Aaronw

That Newton rescue truck looks like ex-civil defense, I bet you see one of these cabs get used for one of those. This is what I had in mind, so the fenders shouldn't be an issue. This particular example is a '49 so some minor differences, but a lot closer than starting from scratch. I love these cabs, I was really tempted to buy an engine like this one that was for sale locally even though it is the wrong agency. Only room for one in the driveway though and I wanted a green one so I let it go.

Neat idea for a project. I remember seeing those big searchlights when I was a kid. I saw one a few years ago but was very disappointed when I got closer and it was a modern version, bright but just a little thing.

The Pierce was nice, but it is your work on vintage trucks that really gets me excited. This should be a great project to watch. I've had this style of REO on my list for a long time, so thank you for mastering the one at AITM. I now have one on the way and will be watching your construction of it closely.

Good I hope you enjoy it. Just having a decent lathe to play with will teach you so much.

Just revisiting this since I have had more time playing with the Taig. 99% of what I said I still fully agree with, Sherline is in my opinion the better machine, however on cost I'm going to step back a bit. Having bought a few more accessories for the Taig there is a pretty substantial difference in cost. Comparing tool holders, (and you will want several of these) Taig charges $5, Sherline $13 for the basic and $31 for the improved rocker style which Taig doesn't even offer. You can get a Taig radius cutter for $22, Sherline's is $126. The Taig Compound slide is $54, Sherline $131. A Taig 3.4" 3 jaw chuck is $70, Sherline's 2.5" 3 jaw is $105, and their 3.1" 3 jaw is $147. Now this difference in price is more than just brand identity and marketing, the manufacturing quality of the Sherline accessories is notably better. Better finish, and more refined designs, but the Taig accessories are quite functional for the task. This is not a matter as with some import goods where you have to finish the job to make them work well. The quality control of everything I've gotten from Taig is well made, they just make choices that allow them to make their parts less pretty but also for less money. To put this in terms that may make sense here think of Sherline as a modern Tamiya kit, and Taig as a really good Monogram kit. Hope this helps with your decision.

Not exactly related to the topic at hand, but the article on your Volare Road Runner is one of my favorites. I was a kid in the 70s so performance (or lack of it) didn't mean much, but those flashy decal covered late 70s "muscle cars" worked their marketing magic on me. ?

Looks good. With the retro thing being so popular with the automakers I'm surprised Jeep or one of the big custom shops hasn't offered something like this in full scale.

If you have been using the Testors brands, our options have been declining for years. First they killed off Polyscale and Floquil, then there has been a relentless drive to cut back on their remaining lines. Testors is owned by a large paint company that apparently has little interest in supplying hobbyists with paint, but at the same time they still dominate the US hobby paint market. Tamiya and Vallejo are the two main alternatives and each have some limitations, Games Workshop is another, but again also has some limitations. I can certainly see being excited to try out a new paint that is getting good reviews.

I've gotten to walk through a couple of small fire apparatus builders shops, and seeing the real ones in production, very much like you show here was such a light bulb moment for me. In 2001 I went to Boise to pick up a new engine from Boise Mobile Equipment and while there I got a tour of the facility. Up to that point I had just seen the whole truck and the idea of scratch building one seemed to be way beyond me. After walking through the plant and seeing the piles of sheet metal, and tubing, components waiting to be installed and apparatus in various stages of completion suddenly I saw it as Evergreen plastic and the "it is lots of little models" idea clicked in my head. After that what seemed impossible, suddenly just seemed difficult. A couple of photos I took (still used film in those days so I didn't take very many). and the finished one I was there to pick up. No place to put the spare so they just bolted it to the bumper, very classy. ?

'54 Chevy truck based on the '50 kit. They have a good snap kit and full detail kit to work with, so mostly just need to do the cab for either. a '52 GMC would be a fairly easy modification as well, mostly a change in the grill. Technically GMC used a different I-6 engine, but they are very close in appearance so could probably be ignored. Considering how many times that kit has been reissued over the past several years it seems to sell well enough. They could also offer a longer bed 3/4 ton, or maybe a 1 ton. Not sure how much the chassis changes for a 1 ton, but I think mostly wheelbase and springs. With a heavier truck a tow truck package (just tow equipment in the bed for that period) could be done as well. Quite a few options available there and they mostly feed from each other allowing even more options. I think a similar thing could be done with the '55/57 kits as well to create a '58/59 and / or GMC variants. In these years I think GMC had a different enough engine though that they would have to kit a new engine to make it right. Then there is the '60 Chevy pickup. Again GMC would be a nice option that wouldn't take a ton of work. In this one they should tool up the GMC V-6 for it. A long bed stepside would be welcome as well. A NAPCO 4x4 conversion for any of the '50-59 trucks would also be fairly easy, as they wee add on parts on the 1-1 trucks, so just need to add the parts to a kit. The 67-72 Chevy / GMC truck is an older kit desperately in need of some attention, but with a good foundation to work with. A very popular truck in 1-1, as are the 1950s Chevys.

