Force

As the original movie trucks are long gone we can't check for ourselves and one have to keep in mind that all information on the internet is not correct just because it's written there...but the painter of the original trailer must know what color he used as the black and gold is present there too, and Brad Wike's truck is the most true replica I have ever seen...maybe a bit too clean and polished. When I do research on a subject I gather all the information and pictures I can find over a period of time, then I go through the information and look at all the pictures and make my own conclusions from what I have found. I have also seen the Coffee Brown or Black Coffee thing here and there when I did my research on the Snowman truck but nothing to prove it, I have never seen the color itself and can't find any paint chips that look as dark as the movie truck do, and I haven't found any KW or anything else painted a dark brown that looks like black where you can see a brownish sheen in the highlights. Because if the color was Black Coffee/Coffee Brown you would for sure see a brownish sheen in places highlighted by the sun, much like the quite clearly visible blueish sheen due to the blue pearl tint in the clear coat on the first black paintjob of the Tyrone Malone Bandag Bandit, and I don't see any of that on the movie truck either on the movie or on any pictures of it. So it looks to be a solid black to me. When I did my research on this truck I also found someone on the internet who wrote that the KW bug grille emblem was gold as one of the trucks used was supposed to be a 1973 50th anniversary edition truck...but that's really not right, it was gold allright but all KW bug grille emblems on the trucks used for the outside scenes was painted gold with the raised KW, ring and stripes painted black like on Brad's replica truck. The 50th anniversary gold bug grille emblems didn't look like that, they were gold plated and the recesses around the raised KW, ring and stripes was painted red as on the regular chrome plated emblems, showing the raised KW, ring and stripes parts gold, the Kenworth scripts on the hood and sleeper were also gold on the 50th anniversary trucks and they were chrome on the regular trucks. But as I said before, if you want to paint the truck dark brown it's up to you, mine when I get up to it will be a solid black.

Yes they used at least a couple of trucks when they shot the movie. I have also heard the Coffee Brown thing and it should also have been metallic...I don't know where it came from but I don't believe it was, I have seen the Smokey And The Bandit movie a gazillion times since I first saw it at the movies back in 1977-78 and I usually watch the movie on DVD at least once a year, and I have allways seen the truck painted solid gloss black. I also read that they painted the trucks black and gold to match the 1977 Special Edition Trans Am used, and the best most accurate replica of the movie truck built and owned by Brad Wike is also black as you can see below, and I don't think he would have painted the replica black if the real movie truck was brown...Brad also owns the surviving Duel Pete 281 by the way. Here is where I read about it. Here is a couple of good pictures from the movie and it sure looks black to me. But of course, everyone does as he pleases, if you like it to be brown go for brown but I will for sure paint mine black.

Any gloss black would do. Some has said that the trucks were painted coffee brown but I have read they were painted to match the Trans Am wich was black with gold stripes and gold eagle on the hood, and on all pictures and also in the movie you can see the truck is black.

Well it doesn't matter how much time you have left on your subscription, if the publisher decide to discontinue the magazine you subscribe to they will do it anyway, and if you're lucky they will substitute the magazine you subscribed for with another title...if they have one, otherwise you loose your money. This has happened to me several times the last few years. I subscribed to Hot Rod Deluxe, the best magazine they had in my opinion, I also got an email telling med the same thing they told you, I wrote to TEN the other day and told them I don't want any digital subscription what so ever as I hate reading magazines on the computer screen or other devices. I also said, I paid for a printed paper copy magazine delivered to my door and that's what I expect to get for the remainder of my subscription period. I mentioned I could live with Hot Rod Magazine as a replacement as it's the only of the remaining magazines I can stand reading...today I got an answer from TEN that that could be done, so if they keep their promise I will get printed Hot Rod copys instead of the folded Hot Rod Deluxe for the remainder of the subscription period I have left...better than nothing. I also mentioned in my email that I will never buy anything from TEN in the future if they didn't handle the matter better. Replacing my printed magazine with a digital version of whatever magazine they offer is like stealing my money, internet is free so they don't have to pay anything for shipping, but I have paid for them to send me a printed magazine to my doorstep here in Umea, Sweden and that's quite a difference in cost. There is a long topic on this matter on HAMB. Hot Rod Deluxe was a great magazine and I too was surprised they folded that one, it's the only magazine I got from TEN after they folded Rod & Custom some years ago. They can put out what ever digital magazines they want online, I'm not interested and will not read them or absolutely not subscribe to any of them, as I said before, I hate reading magazines on any screen. You only need a light source to read a printed paper magazine and you can take them with you everywhere, not that easy with a digital version where you need a computer or some other device for several hundreds of Dollars and you need power for them to work, either battery power or from a wall outlet. At least we still have Rodders Journal and that magazine has so much in every issue it takes a lot of time to read it all, but I will still miss some of the magazines that has been discontinued the last couple of years.

Well it doesn't seem like people can find that topic as there are questions about kit instructions all the time on the forum. Everything on the site I mentioned above is all about trucks and truck kits...nothing else...so I thought the Truck Stop Section would be a better place for it.

To add to that, due to length regulations and demand they almost exclusively do cabovers here in Europe, I don't know of any conventionals made now. Like the US manufacturers, they only do conventionals as there is no demand for COE's anymore.

