Force

I have both the Aoshima kit and a couple of the Fujimi kits and I agree, the molded parts in the Aoshima kits are better but the kits are less detailed.

As said earlier, the Convertible is the only one of the Revell-Monogram 1965 Impalas with the 409, the Coupe has allways had the 396, so Revell only took what they allready had and added some new wheels and decals to it and tool up a new small block to fit in the engine bay and chassis was probably not feasible within the budget. 1965 was also the last year for the 409 by the way.

Yes I believe you can, it's mostly the same with some added parts.

Nice, I really like it.

Yes, the Foose version is essentially the 1:25th scale 65 Impala issued under both the Revell and Monogram name originally issued 1996.

As usual you have the abillity to capture the "right look", totally awsome.

I just heard that the missing Bandag, Detroit Diesel and Allison markings on the re-issues appearently had to do with PACCAR and the Kenworth license and not Bandag/Bridgestone, it was leave them off or you can't do the kenworth models...I don't know the reason to why and if it's true or not but I wouldn't be surprized with todays licensing nuisance where everyone seems to be so greedy and protective.

I have bought some HRM stuff through Norm at Replicas & Miniatures Co of Maryland, but that was a while ago.

I agree with you on most points there, except for maybe the charging in an hour...it's not like the time for a lunch break will allways be when it's time to recharge the truck, and have to wait an hour or maybe even more for the truck to charge up when you are in a hurry and are on restricted driving hours does not really make it in my World.. I can see this as a complement and for shorter runs in and around cities, not really for long hauls on the highways.

As far as I know both real cars share the basic frame so it would work.

You also have to keep in mind that batteries are not as effective when they are cold as they are when they are warm, you need to have a heater for the cab and so on and that will have an impact on the range in wintertime. Well let Elon Musk waste his money on these vehicles, on contrary to what many like to think they are not the final solution to the problem anyway...but I will not take up that debate now.

Most likely a lot longer than to fuel up a regular diesel (or other fuel types) truck.

I was thinking on the real cars. Like the wheelbase difference between Dodge and Plymouth A, B and E bodys...but I'm no Mopar expert.

Isn't the wheelbase difference in front of the cowl?? Because I think the floor is the same.

Jeff: They should be. Chris: Okay, I haven't seen these new kits yet so I went with what's on the boxart where the Bandag name are missing both on the tires and on the truck itself so I thought they took it away and only left the Tyrone Malone scripts...but if the tires also have the Bandag script it's good as they did look great on the earlier Super Boss and Papa Truck kits. But I thought the Hideout Truck would come out in January and the "Custom Drag Truck" (Bandag Bandit) later this spring. Well, the conclusion is, to do correct replicas of these trucks you have to buy decals from Modeltruckin' for both, get Truck Mate wheels from Mo'luminum and a Peterbilt bumper for the Hideout Truck.

I have been thinking about this, one can wonder why Round 2 made the decision to do the Hideout Truck and most likely also the "Custom Drag truck" (the Bandag Bandit kit will not be called Bandag Bandit when it's re-issued) in black plastic and not include the correct markings for the trucks. Not many born after the early to mid 90's knows much about Tyrone Malone (he passed away 1997 in a car accident) so I think these kits are more aimed at the adult public who remembers who he was and what he did, so it's mostly about nostalgia and I don't know but both these things can make the kits less desireable and people who knows what this is (or should have been) but don't know the aftermarket will maybe not buy these kits because of that. Afterall Tyrone Malone was closely associated with both Bandag and Detroit Diesel and at least I would have been prepaired to pay more if the kits were re-issued like the originals with all that comes with it...the price would most likely have been less than what the original issue kits fetch at the auction sites anyway...and the aftermarket decals cost $20.00 each plus shipping at Modeltruckin' so if you want to do the kits right you have to add that cost to the kit prices. And if I would like to build the transporter to anything else than the Hideout Truck I would rather go for the earlier re-issue of the Papa Truck wich is exactly the same as the Hideout Truck except for color and decals because it's molded in white and are still plentiful on the market. I may be wrong but that's what I think. But this decision by Round 2 is good for Jerry at Modeltruckin' tho' as he will sell lots of decals to people who want to build both these trucks as they should be, the problem is the tires as the white Bandag scripts are not there on these upcoming re-issues and there are no tire markings on the decal sheets.

