highway

I'm well aware of the definition of "Constructive Criticism" and have gotten my head bitten off in the past even trying to help because the poster just wants the "attaboys" and obviously hasn't cared about improving their skills. That is why I don't bother with even looking in the "On the workbench" or "Under Glass" sections of this forum anymore. As I just stated above, I don't care about the workbench or under glass sections and trying to offer help anymore, and I stated that before also. Also, seeing as how I avoid those sections, I'm not going to search around just to find what has your panties all in a bunch. If the quote above about the disc brakes is what has you in an uproar, from just that quote, I don't see your issue with the "constructive criticism" rule you keep bringing up, I see it as an opinion to someone else's post, not directed to the builder. Oh, that's right, opinions don't go over well with some here either!

No, I think you are the one that just doesn't get it, John! As Harry has stated numerous times, THIS IS A PUBLIC FORUM, AND IF YOU DON'T (OR ARE TOO THIN SKINNED TO ACCEPT) ANYTHING BUT PRAISE, DON'T POST PUBLICLY!! I don't know (and frankly don't care) what this Charger you keep referring to has to do with the discussion, but it just seems to me, especially since Harry has stated the same thing at least 3 times just this morning, is just not sinking in!

Jesse, since obviously nobody noticed this, I would suggest using Photobucket for your picture posting needs. It is free (unless you want to pay) and it simple to use. I post all my pics through it, using the IMG (image) link to the pic, and it is as simple as copying that IMG link from Photobucket and pasting it in your thread.

That's no excuse!! The Dukes were on at 8PM on Friday nights and Knight Rider came on at 9PM!! I spent every Friday night glued to the TV on the living room floor with my 1:16 scale General and my talking KITT making laps in the Carpet 500 during commercials!

OK, this may be a toughie but the truckers in the crowd may get it easier, this was from a TV movie.

That sounds like a Walmart load! There are very few loads I haul that are balanced nicely enough to have my fifth wheel on my 2013 Cascadia where I really want it but it is still only a hole or two back from my preferred spot. The fact that my truck doesn't have front quarter fenders doesn't help either, but if the fifth wheel was much farther up, the reefer may hit the rear sleeper grab handles, there isn't even enough space to fully open the reefer doors for the mechanics to work on it without dropping the trailer and pulling up a few feet, and don't ask how I know this!

Honestly Joe, if it were me, I'd hold off on permanently attaching the fifth wheel until you do get the trailer, that way you can get the look you want for certain. I know at least with me, not only with models but the 1:1s I drive as well, I prefer my fifth wheel to be placed so that the front apron of the trailer lines up with the top of the quarter fender's top rubber flap.

Even though obviously Frank didn't feel offended by the age comment, I'm sorry but I DO take some offence to it. I'm nearly 39, and have been building for 30 of those years, and I DO get it! I also speak with my wallet, but obviously with some of the constant reissues my wallet doesn't speak loudly enough with NOT buying the same old reissues because they keep coming, especially like what seems like a yearly reissue of junk 78 Trans Ams that I feel weren't even worth the $4 or $5 they cost when they were first released. Now on the other had, some of the more recent offerings like the 70s era vans, Meyers Manx, and some of the other older kits seeing the light of day for the first time in many years, that has my wallet saying "Shut up and take my money!" Though I'm not much older than Frank, that doesn't mean younger builders don't have a nostalgia factor also, and a good case in point for me at least was seeing the 1/16 scale General Lee hit the shelves a few years ago. That was the first model I ever had, and as soon as I heard the news of it coming back, it was a must have! If I had not lost the original in a house fire, the two would have been displayed together with the new one as an example how skills can improve over the years. I also like the long gone kits for the fact I don't have to pay an arm and a leg and first born for "collector" prices for a kit I really like but just cannot justify paying $100 or more for. Well, enough of my rambling, but age just should not be a factor.

I'd figure that too, and I noticed looking on Revell's website last night of the 2014 offerings, they had the reissue of the Peterbilt Wrecker listed that way too and in the same grouping as the truly "Big Scale" 1:16 scale rigs.

Personally, and as has already been said, I feel if you post in a public forum, you should be prepared for any and all comments and criticism, good or bad and constructive or not. If your skin is that thin or you just simply can't understand that a constructive critical comment is meant to HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS AND IS NOT BASHING YOUR WORK, then the option is simple, JUST DON'T POST!!! That is one big reason I don't check out much but the general information topics in the Truck section, I got sick and tired of trying to help builders with constructive comments and then either getting bashed by the mob publicly in the forum or nasty PMs telling me my help was not wanted, so I just don't bother with anything in any workbench or under glass thread unless it is MY thread!

