Chuck Most

I would love that kit, even though I think I'd have more use for the wacky custom parts it includes.

Ask and ye shall receive... Here's the grille. I wouldn't even say it's bad, it's just that the insert seems to be recessed into the frame a bit. In it's favor it has better headlight detail (albeit engraved) than the '72 Cheyenne longbed I'm sure we're all familiar with. And it's clearly not the custom horizontal tube grille shown on the box. When I saw that the insert was recessed I thought it was because there was a separate overlay for that custom insert, but that isn't the case. The front bumper- which is not shown or mentioned on the box. The wheels on the box are a modular alloy type, but are deep dish, showing six lugs. The actual kit wheels are narrower, five-lug units, but also of modular design. And the oddly shaped rear fenders (below, in black) shown with the much better units from a '72 GMC (top, gray).

The '55 was red and white only, much like the first-year Corvette. Color options came for '56. And yeah, the glass fit is pretty bad, especially on the earlier runs of the kit. Since he says he has the Walmart boxing of the kit (which was fairly recent) I'm hoping he'll have better luck with the window fit.

I just picked this one up yesterday, and I'd like to add a little to your statements on it. Not only does it omit the Rolling Thunder extras, but the custom grille, stock front bumper, and deep-dish six bolt wheels clearly shown on the box are also absent. Instead you get a stock-ish grille (I say stock-ish because it has a stock-style '72 insert but it is recessed back into the grille frame), a squared-off front bumper with fog light cutouts, and narrow five-bolt wheels. Is it too late to take action against MPC for misleading advertising? ? The stumpy rear fenders did make a comeback, I'll probably replace them with a set from the '72 GMC stepside kit. I have a set of those sitting around somewhere and I seem to remember they looked quite a bit better than the fenders in this kit. And look at those stripes and side pipes! It looks like it took a few years into the '80's for "The '70's" to finally come to an end.

Not to split hairs too much, but to make the truck a '57 you'd need to fill in the wiper motor access panels, add turn signals to the grille, change the door scripts, and backdate the engine. Kudos for adding the missing intake grille motif behind the door handles, a touch most builders don't bother with. Including me much of the time. That same basic cab was in production all the way up to 1990. The AMT kit is 1971-ish. That being said, the truck looks fantastic, and I love the weathering on it and the trailer. The '57s are great- I dig the contrast of the well-used tractor and trailer against the shiny new cars.

I started out with one of the 20 or 30 Ohio State Lindberg kits I have laying around, and went with a kind of Wasteland Weekend theme. The car was lifted and fitted with all terrain tires on '70 Ford police car wheels. Front and rear bumpers were fabricated along with a roof rack and LED light bar. I also converted the car to a manual... or at least, I added a clutch pedal and floor shifter. The decals came from a set for a Sherman tank- the Caution Left Hand Drive graphics made me chuckle when I thought of putting them on the Vic so there they are.

This was a five-dollar opened kit I've had laying around for ages. I'd recently gotten some Vallejo rust washes and this ended up being the test bed for them. Aside from the wheels (which are from a '41 Plymouth), tires (unknown origin), decals, and side mirrors, I left the kit box stock and just focused on distressing it. I did also make a cargo light, and added some rear side markers and a tailgate handle, as for some reason MPC forgot to add those.

Yesterday I dug it out and made a winch and snorkel for it.

Anybody know why Ford set the axle back? Maneuverability. A shorter wheelbase yields a tighter turning circle. It was actually a selling feature Ford used at the time. ? Aesthetics were an afterthought for trucks in the '50's. That being said, I saw this done on a 1:1 '56 ages ago and I've thought of giving it a shot in scale. This one's already shaping up nicely.

I don't but I did it with spacers and longer shocks in the back. Up front, I added small spacers to the front suspension and got the rest by mounting the tires down lower on the spindles. There are a couple 1:1's like this running around in my area. They aren't so high dollar once they get to the "buy-here-pay-here" part of their life. Nothing depreciates quite like a Cadillac. ??

Something was missing...so I whipped up an LED light bar and slapped it on.

I was never too fond of unibody F100s. Until now. ?

This is the AMT kit with a 6 scale inch lift, wheels and tires from Scenes Unlimited, and scratch built steer horns. Paint is Testors Electric Pink, and the mud is a blend of Vallejo acrylic mud and Tamiya Flat Earth.

That it did.

Same ?

Loved it the first time. Still do. ?

This is the Sportside kit with a frame stretch to accommodate the Moebius service body. The 8 bolt wheels came from Scenes Unlimited and the bucket was cobbled together from Evergreen strip. Some accessories from Hobby Gear fill out the bed.

This was an idea I've had for a while- the go-fast parts and touches from a Thunderbolt applied to an F-100. The engine, rear shocks, and traction bars were swiped from a Revell Thunderbolt, as was one of the bucket seats. I added the test equipment from the AMT '65 Grand Prix, and the slicks are from a Moebius Satellite. I also gave it a Hemi Dart scheme- gray primer on the steel and black gelcoat on the fiberglass. The battery was moved to the back and sits on an aluminum floor. Unneeded items like the rear bumper and passenger's wiper were omitted to save weight.

Yes it does. I know that's off-putting to many modelers but I've had far worse-fitting plastic rails.

It's there up until the late '80's Customizing Series version of the kit. The later versions (gray box art and later) lost the piston/con rod and pistol grip shifter in favor of new hop up parts for the Flathead.

So, what do you do if you have a '78 Subaru BRAT that's too rusted out to restore? Well, I'd chop it down to a three-window coupe body, fab up a new chassis, and stick the engine out back with a VW transaxle. But maybe I'm weird like that...

This is the Moebius kit done up as a bagged beater with a turbocharged Cat V8 diesel, which was originally built for a '70 that stalled about 1/3 of the way through. The wheels are the centers from a USA-1 monster truck and wrapped in tires from a Tamiya Nissan 300 ZX.

A while back I printed off a sheet of decals. One of the graphics I had was for Leatherface Tree Service. So, I felt like a rundown old junker wearing another rundown old junker's face would be just the ticket to put the graphics to use. The main kit is the '70 F100 4x4, which was fitted with a '65 grille and fenders, AMT '79 hood, and an AMT '95 bed, with the backup lights done '87-'91 style. Stickers of "Winston Hoyt for Sheriff" and "Leatherface 2020" were added to the back window.

I wanted to do a backwoods beater from the BRAT reissue. To that end, I fabricated a lift kit, used some MPC Desert Dog tires, and wheels from an MPC Cavalier. I also added a turbo to help turn the big tires.

After I swapped the grille and engine from a '66 Flareside into one of my service truck kits, I used the '65 grille on the '66 kit and repowered it with a 302 from the '72 Sport Custom kit. It was lowered and fitted with Pegasus deep dish Cragars, most of the badging and handles were shaved, and a roll pan and bed cover from an AMT '53 were used. The whole thing was hosed off in Testors Star Spangled blue with white accents.