS700L and the model kit is a DM600 with a side shifted cab, so wrong cab, too short hood, sleeper and wheelbase, wrong wheels...well almost everything is wrong with this kit and I don't know why they ask the prices they ask for it because it's not worth much in my eyes, definately not more than a reguar DM600 kit because that's what you can build with it. The only useable parts from this kit if you want to build a correct movie truck are the air foil on the roof, the bull bar, the duck hood ornament and some of the decals, the rest is totally wrong and the AMT R600 kit is a way better starting point than this kit. Unfortunately we will most likely not see the AITM resin Rubber Duck kit anymore but that's the best one so far out there, I got that kit from Dave sometime before he passed, a Trailmobile tank body from Doug at Keystone sometime before he closed up shop, and decals from Jerry at Modeltruckin', so I have everything to do a correct replica. I just have to make the Trailmobile trailer suspension because that particular suspension used on the movie tank trailer is not available in any kit so it has to be built from scratch.

Very nice.

I agree with you, This is the look they had from the factory and it's iconic and tough and the W900 VIT was top of the line from Kenworth, nothing like that have ever come out of a factory here in Europe, Australia is probably the country were the trucks looks something like the US trucks do but of course many of the trucks made there are US brands like Kenworth, Mack, Western Star etc. We had lots of conventionals before in Europe and they were popular, they didn't come close to what was made in the US tho', but length regulations in most countries had them evolve in a different way than the US trucks did and finally killed them off and no conventionals are made anymore as the demand is too low, Much like the cabovers in the US, none are made today since the demand is too low because it's the length of the trailer that's regulated and the length of the tractor is not counted in since some years, and the conventional has a better ride with a longer wheelbase and has other things in their favour over cabovers, with that said, I think the US made cabovers had a tougher look than the European cabovers did and do. So all trucks made in Europe today are cabovers and in many European countries the tractors are short two axle single drive wich I don't really like, they have strange proportions as most of the mass are at the front, no length to the chassis and just a single axle at the back and they look like they are going to tip over if you touch the brake. European truckers looked over to US trucks and were influenced by them for a while back in the 80's, so chrome or stainless stacks and aluminum wheels are often mounted on custom trucks here but they have evolved to something else and doesn't look anything like custom trucks do in the US, the European custom trucks have their own look. But I like the old school US trucks a lot better than the European trucks and all my truck kits are of US trucks. Well back to the regular show.

If you have another kit you can take a foil copy of the White Freightliner emblem, sand the one on this kit off and replace it with the copied emblem. It's not hard to do, put a piece of regular kitchen aluminum foil over the emblem, burnish it down with cotton tip swab and a rubber from a pencil, turn the copied emblem around and fill the voids with epoxy or another glue that hardens, sand the backside and trim the edges and you have your emblem. It may take a few tries but it's not that hard.

Here too.

Nice work I just wish someone would do correct decals for it.

I might complain but it is what it is and I will not buy kits in a scale I don't have anything else in. Sorry Salvinos JR, but 1:20 is not for me.

The fuel injection from the 1962 is wrong for 1963, they are different. 1962 1963

Well most of the earlier indycar models made by AMT, Monogram and Revell were 1:24th and 1:25th scale except for the few Tamiya Indycar kits wich were 1:20, and no one rejected them, they may not have been good sellers but they did them for some years anyway. So I can't see any reason to make these in 1:20 and I for one woun't buy them as they doesn't go with anything else I have...sorry Salvinos JR, if you had done them in 1:24-1:25 it would have been another thing and I would have bought them.

1:20th scale...sorry, not for me...and I do live outside the US, that scale doesn't do it for me as it doesn't go with anything else I have, I only do 1;24th and 1:25th scale. Almost all other Indycar kits done so far except from Tamiya has been 1:24th or 1:25th scale and even Revell Germany did their F1 kits in 1:24th scale.

It takes 50-55 KWh to produce 1 kilogram of hydrogen from water with electrolysis wich is the only environmentally safe process, and you will get 33 KWh energy back from that kilogram of hydrogen when you use it, so the efficiency is about 60-70% or even less, but you only get water vapour after you use it as it goes back to water. I don't know the number if you burn the hydrogen gas in a combustion engine but I would think it's even lower. Most of the hydrogen we use today is made from natural gas with steam methane reforming and you get carbon dioxide as a bi-product, and that's what we want to avoid, therefore the electrolysis process is a lot better as you don't get any carbon dioxide out of the process, and that's if the electricity is made fossil free of course, not from oil, coal or anything else that produces CO2 when burned. So in conclution, we need a more energy efficient way to produce hydrogen if this would work in large scale and there are a lot of other obstacles to get over like containing and transporting the hydrogen gas safely.

No SA is defunct, so the only other magazine is FSM where they have some automotive stuff nowadays, not much but some.