As has been said it is and it isn't, but I personally think your idea would work fine, even though my personal taste would have it behind the Lonestar. I found this pic of a similar trailer behind a newer Volvo: Also, since Photobucket is cooperating now, here is the pic of mine I referenced in my earlier post concerning the scale. The entire bottom rack is all 1:24 scale diecasts, and the top center Impala is also a diecast. The only plastic kits on the trailer are the front undecorated Impala and the rear Crown Vic.

The pic Casey posted shows 1:25 on the upper left corner. Although I know some "scale Nazis" make a big deal about a few inches in real life difference between the 1:24 and 1:25 offering, it will haul both scales nicely. Also, this trailer is surprising strong. I have one that I got the last time it was issued in the box art Casey posted, and I had it fully loaded with a mix of diecasts and plastic kits. Photobucket is telling me it down for maintenance at the moment, but I'll post a pic of it when I can.

I know a few will find their way to my stash too! I might even buy a couple for my model building monster better half just to have more room for her finished builds, our entertainment center is overflowing with her builds!! I created a monster when I got her interested in building, she's put together more in one year than I have in 20!

Yes, they are great suggestions, but there are even some like I described in my earlier post that get all huffy if you offer suggestions that they offer better descriptions (especially in "Wanted" or "For Trade" posts) instead of descriptions like JC brought to light. A little of my two cents on the photos, too, it's not always the fact of the camera VS. cell phone producing the blurry pictures, but the person behind the camera either not caring or not knowing how to properly use the device, or possibly not being able to hold the camera steady for every single shot. I know for sure that I can't, I shake every now and then, and some of my pics turn out blurry, but I check the image and retake it if I have shook BEFORE posting it to Photobucket and then here. I don't buy the "sorry, it's the phone" or "all I have is my phone for pics" excuses, because the camera I have that I take almost every pic I have ever posted here is a 5 megapixel HP I bought about 10 years ago and guess what, my phone is also a 5 megapixel camera! I get photos just as nice from the phone as I do the camera, it's just as other things that require human input, it only works as good as the person operating it!

There may not be any "elitist jerks" that bash others work, but there ARE some builders that seem not to understand the constructive criticism they may receive and may view themselves as "elite" builders that feel their "BLEEP" don't stink and then bash the very ones offering the constructive criticism. As has already been said, if you post on any public forum, you should be prepared for both praise and criticism, but in too many instantances, too much (often false) praise makes any criticism is viewed as bashing instead of constructive as it was meant. That's then when the mob then gangs up on the one actually trying to offer helpful advice, and some just seem too thin skinned to take any criticism at all. I've posted quite a few builds here over the years, and I take any and all criticism, and actually wished with some it would have been said earlier in a build, like modifications that would have produced a result I wanted but didn't come early enough to do without destroying what was already done, but even that is put in my "mental file" to use for a future project. I used to try and offer as much help as I could, but I've had too many run ins myself with the thin skinned and "YOU'RE A HATER" mob that I've quit offering any comments and mostly check out general topics in the big rig section and rarely go farther than there.

Jonathan, a quick and easy way to train the new furball from staying away from where you don't want it (and to spare it's life ) is go to the dollar store and get a spray bottle and fill it with water. I used this method when me and an ex had furballs, and it works great. She had suggested that when the furballs got near my model desk, just to spray them with a few squirts of water and since most cats hate water, that will train them to not go around that area because they will associate it with something unpleasant to them and they will avoid it. I also left the squirt bottle sitting on the corner of my desk as an extra deterrent because every now and then, one would try to sneak onto the desk, and as soon as they seen Daddy's squirt bottle, it would remind them it wasn't a place for kitty!

That or a line of credit lol!

As long as the top one isn't as noisy as the real one lol!!

Looks nice Terry, but at least by the pics, I see only one thing that may be a problem, and probably too late to fix (sorry, just seen the thread ) if it's not just from the angles of the pics, but there should be a gap at least between the cab and the main body. I drove heavy wreckers for a couple years and there is at least a 6 inch gap between the cab and body to allow for frame flex, and believe me, these frames do a lot of flexing!

