highway

Just don't forget to post some pics please!!!

Heck Chuck, I thought the way that pic looked the boom was just a REALLY thick piece of sprue holding the stake sides!! WHOOPS!!!

I agree with Chucky on the accuracy and scale, Jim. I have one sitting behind my Volvo VN. I don't agree with Chucky that you need to scratchbuild a trailer for them, unless of course Chucky was meaning just the 20 footers. I modified the 40 footer's frame to American specs, because the box art is deceiving, it shows a regular tandem on the box, but the kit actually has a spead axle setup. I modified the rear springs by using the slider under the AMT Freuhauf (since the container chassis also has Freuhauf on the side of it) flatbed as a guide and it was as easy as cutting the front axle and moving it back. I also used the AMT flatbed's 5 spokes for the wheels. Lastly, to finish the American mods, I moved the kingpin forward to move the trailer out of the back of the cab. I set it originally to go with the VN, and set it fifth wheel wise as I always set my 1:1s, so the nose of the trailer is even with the front quarter fenders. This pic shows how far I moved the kingpin, and the tip of the pen shows the original location. The only thing I still have to do is add some correct American style taillights, and maybe if I get brave, I may move the landing gear forward some, too!! Now back to your regularly scheduled thread!

Honestly, I'd bet Moebius will make us happy LONG before Italeri would!!

Very nicely done Bruce, but Ron is right with his comment. Also, I do believe the AMT kit I have of one of these is a Monte Carlo, and those didn't come back to the circuit until 94 or 95.

He's actually playing with them late at night and doesn't want us to know that!!!

It doesn't look like any of the wrecker equipment is included, either.

Because they CAN!!!

Instructions?? What are these intstruction things you speak of?? Seriously though, I do use the instructions most of the time, but have run in to cases like you're talking about time to time, too. The majority of pain in the rear things to get into place usually isn't because I didn't read the instructions, but ever from not wanting something painted the same color as the chassis like shocks if it's a chassis that will be spray painted like a truck frame or race car chassis. Other times it just because I think my way is better that the way the instructions have them ordered. There are some times I don't use instructions, but those are usually the ones I've built dozens of times in the past like NASCARs.

Isn't that the truth Skip!!!

I don't know about what they're sitting on, but the big rig looking truck is an early 80s? Dodge pickup cab, the first one on the trailer is a mid to late 70s Chevy van, and as was mentioned earlier here, the car looks to be an early 70s Satellite, GTX, or Road Runner.

My fiancee is also one of those gems that is supportive of my hobby, with the slight exception of the occasional "I feel like we live in a hobby shop" comments, since my "model room" is actually half of our large living room in our otherwise small one bedroom house. She encourages me to build, and even has threatened me to get back to the bench a couple of times since I have the bad habit of buying but not building sometimes! There have been quite a few times in our almost 10 years together that it ws not uncommon for me to drop $300 or $400 in a day, but luckily one of the LHSs here just happens to be part of a business that also includes a John Deere dealership, so the hooby shop carries a lot of JD diecast. As long as I bought her a little green and yellow for her collection, she was happy!! She also had been exposed to the hobby before meeting me, because her late uncle was also a builder, and he had introduced her to the hobby and had even built a model or two before I came along. She has even spent a little time working on a few kits with me that I bought for her. She also doesn't mind when the train track overtakes the living room for me to run my HO scale trains!!

If that's true, are our kits going to be the next thing to get a stupid California warning label like our paints!?!?

So who will be the first to get one and try it!?!?

No, not any laws saying you have to have stacks. As for why, I couldn't really tell you an exact reason stacks are more highly used than grass burner exhausts, but a pretty good guess is probably to reduce the fumes, carbon monoxide, and heat, especially in sleeper trucks. I'm not saying stacks don't get hot, that's why you usually find heat shield guards around the mufflers on trucks that have them mounted to the sides, but there would be less heat trapped under the truck to make it more comfortable to sleep. As for the fume and carbon monoxide, if that was coming up from under a sleeper, you'd have the deepest sleep of your life, and you wouldn't live to enjoy it!! The only other benefit to stacks I can think of offhand right now is, especially in the case of the older trucks like the Titan, stacks allow the exhaust smoke, commonly referred to as "blowing black coal", caused by the older fuels and near nonexistant emissions laws back in the day to go up in the air instead of in the faces of other motorists.

x2!!!

That is one fine looking Skyline!!

Mine looks nothing like that with XP.

Darn, I had images of "Death Race" stlye builds running through my brain!

What scale is that minigun Mike?

I tried Firefox, and I really didn't like it, I stuck with IE too! I looked in the settings for IE to see if there was a change and a setting to change for it to run maximized and tried it then went back to my email notifications and opened the forum from the link again. It STILL opened in a smaller window, so looks like when you click on links to open them, you'll just have to maximize them yourself. I'll keep looking, though.

Jim, both of my computers, my main desktop and my laptop, run XP and do the same thing. I'm guessing from this statement, you are opening the forum through the link in the email notification, right? I just checked mine and opened the forum from the email and mine does the same thing. When I first click Internet Explorer, that is the only one that opens full screen, but any links I open after always come up in a small window that I have to maximize for full screen. As for changing any settings, I don't know if there is a way to change it or not, but it would be nothing to do on or with the forum, the windows opening is through Internet Explorer. I'll check through settings on my machine and see if there is a way to change it in Windows.

Since the Skyline was never offered for sale in US, there is nothing incorrect about the steering because the real car has right hand steering, and since this is a model of the Skyline, it would be correct. The way I see it, political correctness or where one lives has nothing to do with it.

That's what us truckers call them too!! Robert, another idea you could try if you'd like to have a custom look to the truck is run the exhaust like a set of sidepipes along the bottom of the wedge. You might have to extend the sides of the wedge down some to make it even with the bottom of the lowest step to get in the cab, but I think it might be a nice custom touch. I'll look through some of my truck pics and see if I have any with the sidepipe look.