Chuck Most

As Bob Ross often said, "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents." Well, that's mostly true. Years ago I started this '76 conversion with a Bandit Resins grille and a bed made up of Monogram and AMT pieces. I had planned to add a somewhat better detailed firewall and engine bay, which naturally meant cutting away what was there originally. Well, that plan didn't work too well, and I'd already addressed the windshield height issue and added the drip rails on the cab, so I opted to save it by doing it as a curbside. And with the hood fastened to the cab, I could finally have a nice fitting hood on one of these. The wheel covers are from the AMT Phantom Van, and the white line tires came from... I dunno... somewhere. I made a bug guard and used a Moebius front bumper. Out back you'll find tail lights and a bumper from an old Revell Custom Pickups Parts Pack. I believe that's where the steering wheel came from, as well. Said steering wheel sits on a column made from Evergreen rod with a pin for a turn stalk and gear selector. The mirror is a Detail Master photo etched piece, I have no idea where the dice came from, Ken's maybe? Otherwise the interior (what there is of one) is kit stock. Ray's Kits came through again for the F100 fender badges.

This was one of those "plugged away at it for a time, then it sat untouched for months, then the last 5% or so was finished in an afternoon" kind of projects. The cab is an AMT '59 El Camino body cut off just behind the doors. The bed is a 1950 Chevrolet 3100 piece with the fenders from an AMT '40 Willys pickup. The chassis is from a Moebius 1970 F100 with wheels and tires from a Revell Baja Bronco, and the Revell GMC snow plow hangs off the front. Engine is a Buick Nailhead and just because all of this wasn't quite absurd enough, it has twin turbochargers courtesy of Iceman Collections. The rear pintle hitch came from Scenes Unlimited. Smatterings of parts box refugees and a few scratch built parts fill in the blanks.

I wanted to build a ratty hot rod shop truck, or a semi tractor. I had an incomplete Stevens International reissueAMT Autocar A64B so I decided to do both. Power is a Detroit V12, a combination of AMT and GW Trucks parts. Wheels are from the infamous Peterbilt 352 Turnpiker with Revell tires. Fronts are the float tires from a Revell Bill Signs Peterbilt, and the rears are from a 1:16 scale Revell Jeep CJ. Oddly enough, the Jeep tires are the same as the 1:25 Peterbilt tires except that they're slightly taller. The rear single air suspension was made from various spare parts and air bags made from plastic tubing. The AMT Haulaway Trailer is mostly box stock apart from wheels and tires to match the tractor. Junkers are (top row front to back)... 1976 International Scout II, 1953 Ford F100, and a 1970 Ford Custom. Lower deck front to rear consists of a 1975 AMC Matador and a 1962 Chevrolet Impala.

This is the AMT Super Stones F350, augmented with several Moebius parts. Mainly the service bed, wheels, tires, hubcaps, 300 straight six engine, and assorted underhood doodads. The grille is the '78 Custom (base model) round headlight grille from Morgan Automotive Detail and the cowl markings are from the Ray's Kits Ford truck decal sheet. The front Ford oval plate came from Best Model Car Parts. The upper edge of the windshield was raised and a new gasket was scribed to fix the appearance of the too-short opening as provided in the kit, and as always making that cove trim disappear was loads of fun. Other than the washes getting a little out of hand around the service body's door handles I'm reasonably happy with how it came out.

Over the weekend I found myself with a few hours to kill. So over the course of five or six hours I threw together this old Lindberg snap kit. Other than the Gofer decals (slathered over a few coats of Tamiya pink) it's box stock. A few of the graphics cover nicks in the paint, and I didn't bother touching up a few chips around the tail lights. The idea was a van that had been obviously repainted but fairly well kept since that time. Hard to rack up those miles when your transaxle is constantly on the fritz, right? I imagine the owner being an elderly lady who's nice enough but you try to avoid her at Dollar General because you don't have the time to hear her go on about healing crystals again, or how you'd be under a great deal less stress if you'd just come over for a spiritual cleansing session. The van itself is loosely based on an early 2000s Ford Windstar I used to see locally. It was about the same shade of pink but had far fewer graphics. The last thing I did was apply foil to the backup lights. In so doing I accidentally shoved the passenger side tail light assemble into the body. But I found that I could fix it without disassembly by shoving a bamboo skewer up into the gap between the chassis plate and bumper and maneuvering it until the lamp was back in it's proper spot. I'm not sure about he wipers- I may have installed them upside down or maybe they're just that weird looking. Eventually I'll pop them off and tweak them a little if they really bother me but considering I threw the thing together in a few hours it turned out better looking than it probably should have.

It's for sure in 147. I know this because oddly enough I was thumbing through that exact issue about a week ago. That Chrysler is lovely.

