Aaronw

MTFACO had one similar to that but it might have been slightly later, maybe early 70's. AITM will probably have it eventually after Dave updates the mold. I emailed him last year and he was hoping to have it available this year sometime. http://www.aitruckmodels.com/

There was a Chevy High Roller kit from Monogram you could use as the start, or maybe the AMT '84 GMC (was the Fall Guy kit). But either would take a lot of scratchbuilding. There are a couple of Topkick cabs in resin but all are newer than the one in your photo. There was a 1/18 diecast that would work, if you don't mind a bigger scale, it came out a year or 2 ago but I don't remember who made it.

AITM has a Dodge CNT900 http://www.aitruckmodels.com/ and Lindberg is supposed to be re-releasing the Dodge L-700 cabover soon.

The only modern Ford E250 I know of is a diecast. Johnny Lightning made a nice 1/25 Coke van. Only plastic kits of Ford vans I know of are of the 80's style and all are long out of production.

Try looking at some of the tutorials here and see if it helps. http://www.alumilite.com/index.php?page=info&type=HOWS

Are you talking about a 2 part mold?

Thanks, that was the part I missed. Everything is under pressure, I'll give that a try next time I make a mold.

You describe my set up exactly, I have a paint pot and a compressor. The problem I had when pressurizing the resin is it gets little "pimples" all over the surface. As i understand it de-airing the silicone is supposed to stop this. Randy, Pat and Zoom Zoom, & MM thanks for the help.

I have been trying to pressure cast, primarily for use with clear resin. The pressure side works fine but the problem I've found is the vacuum side. How do you use the vacuum chamber and how much vacuum do you use. Do you de-air the silicone then pour the mold or do you pour the mold then place it in a vacuum to cure? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

You might have a problem there, I believe Fragile means something else in postal-ese. To most of us it means please be careful, but to the post office I think it means run it under the 12 ton press, whack it around the back lot with hockey sticks then play elephant soccer with it. I guess that thing in school where you have to make a container for an egg then drop it from a height actually has a purpose after all.

Nice job, the engine detail is great particularly the turbos. Did you make the tire chains? They look very good.

I agree with the others, the hood is too square at the front but it looks great anyway.

Good luck with that, I had a bad case in my late teens / early 20's, finally had the surgery after about 4 years of various treatments. Never have had a re-occurance and its been 16 years. I was told it tends to have a reduced effect as you get older so maybe you get lucky, at least there is something good about getting older.

I've recently started using Tower Hobbies http://www.towerhobbies.com/index.html I've been pretty happy with them decent selection of model kits, very good selection of model supplies, good prices and really quick service. They list Ambroid and show it in stock http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0093p?&C=RGG

Looks like you are off to a good start. I have plans (someday) to do something similar using the 1950 Ford. There was an older SA article on building a 1950 F-8. In the article the builder made a 337 ci starting with a Thunderbird engine block and using parts from various other sources.

Sorry it took me so long, first I had to find some time, then the movie and finally remember how to take screen shots but here you go. Texas (Dawn) sorry I couldn't help myself Spider Mikes truck Spider Mike & Love Machine (Pigpen) and in case you need some spiritual guidance after you finish the truck There really are not that many good shots of Spider Mikes truck in the movie, I got some of the other trucks too if you need them for a later project.

Spalding gets their from KFS, you might try them http://www.kitformservices.com/ or maybe not, I just saw KFS has an announcement posted that they are in the middle of a move, might be the reason Spalding is out of stock.

You can give them a soak in blech wite, which will remove any oils or mold release on the parts. Blech wite is a tire cleaner you can find in many auto parts shops. Then scrub them with a tooth brush. Personally I've found Krylon grey primer seems to work best on resin parts, but any good primer should work. Nice job looks better than my first attempts. What I've found is as my experience increases, my castings don't make a dramatic improvement but I get much better at estimating how much silicone / resin I need and I have much less wastage. It's always a good idea to have an extra mold ready to go or an extra part you want to cast so that any excess you've mixed up doesn't go to waste, you just end up with an extra part or mold for the future.

I'm pretty sure there is a comment from Pig Pen / Love Machine refering to the questionable pedigree of Spider Mike's truck right when the 3 of them first start running together, this would be early in the movie before they get pulled over by Lyle. I have the movie on DVD and the movie player on my computer allows screen captures, I can try to grab a few shots of his truck and post them if Im able to get anything decent.

I haven't heard much positive about the Testor's decal maker program. I make quite a few of my own decals, I just use the micro soft paint program that comes with Windows for most of them. I set them up on the page for printing by inserting them into a word file. Here are some decals I've made this way for some of my projects.

I got a catalog from him 2 years ago, it had some "kits" that included at least a full cab, body and wheels. Don't remember if it required a donor for the chassis or not. There is some info in the contact section with email and phone # for the owners, if you know what you want you might be able to order something. As a recall now that site was put up in August or so, you might have a bit of a wait before its finished. Knowing how resin casters are in general and the lack of competition in the emergency vehicle area, that under construction site with contact info might be giving him all the buisness he can handle. This is a new caster that popped up recently http://www.grovegraphics.com/resin_items/index_resin.htm The stuff looks rough but usable.

Hey, I found I had Freds saved in my favorites twice, and the links are different. Seems he changed company names (can't say I blame him google turned up about 4 freds making resin stuff) and web addresses. This one works, it starts out wierd (a bunch of numbers and such) but it will open eventually. http://www.frmnco.com/ Thanks for your experience with Fred's most I know tried once and were unhappy with the service, maybe they just had bad luck or bad timing if you've used him that much with mostly good results.

The Trumpeter ALF is a nice kit, I hope that Trumpeter really does decide to follow it up with another vehicle, I've heard rumors of a rescue or a ladder. I really hope they do a parts pack of equipment for it though like you can get for military models. You know SCBA, nozzles, tools etc I'd buy a dozen of those. Good luck with your search. What was your experience with Freds? I've heard mostly marginal experiences from the few that have bought from him, good stuff but spotty service. His catalog is full of neat stuff though, I've come close to ordering a couple of times.

It is my understanding that AITM, still carries everthing MTFACO did, you just need to email to find out what he has unless you have one of the old catalogs. Be prepared with a list of what you want because the MTFACO catalog looked like a magazine (lots of stuff) and it would take forever for him to list it all in an email. Off the top of my head there was a decent smoke ejector, circle D lights, a variety of tools (flat & pick head axes, round shovels, square shovels, pike pole heads), a portable monitor (deck gun, wagon pipe, stang depending on local terminology), variety of sirens, some lights (but no light bars), most are cast metal. I don't recall any PPE or nozzles. I don't know if you have been to the Scale Fire House or not, its a model site for emergency vehicles and has a pretty good list of (the pathetically few) suppliers of parts out there. http://www.scalefirehouse.com/ If you don't mind my asking what are you going to build?

You could check STS or AITM, both have a variety of wheels/tires that might work. Spalding Trading and Shipping http://www.stsmodeltrucks.com/ American Industrial Truck Models http://www.aitruckmodels.com/ You will have to email Dave at AITM about wheels since he is still using the old MTFAco catalog for now (unless you have the old catalog). I am assuming you are looking for off road big rig tires, if you want smaller then there are a few more out there, but I'll have to try and remember where.