highway

Back when the AMT late 80/early 90s kit was new on the streets, there was a resin conversion available for the stock IFS 4x4, but I'm not sure of the company that put it out. A friend had ordered it and a 4x4 conversion for the Revell Dodge VTS and I think it MAY have been from Pro Tech, but don't hold me to it.

Congrats on the new gig Clayton, and completely understand how slow times can not only hurt the bankbook, but put a hurt on the spirit as well. I love the job I have been at for almost 2 1/2 years now, but I was so close to cleaning out my truck a few times over the past few months, mainly because of some slow freight and some days only getting loads that I'd have to wait half my day to even have ready and then only being sometimes 150 mile loads for the day. At least with summer cookout season coming and the summer holidays are actually busier than Thanksgiving and Christmas, mine is finally picking up again, but I still have a couple backup plans. I just enjoy what I do and have gotten spoiled being able to stay at home through the work week that I just don't want to go back to over the road life.

I just checked, now when I try to go to Photobucket, I get the "Down for Maintenance" hanging kitty.

And just as I said earlier last week, I finally got back home from work and on my main computer now, which was logged in when I left and "Remember Me" checked, and I still had to log back in from the main.

I get that under the area where the bold, smileys, and other options are and at the bottom of a quote box, with an "ENTER" type arrow on the right side that if you mouse over it says "insert paragraph here". Not sure what it's for though.

It's very simple actually, security. As was mentioned, different browsers don't link together, but even if different devices are linked and using the same browser, this still happens for the security of your accounts. For example, I use Chrome on my main computer at home, my laptop that is usually at home as well but is seeing more use this week since I'm out of town for work, and also my phone. Everything is linked, all my bookmarks are on each device, and when I left the house I was logged on here on both the main and the laptop, but when I came on Monday night at work, I had to log the laptop back in.

I forget what I used one this one, but there is a build thread here on it that I think I mentioned what I used. I do know that for added strength, I added some square tubing on top of the frame to also serve as a mount for the sleeper. It will be a little better to see in the WIP pics in the thread, but if you look closely at the pic above, you can see how under the cab the frame gets thicker under the sleeper and to just behind the sleeper. This has held up well, most of the time the build has been mocked up, minus a couple years being packed in a box thanks to life, the sleeper sits on the frame, and the almost 3 years that it has been not packed away the frame has no sag. If you aren't doing a big sleeper and just a stretched frame, you could used some metal strips inside the frame extension for the added strength and hidden in the frame rails.

I have little voices in my head that keep saying "BUY THIS!!!!"

These followed me home today. The hobby shop I visited with a friend had all except the NASCARs, they were from my friend, and there are still THREE of the F350s waiting in the back room with my name on them waiting for me to go back and bring them to be reunited with their friend. The KW was a "Holy Grail" that I have been waiting for nearly 20 years to replace after I lost the original that I built almost 30 years ago as a kid in a house fire in 1997. At least it's one of very few kits in my collection I know exactly how it will be painted, I always loved the metallic blue it was molded in originally like the box art, and it will be painted just like the box art.

I went with a friend to visit a hobby shop near where he lives, and these followed me home. The two NASCAR kits were from my friend for some Slixx decals I needed donor kits for, the rest all came from the hobby shop. It was well worth the drive not only for the visit, but to bring home some kits shops in my area never even stocked. I know I will be making a few more trips there, I still have THREE Meng F350s in the back room with my name on them!!

Actually I believe it is a 2008. As for the newest model year in mine, it is the Raptor.

Yeah, it's well over 300". I went back through the build thread on my custom Ford both here and SA's forum that was originally where that build was born, and I measured my Ford to be 14.5 inches from center of the steer axle to the center of the front drive axle, which I scaled out to be a 345" wheelbase. When I originally measured it with an Italeri 40' container on the back, it came out to a total of 72' long in scale. Now it's pulling a 53'er!!

Yep, and giving me more ideas! It's going to be tough in another way for me too when it comes to paint, it will be the first two tone paint job I've attempted in a very long time.