Bumped into a couple of tandem farm trucks in the local junkyard not too long ago. These two were staples in the area for years. This one's a '62 and gas powered (FE if I'm not mistaken). Take a look at the cowl... you can see the nubs where the electric wiper stalks would go. This having air acutated wipers, naturally they're down lower and those areas are "flashed over" to borrow a scale modeling term. This one's a '67, Cat diesel powered. If you've been reading MCM for a while, waaaaaaay back in April of 2015 I did a "spotter's guide" type article and this very same truck was one of the examples I used. Those were happier times and the truck wasn't nearly as mangled as seen here. Now, take a look at the cowl... no vesigial electric wiper bumps, even though electric wipers were still avaiable. I don't know when that change occured but I'm guessing it was 1966 when the grille-mounted lamps were moved to the cowl and we got the grille with "plugged" lamp openings on either end. Also, both trucks boast the sleeper, not too many of those made for C series tractors, much less straight trucks like these. If I had a bit more cash and a lot more shop space, I'd snap these up. More than enough to build one decent rig and have plenty of spares. Barring that I might just nab one of the sleepers, if for no other reason than to store it on the rafters of my barn.

Yep. They're part of the '88 and '89 C1500 kit. I believe they're still in the 1990 version but I'm not 100% sure.

This is a conversion of the AMT '89 C1500 into the four wheel drive K1500. You may have seen an in progress photo and the truck's filthy ash tray in the Commercial Break column in the most recent issue of MCM (I think it's the most recent issue... I'm too lazy to get up and look )... here's the finished mess. The thought process was to create "the truck owned by every grandpa in the '90's". To that end, the running boards, tailgate net, and bed rails provided as options in the kit were used. Front suspension comes by way of a 1996 S10 Blazer, modified for fit and to "look right" in this half ton application. Rear suspension height was also adjusted. Tahoe snap kit wheels and tires were added, and the whole mess was coated in a generic silver paint. The fact there's no peeling clearcoat or surface rust and the fact that the 4x4 graphics are of a different color and font may be a tip off that this truck was repainted at some point during it's service life. Though Ray's Kits has a decal sheet with a bunch of GM truck graphics, including the correct 4x4 markings, I didn't have one at the time, so the generic red graphics are from a Gofer shop truck set. Bumper stickers were made on my home printer, though the "I'd rather be driving a Titleist" one I had on the back window flaked off. In place of the kit supplied buckets and console, a rear seat from the extended cab snap kit was cut from the interior and modified for use as a front bench. I went to the trouble of making two headrests but after losing one I said screw it and did without. There's also a shifter console and 4WD gear selector on the floor. I retained the 5 speed manual and despite an early thought to install a 4.3 V6 I stuck with the small block V8. Kit box says it's a 350 but since this is 1990s grandpa truck let's say it's a 305. As I lamented earlier, I hope Round 2 will reissue at least a couple of the GMT400 variants sometime soon. Preferably the long bed regular cab but this series doesn't have any stinkers so any choice is a good choice.

Well, there have been resin 258 engines. ? Motor City Resin Casters does one for the Jeep DJ and he will happily sell you just the engine. There might be others but that's one readily available. In fact I know there are others- years ago I had a really awful resin 258 that was obviously based on the AMT '77 Pacer wagon engine. That one definitely was NOT the Motor City engine, which is a beautiful casting just like everything else Jeff makes. 4.0 on the other hand, other than the Tamiya Wrangler it's just not out there. That would be a perfect subject for the 3D guys but I've never even seen the CAD files for one online. It is a fairly popular off road engines but there aren't many existing kits of vehicles that use the 4.0 from the factory other than that Wrangler and the Tamiya Grand Cherokee (that kit comes with a V8 but the 4.0 was the standard engine in the actual Jeep). Then again, I can think of at least three different 3D printed Cummins 6BT, and all but one of the second gen Ram model kits out there are curbside, though to be fair I guess the 6BT is far more popular for swapping into other vehicles than the 4.0.

Last I knew Kris Morgan at Morgan Automotive Detail was doing the standard long bed. I don't see it on his site but it wouldn't hurt to ask anyway.

I've had a similar idea bubbling around in my brain pan for years, so I'm definitely going to be copying your homework on this one, though I'll be using a '55-57 cab if it goes to plan.

For 1:24 the only in-scale choice would be the Tamiya Wrangler engine. Two problems there. First, being fuel injected it's way too new for the CJ (unless you want a resto-mod kind of thing), so you'd need to make or modify a carbureted intake manifold and an earlier valve cover for it. Second... good luck finding one of those kits for a price even approaching "reasonable". If you're willing to fudge it, any of the 1:25 engines listed could be made to work. Personally, I would go with the MPC '78 Pacer engine. It's relatively well detailed, and doesn't have a notch or hole for clearing a wire axle. You'd need a different air filter, and if I recall you'd need to fill a hole in the valve cover (for locating the Pacer-specific air cleaner assembly), but it's a pretty good engine for a late '70's tool, and holds up pretty well by today's standards.

No, no... it was the Flareside that was too rough for me. The 250 was right on the edge. The good part is that if I change my mind on the Flareside the guy seems to have it out for sale every couple of months. ?

