Aaronw

Alright, I'll go for it then. The lack of nightmare stories is encouraging.

Well that makes things easier. I always forget about those kits, only modern Chevy 4x4 I could think of was the snap Tahoe which wouldn't be much help. Thanks

I'm working on the Italeri Ford LTL (U.S. Wrecker kit) and I'm contemplating swapping out the Cummins with the CAT 3406 out of the Revell Peterbilt snap kit as that is the actual engine in the truck I'm replicating. Wondering if anyone has done this or a similar swap that could point out any potential pitfalls. Just familiarity from building this kit before might be helpful. I'm waffling between full accuracy or just doing the easy thing and sticking with the Cummins (if I didn't tell you what was under the hood of the real truck nobody but me would be the wiser). My biggest concern is making sure the air cleaner assembly lines up right. I realize there is a slight size issue with the CAT being 1/25 and the Ford 1/24 but I can't see the difference being that noticeable. Thanks

So I have a couple of these kits but all of my ideas involve making it a 4x4. I don't believe there is a resin conversion out there but hoping that maybe there is a kit with the proper front end, or lacking that maybe some one has done such a conversion and took some pictures along the way. Open to ideas. Just looking for stock-ish height no need for a big lift. Thanks

I posted these in response to a question, but I'll toss them in here as well just to keep everything in one place. Aftermarket A/C unit

I was going down the freeway a few days after seeing your post and saw a Ford C with an AC unit on the roof. These are not all that common, I don't even recall seeing one before, but there it was, so I turned around and got a couple of photos. It was on the other side of a fence so I couldn't get really good detail shots or tilt the cab, but hopefully these will still be of some use.

Well I hope the rumors about the S-series are not true, I'd like to get a couple more of both kits. On a little smaller note, I'd like to see the Midnight Cowboy wrecker back, even better if it was done with a regular truck cab in place of the custom.

That is what I was thinking, and if they actually included both F250 and F350 badging that would be even better. I'm just thinking sales wise the F250 and single rear wheel F350 accounts for a lot of trucks on the road, probably quite a few more than the dually. When they do get around to a dually (and I have to assume they are) the same thing applies to the F350 dually and F450 since both now run 17" rims (the older 450s ran 19.5"s) and you can get an F450 with a pickup bed. With just a couple of extra pieces they could offer 4 trucks instead of 2.

I didn't realize the light trucks had a reprieve of a couple years, assumed the '07 regulations hit the smaller diesels as well. As to the mirrors I hadn't noticed, but you are right, there is a larger style with two arms, and the smaller one like the truck I posted. I looked around the yard tonight, 2 of the F250s are like mine, and one has the larger mirrors, weird you would think all coming from the same contract they would be the same. All of the 350s and 450s have the larger mirrors. Going with the single wheel allows one to easily go F250 or F350 so maybe a slightly larger market?

My utility at work is a 2008 F250, it has the fuel door at the front of the bed on the drivers side. It is possible that the F350 or diesels move this, but I don't have access to one that doesn't have a utility body in place of the pickup bed. Since 2007 the diesels actually have two fill points, one for the diesel, one for the liquid urea used to reduce emissions.

It is my understanding that the material cost is pretty minimal, so potentially 1/35 may not be much difference than 1/24 unless the larger scale was more complex. Modern 1/35 kits are already pretty detailed, so I wouldn't expect a big difference there. $100-125 seems likely, and would put it in the upper range of semi truck kits (a price that while high, seems to be accepted by truck modelers). I would guess if the AMT D-8 gets re-issued it will probably be in the $60-75 range, so $125 for a newly tooled kit seems fair. Personally I'd think something a little smaller and more common like a D-6 would be a safer bet, possibly more interest (more common) and could probably keep it in the 1/35 armor price range of $75-90.

Sadly unexpected and untimely major car expenses took precedence and the hobby budget got raided hard. I'm pretty sold on the Sherline after talking with Pete J and a few others off board. Given a real apples to apples comparison (the packages I compared were not equal) the price difference is not as pronounced, and while the Taig seems quite adequate for my current interests, nobody seems to disagree that the Sherline is a more refined product with more growth potential. I was making final adjustments to my shopping cart when I got the news about the car. Barring further catastrophes I'm hoping to revisit the idea when we get our tax return in a month or two. I swear cars have a sense for when you have a little money squirreled away to spend on something else and they get jealous.

Neat, I built Tamiya's A110 several years ago, this would be a nice companion to it.

PVC pipe works for a round tank, but you would have to come up with end caps, either sheet plastic of possible a smaller diameter PVC cap that fits inside instead of over the ends. I have heard you can put PVC pipe into boiling water which will soften it enough to squash into an elliptical tank shape, but have not tried that myself. Another option for the tank is the Revell 1/32 Mack and tanker trailer. Not only do you get a decent tank, but the tractor trailer wheels will work for a 1/25 scale dually.

