Chuck Most

OR the just-reissued AMT '65 Ford Galaxie. The oft-reissued '66 Galaxie and Torino Cobras offer convincing NASCAR options as well. I'm not sold on seeing any new (current) NASCAR stockers in kit form any time soon, but I do think we'll be seeing more and more of the earlier stuff coming out, as new kit options and reissues.

Nothing as far as tooling is shared between this and the other AMT cabovers, aside from perhaps the tires. The Reo, Road Boss, Western Star, and Autocar conventionals do share parts, but so did all the 1:1 versions, as all of those trucks were owned and manufactured by White Motor Company at the time AMT engineered the kits.

Jeff Ballard at Motor City Resin Casters was working on one if I recall, but I'm not sure on its status other than it isn't yet listed on his website.

Agreed. That being said, the Fujimi is VERY nice for being a curbside.

You had me at 1:25 scale custom van stuff! Welcome aboard.

I like where this one's going.

Great work on this one, Dave! You never disappoint. I do like the idea of doing a second one as a logger...

Fogged paint or not, looks great to me! I miss seeing these big ol' cabovers on the highway.

Not unlike buying a 1:1 Vega. THANK YOU, GOOD NIGHT....

If the first run is already sold out- I'll take that as a good sign and assume there will be a second at some point. The only reason I haven't used a set of Moebius wheels and tires on another truck kit is because then I'd have a Moebius International with no rolling stock... this would solve that little problem.

Love this truck- and it looks great in that paint scheme.

I'm kind of in the middle... I'm not going to sit there and pour over the thing, comparing it to scale photos with a grid pattern, running along the rub strips with a digital caliper, and lambaste the thing for a very insignificant flaw. Big flaws are bad, but personallly- I can live with a few little ones. But if I have a dead nuts accurate kit, well, that's just as satisfying to look at in its place of honor on the shelf, right? Then again I've built at least one Zinger... But I agree with what Bill said- yes, comparing use of aftermarket parts on a regular injection molded kit to a straight injection molded kit isn't quite an apples-to-apples comparison, but I can tell you with a straight face I've gone way, way, way overboard on some projects, and I've paid way more than the high MSRP of the Meng kit for complete garbage (ie- iffy resin kits and crude but pricey OOP vintage kits). I've spent that much on good resin kits, too. Who here hasn't? From what I've seen of the Meng kits, compared to the quality of most existing light truck kits, and the cost of all the happy horsepuckey that goes along with producing a new tool, full-detail kit nowadays, I don't think the price is too out of line. And the kit isn't out... so we don't even know what the average going rate will be- a lot of retailers will sell it at full MSPR, others, well, won't. I'm sure pretty soon you'll be seeing guys posting saying how they got a killer deal on one of these before too long. Personally? I'd gladly pay full retail for this kit, but if I can get it at a bit of a discount price... well... guess which path I'm going to follow.

I want kits of modern pickups. If I want something, I buy it. Period.The only thing higher prices means to me is that I won't be buying five at a time. And for me, that's a good thing. In other words... me buying one more costly kit means I won't be buying two or three lower priced kits I probably shouldn't have bought in the first place. Back when you could get a kit for ten or twelve bucks, I did that all the time. And I noticed something... the stack of "no way am I ever going to get around to building that" kits in my stash kept growing and growing. These days I wont buy ten of those 1977 Woonsocket Sport Roadster kits unless I have ten specific ideas in mind on how to build it. I won't even buy ten of them for a buck apiece if all they're going to do is take up space in the workshop. The only thing the MSRP on the Meng kit means is that I'll be accumulating mine one-at-a-time, and not by the case load. I don't "need" one, I WANT one. I don't need to spend any money on my hobby, but I do, because I enjoy it. And if I need to spend a little money to send the message I want to send to the kit manufacturers regarding what I want to see in terms of subject matter, I'll do it. If it's a high-quality product, I'll gladly pay a premium for it if it's something I want. I've paid good money for complete junk, but the Meng kit looks to be several cuts above that level, so I think I'll sleep just fine even after having shelled out that much for a model kit. At any rate, even if I pay full retail for the Meng F-350, that's still way less of a hit on my bank account than buying the same truck in 1:1, never mind insurance, fuel, maintenance, etc. ...