Well, thanks to Mother Nature being a little temperamental (or maybe just mental ) here in OH today and not knowing what "spring" is, I'm taking advantage of my day off to get a little more progress done. I did get a chance on a warm day before Mother Nature's April Fools joke today to get the top and bottom of the trailer painted, and still working on getting the frame complete for the return of spring to at least get it in primer, and need to get the cab and trailer walls prepped and in primer as well. At least the frame is in a sort of roller form, the rear axle is in place. At least I don't have to use my Ford's trailer for mock ups anymore since I have the roof and floor painted, even though I'm borrowing it's suspension until I get this one built. I also have one BIG problem solved, the engine and transmission FINALLY FITS!!! I got the Dremel out and carefully ground out some of the crossmember that gave me enough clearance to get the trans to slide in. There is still a little gap in this pic, but it is just because of just being set into place. And without the flash washing out the image. I was considering adding a little more length to the frame to make the trans clear the crossmember, but that kinda flew out the window when I started looking at the instructions to see how important all the holes around the area were. It turned out they all were VERY important, the two vertical lines are the front tank mounts, which also locates the hoop that the bottom cab mount locates to. The "T" shaped holes, which are a little hard to see because they are right where the crossmember mounts, are the locators for the mounts that hold the stacks and stack supports and mounts in place, so that left the only choices of clearancing the crossmember or not using the V16, and the last was not going to be an option. I already had to give up putting it in my Ford because of being too far in progress, I wasn't giving up again!!

Funny, just happened to think about this thread myself after taking a pic of mine.

This is more what I (partially) got accomplished today, getting two more shelves put up in my model room. The little natural wood 3 shelf bookcase will be replaced with another matching 5 shelf to the two on either side, and I still have to get the 3 other shelves in the two new ones and get the models loaded on it.

The stack is the boosters and fuel tank. Someday I'm going to get back to work on mine, life put everything on the back burner for quite a while. Thanks, and that isn't even a small part of my collection, These are from about 6 years ago, and two moves since these pics and life getting in the way meant most is in storage now. I had to rent a two bedroom apartment just for me and my collection!! Actually, I don't think the Rambler is too rare, it was a release from the 2000s if I remember correctly. Papa Truck is actually on my bench right now, and I have a build thread here in the "Truck" section on it. It's not going to be a transporter though, I'm turning it into a custom tractor trailer.

Yes, it is!! That is a kit I have always wanted because it comes with the stack, I have two of the other 1/72 scale kits, a Revell issue from around the mid 2000s and an original issue in "Young Astronauts" packaging. I've never started the original, but did get this far on the Revell version. I think the Revell issue MAY have been a new tool or at least a modified reissue, because it has far better tile detail than the Monogram version, and if I remember the Monogram didn't have the top of the cockpit separate as the Revell does. I also have the Apollo 11 waiting to see some bench time!

Interesting information Jim, and though the number is wrong, the Hudson is like the "Chessie Steam Special" in the link, and I checked the link for the B&O Museum, and there is a C&O Hudson on display there.

Yes, and the same as the Big Boys, they are former Monogram Snaps from the same time period. I'm not sure if it is correct or not, but in the original issues they also did a Chessie System version. If I remember correctly, Chessie didn't come along until the diesel age after B&O, C&O and Western Maryland merged, but I could be wrong about that. I found one built but still with unused decals in a LHS selling parts of a collection a few years back, it was molded in blue. I grew up near Chessie tracks, I had to have the Cat whether it was actually correct or not! While looking for these pics, just too lazy to take my own pic of the Revell version that has found its way from storage along with the Revell Big Boy, and the original Chessie is still with the original Big Boys in storage, I found Monogram also made a chrome "Metal Master" version of the Chessie. Also, for those of us that are railfans that may not know of this kit as well, AMT made a 1/25 scale kit of the Civil War era steam engine "The General". The 1:1 General is located in a museum near Atlanta, and I'm planning on building this one as part of a diorama as a load on a tractor trailer as if it is in a move to or from the museum, complete with two Georgia state patrol cars as escorts.

