Force

I have noticed this too when I studied the TV series for details, they often take off the mud flaps when they are pulling a trailer, not allways but often, and they are hanged behind the fuel tanks as in your picture wich are one of the season 1 trucks. They are also often taken off in season 2 but I don't know where they stowed them then, it was a while ago since I watched that season but I don't remember seeing any mudflaps behind the fuel tanks like in season 1, so they must have stowed them elsewhere and it doesn't look like there are any brackets there on the frame either. These pictures are from season 2. The brackets for the mud flap hangers are just a piece of square tubing welded to a flat piece bolted to the frame rail and the mud flap hangers are made from square stock and the ends are angeled downwards, easy to take off.

Nice work Ken But this truck is technically a W923 as it has walking beam suspension, the 925/125 designation was for the dual drive torsion bar suspension...so AMT had it right from the very beginning when this kit was eveloped and had torison bars, but is wrong since the suspension was changed. It's the other way around for the K123 kit, it was originally wrong as it also had tosion bars but the number is right since they changed to walking beam.

When you say BMF it's to a modeler it's the self adhesive metal foil we mean, not decal paper or any other of the products Bare Metal Foil has. The setting solutions sold by Bare Metal Foil Co are Micro Scale Industries Inc's products as BMF does not have any of their own.

Yes but when you say you used BMF on a model in our World it's the foil we mean, not the decal paper or any other products.

You have to ask AMT/Round2 because I don't know. I'm just telling why there are some custom parts in these kits and it's the same regardless of wich issue it is, I have the first from 2000 and the custom version from 2011, the tail light sprue is the same for both versions. If you look closely you can tell from the drawing in the instructions wich tail light lenses you are supposed to use, the drawing for the lenses in the stock version has a flat center, the drawing for the custom version shows both the flat lenses and the bullet lenses and they are optional and you can use wich one you like. But I agree with you, it could have been more clear, the instructions for the stock version it should be only the #400 as they are the only ones shown, the #401 is the custom lenses not shown in that drawing...so there was a misstake from the artist who did the instructions.

The tooling for this kit was originally designed to be able to do both a showroom stock version and a custom version, the stock version was released under the AMT/ERTL name 2005, the custom version didn't come out until 2011 after Round 2 took over the AMT brand but both versions are from the same tooling and developed at the same time and that's why you can see a few custom parts in the stock kit and some stock parts in the custom kit. Like the 1960 Ford Galaxie Starliner kit, the Edsel Pacer kit and the Chrysler 300C kit wich all are available as a stock version and a custom version, both versions of these kits share the tooling wich was designed and developed at the same time back in mid to late 1990's and together with this one they are among the last kits designed by AMT/ERTL before the company was sold to Racing Champions/RC2 in 1999.

Nice. I have to tell you, I got a bunch of the Kenworth K100 Aerodyne dash panels you did a while ago and they look great.

BMF= Bare Metal Foil, it's a thin metal foil and setting solutions wich are for water slide decals woun't touch it.

It was easy before but now it's a lot harder. First of all, AMT has a set in the Autocar A64B kit AITM had them casted in resin, Keystone Aluminum Model Miniatures had them in machined aluminum (wich were the best), both are gone, but there are a few still doing them, Strato Models do them from time to time but not now and I have seen a set on another eastern European site. But you can quite easlily do a set yourself from a set of AMT 10-hole lock ring wheels, plug every other hole with a plastic rod, cut and sand flush and you are on your way.

I have also learned it the hard way a couple of times. If you want it, don't wait like I did with Archer Transfers and a couple of other businesses.

It came out very nice despite all the hastles you had on the way there. Good work.

Lets see if I get mine then...but you got the #217 and I didn't so I woun't hold my breath.?

Well Ronald, I know wery well the AMT 359 Unilite cab kit came in 1969 and the later 359 1100 series cab kit came 1976 and also that they have wreckers based on both in 1972 and 1977, but the AMT kits are not what my post was about. It's the Revell Germany Can-Do/Will-Do wreckers wich are more modern rotator wreckers and based on their full detail 359 Peteski and I was talking about and that 359 is also the kit cifenet is/was building in this thread.

Yes, the Can-Do (1993) and Will-Do (2013) wreckers are based on the 359 tooling and the 359 was first issued back in 1982...I built one back then. The Can-Do is not right for what it's supposed to be as the original Stepp's Can-Do wrecker truck is a 378...but Revell did not have a 378 so they used the 359.

