Longbox55

The rocker cover can be found in the AMT '60 Chevy truck. I beleive that there is a caster doing to air cleaner, but I don't recall who at this time, perhaps Ken Kitchen? Or, if you can find one, the Jada '60 Impala diecast has that aircleaner, too.

I have one of those in the works myself.

Like Dave said, not alot fo parts and there's some comprimises, but a fun kit to build. Here's mine, inspired partly by the car I used in Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. I did add a wing from the Aoshima/ BlueFin wing kit, a driver from the Fujimi drivers kit with sunglasses from an Interior Junk PE kit, a K&S aluminum straight pipe, and decals of unknown origin (sourced from Joe Chernauskas). The color started out a Kiln Red, mixed with Alumicoupe Yellow, and 3 different copper pearl powders.

'47 Chevrolet Aerosedan '60 Bonneville IH Scout '78 Chevrolet K10 And just gor giggles, my 1:1 '48 Ford 8N

CJ5.

That's pretty cool. I do have some constructive critisism, though. On the headlamps for the S10 grille, you might consider remolding them with separate clear lenses, like what the master parts have. That will improve the look greatly, especially with the larger scale.

The colorshift paints are pretty neat. I don't have any good pix, but I did an AMT '40 Ford Sedan Delivery in Carribean Surf, it came out very well, especially when I get it out in the sunlight.

Agreed. They weren't bad paints, just very poor handling of the marketing and distribution, as well as the mentioned reducer issue. I personally liked them, and do have a stash (well, a whole rack actually) of them I picked up when the local RC shop got out of carrying models. You can still find them, usually in the clearance bin, at some hobby shops. Unfortunatly, those tend to be the not so popular colors. If you really want HOK colors, though, check out the links that MikeMc posted.

Stirring the paint is really the correct way. Shaking doesn't really do a thourough job of mixing the paint. I usually use either a cut peice of scrap sprue or a stiff wire rod to stir mine.

Not to sound lke a smart aleck, but the color would be Catapillar Yellow, which is i would describe as a dark mustard yellow. If you plan on building alot of Cat engines, you might check out the local farm store, like Tractor Supply, spray paint racks. You should be able to find Cat Yellow there.

I only paid $25 for mine at the slhs. The tin was slightly dented on the bottom, so he gave me a deal in it.

I use Alumalite, too, and beleive me, when it gets some age on it, it WILL foam. Like Art stated, it is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs moisture, just like brake fluid.

Nice work. I do have a question, and others can answer on this, too. Did you have any issues with the frame being warped? I've got 2 of these in the works, one with the flatbed trailer and the other was just the truck itself (Yeah, I know, "Longbox is building a MoPar????" ) I haven't checked the one in the double kit for warpage yet, but the single kit has a definite warp, which has the frame arcing to the right about 1/4". Just wondering if it is a common issue or if I just got an odd one.

Sorry, I didn't mean "tool kit" in that way. When a company has released different variants on a model kit, the casting dies used to make it are commonly referred to as "tools", and the term is also used to refer to a specific kit to differentiate them from each other. So when someone mentions "new tool" or "old tool", they're referring to which variation of the kit it is. So the kit I was referring to as the "new tool" Revell (which is the one you posted earlier) is the one that came out a few years ago, rather than the original, or "old tool", kit from the '60s. IMHO, it is the best '55 Bel Air kit done.

For Tri-5 Chevies, the new tool Revell kits are top notch.

1955 Chevy 3200, 1/2 ton longbed. 235 inline 6, Offy dual carb intake w/dual Holleys, fenton splits, Howard 3/4 race cam. used as a daily driver, rain or shine.

I'll have to dig it out, I have a conversion project I'm working onvolving the Revell '64 and an original AMT bed. A few things I can point out right off is that 1, the original AMT bed is about 1/8" wider than the Revell cab, and 2, the countours of the lower bedsides are "flatter" than the Revell cab. I have not made any comparisons to new AMT '60 as far as width and contours, but I beleive they match the Revell better than the earlier kit. I'll look into it and post. I'm thinking that if a caster was to do a conversion, it may be better to make the master from 2 Revell beds than using the old AMT.

The shop I go to, Slot & Wing/Hunters Haven in Champaign, has a "scratch and dent" section, which mostly are returned or damaged kits that I beleive they source from Hobbico, which is headquartered nearby. Most of the time, the only issues are opened kits or bad boxes, if anything is missing, it's marked as such. I got the VWs and the Monaco for $4 apeice, all were open, but complete, and the Monaco had a note (recept from the hobby shop it originally came from) saying "bad mold". Couln't see anything wrong with it myself, none of the bages inside were open. The Munster kit was listed at $45, but they knocked it down because the bottom of the tin was dented in pretty bad.

Just went today (not a planned trip), got 3 VW Type 2 transporters, a DOH Manaco, and the Munsters double kit in the tin box. Only spent $42!

Just from the very brief search i did, looks like die cast is going to be the best bet. The few I looked at were somewhat spendy.

I have one of those airbrushes, they're actually a pretty decent peice of equipment. Just did some Alclad work for a freind using it, did just as well as my Paasche did. Only thing I don't like is there's only 1 tip size.

You are correct. The HD 250 and 350 trucks stayed on the '96 body until the '98 Super Duty came out, which shares no body parts with the lighter truck. There was a light duty 250 built on that body, though. It was more of a heavy half ton, with heavier springs, larger brakes/rear axle, and a set of unusual 7 lug wheels, which the aftermarket still does not make custom wheels for. The heavier rear end was later made an option, and is now standard equipment, on the F150, using the standard 5 lug (now 6) bolt pattern.

Check out the local Sears or big box hardware stores (Lowes, Menards). You can find a good compact air compressor with a 2-3 gallong tank for under $150.

From what i understand, Frogtape is intended for use with water based latex paints. The adheasive is supposed to react with the solvents in the paint to seal the surface from bleed. Don't know how well it would work, or even if it would work at all, with the common paints/laquers used for models. I personlly use 3M, but have recently tried Painters Pride Green Precision from the local Menards with good results.

Depends on what I'm doing, though lately I use primarily dual action. I prefer the increased control of the dual acton. That's not to say the single actions are bad or that you can't get good results from them. I know of several builders that only use singe action and certainly do much better than I can. As far as brand/model suggestions, you can't go wrong with the Paashe Model H/HS for a single action. The only difference between the H and the HS is how the bottle attaches, the H is a friction fit, the HS has a retaining nut. In dual actions, the the Paasche Model V is a good one, and is my personal weapon of choice. The Testors Aztec is OK, too, but I find the tips can be a pain to work with, as the have to be just so in order to work properly. Also, in the case of the one I have, the dual action mechanism had a pin snap, and it now binds up. With the way it's made, repairs are difficult. It's not really meant to be dissassembled. I also have some of the Harbor Freight Central Pneumatic $20 dual actions, I've only used them once. The seem to be a decent unit, very similar (in some aspects, identical) to the Iwata airbushes. It worked well, but the paint job turned out poor due to my own experimentations, not the airbrush itself. I will try it again, though I did get it primarily to use for applying primer.