Rodders Journal is still around, but it comes out only four times a year so every three months you get a new issue. They have recently relocated tho'. Rodders Journal is one of the good magazines left since The Enthusiast Network (TEN) folded most of their paper magazine lineup including the Hot Rod DeLuxe.

Brutalform wrote: Thanks for clearing that up. I’m glad the body is good to go. If I can ask you another question? Would the R Code with the XL trim level either have a bench seat or buckets with a console? The XL trim level wich came for the 1962 model year includes a more blingy interior with bucket seats and center console, the lower level 500 has bench. XL was top of the line until the LTD came.

Ford engines were black from 1959 up to late 1965 when the 1966 model year started, so from 1966 model year the were blue. R-code engines were available in most of the full size Custom and Galaxie body styles and as the XL (wich is a trim package and top of the line) was available with the R-code 427's the quarter panel badge would be right, for the poverty caps, it doesn't really matter if they were on the option list for the XL trim package, they could easily have been changed afterwards...I use 7 X 15 and 8 X 15 steel wheels and poverty caps on my 1963½ 500XL and it looks great. The wheels for the 65 R-code cars could have been 15 inch instead of the standard 14 inch, I know they were on many 63 and 64 Q and R-code cars.

Here is a very good site for truck kit instructions, box art and a lot more useful stuff. https://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truckkit_instructions/ https://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/ This could maybe be pinned on top of the first page so it's easy to find.

Instruction pages from the AMT Kenworth Challenge Mixer kit from the Modeltrucks25 Fotki albums, a great source for truck kit instructions and other great stuff.

Both the Rubber Duck and Pig Pen Mack's were mentioned in text earlier in this thread. The Rubber Duck truck was a Western RS700L and there is no kit made of one of those, but AITM has one in resin, the Pig Pen can be done from the AMT Cruiseliner. and Modeltruckin' has decals for both. Yes it was a Kenworth W900 in the first movie, a GMC General in the second and a Peterbilt 359 in the third. The KW W900 in your picture is a clone and not really correct for the movie truck. Here is the real truck. And a much better, more correct clone.

It's most likely meant to be a N14 but the engine is still the same NTC as they used in several other truck kits starting with the Freightliner FLC kit but without the aftercooler. The NTC and N14 looks very different in the cylinder head area, especially the valve covers, but that didn't Italeri bother to do anything about, they just modified the intake area and instead of a water to air aftercooler on the engine they did an air to air intercooler in front of the radiator and it's the only upgrade they did...so it's not a correct N14 by any means. If you want a more correct N14 Auslowe has one.

This kit also has them.

Most of the Cummins N14 I have seen are also black, some with red valve covers. As far as I know there is no Cummins with NTD designation, I think AMT had it wrong when they did the White Western Star, it should be NTC 350 not NTD 350.

Same here, your builds are a huge inspiration.

Impressive.

As mentioned a few posts above AMT did the Suzanne Somers 1956 T-bird back in 2003. The Pharao's Custom Mercury is a 1951 and that year has never been done as a model kit, but the movie car can be done from the 1949's from either AMT or Revell as it's all we got for the "shoebox" Mercury. But a 1951 Merc is quite different from the 49-50, the rear window opening is larger and has a different shape with sharp pointed lower corners, they are rounded on the 49-50, and the rear quarter panels are longer and extends beyond the trunk wich they doesn't do on the 49-50, the 51 also have different "church window" style tail lights and they kept them on the movie car. The dash panel and gauges are also very different from the 49, they upgraded it for the 1950 model year and continued with the same panel for 51. The grille is also different on the 1951 but it was custom with just a single bar in the middle on the movie car so it doesn't matter. So to do a correct one it involves some work. Star Models has a chopped 51 Coupe in resin but it's not exactly correct as it's most likely based on the AMT 49 and has the 49-50 rear window shape for the opening with rounded lower corners and it has to be modified further to more resemble the movie car. In my personal opinion the 1951 is my least favoured "shoebox" Mercury of the three followed by the 1949, and I like the 1950 the best, it would have been nice if Revell had done a 50 instead of a 49 as AMT allready had one.

The rear end of the chassis on the Revell Germany T600 is the same as in their K100 kits, the Revell Germany W900 is from a different tool, it has a KW Air Glide 100 suspension as the K100 has but the W900 shares nothing with the K100's. It looks like you have some progress and it looks good...the yellow Cummins engine stands out a bit and should originally have been beige.

The springs are separate but the front of the frame is different from the 359 and the bumper mounts are molded to the frame Here are the instructions for the 352 https://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truckkit_instructions/amt/t502_peterbilt_352/ Wich 359 frame are you using?

Great work there, you got my attention.

I think it's supposed to be a 8V-92 and that goes for both the Chevrolet Bison and GMC General.

I built the AMT 58 kit some years ago and glued the doors shut because they don't look right anyway and the kit is not that bad...the most demanding job was to foil all the trim as there are lots of it. The Revell kit was originally a diecast and they shot plastic in the diecast tool to do a regular model kit from it so it's a little thick here and there but it's not bad at all, one thing that goes for it is that much of the trim are separate plated pieces so you don't have to do so much foiling.

Whaaat...the 58 is my favourite. My other favourite Impala years are 61-65.

Yes you are absolutely right, the line on the kits are too far forward and too long, here is how it should look.