Aaronw

I didn't know about the postwar Bedford / Opel connection, didn't FWD and Bedford have a connection at one time? GM bought out Opel in the late 20's so I thought the Opel Blitz might have shared some some of the sheet metal with one of the GM built trucks. I know the grill is probably unique to Open just as the Chevy and GMC trucks had their own grills, just thought maybe further back. Not much online about the heritage of of the Blitz outside of its use in WW2. Even the Opel site doesn't have much, it kind of skirts around the 30-40's so the Blitz is pretty well ommited from their history. Really just looking to see if I might have the start to another project hidden in spare parts. Thanks

I know Italeri's Opel Blitz is a popular kit to bash with 40-50's era American trucks, and that Opel had ties to GM. I have two of these kits I got with the intent of using them to build some classic American medium duty trucks, but I was wondering, did the cab share any styling with American trucks? Just curious if the cabs might be able to be converted into any year GMC or Chevy or was the sheet metal unique to Germany?

If the magazine and forum seem devoted to classic muscle cars maybe that is because that is what gets submitted to the forum and those are the articles that Gregg gets for the magazine. I know Tim provides some content related to trucks, have any of you offered articles on sports cars, NASCAR, drag racing, Tuners, Donks or other "neglected" items? (Please no Donks ). As far as the absense of posts, there are a lot fewer members here, divided up over several subject areas. I believe there was recently a post that this forum just broke the 2000 member mark, for comparison Scale Auto has more than 1000 members just in the A's. More members is going to result in more comments, I guess its up to individuals whether they prefer 20 Awesome!!! or Great Build!!! vs two meaningful posts. Presentation matters too, I have 1% interest in NASCAR and that is strictly due to Luke 57's builds, from a purely technical aspect there are better builders here, but when you take the whole package, interesting photography, nice build and a little bit of history behind the build it becomes more than just an assembly of plastic. A lot of the posts in the display case are maybe the kit used and some pics. Great another shiny car, but what is it, what kit, what paint, do anything special to it, have any problems with it, how did you fix them. Why did you build it? etc. Its kind of the if you build it they will come, you have to develop some interest in the subject, if all the members who like a little seen subject all take the attitude that nobody want to see what they build, that is what will happen. Show your stuff to build the interest, it might take a while but eventually it should encourage others who build the same stuff, maybe even encourage some who have never built that particular subject to give it a try if they know there are knowledgable people who can help them with issues specific to that subject. Personally I've found this site is very good for getting building information, info on the real cars, kit availablity, resin availability, techniques etc which is the most important part for me. The pretty pictures of the builds is just a plus.

I didn't know there was a free trial version of Photoshop. I agree with you that is a good idea if you only need to do a few decals. I used photoshop a lot before I got Corel.

Yes, I don't know and yes. From what I saw of it, the free software was ok, but very limited. You can buy add ons but I haven't heard anyone who was thrilled they had spent the money. Depending on what you want to make you have a couple of options. The cheapest solution is just use Paint that comes free with Windows. You can use word to make up a sheet of decals and use the ruler function in word to adjust the size. I did this for a number of years and it works pretty well but since paint is pixel based it can get fuzzy if you shrink or enlarge much beyond the size you made the original. You can also take a photo of something and shrink it down in word. This works fairly well for license plates and such. A better but more expensive option is to get a vector based program like Corel Draw, this is not based on individual pixels so you can take art work you have designed that is 8" x 8" and shrink it to 1/2" by 1/2" without losing any sharpness. Corel Draw has a teacher / student edition so if you have kids in school or college or you are that knocks the price down to $90 or so. As far as the paper, the Testors stuff is good for some applications, it is very thin so it conforms well. The down side is it is very thin so light colors over dark colors doesn't always work well. It is also an odd size so you have to tape it to an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet when you go to print. I prefer the decal paper from Bare Metal Foil or Micro Mark largely because they come on full size sheets. they are also thicker so the color doesn't show through as much. I do use the Testors decal bonder since it is the only one I've found in a spray can. Also make sure you get the right kind of paper for your printer, laser printer decal paper will not work in an ink jet, and ink jet paper doesn't work in a laser printer.

Cool it looks like it picks up where this one ends. http://www.stovebolt.com/ I think there was an article floating around showing how to make a long bed for the '84 GMC using two kits. I think it was in an old SAE but was scanned and posted somewhere. That is one thing I can say good about that magazine, so far they seem to be really good about letting people scan and post thier old articles to the web. I was looking for some of the old articles and asked if there was any chance they might get reprinted, JH all but gave me the address to a site hosting a lot of their articles. Unfotunately that link does not seem to have transfered to this computer.

