oldcarfan

I sincerely hope either Revell or Atlantis has this tooling! I imagine it's pretty simplified, but should make a nice builder!

As with the Round body trucks, I have more than enough squarebody kits already. However if they were to do an accurate 73-78 Chevy/GMC long bed with an optional accurate Duallie version and maybe do a crew cab, too, they could take all my money. I wouldn't say no to a nice Sheriff Brody edition Blazer. The same applies with Ford. If they tooled up an accurate 81-96 Bullnose Duallie, I'd refill my wallet and throw it at them. It wouldn't hurt Revell to do a 2WD version of their ex-Monogram 81 Ford F-150 stepside, maybe do a short wide bed, too.

I've got enough of these various kits' recent releases to last the rest of my life. However if Round2 were to backdate the 70 Chevy into a 67-68 shortbed and stepside, I'd appreciate it.

This is beautiful!

These look great! I've been looking for one of the MotorMax Explorers and Walmart happened to have one the other day. Now I need to do something like this.

I have a couple of those stocker kits, but I put them back in the box because of those huge tires. I have a bunch of NASCAR tires and never thought of using those!

How did I miss this? Whenever he responded to a post or comment, he was always kind and helpful to me. I pray for his loved ones. Going to miss him!

I don't know if they still stock them, but a couple years ago Harbor Freight had a knockoff version of an Ott Light lighted magnifier on a stalk. As for me, the lack of light was killing my eyes.I built a wooden shelf right over my work table and bought some of HFs brightest LED strip lights. I mounted those lights on the underside of the shelf right where they shine directly over my work table. I did make a blocker so light would only shine down and not into my eyes. For magnification, I'm getting by with some dollar store readers, so far.

Your build looks great! Glad to see you back in the fold.

Welcome! Tough it's been twenty years, I still remember your country fondly. Hope you enjoy the site.

I have a thing for putting oversized lights on my models. Sadly, not many kits come with them. I ordered some nice ones from SpotModel for another build, but for a new project I need more and don't want to wait for delivery. My wife wanted to go to Hobby Lobby for fabric today, so I wandered around and found the bead and jewel aisle. I think I've found a way to make my own lights. These are half-round pearl finish gems used to decorate craft projects. The ones in the little package are 10mm and to my eye they are perfect for the 9 inch Super Oscars once used on rally cars. In the side view you can see they are round but slightly flattened. The other multi package ones are self adhesive and come in 6, 8, and 10 mm in one package. I think those might be perfect for smaller driving lights like KCs and such. To make the lights, I drilled a small hole on the edge of each light and glued a piece of wire in it to act as a mount, and then painted them. I used a gloss black, in preparation for painting them chrome, but now I think I like the black finish better. For the lens covers I used thumbtacks with the tack part cut off. I was going to use some Cibie decals, but they've gone missing in my decal pile, so I used the Marchal ones instead. I planned on this being a one day project, but the black paint is Behr brand and it's taking its time drying. Should've used the TAMIYA. We are having record hot temperatures this week in Texas. It's currently 98 with high humidity and a tornado watch, so the paint may take a bit longer to harden. Anyway, here's hoping this might give some of you an idea for future projects.

I bought 2 original kits years ago and built them, one of them I cut down into a stepside using a 53 Ford kit for the frame and bed. I just got a new release and want to do a shortbed hot rod version with that. I need to look up the small window and see how much work it would be.

Thank you! I thought about buying one of those figurines at the store in the mall, but Fia would probably push it off the shelf. We love her even when she's being a turd.

Our cat has similar markings! Does she help on the workbench?

For Cannonball model kit history, I found something I think is interesting. In an effort to avoid doing work on my actual Cannonballer, I got distracted again. In exploring old model kits I'd packed away, I came across something I'd forgotten. I think I may have gotten it a long time ago at a model show. It's a 1/24th Marui Pantera kit. I've included a picture stolen off the internet for reference. The Ferrari kit may be one I have too, but I got it as a built-up and it's in the to be built someday pile. My Pantera kit's box seems to have been attacked but insects, the only kit in the box that happened to. Must have been extra tasty cardboard! I got curious and checked eBay for Marui Cannonball and it seems they issued at least 5 kits with a Cannonball tie-in. I see the Pantera, a Ferrari 308, a 365 GT, a 512BB, and a Lamborghini Jota. They aren't cheap, that's for sure. I'll probably build mine up later in the year. Now to my point, does anyone know if these were an official Cannonball thing? I don't think these particular cars ever raced in a real Cannonball. Maybe Marui were trying to get sales from the movie release? Other than a Ferrari 308, I don't remember seeing the other cars in one of the movies. My guess is they weren't. The Pantera kit, at least is a curbside and pretty crude, but the body looks accurate. I'm guessing the kits were released in the 70s or 80s. If anyone knows their history, I'd love to know. I'm thinking the kits have probably been reissued by other manufacturers over the years. (Just a note, after getting back to work, I did get a little work done on my entry. I have the body finished and ready for final assembly. The chassis is also just about finished. I'm kind of stuck on the type of wheels and tires to use. Revell's Expedition has big wheel wells to fill and it needs beefy rolling stock. I have a set of 20 inch Porsche GT3 wheels and tires off a Welly diecast that i was planning to use, but I'm starting to think I may go another direction. I ordered some 18 inch police car steelies with wide tires and will try those on for size when they get here.)

A Hobby Lobby in another town had one of the new release AMT 1960 F-100 so I got that for 40% off. I didn't need it as I have a couple of the vintage version, but for the price I couldn't say no. Since we have no actual hobby shops near us anymore, I hope HL will soon be redoing more of their model offerings.

Had to go to another town and since my wife was looking for birthday party supplies, we stopped at their Hobby Lobby. They had just one of the new 1960 F-100 kits on the shelf for $34.99. I didn't know they were going to stock this kit. Anyway I bought it for the 40% sale price. I hate buying from them, but I hope the sale will be a part of encouraging AMT to do more retools of missing in action vintage kits and maybe even to do variations of this kit. I wouldn't say no to 57-59 versions. Since I've already built one of the original kit, I may try to shorten the bed on this one and make a lowered hot rod version.

This is Fia and she's a character. She's three years old and a grey tabby with some orange patches mixed in and if there's a crime in the house she's a likely suspect. We live across the street from a Veterinary office and early one morning I heard a pitiful meow coming and followed it. A tiny kitten was hiding inside a rolled up water hose next to their building. I figured she must have gotten loose from inside so I put her over their fence but she climbed back over and clung to my leg as I was walking away. The next morning they said she wasn't theirs so Fia became ours. She was skittish and a little chompy at first but now she climbs up on me to demand attention.

Looking good!

You're doing some cool stuff here, congrats!

Thanks for sharing the article! To me, the history, trivia and back stories are half the fun of these Cannonball builds. It brings me back to spending lazy summer days hanging out in the junk room as a kid, working through my dad's huge piles of Car & Driver and Road & Track. When it comes to kits, every time someone asks what we think AMT should reissue or retool, one of my top picks is MPC's 1971 Dodge Van with the window option. I'd so love to build the whole first Run lineup and this is one of the major ones. MPC also did a Dodge Challenger that got updated to a 72 so if they were willing to reissue it, we could build this van, Brock's Challenger and even the later ambulance van.

Love what you're doing, these kits build up so nice!

A good deal makes any model more fun to build!

The Wide Sides Ford isn't prototypically correct for a dually, I'm pretty sure. I wonder if the bed could be lengthened to a long bed?

With Round 2 reissuing the early 70s Chevy/GMC trucks, I wonder if they still have the tooling for the Cooter's Wrecker bed? That could make for a fun build.