Chuck Most

Thanks- thought so! Guess they removed them before the Dirty Donny reissue for whatever reason.

Yeah, it's pricey- but Modelhaus stuff is worth it. Once you have it built and finished and see how it looks, you won't regret shelling out that much for it.

Weird- I seem to remember the A-Team version of this tooling having the ribs on the roof, unless I'm getting things mixed up.

You're dead right- where the sink marks are visible in the pics, there are molded crossmembers underneath the surface of the flat bed.

The lines on the SMP bed sides don't quite match up with the AMT/Ertl cab, though- look closely and you'll see the side cove is a bit higher if you line up the rocker line. The shape of the side cove is also a bit different between the two. Casey's approach would fix that problem.

No progress to report at the moment- I've spent a little time looking around in the spares pile for a seat I could use to make the middle "20" bucket, and have found nothing, so it looks like I'll have to make my own. I've already cut away the stock console.

At one time, somebody (perhaps John Heyer) did a set of long bed sides. They were JUST the bed sides, you were left to your own devices as far as the inner sides and floor went, and they were resin repops of the old SMP kit. I posted the ones I used on my '60 in the Truck Resin and Aftermarket section earlier today- someone was asking on availability of a long bed for '60-'66 Chevy trucks.

Yeah- that gray plastic RC2 loved to use sure did love to adorn itself with sink marks... ugh... I've got one of those kits, with the same sinks in the same areas (only slightly worse), I'm thinking I might just throw down an open rectangle of Plastruct strip and lay some real wood planks down for the stake bed.

I'm doing one as a basic cargo van with National Car Rental graphics... but I am KEEPING that decal sheet, thank you!

There were some long bed side panels offered at one time (mid to late '80's?), by either John Heyer or Model Cars and Parts of Missouri, and were based off the old SMP 1:25 scale promo. I used them (and the grille) on an AMT '60 a few years back, but I never did find out for sure which company cast them. There are some out there, you just might have to look- though I can say I'd suggest waiting until the stuff Casey is working on is ready.

Nice! I knew PennGwen did this decal set, wasn't aware Powerslide did one for the Mundy Hornet too. About the plug wires... why not grab some in another color and brush paint them black? Not knocking you for not adding them, just curious.

Can't say that I'm a huge fan of the John-Deere-ish color scheme, (Farmall red is so much prettier...) but even considering that, I absolutely love this thing. Bonus points for running Ford power, as well.

I believe F&F did one at one point as well (convertible), but as Stephen pointed out, Modelhaus' kit is still in production and would be the easier one to get.

This may well be the best use for a Gran Turismo kit ever to take shape.

Those would be consistent during the "Four Eye" years of the cab.Those wiper motor access panels came for 1961, along with the reversion to single headlamps per side. Budd Manufacturing built this cab to Ford's specs, and other manufacturers used it, so a COE Stude with the Budd/Ford cab might not be too farfetched. Using the Super Duty engine might even be workable, too- I doubt Studebaker's pockets would have been deep enough to finance a medium truck V8! And Mike... he's not using all of it... the spare tractor frame rails ended up elsewhere, I'm thinking...

Loved seeing this one come together, and love the finished product! It would be a shame taking a truck that pretty out into the brush...

Third orange one I've seen... but the first orange one I've seen muddied up. Love it!

Maybe that's the kind of Saturn he has...

Man, way too much cool stuff going on with this one!

Yeah... the hardtop version of this is much easier to live with- on that one the super-shallow interior is a bit harder to see.

If by 'new American kits' you mean 'a new cab and hood for the same Freightliner chassis they've been using under all of their domestic tractors for as long as anybody cares to remember', please count me out. That being said, I'm still getting the Aeromax 106... wrong chassis or not, I could use one or five of those.

Could be- I remember their Mustang Cobra R not being much to crow about compared to the Revel-o-gram (or even AMT/Ertl) kits of the same subject, and costing about twice as much. 'Then again, that last issue might have been what really killed their efforts with the North American subject matter... but that's a whole 'nother ballgame.

True enough- Revell doesn't have much trouble with late model vehicles, but their '50's - '70's kits can be a bit iffy. (Of course I'm talking about recently tooled kits of subjects of that vintage, not actual Revell tooling from that time.) I'd still be willing to bet that if Tamiya were to produce a kit of the current Mustang, it would not be as good as the existing Revell kit, even though the Tamiya fanboys would never allow anyone to hold that opinion. Tamiya doesn't do early "domestic" subjects, so there's really no way to tell if, for example, a '70 Barracuda or '69 Nova done by Tamiya would be any better than the Revell versions. All I know is that traditionally speaking Tamiya's kits of North American subjects have always been compromised, but you're right about them looking like the real deal on the shelf. I'd have to agree 100% with your way of thinking regarding simplification vs. overall accuracy. A great engine and chassis don't really mean much when there is either one big flaw or a series of little ones with regards to the appearance of the body, but I can live with a curbside kit that looks the part if that's the only choice I've got.

One of these days I'm going to build one of those engines into a 1:25 Seamaster... If I get really ambitious I'll do the turbo version. I don't build boat models (at least not yet) but I think one or both of these would make for an interesting load for a C-600 flatbed.