The weights are Gross Vehicle Weight (weight of vehicle + load capacity). It was just a chart I found using google, I think I typed in truck weight classes or something like that. This would not take into account trailer loads, that is GCVW or gross combined vehicle weight. Without looking them up, I would guess the 6500 and F700 trucks fall into class 7 and the heavier ones into class 8. I know the International 4900 and 7300 just squeek into class 8 as they are 33-35,000 gvw. Most of the tandem axle trucks are around 50,000 gvw. I'm not sure if the truck classes is in there but at least in California you can get a commercial drivers hand book for free from the DMV. It is intended for people getting their commercial license but would be a good source for info on the various acronyms, axle weights etc for those that are not commercial drivers.

It's nice, to see a working truck once in a while and the wheels are a big improvement. The wheels that come in the kit just don't look right. Where did you find the hardhat? I've been looking for hardhats without luck.

Hey I'm just up the river from you a bit. Atwater is just a sign I pass on 99 but its there by the old airbase isn't it? Not an armored car but there is an old 1930's paddy wagon in El Portal. I forget now what kind of truck it was built on, I'm thinking it is a White but not positive. The thing looks like a bank vault on wheels. Also a 1940's White / American LaFrance fire engine and an old Oshkosh snow plow.

How you pour can help reduce bubbles too, this is easier with the silicone but can be done with the resin too. Try to pour with a thin "string" of material from as high as is practical without missing your target (12" for silicone, 4-6" with resin), this will make the larger bubbles break, while they would remain intact if you just glopped it in a big blob.

Nobody is trying to confuse you, there are a lot of tips and tricks to casting, and for every one you get someone will disagree. Alumilite has some good tutorials on their website, I'd start there. When you have an idea what you want to cast, come back for some specific tips, because there are different ways to design the mold and what works for one part may not work so well for another. People can give you a lot of advice but a good chunk will be trial and error on your part. I have never heard the talcum powder technique so I can't help you with that and am kind of curious myself. Start small and work with small amounts of material, when I first started I made this big mold with all kinds of parts. Well that was kind of stupid because I didn't need as many transfer cases as wheels, but since I couldn't always remember what was under the pour hole that is what I got. Also some parts wear out the molds faster so I still have some pieces of that mold that are good and part of the mold that isn't so good. I also used to waste a lot of resin because I'd mix up too much and couldn't get it all poured before it started to cure. Always keep a useful mold handy for any excess, you don't want to have to start looking around for a mold while the 10 ml you have left sets up. I usually keep something on the larger size with a largish pour hole, A single sided molds of something like a spare tire is a good choice.

Not criticising their choice at all, its nice to see something different. I was just wondering how wise a choice it was, you pretty well hit my complaint with the model companies, they bring out something for neglected segment of the hobby, but choose a wierd subject then claim they don't sell. My personal interest is fire apparatus and I see this regularly. With the exception of the old AMT / Ertl American LaFrance kits most of the others have been odd choices or poorly thought out. The Revell Mack CF isn't a bad kit but its a weird scale, ROG as you already mentioned has done the Simba and the Peterbilt (a one off vehicle used by an obscure american department), I gather their European fire apparatus do ok in Europe as they are nice kits of somewhat local subjects, for US builders they are nice kits of ??? but still nice kits. Then there is the occasional re-issue with FD decals, Italeri just did this with the LA city FD wrecker, it is not at all like the LA City wrecker, it just has semi-accurate LA City decals, its not even a Peterbilt like LA City's wrecker, the kit is a Western Star. Again Italeri, like ROG has turned out some nice European fire equipment. Now the Trumpeter American LaFrance is a nice kit but when they brought the kit out American LaFrance was no longer the industry leader it was, it has been over shadowed by its long time rival Seagrave and upstarts like Pierce, E-One and KME. In the 70's ALF was Ford or Chevy, by 2003 ALF is more like Studebaker, and to top it off they chose to model it on another obscure American fire department College Park, MD (no offense to this department but lets face it they don't have the draw of FDNY, Chicago, San Francisco etc). When the AMT / Ertl Kits came out you had decal options for several large American city fire departments and Elmira, NY (ALF's home town). It was so widely used that there was a pretty good chance you could build it as an engine from a nearby fire department if you lived in the US or Canada provided you could get the appropriate decals. The Trumpeter ALF only provided decals for College Park, MD and the only major departments I know that were using it at the time were Chicago (would have been a much better decal choice in my opinion), Ventura Co FD in California and Metro Dade FD in Florida. Since then a few more large departments such as San Francisco have bought them but they are still trailing far behind other manufacturers. I don't mind at all when these companies come out with something off the wall, I like off the wall. What irks me is when they bring out something off the wall and then claim subjects in that portion of the hobby don't sell. If Trumpeter had done a Seagrave in FDNY markings, or a Pierce in LA City markings instead of an ALF in anytown USA markings I am positive their sales would have at least doubled. The repeated re-issues of the AMT / Ertl ALF shows these kits can sell, but poor homework on the manufacturers side becomes a self fulfilling prophacy. I am not in any way knocking ROG for bringing out this bus, I'm just hoping they haven't picked the Edsel of buses to test the waters.

