Force

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.

It doesn't say anywhere on the picture but I hope not, the chassis is white and the engine is silver on this truck so I hope it's molded in white.

Yeah why would anyone do that as the parts are so big anyway, I mean, parts in 1:12th scale are twice as big as if they were done in 1:24th scale

No...and I will pass on it.

It shoud as the hood is one of the few parts that are the same for both years on the real cars.

If you use the Custom kit or 2 'n 1 kit of the 60 Starliner you will get a lot of period correct goodies, these parts are so nice and I have bought several of the Starliner kits just for these parts.

The Boss 429 is a High Performance engine and Ford used screw in plugs that looks pretty much like large pipe plugs on most of their Hi-Perf engine blocks and not the regular press in style...they the use screw in type plug mostly for strength and other engines that uses this type of plugs are the FE 427, the Boss 302 and the 429CJ/SCJ and they also have four bolt or cross bolt main caps. Most of the other Ford engines has regular freeze plugs or core plugs as the also are known as and they are there to seal the holes needed to get the sand from the casting process out of the inside of the block and not so much for help to prevent cracks if the coolant freezes...so core plug is a more accurate name for them. Tim, I might have done if I had the skills and machines...but I don't.

AMT haven't been known for doing the best instructions in the earlier kits, later ones were better.

Modeltruckin has two sets of decals for the Hideout Truck, one with gold stripes outside the white/yellow/blue graphics and one with the same stripes in white. http://www.modeltruckin.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_143_22&products_id=317 http://www.modeltruckin.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_143_22&products_id=70

Looks good.

Came out nice.

Sounds like a regular AMT kit from the early 70's, most of what I have built over the years from AMT has been that way.

Well both engine types pollute in different ways, I can't tell wich is better or worse.

I'll pass.

One is enough for me and it's already in the stash bought in the mid 90's.