Very cool, I would like to go there some time.

There may not have been a demand for the product, otherwise we would have had them on the road by now. For the US and Australian markets I don't see the need as the length is not that much of a problem there, but for markets that has total length restrictions it could be another thing, Europe has strict total length restrictions but there is kind of a module system here based on specific load bearers like trailers and shipping containers so I don't think this will catch on here either...otherwise it would have already.

Italeri keeps producing and pumping out commercial truck kits all the time and has never stopped since they started with their truck kits in the 80's...so the truck kit market can't be dead, unfortunately they don't do so much of American trucks right now but they still do truck kits and even a new tool kit now and then. The Volvo FH4 is one of the latest that came about a year ago wich is all new tooling and they wouldn't pour money into developing a new kit if they thought the market wasn't there would they. And the aftermarket industry seems to be doing quite well too with new products coming all the time. So Except for Moebius and Italeri we wouldn't have any newer truck kits at all as the other kit manufacturers doesn't seem to show any interest in the truck kit market what so ever other than repopping kits from old tooling...and these kits seem to sell quite well otherwise they wouldn't keep popping out several of these 30-50 year old kits every year...but on the other hand it's nearly all that's available so we don't have much of a choice if we want to build an US truck kit right now. All I hear is that the Sci-fi market is so good and it seems like some manufacturers focus on that now...but I can't belive the youngsters are more into Sci-fi than other modelling subjects as all they seems to want to do is play computergames and not that interested in doing things with their hands, so I think that's more of an adult hobby too like the automotive, air, ship and military model building is, so if you do a subject the modelers want it will most likely sell, it's mostly a matter of finding out what that subject would be.

I thought we had seen the last of colored plastic kits when Revell-Monogram stopped doing them and went over to white, and AMT did theirs in light grey plastic...but it seems like I'm wrong. I don't know what Round 2 is thinking and they are supposed to be "model guys", and model guys like to paint their models in whatever color they like.

I couldn't agree more. Freightliner Cascadia is one, Mack Anthem, Western Star 5700 XE, Kenworth T660, 680, 700 and W900 ( don't like the W990), Peterbilt 389 and 579, Volvo VNL 760, 860 are others I would buy if they were available. And there are of course some Aussie trucks I would like to see as model kits, the current Mack Titan, Kenworth K200 and T909 are some examples.

I find misstakes, wrong and missing information whenever I am on the Scalemates site and I have thought about doing the same thing, but it's so much that it is a huge task to get everything I see right. If someone are putting out information on what's supposed to be a database on model kits it better be correct...otherwise it's not reliable and it's better not to, so doing research on the subject before putting anything out there is crucial.

It looks better with the extension.

The information seems right to me except for the "New Tool" marking on the AMT version...the tooling is new to AMT but is not new at all as it's exactly the same as the 2010 Italeri Long Hauler issue except for decals and box so it should have been marked "Rebox" instead of "New Tool" and I think the parts are molded by Italeri as I don't believe they would send the tooling to China for molding the Round 2 batch. The 2010 Italeri issue should be marked "Changed Parts" as the sleeper is changed from the earlier 378 issues , it's marked "Changed ???" and the 1997 issue of the 378 is a new version with new cab, hood and sleeper based on the 377 A/E tooling from 1996 wich then was all new, Revell AG did a rebox of the 377 A/E wich Scalemates don't seem to know the origins of, and the Long Hauler issues from Italeri and AMT has the same high top sleeper as the 377 without the air foil. Scalemates is a decent source but you have to be cautious with that site as the information are not allways correct and I have seen several faults there when I have been searching information so I use other sources as well to get as correct information as I can.

I have bought two trailer bodies from him, the Convoy and Duel tankers, I haven't got the Duel tanker yet but the Convoy trailer looks good. Now I have to buy a couple of AMT trailers for the suspensions and other things.