Thanks, that was what I was wondering. How desirable is this going to be to bus builders? Myself I would have prefered to see a GM Fishbowl but thats because I want to build a GM Fishbowl. Not just any bus, but the buses I rode as a kid. I've never seen one of these buses, and thought it might be a fairly limited interest item, but I live in a rural area where the school district still runs Crowns. It sounds like it may have been a decent choice after all if it is something bus people will recognize and want to build.

Dodge Charger? Impala SS? I mean we have kits of mini-vans but 4 door sedans are not cool enough to sell? I didn't think cars got any unsexier than mini-vans.

When I was at the IPMS nats last year, there was a vendor selling resin casting supplies. One of the things he had was food grade silicone so you could "cast" baked goods. That gave me some ideas, look honey '57 Chevy cupcakes. Thats a good idea with the old microwave, I have one I was about to toss.

You can get R&R through the Resin Realm. http://www.resinrealm.net/

If you mean Lookout Design, (mostly racing and off road resin parts) he is still selling on ebay as Grumpy Denise. I just say some of his stuff within the past couple of weeks. I know he was having trouble keeping up with orders through the site, so my guess is he now casts at his pace and sells on ebay when he's got stuff ready to sell. That seems to be a popular way for resin casters to keep their side buisness from overwhelming their life. I've had good luck in the past contacting him through ebay, miraculously a week or so later the items I want are up on ebay. He usually has a buy it now option on his auctions.

I've never built anything from R&R but I have seen several nice builds using R&R stuff. From what I've heard the quality is all over the place, some is very nice and some is rather rough. Doesn't sound like quality control, more likely the older stuff is not as nice as the more recent offerings. If you are comfortable with resin it shouldn't be a problem, I've never heard anybody say any of the stuff is unbuildable, just more work. If you are new to resin you might want to see if you get some feedback specific to that body so you don't jump into the deep end on your first resin kit.

Glad to see this is still going. I mostly build fire apparatus, there are very few of those as kits so almost nothing I build is out of the box. On the other hand a kit that is going to be a lot of work just to get me back to a starting point does not rate as high on my to get list as one I don't have to undo a bunch of modifications just so I can start my own.

How about some of the 60's Plymouths, they were popular and good looking police cars.

What kit are these based on? A friend of mine bought a '68 when we were about 22-23, who would guess a car that size could get up and move. We had a lot of fun smoking unsuspecting Cameros and Mustangs, luckily we stayed out of any real trouble with it. Not sure what Cadillac was thinking though 375 hp and front wheel drive is not the best combination, not a problem in a VW but that Caddy really showed what torque steer is about. Nice job on the two you built, the red works well on the '70. Great job on the grill, it does look like you missed the Cadillac emblems on the hood and trunk though (the camera misses nothing, I've been caught by it many times ).

I guess it does have 2 doors, I'm so used to police cars always having 4 that I didn't really notice. The Impala kit would be the same basic car though, its just a higher trim level correct? Thanks for that link, old car brochures are pretty handy sometimes.

I don't hate you, I pity you for all the money you have to spend on ice.

That's the car right there, at least I'm pretty sure it is. In the photo I have it's off in the background so much smaller. That would be the 4 door version of the Impala correct?

I did not know it was illegal prior to '57-58. That would explain why everybody jumped onto that styling change at the same time. Thanks, the author musy have got his dates wrong. There should be a law that book authors must consult with car guys before publication. Cars and computers are two items that can really date a movie or photo.