I guess it's kind of a tradeoff in some people's minds. Sort of like when BMW M5 owners go on and on about how great their car is, how it's the perfect performance sedan and it's so well balanced and comfortable to boot... then casually mumble something about the fact the main bearings need to be replaced every 50,000 miles or so. ? I've had the "difficult to position" problem with Revell decals, but so far I haven't torn one. (Knock on wood...) I haven't tried anything like hood stripes but I've always been happy with Revell's smaller graphics (badges, gauges, underhood labels and so forth). My technique is soaking the backer and taking it out of the water. Then I'll set it aside and put a few drops of water on it, just enoug to where there's an even coating of moisture. I don't touch the decal until after it's floated free of the backer. If I think I'll have any problems getting it positioned, I'll brush a little solvent onto the area where the graphic is to go. I try to keep the surface under the decal wet until it's right where I want it, then soak away the water with the edge of a paper towel or cotton swab. I DON'T touch the paper or swab to the decal itself, I do it adjacent to the graphic. I'm just trying to absorb the water and solvent under the decal, not move it some more. That technique hasn't failed me with the thinner decals. Well... not yet, anyway...

My idea was the Caballero was the owner's personal project car, and at one point he figured why not use it to plug the business, and possibly even take it to smaller jobs where the bucket truck and/or a bunch of tools aren't needed.

This has been pleasing me in an "amusing me" kind of way... Round 2 has started mentioning the fact that their models are "fully paintable" in product announcements and descriptions. It's like... yeah... I hope so. Makes wonder why " assembly required" isn't in there, either.

Hudson Hornet #35 is... well, it's a long time coming. I started this not too long after the '52 Convertible version came out. The idea was to do a stripped parts car that had been left out to the elements. For many years scrap dealers wouldn't take Hudsons because the car crushers of the time couldn't compact the Hudson unibody, so unless you wanted to kill a can of acetelyne or two with the torch, many of them just sat around for decades, either waiting for rust to eat enough of them for the crusher to handle it or for crusher technology to catch up. Much of the firewall structure was scratch built. The hydraulic lines for the top are coated wire. Oh yes, the power top on these was hydraulic. If I'm not mistaken so were the optional power windows. Fairly common for the era but went away as the '50's wore on. The interior features bare inner door structures cut from thin styrene, and the interior bucket was crammed full of spare parts... there's a couple tires, a '54 Hudson hood, a '52/3 Hudson quarter panel, a '72 Cutlass rear bumper, a '50 Ford F1 rear fender, and a milk crate in there. At some point this will join two other worn down Hornets as part of a little display idea I have in mind. Maybe at some point I"ll add the skeleton of the top bows and some tattered fabric. Or maybe not. I bent in the windshield header, perhaps decades ago, a tree limb came down on the car or something. Perhaps that damage was the final straw and ultimately led to it's current state? Who knows. Mounting holes for the absent trim and handles were added, along with a bunch of rust damage. I would have taken the rocker off altogether, but I did that on the other side and I just couldn't have it be perfectly symmetrical, now, could I? The trunk lid came from another Hornet, It's just laying there inside the trunk cavity somehow. The passenger's side tail light lens has a chunk broken out of the middle, revealing the reflector behind it. The paint is Tamiya pink mixed with flat white. The '52 Hornet wasn't offered in pink, but it looks period perfect so I went ahead and used it. The hollowed interior now serves as an ideal storage container/dumpster/what have you for any manner of things. Note the missing head unit for the radio- in reality I should have also removed the speaker grate in the grille, as the AM mono-speaker radio was all one unit on the actual car. Meh. I think it's convincing enough as is.

Absolutely gorgeous! I hope that, much like the '59 Imperial, one day they find the molds for this (more likely the '60 version though) laying around and reissue it. A boy can dream.

A while back I posted my black '79 Diablo, an ex-El Camino MPC promo with Ray's Kits decals. This time around, it's the actual one-year-only MPC kit. I added Firestones from the AMT Courier, 1995 Sonoma wheels, an LT1 swap (MPC block with heads, intake, and timing cover/belt from an AMT 1996 Corvette), a scratch built hitch receiver, and some various parts box junk. It's the third addition to the RJ's series... First came the 9500, then the 72, now this. I'll include a family photo of all three at the end. The RJ'S graphics are from the AMT 1959 El Camino, while the Construction part came from the Moebius 1965 Ford service truck. Paint is Tamiya pearl blue. If you're so inclined, here's the '72... And the 9500...

Nice! Currently working on this same kit (want to deplete my stock of these before I start tearing into the 4070a) though mine will probably be a bit more run down looking.

Very cool! I built one back in 2019, and picked up a cheap one (assembly started) just four days ago. I have a mind do do this one as a dump truck, but I guess we'll see how that goes.

As weird as it is (to me) to see *this* kit of all things released with Rat Fink graphics, it works. The color scheme gives off old school Ceasar Romero Joker vibes for some reason.

Bumping this for a couple reasons. It now has two little sisters (thanks to the recently completed '79 Caballero), and also to honor Dave. Now if you will pardon me, the RJ's GMC General that I started right after doing the '72 service truck is calling me...

Did you get an e-mail? Mine was about to lapse but I recieved an e-mail last week with a link to renew.