Chuck Most

Ah, Rangers! I love those things. Often (literally) to death! That's the thing about them- they don't break too often, but when they do, it's always in grand fashion. I've got an '89 myself that's going to need a clutch pretty soon. But she's 23 years old with 145k, so I guess I can't gripe too much!

If you are in Michigan's UP, Book World in St. Ignace also carries Model Cars.

Yeah, I'm liking the way the grille treatment came out!

I'm not sure how. You'd definitely need to rework the mount. I actually tried a Peterbilt 359 headlight assembly on this early on- I couldn't find a way to mount them without them sitting too high (for my tastes). And now.... Had to get a quick shot of that School Bus Yellow under bright, natural sunlight. You may have noticed the Harley grille already in place, and painted with the hood. Let's just say I've got something a little different than the 'all chrome' grille treatment in mind...

I just love that worn-off brush paint job! I've been trying to duplicate that in scale for years, with limited success so far. This truck's a perfect example of it.

Not a bad price on that one either. Hmmmmmm.....

Second 1:32 model I've finished this year. This is the 1985-ish Minicraft reissue of the old Gowland and Gowland kit from the early '50's. Kind of crude and not much in the way of detail, but a fun little project. I worked on this while I was waiting on paint and adhesives to set up on other projects. Wheels and tires are from an AMT Model T, and I used some leftover 1910 Studebaker wheels and a couple of wooden barrels I found at the hobby shop in back. It was rusted and dirtied up to look like a farmer's beater truck.

Looks great- and love those inner door panels you made- the lack of them is this kit's one and only big downfall.

That's just plain beautiful.

The Monogram Ford Tri-Motor is the only plane I've ever built, and I only built that because (you guessed it) its a Ford. But this one sure came out nice- really makes me want to give one a go... if I can locate one.

Mockup time! The most psychologically satisfying part of any project. Fit looks good, rear lower fenders, hood hinge, and front bumper are permanently installed at this point, and hopefully around noon or so I'll be able to start thinking about paint.

Love the business name! You might still be able to find plain old toothbrushes with clear red handles at 'discount/thrift' places like Dollar General.

Love it! That Volksrod is a thing of pure beauty.

And here's a quick glimpse of the now mostly-completed interior, inside the primed-and-ready-for-paint cab shell. Will I have the cab and hood painted today? I'm hoping its a possiblility.

The driving lights (now the headlights) are in place, and the front fender pieces were painted in the same sprayed-bedliner textured paint as the bottom of the bumper. I'm thinking of stripping the chrome off the mirrors and air cleaner housings to match, but I guess we'll see.

I'll be keeping an eye on this for sure. My great uncle had a couple of W-series Fords. They were newer-style than this one, but they still left quite an impression on me!

Never thought I'd say this, but seeing the completed interior is making me miss my '83 Mini Ram 8-passenger.

I don't see how the Deora could have been feasible if it had made it to production... anyone spot all the Ford parts used on this potential Dodge product? The Mircrobus would be awesome- it has just enough traits from the old ones to be recognizable as such, without being blatantly retro. Some elements of the Continental did make it to productions- look at the grille design and the lines and you'll see quite a few of them are on current Lincolns. The GR-1 looks fantastic... except for that front end. Is there some unwritten rule that says the nose of a supercar must resemble a Dust Buster? The Toyota Bat seems interesting- if Toyota ever introduced a 3/4-1-ton line to sell alongside the Tundra, and it shared styling traits with that, I wouldn't complain. The Sixteen never would have sold- sorry, people don't equate 'Cadillac' with 'ultra-luxury' anymore. The '30's were over a long time ago, and they aren't coming back. Please GM, leave that market to Rolls and Bentley. Sad thing is that car seemed to be the styling bogey for the current spate of oragami-styled Cadillacs.

I checked the rules and there doesn't seem to be anything in there that would prohibit that.

My local hobby shop just sold out his second order of these- looks like there's quite a bit of demand! Ten model kits sold out over a period of a couple weeks in an area where model kits aren't exactly the hottest sellers. I've already reserved one from the next shipment he gets.

I just taped off the top part and scuffed the rest with sandpaper.

One more update... Decided to tone down the bumper- I saw an International brochure image of a LoneStar, and I liked the way the pavement reflected off the bumper. The LoneStar in that picture was a dark gray, graphite color, so it looked like the bottom of the bumper was painted to match the truck, while the top was left plated. So, I stripped the bottom 2/3 or so of the bumper, and went over it with a few mist coats of black primer, then one thin coat of Tamiya semi gloss black. I was going for a sprayed-on-bedliner look/texture.

A thin coat or two of Testors Dullcote should kill off any remaining shine. Looks great, Chad!

Slight deviation from original plan- I decided to go with DupliColor School Bus Yellow instead of CAT Yellow, it is brigher and just 'pops' a bit more than Cat Yellow. This is the third vehicle I've painted with this color, and they're all Internationals. And not a single one of them is a bus. Anyway- engine is in, as are the turbo and all that underhood plumbing. Still need to detail paint a few things here and there, but so far so good. I've found that if you install the engine, then the radiator, THEN install the turbo and intake plumbing (as opposed to installing it all at once as a unit per the instructions) things go in a bit easier.

Awesome!