Aaronw

Seems like a bad idea to me, if anything we need more domestic automakers to keep each other on their toes, not less. over the past 15 years it seems like Chrysler has been more willing to try something new, driving Ford & GM to follow when it was a success. If this goes through creating the big two, I expect it will only be a matter of time until we have no domestic auto makers left.

Hand formed metal panels are usually hammered over a wood buck. If you have seen how vacformed parts are done it is similar, except the metal is hammered into shape instead of using vacuum. At one point I saw a website showing Gerald Wingrove building a large scale car (Bentley as I remember), it was pretty impressive as he was basically building a small car, down to the individual working pistons.

That's ok, I'd rather get 18 duplicate emails from you than singles of most of the crud that shows up in my inbox.

Woo hoo, I guess I'm still in the club, I got 18.

Since it was shown with the Charger, Crown Vic and all the light bars from the new charger kit I was hoping it would be 1/25. Oh, well it would have been nice to have a current Expedition. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that Lindberg decides to tool it up in plastic eventually.

I expect to be working on this later this year when the weather shuts me down for most painting so I've still got some time. I've been looking at Hanks trucks for ideas but those only help for pics, I have had no luck finding common lengths, height etc so that information will be particularly helpful. I'm not too woried about being completely accurate to a specific brand of trailer, I just want to make sure I'm in the general area for size and appearance. I did find a sheet from Evergreen that looks promising, but they shop only had one sheet so I'll have to order online to get enough for a trailer. I'll have a look at the Lindberg trailer too, if it comes out before I build one. I'll send Dave an email too, I've been eyeing some of his resin again, so that will provide a good excuse. I did pick up three books that have been helpful, Big Rigs of the 50's, 60's and 70's. There is also one on the development of the big trucking companies I'm looking at. Thanks for the help

Sea Lion express?

From what I've seen the buyer generally pays shipping, but Gregg is running the site very low key, its not like ebay where they have a lot of rules about how you pay, ship etc. As long as the buyer and seller are happy, people can do what ever they please. There is a spot for the seller to leave comments so payment, shipping etc can easily be negotiated by the seller. If the seller wants to ship by pony express and be paid in shiny rocks and pretty pieces of string they can say so.

Since the site is being discussed, one thing I've run across that puts me off is people having super long auctions, particularly when scattered all over in dates. There have been a few things I've seen and passed on because the end date was 20-30 days off. In one case I would have bought everything one person had listed but one item ended in 3 days, another in 8 and several in 27 days. I have a short attention span, I will forget I even wanted the item after 5 or 6 days. If you are just clearing house of fairly common kits, please consider the Buy out feature as well. If I have to wait more than a week for the auction to end I will probably end up passing.

I was just looking at the Lindberg / Hawk site and they are showing a Ford Expedition cop car in addition to the Crown Vic and Dodge Charger. Does anyone know any more about this, Steve maybe? http://www.hawkmodels.com/copcars.html

At one point the Johan site had some information that the Plymouth Fury police car was involved in some sort of dispute between Johan and the plastic company that was supposed to produce it. Later there were claims that all the Johan Furys sold by Okey were left over stock acquired when he bought the company. I don't remember if that was a rumor or from Okey. I would happily buy a couple more Furys to help out if they were available again.

Get some plastic and play, that is the only way to learn. I know that sounds kind of like a smart alec comment, but its not meant to be. I find the easiest way to start is get some good reference material, and break it down into small pieces. If there is already a similar part available, cheat and start with the usable portions (in this case perhaps the rim). In the case of the wheel you posted, you essentially have a pentagon in the center with five straight spokes radiating from the corners of the pentagon. Each spoke has a raised tapered section. Now I'm not going to say it would be easy to copy that wheel, but I'm sure if you started to experiment you would find it is not nearly as hard to do as you think it is. With all the new Mustang kits being released I don't think you would have a hard time getting it cast if you put together a good master for someone to use. The demand from the kits would be there to make it worth their time. Of course someone else will probably eventually get around to something similar if you are patient enough.

Out of curiosity what is Okey's prior experience with the plastic model industry? Is he someone from the industry who would be familiar with tooling and such to recognize what is and is not usable, or just a fan who bought the remnants of Johan and may not really have any idea what is ready to go, can be salvaged and what is junk? The impression I've developed is he is someone who's heart is in the right place but is completely overwhelmed by the task of raising Johan from the grave. I had hoped he would at the least team up with a solid resin caster so resin copies of the Johan kits would be available. The Johan kits I've seen look like re-popping them in resin would be no big deal as they were pretty simple to start with, and presumably with the Johan name attached licensing wouldn't become an issue.

I also bought from Chris on emodelcars. It does take a little adjustment to use but was really easy to use once I figured it out. Also Chris must have slipped the postman an extra $5 because his stuff got to me quick.

My computer locked up 1/2 way through the first time, but it downloaded fine the second time around.

Most people don't buy Hondas or Toyotas for the styling, they buy them because they run forever. They're boring but reliable as gravity.

Haven't seen Dave around for awhile but I can answer your question since I asked the same thing. No he just cut away the fenders so the wheels would fit. If you want to be completely accurate, yes, you need to widen the fenders, lengthen the hood and fenders and the fenders are slightly taller. The differences are fairly small, so not worth the effort for many. The larger trucks are 2.3" wider across the fenders and 4" longer windshield to grill. The headlights are 1.5" higher but that may be due to the larger wheels. The cab is the same. At 1/25 scale you need to widen each fender 0.046" and lengthen the hood and fenders 0.16".

Yeah, I have a couple of the C600 kits which can be built as a tractor or a stake truck. I was just wondering if the tractor was basically the same just without the stake body. Unfortunately it sounds like it is just a tractor.

Thanks, that could be useful. Ok, now I see the post mentioned, I didn't scroll down far enough to see his post the first time. Not something I've been missing but I'll take a couple for the cause.

The Rampage and Demon are listed on their website.

What the heck is a mini-men, all I can picture is Dr Evil's side kick Mini-me and I really don't need one of those.

Amazon has it listed as a pre-order, release date is the end of the month. http://www.amazon.com/Stone-2-Disc-Special...0158&sr=1-1 Never heard of this movie, sounds interesting, thanks.

So these kits actually include instructions for weathering the model to be a left in a field truck? If so what a neat idea.

From personal experience Tamiya's paints are great on small surfaces but very hard to brush paint large surfaces. The paint dries very fast and I get the clumping you describe. I find the Testors Model Master Acryl which is also water based is much easier to brush paint. Also you can use the GW paint you already have, I have a fairly good selection of it myself and it works fine on models. Spray paint or an air brush works best though.

Hobbies Unlimited in San Lorenzo carries the magazine. If you are in Fremont that isn't much of a drive and its a great shop, near Porky's pizza which is some great pizza.