Beyond price and performance (which I do think are factors), I think of limited production. The Lamborghini Countach is one of the cars most people imagine when someone says exotic car, only a handful over 2000 were built over its 16 year production run. A modern Corvette certainly meets the expensive and fast requirements but even in a down economy Chevrolet churns out 10-15,000 Corvettes annually, and in particularly good years the numbers run as high as 40,000 which makes them a bit less exotic. Since these things are rarely black and white something like the Corvette ZR-1 with improved performance, greatly increased price and limited availability (generally only around 1000 / yr) might qualify as an exotic.

There is a wide variety of quality among his cabs, some have been heavily reworked while others were just cleaned up and remain on the thick side. He also has some that are entirely new masters and of very good quality. I would just email Dave and ask about any parts you are interested in, I've always found him easy to work with and honest in assessing the items he offers.

It is a small helicopter. I've got the 1/72 scale Italeri OH-58D and it is only about 5" long nose to tail.

There was a resin conversion at one time for (I believe) an 81-82. I'm assuming it was based on the Monogram Ramcharger but that is just a guess I don't really know for sure. It was a grill, hood and vent section (between the hood and windshield). Not sure if that is the extent required for a proper conversion from the LRE kit, but it looked like an early 80s Dodge to me.

I'd suggest you ebay for some Haynes Manuals, something like this 1994-98 Dodge Truck manual. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Haynes-Repair-Manual-Dodge-Pick-Ups-1994-Thru-1998-All-Full-Size-Models-/350926157247?pt=US_Texbook_Education&hash=item51b4d435bf They are fairly cheap, and usually have lots of diagrams. An advantage for a pickup manual for the big 3 is they will probably diagram a range of engines, 6 and 8 cylinder and maybe even a diesel. Also will probably show 2 and 4wd, automatic and manual set ups. Dodge may not be the best example since most of the kits are curbsides, but this one is really cheap. They make a manual for just about any production vehicle, and even one for the Space Shuttle, although that is more of a diagram book than a real repair manual. Unlike some repair manuals, these books are written for people who are not professional mechanics. They assume some working automotive knowledge, but are aimed at people who want to start working on their own car.

There have been a few 1/24 scale aircraft, a Revell Bell 204 / UH-1 Huey, Airfix P-51, and DH Mosquito maybe others. Tamiya has done a handful of 1/24 tanks too, at least a Sherman, Centurian, and a Tiger. Maybe a T-34 and Panther but don't recall for sure. I've actually seen a 1-1 Huey on a flatbed, it was a local firefighting helo that had a hard landing and had to be trucked to a facility that could inspect it for damage. Would be a fairly easy model load, as they basically just removed the rotor and tied the helicopter down on the trailer.

Hunter Green from Rustolium might work too, it looks close to my eye.

There have been posts with ideas for real loads from mundane to really weird. Here are two I found that might be helpful, the first shows the proper way to load a flatbed, the second is for weird loads. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20027&hl=%2Btrailer+%2Bloads http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=38034&hl=%2Btrailer+%2Bloads

Are you any good at carpentry, electrical etc? I found I was much happier building my own work bench, paint rack etc because I made everything to fit my stuff, instead of trying to find spice racks, work tables etc that sort of worked. I built a workbench of the perfect height (for me), and I measured the depth from a sitting position so I could just comfortably reach the far side to maximize storage and usable work space. You can buy some nice work tables, but its always better if you have one custom fit for your size. Lights are always nice, I went with track lighting over the bench. It is easy to install and very adaptable. I can easily add more lighting or rearrange the existing lighting (the lights are a quarter turn to add or remove). If you want to get fancy, under cabinet lighting makes it easier to find dropped parts on the floor. That said there are lots of commercial items that are cheap and useful. The closet organizer area of my local Home Depot turned up some shoe shelves that made great under workbench storage shelves for spray paint and my stalled projects (which I store in clear plastic shoe boxes). When we moved into the house we found a small 3 drawer dresser that fits perfectly under the work bench where it makes a nice storage for my resin kits and parts. There are tons of parts organizers (clear plastic drawers) which work great for parts and paint bottles.

If you can find a better deal, I'll eat a bug. I don't know much about the man, but I always got the feeling from his commercials that he was poking fun at the image of the shady used car salesman. In turn the media seems to have played off of him creating even more cartoonish car dealer characters in TV and movies.

Bit of a tangent but ... I was amazed to find out what a rich automotive manufacturing history California has when I became interested in old trucks. There isn't a lot of manufacturing here anymore, and what we do have is mostly in the high tech industry which is kind of invisible (mostly just boring looking office complexes). There was a large independent truck building industry here before WW2, Kleiber (San Francisco), Fageol which became Peterbilt after 1939 (Oakland), Moreland (Los Angeles), Crown Coach (Los Angeles), Van Pelt Fire Apparatus Co (Oakdale), Crocker Motorcycles (Los Angeles), FMC (Santa Clara) and the Hall Scott Motor Car Company (Berkeley). Also several plants for GM, Ford, Chrysler and Nash. Other than Peterbilt which moved to Texas in the 80s almost all of this was gone by the time I was born, just empty buildings in bad parts of town. There has been some recent development in alternative energy automobiles with Tesla Motors starting up in San Carlos. That one is kind of a no brainer though, really where better to set up a company to sell an expensive, high tech, green sports car than silicon valley, home to some of the richest, environmental, tech geeks in the world.