Agree this is not something easy to buy without looking and touching, but a little math can help. At 13 links to the inch that works out to about 2" links (1 scale foot is 1/2" in 1/24 so 6.5 links to the foot = 1.85 scale inches in 1/24 or 1.92" in 1/25), that seems like pretty big chain to me, 15 links to the inch is 1.6 scale inches per link which seems more appropriate. Maybe even 18-20 links / inch (1.2-1.35 scale inches). I have some chain I got to tie down a dozer on a flatbed that looks about right for that. It doesn't say the size, but I measure it at 14 links per inch and it looks decent for a heavy chain for that task. Looking at the photos, I'd guess that is a little lighter weight chain on the tow truck. There is a towing company around the corner from me, I'll see if I can get an idea of the size chain they use on their trucks.

Interesting, it reminds me a little of a Corvair. Also kind of like the 3rd Gen Ford and Chevy vans after they started to get a real hood instead of burying the whole engine inside.

If you try to use laser printer decal paper with an inkjet it will cause the ink to bead up or pool. Maybe you got a sheet of the wrong kind mixed in. There is something different with the film on Inkjet paper to help it absorb the liquid ink. Lasers use a dry toner that prints on the surface of the film. I've used decal film that was several years old and have never had an issue with it aging, other than some slight yellowing around the edges.

Neat project and very nice work so far. When I lived in the Sierras there were a bunch of snowplows and snow blowers around, the more common were just Ford, International etc dump trucks with plows, but there were some big Oshkosh plows that came out when it started snowing really hard. When the big plows couldn't keep up the snow blowers came out. That was a good indicator to me that it was time to stay home. ?

Thank you, not much different than what I have done and actually I guess not much different than the real ones although they of course have more inside.

Their sales have got me several times. I'd love to visit their factory and miniature craftsmanship museum, but it is more like 10 hours for me.

Oh, yeah, that Sherline catalog, I thought buying the lathe was the expensive part. ?

I was in the same place you are 5 or 6 years ago. I was very close to buying a Taig lathe myself, but after checking around with other modelers who had a lathe most were running a Sherline. There were also a few with other lathes, and most of them told me to buy a Sherline instead of the one they had. It is hard starting out because there is a fairly steep learning curve, and you don't really start learning about all this stuff until after you have a machine, so you are making a fairly significant purchase half blind. If you do go with a Sherline, give some serious thought to the longer 4400 (17"). It is an extra $100, but that also includes the zero-able hand wheels as well as having twice the length available (works out to $55 for the hand wheels, and $45 for the added length). The distance between centers is not the length of a part, that stated length also has to account for any tooling, chucks, drill bits etc. If you have a part in a chuck, that takes about 1-1/2", a drill chuck is another 2", a drill bit could be 2-4". If you do any drilling, reaming or boring the extra length is very handy. I've never needed the full 17", but there are many times I would have come up short on the 8" model. I will warn you, buying the lathe is just the start, machining can be addictive and the machines will talk you into buying more stuff for them. ? A nice feature is Taig and Sherline both use the same 3/4-16 spindle thread and 3/8-24 for tail stock tooling (Sherline uses a Morse Taper, but the drill chuck comes with an adaptor), so many of the accessories can be used on either lathe. I have some Taig tooling I got for the Sherline, and since a lot of my Sherline tooling will work on the Taig, I won't need to buy much to run it. There is a really good youtuber Blondihacks who is very beginner friendly in her content. She explains things very clearly, and keeps things at a basic level. She uses machines that are bigger than a Sherline or Taig, but the concepts basically the same. About 3 years worth of video so if you have the time to binge watch it is time well spent. Blondihacks I've found the Sherline lathes really stand out from the other mini-lathes. Because I developed further interest in machining, some of which was larger than I could do with the Sherline I eventually bought bigger machines. The Sherline lathe and mill are still used more than the bigger machines because they are easy to use, accurate and a little less likely to murder me. As you mention their light weight is very handy if you don't have a lot of space. I did the same at first, having a shelf under the work bench for whichever machine wasn't being used. Because the mill is rather messy, I ended up moving them downstairs into the basement and set up a larger work area so both machines could have their own spot. Then they started inviting friends over and I have been their servant ever since.

