Aaronw

That quite an interesting truck. I agree with Dennis, looks like a couple of '41 Chevy kits would be the way to start. I looked around the internet and bit and found more on that truck. It was apparently powered by a pair of Chevy 235 cid I-6 engines, one stacked on top of the other so even the kit engines would be right for the job with a little modification to account for the mounting.

So 3rd quarter is an October-ish time line to see these on the shelf?

BLM lowboy transport for a Hummer The Hummer it transports Park ranger Brush truck Search and Rescue truck

I've got a lot of ideas for this kit. Just being presented for ideas, not all are the right year, some are F250s, some F550s but all could use the kit to build something similar. Utility truck Hand crew truck Dive Rescue Crew truck Brush engine

The Raptor certainly isn't as common as a Toyota Tundra or Ford F-150, but that is the case with most kits that get produced. How many Ferrari kits do we have? How often do you see a Ferrari on the street? Hopefully the Meng F350, Revell Raptor and Moebius F150 will sell well enough to convince those in charge that trucks are a market that they want a piece of.

Funny it does look long, although that is exactly the same set up as my stock '96 Toyota (extracab and 7 foot bed). I wonder if the Ranger is a tad bit narrower making it look longer.

I agree. When you are talking about a 1 of a kind item where they find an original and "rebuild" it from a few original parts, salvage bits from a few other wrecks and re-manufacture a large part from plans that makes sense to me. Even though it technically is not truly the "real thing" it is true to the original and provides a physical example people can see, hear and touch (maybe). When you take an item that is really only significant because of that individual items involvement in history, and there are plenty of good restored examples, then I don't see the point. The extreme restoration will destroy the items only real significance. The article says the springs rusted through to the point they collapsed. If the heavy steel in the springs were rusted to that point, just how well do you really think the more delicate bits held up. The stainless steel trim is the only thing I imagine might be worth salvaging. If somebody were to do a complete restoration of the car, they are probably going to scrap 90%+ of it, so what is the point. What they will create is just another 1957 Plymouth, not the car buried in 1957. If you want to restore an old Plymouth I am sure there are plenty of project cars out there in much better shape you could save. The only historical significance of the car is in the rust and gobs of mud, get rid of that and you've lost the only thing worth saving (and honestly about all I see is a tribute to poor engineering).

I thought the wheel base of a tandem axle was from the front axle to a point halfway between the rear axles?

If this is similar in quality to the Jeep Rubicon I'll get at least one. I can see a BLM Raptor to go with the jeep.

Had not seen mention of a Revell Raptor. If it is like the Jeep Rubicon kit, I'll pick one up nothing wrong with a good snap kit. I don't know what it means in the big picture, but with Moebius, Meng and now Revell doing some new truck kits, it certainly isn't a bad time for truck builders.

You read my mind Rob. I've got the plow version and the rescue truck but the tires in both kits are ruined, they got soft and kind of melted. Hope Revell fixed what ever the issue was on those older tires, might pick one of these up so I can cast the tires for the other two, plus this is kind of a neat version on its own.

Nice to see some Mustang IIs getting a little attention.

Yes, fractions are 5th grade math, and they are largely left in the 5th grade if you don't have a job or hobby that requires a common use of fractions (baking, carpentry, drafting). When I started testing for fire department jobs at the age of 24 I encountered math involving fractions again for the first time in many years. I had to get my mother (a teacher) to go over math involving fractions because by that point in my life I had completely forgotten all but the most basic points of working with fractions. I know more than one adult who has had to get their 5th grader to explain fractions to them again, so they can understand the child's homework. Use it or lose it.

I built this about 10 years ago shortly after getting back into plastic models, and before really grasping the full benefits of that wonderful modelling tool, the internet. A what if Texas Department of Public Safety Mustang using left over decals from a Johan Plymouth. This was before my discovery of BMF (and a lot of other nice detailing techniques).

PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) in California had quite a few 4x4 C-cab utility trucks similar to that one in mountainous areas. In fact it may be an old PG&E truck as they were painted a similar blue to that on the utility body.

Nice job, I like the look of the Capri, particularly the earlier small bumper years. There is one near my work, that looks like it spent the better part of the past 2 decades in a berry patch. I am occasionally tempted to see if it is for sale, but know it is well beyond my skills and finances to restore. It would make my daily commute more fun though.

Yep, I've got one with 6 scales on it, 1/24, 1/25, 1/32, 1/35, 1/48 and 1/72. Not necessary if you are comfortable with math (which many are not), but still pretty handy at times.

I'm not very familiar with the Bussing or Krupp kits. I would think they are the right time period and weight class, the wheels look the part and both have an inline 6 cylinder, so I would guess they would be worth considering. Of course much more expensive kits than any of the reissued AMT kits currently available. The Opel Blitz is a nice donor for 1930s to 50s medium duty trucks, but a bit light for a heavy truck. The Federal 60 series was a 6-8 ton truck, the Opel Blitz a 3 ton truck. Like the Dodge it all depends on just how much of the donor you intend to use.

Nice job so far. Just a heads up on the Paystar, the bars on the side vent over the drivers side fender are supposed to be vertical like the grill, not horizontal as the instructions show. It is an easy fix, just need to sand off the locating pins and rotate the little grill 90 degrees.

You could probably make the Dodge work if you are just looking for a frame and some misc parts, but it was a much lighter weight truck than a 60 series Federal. The wheels are probably undersized, it does not have air brakes and has a Dodge V-8 which is nothing like an engine you would have found in a Federal. There really isn't a proper engine available for the Federal, but most used a large inline 6 cylinder engine from Hercules, Continental or Waukesha.

Nice looking rig! I like the look of fire apparatus built on heavy commercial trucks.

This is very cool, the worm drive axle that I thought the part was looks nothing like the one you are building. I must have seen an aftermarket axle for a regular Model T truck to mistake it with whatever it is on the sprue. Thank you for taking the time to build a second wormdrive, I now have another future project as time permits.

There isn't much out there that will be a great donor. The Federal is a heavy truck from the 1940-50s, and pretty much everything we have as a kit is 1970s and later. The Diamond Reo is probably as good as anything being one of the older trucks available, and readily available on the shelves right now since it was recently reissued. It also has a Cummins diesel. While not the right type for a truck as old as the Federal, the Cummins 855 has been around a long time so you could probably back date the kit engine into something appropriate, or just call it a later re-power.

SICARD with all the modifications you are doing I have to wonder if it wouldn't have been cheaper and easier just to start with an AMT 1960 Chevrolet pickup kit. Vince are you looking for the Ford N which is very similar to the GMC B? Motor City Resin Casters has a very nice Ford N600 cab. I got one recently, it is very nice and arrived in a reasonable time frame (about 4 weeks as I recall). http://www.motorcityresincasters.com/63n600.htm

So will you be changing your moniker to Quincy? Out of curiosity how is an investigator for the Coroners office different from a Homicide detective? Just cause of death and pass it along to the police if potentially a criminal act?