Yes the research on a subject is allmost as fun as building it. But when it comes to mold/create parts it can't be that hard, the Revell Ford Flatheads are a lot more detailed. but on the other hand they are a lot more modern tooling, the 1949 was deveopled in the early 1960's and the Revell kit's in the mid 2010's...there's the difference. We expect a lot more from the kits developed today than what was expected back then and the kits they develop today are a lot more accurate and detailed...not allways but often.

The engine in the AMT 49 Ford is a 8BA 1949-53 (8CM for Mercury) wich replaced the older 59AB and the 8BA was the last flat head engine for Ford and it was replaced with the Y-block 1954 wich was Ford's first OHV V8. The thing with the AMT kits are that the engine in the kit is very simplified and some things are not there so it's not that easy to get it right as it doesn't look as it should, the water pumps are very simple, the exhaust manifolds are casted in and things like that. The flathead in the 1949 Mercury is slightly better but definately not perfect, it has separate exhaust manifolds and the cross over pipe, but the water pumps are like the 49 Ford, very simple and does not look like the real thing.

The pipe in your picture is the cross over pipe for the exhaust. The radiator should have two outlets, one for each water pump.

Teams like John Force Racing, Don Schumacher Racing and Kalitta Motorsports build chassis in house, and some teams buys them from McKinney, Hadman, Morgan Lucas Racing/Lucas Fabrication and from the other larger teams who build chassis in house. But you can get some measurements from the "modern era" Revell Top Fuel Dragster kits wich have a recent chassis, not the most modern but pretty much what they use today except for some alterations done since they were up to date. A modern Nitro engine for Top Fuel and Funny car is based on the old Chrysler 426 Hemi design, same dimentions, bore spacing and so on with some approved alterations and strengthening and you can get dimentions from the Revell Top Fuel kits there too. All engines used in these classes are machined billet aluminum with no water jackets and steel sleeves for the cylinders, the heads are also machined billet aluminum with dual spark plugs per cylinder. I'm sure there are drawings and 3D files for these parts but I'm not so sure the engine block manufacturers like Alan Johnson Performance Engineering (AJPE), BRad Andrerson Engineering (BAE), Keith Black and others, are letting them go as easy as you from these files can do a copy of their engine blocks and sell to anyone. The 14-71 super chargers are made by Kobelco, BME, DMPE, PSI and others but based on the GM Roots design for two stroke diesels but with a longer case and rotors, Ignition is dual MSD Pro Mag 44's.

Very nice.

I also find (Castrol) Super Clean works well, the plating disappears right before your eyes and the base clear coat in an hour or two.

Well most of the Thermo King reefer units I have seen has the control and gauge panel on the drivers side for us driving on the right side of the road. The reefer unit in the ERTL now AMT Great Dane Reefer kit has this panel on the passenger side wich is strange as I have not seen any reefer units with the panel placed there.

I think someone allredy has done one in 3D printing with the gauge panel on the correct side wich the kit doesn't have, I remember to have seen one somewhere. My original question was from 2013 and the old "ERTL" Great Dane Reefer trailer wich as far as I know never had been reissued since 1978-79 was reissued by Round 2 last year.

I think it could be this one, because the Crown 500 is written on top of the grille on them so it can't be that, the one in the kit has Thermo King on top of the grille.

Oh my, that looks good.

I'm still waiting on the #217 replacement (this usually takes time), and the #218 and #219 issues, the #220 is too early to expect yet. I don't have a clue why the magazines disappear and where they end up...maybe in a dark hole somewhere or something like that, because they for sure don't reach my mailbox. I subscribe to another magazine from the US and the deliverence of that magazine is iffy too, not as bad as Model Cars Magazine so it's not just Model Cars Magazine that vanish on the way over here, and it worked a lot better before and even during the Covid Pnademic than it has done the last year-year and a half. I have contacted our mail service Postnord but they can't do anything as the magazines are sent as letters and are not traceable, and they say that they deliver everything that comes to them in the order they get them...so I don't know. So if it's not with them the problem is it must lie somewhere else in the mail chain and it's getting very frustrating, because I got issue #211, missed #212 and #213, got #214, missed #215, got #216 and have missed the #217, #218 and #219, so out of 9 issues sent to me I got 3...and nothing comes back to the publisher after what I can tell. I have got replacements for #212, #213 and #215 and still waiting on the replacement for #217, but it seems like I will not get the other 2 as I should either and we will see how it goes with #220.