This is so far my favorite of all the Revell '57 Fords I've seen built.

Not sure if the what-if '41 GT package would have included a Hemi, but hey. Love this model!

No lie there! I've been using that pro street chassis under everything BUT Novas for years... The Rambler actually had the wheels and tires from the Nova when I first built it, too- I added the wheels later. I think it needs a paint job too, since I've gotten way better at laying down paint since I first built it.

It's handy if you go to a party, and people ask "where do I put my empty bottles"? I always tell them just to toss them in the back of the blue F-250 right over there. Good way to get a little extra gas money for the weekend.

Because you might be pulling a loaded trailer behind that empty bed... like I seem to be doing three or four days out of the week. My last pickup had a bumper sticker which read "Yes- this is my truck. No- I won't help you move" on it... I'm thinking I need to get one for my current pickup too.

It would probably work best on a light truck chassis- that's how Jeff shows it set up on his site. Ramp_Truck_Link.

I do hear where you're coming from, as far as not having any new subject matter with the 'big rig' kits, Jake... believe me! If kit manufacturers were making them, I'd be buying and building them, and I'm assuming you would as well. And we wouldn't be the only ones. I can think of at least a half dozen modern Class 8 rigs I'd love to have in scale. Quite a few older rigs I'd like to see, too, but I digress. If you are into car models you tend to get spoiled by the new releases- even though there are fewer and fewer every year. My "gullible oafs" statement (which I stand by) was aimed at Italeri, not truck modelers. From where I sit that seems to be their opinion of US truck modelers. The way I see it, if Italeri wants to make nothing but cabs and hoods for US trucks... they should make nothing but cabs and hoods for US trucks. I do have to give Italeri credit for one thing- they did kind of keep the flame burning for heavy truck modelers while the domestic kit manufacturers were out to lunch. If you ignore the chassis, they look great built. I give them kudos for their parts packs as well. But I really take issue to their use of the Freightliner chassis under too many non-Freightliner subjects, that just smacks of "they'll never know the difference" thinking - that one thing strikes me as a tad insulting from the standpoint of a consumer. Italeri really would have had something great if they'd put the same effort into their US truck kits that they put into their aircraft kits, or even their '30's car kits. And of course Italeri isn't alone in trying to pull the wool over the consumer's eyes - I'm sure you're aware of the AMT T600a, and that Revell AG kit that was supposed to be a Marmon. I'd even go so far as to say that last one was worse than anything Italeri tried to pull... Now- if Meng decides to produce another light truck kit... let's just say, a Ram Power Wagon, and they recycle this Ford chassis under the thing... yeah, I'm not going to be a happy camper, for the same reasons the majority of Italeri American rigs don't thrill me. And I won't be the only one. Alrightie- I've said all I wanna say about THAT matter... now I've got to order a couple of these kits.

I'm not a 'real modeler' and I don't gripe about the trim being too tall, too sweepy fenders, and nonexistant USB ports. Stuff like that doesn't matter to me, and from the photos of this I've seen- all that stuff looks good enough to me. Now- Something like a chassis that's completely wrong for the application? I do have a few problems with a manufactuer who'd do that routinely. Just saying... glad Italeri wasn't the company who finally decided to tackle a Super Duty kit.

Nice! I'd say since it has a Gulf sticker on it, put a Ford GT40 on the back.

What Aaron said- though I'll add that you might be able to find one damaged, broken, or otherwise blemished for dirt cheap. That might be the way to go, especially if you have rebuilding it in mind.

I do wish Jada would cut it out with the chopped tops.... Still want to get one of those Raptors, though.