Sorry but I can't help you out, Alex. I jumped on these for the price because I need donors for a wrecker fleet, and it also doesn't help I bleed Ford blue and have a 1:1 of this almost exact (standard cab 4x4 diesel) truck. About the only thing that would make me consider possibly parting with one would be a Meng F350 to rob the diesel from for my in progress model of my 1:1.

As I drive around delivering my groceries, it gives me a lot of free time to think, and one day I was thinking about how often I see "I don't have enough space for trucks and trailers" or "I don't have enough trailers for my tractors" etc. Well, it dawned on me one day recently, for some of those saying this, try thinking outside the box and use the tractors as loads. The thing that actually made me think of this was a stack of new Volvos passing me, and it dawned on me for those with more tractors than trailers, make transport stacks! This would apply to any rigs, because they don't have to all be the same make and model if you add a little imagination for a back story, like a dealer sending used trucks from one lot to another. The other option is actually having a tractor or two as loads to save space if you don't have much room to display complete units but do have at least enough room to display one pulling a lowboy and one or two tractors that don't have trailers on the lowboy as a load. Of course, if this setup may actually be in a contest "as is", some thinking about the load trucks would be required to make it realistic such as the height of stacks, air deflectors/condo roofs and the total height of the lowboy and load, but just to save shelf space at home just load the lowboy up! I figure the AMT lowboy should be able to haul two tractors with no problem, freeing up some shelf space, and a stack of three bobtails should take no more space than a full unit.

I stopped by one of my LHS's today and found these poor orphans from a collection begging to be brought home. One F350 is a parts kit (no frame) and the other is (well, was ) sealed, and had a price tag of $10 for the sealed ones. The Chevy is complete except for having different wheels and tires than the stock dually wheels that were originally in the kit. Also, notice I said "sealed ONES" for the F350s, there are two more sealed F350s and one more Chevy, plus a complete CHP marked AMT Ford Taurus SHO patrol car and a complete MPC/AMT Chevy Beretta GT sitting in the back room of the hobby shop for me to pick up next week!

I've been out of building thanks to some turns in life the past few years, but I finally found a little bit of spare time where all I wanted to do was work on something, but what I really wanted to work on and finish (my large custom Ford big rig) wasn't a possibility because of needing extra cash to buy some more parts I want to add to it, so the only thing I could find to satisfy my hunger for getting back to building and not become a major project that would require my yet unfinished model room and could be built on the dining room table for now is a kit I (and my dad) originally built as a kid at my dining room table, AMT's reissue of the MPC 1/16 scale General Lee! The original issue was my first build and first time painting a kit (complete with GREEN sunvisors!! ) and unfortunately I lost it in a house fire in 1997, but I figured I'd build this just as the first, but with the skills I've developed throughout the past 30 yrs. I'm not going for an accurate replica since I know this kit was based of NASCAR kits and is by far not even close to an accurate street Charger or General Lee, but merely a fun trip back to simpler times and my childhood. I was even thinking of painting it pink to commemorate the odd colors I used to paint the original, but decided against it! I've got a little done on the Hemi: and the frame: and the body in its first coats of Testor's Custom Lacquer System Hemi Orange.

Honestly, Ollie's carrying models is nothing new, I've picked up several there over the years, including this Norscott diecast kit for about $20 or $25 about 5 or 6 years ago. If I would have had the extra at that time, I would also have picked up 2 others, a loader and grader if I remember correctly, and all would have been just over MSRP for just one!

Actually John, that's not as true as you would think. I've been driving for almost 17 years, and the 2013 Freightliner Cascadia I'm currently driving averages only a shade above 7 MPG, and that is with very low idle time. Many of the older rigs I drove averaged 5 or 6 MPG, and that was with the truck idling every night no matter the weather and most of the time my truck was running from the time I left the house to the time I got back home. I actually, if I could afford to do so, would much rather buy an older rig than drive my 2013 company owned ride I drive at work too. The newer trucks just have too many controls and computers that I feel is taking control out of the driver's hands and putting it in the "brains" of computers, and also more to fail. My Cascadia has a radar system called On Guard that is interconnected to the cruise control and brake system that is a crash avoidance system and will give me the speed and distance of a vehicle in front of me. While most of the time it is a great system, there has been a few times I've found it not to be, especially when the system unexpectedly puts on the brakes because it picks up a vehicle that is not actually in front of me but slowing down getting off an exit ramp.