It actually builds up very nice Clayton, I have about three or four of them myself. They were originally Monogram Snap Tite kits from around the late 70s or early 80s, and were issued in not only the correct Union Pacific markings but incorrectly in Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range markings and Baltimore and Ohio markings as well, and I just discovered the B&O tonight looking for the DM&IR box art since my original issues are still in my storage unit and haven't found their way to my model room yet. These two are incorrect as Big Boys, only the UP ran the Big Boy, although DM&IR ran a very similar 2-8-8-4 based off the Big Boy called the Yellowstone. Also, I just discovered that I didn't know B&O also used Yellowstones, the only steam giant I knew comparable to the Big Boy here on the east coast was C&O's Allegheny! I though B&O used the Allegheny for coal drags like C&O did, but I guess the 2-6-6-6 configuration for the Allegheny wasn't enough for the B&O!! OK, enough history lesson, though I will add they also did a Hudson, and Revell AG has reissued that as well, but this is one I built from the Revell AG reissue, I still have a Revell reissue and the two previously mentioned originals waiting for some bench time. I used KATO snap fit track with roadbed under mine, the track in the kit is usually warped some and the KATO track has a fairly realistic look to it right out of the package and the Big Boy just fits on two 9" pieces of straight track. As a little comparison of the size of the Big Boy and as a little tribute to the first kit I had as a kid when I was around 10 that I bought on a trip to see one of my other favorite steam trains, I took these pics with my pride and joy, my Cass Railroad Shay.

I'm sorry Terry, but anybody else see some family resemblance!?!?!

I agree with you Mark, I know of one seller there I always get a good laugh out of the prices, sometimes $10 dollars for a hood and that part is from a common kit either on the shelves of a LHS or in another listing for sometimes just a few dollars more for the whole kit. As for the "Pro Built" laughs, some of the quality I see in them would mean I've been a "pro" since I was a teenager! Actually, that comment isn't far from the truth, and before the days of eBay, I had an Italeri Freightliner FLC Aerodyne truck with AMT's Freuhauf flatbed trailer in a display that the "truckers" of the local model club I was a member of in my teen years had in conjunction with a 1:1 truck show in our area. It was nothing special, just both box stock with the kit supplied flame decals on the truck and the only addition to the trailer was some jewelry chain added to chain the steel coils to the trailer. At that time in 1992, the truck was $30 or $40 for the Italeri, and the trailer was maybe $15, and I had a driver look it over a couple of times before he asked me if I'd sell it. I wasn't really interested, but I told him $50 if he wanted it and that was just for what I had in the kits. Then of course the attempts to low ball me came, and I told him it was firm, I at least needed what I had in it to buy the kits again! On other side note with that story, that was when I learned to research a little before doing something. The chains I used for the coils were attached wrong, I didn't know at that time the chains were supposed to go from one side, through the "eye" of the coil (I had them loaded "shotgun" with the "eyes" facing the front and rear of the trailer to explain for the non truckers looking in) and go to the opposite side rail. Every flat bedder, including my brother who had hauled steel, made sure they told me I had the chains wrong! The usual comment was "Very nice job, but......you have the chains wrong" and that went to the time the "but......" would come along, I'd reply "I know, the chains aren't right."

No updates as of late, I've been spending too much time with the 1:1, and it's about time! In the past couple weeks, I've went from doing more sitting than running to running almost full 14 hour days, but with Easter around the corner, the stores need Easter eggs and hams! I'm definitely not complaining, I love running as much as I can handle, and I'll get a day off or two eventually.

Close, AMT did a 1/43 scale Peterbilt in the 70s similar to the 1/25 scale kit they had. It wasn't a rotator though, if I remember correctly it may have been a Holmes 750 unit on it. I'm sure there are probably other in the model railroad world, 1/48 is "O" gauge, and I have these two, the big wrecker is "HO" gauge and the Ford is "N" gauge.