Force

I don't know if the Moebius chassis fits under the 64 Comet but the Fairlane Thunderbolt chassis is wrong for a Comet anyway wich is on the Falcon platform, the 62-65 Fairlane shares chassis with only the 61-63 Mercury Meteor. It would be easier to use a chassis from a Mustang or Cougar as they also are based on the Falcon platform.

Yes, totally different kits.

Mid to late June.

Yes they all have ten hole Alcoas but they are different from what the ERTL trucks have, the ten hole wheels on the AMT truck kits are tube tire type 20 or 22 inch wheels with separate lock rings...one exception, the KW K100 Aerodyne wich have tubeless tire style ten hole wheels but it's a much later kit than all the others as the K100 Aerodyne came 1979. The IH CO-4070B Transtar II Eagle from 1976 and IH Transtar Eagle 4300 from 1977 both have the tubeless type 22.5 inch one piece wheels at front (the 4300 has them on all positions and they are nice ones too) and I believe they were the first kits with that style wheels, as I mentioned the AMT KW K100 Aerodyne came a couple of years later 1979 and the Revell AG kits and Monogram now Revell 1:25 snap kits wich also have tubeless one piece wheels came 1982. The F-4270 and the 4300 are quite different, except for the wheels the engines are different, in the F-4270 is a Cummins V903 and a IH V-800 (aka the boat anchor) for the 4300, the rear suspension on the F-4270 is air ride and Walking Beam for the 4300, they might share the cab and some of the interior tho', I have not examined and compared the kits that closely. Speaking of old ERTL kits, I wonder if Round 2 has the tooling for the ERTL Peterbilt 359 kit and the Volvo N10 kit wich came about 1981-82, both have metal chassis but it might be possible to shoot plastic into the tooling for the metal parts too. The Peterbilt kit disappeared after the ERTL/AMT merge and I don't think the Volvo N10 has been out either.

Nothing here...my misstake.

The CO-4070A was available 1974-75 but disappeared from the catalog 1976 when the 4070B Transtar II "Eagle" came so the 4070A tooling was most likely modified to do the 4070B Transtar II, and as you say, the Transtar II was probably the first truck kit with tubeless Alcoa ten hole front wheels, I haven't seen any earlier kits with that, the wheels at the rear are five oblong hole wheels tho'. The Transtar Eagle 4300 came in 1977 and had the same ten hole front wheels as the Transtar II but the rears are also ten hole and not the same as the Transtar II, the F-4270 was still available after 1977 so it seems like they did a completely new tool for the Transtar Eagle 4300.

I can not do anything else than agree with everyone else, very nice build indeed.

As I said, it's only a model and it's up to the builder to do whatever he likes with it. Even the new owner of the real Papa Truck hasn't been true to what it looked like when Malone had it.

Interesting, this looks like the trailers for the "One More Pile" test vehicles they had here in northern Sweden for three years, 30 meters long (just under 100 feet) and 90 metric tons.

The first ERTL catalog I have access to is from 1974 and the last ERTL catalog is from 1982 and it's in there too, I also have pictures of a combined catalog for ERTL, ESCI and AMT from 1983 where some of the old ERTL truck kits are so 1982-83 seems to be the year for the AMT/ERTL merge.

I don't know for sure but I think the CO-4070B Transtar II Eagle must have been issued more than twice, I bought a couple of them new from our local hobby shop in 1980-81-ish with kit # 8017, unfortunately there are no copyright year anywhere on the box, instructions or decals so I'm not sure when it was made...but I know I bought it later than 1976 as my funds was very strained as I still was in 6th grade in school at that time. There was also two versions with the same 8017 kit number, the first one had the same air ride as the CO-4070A and F-4270 kits and the second version had walking beam and the ones I have has walking beam, the Transtar II Eagle kit was also continously in the ERTL catalog from 1976 to at least 1981...I don't have access to any later ERTL catalog. The Scalemates website lists the Transtar II Eagle kit as issued only 1976 and 1996 but I have found lots of questionable and faulty information regarding different kits on that site so I don't trust all information given there. The 1996 reissue of the CO-4070B Transtar II Eagle has kit # 6183 by the way.

No the Papa Truck transporter was originally a 1976 Bicentennial Edition so the chassis was gold as the Bicentennials was that color. The chassis on the Hideout Truck transporter was white and both the Super Boss and Bandag Bandit race trucks has light blue chassis. That's if you want to do correct replicas, but as these are models you can do whatever you like to them.

This one?

The T533 has been reissued at least four times since the first issue 1977 and the last was in 2004, so it's not that hard to find, I was a bit surprised to see them reissuing that kit again as I hoped for the T522. The T522 has only been out once in 1972 and are much harder to find and are quite expensive, yes you can build the "original" T522 issue from what's available now (when this kit arrives) but you need aftermarket decals (if you want to do the boxart truck), the recent reissue of the T500-500 "small window" 359 and this kit (or any of the earlier issues) to do it...so that will not be cheap either.

The engine in the Ala Kart is a Dodge and one have to remember that a Dodge Hemi is smaller than both DeSoto and Chrysler Hemi, so it should be a bit on the tiny side...but not as tiny as the engine in the new kit.

Nice builds.

Nice truck.

For me a truck is a heavy commercial tractor...a pickup is a pickup and I don't ever call them truck.

As I understand it it is the same old kit as they have had for years, apparently this time the sleeper is included. With the boxart in mind I thought they would issue the first "Small Window" Unilite version of the wrecker with the Detroit Diesel 8V-71 and Stabil Aire suspension as it had the same boxart but in blue, but as far as I understand it's the later 1100 cab version with the Cummins NTC 350 and Peterbilt Air Leaf suspension. The wrecker body is the same on both kits tho' and it's a bit on the wide side and has to be narrowed.

Keep looking at ebay, there are some who parts out truck kits there all the time.

KJ Humphries has a fan 3D printed. Take a look here. http://kdhumphr.wixsite.com/double-take-replicas/product-page/cabin-fans

Yes they do. http://www.slixx.com/1593.htm?id=2763

Nice build. But it looks like a FH12 to me. Italeri hasn't been known for doing accurate truck kits and this one is no exception, the basic chassis and the TD120F engine and gearbox is the same as in their F12 kit and is hopelessly outdated for what this truck is supposed to be, the cab and outside parts are the only upgrades as they have done with most of their truck kits. It's only very recently Italeri did a serious upgrade and the latest Volvo 4th generation FH16 Globetrotter kit looks to be quite accurate after what I have seen on pictures of it with D16 engine and more modern gearbox and an updated chassis with air ride...so that kit is the only accurate Volvo truck kit from them since the old F12 and F12 Globetrotter kits from 1981...the rest of them are more or less wrong.

No they are not bad at all, just a bit more challenging. I built my first AMT truck kit as a teenager and managed quite well considered my skills at the time...I got it together with a square frame and all wheels on the ground.

Yup...me too. I read somewhere that the chassis in the Pinto and Mustang was Woody Gilmore.