These are stunningly small planes. A local air museum has a BD5 on display, and it looks like a large scale remote control aircraft. Hard to believe they can fly with a person at the controls. Those must be tiny in 1/72, like maybe a 3" wingspan?

Amazing work, and you never seem to get into a comfortable rut, always doing something a bit different than the last. This is much less vintage than most you have done. I have a request if it is not too late, I'd like to see the underside of the rear box, and how you fit it to the chassis. I've done a couple of box builds like that and fitting to the chassis is always a bot of a cludge for me.

This issue turning up in the mail was a nice (day late) birthday present. ?

I've gotten the impression Taig owners like to modify their lathes. Unlike the Chinese mini-lathes these modifications are not made due to poor quality control, but more that the Taig lathes offer a good platform to customize.

Technically I am a Taig owner, but I have little experience with it only having had it for about a month. I have had a Sherline lathe and mill for several years. My initial impressions, the Taig lathe is a decent machine and for some tasks, particularly at the larger end of the scale it might have some advantage over the Sherline lathe. It is slightly larger (4.5" swing vs 3.5") and is heavier. When it comes to machine tools weight is good, it helps to dampen vibrations. It is also available with a power feed for the Z axis (length) which is not available for the Sherline lathe. The saddle can also be released from the lead screw allowing rapid movement for set up, vs having to crank the lead screw the whole way. There is only one length of bed for the Taig providing 9-3/4" between centers and an overall length of 16-1/2". The standard motor on the Taig is 1/4 hp vs about 1/6 hp on the Sherline, but it is unlikely that the small belts can actually transfer the whole 1/4 hp, so the larger motor probably makes no real difference. The Sherline lathe is much more refined, the hand wheels are calibrated, where the Taig only has a calibrated handwheel on the cross slide. As an option (and a very worthwhile option) Sherline offers hand wheels with a resettable zero. The Sherline has a much more precise tail stock (the tail stock is an extra cost option on the Taig lathe, and it is operated with a non calibrated lever vs a calibrated hand wheel on the Sherline). The Sherline motor is a variable speed DC motor, so you change speeds with a turn of a dial and have a continuous range of speeds between 70-2800 rpm (with optional high speed pulley, it can run up to 10,000rpm). Taig controls speed by changing the belt position on the pullies, providing 6 speeds from 525-5200 rpm (this is very common on larger machines, but most of the other mini-lathes are variable speed). Sherline offers two lengths of bed providing 8" between centers, or 17" between centers and an overall length of 23" or 32.5". Sherline has a great deal of customer support, a huge range of accessories, good instructions and even a youtube channel with instructional videos. Taig, doesn't even have a good website, I had to go to one of the Taig resellers websites to figure out what the differences were between the different Taig lathe options / kits. Sherline offers a gear train that will allow you to cut threads. The only way you can cut threads with the Taig is using a tap and die (honestly this is usually how I do it on the Sherline as well, but I can single point higher quality threads if I need to, which the Taig can't). While it might sound like I'm putting the Taig lathe down, I'm not. I think the Taig lathe is a decent small lathe, and has some clever features. It is well made, with quality workmanship. I'm sure it can do good work and there are certain types of work that it probably excels at. If you plan to work mostly by eye, rather than exact measurements then you aren't going to benefit from some of the Sherline features. The Sherline lathe is one of the more expensive mini-lathes out there because without getting into crazy expensive instrument lathes (take a look at Levin if you have deep pockets) it is arguably the best available as long as the work will fit. It is one of the smallest lathes you can buy which can be a problem if you become interested in larger work. Having had a good look at both, if I could only have one, it would be the Sherline, hands down I don't think it is even a contest. However I do like the Taig lathe, and expect I will find some projects that it might even be preferred for. Why do I have both, well I've kind of gotten a small lathe addiction, I've found I really like tinkering with them. ? Looking at the basic package, it doesn't really compare well to any of the Sherline set ups. It has a little more tooling than the basic Sherline 4000 ($600), but less than the 4000 with the A package ($721). That basic package does not include a tailstock, which I think you will find you will eventually want. Sherline's package deals are a very good value, and will save you a lot of money over buying individually later. I wouldn't get anything less than the A package, and if there is any way you can up your budget to the C package, you will be happy you did. I know $1000+ is not a small amount of money, but this can literally be a lifetime purchase. Unless you mistreat it, you will not wear out the lathe.

Same boat. I have that DM800, I like very utilitarian trucks. That is one of those kits that have me questioning the utility of having a stash. I think it is coming around for another reissue since I bought it.

You are not alone. At least I'm not the only one who is struggling to get started. Good luck, hope you get some time soon.